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AI^TE-2s^ICENE

CHRISTIAN LIBRARY

TRANSLATIONS OF
THE WRITINGS OF THE FA THERS

DOiyy TO A.D. 325.

EDITED BY TltE

REV. ALEXANDER ROBERTS, D.D,

AND

JAMES DONALDSON, LL.D.

VOL. XIY.

THE WKITiNGS OF METHODIUS

ETC.

EDINBURGH:

T. & T. CLAKK, 38, GEORGE STREET.

Mi)CCCLX\x)ri.

PRINTED BY MORRISON' AND OIBB,
FOB

T. & T. CLAHK, EDINBURGH.

LONDON, . . • • HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.

DUBLIN, .... GEORGE HERBERT.

KEW YORK, . . • SrRlBNER AND WELFORD.

THE

WRITINGS OF METHODIUS,

ALEXANDER OF LYCOPOLIS,

PETER OF ALEXAIfDRIA,

AND SEVERAL FEAG:MEN'TS.

EDINBUEGH:
T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.

LONDON : HAMILTON & CO. DUBLIN : JOHN ROBEIiTSON k CO.
BIUCCCLXXXIII.

CONTENTS.

THE WEITINGS OF METHODIUS.

The Banquet of the Ten Virgins ; or, concerning Chastity,
Discourse i. !Marcella, .
II. Theophila,

III. Thaleia, .

IV. Theopatra,

V. Thallousa,

VI. Agathe, .

VII. Procilla, .

VIII. Thekla, .
IX. Tusiane, .

X. Domnina,

XI. Arete,
Concerning Free Will,
From the Discourse on the Resurrection,
The Second Discourse on the Resurrection,
From the Discourse on the Resurrection (Photius, Bibliotheca

cod. 234), ....
A Fragment on the History of Jonah,
Extracts from the Work on Things Created,
Fragments against Porphyry,
From his Discourse concerning Martyrs,
Oration concerning Simeon and Anna on the Day that they

met in the Temple,
Oration on the Pahns,
Three Fragments from the Homily on the Cross and Passion

of Christ, .....
Some other Fragments of the same Methodius,

PAOE

4
11

101

109

120

139

152

153
174
176
183
183

184
210

221
226

ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF LYCOPOLIS.

Notice of his Life and Writings,
On the Tenets of the Manichccans,

23.3
236

Vi CONTENTS.

PETER, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA.

PAGE

Historical Notice, ...... 2G9

The Genuine Acts of Peter of Alexandria, . . . 272
The Canonical Epistle, with the Commentaries of Theodore

Balsamon and John Zonaras, .... 292

Letter to the Church at Alexandria, .... 323

, Fragment from the Book on the Godhead, . . . 323

Fragment from the Homily on the Advent of our Saviour, 324

Fragment from the Homily on the Sojourning of Christ with us, 324

That up to the time of the Destruction of Jerusalem, the

Jews rightly appointed the Fourteenth Day of the first

Lunar Month, ...... 325

Of the Soul and Body, 330

On St Matthew, . . . . . .331

From a Sermon or a Treatise on Theology, . . . 332

ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA.

Introduction, ....... 338

Epistles on the Arian Heresy, and the Deposition of Arius, . 334
Two Fragments from an Epistle to jEglon, Bishop of

Cynopolis, against the Arians, .... 355

On the Soul and Body and the Passion of the Lord, . . 356

CLEMENT OF ROME.

Introductory Notice, ...... 365

Two Epistles concerning Virginity, .... 367

FRAGMENTS OF WRITERS OF THE THIRD CENTURY.

Theognostus of Alexandria —

Biographical Notice, ..... 396

Fragments of his Seven Books of Hypotj^oses or Outlines, 397

PiERius OF Alexandria —

Biographical Notice, ..... 399
A Fragment of a Work of Pierius on the First Epistle of

Paul to the Corinthians, .... 400

Different Discourses of the Presbyter Pierius, . . 400

COXTEXTS. vii

Malchiox, a Presbyter of the Church of Axtioch —

Biographical Notice, ..... 401

The Epistle -flrritten by Malchion, in name of the Synod

of Antioch against Paul of Samosata, . . 402

Fragments apparently of the same Epistle of the Synod

of Antioch ; to wit, of that part of it which it is

agreed that Eusebius left unnoticed, . . . 407

From the Acts of the Disputation Conducted by Malchion

against Paul of Samosata, .... 409

An'atolius of Alexandria, Bishop of Laodicea, in Syria —

Biographical Notice, . . . • .410

The Paschal Canon of Anatolius, . . . . 411

Fragments of the Books on Arithmetic, . . . 4-17

Theonas, Bishop of Alexandria —

Biographical Notice, . . . . .431

The Epistle of Theonas, Bishop of Alexandria, to

Lucianus, the Chief Chamberlain, . . . 432

Phileas, Bishop of Thmuis and Martyr —

Biographical Notice, ..... 439

Fragments of the Epistle of Phileas to the People of

Thmuis, ...... 440

The Epistle of the same Phileas of Thmuis to Meletius,

Bishop of Lycopolis, ..... 443

Pamphilus, Presbyter of the Church of C^esareia, and
Martyr —
Biographical Notice, ..... 447

An Exposition of the Chapters of the Acts of the

Apostles, by Pamphilus the lilartyr, . . 44S

Indexes —

Index of Texts, ...... 457

Index of Subjects, ..... 4G4

THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

INTEODUCTION.

ETIIODIUS, who is also called Eubuliiis/ vras
first of all bishop simultaneously of Olympus
aud Patara, in Lycia, as is testified by several
ancient wiiters.'^ lie was afterwards removed,
according to St Jerome, to the episcopal see of Tyre in
Phoenicia, and at the end of the latest of the great per-
secutions of the Church, about the year 312, he suffered
martyrdom at Chalcis in Greece. Some consider that
it was at Chalcis in Syria, and that St Jerome's testi-
mony ought to be thus understood, as Syria was more
likely to be the scene of his martjTdom than Greece,
as being nearer to his diocese. Others affirm that he
suffered under Decius and Valerian ; but this is incorrect,
since he wrote not only against Origen long after the death
of Adamantius, but also against PorphjTy, whilst he was
alive, in the reign of Diocletian.

Methodius is known chiefly as the antagonist of Origen;
although, as has been pointed out, he was himself influenced
in no small degree by the method of Origen, as may be seen
by his tendency to allegorical interpretations of Holy Scrip-
ture. The only complete work of this writer wliich has
come do^wn to us is his Banquet of the Ten Virgijis, a
dialogue of considerable power and grace, in praise of the
virginal life. His antagonism to Origen, however, comes

1 St Epiph. Hocres. 64, sec. 63.

* St Hieronymus, Dc viris illust. c 83.

X INTRODUCTION.

out less in this than in his works On the Eesurrcdion, and
On Things Created. The treatise On Free Will is, accordiag
to recent critics, of doubtful authorship, although the in-
ternal evidence must be said to confirm the ancient testi-
monies which assign it to Methodius. His writings against
Porphyry, with the exception of some slight fragments, are
lost, as are also his exegetical writings.

!For the larger fragments we are indebted to Epiphanius
{Hccrcs. 64), and Photius {BiUiotheca, 234-37).

Combefis published an edition of his works in 1644; but
only so much of the Banquet as was contained in the
BiUiotheca of Photius. In 1656 Leo Allatius published for
the first time a complete edition of this work at Eome from
the Vatican MS. Combefis in 1672 published an edition
founded chiefly upon this; and liis work has become the
basis of all subsequent reprints.

The following translation has been made almost entirely
from the text of Migne, which is generally accurate, and the
arrangement of which has been followed throughout. The
edition of Jahn in some places rearranges the more frag-
mentary works, especially that On the Resurrection; but,
although his text was occasionally found useful in amend-
ing the old readings, and in improving the punctuation, it
was thought better to adhere in general to the text which is
best known,

A writer who was pronounced by St Epiphanius^ to
be oivrip Xoyiog xai spodpa -Tnpl rl^g aXrihlag ayuvtsdiJ^ivog^ and by
St Jerome, disertissiimis martyr^ who elsewhere speaks of
him as one who nitidi compositique sermonis lihros confecit^
cannot be altogether unworthy the attention of the nine-
teenth century.

^ Epiph. Hmr. 64, sec. 63. ^ Hieron. Com. in Ban. c. 13.

2 Id. De vir. ill. c. 83. Many more sucli testimonies will he found
collected in tlie various editions of his works in Greek.

The Treatises in tHs Volume, from page 1 to page 230, are translated
by Rev. William R. Clark, M.A. Oxen., Vicar of St Mary Magda-
lene, Taunton ; from page 233 to 363, by Rev. James B. H. Hawkixs,
M.A. Oxon., Curate of Ilminster, Somerset ; from page 3G5 to 395, by
Rev. B. L. Pratten; and from page 39G to 455, by Rev. S. D.
S ALMOND, Free Cliurcli, Barry.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS ;

OR,

CONCERNING CHASTITY.

Persons of the Dialogue :

EuBOULios/ Gregorion, Arete; Marcella, Theophila,
Thalfja, Tiieopatra, Thallousa, Agathe, Procilla,
Thekla, Tusiane, Domnina.

INTEODUCTIOK

Flan of the worh — Way to Paradise — Description and per-
sonification of Virtue — Y%€ Agnos a symbol of Chastity —
Marcella, the eldest and foremost among the Virgins of
Christ.

\UBOULIOS. — You have arrived most seasonably,
Gregorion, for I have just been looking for you,
^vantiiiiT to hear of the meeting of iMarcella and
1'heopatra, and of the other vu'gins who wore
])!( .^cnt at the banquet, and of the nature of their discourses
on the subject of cliastity ; for it is said that they argueil
with such ability and power that there was nothing lack-
ing to the full consideration of the subject. If, therefore,
you have come here for any other purpose, put that off to
another time, and do not delay to give us a complete and
connected account of the matter of M'hich we are inqumng.
Gregorion. — I seem to be disappointed of my hope, as

^ In Migne's ed. Euhoulion, but apparently with lc.s.s authority ;
and probably because the name is connected with that of Gregorion.
Evboidios is a man, and Gregorion a woman.

2 THE WIUTIXGS OF METHODIUS.

some one else has given you intelligence beforehand on the
subject respecting which you ask me. For 1 thought that
you had heard nothing of what had happened, and I was
llattcring myself greatly with the idea that I should be the
first to tell you of it. And for this reason I made all haste
to come here to yon, feaiing the very thing which has hap-
pened, that some one might anticipate me.

Eul). — Be comforted, my excellent friend, for we have
had no precise information respecting anything which hap-
pened ; since the person who brought us the intelligence
had nothing to tell us, except that there had been dialogues ;
but when he was asked what they were, and to what pur-
pose, he did not know.

Greg. — Well then, as I came here for this reason, do you
want to hear all that was said from the beginning ; or shall
I pass by parts of it, and recall only those points which I
consider worthy of mention ?

Euh. — By no means the latter ; but first, Gregorion, relate
to us from the very beginning where the meeting was, and
about the setting forth of the viands, and about yourself,
how you poured out the wine

" They in golden cups
Each other pledged, while towards broad heaven they looked."

HoM. II. iv. 3, 4.

Greg. — ^You are always skilful in discussions, and exces-
sively powerful in argument — thoroughly confuting all your
adversaries.

JEub. — It is not worth while, Gregorion, to contend about
these things at present ; but do oblige us by simply telling
us what happened from the beginning.

Greg. — Well, I will try. But first answer me this : You
know, I presume, Arete,^ the daughter of Philosophia ?

Eub. — Why do you ask ?

Greg. — " We went by invitation to a garden of hers with
an eastern aspect, to enjoy the fruits of the season, myself"
(I am repeating the words of Theopatra, for it was of her
I obtained the information), " and Procilla, and Tusiane. We

^ A personification of ■virtue, the daughter of philosophy.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 3

went, Grcgorion, by a very rough, steep, and arduous path.
When," said Theopatra, "we drew near to the place, we
were met by a tall and beautiful woman walking along
quietly and gracefully, clothed in a shining robe as white as
snow. Her beauty was something altogether inconceivable
and divine. Modesty, blended with majesty, bloomed on her
countenance. It was a face," she said, " such as I know
not that I had ever seen, awe-inspiring, yet tempered with
gentleness and mirth ; for it was wholly unadorned by art,
and had nothing counterfeit. She came up to us, and, like
a mother who sees her daughters after a long separation, slie
embraced and kissed each one of us with great joy, saying,
' 0, my daughters, you have come with toil and pain to me
who am earnestly longing to conduct you to the pasture of
immortality ; toilsomely have you come by a way abound-
ing with many frightful reptiles ; for, as I looked, I saw you
often stepping aside, and I was fearing lest you should tiu-ii
back and slip over the precipices. But thanks to the
Bridegroom to whom I have espoused ^ you, my children,
for having granted an effectual answer to all our prayers.'
And, while she is thus speaking," said Theopatra, " we
arrive at the enclosure, the doors not being shut as yet, and
as we enter we come upon Thekla and Agathe and Marcella
preparing to sup. And Arete immediately said, ' Do you
also come hither, and sit down here in your place along
with these your fellows.' Now," said she to me, " we who
were there as guests were altogether, I think, ten in num-
ber ; and the place was marvellously beautiful, and abound-
ing in the means of recreation. The air was diffused in soft
and regular currents, mingled with pure beams of light, and
a stream flowing as gently as od through tlie very middle
of the garden, threw up a most delicious drink ; and the
water flowing from it, transparent and pure, formed itself
into fountains, and these, overflowing like rivers, watered
all the garden with their abundant streams ; and there were
different kinds of trees there, full of fresh iruits, and the
fruits that hung joyfully IVom their branches were of ecjual
' -1 Cor. xi. 2.

4 THE WJUTJyas OF MF/niOlJli'.^.

beauty ; and there were ever-blooming meadows strewn
with variegated and sweet-scented flowers, from which came
a gentle breeze laden with sweetest odour. And the Agnos^
grew near, a lofty tree, under which Ave reposed, from its
being exceedingly widespreading and shady."

Eiib. — You seem to me, my good friend, to be making a
revelation of a second paradise.

Greg. — You speak truly and wisely. " When there," she
said, " we had all kinds of food and a variety of festivities,
so that no delight was wanting. After this Arete, entering,
gave utterance to these words : —

'Young maidens, the glory of my greatness, beautiful
virgins, who tend the undefiled meadows of Christ with
unwedded liands, we have now had enough of food and
feasting, for all things are abundant and plentiful with us,
What is there, then, besides which I wish and expect ?
That each of you shall pronounce a discourse in praise of
virginity. Let Marcella begin, since she sits in the highest
place, and is at the same time the eldest. I shall be
ashamed of myself if T do not make the successful dis-
putant an object of envy, binding her with the unfading
flowers of wisdom.'

" And then," I think she said, " Marcella immediately
began to speak as follows."

DISOOUESE I.— Marcella.

Chap. i. — The difficulty and excellence of virginity — Hie study
of doctrine necessary for virgins.

Virginity is something supernaturally great, wonderful,
and glorious ; and, to speak plainly and in accordance with
the Holy Scriptures, this best and noblest manner of life
alone is the root^ of immortality, and also its flower and

1 " A tall tree like the willow, the branches of which were strewn by
matrons on their beds at tlie Thesmophoria, vitex agnuscastus. It was
associated with the notion of chastity, from the likeness of its name to
dyvo?." — LiDDELL and Scott.

* Lit. the ndder.

THE BA.\QVET OF THE TEX VIRLUXS. b

first fruits ; and for this reason the Lord promises that those
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven who have made
themselves eunuchs, in that passage^ of the Gospels in
which He lays down the various reasons for which men
have made themselves eunuchs. Chastity with men is a
very rare thing, and difficult of attainment, and in propc»r-
tion to its supreme excellence and magnificence is the
greatness of its dangers.

For this reason, it requires strong and generous natuitss,
such as, vaulting over the stream of pleasure, direct the
chariot of the soid upwards from the earth, not turning aside
from their aim, until having, by swiftness of thought, lightly
hounded above the world, and taken their stand truly upon
the vault of heaven, they purely contemplate immortality it-
self as it leaps out from the undefiled bosom of the Almighty.

Earth could not bring forth this draught ; heaven alone
knew the fountain from whence it Hows ; for we must
think of virginity as walking indeed upon the earth, but
as also reaching up to heaven. And hence some who have
longed for it, and considering only the end of it, have cuni<'.
by reason of coarseness of mind, ineffectually with unwashed
feet, and have gone aside out of the way, from having con-
ceived no woithy idea of the [virginal] manner of life. For
it is not enough to keep the body only undefiled, just as we
should not show that we think more of the temple than uf
the image of the god; but we should care for the souls of
men as being the divinities of their bodies, and adorn them
with righteousness. And then do they most care for them
and tend them when, striving untiringly to hear divine dis-
courses, they do not desist until, wearing the doors of the
wise,^ they attain to the knoAvledge of the trutli.

For as the putrid humours and matter of flesh, and all
those things which corrupt it, are driven out by salt, in the
game manner all the irrational appetites of a virgin are
banished from the body by divine teaching. For it nnist
needs be that the soul which is not sprinkled with tlie
words of Clirist, as Mith salt, should stink and breed worms,
> Matt. i.\. \-l. 2 Ki;clu8. vi. 3U.

6 TIIK WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

as King David, openly confessing with tears in the moun-
tains, cried out, "My wounds stink and are corrupt,"^
because lie had not salted liimself with tlie exercises of self-
control, and so subdued his carnal appetites, but had self-
indulgently yielded to them, and became corrupted in
adultery. And hence, in Leviticus,^ every gift, unless it be
seasoned with salt, is forbidden to be offered as an oblation
to the Lord God. Now the whole spiritual meditation of
the Scriptures is given to us as salt which stings in order
to benefit, and which disinfects, without which it is impos-
sible for a soul, by means of reason, to be brought to the
Almighty ; for " ye are the salt of the earth," ^ said the Lord
to the apostles.

It is fitting, then, that a virgin should always love things
v/hich are honourable, and be distinguished among the
foremost for wisdom, and addicted to nothing slothful or
luxurious, but should excel, and set her mind upon things
worthy of the state of virginity, always putting away, by
the word, the foulness of luxury, lest in any way some
slight hidden corruption should breed the worm of incon-
tinence ; for " the unmarried woman careth for the things
of the Lord," how she may please the Lord, " that she may
be holy both in body and in spirit,"* says the blessed Paul.
But many of them who consider the hearing of the word
quite a secondary matter, think they do great things if they
give their attention to it for a little while. But discrimiu-
ation must be exercised with respect to these ; for it is not
fitting to impart divine instruction to a nature which is
careful about trifles, and low, and which counterfeits wisdom.
For would it not be laughable to go on talking to those who
direct all their energy towards things of little value, in order
that they may complete most accurately those things which
they want to bring to perfection, but do not think that the
greatest pains are to be taken with those necessary things
by which most of all the love of chastity would be increased
in them ?

^ Ps. xxxvii. 6 (lxx.), xTc.wdii. 5 (e. v.).

- Lev. ii. 13 ; Mark ix. 40. ' Matt, v, 13. * 1 Cor. vii. 34

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS.

CliAP. ]i. — Virginity a plant from heaven, introduced late
— The advancement of mankind to i^rfcction, how
arranged.

For truly by a great strctcli of power the plant of vir-
frinity was sent down to men from heaven, and for tliis
reason it was not revealed to the first generations. For
the race of mankind was still very small in nimiber; and it
was necessary that it should first be increased in number,
and then brought to perfection. Thereibre the men of old
times thought it nothing unseemly to take their own sisters
for wives, until tlic law coming separated them, and by
forbidding that -which at first had seemed to be right,
declared it to be a sin, calling liim cursed who should
"uncover the nakedness" of his sister;^ God thus merciCully
l)ringing to our race the needful help in due season, as
parents do to their children. For they do not at once set
masters over them, but allow them, during the period of
childhood, to amuse themselves like young animals, and
first send them to teachers stammering like themselves,
until they cast off the youthful wool of the mind, and go
onwards to the practice of greater things, and from thence
again to that of greater still. And thus we must consider
that the God and Father of all acted towards our forefathers.
For the world, wliile still unfilled with men, was like a child,
and it was necessary that it should lirst be filled with these,
and so grow to manhood. But when hereafter it Avas colon-
ized from end to end, the race of man spreading to a
])oundless extent, God no longer allowed man to remain in
the same ways, considering how they might now proceed
iVom one point to another, and advance nearer to heaven,
until, having attained to the very greatest and most exalted
lesson of virgin it}', they should reach to perfection; that first
they should abandon the intermarriage of brothers and
sisters, and marry wives from other families; and tlien tliat
they should no longer have many wives, Wko l)rute beasts,

* Lev. xviii. 10, xt. 17.

8 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

as thougli born for the mere propagation of the s])ecies; and
then that they sliould not be adulterers ; and then again that
they should go on to continence, and from continence to vir-
ginity, when, having trained themselves to despise the flesh,
they sail fearlessly into the peaceful haven of immortality.

Chap. hi. — Bij the circumcision of Abraham, marriage with
sisters forhiddoi—In the times of the j^rophets poly-
gamy put a stop to — Conjugal purity itself hy degrees
enforced.

If, however, any one should venture to find fault with
our argument as destitute of Scripture proof, we will bring
forward the writings of the prophets, and more fully demon-
strate the truth of the statements already made. Now
Abraham, when he first received the covenant of circum-
cision, seems to signify, by receiving circumcision in a
member of his own body, nothing else than this, that one
should no longer beget children with one born of the same
parent; showing that every one should abstain from inter-
course with his own sister, as his own flesh. And thus,
from the time of Abraham, the custom of marrying with
sisters has ceased; and from the times of the prophets the
contracting of marriage with several wives has been done
away with; for we read, " Go not after thy lusts, but refrain
thyself from thine appetites;"^ for "wine and women will
make men of understanding to fall away;"^ and in another
place, " Let thy fountain be blessed; and rejoice with the
wife of thy youth, "^ manifestly forbidding a plurality of
wives. And Jeremiah clearly gives the name of " fed
horses"* to those who lust after other women; and we read,
" The multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not thrive, nor
take deep rooting from bastard slips, nor lay any fast
foundation."^

Lest, however, we should seem prolix in collecting the
testimonies of the prophets, let us again point out how

^ Ecclus. xviii. 30. 2 Ecclus. xix. 2. ^ Yxow v. 18.

* Jer. V. 8. ^ "Wisdom iv. 3.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VJIKJINS. 9

chastity succeeded to marriage with one wife, taking away
by degrees the lusts of the ilesh, until it removed entirely
the inclination for sexual intercourse engendered by habit.
For presently one is introduced earnestly deprecating, from
henceforth, this seduction, saying, "0 Lord, Father, and
Governor of my life, leave me not to their counsels; give
me not a proud look; let not the greediness of the belly, nor
lust of the flesh, take hold of me."^ And in the Book of
Wisdom, a book full of all virtue, the Holy Spirit, now
openly drawing His hearers to continence and chastity,
sings on this wise, " Better it is to have no children, and to
have virtue, for the memorial thereof is immortal; because
it is known with God and with men. When it is present
men take example at it; and when it is gone they desire it:
it weareth a crown and triumpheth for ever, having gotten
the victory, striving for undefiled rewards."^

Chap. iv. — Christ alone taught virginity, ojpenly p-eaching
the hingdorii of heaven — Tlie likeness of God to he
attained in the light of the divine virtues.

We have already spoken of the periods of the human
race, and how, beginning with the intermarriage of brothers
and sisters, it went on to continence; and we have now left
for us the subject of virginity. Let us then endeavour to
speak of this as well as we can. And first let us inquire
for what reason it was that no one of the many patriarchs
and prophets and righteous men, who taught and did many
noble things, either praised or chose the state of virginity.
Because it was reserved for the Lord alone to be the first
to teach this doctrine, since He alone, coming down to us,
taught man to draw near to God; for it was fitting that He
who was iirst and chief of priests, of prophets, and of angels,
should also be saluted as first and chief of virgins. For in
old times man was not yet perfect, and for tliis reason was
unable to receive perfection, which is virginity. For, being
made in the Image of God, he needed to receive that which
^ EccuIh. xxiii. 1, 4, (i. - AVisd. iv. 1, 2.

10 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

was according to His Likeness;'^ whicli tlie Word hcing sent
down into the world to perfect, He first took upon Ilim our
form, disfigured as it was by many sins, in order that we,
for whose sake He bore it, might be able again to receive the
divine [form]. For it is then that we are truly fashioned
in the likeness of God, when we represent His features in a
Iniman life, like skilful painters, stamping them upon our-
selves as upon tablets, learning the path which He showed
us. And for tliis reason He, being God, was pleased to put
on human flesh, so that we, beholding as on a tablet the
divine Pattern of our life, should also be able to imitate
Him who painted it. For He was not one who, thinking
one thing, did another; nor, while He considered one thing
to be right, taught another. But whatever things were
truly useful and right, these He both taught and did.

Chap. v. — Christ, hy preserving Hisfiesh incorrupt in virginity,
draws to the exercise of virginity — The small number
of virgins in proportion to the number of saints.

What then did the Lord, who is the Truth and the Light,
take in hand when He came down from heaven ? He pre-
served the flesh which He had taken upon Him incorrupt in
virginity, so that we also, if we would come to the likeness
of God and Christ, should endeavour to honour virginity.
For the likeness of God is the avoiding of corruption. And
that the Word, when He was incarnate, became chief Virgin,
in the same way as He was chief Shepherd and chief Prophet
of the Church, the Christ-possessed John shows us, saying, in
the Book of the Kevelation, " And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb
stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and
four thousand, having His name and His Father's name written
in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the
voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder ;
and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps :
And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and
l)efore the four beasts, and the elders : and no man could
^ A distinction common amoufj the Fatlier.s.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 11

learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand,
which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which
were not defiled with women ; for they are virgins. These
are they who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth ;"^
showing that the Lord is leader of the choir of virgins. And
remark, in addition to this, how very great in the sight of
God is the dignity of virginity : " These were redeemed from
among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the
Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile : for they
are without fault, "^ he says, "and they follow the Lamb
whithersoever He goeth." And lie clearly intends by this
to teach us that the number of virgins was, from the be-
ginning, restricted to so many, namely, a hundred and forty
and four thousand, while the multitude of the other saints
is innumerable. Por let us consider what he means when
discoursing of the rest. " I beheld a great multitude,
which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds,
and people, and tongues."^ It is plain, therefore, as I said,
that in the case of the other saints he introduces an unspeak-
able multitude, while in the case of those who are in a state
of virginity he mentions only a veiy small number, so as to
make a strong contrast with those who make up the innu-
merable number.

Tliis, Arete, is my discourse to you on the subject of
virginity. But, if I have omitted anything, let Theophila,
who succeeds me, supply the omission.

DISCOURSE II.— Theophila.

Chap. i. — Marriage not abolished by the commendation of
virginity.

And then, she said, Theophila spoke : —

Since Marcella has excellently begun this discussion
without sufficiently completing it, it is necessary that I
should endeavour to put a finisli lo it. Now, the fact that
1 Rev. xiv. 1-4. ■^ Rev. xiv. -I. '>. ' Rev. vii. 9.

12 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

man has advanced by degrees to virginity, God urging him
on from time to time, seems to me to have l-een admirably
proved ; but I cannot say the same [as to the assertion] that
from henceforth they should no longer beget children. For
I think I have perceived clearly from the Scrijitures that^
after He had brought in virginity, the Word did not alto-
gether abolish the generation of children ; for although the
moon may be greater than the stars, the light of the other
stars is not destroyed by the moonlight.

Let us begin with Genesis, that we may give its place of
antiquity and supremacy to this Scripture. Now the sen-
tence and ordinance of God respecting the begetting of
children^ is confessedly being fulfilled to this day, the
Creator still fashioning man. For this is quite manifest,
that God, like a painter, is at this very time working at the
world, as the Lord also taught, " My Father worketh hither-
to"^ {sag apri, even until now). But when the rivers shall
cease to flow and fall into the reservoir of the sea, and the
light shall be perfectly separated from the darkness (for the
separation is still going on), and the dry land shall henceforth
cease to bring forth its fruits with creeping things and four-
footed beasts, and the predestined number of men shall be
fulfilled ; then from henceforth shall men abstain from the
generation of children. But at present man must co-operate
in the forming of the image of God, while the world exists and
is still being formed ; for it is said, " Increase and multiply."^
And we must not be offended at the ordinance of the
Creator, from which, moreover, we ourselves have our being.
For the casting of seed into the furrows of the matrix is the
beginning of the generation of men, so that bone taken
from bone, and flesh from flesh, by an invisible power, are
fashioned into another man. And in this way we must
consider that the saying is fulfilled, " This is now bone of
my bone, and flesh of my flesh."*

1 Gen. i. 28. - S. Jno. v. 17. ^ Gen. L 28. * Gen. iL 23.

rilE BASQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 13

CllAP. n. — Generation something akin to tJie first formation
of Em from the side and nature of Adam — God tlce
Creator of men in ordinary generation.

And this jierhaps is Avhat was shadowed forth by the
sleep and trance of the first man, which prefigured the
embraces of connubial love. When thirsting for children a
man falls into a kind of trance,^ softened and subdued by
the pleasures of generation as by sleep, so that again some-
thing drawn from his ficsli and from his bones is, as I said,
fashioned into another man. For the harmony of the
bodies being disturbed in the embraces of love, as those
tell us who have experience of the marriage state, all the
marrow-like and generative part of the blood, like a kind of
liquid bone, coming together from all the members, worked
into foam and curdled, is projected through the organs of
generation into the living body of the female ; and probably
it is for this reason that a man is said to leave his father
and his mother, since he is then suddenly unmindful of all
things when united to his wife in the embraces of love, he
is overcome by the desire of generation, offering his side to
the divine Creator to take away from it, so that the father
may again appear in the son.

Wherefore, if God still forms man, shall we not be guilty
of audacity if we think of the generation of children as
something offensive, which the Almighty himself is not
ashamed to make use of in working with His undefiled
hands ; for He says to Jeremiah, " Before I formed thee in
tlie belly T knew thee ;"- and to Job, " Didst thou take clay
and form a living creature, and make it speak upon the
eartli?"^ and Job draws near to Him in supplication, say-
ing, "Thine hands have made me and fasliioned me."*
Would it not, then, be absurd to i'orbid marriage unions,
seeing that we expect that after us there will be martyrs,
and those wliu shall oppose the evil one, for whose sake also

* Remark the connection, sKorxfrts and i^larotmci.

• Jcr. i. 5. 3 Jq\j x.x.wiii. 14 (lxx.). * Job x. 8.

11 Tllb: WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

the Word promised that lie would shorten those days?^
For if the generation of children henceforth had seemed evil
to God, as you said, for what reason will those who have
come into existence in opposition to the divine decree and
will be able to appear well-pleasing to God ? And must
not that which is begotten be something spurious, and not
a creature of God, if, like a counterfeit coin, it is moulded
apart from the intention and ordinance of the lawful
authority ? And so we concede to men the power of form-
ing men.

Chap. hi. — An ambiguous passage of Scripture — Not only the
faithful hut even prelates sometimes illegitimate.

But Marcella, interrupting, said, " Tlieophila, there
appears here a great mistake, and something contrary to
what you have said ; and do you think to escape under cover
of the cloud which you have thrown around you? For tliere
comes that argument, which perhaps any one who addresses
you as a very wise person will bring forward: What do you
say of those who are begotten unlawfully in adultery ? For
you laid it down that it was inconceivable and impossible
for any one to enter into the world unless he was introduced
by the will of the divine Euler, his frame being prepared
for him by God. And that you may not take refuge behind
a safe wall, bringing forward the Scripture which says, ' As
for the children of the adulterers, they shall not come to
their perfection,'^ he will answer you easily, that we often
see those who are unlawfully begotten coming to perfection
like ripe fruit.

And if, again, you answer sophistically, ' 0, my friend, by
those who come not to perfection I understand being per-
fected in Christ-taught righteousness;' he will say, 'But,
indeed, my worthy friend, very many who are begotten of
unrighteous seed are not only numbered among those who
are gathered into the flock of the brethren, but are often
called even to preside over them. Since, then, it is clear,
1 Matt. xxiv. 22. - Wisd. iii. 16.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. Ifj

and all testify, that those who are born of adultery do come
to perfection, we must not imagine that the Spirit was teacli-
ing respecting conceptions and births, but rather perhaps con-
cerning tliose who adulterate the truth, who, corrupting the
Scriptures by false doctrines, bring forth an imperfect and
immature wisdom, mixing their error with piety.' And,
tlierefore, this plea being taken away from you, come now
and tell us if those who are born of adultery are begotten
by the wiU of God; for you said that it was impossible that
the offspring of a man should be brought to perfection unless
the Lord formed it and gave it life."

Chap. iv. — Human generation, and the ivorh of God
therein set forth.

Theophila, as though caught round tlie middle by a strong
antagonist, grew giddy, and with difficulty recovering her-
self, replied, "You ask a question, my worthy friend,
which needs to be solved by an example, that you may still
better understand how the creative power of God, pervading
all things, is more especially the real cause in the generation
of men, making those things to g^ow which are planted in
the productive earth. For that which is sown is not to be
Itlamcd, l)ut lie who sows in a strange soil by unlawful
embraces, as though purchasing a slight pleasure by shame-
fully selling his own seed. For imagine our birth into the
world to be like some such thing as a house having its
entrance lying close to lofty mountains; and that the house
extends a great way down, far from the entrance, and that
it has many holes behind, and that in this part it is circular."'
" I imagine it," said Marcella. " Well, then, suppose that
a modeller seated within is fashioning many statues ; imagine,
again, that the substance of clay is incessantly brought to
him from without, through the holes, by many men who do
not any of them see the artist himself. Now suppose the
house to be covered with mist and clouds, and nothing
visible to those who are outside but only the holes." " Let
this also be supposed," she said. " And that each one of those

16 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

who are labouring together to provide the clay has one hole
allotted to himself", into which he alone has to bring and
deposit his own clay, not touching any other hole. And if,
again, he shall officiously endeavour to open that which is
allotted to another, let him be threatened with fire and
scourges.

"Well, now, consider further what comes after this: the
modeller within going round to the holes and taking pri-
vately for his modelling the clay which he finds at each
hole, and having in a certain number of mouths made his
model, giving it back through the same hole; having this
for his rule, that every lump of clay which is capable of
being moulded sliall be worked up indifferently, even if it
be unlawfully thrown by any one through another's hole
(for the clay has done no wrong, and, therefore, as being
blameless, should be moulded and formed); but that he who,
in opposition to the ordinance and law, deposited it in
another's hole, should be punished as a criminal and trans-
gressor. For the clay should not be blamed, but he who
did this in violation of what is right; for, through incontin-
ence, having carried it away, he secretly, by violence, depo-
sited it in another's hole." " You say most truly."

Chap. v. — The Holy Father follows up the same argument.

And now that these things are completed, it remains for
you to apply this picture, my wisest of friends, to the things
which have been already spoken of; comparing the house
to the invisible nature of our generation, and the entrance
adjacent to the mountains to the sending down of our souls
from heaven, and their descent into the bodies; the holes to
the female sex, and the modeller to the creative power of
God, which, under the cover of generation, making use of
our nature, invisibly forms us men within, working the gar-
ments for the souls. Those who carry the clay represent
the male sex in the comparison; when thirsting for children,
they bring and cast in seed into the natural channels of the
female, as those in the comparison cast clay into the holes.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 17

For the seed, which, so to speak, partakes of a divine creative
power, is not to he tlioiight guilty of the incentives to incon-
tinence; and art always works up the matter submitted to
it; and nothing is to he considered as evil in itself, hut
hecomes so hy the act of those who used it in such a way;
for when properly and purely made use of, it comes out
pure, but if disgracefully and improperly, then it becomes
disgraceful. For how did iron, which was discovered for
the benefit of agriculture and the arts, injure those who
sharpened it for murderous battles ? Or how did gold, or
silver, or brass, and, to take it collectively, the whole of the
workable earth, injure those who, ungratefully towards their
Creator, make a wrong use of them by turning parts of them
into various kinds of idols ? And if any one should supply
wool from that which had been stolen to the weaving art.
that art, regarding this one thing only, manufactures tire
material submitted to it, if it will receive the preparation,
rejecting nothing of that which is serviceable to itself, since
that which is stolen is here not to be blamed, being lifeless.
And, therefore, the material itself is to be wTOught and
adorned, but he who is discovered to have abstracted it
unjustly should be punished. So, in like manner, the viola-
tors of marriage, and those who break the strings of the
harmony of life, as of a harp, raging with lust, and letting
loose their desires in adultery, should themselves be tortured
and punished, for they do a great wrong stealing from the
gardens of others the embraces of generation ; but tlie seed
itself, as in the case of the wool, should be formed and
endowed with life.

Chap. VI. — God cares even for adullerous hirths — Angels
given to them as gibardians.

But what need is there to protract the argument by using
such examples? for nature could not thus, in a little time,
accomplish so great a work without divine help. For who
gave to the bones their fixed nature? and M'ho bound the
yielding members with nerves, to be extended and relaxed at

18 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

the joints? or who prepared channels for the blood, and a
soft windpipe for the breath ? or wliat god caused the humours
to ferment, mixing them with blood and forming the soft
flesh out of the earth, but only the Supreme Artist making
us to be man, the rational and living image of Himself, and
forming it like wax, in the womb, from moist slight seed?
or by whose providence was it that the foetus was not suffo-
cated by damp when shut up within, in the connexion of the
vessels ? or who, after it was brought forth and had come into
the light, changed it from weakness and smallness to size,
and beauty, and strength, unless God Himself, the Supreme
Artist, as I said, making by His creative power copies of
Christ, and living pictures ? Whence, also, we have received
from the inspired writings, that those who are begotten,
even though it be in adultery, are committed to guardian
4,ngels. But if they came into being in opposition to the
will and the decree of the blessed nature of God, how should
they be delivered over to angels, to be nourished with much
gentleness and indulgence? and how, if they had to accuse
their own parents, could they confidently, before the judg-
ment seat of Christ, invoke Him and say, " Thou didst not,
Lord, grudge us this common light; but these appointed
us to death, despising Thy command?" " For," He says,
" children begotten of unlawful beds are witnesses of wicked-
ness against their parents at their trial." ^

Chap. vii. — The rational sovJ from God Hivisclf — Chastity
not the only good, although the best and most honoured.

And perhaps there will be room for some to argue
plausibly among those who are wanting in discrimination
and judgment, that this fleshly garment of the soul, being
planted by men, is shaped spontaneously apart from the
sentence of God. If, however, he shoidd teach that the
immortal being of the soul also is sown along with the
mortal body, he will not be believed ; for the Almighty
alone breathes into man the undying and undecaying part,
^ Wisd. iv. 6.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 19

as also it is He alone who is Creator of the invisible and
indestructible. For, He says, He " breathed into his nostrds
the breath of life ; and man became a living soul." ^ And
those artificers who, to the destruction of men, make images
in human form, not perceiving and knowing their own
Maker, are blamed by the Word, which says, in the Book
of Wisdom, a book full of all virtue, " his heart is ashes,
his hope is more vile than earth, and his life of less value
than clay ; forasmuch as he knew not his Maker, and Him
that inspired into him an active soul, and breathed in a
living spirit;"^ that is, God, the Maker of all men; there-
fore, also, according to the apostle. He " will have all men
to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the ti-uth."'
And now, although this subject be scarcely completed, yet
there are others which remain to be discussed. For when
one thoroughly examines and understands those things
which happen to man according to his nature, lie wiU
know not to despise the procreation of children, althougli
he applauds chastity, and prefers it in honour. For although
honey be sweeter and more pleasant than other things, we are
not for that reason to consider other things bitter which are
mixed up in the natural sweetness of fruits. And, in sup-
port of these statements, I will bring forward a trustworthy
witness, namely, Paul, who says, " So then he that giveth
her [liis virgin] in marriage doeth well ; but he that giveth
her not in marriage doeth better."* Now the word, in
setting forth that wliich is better and sweeter, did not
intend to take away the inferior, but arranges so as to
assign to each its own proper use and advantage. For there
are some to whom it is not given to attain virginity ; and
there are others wliom He no longer wills to be excited by
procreations to lust, and to be defiled, but henceforth to
meditate and to keep the mind upon the transformation of
the body to the likeness of angels, wlien they " neither
marry nor are given in marriage,"^ according to the infal-
lible words of the Lord ; since it is n<?t given to aU to attain

1 Gen. ii. 7. - Wisd. xv. 10, 11. ^ 1 Tim. ii. 4.

* 1 Cor. vii. aa " .Malt. xxii. 30.

20 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

that uiidcfiled state of being a eunuch for the sake of the
kingdom of heaven/ but manifestly to those only who are
able to preserve the ever-blooming and unfading flower of
virginity. For it is the custom of the prophetic Word to
compare the Church to a flower-covered and variegated
meadow, adorned and crowned not only with the flowers
of virginity, but also with those of child-bearing and of
continence ; for it is written, " Upon thy (the bridegroom's)
right hand did stand the queen in a vesture of gold, wrought
about with divers colours."^

These words, Arete, I bring according to my ability to
this discussion in behalf of the truth.

And when Theophila had thus spoken, Theopatra said
that applause arose from all the virgins approving of her
discourse ; and that when they became silent, after a long
pause, Thaleia arose, for to her had been assigned the third
place in the contest, that which came after Theophila. And
she then, as I think, followed, and spoke.

DISCOUESE III.— Thaleia.

Chap. i. — The passages in Gen. ii. 23, 24, and Eph. v. 28-32,
compared.

You seem to me, Theophila, to excel all in action and
in speech, and to be second to none in wisdom. For there
is no one who will find fault with your discourse, however
contentious and contradictory he may be. Yet, while
everything else seems rightly spoken, one thing, my friend,
distresses and troubles me, considering that that wise and
most spiritual man — I mean Paul — would not vainly refer
to Christ and the Church the union of the first man and
woman,^ if the Scripture meant notliing higher than what
is conveyed by the mere words and the history; for if we
are to take the Scripture as a bare representation wholly
referring to the union of man and woman, for what reason

1 Matt. xix. 12. - Ps. xlv. 10 (xliv. 10, lxx.). ^ Eph. v. n2.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 21

should the apostle, calling these things to remembrance, and
guiding us, as T opine, into the way of the Spirit, allegorize
the history of Adam and Eve as having a reference to
Christ and the Church ? For the passage in Genesis reads
thus : " And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and
flesh of my flesh : she shall be called Woman, because she
was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife : and
they shall be one flesh." ^ But the apostle considering this
passage, by no means, as I said, intends to take it according
to its mere natural sense, as referring to the union of man
and woman, as you do ; for you, explaining the passage in
too natural a sense, laid down that the Spirit is speaking
only of conception and births ; that the bone taken from
the bones was made another man, and that living creatures
coming together swell like trees at the time of conception.
But he, more siDiritually referring the passage to Christ,
thus teaches : " He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For
no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and
cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church : for M'e are
members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For
tliis cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and
shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one
flesh. This is a great mystery : but I speak concerning
Christ and tlie Church." ^

CiiAP. II. — The digressions of tJie Apostle Paul — TJic cliaracter
of his doctrine : nothing in it contradictory — Con-
demnation of Origcn, who wrongly turns everything
into allegory.

Let it not disturb you, if, in discussing one class of sub-
jects, he \i.e. Paid] should pass over into anotlier, so as
to appear to mix them uj), and to import matters foreign
to the subject under consideration, departing from the
question, as now for instance. For wisliing, as it seems,
to strengthen most carefully the argument on behalf of
> Gen. ii. 23, 24. 2 Ejih. v. 28-32.

22 THE W n IT I SGS OF METHODIUS.

chastity, lie prepares the mode of argument beforehanfl,
])eginning with the more persuasive mode of si^eech. For
the character of his speech being very various, and arranged
for the purpose of progressive proof, begins gently, but flows
forward into a style which is loftier and more magnificent.
And then, again changing to what is deep, he sometimes
finishes with what is simple and easy, and sometimes with
what is more difficult and delicate ; and yet introducing
nothing which is foreign to the subject by these changes,
but, bringing them all together according to a certain
marvellous relationship, he works into one the question
which is set forth as his subject. It is needful, then, that I
should more accurately unfold the meaning of the apostle's
arguments, yet rejecting nothing of Mdiat has been said
before. For you seem to me, Theophila, to have dis-
cussed those words of the Scripture amply and clearly, and
to have set them forth as they are without mistake. For it
is a dangerous thing wholly to despise the literal meaning,^
as has been said, and especially of Genesis, where the un-
changeable decrees of God for the constitution of the
universe are set forth, in agreement with which, even until
now, the world is perfectly ordered, most beautifully in
accordance with a perfect rule, until the Lawgiver HimseK
having re-arranged it, wishing to order it anew, shall break
up the first laws of nature by a fresh disposition. But, since
it is not fitting to leave the demonstration of the argument
unexamined — and, so to speak, half -lame — come let us, as
it were completing our pair, bring forth the analogical sense,
looking more deeply into the Scripture ; for Paul is not to
be despised when he passes over the literal meaning, and
shows that the words extend to Christ and the Church.

Chap. hi. — Comparison instituted between the first and
second Adam.

And, first, we must inquire if Adam can be likened to
the Son of God, when he was found in the transgression of

^ This is the obvious English equivalent of the Greek text — Tr.

THE BAXCiUET OF THE TE^ VIIiGEXS. 23

the Fall, and heard tlie sentence, " Dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt tliou return."^ For how shall he be considered
"the first-born of every creature,"^ who, after the creation of
the earth and the firmament, was formed out of clay ? And
liow shall he be admitted to be " the tree of life" who was
cast out for his transgression,^ lest " he should again stretch
forth his hand and eat of it, and live for ever?"* For it is
necessary that a thing which is likened unto anything else,
should in many respects be similar and analogous to that
of which it is the similitude, and not have its constitution
opposite and dissimilar. For one who should venture to
compare the uneven to the even, or harmony to discord,
would not be considered rational. But the even should l)e
compared to that which in its nature is even, although -/c
should be even only in a small measure ; and the white to
that which in its nature is white, even although it should
be very small, and should show but moderately the white-
ness by reason of which it is called white. Now, it is
beyond all doubt clear to every one, that that which is
sinless and incorrupt is even, and harmonious, and bright
as wisdom ; but that that which is mortal and sinful is
uneven and discordant, and cast out as guilty and subject
to condemnation.

Chap. rv. — Some ndngs here hard and too slightly treated,
and apparently not sufflciently brought out according'
to the rule of theology.

Such, then, I consider to be the objections urged by many
who, despising, as it seems, the wisdom of Paul, dislike the
comparing of the first man to Christ. For come, let us con-
sider how rightly Paul compared Adam to Christ, not only
considering him to be the type and image, but also that
Christ Himself became the very same thing,^ because tlie
Eternal Word fell upon Ilim. For it was fitting that the
first-born of God, the first shoot, the only-begotten, even the

1 Gen. iii. 19. -' Col. i. 15. ' Rev. ii. 7.

* Gen. iii. 22. ^ Namely, the second Adam.

24 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

wisdom of God, should be joined to the first-formed man,
and iirst and first-born of mankind, and should become
incarnate. And this was Christ, a man filled with the pure
and perfect Godhead, and God received into man. For it
was most suitable that the oldest of the iEons and the first
of the Archangels, when about to hold communion with
men, should dwell in the oldest and the first of men, even
Adam. And thus, when renovating those things which
were from the beginning, and forming them again of the
Virgin by the Spirit, He frames the same [second Adam],
just as at the beginning. When the earth was still virgin
and untilled, God, taking mould, formed the reasonable
creature from it without seed. ^

Chap. v. — A passage of Jeremiah examined.

And here I may adduce the prophet Jeremiah as a trust-
tv'orthy and lucid witness, who speaks thus : " Then I went
down to the potter's house; and, behold, he wrought a work
on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was
marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again
another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it."^
For when Adam, having been formed out of clay, was still soft
and moist, and not yet, like a tile, made hard and incorrup-
tible, sin ruined him, flowing and dropping down upon him
like water. And therefore God, moistening him afresh and
forming anew the same clay to His honour, having first
hardened and fixed it in the Virgin's womb, and united and
mixed it with the Word, brought it forth into life no longer
soft and broken; lest, being overflowed again by streams of
corruption from without, it should become soft, and perish
as the Lord in His teaching shows in the parable of the
finding of the sheep; where my Lord says to those standing
by, " What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose

^ The obscurity of this chapter is indicated in the heading placed
over it hy the old Latin translator. The general meaning, however,
will be clear enough to the theological reader. — Tr.

2 Jer. xviii. 3, 4.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGINS. 25

one of tliem, doth not leave the ninety and nhie in the
wilderness, and go after that which is lost until he hnd it?
and when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders
rejoicing; and when he cometh home, he calleth together
his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Eejoice with
me ; for I have fomid my sheep which was lost."

Chap. vi. — The whole numher of sjnritual sheep — 3fa?i a
second choir, after the angels, to the praise of God — T/ie
parable of the lost sheep explained.

Now, since lie truly was and is, being in the beginning
with God, and being God,^ lie is the chief Commander
and Shepherd of the heavenly ones, whom all reasonable
creatures obey and attend, wlio tends in order and numbers
the multitudes of the blessed angels. For this is the equal
and perfect number of immortal creatures, divided according
to their races and tribes, man also being here taken into
the flock. For he also was created without corruption,
that lie might honour the king and maker of all things,
responding to the shouts of the melodious angels which
came i'rom heaven. But when it came to pass that, by
transgi'essing the commandment [of God], he suffered a
terrible and destructive fall, being thus reduced to a state
of death, for this reason the Lord says that He came
from heaven into [a human] life, leaving the ranks and
the armies of angels. For the mountains are to be ex-
plained by the heavens, and the ninety and nine sheep
l)y the principalities and powers^ which the Captain and
Shepherd left when He went down to seek the lost one.
For it remained that man should be included in this cata-
logue and number, the Lord lifting him up and wrapi)ing
him round, that he might not again, as I said, be overllowed
and swaUowed up by the waves of deceit. For with this
purpose the Word assumed the nature of man, that, having
overcome the serpent, He might by Himself destroy the
condemnation which had come into being along with man's

» St J.il.n i. 1. 2 p^pii. i. 21,iii. ]0.

26 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

ruiu. For it was fitting that the Evil One shouhl be over-
come by no other, but by him whom he had deceived, and
whom he was boasting that he held in subjection, because
no otherwise was it possible that sin and condemnation
should be destroyed, unless that same man on whose account
it had been said, " Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt
return,"^ should be created anew, and imdo the sentence
which for his sake had gone forth on all, that "as in Adam"
at first "all die, even so" again "in Christ," who assumed the
[nature and position of] Adam, should " all be made alive."^

Chap. VII. — The ivorks of Christ, inopcr to God and to man,
the works of Him who is one.

And now we seem to have said almost enough on the
fact that man has become the organ and clothing of the
Only-begotten, and what He was who came to dwell in him.
But the fact that there is no (moral) inequality or discord
[in Him] may again be considered briefly from the begin-
ning. For he speaks well who says that that is in its own
nature good and righteous and holy, by participation of which
other things become good, and that wisdom is in connection
with^ God, and that, on the other hand, sin is unholy and
unrighteous and evil. For life and death, coiTuption and
incorruption, are two things in the highest degree opposed
to each other. For life is a (moral) equality, but corruption
an inequality; and righteousness and prudence a harmony,
but unrighteousness and folly a discord. Now, man being
between these is neither righteousness itself, nor unrighteous-
ness; but being placed midway between incorruption and
corruption, to w^hichever of these he may incline is said to
partake of the nature of that which has laid hold of him.
Now, when he inclines to corruption, he becomes corrupt
and mortal, and when to incorruption, he becomes incorrupt

1 Gen. iii. 19. -1 Cor. xv. 22.

2 Here, as in the previous chapter, and in many other passages, I
have preferred the text of Jahn to that of Mrgne, as being generally the
more accurate. — Tr.

THE BANQCKT OF THE TEX VIllGlXS. 27

and immoital. For, being placed midway between the tree
of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of
the fruit of which he tasted,^ he was changed into the nature
of the latter, himself being neither the tree of life nor that
of corruption; but having been sliown forth as mortal, from
his participation in and presence with corruption, and, again,
as incon-upt and immortal by connection with and participa-
tion in life ; as Paid, also taught, saying, " CoiTuption shall not
inherit incorruption, nor death life," ^ rightly defining corrup-
tion and death to be that which con-upts and kills, and not
tliat which is corrupted and dies; and incorruption and life
that which gives life and inunortality, and not that which
receives life and immortality. And thus man is neither a
discord and an inef|uality, nor an equality and a harmony.
But when he received discord, W' liich is transgression and sin,
he became discordant and unseemly; but when he received
harmony, that is righteousness, he became a harmonious and
seemly organ, in order that the Lord, the Incorruption which
conquered death, might harmonize the resurrection with the
flesh, not suffering it again to be inherited by corruption.
And on this point also let these statements sufitice.

Chap. vili. — Th& hones and flcsli of Wisdom — Tlie side out of
which the spiritual Eve, is formed, the Holy Spirit —
The woman. the help-meet of Adam — Virgras betrothed
to Christ.

For it has been already established by no contemptible
arguments from Scripture, that the first man may be pro-
perly referred to Christ Himself, and is no longer a type and
representation and image of the Only-beg(jtten, but has
become actually Wisdom and the Word.

For man, having been composed, like watei', of wisdom
and life, has become identical with the veiy same untainted
light which poured into him. Whence it was that the

1 Gen. ii. 9.

* 1 Cor. XV. 22. The words are, " Neither doth corruption iiiherit
incomiption."

28 THE WHITINGS OF METHODIUS.

apostle directly referred to Christ the words which had
been spoken of Adam. For thus will it be most certainly
aerreed that the Church is formed out of His bones and
flesh ; and it was for this cause that the Word, leaving His
Father in heaven, came down to be "joined to His wife;"^
and slept in the trance of His passion, and willingly suffered
death for her, that He might present the Church to Him-
self glorious and blameless, having cleansed her by the laver,^
for the receiving of the spiritual and blessed seed, which is
sown by Him who with whispers implants it in the depths
of the mind ; and is conceived and formed by the Church,
as by a woman, so as to give birth and nourishment to
virtue. For in this way, too, the command, " Increase and
multiply,"^ is duly fulfilled, the Church increasing daily in
greatness and beauty and multitude, by the union and com-
munion of the Word, who now still comes down to us and
falls into a trance by the memorial of His passion; for
otherwise the Church could not conceive believers, and give
them new birth by the laver of regeneration, unless Christ,
emptying HimseK for their sake, that He might be contained
by them, as I said, through the recapitulation of His passion,
should die again, coming down from heaven, and being "joined
to His wife," the Church, should provide for a certain power
being taken from His own side, so that all who are built up in
Him should grow up, even those who are born again by the
laver, receiving of His bones and of His flesh, that is, of
His holiness and of His glory. For he who says that the
bones and flesh of Wisdom are understanding and virtue,
says most rightly ; and that the side [rib] is the Spirit of
truth, the Paraclete, of whom the illuminated* receiving
are fitly born again to incorruption. For it is impossible
for any one to be a partaker of the Holy Spirit, and to be
chosen a member of Christ, unless the Word first came
down upon him and fell into a trance, in order that he,
being filled^ with the Spirit, and rising again from slee]:.

^ Eph. V. 31. 2 Eph. V. 26, 27. ^ Qen. L IR

* Conuuonly used by the Greek Fathers for the Baptised.

^ Jahn's reading, xvaTrT^riaStl;. Mitjne has a.vx-Tir'KxaSu;, moulded.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGINS. 29

with Him who was laid to sleep for his sake, should be able
to receive renewal and restoration. For He may fitly be
called the side [rib] of the Word, even the sevenibld Spirit
of truth, according to the prophet;^ of whom God taking,
in the trance of Christ, that is, after His incarnation and
passion, prepares a help-meet for Him^ — I mean the souls
which are betrothed and given in marriage to Him. For it
is frequently the case that the Scriptures thus call the
assembly and mass of believers by the name of the Church,
the more perfect in their progress being led up to be the one
person and body of the Church. For those who are the
better, and who embrace the truth more clearly, being de-
livered from the evils of the flesh, become, on account of
their perfect purification and faith, a Church and help-meet
of Christ, betrothed and given in marriage to Him as a virgin,
according to the apostle,^ so that receiving the pure and
genuine seed of His doctrine, they may co-operate with
Him, helping in preaching for the salvation of others. And
those who are still imperfect and beginning their lessons,
are born to salvation, and shaped, as by mothers, by those
who are more perfect, until they are brought forth and
regenerated unto the greatness and beauty of virtue ; and
so these, in their turn making progress, having become a
church, assist in labouring for the birth and nurture of
other children, accomplishing in the receptacle of the soul,
as in a womb, the blameless will of the Word.

Chap. ix. — The dispensation of grace in Paul the Ajwstlc.

Now we should consider the case of the renowned Paul,
that when he was not yet perfect in Christ, he was first born
and suckled, Ananias preaching to him, and renewing him
in baptism, as the history in the Acts relates. But when
he was grown to a man, and was buUt up, tlien being
moulded to spiritual perfection, he was made the liolp-meet
and bride of the Word ; and receiving and conceiving the
.seeds of life, he who was before a child, becomes a cliurch

1 Is. xi. 2. - Gen. ii. 18. ^ 2 Cor. xi. 12.

30 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

and a mother, himself labouring in birth of those who,
through him, believed in the Lord, until Christ was formed
and born in them also. For he says, " My little children,
of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in
you;"^ and again, "In Christ Jesus I have begotten you
thi-ough the gospel."^

It is evident, then, that the statement respecting Eve and
Adam is to be referred to the Church and Christ. For this
is truly a great mystery and a supernatural, of which I,
from my weakness and dulness, am unable to speak, accord-
ing to its worth and greatness. Nevertheless, let us attempt
it. It remains that I speak to you on what follows, and of
its sisnification.

Chap. x. — Tlic doctrine of the same Apostle concerning Purity.

Now Paul, when summoning all persons to sanctification
and purity, in this way referred that which had been spoken
concerning the first man and Eve in a secondary sense to
Christ and the Church, in order to silence the ignorant, now
deprived of all excuse. For men who are incontinent in
consequence of the uncontrolled impulses of sensuality in
them, dare to force the Scriptures beyond their true meaning,
so as to twist into a defence of their incontinence the say-
ing, "Increase and multiply;"^ and the other, "Therefore
shall a man leave his father and his mother ;"* and they are
not ashamed to run counter to the Spirit, but, as though
born for this purpose, they kindle up the smouldering and
lurking passion, fanning and provoking it ; and therefore
lie, cutting off very sharply these dishonest follies and in-
vented excuses, and having arrived at the subject of
instructing them how men should behave to their wives,
showing that it should be as Christ did to the Church,
" who gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and
cleanse it by the washing [laver] of water by the Word,"*
he referred back to Genesis, mentioning the things spok<m

1 Gal. iv. 19. 2 1 Cor. iv. 15. 3 Gen. ii. 18.

* Gph. ii. 24. ° Eph. v. 25, 26.

THE BAXQUET OF THE TEN VIRGIXS. 31

concerning the first man, and explaining these tilings as
bearing on the subject before him, that he might take away
occasion for the abuse of these passages from those who
taught the sensual gratification of the body, under the pre-
text of begetting children.

Chap. xi. — Tlic same argument.

Tor consider, virgins, how he [Paul], desiring with
all his might that believers in Christ should be chaste,
endeavours by many arguments to show them the dignity
of chastity, as when he says,^ " Now, concerning the things
whereof ye wrote unto me : It is good for a man not to
touch a woman," thence showing already very clearly that it
is good not to touch - a Avoman, laying it down and setting it
forth unconditionally. But afterwards, being aware of the
weakness of tlie less continent, and their passion for inter-
course, he permitted those who are unable to govern the
flesh to use their own wives, rather than, shamefully trans-
gressing, to give themselves up to fornication. Then, after
having given this permission, he immediately added these
words,^ " that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency ;"
which means, " if you, such as you are, cannot, on account
of the incontinence and softness of your bodies, be perfectly
continent, I will rather permit you to have intercourse with
your own wives, lest, professing perfect continence, ye be
constantly tempted by the evil one, and be inflamed witli
lust after other men's wives."

Chat. xii. — Paul an cxamjiile to widows, and to those who do
not live with their wives.

Come, now, and let us examine more carefully the very
words which are before us, and observe that the apostle did

^ 1 Cor. vii. 1.

^ In the oii;,nnal the two wonl.s are different. In the quotation fronj
St Paul it is cc-77TioSon ; here it is -TrpoTipximv. Nothijiy could be
gained by using two words in the translation. — Tb,

•' 1 Cor. vii. 5.

32 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

not gi'ant these things unconditionally to all, but first laid
down the reason on account of which he was led to this.
For, having set forth that " it is good for a man not to
touch a woman," ^ he added immediately, " Nevertheless, to
avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife"^ — that is,
" on account of the fornication which would arise from your
being unable to restrain your voluptuousness" — and let
every woman have her own husband. Let the husband
render unto the wife due benevolence : and likewise also
the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of
her own body, but the husband : and likewise also the
husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent
for a time, that ye may give youi'selves to prayer;^ and
come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your
incontinency. But I speak this by permission, and not of
commandment."* And this is very carefully considered.
" By permission," he says, showing that he was giving
counsel, " not of command ;" for he receives command re-
specting chastity and the not touching of a woman, but
permission respecting those who are iinable, as I said, to
chasten their appetites. These things, then, he lays down
concerning men and women who are married to one spouse,
or who shall hereafter be so ; but we must now examine
carefully the apostle's language respecting men who have
lost their wives, and women who have lost their husbands,
and what he declares on this subject.

" I say therefore," he goes on,^ " to the unmarried and
widows. It is good for them if tliey abide even as I. But if
they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry
than to burn." Here also he persisted in giving the prefer-
ence to continence. For, taking himself as a notable ex-
ample, in order to stir them up to emulation, he challenged
his hearers to this state of life, teaching that it was better that
a man who had been bound to one wife should henceforth

1 1 Cor. vii. 1. -I Cor. vii. 2.

^ E. V. " Fasting and prayer." As in the best ]\ISS.. tk urianiet
Kxl is wanting in the text.

* 1 Cor. vii^ 2-6. ^ 1 Cor. vii. 8, 9.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGIXS. 33

remain single, as he also did. But if, on the other hand,
this should be a matter of difficulty to any one, on account
of the strength of animal passion, he allows that one who
is in such a condition may, " by permission," contract
a second marriage ; not as though he expressed the opinion
tliat a second marriage was in itself good,^ but judging it
better than burning. Just as though, in the fast which
prepares for the Easter celebration, one should offer food to
another who was dangerously ill, and say, " In trutli, my
friend, it were fitting and good that you should bravely hold
out like us, and partake of the same things,- for it is for-
bidden even to think of food to-day ; but since you are held
down and weakened by disease, and cannot bear it, there-
fore, ' by permission,' we advise you to eat food, lest, being
quite unable, from sickness, to hold up against the desire
for food, you perish." Thus also the apostle speaks here,
first saying that he wished all were healthy and continent,
as he also was, but afterwards allowing a second marriage
to those who are burdened with the disease of the passions,
lest they should be wholly defiled by fornication, goaded on
by the itchings of the organs of generation to promiscuous
intercourse, considering such a second marriage far prefer-
able to burning and indecency.

Chap. xiii. — Tlic doctrine of Paul concerning Virginity
explained.

1 have now brouglit to an end what I liave to say respect-
ing continence and marriage and chastity, and intercourse
with men, and in which of these there is help towards pro-
gress in righteousness ; but it still remains to speak concern-
ing virginity — if, indeed, anything be prescribed on this
subject. Let us then treat this subject also; for it stands
thus •? " Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment

^ K«Xo'». It is the same word Avliicli is translated good in ver. 1.
" It is good for a man."

2 i.e. participate in tlie same ordinances, and in tlioir fruits.

3 1 Cor vii. 2o-2S.

34 Till-: wniTixas of mktiiodius.

ol" the Lord: yet I give my ■ud.i^nient, as one that hatli
obtained mercy of the Lord to be iaithf'ul. I siijjpose there-
fore that this is good for the present distress ; I say, that it
is good for a man so to bo. Art thou bound unto a wife?
seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek
not a wife. But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned ;
and if a virgin marry, slie has not sinned. Nevertheless
such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you."
Having given his opinion with great caution respecting
viiginity, and being about to advise him who wislied it to
give his virgin in marriage, so that none of those things
which conduce to sanctification should be of necessity and
by compulsion, but according to the free purjjose ot the soul
(for this is acceptable to God), he does not wish these things
to be said as by authority, and as the mind of the Lord,
with reference to the giving of a virgin in marriage; for
after he had said,^ " if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned,"
directly afterwards, with the greatest caution, he modified
his statement, showing that he had advised these things by
human permission, and not by divine. So, immediately
after he had said, " if a viigin marry, she hath not sinned,"
he added, " such shall have trouble in the flesh : but I spare
you."^ By which he means : " I sparing you, such as you are,
consented to these things, because you have chosen to think
thus of them, that I may not seem to hurry you on by
violence, and compel any one to this [which I reconmiend].
But yet if it shall please you who find chastity hard to bear,
rather to turn to marriage ; I consider it to be profitable for
you to restrain yourselves in the gratification of the flesh, not
making your marriage an occasion for abusing your own
vessels to uncleanness." Then he adds,^ " But this I say,
brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they
that have wives be as though they had none." And agam,
going on and challenging them to the same things, he con-
firmed his statement, powerfully supporting the state of
virginity, and adding expressly the folloAving words to those

1 1 Cor. vii. 28. 2 i Cor. vii. 28.

3 1 Cor. vii. 29.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIIIGIXS. 35

wliich he had spoken belbre, he exclaimed,^ " I would liave
you without carefulness. He that is unmanied careth lor
the things that belong to the Lord:^ but he that is married
careth for the things that are of the world, how he may
jdease his wife. There is a difference also betMeen a wife
and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things
of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in
spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the
world, how she may please her husband." Kow it is clear
to all, without any doubt, that to care for the things of the
Lord and to please God, is much better than to care for the
things of the world and to please one's wife. For who is
there so foolish and blind, as not to perceive in this
statement the higher praise which Paul accords to chastity ?
" And this," he says,^ " I speak for youi* own profit, not
that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is
comely."

('hap. XIV. — Virginity a gift of God: the purpose of Virginity
not rashly to he adopted hy any one.

Consider besides how, in addition to the words already
(j noted, he commends the state of virginity as a gift of God.
AVherefore he rejects those of the more incontinent, who,
under the influence of vain-glory, would advance to this
state, advising them to marry, lest in their time of manly
strength, the flesh stirring up the desires and passions, they
should be goaded on to defile the soul. For let us consider
what he lays down :* " But if any man think that he be-
haveth himself uncomely towards his virgin," he says, " if
she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him
do what he will, he sinneth not: let him marry;" properly
here preferring marriage to " uncomeliness," in the case of
those who had chosen the state of virginity, but afterwai'ds
finding it intolerable and grievous, and in word boasting of
their perseverance belore men, out of shame, but indeed no

• 1 Cor. vii. 32-34 - A clause is oiiiitletl here iu the te.\t.

^ 1 Cor. vii. 35. * 1 Cur. vii. 3G.

36 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

longer having the power to persevere in the life of a eunuch.
But for him who of his 0"\vn free will and purpose decides
to preserve his flesh in virgin purity, " having no necessity,"^
that is, passion calling forth his loins to intercourse, for
there are, as it seems, differences in men's bodies; such an
one contending and struggling, and zealously abiding by his
profession, and admirably fulfilling it, he exhorts to abide
and to preserve it, according the highest prize to virginity.
For he that is able, he says, and ambitious to preserve his
flesh pure does better; but he that is unable, and enters into
marriage lawfully, and does not indulge in secret corrup-
tion, does well. And now enough has been said on these
subjects.

Let any one who will, take in his hand the Epistle to the
Corinthians, and, examining all its passages one by one,
then consider what we have said, comparing them together,
as to whether there is not a perfect harmony and agreement
between them. These things, according to my power,
Arete, T offer to thee as my contribution on the subject of
chastity.

Etih. — Through many things, Gregorion, she has scarcely
come to the subject, having measured and crossed a mighty
sea of words.

Greg. — So it seems; but come, I must mention the rest of
what was said in order, going through it and repeating it,
while I seem to have the sound of it dwelling in my ears,
before it flies away and escapes ; for the remembrance of things
lately heard is easily effaced from the aged.

Eiil). — Say on, then; for we have come to have the plea-
sure of hearing these discourses.

Greg. — And then after, as you observed, Thaleia had
descended from her smooth and unbroken course to the
earth, Theopatra, she said, followed her in order, and spoke
as follows.

* 1 Cor. vii. 37.

rilE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 37

DISCOUESE IV.— TiiEOPATEA.

CliAi'. I. — The necessity of praising Virtue, for those who have
the poiccr.

If the art of speaking, virgins, always went by the same
ways, and passed along the same path, there would be no
way to avoid wearying you for one who persisted in the
arguments which had already been urged. But since there
are of arguments myriads of currents and ways, God inspir-
ing us "at sundry times and in divers manners,"^ who can
have the choice of holding back or of being afraid? For lie
would not be free from blame to whom the gift has been
given, if he failed to adorn that which is honourable witli
words of praise. Come then, we also, according to our gifts,
will sing the brightest and most glorious star of Christ,
which is chastity. For this way of the Spirit is very wide
and large. Beginning, therefore, at the point from whicli
we may say those things which are suital)le and fitting
to the subject before us, let us from thence consider it.

Chap. ii. — Tlic protection of Chastity and Virginity divinely
yicen to men, that they may emerge from the mire of
vices.

Now I at least seem to perceive that nothing has boon
such a moans of restoring men to paradise, and of the chaii.m-
to incorruption, and of reconciliation to God, and such a
means of salvation to men, by guiding us to life, as chastity.
And I will now endeavour to show why I tliink so concorn-
ing these things, that having heard distinctly the power of
the grace already spoken of, you may know of how great
blessings it has become the giver to us. Anciently, tlien,
after the fall of man, when he was cast out by reason of liis
transgression, tlie stream of corruption poured forth aluiii-
dantly, and running along in violent currents, not only fiercely

38 Till-: WIHTIXGS OF MKTJIODli:^.

swept along whatever touched it iVnm without, but also
I'ushiiig within it, overwhehnecl the souls of men. And they,^
continuously exposed to this, were carried along dumb and
stupid, neglecting to pilot their vessels,^ from having nothing
firm to lay hold of. For the senses of the soul, as those
have said who are learned in these things, when, being
overcome by the excitements to passion which fall upon
tliem from without, they receive the sudden bursts of the
waves of folly which rush into them, being darkened turn
aside from the divine course its whole vessel, which is by
nature easily guided. Wherefore God, pitying us who were
in such a condition, and were able neither to stand nor to
rise, sent down from heaven the best and most glorious help,
virginity, that by it we might tie our bodies fast, like ships,
and have a calm, coming to an anchorage without damage,
as also the Holy Spirit witnesses. For this is said in the
hundred and thirty-sixth^ psalm, where the souls send joy-
i'uUy up to God a hymn of thanksgiving,* as many as have
been taken hold of and raised up to walk with Christ in
lieaven, that they might not be overwhelmed by the streams
of the world and the flesh. "\Mience, also, they say that
Pharaoh was a t}^e of the devil in Eg}q;)t, since he merci-
lessly commanded the males to be cast into the river,^ but
the females to be preserved alive. For the devil, ruling*'
from Adam to Moses over this gi'eat Egj^t, the world, took
care to have the male and rational offspring of the soul
carried away and destroyed by the streams of passions, but
lie longs for the carnal and irrational ofi'spring to increase
and multiply.

1 f.c. U.I \^i>x,!ii'- ^ The body.

2 P.s. cxxxvii. E. v., and m Heb. * Or, eucharistic hymn.
° Exod L 16. 6 Rom. v. 14.

TIIK BAXilUKT OF Till-: TKX VIRfllXS. 39

Chap. in. — Tliat 'passcujc of David e-rplaineil, " Bj tlic wakrs
of Bahylon" dx. — IFIiat the harps huuf/ upon the
li'illoius signify — Tlic willow a symbol of Chastity —
lite u'illoii'S watered hy streams.

But not to 2)fis.s away from our subject, come, let us take
in our hands and examine this })sahn, Avhieli the pure antl
stainless souls sing to God, saying:^ "By the rivers of
Babylon there we sat down; yea, we wept, wla-n we remem-
bered Zion. We hanged our liar]».s upon tlie willows in
the midst thereof," clearly giving the name of harps to their
bodies which they hung upon the branches of chastity, fas-
tening them to the wood that they might not be snatched
away and dragged along again by the stream of incontinence.
For Babylon, which is interpreted " distiu-bance" or " con-
fusion," signifies this life around which the water flows, while
we sit in the midst of which the Avater flows round us, as
long as we are in the A\-orld, the rivers of evil always beating
upon us. AVherefore, also, we are always fearful, and we
groan and ciy with weeping to God, that our harps ma}-
not be snatched oft" by the Avaves of pleasure, and slip down
Irom the tree of chastity. For everywhere the divine writ-
ings take the willow as the type of chastity, because, when
its flower is steeped in water, if it be drunk, it extinguishes
whatever kindles sensual desires and passions within us,
imtil it entirely renders barren, and makes every inclination
to the begetting of children without effect, as also Homer
indicated, for this reason calling the willows destructive of
fruit.2 And in Isaiah the righteous are said to " spring up
as willows by the water courses."^ Surely, then, the shoot
of virginity is raised to a great and glorious height, wlieii
the righteous, and he to whom it is given to preserve it and
to cultivate it, bedewing it witli wisdom, is watered by tlie
gentlest streams of Christ. For as it is the nature of this
tree to bud and grow through water, so it is the nature of

1 Ps. c.vx.wii. 1, 2. * Odyss. K'. ^lO. ' j^_ ^ij^. 4.

40 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

virginity to blossom and grow to maturity when enriched by
words, so that one can hang his body^ upon it.

Chap. iv. — The autlwr goes on with the interpretation of the
same passage.

If, then, the rivers of Babylon are the streams of volup-
tuousness, as wise men say, which confuse and disturb the
soul, then the willows must be chastity, to which we may
suspend and draw up the organs of lust which overbalance
and weigh down the mind, so that they may not be borne
down by the torrents of incontinence, and be drawn like
worms to impurity and corruption. For God has bestowed
upon us virginity as a most useful and a serviceable help
towards incorruption, sending it as an ally to those who are
contending for and longing after Zion, as the psalm shows,
which is resplendent charity and the commandment respect-
ing it, for Zion is interpreted " The commandment of the
watch-tower."^ Xow, let us here enumerate the points
which follow. For why do the souls declare that they were
asked by those who led them captive to sing the Lord's
song in a strange land ? Surely because the Gospel teaches
a holy and secret song, which sinners and adulterers sing to
the Evil One. For they insult the commandments, accom-
plishing the will of the spirits of evil, and cast holy tilings
to dogs, and pearls before swine,^ in the same manner as
those of whom the prophet says with indignation, " They
read the law [to those] without;"* for the Jews were not to
read the law going forth out of the gates of Jerusalem or
out of their houses ; and for this reason the prophet blames
them strongly, and cries that they were liable to con-
demnation, because, while they were transgressing the

^ opyxvov. The word used for harp above, and here employed ydih a
double meaning.

2 In Hebrew the word means simply " a memorial."

3 Matt. Aoi. 6.

♦ Amos iv. 5 (lxx.). The E. V. is, " Offer a sacrifice of thanksgidng
in the leaven."

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 41

commandments, and acting impiously towards God, they
were pretentiously reading the law, as if, forsooth, they were
piously observing its precepts; but they did not receive it
in their souls, holding it firmly with faith, but rejected it,
denying it by their works. And hence they sing the Lord's
song in a strange land, explaining the law by distorting and
degrading it, expecting a sensual kingdom, and settiug their
hopes on this alien world, which the Word says Avill pass
away,^ where those who carry them captive entice them
with pleasures, lying in wait to deceive them.

Chap. v. — The gifts of Virgins, adorned ivith which they are
23rcsentcd to one husband, Christ.

Now, those who sing the Gospel to senseless people seem
to sing the Lord's song in a strange land, of which Christ is
not the husbandman ; but those who have put on and shone
in the most pure and bright, and unmiugled and pious and
becoming, ornament of virginity, and are found barren and
unproductive of imsettled and grievous passions, do not sing
the song in a strange land ; because they are not borne thither
by their hopes, nor do they stick fast in the lusts of their
mortal bodies, nor do they take a low view of the meaning
of the commandments, but well and nobly, with a lofty
disposition, they have regard to the promises which are
above, thirsting for heaven as a congenial abode, whence
God, approving their dispositions, promises with an oath to
give them choice honours, appointing and establishing them
" above His chief joy ;" for He says thus :^ " If I forget thee,
Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I
do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of
my mouth ; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my cliief joy ;"
meaning by Jerusalem, as I said, these very undefiled and
incorrupt souls, which, having witli self-denial drawn in the
pure drauglit of virginity with unpolluted lips, are "espoused
to one husband," to be presented "as a chaste virgin to
Christ"^ in heaven, "having gotten the victory, striving for

> 1 Pet. ii. 10. 2 p^_ c.\.\.\vii. T), G. ' 2 Cor. .\i. 2.

42 Tllh: WniTlNiJS OF MKTIIODIL'S.

undefiled rewards."* Hence also the prophet Isaiah pro-
claims, saying,- " Arise, shine [0 Jerusalem], for thy light is
come, and. the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Xow
these promises, it is evident to every one, will be fulfilled
after the resurrectio-n.'^ For the Holy Spirit does not speak
of that well-known town in Judea; but truly of that
heavenly city, the blessed Jerusalem, which He declares
to be the assembly of the souls which God plainly promises
to place first, " above His chief joy," in the new dispensation,
settling those who are clothed in the most white robe of
virginity in the pure dwelling of imapproachable light ;
because they had it not in mind to put off their wedding
garment— that is, to relax their minds by wandering
thoutihts.

CiiAP. VI. — Virr/inifi/ to he cuUivafrd and commended in every
•place and time.

Further, the expression in Jeremiah/ "That a maid should
not forget her ornaments, nor a bride lier attire [lit. breast-
band]," shows that she should not give up or loosen the band
of chastity througli wiles and distractions. For by the heart
are properly denoted our heart and mind. Xow the breast-
band, the girdle which gathers together and keeps firm the
purpose of the soul to chastity, is love to God, which our
Captain and Shepherd, Jesus, who is also our Euler and
Bridegroom, illustrious virgins, commands both you and
me to hold fast unbroken and sealed up even to the end ;
for one will not easily find anything else a greater help to
men than this possession, pleasing and grateful to God.

^ "VVisd. iv. 2. 2 Is. ix. i.

^ Commentators have remarked the allusion to Phil. iii. 11. See
Migne's note. The thought of the marriage of the heavenly bride-
groom, Christ, to His virgin bride, the Church, at the second Advent,
when "the dead shall be raised," Avas obviously present to the mind of
the writer.

* Jer. ii. 32. The author, in qiioting from the lxx., slightly alters the
text, so as to make it almost a command, instead of a question. The
origmal has fTr/X^frsTse/ ; in the text it is i-Trty^ctSsidxi.

TI]K BAXQUF.T OF THE TK.X VIRGINS. 43

Therefore, I say, that we should all exercise and honoui
chastity, and always cultivate and commend it.

Let these first-fruits of my discourse suffice for thee,
Arete, in proof of my education and my zeal. " And I
receive the gilt," slie said that Arete replied, "and bid
Thallousa speak after thee ; i'or I must have a discom-se
from eacli one ol' you." And she said that Thallousa, paus-
ing a little, as though considering somewhat with herself,
thus spoke.

DISCOUPuSE v.— TirAT.LousA.
Chap. i. — TJic ojfcring of Chastifij a great gift.

I jiray you. Arete, that you will give your assistance now
too, that I may seem to speak something worthy in the first
place of yourself, and then of those who are present. For I
am persuaded, having thoroughly learnt it from the sacred
writings, that the greatest and most glorious offering and
gift, to which there is nothing comparable, Avhich men can
offer to God, is the life^ of virginity. For although many
accomplished many admirable things, according to their
vows, in the law, tliey alone were said to fulfil a great vow
who were willing to offer themselves of their free will. For
the passage runs thus : " And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying. Speak unto the eliildren of Israel, and say unto them,
when eitlier man or woman sliall separate themselves . . .
unto tlie Lord"- — [///. sliall greatly vow a vow to offer, with
sacrihces of purification, chastity to the Lord]. One vow.s
to offer gold and silver vessels for the sanctuary when he
comes, another to offer the tithe of his fruits, another of his
property, another the best of his flocks, another consecrates
his being ; and no one is able to vow a great vow to the
Lord, but he who has offered himself entirely to God.

^ Lit. game or toil, ddxov. ' Numb. vi. 1, 2.

44 THE WHITINGS OF METHODIUS.

CllAP. II. — Abraham's sacrifice of a heifer three years old;
of a goat, and of a ram also three years old: its
meaning — Every age to he consecrated to God — The
threefold watch and our age.

I must endeavour, virgins, by a true exposition, to
explain to you the mind of the Scripture according to its
meaning.^ Now, he who watches over and restrains him-
self in part, and in part is distracted and wandering, is not
wholly given up to God. Hence it is necessary that the
perfect man offer up all, both the things of the soul and
those of the flesh, so that he may be complete and not lack-
ing. Therefore also God commands Abraham,^ " Take Me
an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years
old, and a ram of tliree years old, and a turtle dove, and a
young pigeon ;" which is admirably said ; for remark, that
concerning those things, He also gives this command. Bring
them Me and keep them free from the yoke, even thy soul
uninjured, like a heifer, and your flesh, and your reason;
the last like a goat, since he traverses lofty and precipitous
places, and the other like a ram, that he may in nowise skip
away, and fall and slip off from the right way. For thus
shalt thou be perfect and blameless, Abraham, when thou
hast offered to Me thy soul, and thy sense, and thy mind,
which He mentioned under the symbol of the heifer, the
goat, and the ram of three years old, as though they repre-
sented the pure knowledge of the Trinity.

And perhaps He also symbolizes the beginning, the
middle, and the end of our life and of our age, wishing as
far as possible that men should spend their boyhood, their
manhood, and their more advanced life purely, and offer
them up to Him. Just as our Lord Jesus Christ commands
in the Gospels, thus directing: "Let not your lights be
extinguished, and let not your loins be loosed. Therefore
also be ye lilvc men who wait for their Lord, when he

^ There are two readings. The above rendering may faii-ly embrace
them both.
3 Gen. XV. 9.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGINS. 45

will return from the wedding ; that, when he cometh and
knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed
are ye, when he shall make you sit downi, and shall come
and serve you. And if he come in the second, or in the
third watch, ye are blessed."^ For consider, virgins, when
He mentions three watches of the night, and His three
comings. He shadows forth in symbol our three periods of life,
that of the boy, of the full-gi-owu man, and of tlie old man;
so that if He should come and remove us from the world
M'hile spending our first period, that is, while we are boys,
He may receive us ready and pure, having nothing amiss ;
and the second and the third in like manner. For the
evening watch is the time of the budding and youth of
man, when the reason begins to be disturbed and to be
clouded by the changes of life, his flesh gaining strength
and urging him to lust. The second is the time when,
afterwards advancing to a full-grown man, he begins to
acquire stability, and to make a stand against the turbulence
of passion and self-conceit. And the third, M'hen most of
the imaginations and desires fade a^ay, the flesh now
withering and declining to old age.

Chap. hi. — Far host to cultivate Virtue from hof/hood.

Therefore, it is becoming that we should kindle the
unquenchable light of faith in the heart, and gird our loins
with purity, and watch and ever wait for the Lord ; so that,
if He should will to come and take any of us away in the
flrst period of life, or in the second, or in the third, and
should find us most ready, and working what He appointed.
He may make us to lie down in the bosom of Abraham,
of Isaac, and of Jacob. Now Jeremiah says, " It is good
for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth -"^ and "that
his soul should not depart from the Lord." It is good,
indeed, from boyhood, to submit the neck to the divine
Hand, and not to shake off, even to old age, the Eider who
guides with pure mind, Avhcn the Evil One is ever drag-

^ Luke xii. 35-38. The autlmr apparently qnntcs from memory.
- Lam. iii. 27.

4G TJIIC WniTJNGS OF METHODIUS.

'Xm^ down the mind to that which is worse. For who is
there that docs not receive tlirough the eyes, through tlie
ears, through the taste and smell and touch, pleasures and
delights, so as to become impatient of the control of con-
tinence as a driver, who checks and vehemently restrains
tlie horse from evil ? Another wlio turns his thoughts to
other things will think differently ; but we say that he
offers himself perfectly to God who strives to keep the flesh
undefiled from childhood, practising virginity ; for it speedily
brings great and much-desired gifts of hopes to those who
strive for it, drying up the corrupting lusts and passions of
the soul. But come, let us explain how we give ourselves
up to the Lord.

Chap. iv. — Perfect consecration and devotion to God:
tcliat it is.

That wdiich is laid down in the Book of Numbers,^
■' gTcatly to vow a vow," serves to show, as, with a little
more explanation, I proceed to prove, that chastity is the
great vow above all vows. For then am I plainly conse-
crated altogether to the Lord, when I not only strive to
keep the flesh untouched by intercourse, but also unspotted
by other kinds of unseemliness. For " the unmarried woman,"
it is said,- " careth for the things of the Lord, how she may
please the Lord;" not merely that she may bear away the
glory in part of not being maimed in her virtue, but in
both parts, according to the apostle, that she may be sanc-
tified in body and spirit, offering up her members to the
Lord. For let us say what it is to offer up oneself perfectly
to the Lord. If, for instance, I open my mouth on some
subjects, and close it upon others ; thus, if I open it for the
explanation of the Scriptures, for the praise of God, accord-
ing to my power, in a true faith and with all due honour,
and if I close it, putting a door and a watch upon it^
against foolish discourse, my mouth is kept pure, and is

^ Numb. vi. 2 (lxx.). ^ 1 Cor. vii. 34 ; quoted from memory.

^ Cf. Ps. cxxxix. 4, and cxli. 3.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VinGIXS. 47

offered up to God. "My tongue is a pen,"^ an organ of
Avisdom ; for the Word of the Spirit writes by it in clearest
letters, from the depth and pouer of the Scriptures, even
the Lord, the swift Writer of the ages, that He quickly
and swiftly registers and fulfils the counsel of the Father,
liearing the words, "quickly spoil, SAviftly plunder."^ To such
a Scribe the words may be applied, "My tongue is a pen;"
for a beautiful pen is sanctified and offered to Him, -writing
things more lovely than the poets and orators who confirm
the doctrines of men. If, too, T accustom my eyes not to
lust after the charms of the body, nor to take delight in
unseemly sights, but to look up to the things which are
above, then my eyes are kept pure, and are offered to the
Lord. If I shut my ears against detraction and slanders,
and open them to the word of God, having intercourse witli
wise men,^ then have I offered up my ears to the Lord. If
1 keej) my hands from dishonourable dealing, from acts of
covetousness and of licentiousness, then are my hands kept
])ure to God. If I withhold my steps from going * in per-
verse ways, then have I offered up my feet, not going to the
places of public resort and banquets, where wicked men
are found, but into the right Avay, fulfilling something of
the [divine] connnands. "What, then, remains to me, if I
also keep the heart pure, offering up all its thoughts to
God ; if I think no evil, if anger and A\Tath gain no rule
over me, if I meditate in the law of the Lord day and
night? And this is to preserve a great chastity, and to
vow a great vow.

CiiAi'. v. — The vov of Chastity, and its rites in the hoc —
Vines, Christ, and the Devil.

1 will now endeavour to explain to you, virgins, the
rest of that which is prescribed; for this is attached to

1 Ps. xlv. 2.

^ Isaiah viii. 1. The lxx. is quoted from memory. The meaning,',
however, is uearer the oiigiual than the E. V. (y. Keil and Delitzsch,
Bib. Com., in he.

^ Of. Ecchi:?. vi. 36. * to -ooivziKov. tlie power of going.

48 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

your duties, consisting of laws concerning virginity, which
are useful as teaching how we should abstain, and how
advance to virginity. For it is "WTitten thus •} " And the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of
Israel, and say unto them, "Wlien either man or woman
shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to
separate themselves unto the Lord ; he shall separate himself
from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of
wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink
any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried, all
the days of his separation." And this means, that he who
has devoted and offered himself to the Lord shall not take
of the fruits of the plant of evil, because of its natural
tendency to produce intoxication and distraction of mind.
For we perceive from the Scriptures two kinds of vines
which were separate from each other, and were unlike. For
the one is productive of immortality and righteousness ;
but the other of madness and insanity. The sober and joy-
producing vine, from whose instructions, as from branches,
there joyfully hang down clusters of graces, distilling love,
is our Lord Jesus, who says expressly to the apostles,- " I
am the true vine, ye are the branches ; and my Father is
the husbandman." But the wild and death-bearing vine
is the devil, who drops down fury and poison and wrath, as
Moses relates, writing concerning liim,^ " For their vine
is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah :
their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter :
their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of
asps." The inhabitants of Sodom having gathered gTapes
from this, were goaded on to an unnatural and fruitless
desire for males. Hence, also, in the time of j^^oah, men
having given themselves up to drunkenness, sank do"mi into
imbelief, and, being overwhelmed by the deluge, were
drowned. And Cain, too, having drawn from this, stained
his fratricidal hands, and defiled the earth with the blood
of his own family. Hence, too, the heathen, becoming
intoxicated, sharpen their passions for murderous battles •
1 Nimib. vi. 1-4. 2 s_ j^iiu xv. 1, 5. ^ x)eut. xxxii. 32. 33.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGINS. 49

for man is not so much excited, nor goes so far astray through
wine, as from anger and wrath. A man does not become
intoxicated and go astray through wine, in the same way
as he does from sorrow, or from love, or from incontinence.
And therefore it is ordered that a virgin shall not taste of
this vine, so that she may be sober and watchful from the
cares of life, and may kindle the shining torch of the light
of righteousness for the AVord. " Take heed to yourselves,"
says the Lord,^ "lest at any time your hearts be over-
charged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares ol'
this life, and so that day come upon you unawares, as
a snare."

Chap. vi. — Sihcra, a manvfadured and spurious wine, yet
intoxicating — Things xchich are aldn to sins are to he
avoided by a Virgin — The Altar of Incense Virgins.

Moreover, it is not only forbidden to virgins in any way
to touch those things which are made from that vine, but
even such things as resemble them and are akin to them.
For Sikera, which is manufactured, is called a spurious kind
of wine, whether made of palms or of other fruit-trees. For
in the same way that draughts of wine overthrow man's
reason, so do these exceedingly; and to speak the plain
truth, the wise are accustomed to call by tlie name of Sikera
all that produces drunkenness and distraction of mind,
besides wine. In order, therefore, tliat the virgin may not,
when guarding against those sins which are in their own
nature evil, be defiled by those which are like them and
akin to tliem, conquering the one and being conquered by
the other, that is, decorating herself with textures of diffe-
rent cloths, or with stones and gold, and other decorations
of the body, things which intoxicate the soul; on this
account it is ordered tliat she do not give herself up to
womanish weaknesses and laughter, exciting herself to wiles
and foolish talking, wliich whirl the mind around and con-
fuse it; as it is indicated in another place,- " Ye shall not eat

* Luke xxi. 34. * Lev. xi. 29 ; not an exact quotati'in.

r>0 TJIE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

the hyania and animals like it; nor the weasel and creatures
of that kind." For this is the straight and direct way to
heaven, not merely not to avoid any stumbling-block which
would trip up and destroy men who are agitated by a desire
for luxuries and pleasures, but also from such things as
resemble them.

Moreover, it has been handed down that the unbloody
altar of God signifies the assembly of the chaste; thus vir-
ginity appears to be something great and glorious. There-
fore it ought to be preserved undefiled and altogether pure,
having no participation in the impurities of the flesh; but it
should be set up before the presence of the testimony, gilded
with wisdom, for the Holy of holies, sending forth a sweeu
savour of love to the Lord ; for He says/ " Thou shalt make
an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim-wood shalt thou
make it. And thou shalt make the staves of shittim-wood,
and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put it before
the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy-
seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.
And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning:
when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.
And when Aaron lighteth tlie lamps at even, he shall burn
incense upon it; a perpetual incense before the Lord through-
out your generations. Ye shall offer no strange incense
thereon, nor burnt-sacrifices nor meat-offering ; neither shall
ye pour drink-offering thereon."

Chap. vii. — The Church intermediate hctwcen the shadotvs
of the Law and the recditics of Heaven.

If the law, according to the apostle, is sjDiritual, containing
the images " of future good things,'"^ come then, let us strip
off the veil of the letter which is spread over it, and consider
its naked and true meaning. The Hebrews were conimonded
to ornament the Tabernacle as a type of the Church, that

1 Exod. XXX. 1-9.

' Heb. X. 1. The apostle says, " a shadow," and " not tlie very image.''
The difference, however, is verbal only. — Tr.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 51

they miglit be able, by means of sensible things, to announce
beforehand the image of divine things. For the pattern
which was showTi to Moses ^ in the mount, to which he wai*
to have regard in fashioning the Tabernacle, was a kind of
accurate representation of the heavenly dwelling, which we
now perceive more clearly than through types, yet more
darkly than if we saw the reality. For not yet, in our present
condition, has the truth come unmingled to men, who are
here unable to bear the sight of pure immortality, just as we
cannot bear to look upon the rays of the sun. And the
Jews declared that the shadow of the image [of the heavenly
things which was afforded to them], was the third from the
reality; but we clearly behold the image of the heavenly
order; for the truth will be accurately made manifest after
the resurrection, when we shall see the heavenly tabernacle
(the city in heaven " whose builder and maker is God"-j
" face to face," and not " darkly" and " in part."^

Chap. viii. — The double altar, Widoios and Virgins — Gold
the symbol of Virginity.

Now the Jews prophesied our state, but we foretell ilw
heavenly; since the Tabernacle was a symbol of the Church,
and the Church of heaven. Therefore, these things being
so, and the Tabernacle being taken for a type of the Church,
as I said, it is fitting that the altars should signify some of
the things in the Church. And we have already compared
the brazen altar to the company and circuit of widows; for
they are a living altar of God, to which they bring calves
and tithes, and free-will offerings, as a sacrifice to the Lord;
but the golden altar within the* Holy of holies, before the
presence of the testimony, on which it is forbidden to oiler
sacrifice and libation, has reference to those in a state of
virginity, as those who have their bodies preserved pure, like

1 Exod. XXV. 40. - Hul). xi. 10. ^l Cor. xiii. 12.

* An apparent confusion between the altar of incense, to which the
autlior refers, and which stood in the Holy Place, and the Mercy-Swit,
which was within tlic veil in the Holv of holies. — Tr.

52 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

iinallojed gold, from carnal intercourse. Now gold is com-
mended for two reasons : the first, that it does not rust,
and the second, that in its colour it seems in a measure to
resemble the rays of the sun; and thus it is suitably a
symbol of virginity, which does not admit any stain or spot,
but ever shines forth with the light of the word. Therefore,
also, it stands nearer [to God] within the Holy of holies, and
before the veil, with undefiled hands, like incense, offering
up prayers to the Lord, acceptable as a sweet savour; as also
John indicated, saying that the incense in the vials of the
four-and-twenty elders were the prayers of the saints. This,
then, I offer to thee, Arete, on the spur of the moment,
according to my ability, on the subject of chastity.

And when Thallousa had said this, Theopatra said that
Arete touched Agathe with her sceptre, and that she, per-
ceiving it, immediately arose and answered.

DISCOUIiSE VI.— Agathe.

Ch.vp. I. — The excellence of the cibicling glory of Virginity —
The soul made in the image of the Image of God, that
is of His Son — The devil a suitor for the soul.

With great confidence of being able to persuade, and to
carry on this admirable discourse, Arete, if thou go with
me, will I also endeavour, according to my ability, to con-
tribute something to the discussion of the subject before us;
something commensurate to my own power, and not to be
compared with that M'hich has already been spoken. For I
should be unable to put forth in philosophizing anytliing
that could compete with those things which have already
been so variously and brilliantly worked out. For I shall
seem to bear away the reproach of silliness, if I make an
effort to match myself with my superiors in wisdom. If,
however, you will bear even with those who speak as they
can, I will endeavour to speak, not lacking at least in good
will. And here let me begin.

We have all come into this world, virgins, endowed

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. bo

with singular beauty, which has a relationship and affinity
to [divine] wisdom. For the souls of men do then most
accurately reseniLle Ilim who begat and formed them, when,
reflecting the unsullied representation of His likeness, and
the features of that countenance, to which God looking
formed them to have an immortal and indestructible shape,
they remain such. For the unbegotten and incorporeal
beauty, which neither begins nor is corruptible, but is un-
changeable, and grows not old and has need of nothing, He
resting in Himself, and in the very light which is in un-
speakable and inapproachable places,^ embracing all things
in the circumference of His power, creating and arranging,
made the soul after the image of His image. Therefore,
also, it is reasonable and immortal. For being made after
the image of the Only-begotten, as I said, it has an unsur-
passable beauty, and therefore evil spirits^ love it, and plot
and strive to defile its godlike and lovely image, as the
prophet Jeremiah shows, reproaching Jerusalem, " Thou
hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed;"^
speaking of her who prostituted herself to the powers which
came against her to pollute her. For her lovers are tlie
devil and his angels, who plan to defile and pollute our
reasonable and clear-sighted beauty of mind by intercourse
with themselves, and desire to cohabit with every soul which
is "betrothed to the Lord.

Chap. u. — The Parable of the Ten Virgins.

K, then, any one will keep this beauty inviolate and un-
harmed, and such as He who constructed it formed and
fashioned it, imitating the eternal and intelligible nature of
which man is the representation and likeness, and will become
like a glorious and holy image, he will be transferred thence
to heaven, the city of the blessed, and will dwell there as in
a sanctuary. Now our beauty is then best preserved unde-

1 CJ. Tim. vi. 16.

^ TTviv/xoiTiKoi T^; xovf,Btu; (Ej)h. vi. 12). In E. V. " spiritual
wickedness." ^ Jer. iii. 3.

54 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

tiled and perfect when, protected by virginity, it is not
darkened by the heat of corruption from witliout; but, re-
maining in itself, it is adorned with righteousness, being
brought as a bride to the Son of God; as He also Himself
•suggests, exhorting that the light of chastity should be kindled
in their flesh, as in lamps; since the number of the ten
virgins^ signifies the souls that have believed in Jesus Christ,
symbolizing by the ten the only right way to heaven. Now
five of them were prudent and wise; and five were foolish
and unwise, for they had not the forethought to fill their
vessels with oil, remaining destitute of righteousness. Now
by these He signifies tliose who strive to come to the bouji-
daries of virginity, and who strain every nerve to fulfil this
love, acting virtuously and temperately, and who profess and
boast that this is their aim; but who, making light of it, and
being subdued by the changes of the world, come rather to
be sketches of the shadowy image of virtue, than workers
who represent the living truth itself.

Chap. hi. — The same endeavour and ef'ort after Virginity,
with a different result.

Now when it is said^ that " the kingdom of heaven is
likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went
forth to meet the bridegroom," this means that the same
way towards the goal had been entered upon, as is shown
by the mark X.^ By profession they had equally proposed
the same end, and therefore they are called ten, since, as I
have said, they chose the same profession; but they did not,
for all that, go forth in the same way to meet the bridegroom.
For some provided abundant future nourishment for their
lamps which were fed with oil, but others were careless,
thinking only of the present. And, therefore, they are
divided into two equal numbers of five, inasmuch as the one
class preserved the five senses, which most people consider

^ Matt. XXV. 2 j^j;att, j^v.

^ In Greek / = ten. The word eniiilovcd signifies the inties of a
sim-dial. — Tr.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 55

the gates of wisdom, pure and undefiled by sins ; but the
others, on the contrary, corrupted them by multitudes of
sins, defiling themselves with evil. For having restrained
them, and kept them free from righteousness, they bore a
more abundant crop of transgressions, in consequence of
M'hich it came to pass that they were forliidden, and shut
out from the divine courts. For whether, on the one hand,
we do riglit, or, on the other, do wrong through these senses,
our habits of good and evil are confirmed. And as Thal-
lousa said that there is a chastity of the eyes, and of the
ears, and of the tongue, and so on of the other senses; so
Iiere she who keeps inviolate the faith of the five pathways
of virtue — sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing — is called
by the name of the five virgins, because she has kept the
five forms of the sense pure to Christ, as a lamp, causing the
light of holiness to shine forth clearly from each of them.
For the flesh is truly, as it were, our five-lighted lamp,
which the soul will bear like a torch, when it stands before
Christ the Bridegroom, on the day of tlie resurrection, show-
ing her faith springing out clear and bright through all the
senses, as He Himself taught, saying,^ " I am come to send
fire on the earth'; and what will I if it be already kindled?"
meaning by the earth our bodies, in \\-hich He wished the
swift-moving and fiery operation of His doctrine to be
kindled. Now the oil represents wisdom and righteousness ;
for while the soul rains down unsparingly, and pours Ibrth
these things upon the body, the light of virtue is kindled
unquenchably, making its good actions to shine before men,
so that our Father which is in heaven may be glorified.-

CllAP. IV. — Wliat the oil in the lamps means.

Now they offered, in Leviticus,^ oil of this kind, " pure oil
olive, beaten for the light, to cause the lanijjs to burn con-
tinually, witliout the veil . . . before the Lord." IJut

^ Luke xii. 49. The Latin version is certainly more accurate, " QiuM
volo nisi ut accendatur?" — Tk.

2 Mutt. V. IG. ' Lev. .\xiv. 2. 3.

,56 THE WJUTINGS OF METHODIUS.

they were comnianded to have a feeLle light from the even-
ing to the morning. Por their light seemed to resemble the
prophetic word, which gives encouragement to temperance,
being nourished by the acts and the faith of the people.
Jiut the temple [in which the light was kept burning] refers
to "the lot of their inheritance,"^ inasmuch as a light can
shine in only one house. Therefore it was necessary that
it should be lighted before day. Tor he says,^ " [they shall
burn it] until the morning," that is, until the coming of
Christ. But the Sun of chastity and of righteousness hav-
ing arisen, there is no need of light.

So long, then, as this people treasured up nourishment for
the light, supplying oil by their works, the light of contin-
ence was not extinguished among them, but was ever shining
and giving light in the " lot of their inheritance." But when
the oil failed, by their turning away from the faith to in-
continence, the light was entirely extinguished, so that the
virgins have again to kindle their lamps by light transmitted
from one to another, bringing the light of incorruption to
the world from above. Let us then supply now the oil of
good works abundantly, and of prudence, being purged from
all corruption which would weigh us down; lest, while the
Bridegroom tarries, our lamps may also in like manner be
extinguished. For the delay is the interval which precedes
the appearing of Christ. Now the slumbering and sleeping
of the virgins signifies the departure from life; and the
midnight is the kingdom of antichrist, during which the
destroying angel passes over the houses.^ But the cry
which was made when it was said,* " Behold the bridegroom
Cometh, go ye out to meet him," is the voice which shall be
heard from heaven, and the trumpet, when the saints, all
their bodies being raised, shall be caught up, and shall go
on the clouds to meet the Lord.^

For it is to be observed that the word [of God] says, that
after the cry all the virgins arose, that is, that the dead shall
be raised after the voice which comes from heaven, as also

^ Ps. cv. 11. ^ Lev. xxiv. 3. ' E.\od. xi., xiL

« Matt. XXV. 6. M Thess. iv. 16, 17.

THE BANQUET OF TILE TEN VIRGINS. 57

Paul intimates/ that " tlie 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;" tliat is the tabernacles [bodies], for they died,
being put off by their souls. " Then we which are alive
shall be caught up together \vith them," meaning our souls.^
For we truly who are alive are the souls which, with the
bodies, having put them on again, shall go to meet Him in
the clouds, bearing our lamps trimmed, not with anything
alien and worldly, but like stars radiating the liglit of jjru-
dence and continence, full of etliereal splendour.

CiiAP. V. — The reward of Virginity.

These, fair virgins, are the orgies of our mysteries;
these the mystic rites of those who are initiated in virginity;
these the "undefiled rewards"^ of the conflict of virginity.
I am betrothed to the "Word, and receive as a reward the
eternal crown of immortality and riches from the Father;
and I triumph in eternity, crowned with the bright and un-
fading flowers of wisdom. I am one in the choir with Christ
dispensing His rewards in heaven, around the unbeginning
and never-ending King. I have become the torchbearer of
the unapproachable lights,'* and I join with their company
in the new song of the archangels, showing forth the new
grace of the Church; for the Word says that the company of
virgins always follow the Lord, and liave fellowship with
Him wherever He is. And this is wliat John signifies in
the commemoration of the hundred and forty-four thousand.^

Go then, ye virgin band of the new ages. Go, fill your
vessels with righteousness, for the hour is coming when ye
must rise and meet the bridegi'ooni. Go, lightly leaving on

1 1 Thcss. iv. 16.

^ 1 Thess. iv, 17. Commentators have remarkeil on the peculiarity of
the interpretation. We give simply the writer's meaning. — Tii.

3 Wisd. iv. 2.

* Although the Greek word is not the same as in 1 Tim. vi. 16, the
meaning is probably this rather than unquenchable, as it is rendered in
the Latin.— Tr. * Rev. vii. 4, xiv. 4

58 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

one side the fascinations and the pleasures of life, which
confuse and bewitch the soul; and thus shall ye attain the
promises, "This I swear by Ilim who has shown me the
way of life." This crown, woven by the prophets, I have
taken from the prophetic meadows, and offer to thee, O
Arete.

Agathe having thus admirably brought her discourse to
an end, she said, and having been applauded for what she
had uttered, Arete again commanded Procilla to speak.
And she, rising and passing before the entrance, spoke thus.

DISCOUESE VIL— riiociLLA.

Chap. i. — What the trite and seemly manner of praising —
The Father greater than the Son, not in suhstance, hut

in ordei Virginity the lily — Faithful soids and

virgins, the one hride of the one Christ.

It is not lawful for me to delay, Arete, after such dis-
courses, seeing that I confide undoubtingly in the manifold
wisdom of God, which gives richly and widely to whom-
soever it wills. For sailors who have experience of the
sea declare that the same wind blows on all who sail ; and
that different persons, managing their course differently,
strive to reach different ports. Some have a fair wind ; to
others it blows across their course ; and yet both easily
accomplish their voyage. Now, in the same way, the
"understanding Spirit,^ lioly, one only \lit. only begotten],""^
gently breathing down from the treasures of the Father
above, giving us all the clear fair wind of knowledge, will
suffice to guide the course of our words without offence.

And now it is time for me to speak.

This, virgins, is the one true and seemly mode of
praising, when he who praises brings forward a witness
better than all those who are praised. For thence one
may learn with certainty that the commendation is given

* Tiiiuciec here, and for vnnd above. ^ Wisd. vii. 22.

THE BAXQUET OE THE TEN VIRGINS. 59

not from favour, nor of necessity, nor from repute, but in
accordance with truth and an unflattering judgment. And
so the proplicts and apostles, who spoke moi-e fully con-
cerning the Son of God, and assigned to Him a divinity
above other men, did not refer their praises of Him to the
teaching of angels, but to Him, upon whom all authority
and power depend. For it was fitting that He who was
greater than all things after the Father, should have the
Father, who alone is greater than Himself,^ as His witness.
And so I will not bring forward the praises of virginity
from mere human report, but from Him who cares for us,
and who has taken up the whole matter, showing that He
is the husl)andman of this grace, and a lover of its beauty,
and a fitting witness. And this is quite clear, in the Song
of Songs, to any one who is willing to see it, where Christ
himself, praising those who are firmly established in vir-
ginity, says,^ " As the lily among thorns, so is my love
among the daughters ;" comparing the grace of chastity to
the lily, on account of its purity and fragrance, and sweet-
ness and joyousness. For chastity is like a spring flower,
always softly exlialing immortality from its white petals.
Therefore He is not asliamed to confess that He loves the
beauty of its prime, in the folluwing words :^ " Thou hast
ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished
my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy
neck. How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse ! how
much better is thy love than wine ! and the smell of thine
ointments than all spices ! Thy lips, my spouse, drop
as the honeycomb ; honey and milk are under thy tongue ;
and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse ; a spring sliut
up, a fountain sealed."

These praises does Clirist proclaim to tliose who have
come to the boundaries of virginity, describing tliem all
under the one name of His spouse ; for the spouse must
be betrothed to the ]]ridegroom, and called by His name.
And, moreover, she must be undefiled and unpolluted, as a

» S. Jno. xiv. 28. ^ Cant. ii. 2. ' Cant. iv. 9-12.

60 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

<,farden sealed, in which all the odours of the fragrance of
lieaven are gro-wn, that Christ alone may come and gather
tliem, blooming with incorporeal seeds. For the Word
loves none of the things of the flesh, because He is not of
such a nature as to be contented with any of the things
which are corruptible, as hands, or face, or feet; but He
looks upon and delights in the beauty which is immaterial
and spiritual, not touching the beauty of the body.

Chap. ii. — The interpretation of that passage of the Canticles,
Chap. iv. vcr. 9-12.

Consider now, virgins, that, in saying to the bride,
" Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my sjjouse," He
shows the clear eye of the understanding, when the inner
man has cleansed it and looks more clearly upon the truth.
For it is clear to every one that there is a twofold power of
sight, the one of the soul, and the other of the body. But
the Word does not profess a love for that of the body, but
only that of the understanding, saying, " Thou hast ravished
my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy
neck ;" which means. By the most lovely sight of thy mind,
thou hast urged my heart to love, radiating forth from
within the glorious beauty of chastity. Now the chains of
the neck are necklaces which are composed of various
precious stones ; and the souls which take care of the
body, place around the outward neck of the flesh this
visible ornament to deceive those who behold ; but those
who live chastely, on the other hand, adorn themselves
within with ornaments truly composed of various precious
stones, namely, of freedom, of magnanimity, of wisdom, and
of love, caring little for those temporal decorations which,
like leaves blossoming for an hour, dry up with the changes
of the body. For there is seen in man a twofold beauty,
of which the Lord accepts that which is within and is
immortal, saying, " Thou hast ravished my heart with one
chain of thy neck;" meaning to show that He had been
drawn to love by the splendour of the inner man shining

THE BANQUET OE THE TEN VIRGINS. 61

forth in its glory, even as the Psahnist also testifies, saying,
" The Kincr's daughter is all glorious within." ^

CiiAP. III. — Virgins being martyrs first among tJie companions
of Christ.

Let no one suppose that all the remaining company of
those who have believed are condemned, thinking that we
who are virgins alone shall be led on to attain the promises,
not understanding that there shall be tribes and families and
orders, according to the analogy of the faith of each. And
this Paul, too, sets forth, saying,^ " There is one glory of the
sun, and another glory of the moon, and another gloiy of
the stars : for one star differeth from another star in glory.
So also is the resurrection of the dead." And the Lord does
not profess to give the same honours to all; but to some He
promises that they shall be numbered in the kingdom of
heaven, to others the inheritance of the earth, and to others
to see the Father.^ And here, also, He announces that the
order and holy choir of the virgins shall first enter in com-
pany with Him into the rest of the new dispensation, as into
a bridal chamber. For they were martyr.s, not as bearing
the pains of the body for a little moment of time, but as
enduring them through all their life, not shrinking from
truly wrestling in an Olympian contest for the prize of
chastity; but resisting the fierce torments of pleasures and
fears and griefs, and the other evils of the iniquity of men,
they first of all carry off the prize, taking their place in the
higher rank of those who receive the promise. Undoubt-
edly these are the souls whom the "Word calls alone His
chosen spouse and His sister, but the rest concubines and
virgins and daughters, speaking thus:^ " There are threescore
queens and fourscore concubines, and virgins without num-
ber. ;My dove, my undefiled, is but one; she is tlie only one
of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her: the
daughters saw her and blessed her: yea, the queens and tlie

1 Ps. xlv. 14. 'I Cor. XV. 41, 42. » ^i^n, ^ 3.1(3^

* Cant. vi. 8, !).

02 THE WIUTINGH OF METHODIUS.

concubines, and they praised her." For there being plainly
many daughters of the Church, one alone is the chosen and
most precious in her eyes above all, namely, the order of
virgins.

Chap. iv. — The passage, Canticles vi. 8, 9, explained — Tlu
queens, the holy souls lief ore the deluge — TJie eoncuhines,
the souls of the pirophets — Tlie divine seed for spiiritual
offspring in the hooks of the prophets — The nuptials of
tJie Word in the prophets as though clandestine.

Now if any one should have a doubt about these things,
inasmuch as the points are nowhere fully wrought out, and
should still wish more fully to perceive their spiritual signi-
ficance, namely, what the queens and the concubines and the
virgins are, we will say that these may have been spoken con-
cerning those who have been conspicuous for their righteous-
ness from the begiiming throughout the progress of time; as
of those before the flood, and those after the Hood, and so on
of those after Christ. The Church, then, is the spouse. The
queens are those royal souls before the deluge, who became
well-pleasing to God, that is, those about Abel and Seth and
Enoch. The concubines those after the flood, namely, those
of the prophets, in whom, before the Chui'ch was betrothed
to the Lord, being united to them after the manner of con-
cubines. He sowed true words in an incorrupt and pure
philosophy, so that, conceiving faith, they might bring forth
to Him the spirit of salvation. For such fruits do the souls
bring forth with whom Christ has had intercourse, fruits
which bear an ever-memorable renown. For if you will
look at the books of Moses, or David, or Solomon, or Isaiah,
or of the prophets who follow, virgins, you will see wdiat
offspring they have left, for the sa^-ing of life, from their
intercourse with the Son of God. Hence the Word has witli
deep perception called the souls of the prophets concubines,
because He did not espouse them openly, as He did the
Church, having killed for her the fatted calf.^

1 Taike xv. 23.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. G3

Chap. v. — The sixtt/ queens: why sixty, and v:hy queens — The
excellence of the saints of the first age.

In addition to these matters, there is this also to be con-
sidered, so tliat nothing may escape us of things -which are
necessary, why lie said that the queens were sixty, and the
concubines eiglity, and the virgins so numerous as not to be
counted from their multitude, but the spouse one. And first
let us speak of the sixty. I imagine that He named under the
sixty queens, those who had pleased God from the first-made
man in succession to Noah, for this reason, since these had no
need of precepts and laws for their salvation, the creation of
the world in six days being stiU recent. For they remem-
bered that in six days God formed the creation, and those
things which were made in paradise; and how man, receiv-
ing a command not to touch ^ the tree of knowledge, ran
aground, the author of evil having led him astray.^ Thence
he gave the symbolical name of sixty queens to those souls
who, from the creation of the world, in succession chose
God as the object of their love, and were almost, so to speak,
the offspring of the first age, and neighbours of the great
six days' M^ork, from their having been born, as I said, im-
mediately after the sLx days. For these had great honour,
being associated with the angels, and often seeing God
manifested visibly, and not in a dream. For consider what
confidence Seth had towards God, and Abel, and Enos,
and Enoch, and INIethuselah, and Noah, the first lovers of
righteousness, and the first of the first-born children who are
written in heaven,^ being thought worthy of the kingdom,
as a kind of first-fruits of the plants for salvation, coming
out as early fruit to God. Aud so much may suffice con-
cerning these.

^ This v";is Eve's tesluuuiiy to the serpent, not the original conx-
mand. — Tu.

- Gen. iii. 3. ' Ileb. xi. 23.

64 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

Chap. vi. — The eighty conciibines, what — The knowledge of
the Incarnation communicated to the prophets.

It still remains to speak concerning the concubines. To
those who lived after the deluge the knowledge of God was
henceforth more remote, and they needed other instruction
to ward off the evil, and to be their helper, since idolatry
was already creeping in. Therefore God, that the race of
man might not be wholly destroyed, through forgetfulness
of the things which were good, commanded His own Son
to reveal to the prophets His own future appearance in
the world by the flesh, in which the joy and knowledge of
the spiritual eighth day^ shall be proclaimed, which would
bring the remission of sins and the resurrection, and that
thereby the passions and corruptions of men would be
circumcised. And, therefore, He called by the name of
the eighty virgins the list of the prophets from Abraham,
on account of the dignity of circumcision, which embraces
the number eight, in accordance with which also the law is
framed ; because they first, before the Church was espoused
to the Word, received the divine seed, and foretold the
circumcision of the spiritual eighth day.

Chap. vn. — The Virgins^ the righteous ancients — The Church,
the one only Spouse, more excellent than the others.

Now he calls by the name of virgins, who belong to a
countless assembly, those who, being inferior to the better
ones, have practised righteousness, and have striven against
sin with youthful and noble energy. But of these, neither
the queens, nor the concubines, nor the virgins, are com-
pared to the Church. For she is reckoned the perfect and
chosen one beyond all these, consisting and composed of all
the apostles, the Bride who surpasses all in the beauty of

^ Here, and in many other places, the prevalent niillenarian belief
of the first centimes is expressed by Methodius. — Tr.

2 This word, as being that employed in the E. T. of the Canticles,
is adopted throughout. It must be remembered, that, in this connec-
tion, it stiinds for uixvils;, and not for vupSkvoi. — Tii.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 65

youth and virginity. Therefore, also, she is blessed and
praised by all, because she saw and heard freely what those
desired to see, even for a little time, and saw not, and to
hear, but heard not. For " blessed," said our Lord to His
disciples,^ " are your eyes, for they see ; and your ears, for
they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets
have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not
seen them ; and to hear those things which ye hear, and
have not heard them." For this reason, then, the prophets
count them blessed, and admire them, because the Church
was thought wortliy to participate in those things which
they did not attain to hear or see. For " there are three-
score queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without
number. My dove, my undefiled, is but one."*

Chap. viii. — Tlic human nature of Christ His one dove.

Can any one now say otherwise than that the Bride is the
undefiled flesh of the Lord, for the sake of which He left the
Father and came down here, and was joined to it, and, being
incarnate, dwelt in it ? Therefore He called it figuratively
a dove, because that creature is tame and domestic, and
readily adapts itself to man's mode of life. For she alone,
so to speak, was found spotless and undefiled, and excellinfr
all in the glory and beauty of righteousness, so that none
of those who had pleased God most perfectly could stand
near to her in a comparison of virtue. And for this reason
she was thought worthy to become a partaker of the king-
dom of the Only-begotten, being betrothed and united to
Him. And in the forty-fourth psalm,^ the queen who,
chosen out of many, stands at the right hand of God,
clothed in the golden ornament of virtue, whose beauty
the King desired,* is, as I said, the undefiled and blessed
flesh, which the Word Himself carried into the heavens,
and presented at the right hand of God, " \ATOught about
with divers colours," that is, in the pursuits of immortalitv,

1 Miitt. xiii. 1(5, 17. 2 Cant. vi. 8, 9.

3 Tlie forty-tifth in our arraiigeinont. ■* Pa. xlv. 2.

66 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

which he calls symbolically golden fringes. For since
this garment is variegated and woven of various virtues, as
chastity, prudence, faith, love, patience, and other good
things, which, covering, as they do, the unseemliness of
the flesh, adorn man with a golden ornament.

Chap. ix. — The Virgins immediately after the Queen and

Spouse.

]\Ioreover, we must farther consider what the Spirit
delivers to us in the rest of the psalm, after the enthroniza-
tion of the manhood assumed hy the Word at the right
hand of the Father. " The virgins," He says,^ " that be her
fellows shall bear her company, and shall be brought unto
thee. With joy and gladness shall they be brought, and
shall enter into the King's palace." Xow, here the Spirit
seems quite plainly to praise virginity, next, as we have
explained, to the Bride of the Lord, who promises that the
virgins shall approach second to the Almighty witli joy and
gladness, guarded and escorted by angels. For so lovely
and desirable is in truth the glory of virginity, that, next to
the Queen, whom the Lord exalts, and presents in sinless
glory to the Father, the choir and order of virgins bear her
company, assigned to a place second to that of the Bride.
Let these efforts of mine to speak to thee, Arete, concern-
ing chastity, be engraven on a monument.

And Procilla having thus spoken, Thekla said. It is my
turn after her to continue the contest ; and I rejoice, since
I too have tlie favouring wisdom of words, perceiving that
1 am, like a harp, inwardly attuned, and prepared to sj)eak
with elegance and propriety.

Arete. — I most willingly hail thy readiness, Thekla, in
which I confide to give me fitting discourse, in accordance
with thy powers ; since thou wilt yield to none in universal
philosophy and instruction, instructed by Paul in what is
fitting to say of evangelical and divine doctrine.

^ Ts. xlv. 15, ] n.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 67

DISCOURSE VIII.— TiiEKLA.

Chap. i. — Methodius' derivation of the word rrafhv'ia : wholly
divine — Virtue, in Greek dpirrj, whence so ccdled.

Well, then, let us first say, beginning from the origin of
the name, for what cause this supreme and blessed pursuit
was called -Trapkiia,^ what it aims at, what power it has, and,
afterwards, what fruits it gives fortli. For almost all have
been ignorant of this virtue as being superior to ten thousand
other advantages of virtue which we cultivate for the puri-
fication and adornment of the soul. For virginity {rrapOtvla)
is divine {'rapOsta') by the change of one letter, as she alone
makes him who has her, and is initiated by her incorrup-
tible rites like unto God, than which it is impossible to find
a greater good, removed, as it is, from pleasure and grief;
and the wing of the soul sprinkled by it becomes stronger
and lighter, accustomed daily to fly from human desires.

For since the children of the wise have said tliat our life
is a festival, and that we have come to exhibit in the theatre
the drama of truth, that is, righteousness, the devil and the
demons plotting and striving against us, it is necessary for
us to look upwards and to take our flight aloft, and to flee
from the blandishments of their tongues, and from their
ibrms tinged with the outward appearance of temperance,
more tlian from the Sirens of Homer. F'.'^r many, bewitched
by the pleasures of error, take their flight downwards, and
are weighed down when they come into this life, their
nerves being relaxed and unstrung, by means of whicli the
power of the wings of temperance is strengthened, ligliten-
ing the downward tendency of the corrujition of tlie body.
AVhence, Arete, whether thou hast tliy name [signifying
virtue], because thou art worthy of being chosen (aipsrr}) for
thyself, or because thou raisest {alptiv) and liftest up to
heaven, ever going in the purest minds, come, give me thy
help in my discour.se, which thou liast thyself appointed
me to speak.

68 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

Chap. ii. — The lofty mind and constancy of the sacred Viryina
— The introduction of Virgins into the Messed abodes
lefore others.

Those wlio take a downward flight, and fall into pleasures,
do not desist from grief and labours until, through their
passionate desires, they fulfil the want of their intemperance,
and, being degraded and shut out from the sanctuary, they
are removed from the scene of truth, and, instead of pro-
creating children with modesty and temperance, they rave
in the wild pleasures of unlawful amours. But those who,
on light wing, ascend into the supramundane life, and see
from afar what other men do not see, the very pastures of
immortality, bearing in abundance flowers of inconceivable
beauty, are ever turning themselves again to the spectacles
there ; and, for this reason, those things are thought small
which are here considered noble — such as wealth, and glory,
and birth, and marriage ; and they think no more of tliose
things [than of the most ordinary things of life]. But yet
if any of them should choose to give up their bodies to
wild beasts or to fire, and be punished, they are ready to
have no care for pains, for the desire of them or the fear of
them ; so that they seem, while in the world, not to be in
the world, but to have already reached, in thought and in
the tendency of their desires, the assembly of those who are
in heaven.

Now it is not right that the wing of virginity should, by
its own nature, be weighed down upon the earth, but that
it shoidd soar upwards to heaven, to a pure atmosphere,
and to the life which is aldn to that of angels. Whence
also they, first of all, after their call and departure hence,
who have rightly and faithfully contended as virgins for
Christ, bear away the prize of victory, being crowned by
Him with the flowers of immortality. For, as soon as their
souls have left the world, it is said that the angels meet
them with much rejoicing, and conduct them to the very
pastures already spoken of, to which also they were longing
to come, contemplating them in imagination from afar, when,

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 6'J

while they were yet dwelliug in their bodies, they appeared
to them divine.

CiiAr. III. — Tlic lot and inheritance of Virginity.

Furthermore, when they liave come hither, they see wonder-
ful and glorious and blessed things of beauty, and such as
cannot be spoken to men. They see there righteousness
itself and prudence, and love itself, and truth and temperance,
and other flowers and plants of wisdom, equally splendid,
of which we here behold only the shadows^ and apparitions,
as in dreams, and think that they consist of the actions of
men, because there is no clear image of them here, but only
dim copies, which themselves we see often when making
dark cojiies of them. For never has any one seen with his
eyes the greatness, or the form or the beauty of righteous-
ness itself, or of understanding, or of peace ; but there, in
Him whose name is "I AM,"- they are seen perfect and
clear, as they are. For there is a tree of temperance itself,
and of love, and of understanding, as there are plants of the
fruits which grow here — as of grapes, the pomegranate, and
of apples ; and so, too, the fruits of those trees are gatliered
and eaten, and do not perish and wither, but those who gather
them grow to immortality and a likeness to God. Just as
he from whom all are descended, before the fall and the
blinding of his eyes, being in paradise, enjoyed its fruits, God
appointing man to dress and to keep the plants of wisdom.
For it was entrusted to the first Adam to cultivate those
i'ruits. Now Jeremiah saw that these things exist specially
in a certain place, removed to a great distance from our
world, where, compassionating those who have fallen i'rom
that good state, he says:^ " Learn where is wisdom, ^\■here is

^ The in/luencc of Plato is tvaceaLle, here and elsewhere, tliroui^hont
the works oi Methodius. It has heen fully examined in the able wo'k
ol' Jalui, Muthodius I'latonizans. — Tn.

- Exod. iii. 14.

^ Earuch, iii. 14, IT). The apncryphal liook of Ijanich, as lieariiifr
the name of the comj>anion of Jeremiah, was lusually (juoted, in llie
second and tliird centuries^ as the work of tiiat gi'ent prophet. — Tr.

70 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

strength, wliere is understanding ; that thou mayest know
also where is length of days, and life, where is the light of
the eyes, and peace. Who hath found out her place? or
who hath come into her treasures ?" The virgins having
entered into the treasures of these things, gather the reason-
able fruits of the virtues, sprinkled with manifold and well-
ordered lights, which, like a fountain, God throws up over
them, irradiating that state with unquenchable lights. And
they sing harmoniously, giving glory to God. For a pure
atmosphere is shed over them, and one which is not
oppressed by the sun.

Chap. iv. — Exiiortation to the cultivation of Virginity — Tlu
^passage, Eev. xii. 1-6, is 2^Toposccl to he examined.

Now^ then, Virgins, daughters of undefiled temperance,
let us strive for a life of blessedness and the kingdom of
heaven. And do ye unite with those before you in an ear-
nest desire for the same glory of chastity, caring little for
the tilings of this life. For immortality and chastity do not
contribute a little to happiness, raising up the flesh aloft,
and drying up its moisture and its clay-like weight, by a
greater force of attraction. And let not the uncleanness
which you hear creep in and weigh you down to the earth ;
nor let sorrow transform your joy, melting away your hopes
in better things ; but shake off incessantly the calamities
which come upon you, not defiling your mind with lamenta-
tions. Let faith conquer wholly, and let its light drive
away the visions of evil which crowd around the heart.
For, as when the moon brightly shining fills the heaven
with its light, and all the air becomes clear, but suddenly
the clouds from the w^est, enviously rushing in, for a little
while overshadow^ its light, but do not destroy it, since they
are immediately driven away by a blast of the wind; so ye
also, when causing the light of chastity to shine in the world,
although pressed upon by afflictions and labours, do not grow
u'eary and abandon your hopes. For the clouds which come

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGINS. Tl

from the Evil One are driven away by the Spirit,^ if ye, like
your Mother, who gives birth to the male Virgin in heaven,
Fear nothing the serpent tliat lies in wait and plots against
you ; concerning wlioni I intend to discourse to you more
plainly ; for it is now time.

John, in the course of the Apocalypse, says :^ " And there
appeared a great wonder in heaven ; a woman clothed with
the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a
croAvn of twelve stars : and she, being with child, cried,
travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there
appeared another wonder in heaven ; and behold a great red
dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns
upon his heads. xVnd his tail drew the third part of the stars
of heaven, and did cast them to the earth : and the dragon
stood before tlie woman which was ready to be delivered, for
to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought
forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of
iron : and her cliild was caught up unto God, and to His
throne. And the woman lied into the wilderness, where she
hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her
there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." So
far we have given, in brief, tlie history of the woman and
the dragon. But to search out and explain the solution of
them is beyond my powers. Nevertheless, let me venture,
trusting ia Him who commanded to search tlie Scriptures.^
If, then, you agree with this, it will not be difhcult to under-
take it ; for you will quite pardon me, if I am unable suffi-
ciently to explain the exact meaning of the Scripture.

Chap. v. — The icoman ivho Irings forth, to whom Hie dragon
is ojyjwscd, the Church — Her adornment and grace.

The woman who appeared in heaven clothed with the
sun, and crowned with twelve stars, and having the moon
for her footstool, and being with child, and travailing in

^ The same word in the text which is traiuslated wind : rr^iiiA*.
The play upon tlie word cannot be preserved in the trans^lation. — Tr.
* Kev. xii. l-G. 3 St Jno. v. 3<).

72 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

birth, is certainly, according to the accurate interpretation,
our mother, virgins, being a power by herself distinct
from her children ; whom the prophets, according to the
aspect of their subjects, have called sometimes Jerusalem,
sometimes a Bride, sometimes Mount Zion, and sometimes
the Temple and Tabernacle of God. For she is the power
which is desired to give light in the prophet, the Spirit
crying to her:^ "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and
the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold,
the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
people : but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory
shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to
thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up
thine eyes round about, and see ; all they gather themselves
together, they come to thee : thy sons shall come from far,
and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side." It is the
Church whose children shall come to her with all sj)eed
after the resurrection, running to her from all quarters. She
rejoices receiving the light which never goes down, and
clothed with the brightness of the Word as with a robe.
For with what other more precious or honourable ornament
was it becoming that the queen should be adorned, to be led
as a Bride to the Lord, when she had received a garment of
light, and therefore was called by the Father? Come, then,
let us go forward in our discourse, and look upon this mar-
vellous woman [of the Apocalypse] as upon virgins prepared
for a marriage, pure and undefiled, perfect and radiating a
permanent beauty, wanting nothing of the brightness of
light ; and instead of a dress, clothed with light itself; and
instead of precious stones, her head adorned with shining
stars. For instead of the clothing which we have, she had
light ; and for gold and brilliajit stones, she had stars ; but
stars not such as those which are set in the visible heaven,
but better and more resplendent, so that these may rather
be considered as their images and likenesses.

1 Is. k. 1-4.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGIXS.

Chap. vi. — The works of the Church, the hringing forth of
children in Baptism — The moon in Baptism, ilic full
moon of Christ's passion.

Now the statement that she stands upon the moon, as I
consider, denotes the faith of those who are cleansed from
corruption in the laver [of regeneration], because the light
of the moon has more resemblance to tepid water, and all
moist substance is dependent upon her. The Church, then,
stands upon our faith and adoption, under the figure of the
moon, until the fulness of the nations come in, labouring
and bringing forth natural men as spiritual men; for whicli
reason too she is a mother. For just as a woman receiving
the unformed seed of a man, within a certain time brings
forth a perfect man, in the same way, one should say, does
the Church conceive those who flee to the Word, and, form-
ing them according to the likeness and form of Christ, after
a certain time produce them as citizens of that blessed state.
"Whence it is necessary that she should stand upon the
laver, bringing forth those who are washed in it. And in
this way the power which she has in connection with the
laver is called the moon ((TeA;J^?J), because the regenerate shine
being renewed with a new ray (ff£>^af), that is, a new light.
AVlience, also, they are by a descriptive term called newly-
enlightened {\tio!fujrt(STOt) ; the moon ever showing forth anew
to them the spiritual full moon, namely, the period and the
memorial of the passion, until tlie glory and the perfect
light of the great day arise.

CiLAP. VII. — The child of the woman in the Apocali/pse not
Christ, hid tlic faithful who are horn in the laver.

If any one (for there is no difficulty in speaking distinctly)
should be vexed, and reply to what we have said: "But
how, virgins, can this explanation seem to you to be
according to the mind of Scripture, when the Apocalypse
plainly defines that the Church brings fortli a male, while

74 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

you teach that her labour-pains have their fulfilment in those
who are washed in the laver?" We will answer, But, O
faultfinder, not even to you will it be possiljle to show tliat
Christ Himself^ is the one who is born. For long before
the Apocalypse, the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word
was fulfilled. And John speaks concerning things present
and things to come. But Christ, long ago conceived, was not
caught up to the throne of God when He was brought forth,
from fear of the serpent injuring Him. But for this was
He begotten, and Himself came down from the throne
of the Father, that He should remain and subdue the dragon
who made an assault upon the flesh. So that you also must
confess that the Church labours and gives birth to those
who are baptised. As the Spirit says somewhere in Isaiah:-
"Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain
came, she was delivered of a man-child. A\Tio hath heard
such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the
earth be made to bring forth in one day ? or shall a nation
be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought
forth her children." [In the LXX. "a male."] From whom
did he flee? Surely from the dragon, that the spiritual
Zion might bear a masculine people, who should come back
from the passions and weakness of women to the unity of
the Lord, and grow strong in manly virtue.

Chap. viii. — The faithful in Baptism males, configured to
Christ — The Saints themselves Chrisfs.

Let us then go over the gi'ound again from the beginning,
until we come in course to tlie end, explaining what we
have said. Consider if the passage seems to you to be
explained to your mind. For I think that the Cliurch is
here said to give birth to a male; since the enlightened [the
baptised] receive the features, and the image, and the man-
liness of Christ, the likeness of the form of the Word being

^ It is hardly necessary to observe, that amid many interpretations
of the passage, this which ]\Iethodius condemns is probably the true
one, as it is certainly the most natural. — Tr. ^ jg, ]x%-i. 7, s.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGINS 75

stamped upon tliem, and beg(jttpn in them by a true know-
ledge and faith, so that in each one Christ is spiritually
born. And, therefore, the Church swells and travails in
birth until Christ is formed in us,^ so that each of the saints,
by partaking of Christ, has been born a Christ. According
to which meaning it is said in a certain Scripture,^ " Touch
not mine anointed [xP"^^^^], i^nd do my prophets no harm,"
as though those who were baptised into Christ had been
made Christs [anointed] by communication of the Spirit,
the Church contributing here their clearness and transfor-
mation into the image of the Word. And Paul confirms
this, teaching it plainly, where he says :^ " For this cause T
bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of
whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that
He would gi'ant you, according to the riches of His glory,
to be strengthened w^ith might by His Spirit in the inner
man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." For
it is necessary that the word of truth should be imprinted
and stamped upon the souls of the regenerate.

CiiAr. IX. — The Son of God, v:1w ever is, is to-day "begotten in
the minds and sense of the faithful.

Now, in perfect agi-eement and correspondence witli what
has been said, seems to be this which was spoken by the
Father from above to Christ when He came to be baptised
in the water of the Jordan, "Thou art my son: this day
have I begotten thee;"^ for it is to be remarked that He was
declared to be His Son unconditionally, and without regard
to time ; for He says " Thou art," and not " Thou hast
become," showing that He had neither recently attained to
the relation of Son, nor again, having begun before, after
this had an end, but having been previously begotten,^ that
He was to be, and was the same. But the expression,
1 Gal. iv. 19. 2 Ps. cv. 15. ^ e^i,, jij, 14.17, 4 -p^ ^i 7
* Certain phrases like this have led to the opinion that Methodius
was inclined to Arianism. There is no ground for the supposition.
In the writer's mind, as is clear from the previous statoincTits, the
previous generation was eternal. — Tr.

7G THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

" This day liave I begotten thee," signifies tliat He willed
that He who existed before the ages in heaven should be
begotten on the earth — that is, that He who was before
unknown should be made known. Now, certainly, Christ
has never yet been born in those men who have never per-
ceived the manifold wisdom of God — that is, has never been
known, has never been manifested, has never appeared to
them. But if these also shovild perceive the mystery of
grace, then in them too, when they were converted and
believed, He would be born in knowledge and understand-
ing. Therefore from hence the Church is fitly said to form
and beget the male Word in those who are cleansed [in the
baptismal font]. So far I have spoken according to my
ability concerning the travail of the Church ; and here we
must change to the subject of the dragon and the other
matters. Let us endeavour, then, to explain it in some
measure, not deterred by the greatness of the obscurity of
the Scripture; and if anything difficult comes to be con-
sidered, I will again help you to cross it like a river.

Chap. x. — The dragon, the devil — The stars strucJc from
heaven by the tail of the dragon, heretics — The numhers
of the Trinity, that is, the j;c?'so?is numbered — JErrors
concerning thein.

The dragon, which is great, and red, and cunning, and
manifold, and seven-headed, and horned, and draws down
the third part of the stars, and stands ready to devour the
child of the woman who is travailing, is the devil, who lies
in wait to destroy the Christ-accepted mind of the baptised,
and the image and clear features of the Word which had
been brought forth in them. But he misses and fails of his
prey, the regenerate being caught up on high to the throne
of God — that is, the mind of those who are renovated is
lifted up around the divine seat and the basis of truth
against which there is no stumbling, being taught to look
upon and regard the things which are there, so that it may
not be deceived by the dragon weighing them down. For

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 77

it is not allowed to him to destroy those whose thoughts
and looks are upwards. And the stars, which the dragon
touched wdth the end of his tail, and drew them down to
earth, are the bodies of heresies ; for we must say that the
stars, which are dark, obscure, and falling, are the assemblies
of the heterodox; since they, too, wish to be acquainted with
the heavenly ones, and to have believed in Christ, and to
have the seat of their soul in heaven, and to come near to
the stars as children of light. But they are dragged down,
being shaken out by the folds of the dragon, because they
did not remain within the triangular forms of godliness,
falling away from it with respect to an orthodox service.
Whence also they are called the third part of tlie stars, as
having gone astray with regard to one of the three Persons
of the Trinity. As when they say, lilce Sabellios, that tlie
Almighty Person of the Pather Himself suffered;^ or as
when they say, like Artemas, that the Person of the Son
was born and manifested only in appearance;^ or when they
contend, like the Ebionites, that the prophets spoke of the
Person of tlie Spirit, of their own motion. For of IMarcion
and Valentinus, and those al)Out Elkesaios and others, it
is better not even to make mention.

Chap. XI. — Tlic u-07nan with the male child in the wilderness
the Church — The ivilderness belongs to Virgins and
Saints — Tlie perfection of numbers and mysteries — TJu-
equality and 'perfection of the number six — The number
six related to Christ — From this mimbcr, too, the
creation and harmony of the world completed.

Now she who brings forth, and has brought forth, the
masculine Word in the hearts of the faithful, and who passed,
undciiled and uninjured by the wrath of the beast, into the
wilderness, is, as we have explained, our mother the Church.
And the v>-ilderness into which she comes, and is nourished
for a thousand two hundred and sixty days, which is tj'uly

* Patripassianisiii : nearly the f<ame a.« Pabellianism. — Tn.
^ Ao)tyi(ni, hene.e Doceice. — Tr.

78 THE \VniTL\GS OF METHODIUS.

waste and unfruitful of evils, and barren of corruption, and
difficult of access and of transit to the multitude ; but fruit-
ful and abounding in pasture, and blooming and easy of
access to the holy, and full of wisdom, and productive of
life, is this most lovely, and beautifully wooded and well-
watered abode of Arete [virtue]. Here the south wind
awakes, and the north wind blows, and the spices flow out,^
and all things are filled with refreshing dews, and crowned
with the unfading plants of immortal life ; in wdiich we now
gather flowers, and weave with sacred fingers the purple and
glorious crown of virginity for the queen. For the Bride of
the Word is adorned with the fruits of virtue. And the
thousand two hundred and sixty days that we are staying
here, virgins, is the accurate and perfect understanding
concerning the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit, in which
our mother increases, and rejoices, and exults throughout
this time, until the restitution of the new dispensation, when,
coming into the assembly in the heavens, she will no longer
contemplate the I AM through the means of [human] know-
ledge, but wiU clearly behold entering in together with
Christ. For a thousand,^ consisting of a hundred multiplied
by ten, embraces a full and perfect number, and is a symbol
of the Father Himself, who made the universe by Himself,
and rules all things for Himself. Two hundred embraces
two perfect numbers united together, and is the symbol of
the Holy Spirit, since He is the Author of our knowledge of
the Son and the Father. But sixty has the number six
multiplied by ten, and is a symbol of Christ, because the
number six proceeding^ from unity is composed of its proper
parts, so that nothing in it is wantmg or redundant, and is
complete wdien resolved into its parts. Tlius it is necessary
that the number six, when it is divided into even parts by

1 Cant. iv. 16.

"^ Methodius is not tlie first or the last who has sought to explore the
mystery of numbers. An interesting and profound examination of
the subject will he fomid in Biihr's Symbolik ; also in Delitzsdi's Bib.
rsycholocjij. — Tr.

' i.e. in a regular arithmetical progression.

Tin-: BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 79

even parts, should again make up the same quantity from
its separated segments.^ For, first, if divided equally, it
makes three ; then, if divided into three parts, it makes two;
and again, if divided by six, it makes one, and is again col-
lected into itself. For when divided into twice three, and
three times two, and six times one, when the three and the
two and the one are put together, they complete the six
again. But everything is of necessity perfect wliich neither
needs anything else in order to its completion, nor has any-
thing over. Of the other numbers, some are more tlian per-
fect, as twelve. For the half of it is six, and the third four,
and the fourth three, and the sixth two, and the twelfth one.
The numbers into which it can be divided, when put together,
exceed twelve, this number not having preserved itself equal
to its parts, like the number six. And those which are im-
perfect, are numbers like eiglit. For the half of it is four,
and the fourth two, and the eighth one. Now the numbers
into which it is divided, when put together, make seven, and
one is wanting to its completion, not being in all points
harmonious with itseK, like six, Avhich has reference to the
Son of God, who came from the fulness of the Godhead into
a human life. For having emptied Himself,^ and taken upon
llim the iorm of a slave, He was restored again to His former
perfection and dignity. For He being humbled, and appar-
ently degraded, was restored again from His humiliation
and degradation to His former completeness and greatness,
having never been diminished from His essential jier-
fection.

Moreover, it is evident that the creation of the world was
accomplished in harmony with tliis number, God huving
made heaven and earth, and the things which are in them,
in six days; the word of creative power containing the
number six, in accordance with which tlie Trinity is the
maker of bodies. For length, and breadth, and depth make
up a body. And the number six is composed of triangles.
On these subjects, however, there is not sullicient time at

' i.e. its divisors or clivitleiuls.

^ "Made Himself of no reputation." — E. T., PLil. iL 7.

80 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

present to enlarge with accuracy, for fear of letting the main
subject slip, in considering that which is secondary.

Chap. xii. — Virgins are called to the imitation of the Church
in the ivUderness overcoming the dragon.

The Church, then, coining hither into this wilderness, a
place unproductive of evils, is nourished, flying on the
heavenward wings of virginity, which the Word called the
" wings of a great eagle,"^ having conquered the serpent,
and driven away from her full moon the wintry clouds. It
is for the sake of these things, meanwhile, that all these
discourses are held, teaching us, fair virgins, to imitate
according to our strength our mother, and not to be troubled
by the pains and changes and afflictions of life, that you
may enter in exulting with her into the bride-chamber,
showing your lamps. Do not, therefore, lose courage on
account of the schemes and slanders of the beast, but
bravely prepare for the battle, armed with the helmet of
salvation,^ and the breastplate, and the greaves. For you
will bring upon him an immense consternation when you
attack him with great advantage and courage; nor will he
at all resist, seeing his adversaries set in array by One more
powerful; but the many-headed and many-faced beast will
immediately allow you to carry off the spoils of the seven
contests : —

" Lion in front, but dragon all behind,
And in the midst a she-goat breathing forth.
Profuse the violence of flaming fire.
Her slew Bellerophon in truth. And this
Slew Christ the King ; for many she destroyed,
Nor could they bear the fetid foam which burst
From out the fountain of her horrid jaws ;"^

unless Christ had first weakened and overcome her, making
her powerless and contemptible before us.
1 Ezak. xviL 3. ^ Eph. vL 17. ^ jjom, n ^ igi_

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 81

CiiAP. xiir. — Tlic seven croions of the Beast to he toI:cn away
hj victorio\is Chastity — The ten croiuns of the Drayon,
the, vices opposed to Hw Decalogue — The opinion of Fate
the greatest evil.

Therefore, taking to you a masculine and sober mind,
oppose your armour to tho swelling beast, and do not at all
give way, nor be troubled because of his fury. For you will
have immense glory if you overcome him, and take away
the seven crowns which are upon him, on account of which
we have to struggle and wrestle, according to our teacher
Paul. For she who having first overcome the devil, and
destroyed his seven heads, becomes possessed of the seven
crowns of virtue, having gone through the seven great
struggles of chastity. For incontinence and luxury is a head
of the dragon; and whoever bruises this is wreathed with the
crown of temperance. Cowardice and weakness is also a
head; and he who treads upon this carries off the crown of
■nartyrdom. Unbelief and folly, and other similar fruits of
wickedness, is another head; and he who has ON'crcome
these and destroyed them carries off the honours connected
Avith them, tho power of the dragon being in many ways
rooted up. INloreover, the ten horns and stings \\-hich he
was said to have upon his heads are the ten opposites, O
virgins, to the Decalogue, by which he was accustomed to
gore and cast down the souls of many imagining and con-
triving things in oj^position to the law, " Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God,"^ and to the other precepts which follow.
Consider now the fiery and bitter horn of fornication, by
which he casts down the incontinent; consider adultery,
consider falsehood, covetousness, theft, and the other sister
and related vices, which flourish by nature around his
murderous heads, which if you root out with the aid of
Christ, you will receive, as it were, divine heads, and will
bloom with the crowns gained from the dragon. For it is
our duty to prefer and to set forward the best things, who

1 Dent. vi. r>.
F

S2 THE WHITINGS OF METHODIUS.

have received, above the eartli-horn, a commanding and
voluntary mind, and one free from all necessity, so as to
make choice like masters of the tilings which please us, not
being in bondage to fate or fortune. And so no man would
be master of himself and good, unless selecting the human
example of Clirist, and bringing himself to the likeness of
Him, he should imitate Him in his manner of life. For of
all evils the greatest which is implanted in many is that
which refers the causes of sins to the motions of the stars,
and says that our life is guided by the necessities of fate, as
those say who study the stars, with much insolence. For
they, trusting more in guessing than in prudence, that is, in
something between truth and falsehood, go far astray from
the sight of things as they are. Whence, if you permit me,
O Arete, now that I have completed the discourse which
you, my mistress, appointed to be spoken, I will endeavour,
with your assistance and favour, to examine carefully the
position of those who are offended, and deny that we speak
the truth, when we say that man is possessed of free will,
and prove that

" They perisli self-destroyed,
By their own fault," ^

choosing the pleasant in preference to the expedient.

Arete. — I do permit you and assist you; for your discourse
will be perfectly adorned when you have added this to it.

Chap. xrv. — The doctrine of Mathematicians not icliolly to he
despised, when they are concerned about the hnoidcdge
of the Stars — The tvjelve signs of the Zodiac mythical
names.

Thelcla. — Resuming then, let us first lay bare, in speaking
of those things according to om- power, the imposture of
those who boast as though they alone had comprehended
from what forms the heaven is arranged, in accordance with
the hypothesis of the Chaldeans and Egyptians. For they
say that the circumference of the world is likened to the
1 Horn. Oil. i. 7.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGINS. 83

turnings of a well-rounded globe, the earth having a central
point. For its outline being spherical, it is necessary, they
say, since there are the same distances of the parts, that the
earth should be the centre of the universe, around which, as
being older, the heaven is whirling. For if a circumference
is described from the central point, which seems to be a
circle (for it is impossible for a circle to be described with-
out a point, and it is impossible for a circle to be without
a point), surely the earth consisted before aU, they say,
in a state of chaos and disorganization. Now certainly the
wretched ones were overwhelmed in the chaos of en-or,
" because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him
not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened;"^
and their wise men said that nothing earth-born was more
honourable or more ancient than the Olympians. Whence
they are not mere children who know Christ, like the
Greeks, who, burying the truth in fables and fictions, rather
than in artistic words, ascribing human calamities to the
heavens, are not ashamed to describe the circumference of
the world by geometrical theorems and figures, and explain
that the heaven is adorned with the images of birds and of
animals that live in water and on dry land, and that the
qualities of the stars were made from the calamities of the
men of old, so that the movements of the planets, in their
opinion, depended upon the same kind of bodies. And they
say that the stars revolve around the nature of the twelve
signs of the Zodiac, being drawn along by the passage of the
circle of the Zodiac, so that through their intermingling they
see the things which happen to many, according to their
conjunctions and departures, their rising and setting.

For the whole heaven being spherical, and having the
earth for its central point, as they think, because all tlie
straight lines from tlie circumference falling upon the earth
are equal to one another, holds back from the circles which
suiTound it, of wliich the meridian is tlie ,L;Teatest; and the
second, which divides it into two equal parts, is the horizon;
' lloin. i. 21.

84 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

and the thirJ, which separates these, the equinoctial; and
on each side of this the two tropics, the summer and the
winter — the one on the north, and the other on the south.
Beyond is tliat which is called the axis, around which are
the greater and lesser Bears, and beyond them is the tropic.
And the Bears, turning about themselves, and weighing
upon the axis, which passes through the poles, produce the
motion of the whole Avorld, having their heads against each
other's loins, and being untouched by our horizon.

Then they say that the Zodiac touches all the circles,
making its movement diagonally, and that there are in it
a number of signs, which are called the twelve signs of the
Zodiac, beginning with the Piam, and going on to the Fishes,
which, they say, were so determined from mythical causes ;
saying that it was the Eam that conveyed Helle, the daughter
of Athamas, and her brother Phryxos into Scythia; and that
the head of the Ox is in honour of Zeus, who, in the form of
a Bull, carried over Europe into Crete ; and they say the
circle called the Galaxy, or milky way, which reaches from
the Fishes to the Eam, was poured forth for Herakles from
the breasts of Hera, by the commands of Zeus. And thus,
according to them, there was no natal destiny before
Europe or Phryxos, and the Dioscuroi,^ and the other signs
of the Zodiac, which were placed among the constellations,
from men and beasts. But our ancestors lived without
destiny. Let us endeavour now to crush falsehood, like
physicians, taking its edge off, and quenching it with the
healing medicine of words, here considering the truth.

Chap. xv. — Arguments from the noidty of Fate and Genera-
tion — That golden age, early men — Solid arguments
against the Mathematicians.

If it were better, wretched ones, that man should be
subject to [the star of] his birth, than that he should not,
why was not liis generation and birth from the very time

^ Castor and Pollux,

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 85

when the race of man began to he ? And if it was, what is
the need of those which had lately been placed among the
stars, of the Lion, the Crab, the Twins, the Virgin, the Bull,
the Balance, the Scorpion, the Bam, the Archer, the Fishes,
the Goat, the Watercarrier, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cepheus,
Pegasus, Hydra, the Baven, the Cup, the Lyre, the Dragon,
and others, from which you introduce, by your instractions,
many to the knowledge of mathematics, or, rather, to a
knowledge which is anathema?^ Well, then, either there
was generation among those before, and the removal of
these [creatures above] was absurd ; or else there was not,
and God changed human life into a better state and govern-
ment than that of those who before that lived an inferior
life. But the ancients were better than those of the present
time ; whence theirs was called the golden age. There was
then no natal destiny.

If the sun, driving through the circles and passing along
the signs of the Zodiac in his annual periods, accomplishes
the changes and turnings of the seasons, how did those who
were born before the signs of the Zodiac were placed among
the stars, and the heaven was adorned with them, continue
to exist, when summer, autumn, winter, and sj)ring, were not
as yet separated Irom each other, by means of which the
body is increased and strengthened ? But they did exist,
and were longer lived and stronger than those who live
now, since God then disposed the seasons in the same
manner. The heaven was not then diversified by such
shapes.

If the sun and the moon and the other stars were made
for the division and protection of the members of the time,"
and for the adornment of the heaven, and the changes of
the seasons, they are divine, and better than men ; for these
must needs pass a better life, and a blessed and peaceful
one, and one which far exceeds our own life in righteous-
ness and virtue, observing a motion which is well-ordered

^ We cannot preserve the play upon words of the original. There
it is — /iietd/;f<.ocriKr,v and x,»ru6:fiXTtx,>iu. — Til.
^ Ueu, i. 14, etc.

86 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

and happy. But if they are the causes of the calamities
and mischief of mortals, and busy themselves in working
the lasciviousness, and the changes and vicissitudes of
life, then they are more miserable than men, looking upon
the earth, and their weak and lawless actions, and doing
nothing better than men, if at least our life depends upon
their revolutions and movements.

Chap. xvi. — Several other tilings turned against the same
Ma them aticia ns.

If no action is performed without a previous desire,
and there is no desire without a want, yet the Divine Being
has no wants, and therefore has no conception of evil. And
if the nature of the stars be nearer in order to that of God,
being better than the virtue of the best men, then the stars
also are neither productive of evil, nor in want.

And besides, every one of those who are persuaded that
the sun and moon and stars are divine, will allow that they
are far removed from evil, and incapable of human actions
vdiich spring from the sense of pleasure and pain ; for such
abominable desires are unsuitable to heavenly beings. But
if they are by nature exempt from these, and in no want of
anything, how should they be the causes to men of those
things which they do not will themselves, and from whicli
they are exempt ?

Now those who decide that man is not possessed of free will,
and affirm that he is governed by the unavoidable necessities
of fate, and her imwritten commands, are guilty of impiety
towards God Himself, making Him out to be the cause and
author of human evils. For if He harmoniously orders the
whole ckcular motion of the stars, with a wisdom which
man can neither express nor comprehend, du-ecting the
course of the universe; and the stars produce the qualities
of virtue and vice in human life, dragging men to these
things by the chains of necessity; then they declare God to
be the Cause and Giver of evils. But God is the cause of

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 87

injury to no one; therefore f'atc^ is not the cause of all
things.

Whoever has the least intelligence will confess that God
is good, righteous, wise, true, helpful, not the cause of evils,
free from passion, and everything of that kind. And if the
righteous be better than the unrighteous, and unrighteous-
ness be abominable to them, God, being righteous, rejoices
in righteousness, and unrighteousness is hateful to Him,
being opposed and hostile to righteousness. Therefore God
is not tlie autlior of unrighteousness.

If that which profits is altogether good, and temperance
is profitable to one's house and life and friends, then tem-
perance is good. And if temperance be in its nature good,
and licentiousness be opi^osed to temperance, and that which
is opposed to good be evil, then licentiousness is evil. And
if licentiousness be in its nature evil, and out of licentious-
ness come adulteries, thefts, quarrels, and murders, tlien a
licentious life is in its nature evil. But the Divine Being
is not by nature implicated in evils. Therefore our birth is
not the cause of these tilings.

If the temperate are better than tlie incontinent, and
incontinence is abominable to tliem, and God rejoices in
temperance, being free from the knowledge of passions, then
incontinence is hateful also to God. Moreover, that the
action which is in accordance with temperance, being a
virtue, is better than that which is in accordance with
incontinence, which is a vice, we may learn from kings and
rulers, and commanders, and women, and children, and
citizens, and masters, and servants, and pedagogues, and
teachers; for each of these is useful to himself and to the
public, when he is temperate; but when he is licentious he
is injurious to himself and to the public. And if there be
any difference between a filthy man and a noble man, a
licentious and a temperate; and if the character of the noble
and the temperate be the better, and that of the opposite
the worse; and if those of the better character be near to

^ yiveai; — birtli, i.e. oiu' life is not controllcil by the star of oiu:
nativity. — Tu.

88 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

God and His friends, and those of the worse be far from
Him and His enemies, those who believe in fate make no
distinction between righteousness and unrighteousness, be-
tween filthiuess and nobility, between licentiousness and
temperance, which is a contradiction. For if good Ije
opposed to evil, and unrighteousness be evil, and this be
opposed to righteousness and righteousness be good, and
good be hostile to evil, and evil be unlike to good, then
righteousness is different from unrighteousness. And
therefore God is not the cause of evils, nor does He rejoice
in evils. Nor does reason commend them, being good. If,
then, any are evil, they are evil in accordance with the
wants [and desires] of their minds, and not by necessity.
" They perish self-destroyed,
By their own fault." ^

If destiny^ leads one on to kill a man, and to stain his
hands with murder, and the law forbids this, punishing
crimmals, and by threats restrains the decrees of destiny,
such as committing injustice, adultery, theft, poisoning,
then the law is in opposition to destiny; for those things
which destiny appointed the law prohibits, and those things
which the law prohibits destiny compels men to do. Hence
law is hostile to destiny. But if it be hostile, then law-
givers do not act in accordance with destiny; for by passing
decrees in opposition to destiny they destroy destiny. Either,
then, there is destiny and there was no need of laws ; or there
are laws and they are not in accordance with destiny. But
it is impossible that anyone should be born or anything
done apart from destiny; for they say it is not lawful for
anyone even to move a finger apart from fate. And there-
fore it was in accordance with destiny that Minos and
Dracon, and Lycurgus, and Solon, and Zaleukos were
lawgivers and appointed laws, prohibiting adulteries, murders,
violence, rape, thefts, as things which neither existed nor
took place in accordance with destiny. But if these things
were in accordance with destiny, then the laws were not in

1 Horn. Od. i. 7.

- yiviai-, = birth, h. the star of man's nativity, h. destiny.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGIXS. 89

accordance with destiny. For destiny itself would not he
destroyed by itself, cancelling itself, and contending against
itself; here appointing laws forbidding adultery and murders,
and taking vengeance upon and punishing the wicked, and
there producing murders and adulteries. But this is impos-
sible: for nothing is alien and abhorrent to itself, and self-
destructive, and at variance with itself. And, therefore,
there is no destiny.

If everything in the world falls out in accordance with
destiny, and nothing without it, then the law must needs be
produced by destiny. But the law destroys destiny, teach-
ing that virtue should be learnt, and diligently performed ;
and that vice should be avoided, and that it is produced by
want of discipline. Therefore there is no destiny.

If destiny makes men to injure one another, and to be
injured by one another, what need is there of laws ? But if
laws are made that they may check the sinful, God ha\'ing
a care for those who are injured, it were better that the evil
should not act in accordance with Fate, than that they
should be set right, after having acted. But God is good
and wise, and does what is best. Therefore there is no fixed
destiny.

Either education and habit are the cause of sins, or the
passions of the soul, and those desires which arise through
the body. But whichever of these be the cause, God is not
the cause.

If it is better to be righteous than to be unrighteous, why
is not man made so at once from his birth ? But if afterwards
he is tempered by instruction and laws, that he may become
better, he is so tempered as possessing free will, and not by
nature evil.

If the evil are evil in accordance with destiny, by the
decrees of Providence, they are not blameworthy and deserv-
ing of the punishment which is inflicted by the laws, since
they live according to their own nature, and are not capable
of being changed.

And, again, if the good, living according to then- own pro-
per nature, are praiseworthy, their natal destiny being the

00 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

cause of their goodness ; yet the wicked, living according to
their own proper nature, are not blamable in the eye of a
righteous judge. For, if we must speak plainly, he who lives
according to the nature which belongs to him, in no way
sins. For he did not make himself thus, but Fate; and he
lives according to its motion, being urged on by unavoidable
necessity. Then no one is bad. But some men are bad :
and vice is blameworthy, and hostile to God, as reason has
shown. But virtue is lovable and praiseworthy, God having
appointed a law for the punishment of the wicked. There-
fore there is no Fate.

Chap. xvii. — The lust of the flesh and sjnrit: Vice and

Virtue.

But why do I draw out my discourse to such length,
spending the time with arguments, having set forth the
things wdiicli are most necessary for persuasion, and to gain
approval for that which is expedient ; and having made
manifest to all, by a few words, the inconsistency of their
trick, so that it is now possible even for a child to see and
perceive their error ; and that to do good or evil is in our
own power, and not decided by the stars. For there are
two motions in us, the lust of the flesh and that of the soul,
differing from each other,^ whence they have received two
names, that of virtue and that of vice. And we ought to
obey the most noble and most useful leading of virtue,
choosing the best in preference to the base. But enough
on these points. I must come to the end of my discourse ;
for I fear, and am ashamed, after these discourses on chas-
tity, that I should be obliged to introduce the opinions of
men who study the heavens, or rather who study nonsense,
who waste their life with mere conceits, passing it in nothing
but fabulous figments. And now may these offerings of
ours, composed from the words which are spoken by God, be
acceptable to thee, Arete, my mistress.

1 Gal. V. 17.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 91

Eiib. — How bravely and maguificently, Gregorion, has
Thekla debated !

Greg. — What, then, would you have said, if you had
listened to herself, speaking fluently, and with easy expres-
sion, with much gi-ace and pleasure? So that she was
admired by every one who attended, her language blossom-
ing with words, as she set forth intelligently, and in fact
picturesquely, the subjects on which she spoke, her counte-
nance suffused with the blush of modesty; for she is
altogether brilliant in body and soul.

Euh. — Pdghtly do you say this Gregorion, and none of
these things is false; for I knew her wisdom also from other
noble actions, and what sort of things she succeeded in
speaking, giving proof of supreme love to Christ ; and how
glorious she often appeared in meeting the chief conflicts of
the martyrs, procuring for herself a zeal equal to her
courage, and a strength of body equal to the wisdom of
her counsels.

Greg. — Most truly do you also speak. But let us not
waste time ; for we shall often be able to discuss these and
other subjects. But I must now first relate to you the dis-
courses of the other virgins which followed, as I promised;
and chiefly those of Tusiane and Domnina ; for these stdl
remain. When, then, Thekla ceased speaking these things,
Theopatra said that Arete directed Tusiane to speak ; and
that she, smiling, passed before her and said.

92 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

DISCOUESE IX.— TusiANE.

CiiAF. I. — Chastity the chief ornament of the true Tahernacle —
Seven days aj)2^ointe(l to the Jews for celebrating the
Feast of Tdber^iacles : what they signify — TJie sum
of this Septe7iary uncertain — Not clear to any one
when the consummation of the world will he — Even
now the fabric of the world comipleted.

Arete, thou dearest boast to the lovers of virginity, I
also implore thee to afford me thine aid, lest I should be
wanting in words, the subject having been so largely and
variously handled. Wherefore I ask to be excused exordium
and introductions, lest, whilst I delay in embellishments
suitable to them, I depart from the subject : so glorious, and
honourable, and renowned a thing is virginity.

God, when He appointed to the true Israelites the legal
rite of the true feast of the tabernacles, directed, in Leviticus,
how they should keep and do honour to the feast; above all
things, saying that each one should adorn his tabernacle
witli chastity. I will add the words themselves of Scrip-
ture, from which, without any doubt, it will be shown how
agreeable to God, and acceptable to Him, is this ordinance
of virginity: "In the fifteenth day of the seventh month,
when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall Iceep
a feast imto the Lord seven days : on the first day shall be a
Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. And ye
shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees,
branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and
willows ^ of the brook ; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord
your God seven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto
the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for
ever in your generations ; ye shall celebrate it in the seventh
month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days ; all that are
Israelites born shall dwell in booths ; that your generations

1 " And of the Agnos," the Lxx. adds. See note on this tree at the
beginning of the treatise, ji. 4.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGINS. 93

may know that I made the cliildren of Israel to dwell iu
booths, when I brought them out of Egypt : I am the Lord
your God."^

Here the Jews, fluttering about the bare letter of Scripture,
like drones about the leaves of herbs, but not about flowers
and fruits as the bee, fully believe that these words and
ordinances were spoken concerning such a tabernacle as
they erect ; as if God delighted iu those trivial adornments
which they, preparing, fabricate from trees, not perceiving
the wealth of good things to come ; whereas these things,
being like air and phantom shadows, foretell the resurrection
and the putting up of our tabernacle that had fallen upon
the earth, which at length, in the seventh thousand of years,
resuming again immortal, we shall celebrate the great feast
of true tabernacles in the new and indissoluble creation, the
fruits of the earth ha\dng been gathered in, and men no
longer begetting and begotten, but God resting from the
works of creation.

For since in six days God made the heaven and the
earth, and finished the whole world, and rested on the
seventh day from all His works which He had made, and
blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,^ so by a figui'e in
the seventh month, when the fruits of the earth have been
gathered in, we are commanded to keep the feast to the
Lord, wliich signifies that, when this world shall be termi-
nated at the seventh thousand years, when God shall have
completed the world, He shall rejoice in us.^ For now to
this time all things are created by His all-sufficient will and
inconceivable power; the earth still yielding its fruits, and
the Avaters being gathered together in their receptacles ;
and the light still severed from darkness, and the allotted
number of men not yet being complete ; and tlie suu
arising to rule the day, and the moon the night ; and four-
footed creatures, and beasts, and creeping things arising fruni
the earth, and winged creatures, and creatures that swim,
from the water. Then, when the a])p(>inted times shall
have been accomplished, and God shall liavc ceased to form
1 Levit. xxiii. 39-42. • C.rii. ii. 1. ^ p,^_ ^\y_ 3i_

94 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

this creation, in the seventh month, the great resurrection-
day, it is commanded that the Feast of our Tabernacles shall
be celebrated to the Lord, of which the things said in
Leviticus are symbols and figures, which things, carefiiUy
investigating, we should consider the naked truth itself, for
He saith, " A wise man will hear, and will increase learn-
ing ; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise
counsels : to understand a proverb, and the interpretation ;
the words of the wise, and their dark sayings."^

"Wherefore let it shame the Jews that they do not perceive
the deej) things of the Scriptures, thinking that nothing else
than outward things are contained in the law and the pro-
phets; for they, intent upon things earthly, have in gnreater
esteem the riches of the world than the wealth which is of
the soul. For since the Scriptures are in this way divided
that some of them give the likeness of past events, some of
them a type of the future, the miserable men, going back,
deal with the figures of the future as if they were already
things of the past. As in the instance of the immolation of
the Lamb, the mystery of which they regard as solely in
remembrance of the deliverance of their fathers from Egypt,
when, although the first-born of Egypt were smitten, they
themselves were preserved by marking the door-posts of
their houses with blood. ISTor do they understand that by
it also the death of Christ is personified, by whose blood
souls made safe and sealed shall be preserved from wrath
in the burning of the world ; whilst the first-born, the sons
of Satan, shall be destroyed with an utter destruction by
the avenging angels, who shall reverence the seal of the
Blood impressed upon the former.

Chap. II. — Figure, image; truth: Law, grace, glory — Man
created immortal: death hrought in hy destructive sin.

And let these things be said for the sake of example,
showing that the Jews have wonderfully fallen from the
hope of future good, because they consider things present to

1 Prov. i. 5, 6

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 95

be only signs of things already accomplished; whilst tliey do
not perceive that the figures represent images, and images
are the representatives of truth. For the law is indeed the
figure and the shadow of an image, that is, of the Gospel;
but the image, namely, the Gospel, is the representative of
truth itself. For the men of olden time and the law fore-
told to us the characteristics of the Church, and the Church
represents those of the new dispensation which is to come.
Wlience we, having received Clirist, saying, "I am the
truth," ^ know that shadows and figures have ceased; and we
hasten on to the truth, proclaiming its glorious images. For
now we know " in part," and as it were " through a glass," -
since that which is perfect has not yet come to us; namely,
the kingdom of heaven and the resurrection, when " that
which is in part shall be done away."^ For then will all our
tabernacles be firmly set up, when again the body shall
rise, with bones again joined and compacted with flesh.
Then shall we celebrate truly to the Lord a glad festal-day,
when we shall receive eternal tabernacles, no more to perish
or be dissolved into the dust of the tomb. Now, our taber-
nacle was at first fixed in an immovable state, but was
moved by transgression and bent to the earth, God putting
an end to sin by means of death, lest man immortal, living
a sinner, and sin living in him, should be liable to eternal
curse. Wherefore he died, although he had not been created
liable to death or corruption, and the soul was separated
from the flesh, that sin might perish by death, not being
able to live longer in one dead. Wlience sin being dead and
destroyed, again I shall rise immortal; and I praise God
who by means of death frees His sons from death, and I
celebrate lawfully to His honour a festal-day, adorning my
tabernacle, tliat is my flesh, with good works, as there did
the five virgins with tlie five-lighted lamps.

1 S. Jno. xiv. IG. -\ Cor. xiii. 12. ^\ Cur. xiii. 10.

96 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

CiiAP. III. — IIoio each one ovglit to prepare MmHcJf for tlu
future Besurrection.

In the first day of the resurrection I am examined whether
I bring these things which are commanded, whether I am
adorned with virtuous works, whether I am overshadowed
by the boughs of chastity. Tor account the resurrection to
be the erection of the tabernacle. Account that the things
which are taken for the putting together of the tabernacle
are the works of righteousness. I take, therefore, on the
first day the things which are set down, that is, on the day
in which I stand to be judged, whether I have adorned my
tabernacle with the things commanded; if those things are
found on that day which here in time we are commanded
to prepare, and there to offer to God. But come, let us
consider what follows.

" And ye shall take you," He says, " on the first day the
boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and the
boughs of thick trees, and willows [and the tree of chastity]
of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God."^
The Jews, uncircumcised in heart, think that the most
beautiful fruit of wood is the citron wood, on account of its
size; nor are they ashamed to say that God is worshipped
with cedar, to whom not all the quadrupeds of the earth
would suffice as a burnt-offering or as incense for burning.
And moreover, hard breasts, if the citron appear beautiful
to you, why not the pomegranate, and other fruits of trees,
and amongst them apples, which much surpass the citron?
Indeed, in the Song of Songs,^ Solomon having made mention
of all these fruits, passes over in silence the citron only.
But this deceives the unwary, for they have not understood
that the tree of life^ which Paradise once bore, now again
the Church has produced for all, even the ripe and comely
fruit of faith.

Such fruit it is necessary that we bring when we come to
the judgment-seat of Christ, on tlie first day of the feast;

1 Lev. xxiii. 40. ^ c^^^^t. iv. 13. = Geu. ii. 9.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 97

for if we are without it we shall not be able to feast with
God, nor to have part, according to John,^ in the first resur-
rection. For the tree of life is wisdom first begotten of all.
" She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her," says
the prophet;- "and happy is every one that retaineth her."
" A tree planted by the waterside, that will bring forth his
fruit in due season;"^ that is, learning and charity and dis-
cretion are imparted in due time to those wlio come to the
waters of redemption.

He that hath not believed in Christ, nor hath understood
that He is the first principle and the tree of life, since he
cannot show to God his tabernacle adorned with the most
goodly of fruits, how shall he celebrate the feast? How shall
he rejoice? Desirest thou to know the goodly fruit of the
tree? Consider the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how
pleasant they are beyond the children of men. Good fruit
came by Moses, that is the Law, but not so goodly as the
Gospel. For the Law is a kind of figure and shadow of
things to come, but the Gospel is truth and the grace of
life. Pleasant was the fruit of the prophets, but not so
pleasant as the fruit of immortality which is plucked from
the GospeL

Chap. iv. — Tlic Mind clearer ivhen cleaiiscd from Sin — The
ornaments of the Mind and the order of Virtue —
Charity deep and full — Chastity the last ornament of
all — The very iise of Matrimony to he restrained.

" And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of
goodly trees, branches of palm-trees."'* This signifies the
exercise of divine discipline, by which the mind that subdues
the passions is cleansed and adorned by the sweeping out
and ejection from it of sins. For it is necessary to come
cleansed and adorned to the feast, arrayed, as by a decora-
tor, in the discipline and exercise of virtue. For the mind
being cleansed by laborious exercises from the distracting
thoughts which darken it, quickly perceives the truth; as

* lltv. .\.\. G. 2 Pl.^Jy, iii, 18. 3 j>3_ i_ 3. 4 i^yv. .xxiii. 40.

98 THE WPJTJXGS OF METHODIUS.

the widow in the Gospels^ found the piece of money after
she had swept the house and cast out the dirt, that is, the
passions which obscure and cloud the mind, which increase
in us from our luxuriousness and carelessness.

Whoso, therefore, desires to come to that Feast of Taber-
nacles, to be numbered with the saints, let him first procure
the goodly fruit of faith, then palm branches, that is, atten-
tive meditation upon and study of the Scriptures, afterwards
the far-spreading and thickly-leaved branches of charity,
which He commands us to take after the palm branches;
most fitly calling charity dense boughs, because it is all
thick and close and very fruitful, not having anything bare
or empty, but all full, both branches and trunks. Such is
charity, having no part void or unfruitful. For " though I
sell all my goods and give to the poor, and though I yield
up my body to the fire, and though I have so great faith
that I can remove mountains, and have not charity, I am
nothing."^ Charity, therefore, is a tree the thickest and
most fruitful of all, full and abounding, copiously abound-
ing in graces.

After this, what else does He will that we should take ?
Willow branches; by that figure indicating righteousness,
because " the just," according to the prophet, shall spring
up " as grass in the midst of the waters, as willows by the
watercourses,"^ fiomishing in the word. Lastly, to crown
all, it is commanded that the boughs of the Agnos tree be
brought to decorate the Tabernacle, because it is by its
very name the tree of chastity, by which those akeady
named are adorned. Let the wanton now begone, who,
through their love of pleasure, reject chastity. How shall
they enter into the feast with Christ who have not adorned
their tabernacle with boughs of chastity, that God-making
and blessed tree with which all who are hastening to that
assembly and nuptial banquet ought to be begirt, and to

^ Luke XV. 8.

2 1 Cor. yiii. 2, 3. Quoted from memory and in meaning, not
verbally. — Tr.

3 Isaiah xliv. 4. The reading of the Lxx

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 90

cover their loins ? For come, fair virgins, con-sider the
Scripture itself, and its commands, how the Divine word
has assumed chastity to be the crown of those virtues and
duties that have been mentioned, showing how becoming
and desirable it is for the resurrection, and that without it
no one will obtain the promises which w^e who profess
virginity supremely cultivate and offer to the Lord. They
also possess it who live chastely Avith their wives, and
do, as it were about the trunk, yield its lowly branches
bearing chastity, not being able like us to reach its lofty
and mighty boughs, or even to touch them ; yet they, too,
offer no less tnily, although in a less degree, the branches
of chastity. But those who are goaded on by their lusts,
although they do not commit fornication, yet who, even in
tlie things which are permitted with a lawful wife, through
the heat of unsubdued concupiscence are excessive in em-
braces, how shall they celebrate the feast ? how shall they
rejoice, who have not adorned their tabernacle, that is their
flesh, with the boughs of the Agnos, nor have listened to
that which has been said, that " they that have wives be a.s
though they had none ?"^

CllAP. V. — The Mystery of tJie Tahcrnadcs.

Wherefore, above all other things, I say to those y%\\o love
contests, and who are strong-minded, that without delay
they should honour chastity, as a thing tlie most useful and
glorious. For in the new and indissolulile creation, who-
ever shall not be found decorated with the boughs of
chastity, shall neither obtain rest, because he has not
fulfilled the command of God according to the law, nor
sliall he enter into the land of promise, because he has
not previously celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. For
they only who have celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles
come to the Holy Land, setting out from those dwellings
which are called tabernacles, until they come to enter into
the temple and city of God, advancing to a greater and
1 1 Cor. vii. 29.

100 TIIK WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

more glorious joy, as tlie Jewish types indicate. For like
as the Israelites, having left the borders of Egypt, first came
tp-: the Tabernacles [in Hebrew, Succoth],'^ and from hence,
having again set forth, came into the land of promise, so
also do we. For I also, taking my journey, and going forth
from the Egypt of this life, came first to the resurrection,
which is the true Feast of the Tabernacles, and there having
set up my tabernacle, adorned with the fruits of virtue, on
the first day of the resurrection, which is the day of judg-
ment, celebrate with Christ the millennium of rest, wdilch
is called the seventh day, even the true Sal3bath. Then
again from thence I, a follower of Jesus, "who hath
entered into the heavens," ^ as they also, after the rest of the
Feast of Tabernacles, came into the land of promise, come
into the heavens, not continuing to remain in tabernacles —
that is, my body not remaining as it was before, but, after
the space of a thousand years, changed from a human and
corruptible form into angelic size and beauty, where at
last we virgins, when the festival of the resurrection is
consummated, shall pass from the wonderful place of the
tabernacle to greater and better things, ascending into the
very house of God above the heavens, as, says the Psalmist,
" in the voice of praise and thanksgiving, among such as
keep holy day."^ I, Arete, my mistress, offer as a gift to
thee this robe, adorned according to my ability.

JEiib. — I am much moved, Gregorion, considering
within myself in how great anxiety of mind Domniua
must be from the character of the discourses, perplexed in
heart as she is, and with good cause, fearing lest she should
be at a loss for words, and should speak more feebly than
the rest of tlie virgins, since they have spoken on the sub-
ject with such ability and variety. If, therefore, she was
evidently moved, come and complete this too ; for I wonder
if she had anything to say, being the last speaker.

Greg. — Theopatra told me, Euboulios, that she was greatly
moved, but she was not perplexed from want of words.
iUter, therefore, Tusiane had ceased. Arete looked at her
1 Numb, xxxiii. 5. - Heb. iv. 14. ^ Ps. xlii. 4.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX V1U(JE\S. K'l

and said, Come, iny daughter, do thou also deliver a dis-
course, that our banquet may be quite complete. At this
Domnina, blushing, and after a long delay, scarcely looking
up, rose to pray, and turning round, invoked AVisdom to be
her present helper. And Avhen she had prayed, Theopatra
said that suddenly courage came to her, and a certain di^•ine
confidence possessed her, and she said :

DISCOURSE X.— DoMXiXA.

CiiAr. I. — Chastity alone aids and effects the most Xfi'ttiscworthy
government of the Soul.

Arete, I also, omitting the long preludes of exordiums,
will endeavour according to my ability to enter upon the
subject, lest, by delaying upon those matters which are
outside the subject in hand, I should speak of them at
greater length than their importance woidd warrant. For
I account it a very great part of prudence not to make long
speeches, which merely charm the ears, before coming to
the main question, but to begin forthwith at the point in
debate. So I will begin from thence, for it is time.

Notliing can so much profit a man, fair virgins, with
respect to moral excellence, as chastity ; for chastity alone
accomplishes and brings it about that the soul shoidd be
governed in the noblest and best way, and should be set free,
pure from the stains and pollutions of the Avorld. For which
reaison, when Christ taught us to cultivate it, and showed
its unsurpassable beauty, the kingdom of the Evil One was
destroyed, who aforetime led captive and enslaved the
whole race of men, so that none of the more ancient people
pleased tlie Lord, but all were overcome by errors, since the
law was not of itself sufficient to free the human race from
corruption, until virginity, succeeding the law, governed men
by the precepts of Christ. Nor truly had the first men so
often run lieadlong into combats and slaughter, into lust
and idolatry, if the rigliteousness tliat is by the law had

102 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

been to them sufficient for salvation. Now tnily tlicy
were then confused by great and frequent calamities ; but
from the time when Christ was incarnate, and armed and
adorned His flesh with virginity, the savage tyrant who was
master of incontinence was taken away, and peace and
faith have dominion, men no longer turning so much as
before to idolatry.

Chap. ii. — The Passage in Judges ix. 8-15 exj^hmied — TJie
Allegory of the Trees demanding a King.

But lest I should appear to some to be sophistical, and
to conjecture these things from mere probabilities, and to
babble, I will bring forward to you, virgins, from the Old
Testament, written prophecy from the Book of Judges, to
show that I speak the truth, where the future reign of
chastity was already clearly foretold. For we read : " The
trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them;
and they said unto the olive-tree, Eeign thou over us.
But the olive-tree said unto them. Should I leave my
fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and
go to be promoted over the trees ? And the trees said to
the fig-tree. Come thou, and reign over us. But the fig-
tree said unto them. Should I forsake my sweetness, and
my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees ? Then
said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us.
And the vine said unto them. Should I leave my wine,
which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over
the trees ? Then said all the trees unto the bramble. Come
thou, and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the
trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come
and put your trust in my shadow ; and if not, let fire come
out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon."^

Now, that these things are not said of trees growing out
of the earth, is clear. For inanimate trees cannot be as-
sembled in council to choose a king, inasmuch as they are
firmly fixed by deep roots to the earth. But altogether are
^ JxitlLres ix. 8-15.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 103

these things narrated concerning souls which, before the
incarnation of Christ, too deeply luxuriating in transgres-
sions, approach to God as suppliants, and ask His mercy,
and that they may be governed by His pity and compassion,
which Scripture expresses under the figure of the olive,
because oil is of great advantage to our bodies, and takes
away our fatigues and ailments, and affords light. For all
lamp-light increases when nourished by oil. So also the
mercies of God entirely dissolve death, and assist the human
race, and nourish the light of the heart.^ And consider
whether the laws, from the first created man until Christ in
succession, were not set forth in these words by the Scrip-
ture by figments, in opposition to which the devil has
deceived the human race. And it has likened the fig-tree
to the command given to man in paradise, because, when
he was deceived, he covered his nakedness with the leaves
of a fig-tree f and the vine to the precept given to Noah at
the time of the deluge, because, when overpowered by wine,
he was mocked.^ The olive sit,aiifies the law "iven to IMoses
in the desert, because the prophetic grace, the holy oil, had
failed from their inheritance when they broke the law
Lastly, the bramble not inaptly refers to the law which was
given to the apostles for the salvation of the ^\•orld ; because
by their instruction we have been taught virginity, of which
alone the devil has not been able to make a deceptive image.
For which cause, also, four Gospels have been given, because
God has four times given the Gospel [good news] to the
human race, and has instructed them by four laM's, the times
of which are clearly known by the diversity of the fruits.
For the fig-tree, on account of its sweetness and richness,
represents the deliglits of man, which he had in paradise
before the fall. Indeed, not rarely, as we shall afterwards
show, the Holy Spirit* takes the fruit of the fig-tree as an
emblem of goodness. But the vine, on account of the
gladness produced by wine, and the joy of those who
were saved from \vrath and from the deluge, signifies tho

^ For this use of heart, cf. 2 Cor. iv. 6. — Tr^

*Geu. iii. 7. ^ Gen. ix. 22. ''Jer. viii. 13.

104 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

change pix)duced from fear and anxiety into joy.^ IVIoreover,
the olive, on account of the oil which it produces, indicates
the compassion of God, who again, after the deluge, bore
patiently when men turned aside to ungodliness, so that
He gave them the law and manifested Himself to some, and
nourished by oil the light of virtue, now almost extinguished.

Chap. hi. — TJic BramUe and the Agnos the Symlol of Chastity
— The Four Gospels, that is, Teachings or Laws, instructing
to Salvation.

Now the bramble commends chastity, for the bramble
and the agnos is the same tree : by some it is called
bramble, by others agnos.^ Perhaps it is because the plant
is akin to virginity that it is called bramble and agnos ;
bramble, because of its strength and firmness against plea-
sures ; agnos, because it always continues chaste. Hence
the Scripture relates that Elijah, fleeing from the face of
the woman Jezebel,^ at first came under a bramble, and
there, having been heard, received strength and took food ;
signifying that to him who flies from the incitements of
lust, and from a woman — that is, from pleasure — the tree
of chastity is a refuge and a shade, ruling men from the
coming of Christ, the chief of vii-gins. For when the first
laws, which were published in the times of Adam and JSToali
and ]\Ioses, were unable to give salvation to man, the
evangelical law alone has saved all.

And this is the cause why the fig-tree may be said not to
have obtained the kingdom over trees, which, in a spiritual
sense, mean men; and the fig-tree the command, because man
desired, even after the fall, again to be subject to the dominion
of virtue, and not to be deprived of the immortality of the
paradise of pleasure. But, having transgressed, lie was rejected
and cast far away, as one who could no longer be governed
by immortality, nor w^as capable of receiving it. And the
first message to him after the transgression w^as preached by

^ Joel ii. 22. ^ Jahn's reading is liere followed-

■'' 1 Kin<:rs xix. 4.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGINS. 105

Noali,^ to which, if he had applied liis mind, he mii^lit liave
been saved from sin ; for in it he promised botli liappiuess
and rest from evils, if he gave heed to it with all his might,
just as the vine promises to yield wine to those who culti-
vate it with care and labour. But neither did this law rule
mankind, for men did not obey it, although zealously
preached by Noah. But, after they began to be surrounded
and drowning by the waters, they began to repent, and to
promise that they would obey the commandments. Where-
fore with scorn they are rejected as subjects ; that is, they
are contemptuously told that they cannot be helped by the
law ; the Spirit answering them back and reproaching them
because they had deserted those men whom God had com-
manded to help them, and to save them, and make them
glad ; such as Noah and those with him. " Even to you,
rebellious," said he, " I come, to bring help to you who are
destitute of prudence, and who differ in nothing from dry
trees, and who formerly did not believe me when I preached
that you ought to flee from present things."

Chap. iv. — Tlic Lmo ilscIcss for Salvation — The last Law of
Chastity ttndcr the figure of the Branible.

And so those men, having been thus rejected from the
divine care, and the human race having again given them-
selves up to error, again God sent forth, by Moses, a law to
rule them and recall them to righteousness. But these,
thinking fit to bid a long farewell to this law, turned to
idolatry. Hence God gave them up to mutual slaughters,
to exiles, and captivities, the law itself confessing, as it
were, that it could not save them. Therefore, worn out
with ills and afflicted, they again promised that they would
obey the commandments; until God, pitying man the fourth
time, sent chastity to rule over them, which Scripture con-
sequently called the bramble. And she consuming plea-
sures threatens besides, that unless all uudoubtingly obey
her, and truly come to lier, she will destroy all with tire.

> (Jen V. 29.

106 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

since tliere will be hereafter no other law or doctrine but
judgment and fire. For this reason, man henceforth began
to do righteousness, and firmly to believe in God, and to
separate himself from the devil. Thus chastity was sent
down, as being most useful and helpful to men. For of her
alone was the devil unable to forge an imitation to lead men
astray, as is the case with the other precepts.

Chap. v. — The Malignity of the Devil is an imitator in all
things — Two hinds of Fig-trees and Vines.

The fig-tree, as I said, from the sweetness and excellence
of its fruit, being taken as a type of the delights of paradise,
the devil, having beguiled tlie man by its imitations, led him
captive, persuading him to conceal the nakedness of his
body by fig-leaves ; that is, by their friction he excited him
to sexual pleasure. Again, those that had been saved from
the deluge, he intoxicated with a drink which was an imita-
tion of the vine of spiritual joy ; and again he mocked
them, having stripped them of virtue. And what I say will
hereafter be more clear.

The enemy, by his power, always imitates the forms of
virtue and righteousness, not for the purpose of truly pro-
moting its exercise, but for deception and hypocrisy. For
in order that those who fly from death he may entice to
death, he is outwardly dyed with the colours of immortality.
And hence he wishes to seem a fig-tree or vine, and to pro-
duce sweetness and joy, and is " transformed into an angel
of light," ^ ensnaring many by the appearance of piety.

For we find in the Sacred Writings that there are two
kinds of fig-trees and vines, " the good figs, very good ; and
the evil, very evil;"^ "wine that maketh glad the heart
of man,"^ and wine which is the poison of dragons, and the
incurable venom of asps.^ But from the time when chastity
beo'an to rule over men, the fraud was detected and over-
come, Christ, the chief of virgins, overturning it. So both

1 2 Cor. xi. 14. - Jer. xxiv. 3.

3 Ps. civ. 15. * Deut. xxxii. 33.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 107

the true fig-tree and the true vnie yield fruit after that the
power of chastity lias laid hold upon all men, as Joel the
prophet preaches, saying : " Fear not, land ; be glad and
rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye
beasts of the field ; for the pastures of the wilderness do
spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig-tree and the
vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of
Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He hath given
you food unto righteousness;"^ calling the former laws the
vine and the fig, trees bearing fruit unto righteousness for
the children of the spiritual Zion, which bore fruit after the
incarnation of the Word, when chastity ruled over us, when
formerly, on account of sin and much error, they had
checked and destroyed their buds. For the true vine and
the true fig-tree were not able to yield such nourisliment to
us as would be profitable for life, whilst as yet the false fig-
tree, variously adorned for the purpose of fraud, flourished.
But when the Lord dried up the false branches, the imita-
tions of the true branches, uttering the sentence against the
bitter fig-tree, " Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for
ever," 2 then those which were truly fruit -bearing trees
flourished and yielded food unto righteousness.

The vine, and that not in a few places, refers to the
Lord Himself,^ and the fig-tree to the Holy Spirit, as the
Lord "maketli glad the hearts of men," and the Spirit
healeth them. And therefore Hezekiah is commanded*
first to make a plaster with a lump of figs — that is, the fruit
of the Spirit — that he may be healed — that is, according to
the apostle — by love ; for he says, " The fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance;"'' which, on account of their gi-eat
pleasantness, the prophet calls figs. ISIicah also says,
" They shall sit every man under his vine and under liis fig-
tree ; and none shall make them afraid."^ Now it is certain

^ Joel ii. 21-23. The last words of the quotation are from the Lxx.
vert^ion. — Tr.

2 Matt. xxi. 19. ^ Jiio. xv. 1. ' 2 Kuv;^^ xx. 7 ; Is. JLXxviii. 21.
' (Jal. V. 22, 23. « Micah iv. 4.

108 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

that those who have taken refuge and rested under the
Spirit, and under the shadow of the Word, sliall not be
alarmed, nor frightened by hiin who troubles the hearts of
men.

Chap. vi. — The Mystery of the Vision of Zechariah.

Moreover, Zechariah shows that the olive shadows forth
the law of Moses, speaking thus: "And the angel that
talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is
wakened out of his sleep, and said nnto me. What seest
thou ? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick

all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it And two

olive-trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and
the other upon the left side thereof."^ And after a few
words, the prophet, asking what are the olives on the right
and left of the candlestick, and what the two olive-boufihs
in the hands of the two pipes, the angel answered and said :
" These are tho two sons of fruitfulness ^ which stand by the
Lord of the whole earth," signifying the two first-born vil'tues
that are waiting upon God, which, in His dwelling, supply
around the wick, through the boughs, the spiritual oO. of
God, that man may have the light of divine knowledge.
But the two boughs of the two olives are the law and
the prophets, around, as it were, the lot^ of the inheritance,
of which Christ and the Holy Sjiirit are the authors, we our-
selves meanwhile not beino; able to take the whole fruit and
the greatness of these plants, before chastity began to rule
the world, but only their boughs — to wit, the law and the
prophets — did we formerly cultivate, and those moderately,
often letting them slip. For who was ever able to receive
Christ or the Spirit, unless he first purified himself? For
the exercise which prepares the soul from childhood for
desirable and delectable glory, and carries this grace safely
thither with ease, and from small toils raises up mighty
hopes, is chastity, which gives immortality to our bodies ;

1 Zech. iv. 1-3. 2 g. Y. « Anointed ones," ver. 14.

•^ axoiri(r/^u : same word as tliat translated " wick." — Tr.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGIXS. 103

wliich it becomes all men willingly to prefer in honour and
to praise above all things ; some, that by its means they
may be betrothed to the Word, practising virginity ; and
others, that by it they may be freed from the curse, " Dust
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." ^

This, Arete, is the discourse on virginity wliich you
required of me, accomplished according to my ability; which
I pray, mistress, although it is mediocre and short, that
thou wilt receive with kindness from me who was chosen
to speak last.

DISCOUESE XT.— Arete.

Chap. i. — Tlic true and chaste Virgins few — Chastity a
contest — ThcJcla chief of Virgins.

I do accept it, Theopatra related that Arete said, and
approve of it all. I'or it is an excellent thing, even althougli
you had not spoken so clearly, to take up and go through
with earnestness those things which have been said, not to
prepare a sweet entertainment for those who listen, but for
correction, recollection, and abstinence. For whoever teaches
that chastity is to be preferred and embraced first of all
among my pursuits, rightly advises; which many think that
tliey honour and cultivate, but which few, so to speak, really
lionour. For it is not one who has studied to restrain his
ilcsh from the pleasure of carnal delight that cultivates
chastity, if he do not keep in check the rest of the desires ;
but rather he dishonours it, and that in no small degree, by
Ijase lusts, exchanging pleasures for pleasures. Nor if he
have strongly resisted the desires of the senses, but is lifted
up with vainglory, and from this cause is able to repress
the heats of burning lust, and reckon them all as nothing,
can he be thought to honour chastity; for he dishonours it
in that he is lifted up with pride, cleansing tlie outside of
the cup and platter, that is, the flesh and the body, but

1 Geii. iii. 19.

no THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

injuring the heart by conceit and ambition. Nor when
any one is conceited of riches is he desirous of honouring
chastity; he dishonours it more than all, preferring a little
gain to that to which nothing is comparable of those things
that are in this life esteemed. For all riches and gold " in
respect of it are as a little sand."^ And neither does he
who loves himself above measure, and eagerly considers
that wliich is expedient for himself alone, regardless of the
necessities of his neighbour, honour chastity, but he also dis-
honours it. For he who has repelled from himself charity,
mercy, and humanity, is much inferior to those who honour-
ably exercise chastity. Nor is it right, on the one hand, by
the use of chastity to keep virginity, and, on the other hand,
to pollute the soul by evil deeds and lust; nor here to pro-
fess purity and continence, and there to pollute it by indul-
gence in vices. Nor, again, here to declare that the things
of this world bring no care to himself; there to be eager in
procuring them, and in concern about them. But all the
members are to be preserved intact and free from corruption;
not only those which are sexual, but those members also
which minister to the service of lusts. For it would be
ridiculous to preserve the organs of generation pure, but
not the tongue ; or to preserve the tongue, but neither the
eyesight, the ears, nor the hands; or lastly, to preserve these
pure, but not the mind, defiling it with pride and anger.

It is altogether necessary for him who has resolved that
he will not err from the practice of chastity, to keep all his
members and senses clean and under restraint, as is cus-
tomary with the planks of ships, whose fastenings the ship-
masters diligently join together, lest by any means the way
and access may lie open for sin to pour itseK into the mind.
For great pursuits are liable to gTcat falls, and evil is more
opposed to that which is really good than to that which is
not good. For many who thought that to repress vehement
lascivious desires constituted chastity, neglecting other
duties connected with it, failed also in this, and have brought
blame upon those endeavouring after it by the right way,
1 Wisd. vii. 9.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEX VIRGINS, 111

as you have proved wlio are a model in even'tliing, leading
a virgin life in deed and word. And now what that is
which becomes a virgin state has been described.

And yon all in my hearing having sufficiently contended
in speaking, I pronounce victors and crown; but Thekla
with a larger and thicker chaplet, as the chief of you, and
as having shone with greater lustre than the rest.

Chap. ii. — TheJda singing decorously a hymn, tJte rest of the
Virgins sing with her — Joh7i the Baptist a martyr to
Chastity — The Chureh the spouse of God, pure and
virgin.

Theopatra said that Arete having said these things, com-
manded them all to rise, and, standing under the Agnos, to
send up to the Lord in a becoming manner a hymn of
thanksgiving; and that Thekla should begin and should
lead the rest. And when they had stood up, she said that
Thekla, standing in the midst of the virgins on tlie right of
Arete, decorously sang; but the rest, standing together in a
circle after the manner of a chorus, responded to her.

Vcrsicle}

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and liokling
\ lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Bcsponse.

From above, virgins, the sound of a noise tliat wakes
the dead has come, bidding us all to meet the Bridegi-oom
in wliite robes, and with torches towards the east. Arise,
before the King enters within the gates.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Fleeing from the soiTowful happiness of mortals, and
having despised the luxuriant delights of life and its love,
I desire to be protected under Tliy life-giving arms, and to
behold Thy beauty for ever, blessed One.

1 The text of Jahn is here followed. — Til

112 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Leaving marriage and the beds of mortals and my golden
liome for Thee, King, I have come in undefiled robes, in
order that I might enter with Thee within Thy happy bridal
chamber.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Having escaped, blessed One, from the innumerable
enchanting wiles of the serpent, and, moreover, from the
flame of fire, and from the mortal-destroying assaults of wild
beasts, I await Thee from heaven.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

I forget my own country, Lord, through desire of Thy
grace.^ I forget, also, the company of virgins, my fellows,
the desire even of mother and of kindred, for Thou, Christ,
art all things to me.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Giver of life art Thou, Christ. Hail, light that never
sets, receive this praise. The company of virgins call
upon Thee, Perfect Flower, Love, Joy, Prudence, Wisdom,
Word.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

With open gates, beauteously adorned Queen, admit
us Avithin thy chambers. spotless, gloriously triumi^haut
Bride, breathing beauty, we stand by Christ, robed as He
is, celebrating thy happy nuptials, youthful maiden.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

The virgins standing without the chamber,- with bitter
tears and deep moans, wail and mournfully lament that
their lamps are gone out, having failed to enter in due time
the chamber of joy.

1 Ps. Xlv. 10. 2 ]\i:;xtt. XXV. 11.

THE BAXQUET OF THE TEN VIRGIXS. 113

I keep myself pure for Tliee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

For turning from the sacred way of life, unhappy ones,
tliey have neglected to prepare sufficiency of oil for the path
of life; bearing lamps whose bright light is dead, they groan
from the inward recesses of their mind.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee,

Here are cups full of sweet nectar; let us drink, virgins,
for it is celestial drink, which the Bridegroom hath placed
for those duly called to the wedding.

I keep myseK pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Abel, clearly prefiguring Thy death,^ blessed One, with
ilowing blood, and eyes lifted up to heaven, said. Cruelly
slain by a brother's hand, Word, I pray Thee to receive
me.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Thy valiant son Joseph,- "Word, won the greatest prize
of virginity, when a woman heated with desire forcibly drew
him to an unlawful bed ; but he giving no heed to her lied
naked, crying aloud :

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Jephthah offered his fresh slaughtered virgin daugliter a
sacrifice to God, like a lamb ; and she, nobly fulfilling the
type of Thy body, blessed One, bravely cried :

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Daring Judith,^ by clever wiles having cut off the licad
of the leader of the foreign hosts, whom previously she had
allured by her beautiful form, without polluting the limbs
of her body, Avith a victor's shout said :

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

iSeeing the great beauty of Susanna, the two Judges,

* Gen. iv. 10. - Gen. x.xxix. IJ. ^ Juil. viii.

114 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

maddened with desire, said, dear lady, we have come
desiring secret intercourse with thee ; but she with tremu-
lous cries said :

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

It is far better for me to die than to betray my nuptials
to you, mad for women, and so to suffer the eternal justice
of God in fiery vengeance. Save me now, Christ, from
these evils.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Thy Precursor, washing multitudes of men in flowing
lustra! water, unjustly by a wicked man, on account of his
chastity, was led to slaughter; but as he stained the dust
with his life-blood, he cried to Thee, blessed One :

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

The parent of Thy life, that unspotted Grace ^ and un-
defiled Virgin, bearing in her womb without the ministry
of man, by an immaculate conception, and who thus became
suspected of having betrayed the marriage -bed, she,
blessed One, when pregnant, thus spoke :

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Wishing to see thy nuptial day, blessed One, as many
angels as Thou, King, calledst from above, bearing the
best gifts to Thee, came in unsullied robes :

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

In hymns, blessed spouse of God, we attendants of the
Bride honour Thee, undefiled virgin Church of snow-
white form, dark haired, chaste, spotless, beloved.

I keep myseK pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Corruption has fled, and the tearful pains of diseases;
death has been taken way, all folly has perished, consuming

^ Matt. i. 18.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 11 a

mental grief is no more; for again the grace of the God-
Christ has suddenly shone upon mortals.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Paradise is no longer bereft of mortals, for by divine
decree he no longer dwells there as formerly, thrust out
from thence when he was free from corruption, and from
fear by the various wiles of the serpents, blessed One.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Singing the new song, now the company of virgins attends
thee towards the heavens, Queen, all manifestly crowned
with white lilies, and bearing in tlieir hands bright lights.

I keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegi-oom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

blessed One, who inhabited the undefded seats oi
heaven without beginning, who governed all things by
everlasting power, Father, with Thy Son, we are here,
receive us also within the gates of life.

1 keep myself pure for Thee, Bridegroom, and holding
a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Chap. hi. — Which arc the better, the continent, or those who
delight in tranqitillity of life? — Contests tlie 2Jcril of
Chastity: the felieity of tranquillity — Purified and
tranquil minds yods; they who shall see God — Virtue
disciplined by Temptations.

Euh. — Deservedly, Gregorion, has Thekla borne oft' ihe
chief prize.

Greg. — Deservedly indeed.

Enb. — But what about tlie stranger Telmisiake ?^ Tell
me, was she not listening from without? I wonder if she
could keep sUence on hearing of this banquet, and would
not forthwith, as a bird flies to its food, listen to the things
which were spoken.

Greg. — The report is that she was present with Methodios
when he inquired respecting these things of Arete. But it
1 III Jaliu Telniesiakc— Tr.

11«> THE WRlTIXaS OF METIlODli'S.

is a good as well as a liappy thing to have such a mistress
and guide as Arete, that is virtue.

Euh. — But, Gregorion, which sliall we say are the Ijctter,
those who without lust govern concupiscence, or those who
under tlie assaults of concupiscence continue pure ?

Grc(j. — For my part, I tliink those who are free from
lust, for they have their mind midefiled, and are altogether
uucorrupted, sinning in no respect.

Euh. — "Well, I swear by chastity, and wisely, Gregorion.
But lest in any wise I hinder you, if I gainsay youi" words,
it is that I may the better learn, and that no one hereafter
may refute me.

Greg. — Gainsay me as you will, you have my permission.
For, Euboulios, I think that I know sufficient to teach you
that he who is not concupiscent is better than he who is.
If I cannot, then there is no one who can convince you.

Eiib. — Bless me ! I am glad that you answer me so
magnanimously, and show how wealthy you are as regards
wisdom.

Greg. — A mere chatterer, so you seem to me to be, O
Euboulios.

EiiJj.—\\\\j so ?

Greg. — Because you ask rather for the sake of amusement
than of truth.

Euh. — Speak fair, I pray you, my good friend; for I
greatly admire your wisdom and renown. I say this
because, with reference to the things that many wise men
often dispute among themselves, you say that you not
only understand them, but also vaunt that you can teach
another.

Greg. — Xow tell me truly whether it is a difficulty
with you to receive the opinion, that they who are not
concupiscent excel those who are concupiscent, and yet
restrain themselves ? or are you joking ?

Euh.—\lo\x so, when I tell you that I do not know?
But, come, tell me, wisest lady, in what do the non-
concupiscent and chaste excel the concupiscent who live
chastely ?

THE BAXQVET OF THE TEX VIRGINS. 117

Greg. — Because, in the first place, tliey have the soul
itself pure, and the Holy Spirit always dwells in it, seeing
tliat it is not distracted and disturbed by fancies and unre-
strained thoughts, so as to pollute the mind. But they are
in every way inaccessil)le to lust, both as to their flesh and
to their heart, enjoying tranquillity from passions. But
they who are allured from without, through the sense of
sight, with fancies, and receiving lust flowing like a stream
into the heart, are often not less polluted, even when they
think that they contend and fight against pleasures, being
vanquished in their mind.

Eah. — Shall we then say that they who serenely live and
are not disturbed by lusts are pure ?

Greg. — Certainly. For these ^ are they whom God makes
gods in the beatitudes ; they who believe in Him without
doubt. And He says that they shall look upon G(xl with
confidence, because they bring in nothing that darkens or
confuses the eye of the soul for the beholding of God; but
all desire of things secular being eliminated, they not only,
as I said, preserve the flesh pure from carnal connexion,
but even the heart, in which, especially, as in a temple,
the Holy Spirit rests and dwells, is open to no unclean
thoughts.

lEub. — Stay now ; for I think that from hence we shall
the better go on to the discovery of what things are truly
the best ; and, tell me, do you call any one a good pilot ?

Greg. — I certainly do.

Eiib. — Whether is it he that saves his vessel in great and
perplexing storms, or is it he who does so in a breathless
calm ?

Grcf). — He that does so in a great and perplexing storm.

Eah. — Shall we not then say that the soul, which is
deluged with the surging waves of the passions, and yet does
not, on that account, weary or grow faint, but direct her
vessel — that is, the flesh — nobly into the port of chastity, is
better and more estimable than he that navigates in c:dni
weather ?

* M;ilt. V. 8.

118 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

Greg. — "We will say so.

Eul). — For to be prepared against the entrance of tlie
gales of the Evil Spirit, and not to be cast away or over-
come, but to refer all to Christ, and strongly to contend
against pleasures, brings greater praise than he wins who
lives a virgin life calmly and with ease.

Greg. — It appears so.

Eub. — And what saith the Lord ? Does He not seem to
show that he who retains continence, though lusting, excels
him who, having no lust, leads a virgin life ?

Greg. — "VATiere does He say so ?

Euh. — Where, comparing a wise man to a house well
founded. He declares him immovable because he cannot be
overthrown by rains, and floods, and winds; likening, as it
would seem, these storms to lusts, but the immovable
and unshaken firmness of the soul in chastity to the
rock.

Greg. — You appear to speak what is true.

Eub. — And what say you of the physician ? Do you not
call him the best who has been proved in great diseases,
and has healed many patients ?

Greg. — I do.

Euh. — But the one who has never at any time practised,
nor ever had the sick in his hands, is he not still in all
respects the inferior ?

Greg. — Yes.

Eul. — Then we may certainly say that a sqid which is
contained by a lustful body, and which appeases with the
medicaments of temperance the disorders arising from the
heat of lusts, carries off the palm for healing, over one to
whose lot it has fallen to govern aright a body which is
free from lust.

G^rg. — It must be allowed.

Eul. — And how is it in wrestling ? Whether is the better
wrestler he who has many and strong antagonists, and con-
tinually is contending without being worsted, or he who
has no opponents ?

Gi^eg. — Manifestly he who wrestles.

THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 119

Eul). — And, in wrestling, is not the athlete who contends
the more experienced ?

G-reg. — It must be granted.

Euh. — Therefore it is clear that he whose soul contends
against the impulses of lust, and is not borne down by it,
but draws back and sets himself in array against it, appears
stronger than he who does not lust.

Greg. — True.

Euh. — "SVliat then ? Does it not appear to you, Gre-
gorion, that there is more courage in being valiant against
the assaults of base desires ?

Greg. — Yes, indeed.

Eul). — Ts not this courage the strength of virtue ?

Greg. — Plainly so.

Euh. — Therefore, if endurance be the strength of virtue,
is not the soul, which is troubled by lusts, and yet perse-
veres against thera, stronger than that which is not so
troubled ?

Gixg. — Yes.

Euh. — And if stronger, then better ?

Gi'eg.—Tvwlj.

Euh. — Therefore the soul which is concupiscent, and
exercises self-control, as appears from what has been said,
is better than that which is not concu]nscent, and exercises
self-control.

Greg. — You speak truly, and I sliall desire still more
fuUy to discourse with you concerning these things. If,
therefore, it pleases you, to-morrow I will come again to
hear respecting them. Now, however, as you see, it is
time to betake ourselves to the care of the outward man.

CONCERNING FREE WILL.

\IITH0D. — The old man of Ithaca, according to
the legend of the Greeks, when he wished to
hear the song of the Sirens, on account of the
charm of their voluptuous voice, sailed to
Sicily in bonds, and stopped up the ears of his companions ;
not that he grudged them the hearing, or desired to load
himself with bonds, but because the consequence of those
singers' music to those who heard it was death. For such,
in the opinion of the Greeks, are the charms of the Sirens.
Now I am not within hearing of any such song as this ; nor
have I any desire to hear the Sirens who chant men's
dirges, and whose silence is more profitable to men than
their voice ; but I pray to enjoy the pleasure of a divine
voice, which, though it be often heard, I long to hear again ;
not that I am overcome with the charm of a voluptuous
voice, but I am being taught divine mysteries, and expect
as the result, not death but eternal salvation. For the
singers are not the deadly Sirens of the Greeks, but a divine
clioir of prophets, with whom there is no need to stop the
ears of one's companions, nor to load one's-self with bonds,
in fear of the penalty of hearing. For, in the one case, the
hearer, with the entrance of the voice, ceases to live ; in the
other, the more he hears, the better life will he enjoy, being
led onwards by a divine Spirit. Let every one come, then,
and hear the divine song without any fear. There are not
with us the Sirens from the shore of Sicily, nor the bonds of
Ulysses, nor the wax poured melting into men's ears ; but
a loosening of all bonds, and liberty to listen to every
one that approaches. For it is worthy of us to hear
such a song as this; and to hear such singers as these, seems
to me to be a thing to be prayed for. But if one wishes
to hear the choir of tlie apostles as well, he will find the

CO \cj: j:\j.\cj fjike will. 121

same liarmony of song. For the others sang beforeliand
the divine plan in a mystical manner; but tliese sing an
interpretation of what has been mystically announced by
the former. Oli, concordant harmony, composed by the
Divine Spirit ! Oh, the comeliness of those wlio sing of the
mysteries [of God] ! Oh, that I also may join in tliese songs
in my prayer ! Let us tlien also sing the like song, and raise
the hymn to the Holy Pather, glorifying in the Spirit Jesus,
who is in His bosom.

Shun not, man, a spiritual hymn, nor be ill-disposed to
listen to it. Death belongs not to it ; a story of salvation is
our song. Already I seem to taste better enjoyments, as I
discourse on such subjects as these; and especially when there
is before me such a flowering meadow [as I see], that is to
say, our assembly of those M'ho unite in singing and hearing
the divine mysteries. Wherefore I dare to ask you to listen
to me with ears free from all envy, without imitating the
jealousy of Cain,^ or persecuting your brother, like Esau,' or
approving the brethren of Joseph,* because they hated their
brother on account of his words ; but differing far from all
these, insomuch that each of you is used to speak the mmd
of his neighbour. And, on this account, there is no evil
jealousy among you, as ye have undertaken to supply your
brother's deficiencies. noble audience, and venerable
comjjany, and spiritual food ! That I may ever have a
right to share in such pleasures, be this my prayer !

Oiial. — As I was walking yesterday evening, my friend,
along the shore of the sea, and was gazing on it somewhat
intently, I saw an extraordinary instance of divine power,
and a work of art produced by wise science, if at least such
a thing may be called a work of art. Tor as that verse of
Horner^ says —

" As Avlu-n two adverse winds Mowing from Thrace,
Ijoreas and Zephyrus, the lisliy Deej)
Vex sudden, all around, the sable llnod
High curled, lihigs forth the salt weed on the shore ;" —

* Jno. i. 18. = Gen. iv. n. ' Gen. x.wii. 41.

* Gen. xxxvii. 4 '" Iliad, ix. 4, IT. (Ciiwpc'r's Tr.).

122 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

So it seemed to me to have liappened yesterday. For T
saw waves very like mountain-tops, and, so to speak,
reaching up to heaven itself. Whence I expected nothiuij
else but that the whole land would be deluged, and I began
to form in my mind a place of escape, and a Noah's ark.
But it was not as I thought ; for, just as the sea rose to a
crest, it broke up again into itself, without overstepping its
own limits, having, so to speak, a feeling of awe for a
divine decree.^ And as oftentimes a servant, compelled by
his master to do something against his will, obeys the com-
mand through fear, while he dares not say a word of what
he suffers in his unwillingness to do it, but, full of rage,
mutters to himself, — somewhat so it appeared to me that
the sea, as if enraged and confining its awe within itself,
kept itself under, as not willing to let its Master perceive
its anger.

On these occurrences I began to gaze in silence, and
wished to measure in my mind the heaven and its sphere.
I began to inquire Avhence it rises and where it sets ; also
what sort of motion it had — whether a progressive one, tliat
is to say, one from place to place, or a revolving one ; and,
besides, how its movement is continued. And, of a truth, it
seemed worth while to inquire also about the sun, — what is
the manner of his being set in the heaven ; also what is the
orbit he traverses ; also wliither it is that, after a short
time, he retires ; and why it is that even he does not go out
of his proper course : but he, too, as one may say, is observ-
ing a commandment of a higher power, and appears with
us just when he is allowed to do so, and departs as if he
were called away.

So, as I was investigating these things, I saw that the
sunshine was departing, and the daylight failmg, and that
immediately darkness came on ; and the sun was succeeded
by the moon, who, at her first rising, was not of full size,
but after advancing in her course presented a larger
appearance. And I did not cease inquiring about her also,
but examined the cause of her waning and waxing, and
1 Job xxxviii. 11.

CONCERNING FREE WILL. 123

■why it is that she, too, oLscrves the revohitiou of days ; and
it seemed to me from all this that there is a divine govern-
ment and power controlling the whole, which we may justly
call God.

And thereupon I began to praise the Creator, as I saw
the eartli fast fixed, and living creatures in sucli variety,
and the blossoms of plants with tlieir many hues. But my
mind did not rest upon these things alone ; but tliereupon
I began to inquire whence they have their origin — whether
from some source eternally co-existent witli God, or from
Himself alone, none co- existing with Him ; for that He has
made nothing out of that which has no existence appeared
to me the right view to take, unless my reason were alto-
gether untrastworthy. For it is the nature of things which
come into being to derive their origin from what is already
existing. And it seemed to me that it might be said with
equal truth, that nothing is eternally co-existent with God
distinct from Himself, but that whatever exists has its
origin Ironi llim, and I was persuaded of this also by the
undeniable disposition of tlie elements, and by the orderly
arrangement of nature about them.

So, with some such thoughts of the fair order of things,
I returned home. But on the day following, that is to-day,
as I came I saw two beings of the same race (I mean men),
striking and abusing one another ; and another, again, wish-
ing to strip his neighbour. And now some began to venture
upon a more terrible deed ; for one stripped a corpse, and
exposed again to the light of day a body that had been
once hidden in the earth, and treated a form like his own
with such insult as to leave the corpse to be food for dogs ;
while another bared his sword, and attacked a man like
himself. And he wanted to procure safety by iliglit ; V)ut
the other ceased not from pursuing, nor would control his
anger. And why should I say more ? It is enough that he
attacked liim, and at once smote liiui witli his sword. So
[the wounded man] became a sup]>liant to his fellow, and
spread o\it liis hands in su])i)lic:itioii, and was willing to
give \ip his elutliiiig, and only made a claim tor life. But

12 i THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

the otlier did not subdue his anger, nor pity his fellow-man,
nor would he see his own image in the being before him ;
but, like a wild beast, made preparations with his sword for
feeding upon him. And now he was even putting his
mouth to the body so like his own, such was the extent of
his rage. And there was to be seen one man suffering
injurious treatment, and another forthwith stripping him,
and not even covering with earth the body which he
denuded of clothing. But, in addition to these, there was
another who, robbing others of their marriage rights,
wanted to insult his neighbour's wife, and urged her to
turn to unlawful embraces, not wishing her husband to be
fatlier to a child of his own.

After that I began to believe the tragedies, and thought
that the dinner of Thuestes had really taken place ; and
believed in the unlawful lust of Oinomaos, nor doubted of
the strife in which brother drew the sword on brother.

So, after witnessing such things as these, I began to
inquire whence they arise, and Avhat is their origin, and
who is the author of such devices against men, whence
came their discovery, and who is the teacher of them.
Now to dare to say that God was the author of these
things was impossible ; for surely it could not even be said
that they have from Him their substance, or their exist-
ence. For how were it ]3ossible to entertain these thoughts
of God ? For He is good, and the Creator of what is excel-
lent, and to Him belongs nothing bad. Nay, it is His
nature to take no pleasure in such things ; but He forbids
their production, and rejects those who delight in them,
but admits into His presence those who avoid them. And
how could it be anything but absurd to call God the maker
of these things of which He disapproves ? For He would
not wish them not to be, if He had first been their creator ;
and He wishes those who approach Him to be imitators of
Him.

Wherefore it seemed to me unreasonable to attribute these
things to God, or to speak of them as having sprung from
Him ; though it must certainly be gi-anted that it is pos-

CONCEIiXING FREE WILL, 125

sible for something to come into existence out of wliat has
no existence, in case He made what is evil. For He who
hrouglit them into existence out of non-existence would
not reduce them to the loss of it. And again, it must be
said that there was once a time when God took pleasure in
evil things, which now is not the case. Wherefore it seems
to me impossible to say this of God. For it is unsuitable
to His nature to attach this to Him. Wherefore it seemed
to me that there is co-existent with Him somewhat which
has the name of matter, from which He formed existing
things, distinguishing between them with wise art, and
arranging them in a fair order, from which also evil things
seem to have come into being. For as this matter was
without quality or form, and, besides this, was borne about
without order, and was untouched by divine art, God bore
no grudge against it, nor left it to be continually thus borne
about, but began to work upon it, and wished to separate
its best parts from its worst, and thus made all that it was
fitting for God to make out of it ; but so much of it as was
like lees, so to speak, this being unfitted for being made into
anything, He left as it was, since it was of no use to Him ;
and from this it seems to me tliat what is evil has now
streamed down among men. This seemed to me the right
view to take of these tilings. But, my friend, if you think
that anything I have said is wrong, mention it, for 1 exceed-
ingly desire to hear about these things.

Ortliod. — I appreciate your readiness, my friend, and a}i-
plaud your zeal about the subject ; and as for the opinion
which you have expressed respecting existing things, to tlie
effect that God made them out of some undeilying substance,
I do not altogether find fault with it. For, truly, the origin
of evil [is a subject that] has called out opinions i'rom many
men. Before you and me, no doubt, there have been many
able men who have made the most searching impiiry into
the matter. And some of them expressed the same opinion
as you did, but others again represented God as tlie creator
of these things, fearing to allow the existence of substance as
coeval with Him; while the former, from fear of saying thjt

12G Till-: WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

God was tlie author of evil, thouglit fit to represent matter
as coeval with llim.^ And it was the fate of both of these
to fail to speak rightly on the subject, in consequence of
their fear of God not being in agreement with an accurate
knowledge of the ttutli.

But others declined to inquire about sucli a question at
all, on the ground that such an inquiry is endless. As for
me, liowever, my connection with you in friendship does
not allow me to decline the subject of inquiry, especially
when you announce your own purpose, that you are not
swayed by prejudice (although you had your opinion about
tlie condition of things derived from your conjectures), but
say that you are confirmed in a desire of knowing the
truth.

"Wherefore I will willingly turn to the discussion of the
qiiestion. But I wish this companion of mine here to
listen to our conversation. For, indeed, he seems to have
much the same opinions about these things as you have,
wherefore I wish tliat you should both have a share in the
discussion. For whatever I should say to you, situated as
you are, I shall say just as much to him. If, then, you
are indulgent enough to think I speak truly on this great
subject, give an answer to each question I ask ; for the
result of this will be that you will gain a knowledge of the
truth, and I shall not carry on my discussion with you at
random.

Glial. — I am ready to do as you say ; and therefore be
quite ready to ask those questions from which you think I
may be able to gain an accurate knowledge of this important
subject. For the object which I have set before myself is
not the base one of gaining a victory, but that of becoming
thoroughly acquainted with the truth. Wherefore apply
yourself to the rest of the discussion.

Ortliod. — Well, then, I do not suppose you are ignorant
that it is impossible for two uncreated things to exist
together, although you seem to have expressed nearly as

^ The reader will here naturally think of tlie great and long-continued
Manichsean controversy. — Tr.

CONCERNING FREE WILL. 127

much as this in an earlier part of the conversation. As-
suredly we must of necessity say one of two things : either
that God is separate from matter, or, on the other hand, that
He is inseparable from it. If, then, one would say that they
are united, he will say that tliat which is uncreated is one
only (for each of the things spoken of will be a part of the
other), and as they are j)arts of each other, there will not be
two uncreated things, but one composed of different elements.
For we do not, because a man has different members, break
him up into many beings. But, as the demands of reason
require, we say that a single being, man, of many parts, has
been created by God. So it is necessary, if God be not
separate from matter, to say that that which is uncreated
is one only ; but if one shall say that He is separate, there
must necessarily be something intermediate between the
two, which makes their separation evident. For it is
impossible to estimate the distance of one tiling from
another, unless there be something else with which the
distance between them may be compared. And this holds
good, not only as far as the instance before us, but also
to any number of others. For the argument which we
advanced in the case of two uncreated things would of
necessity be of equal force, were the uncreated things
granted to be three in number. For I sliould ask also
respecting them, whether they are separate from each other,
or, on the other hand, are united each to its neighbour.
For if any one resolve to say that they are united, he avlQ
be told the same as before ; if, again, that they are separate,
lie will not escape the necessary existence of that which
separates them.

If, then, any one were to say that there is a third account
Avhich might fitly be given of uncreated things, namely,
that neither is God separate from matter, nor, again, are
they united as part of a whole; but that God is locaUy
situate in matter, and matter in God, he must be told as
the consequence,^ that if we say that God is placi'd in
matter, we must of necessity say that He is contained
' Jahn's reacliii'' is liere followed.

128 THE WPJThVaS OF METHODIUS.

M-ithin limits, and circumscribed by matter. But then lie
must, equally with matter, be carried about without order.
And tliat lie rests not, nor remains by Himself, is a neces-
sary result of that in which He is being carried, now this
way, and now that. And besides this, we must say that
God was in worse case still.

For if matter were once without order, and He, deter-
mining to change it for the better, put it into order, there
was a time when God was in that which had no order.
And I might fairly ask this question also, whether God
filled matter completely, or existed in some part of it. For
if one resolve to say that God was in some part of matter,
how far smaller than matter does he make Him; that is, if
a part of it contained God altogether. But if he were to
say that He is in all of it, and is extended through the
whole of matter, he must tell us how He wrought upon it.
For we must say that there was a sort of contraction of
God, which being effected. He wrought upon that from
which He was withdrawn, or else that He wrought iu union
with matter, without having a place of withdrawal. But if
any one say that matter is in God, there is equal need of
inquiry, namely, whether it is by His being separated from
Himself, and as creatures exist in the air, by His being
divided and parted for the reception of the beings that are
in Him; or whether it is locally situated, that is to say, as
water in land; for if we were to say, as in the air, we must
say that God is divisible; but if, as water in earth (since
matter was without order and arrangement, and besides,
contained what was evil), we must say that in God were to
be found the disorderly and the evil. Now this seems to
me an unbecoming conclusion, nay, more, a dangerous one.
For you wish for the existence of matter, that you may
avoid saying that God is the author of evil; and, determining
to avoid this, you say that He is the receptacle of evil.

If, then, imder the suj)position that matter is separate from
created substances, you had said that it is imcreated, I
should have said much about it, to prove tliat it is impossible
for it to be uncreated; but since you say that the [question

COSCKUS'ISG FUEK WlLl.. 12!)

of] the origin of e^■il is tlie cause of this supijosition, it
tlierefore seems to me right to in-oceed to inquire into this.
For when it is cleariy stated ho\v evil exists, and that it is
not possible to say that God is the cause of evil, because of
matter being subject to Him, it seems to me to destroy such
a supposition, to remark, that if God created the qualities
which did not exist, He equally created the substances.^

Do 3'ou say, then, that there co-exists with God matter
without qualities out of which He formed the beginning of
this world?

Oual. — So T think.

Ortliod. — If, then, matter had no qualities, and the world
were produced by God, and qualities exist in the world,
then God is the maker of qualities ?

Oucd. — It is so.

Ortliod. — Xow, as I heard you say some time ago that it
is impossible for anything to come into being out of that
which has no existence, answer my question : Do you tliink
that the qualities of the world were not produced out of any
existing qualities ?

Oaal. — I do.

Ortliod. — And that they are something distinct from sub-
stances?

Oual. — Yes.

Ortliod. — If, then, qualities were neither made by God
out of any ready at hand, nor derive their existence from
substances, because they are not substances, we must say
that they were produced by God out of what had no exist-
ence. "Wherefore I thought you spoke extravagantly in
saying that it was impossible to suppose that anything was
produced by God out of Avhat did not exist.

But let our discussion of this matter stand tlius. J-'nr
truly we see among ourselves men making things out of
what does not exist, although they seem for the most part
to be making them with sometliiiig. As, fur instance, we
uuiy have an example in the case of architects; for they

* The text is huiv in an uncertain ^tatc. (yi Miyni- and Jain..

130 THE WIIITIM.S el-' .]J/:T//o/i/ f'S.

truly do not make cities out of cities, ikh- in like maimer
teiiqilcs t)Ut of tcinplcs. .......

friiijicvfc'ct.)

['The rest from titc Blhllolhrca of J'huluisl]

Ent if, because substances underlie these things, you think
that the builders make them out of ^vllat does exist, you are
mistaken in your calculation. For it is not the substance
uliicli makes the city or the temples, but art applied to
substance. And this art is not produced out of some art
^vhich lies in the suljstances themselves, but from that which
is not in them.

But you seem likely to meet me with this argument:
that the artificer makes the art which is connected with the
substance out of the art which he has. Xow I think it is
a good reply to this to say, that in man it is not produced
from any art lying beneath; for it is not to ])e granted that
substance by itself is art. For art is in the class of acci-
dents, and is one of the things that have an existence only
when they are employed about some substance. For man
will exist even without the art of building, but it will have
no existence unless man be previously in being. Whence
we must say that it is in the nature of things for arts to be
produced in men out of what has no existence. If, then, we
have shown that this is so in the case of men, why \vas it
improper to say that God is able to make not only qualities,
but also substances, out of that which has no existence I
For as it appears possible for -something to be produced out
of Avhat exists not, it is evident that this is the case with
substances. To return to the question of evil. Do you
think evil comes imder the head of substances, or of quali-
ties of substances ?

Oual. — Of qualities.

Orfhod. — But matter was found to be without quality or
form ?

Oual. — It was.

Orthod. — Well, then, the connection of these names with
substance is owiufr to its accidents. For murder is nf»t a

CO.YCKRXIXG FREE WILL. 131

substance, nor is any other evil; but tlie substance receives
a cognate name from putting it into practice. For a man is
not [spoken of as] murder, but by committing it he receives
tlie derived name of murderer, witliout being himself
nmrder; and, to speak concisely, no other evil is a sub-
stance; but by practising any evil, it can be called evil.
!Similarly consider, if you imagine anything else to be the
cause of evil to men, that it too is evil by reason of it-^
acting by them, and suggesting the committal of evil. For
a man is evil in consequence of his actions. For he is said
to be evil, because he is the doer of evil. Now what a man
does, is not the man himself, but his activity, and it is
from his actions that he receives the title of evil. For
if we were to say that he is that which he does, and lie
commits murders, adidteries, and such-like, he will be all
these. Xow if he is these, then when they are produced
he has an existence, but when they are not, he too ceases
to be. Xow these things are produced by men. ]\ren
then will be the authors of them, and the causes of their
existing or not existing. But if each man is evil in con-
sequence of what he practises, and what he practises has
an origin, he also made a beginning in evil, and evil too
had a beginning. Xow if this is the case, no one is
without a beginning in evil, nor are evil things without
an origin.

Oual. — Well, my friend, you seem to me to have argued
sufficiently against the other side. For you appeared tn
draw right conclusions from the premises which we granted
to the discussion. For truly if matter is without qualities,
then God is the maker of qualities ; and if evils are
qualities, God will be the author of evils. But it seems
to me false to say that matter is without qualities; for it
cannot be said respecting any substance that it is with-
out qualities. But indeed, in the very act of saying that
it is without qualities, you declare that it has a quality,
by describing the character of matter, whicli is a kind of
quality. Therefore, if you please, begin the discussion from
the beginning; for it seems to me that matter never began

132 TIII<: WUTTJNGS OF M KTIIODICS.

to have qualities. For such hein.Lj the case, I assert, mv
friend, that evil arises from its emanation.

Orthod. — If matter were j)0ssessed ot qualities from
eternity, of -what will God be the creator ? For if we say
substances, we speak of them as pre-existing ; if, again, we
say qualities, these too are declared to have an existence.
Since, then, b(jth substances and qualities exist, it seems to
me superfluous to call God a creator. But answer me a
([uestion. In what way do you say that God was a creator?
AVas it by changing the existence of tliose sul)stances into
non-existence, or by changing the qualities while He pre-
served the substances ?

Oual. — I think that there was no change of the sub-
stances, but only of the qualities ; and in respect to these
we call God a creator. And just as if one might chance to
say that a house was made of stones, it cannot be said of
them that they do not still continue stones in substance,
because they are called a house ; for I affirm that the house
is made by the quality of construction. So I think that
God, while substance remained, produced a change of its
qiialities, by reason of which I say that this world was made
by God.

Orthod. — Do you think, too, that evil is among the quali-
ties of substances ?

Oucd.—l do.

Orthod. — And were these qualities in matter from the
first, or had they a beginning ?

On(d. — I say that these qualities were eternally co-ex-
istent with matter.

Orthod. — But do you not say that God has made a change
in the qualities ?

Ou(d. — I do say this.

Orthod. — For the better ?

Oual. — I think so.

Orthod. — If, then, evil is among the qualities of matter,
and its qualities were changed by God for the better, the
inquiry must be made whence evil arose. For either all
of them, beiuu' evil, underwent a change for the better,

co.\x'j':ii'\Lya fl'EE will. i-.vo

or some of tliem being evil, and some not, the evil ones
were not changed for the better ; but the rest, as ihr as
they were found superior, were cluinged by God for the
sake of order.

Dual. — That is the opinion I lu-ld from the l)eginning.

Orthod. — How, then, do you say it was that He left tlie
(jualities of evil as tliey were? Was it tliat He was alih;
to do away with them, or that, tliough He wisheil to do so,
He was unable? For if you say that He ^\■as alili', Imt
disinclined to do so, He must be the author of these things;
because, wliile He had power to bring evil to an end, He
allowed it to remain as it w^as, esi:)ecially when He had
begun to work upon matter. For if He had had nothing
at all to do with matter. He would not have been the
author of what He allowed to remain. But since He works
upon a part of it, and leaves a part of it to itself, while He
lias power to change it for the better, I think He is the
autlior of evil, since He left part of matter in its vileness.
He wrought then for the ruin of a part ; and, in this
respect, it seems to me that this part \vas chiefly injured
by His arranging it in matter, so that it became j^artakcr
of evil. For before matter was put in order, it Avas witli-
out the perception of evil ; but now each of its parts has
the capacity of perceiving evil. Xow, take an example in
the case of man. Previously to becoming a living creatuic,
he was insensible to evil ; but from tlie time wlien he is
fashioned by God into the form of man, he gains the per-
ception of approaching evil. So this act of God, wliiih
you s.ay was done for the beiiciit of matter, is Ibund lo lia\e.
happened to it rather for tlie worse. But if you say that
God was not able to stop evil, does the impossibility residt
i'roni His l)eing naturally weak, or from His being overconHi
by fear, and in subjection to some more jiowerful Being?
See which of these you M^ould like to attribute to the al-
mighty and good God. But, again, answer me about matter.
Is matter simple or compound? For if matt(n' be sim]»le
and \iniform, and the nniverse com])Ound, and composed (jf
dilfciciit sul)stan(,'(.'s, it is ini}iossi]>le to say that it is made

134 Till-: wurrixas of mktiiodius.

of matter, Lccause compound tliinj^'s caimot he composed of
one ])nre and simple ingredient. For composition indicates
the mixture of several simple things. But if, on the otiier
]iand, you say that matter is coni]30und, it lias been entirely
composed of simple elements, and they -svere once each
separately simple, and by their composition matter was pro-
duced ; for compound things derive their composition from
simple things. So there was once a time when matter did
not exist — that is to say, before the combination of the
simple elements. But if there was once a time when matter
did not exist, and there was never a time when what is
uncreated did not exist, then matter is not uncreated. And
from this it follows that there are many things which are
uncreated. For if God were uncreated, and the simple
elements of ^\-hich matter was composed were uncreated,
tlie immber of the uncreated would be more than two.
But to omit inquiring what are the simple elements, matter
or form — for this would be followed by many absurdities —
let me ask, do you think that nothing that exists is contrary
to itself I

Glial. — I do.

Ortliod. — Yet water is contrary to fire, and darkness to
light, and heat to cold, and moisture to dryness.

Oucd. — I think it is.

Ortliod. — If, then, nothing that exists is contrary to itself,
and these are contrary to one another, they will not be one
and the same matter — no, nor formed from one and the
same matter. But, again, I wish to ask, do you think that
the parts of a thing are not destructive of one another?

Oucd. — I do.

Ortliod. — And that tire and water, and the rest likewise,
are parts of matter ?

Oucd. — I hold them to be so.

Orthocl. — AVliy, then, do you not think that water is
destructive of fire, and light of darkness, and so on with
tlie rest ?

Oucd.—l do.

Ortliod. — Then, if parts of a thing are not destructive of

COSf'EItXlXa I'llKK Wll.J.. \?u^

one another, and tli(;.se are found to be so, tliry will not be
parts of the same thing. Bnt if tliey are not parts of the
same thing, they will not be parts of one and the same
matter. And, indeed, they will not be matter either,
because nothing that exists is destructive of itself. And
this being the case Avitli the contraries, it is shown that
they are not matter. This is enough on the subject of
matter.

Xow Ave must eome to the examination of evils, and
mu.st necessarily ini[uii'e into the evils among men. As to
these, are tliey foims of tlie principle of evil, or parts of it ?
If forms, evil will not have a separate existence distinct
from them, because the species are to be sought for in the
forms, and underlie tliem. But if this is the case, evil has
an origin. For its forms are shown to have an origin —
such as murder, and adultery, and the like. But if you will
have them to be parts of some principle of evil, and they
have an origin, it also must have an origin. For those
things whose parts have an origin, are of necessity origi-
nated likewise. For the whole consists of parts. And the
whole will not exist if the parts do not, though there may
be some parts, even if the whole be not there.

XoAv there is nothing existing of which one part is origi-
nated, and another part not. But if T were c\'en to grant
this, then there M'as a time when evil A\'as not complete,
namely, before matter was wrought by (lod. And it
attains comjdeteness when man is produced by God ; hji
man is the maker of the parts of evil. And from tins it.
follows that the cause of evil being complete, is God th<;
Creator, A\hich it is impious to say. But if you say that
evil is neither of tlu^ things su})posed, but is the doing of
something e\'il, you declare that it has an origin. For the
doing of a thing makes the beginning of its existence. And
besides thi.s, you have nothing further to pronounce evil.
For what other action have you to jioint out as such,
e.xcept what happens among men? Now, it has been
already sliown that hi' wlio acts is not evil according to
his luMiin-, but in accorilancf w ith liis evil doino.

136 TJIh: WlllTIMIS OF M FTJIijUJ US.

Because there is nothing evil l^y nature, hut it is hy use
that evil things become such. So I say, says he, that man
M-as made with a free will, not as if tliere were already evil
in existence, which he liad the power of choosing if he
wished, but on account of liis capacity of obeyiug or di-s-
obeying CJod.

For this was the meaning of the gift of Free Will. And
UKiu after his creation receives a commandment from God ;
and li-om tliis at once rises evil, for he does not obey
the divine command ; and this alone is evil, namely, dis-
obedience, Mhich liad a beginning.

For man^ received power, and enslaved himself, not
because he M'as overpowered by the irresistible tendencies
of his nature, nor because the capacity with which he was
gifted deprived him of what was better for him ; for it was
for the sake of this that I say he was endowed with it [but
he received the power above mentioned], in order that he
may obtain an addition to what he already possesses, which
accrues to him from the Superior Being in consequence of
his obedience, and is demanded as a debt from his ]\Iaker.
For I say that man was made not for destruction, but for
Ijetter things. For if he were made as any of the elements,
or those things which render a similar service to God, lie
would cease to receive a reward befitting deliberate choice,
and would be like an instrument of tlie maker ; and it
would be unreasonable for him to suffer blame for his
wrong-doings, for the real author of them is the one Ijy
N\-hom he is used. But man did not understand better
things, since he did not know the author [of his existence],
but only the object for which he was made. I say there-
lore that God, purposing thus to honour man, and to grant
him an understanding of better things, has given him the
j)o\vei' of being able to do what he wishes, and commends

^ The wliole of this work, as pieserved, is in a very iragmentaiy state.
"We luive followed Migue in general, as his edition is most widely
kuown, and but little is gained by adopting Jahn's, -whicli is somewhat
more i.-cniplete. — Tr.

co.\rKn.\L\<j i'lii:!-: will. i37

fhe employment of liis power for Letter tliiii<:is ; not that He
deprives him again of free will, hut wishes to point out the
hetter way. For the power is present with him, and he
receives the commandment; hut God exhorts him to turn
his power of choice to better things. For as a iather
exhorts liis son, who lias power to learn his lessons, to give
more attention to them, inasmuch as, while he points out
this as the hetter course, lie does not deprive his sun of the
])ower which he possessed, even if he he not inclined to
learn willingly ; so I do not think that God, wlule He urges
on man to obey liis commands, deprives him of the power
of purposing and withholding obedience. For He points out
the cause of His giving this advice, in that He does not
deprive him of the power. Ijut He gives commands, in order
that man may be able to enjoy better things. For this is
the consequence of obeying the commands of God. So that
He does not give commands in order to take away the
power which He has given, but in order that a better gift
may be bestowed, as to one Morthy of attaining greater
things, in return for his having rendered obedience to God,
M-hile he had power to withhold it. I say that man was
made with iree will, not as if there were alreaily existing
some evil, which he had the power of choosing if he wished,

but that the power of obeying and

dis()l)eying (Jod is the only cause [of the bestowal of free
will].

For this was the object to be obtained by free will.
And man after his creation receives a commandment from
(Jod, ;md from this at once rises evil; for he does not
obey the divine command, and this alone is evil, namely,
disobedience, Avhich had a beginning. For no one has
it in his power to say that it is without an origin, when
its author had an origin. But you will be sure to ask
whence arose this disobedience. It is clearly recordeil in
Holy Scripture, Vy which 1 am enabled to say that man
Mas not made by C!od in this conditiuii, but that he has
come to it by some teaching. For man did not receive such
a nature as this. For if it weie the case that his nature

138 Tin-: WRITINGS OF M ETIfOUI CS.

was such, tliis would not have come upon liini liy tcacliiiig.
Now one says in Holy Writ, that " man has learnt [evil]."^
I say, then, that disobedience to God is taught. For tin's
alone is evil which is produced in opposition to the pur-
pose of God , for man would not learn evil by itself. He,
then, wlio teaches evil is the Serpent.

Tor my part, I said that the beginning of e\'il was envy,
and that it arose from man's being distingiiished by God
Avith higher honour. Now evil is disobedience to the com-
mandment of God.

^ Jer. xiii. 23.

FROil THE

DISCOUr.SE ON THE RESURR!:OTION.

[DD did not make evil, nor is He at all in any
way the author of evil ; but -syhatever failed to
keep the law, Avhich !!(; in all justice ordained,
after being made by Him with the faculty of
fioc will, for the purpose of guarding and keeping it, is
called eviL Now it is the gravest faid.t to disobey God, by
overstej)ping the bounds of that righteousness which is con-
sistent M'ith free will.

II. Now the question has already been raised, and an-
swered,^ that the " coats of skins " - are not bodies. Never-
theless, let us speak of it again, for it is not enough to have
mentioned it once. Before the preparation of these coats of
skins, the first man himself acknowledges that he has both
bones and Hesh; for when he saw the woman brought to
him : " This is now," he cried,^ "bone of my bone, and tlesh
of my flesh." And again : " She shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of man. For this cause, shall a
man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto
hi.s wife, and they two shall be one flesh." For I cannot
endure the trilling of some who shamelessly do violence to
Serii)ture, in order that their opinion, that the resurrection
is without tlesh, may find support; supposing rational
bones and tlesh, and in different ways changing it back-
wards and forwards by allegorizing. And Christ confirms
the taking of these things as they are written, when, to the

^ Cf. Aiiastasiu.'^, in Jlarfrina J'utruDi (/<■ ]'n-hi Incurnatione, c 25
[Jalm]. By Ki)ipliaiiius, llu.r. l.\.iv. n. 22 [JIi;,'iiL'].

- Gen. iii. '2^. ^ (Juii. ii. 23. 24.

140 TlIK WlHTJXaS OF M F/niOJjJ TS.

(|iU',slion of the riiarisecs about yaitting aAvay a Avife, He
answers : "Have ye not read tliat He which made them at
the beginning made them male and female ; and said, For
this cause shall a man leave his father," ^ and so on.

III. But it is evidently absurd to think that the body
■will not co-exist with the soul in the eternal state, because
it is a bond and fetters ; in order that, according to their
\iew, Ave who are to live in the kingdom of light may not
]»e for ever condemned to be bondmen of corruption. For
as the question has been sufficiently solved, and the state-
ment refuted in which they defined the flesh to be the
soul's chain, the argument also is destroyed, that the flesh
will not rise again, lest, if we resume it, we be prisoners in
the kingdom of light.

IV. In order, then, that man might not be an undying
or ever-living evil, as would ha\e been tlie case if sin
were dominant within him, as it had sprung up in an im-
mortal body, and was provided with immortal sustenance,
God for this cause pronounced him mortal, and clothed
him with mortality. For this is what was meant by tlie
coats of skins, in order that, by the dissolution of the
l)ody, sin might be altogether destroyed from the very
roots, that there miglit not be left even the smallest par-
ticle of root from which new^ shoots of sins might again
burst forth.

\. For as a fig-tree, which has grown in the splendid
buildings of a temple, and has reached a great size, and is
spread over all the joints of the stones with thickly-branch-
ing roots, ceases not to grow, tiU, by the loosening of the
stones from the place in which it sprung up, it is altogether
torn away ; for it is possible for the stones to be fitted into
their own places, when the fig-tree is taken away, so that
1 he temj)le may be preserved, having no longer to support
Avhat was the cause of its own destruction ; while the fig-
tree, torn away by the roots, dies ; in the same way also,
God, the builder, checked by the seasonable application of
death, His own temple, man, when he had fostered sin, like
1 Matt. xi.\. 4. ,■).

DISCO U USE OA n/E nESUlUiKCTIOX. in

a wild fig-tree, "killinj4," ^ in the words of Scripture, "and
making' alive," in order that the Hesh, after sin is withered
and dead, may, like a restored temple, be raised up again
Avith the same parts, uninjured and immortal, while sin is
utterly and entirely destroyed. For w];ile the body still
lives, before it has passed through death, sin must also live
with it, as it has its roots concealed within us, even thougli
it be externally checked by the wounds inflicted by correc-
tions and warnings ; since, otherwise, it would not hapjxMi
that we do wrong after baptism, as we should Ije entirely
and absolutely free from sin. But now, even after belie\'-
iug, and after the time of being touched by the Mater of
sauctitication, we are oftentimes found in sin. For no one
can boast of being so free from sin as not even to have an
evil thought. So that it is come to pass that sin is now
restrained and lulled to sleep by faith, so that it does not
produce injurious fruits, but yet is not torn up by the roots.
For the present we restrain its sprouts, such as evil ima<Tin-
ations, "lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble "-
us, not suffering its leaves to unclose and open into shoots ;
while the Word, like an axe, cuts at its roots ■which
grow below. But hereafter the veiy thought of e\i\ will
disappear.

YI. But come now, since there is need of many examples
in matters of this kind, let us examine them particularlv
from this point of view, without desisting till our argument
ends in clearer explanation and proof It appears, then, as
if an eminent craftsman were to cast over again a noble
image, wrought by himself of gold or other material, and
beautifully proportioned in all its members, upon his sud-
denly perceiving tliat it had been mutilated by some
infamous man, wlio, too envious to endure the image being
beautiful, spoiled it, and thus enjoyed the empty pleasure
of indulged jealousy. For take notice, most wise Aglaojihon,
that, if the artificer wish that tliat upon which he lias
bestowed so much pains and care and labour, shall lie
ipiite free from injury, lie will be impelled to melt it down,
1 Dent, .\x\ii. :}!). -■ n.-l). \ii. 15.

142 riih: \vh'/T/.\as of metjtodius.

and rtistorc, it to its former condition. But if he sliould not
cast it afresli, nor reconstruct it, l)ut allow it to remain
as it is, repairing and restoring it, it must be that the image,
being passed through the fire and forged, cannot any longci'
be preserved iinehanged, but will be altered and wasted.
Wherefore, if he should wish it to be perfectly beautiful and
I'aultless, it must be broken up and recast, in order that all
the disfigurements and mutilations inflicted upon it by
treachery and envy, may be got rid of by the breaking up
and recasting of it, while the image is restored again unin-
jured and unalloyed to the same form as before, and made
as like itself as possible. For it is impossible for an image
imder the hands of the original artist to be lost, even if it
be melted down again, for it may be restored; but it is j)0ssible
for blemishes and injuries to be put off, for they melt away
and cannot be restored ; because in every work of art the
best craftsman looks not for blemish or failure, but foi
symmetry and correctness in his work. Now God's plan
seems to me to have been the same as that which prevails
among oiu'selves. For seeing man. His fairest work, cor-
rupted by envious treachery, He could not endure, with His
love for man, to leave him in such a condition, lest he should
be for ever faulty, and bear the blame to eternity; but dis-
solved him again into his original materials, in order that,
by remodelling, all tlie blemishes in him might waste away
and disappear. For the melting down of the statue in tlie
former case corresponds to the death and dissolution of the
body in the latter, and the remoulding of the material in the
I'ormer, to the resurrection after death in the latter; as also
saith the prophet Jeremiah, for he addresses [the Jews] in
tliese words, "And I went down to the potter's house; and,
behold, he ^^T0ugllt a work upon the stones. And the vessel
wliich he made in his hands was broken; and again he made
another vessel, as it pleased him to make it. And the word
of the Lord came to me, saying. Cannot 1 do to you as this
potter, house of Israel? Behold, as the clay of the potter
arc ye in my hands''^

^ Jer. x\-iii. 3-G.

DISCOUliSE ON THE PJuSURRECriOX. 140

YII. For I call your attention to tliis, that, as I said,
after man's transgression the Great Hand was not content
to leave as a trophy of victoiy its own work, debased by the
Evil One, who wickedly injured it from motives of envy;
but moistened and reduced it to clay, as a potter breaks
up a vessel, that by the remodelling of it all the blemishes
and bruises in it may disappear, and it may be made afresli
faultless and pleasing.

VIII. But it is not satisfactory to say that the universe
Avill be utterly destroyed, and sea and air and sky will be no
longer. For tlie whole world will be deluged with fire from
heaven, and burnt for the purpose of purification and
renewal; it will not, liowever, come to complete ruin and
coi'ru])tion. For if it were better for the world not to be
than to be, Avhy did God, in making the world, take the
worse course? But God did not work in vain, or do that
wliich A\-as worst. God therefore ordered the creation with
a view to its existence and continuance, as also the Wisdom
confirms, saying, " For God created all things that they
might have their being; and the generations of the M'orld
were healthful, and there is no poison of destruction in
them."^ And Paul clearly testifies this, saying, "For the
earnest expectation of the creature [or creation] waiteth for
the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature [or
creation] was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by
reason of him that subjected the same in hope: because tlie
creature [or creation] itself also sliall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the chil-
dren of God." 2 For the creation was made subject to vanity,
he says, and he expects that it will be set free from such
servitude, as he intends to call this M'orld by the name of
creation. For it is not what is unseen but wliat is seen that
is subject to corruption. The creation, then, after being
restoreil to a better and more seemly state, renuiins, rejoicing
and exulting over the children of God at the resurrection; for
whose sake it now groans and travails,^ waiting itself also for

1 Wis.l. i. 14. - R.tiii. viii. \'d--l\.

^ The icadiiiy and punctuation nl' Jalm are liere adopted.

1J4 TIIK WRlTLXaS OF M l'/rHUl)l US.

our rGdemption fiom the corruption of the hody, that, Avhen
we liave risen and shaken off the n)ortality of the Hesh,
according to tliat wliich is written, " Shake off the dust,
and arise, and sit down, Jerusalem," ^ and have been set
free from sin, it also shall he freed from corruption and he
sul)ject no longer to vanity, hut to rigliteousness. Isaiah
says, too, " For as the new heaven and the new earth which
I make, remaineth before me, saitli the Lord, so shall your
seed and your name be;"- and again, " Thus saith the Lord
that created the heaven, it is He who prepared the earth and
created it, He determined it ; He created it not in vain, but
formed it to be inhabited."^ For in reality God did not
establish the universe in vain, or to no purpose but destruc-
tion, as those weak-minded men say, but to exist, and be
inhabited, and continue. AMierefore the earth and the
heaven must exist again after the conflagration and shaking
of all things.

IX. But if our opponents say. How then is it, if the universe
be not destroyed, that the Lord says that "heaven and earth
sliall pass away;"* and the prophet, that "the heaven sliall
perish as smoke, and the earth shall grow old as a garment;"^
we answer, because it is usual for the Scriptures to call the
change of the world from its present condition to a better
and more glorious one, destruction; as its earlier form is
lost in the change of all things to a state of greater splen-
dour; for there is no contradiction nor absurdity in the Holy
Scriptures. For not " the world " but the " fashion of thi.s
world passeth away,'"^ it is said; so it is usual for the
Scriptures to call the change from an earlier form to a better
and more comely state, destruction; just as when one calls
l\v the name of destruction the change from a childish form
into a perfect man, as the stature of the child is turned into
[manly] size and beauty. We may expect that the creation
will pass away, as if it were to perish in the burning, in
order that it may be renewed, not however that it will be
destroyed, that we who are renewed may dwell in a renewed

' Isaiah lii. 2. - Isaiah Ixvi. 22. "' Isaiah xlv. IS.

^ Matt. xxiv. 3;-). '• Isaiali li. G. « 1 Cor. vii. ;]1.

DISCOURSE ON THE RESUMRECTIOX. 145

world without taste of sorrow; according as it is said,
" When Thou lettest Thy breath go forth, they sliall be made,
and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth ;"^ God hence-
forth providing for the due temperature of tliat which sur-
rounds it. For as the earth is to exist after the present age
[or " dispensation"], there must be by all means inhabitants
for it, who shall no longer be liable to death, nor shall
marry, nor beget children, but live in all happiness, like the
angels, without change or decay. Wherefore it is silly to
discuss in what way of life our bodies will then exist, if
tliere is no longer air, nor earth, nor anything else.

X. But in addition to what has been said, there is this
point worth consideration, since it misleads very much, if
we may be outspoken about matters of such importance,
Aglaophon. For you said that the Lord declared plainly
[when tempted by the Sadducees] that those who shall
obtain the resurrection shall then be as the angels.^ You
brouglit this objection : The angels, being without tiesh, are on
this account in the utmost happiness and glory. We must
then, as we are to be made equal to the angels, be like
them stripped of flesh, and be angels. But you overlooked
this, my excellent friend, that He who created and set in
order the universe out of nothing, ordained the nature of
immortal beings to be distributed not only among angels
and ministers, but also among principalities, and thrones,
and powers. For the race of angels is one, and that of
principalities and powers another; because immortal beings
are not all of one order, and constitution, and tribe, and
family, l)ut there are differences of race and tril)e. And
neither do the cherubim, departing from tlieir own nature,
assume the form of angels; nor, again, do angels assume the
form of the others. For they cannot be anything but what
they are and have been made. Moreover, man also having
been ai)pointed by the original order of things to inhabit
the world, and to rule over all that is in it, when he is
innnortal, will never be changed from being a man into the
form either of angels or any other; lor neither do angels
1 r.s. civ. 3l>. - ^latt. xxii. 30.

H6 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

undergo a change from their original form to another. For
Christ at llis coming did not proclaim that the human
nature should, when it is immortal, be remoulded or trans-
formed into another nature, but into what it was before tlie
fall. For each one among created things must remain
in its own proper place, that none may be wanting to any,
but all may be full : heaven of angels, thrones of powers,
luminaries of ministers ; and the more divine spots, and
the undefiled and untainted luminaries, with seraphim,
who attend the Supreme Council, and uphold the universe ;
and the world of men. For if we granted that men
are changed into angels, it would follow that we say that
angels also are changed into powers, and these into one
thing and the other, until our argument proceed too far Ibi
safety.

XL Neither did God, as if He had made man badly, oi
committed a mistake in the formation of him, determine
afterwards to make an angel, repenting of His work, as the
worst of craftsmen do; nor did He fashion man, after He
had wished originally to make an angel, and failed; for this
would be a sign of weakness, etc. AVhy even then did He
make man and not angels, if He wished men to be angels
and not men? Was it because He was unable? It is
blasphemy to suppose so. Or was He so busy in making
the worse as to loiter about the better ? This too is absurd.
For He does not fail in making what is good, nor defers it,
nor is incapable of it; but He has the power to act how
and when He pleases, inasmuch as He is Himself power.
AVherefore it was because He intended man to be man,
that He originally made him so. But if He so intended —
since He intends what is good — man is good. JSTow man
is said to be composed of soul and body; he cannot then
exist without a body, but M-ith a body, unless there be pro-
duced another man besides man. For all the orders of
immortal beings must be preserved by God, and among these
is man. " For," says Wisdom, " God created man to be im-
mortal, and made him to be an image of His own eternity.'' ^
1 Wisd. ii. 23.

niSCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTIOX. 147

The body then perishes not; for man is composed of soul
and body.

XII. Wlierefore observe that these are the very thin^^s
which the Lord wished to teach to the Sadducees, who did
not believe in the resurrection of the flesh. For this was
the opinion of the Sadducees. "Whence it was that, havinj?
contrived the parable about the woman and the seven
brethren, that they might cast doubt upon the resurrection
of the flesh, " Tliere came to Him," ^ it is said, " the
Sadducees also, who say tliat there is no resurrection."
Christ, then, if there had been no resurrection of the flesh,
but the soul only were saved, would have agreed with their
opinion as a right and excellent one. But as it was, He
answered and said, " In the resurrection they neither
marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in
heaven,"^ not on account of having no flesh, but of not
marrying nor being married, but being henceforth incor-
ruptible. And He speaks of our being near the angels in
this respect, that as the angels in heaven, so we also iu
paradise, spend our time no more in marriage-feasts or
other festivities, but in seeing God and cultivating lii'e,
under the direction of Christ. For He did not say " they
shall be angels," but like angels, in being, for instance,
crowned, as it is M-ritten, with glory and honour ; differing
a little from the angels,^ while near to being angels. Just
as if He had said, while observing the fair order of the sky,
and the stillness of the night, and everything illumined by
the heavenly light of the moon, " the moon shines like the
sun." We shoidd not then say that He asserted that the
moon was absolutely the sun, but like the sun. As also
that which is not gold, Init a])proaching the nature of gokl,
is said not to be gold, but to be, like gold. JUit if it were
sold, it would be said to be, and not to be like, gold. But
since it is not gold, but approaching to the nature of it, and
has the appearance of it, it is said to be like gold ; so also
when He says that the saints shall, in the resurrection, be
like the angels, we do not understand Him to assert that
' Matt. .\xii. 23. - .Matt. .\.\ii. 2.3. ^ j>_^_ ^.ij^_ r,_

148 TIIK WPJTINGS OF METHODIUS.

they will then he actually aiii^^els, hut approacliinj:^ to the
condition of angels. So that it is most unreasonahle to say,
" Since Christ declared that the saints in the resurrection
appear as angels, therefore their bodies do not rise," although
the very words employed give a clear jiroof of the real state
of the case. For the term "resurrection" is not applied to
that which has not fallen, but to that which has fallen and
rises again ; as when the prophet says, " I will also raise up
again the tabernacle of David which has fallen down,"^ Now
the much-desired tabernacle of the soul is fallen, and simk
down into "the dust of the earth." ^ For it is not that
which is not dead, but that which is dead, that is laid
down. Bat it is the flesh which dies ; the soul is immortal.
So, then, if the soul be immortal, and the body be the
corpse, those who say that there is a resurrection, but not
of the flesh, deny any resurrection ; because it is not that
which remains standing, but that wdiich has fallen and
been laid down, that is set up ; according to that which is
■^Titten, " Does not he who falls rise again, and he who
turns aside return ?"^

XIII. Since flesh was made to border on incorruption and
corruption, being itself neither the one nor the other, and
was overcome by corruption for the sake of pleasure,
though it was the work and property of incorruption ;
therefore it became corruptible, and was laid in the dust of
the earth. When, then, it was overcome liy corruption, and
delivered over to death through disobedience, God did not
leave it to corruption, to be triumphed over as an inherit-
ance; but, after conqviering death by the resurrection,
delivered it again to incorruption, in order that corruption
might not receive the property of incorruption, but incor-
ruption that of corruption. Therefore the apostle answers
thus, "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality." * Xo w the corruptible
and mortal putting on immortality, what else is it but that
v.'hich is " sown in corruption and raised in incorruption"^

^ Amos ix. 11. 2 j)mi xii. 2. ^ Jer viii. 4.

* 1 Cor. XV. 53. 6 1 Qor. v. 42.

DISCOURSE ON THE ItESURRECTIOX. 140

(for tlie soul is not corruptible or mortal ; Lut tliis ■which is
mortal and corrupting is of flesh), in order that, " as we
have borne the image of the earthy, wo. shall also bear the
image of the heavenly?"^ For the image of the earthy
which we have borne is this, " Dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return."- But the image of the heaveidy is
the resurrection from the dead, and incorruption, in order
that " as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory
of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life." ^
But if any one were to think that the earthy image is the
flesh itself, but the heavenly image some other spiritual
body besides the flesh ; let him first consider that Christ,
the heavenly man, when He appeared, bore the same form
of limbs and the same image of flesh as ours, through which
also He, who was not man, became man, that " as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."* For if
He bore flesh for any other reason than that of setting the
flesh free, and raising it up, why did He bear flesh super-
fluously, as He purposed neither to save it, nor to raise it
up ? But the Son of God does nothing superfluously. He
did not then take the form of a servant uselessly, but to
raise it up and save it. For He truly was made man, ami
died, and not in mere appearance, but that He might truly
be shown to be the first begotten from the dead, changing
the earthy into the heavenly, and the mortal into tht.'
immortal. When, then, Paul says that " flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God,"^ he does not give a
disparaging opinion of the regeneration of the flesh, but
would teach that the kingdom of God, which is eternal life,
is not possessed by the body, but the body by the life. For
if the kingdom of God, which is life, were possessed by the
body, it would happen that the life would be consumed by
corruption. But now the life possesses what is dying, iu
order that "death may be swallowed up in victory"" by life,
and the corruptiljle may be seen to be the jiossession of
incorruption and immortality, while it becomes unbound

1 1 Cor. XV. 49. - Gun. iii. 19. ■• Rom vi. 4.

* 1 Cor. XV. 22. * 1 Cor. xv. 50. <= I Cor. xv. 54.

]50 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

and iVee from death and sin, but the slave and servant of
immortality; so that the hody may he the possession of
incorru})tion, and not incorniption that of the hody.

XIV. If, then, out of such a drop, small, and previously
without any existence, in its actual state of moistness, con-
tractedness, and insignificance, in fact out of nothing, man
is brought into being, how much rather shall man spring
again into being out of a previously existing man? For it
is not so difficult to make anything anew after it has once
existed and fallen into decay, as to produce out of nothing
that which has never existed. Now, in case we choose to
exhibit the seminal fluid discharged from a man, and place
by it a corpse, each by itself, which of them, as they both
lie exposed to view, will the spectators think most likely to
become a man — that drop, which is nothing at all, or that
which has already shape, and size, and substance? For if
the very thing which is nothing at all, merely because God
pleases, becomes a man, how much rather shall that which
has existence and is brought to perfection become again
a man, if God pleases? For what was the purpose of the
theologian Moses, in introducing, under a mystical sense, the
Feast of Tabernacles in the Book of Leviticus ? Was it that
we may keep a feast to God, as the Jews with their low
view of the Scriptures inteipret it? as if God took pleasure
in such tabernacles, decked out with fruits and boughs and
leaves, which immediately wither and lose their verdure.
We cannot say so. Tell me, then, what was the object of
the Feast of Tabernacles? It was introduced to point to
this real tabernacle of ours, which, after it was fallen down
to corruption through the transgression of the law, and
broken up by sin, God promised to put together again, and
to raise up in incorruptibility, in order that we may truly
celebrate in His honour the great and renowned Feast of
Tabernacles at the resurrection; when our tabernacles are
put together in the perfect order of immortality and harmony,
and raised up from the dust in incorruption ; when the dry
bones,^ according to the most true prophecy, shall hear a
1 Ezek. xxxvii. 4.

DISCOURSE OX THE RESURRECTION. 151

voice, and be brought to their joints by God, the Creator
and Perfect Artificer, who will then renew the flesh and
bind it on, no more with such ties as those by which it was
at first held together, but by such as shall be for ever un-
decaying and indissoluble. For I once saw on Olympus
(which is a mountain of Lycia), fire bursting up from the
ground spontaneously on the summit of the mountain; and
by it was standing an Agnos tree, so flourishing, green, and
shady, that one might suppose a never-failing stream of
water had nourished its growth, rather tlian what was really
the case. For whicli cause, therefore, though the natures of
things are corruptible, and their bodies consumed by fire,
and it is impossible for things which are once of an inflam-
mable nature to remain unaffected by fire; yet this tree, so
far from being burnt, is actually more vigorous and green
than usual, though it is naturally inflammable, and that too
when the fire is glowing about its very roots. I certainly
cast some boughs of trees from tlie adjoining wood on to
the place where the fire burst forth, and they immediately
caught fire and were burnt to ashes. Now, tlien, tell me
why it is that that which cannot bear even to feel the heat
of the sun, but withers up under it unless it be sprinkled
with water, is not consumed when beset by such fiery heat,
but both lives and thrives ? What is the meaning of this
marvel ? God appointed this as an example and intro-
duction to the day that is coming, in order that we may
know more certainly that, when aU things are deluged with
fire from heaven, the bodies whicli arc distinguished by
chastity and righteousness will be taken up by Him as free
from all injury irom the fire as from cold water. For tridy,
beneficent and bountiful Lord, " the creature that serveth
Thee, who art the Maker, increaseth his strength against
the unrighteous for their punishment, and abateth his
strength for the benefit of such as put their trust in
Thee;"^ and at TJiy pleasure fire cools, and injures nothing
that Thou determinest to be preserved ; and again, water
burns more fiercely than fire, and notliing opposes Thine
1 Wisd. xvi. -lA.

152 TILE WPdTIXaS OF METHODIUS.

nnconquerable power and miglit. For Thou creatcdst all
things out of nothing; wherefore also Thou changest and
transformest all things as Thou wilt, seeing they are Thine,
and Thou alone art God.

XV. The apostle certainly, after assigning the planting
and watering to art and earth and water, conceded the
growth to God alone, where he says, " IS'either is he that
planteth anything, neither he that watereth ; but God that
giveth the increase." ^ For he knew that Wisdom, the first-
horn of God, the parent and artificer of all things, brings
forth everything into the world ; whom the ancients called
Nature and Providence, because she, %vitli constant provision
and care, gives to all things birth and growth. " For," says
the Wisdom of God, " my Father worketh hitherto, and I
work." 2 Now it is on this account that Solomon called
Wisdom the artificer of all things, since God is in no
respect poor, but able richly to create, and make, and vary,
and increase all things.

XVI. God, who created all things, and provides and cares
for all things, took dust from the ground, and made our
outer man.

THE SECOND DISCOUESE ON THE
EESUEEECTION.

[S. John Damascene, Orat. 2. De Imagin. torn. i. p. 389, Ed.
Paris, 1712.]

For instance, then, the images of our kings here, even
though they be not formed of the more precious materials —
gold or silver — are honoured by all. For men do not, while
they treat with respect those of the far more precious
material, slight those of a less valuable, but honour every
image in the w^orld, even though it be of chalk or bronze.
And one who speaks against either of them, is not acquitted
as if he had only spoken against clay, nor condemned for
having despised gold, but for having been disrespectful
^ Cor. iii. 7. - John v. 17.

DISCOURSE OX THE PJCSURRECTIOX. 153

towards the King and Lord Himself. The images of God's
angels, which are iashioned of gold, the principalities and
powers, we make to His honour and glory.

FrvO:\r the discourse on the eesureection.

[Photics : Bibliotheca, cod. 234.]

I. Eead the Book on the Resurrection by St ]\Ietho-
dius, Bishop and ^lartyr, of which that which follows is
a selection, that the body is not the fetter of the soul, as
Origen thought, nor are souls called by the prophet Jere-
miah "fettered" on account of their being within bodies.
For he lays down the principle that the body does not
hinder the energies of the soul, but that rather the body is
carried about with it, and co-operates in whatever the soul
commits to it. But how are we to understand the opinion
of Gregory ^ the theologian, and many others ?

II. That Origen said that the body was given to the soul
as a fetter after the fall, and that previously it lived without
a body ; but that tliis body which we wear is the cause of
our sins ; wherefore also he called it a fetter, as it can
hinder the soul from good works.

III. That ii the body was given to the soul after the fall
as a fetter, it must have been given as a fetter upon the evil
or the good. Now it is impossible that it should be upon
tlie good ; for no physician or artificer gives to that which
has gone M-rong a remedy to cause further error, much less
would God do so. It remains, then, that it was a fetter
upon evil. But surely we see that, at the beginning, Cain,
clad in tliis body, committed murder ; and it is evident into
what wickedness those who succeeded him ran. The body is
not, then, a fetter ujion evil, nor indeed a fetter at all ; nor
was the soul clothed in it for the first time after the fall.

lY. That man, with respect to his nature, is most truly
said to be neither soul without body, nor, on the otlier hand,
body without soul ; but a being composed out of the union

^ Gregory, • siiniaiiied Tlit'ologus, commonly known as Gregory
Naziuuzi;n.

154 THE WRITLVGS OF METHODIUS.

of soul and body into one form of the beautiful. But
Origen said that the soul alone is man, as did Plato.

V. That there is a difference between man and other
living creatures ; and to them are given varieties of natural
form and shape, as many as the tangible and visible forces
of nature produced at the command of God ; while to him
was given the form and image of God, with every part
accurately finished, after the very original likeness of the
Father and the only-begotten Son. Now we must consider
how the saint states this.

VI. He says that Phidias the statuary, after he had
made the Pisa^an image of ivory, ordered oil to be poured
out before it, that, as far as he could secure it, it might be
preserved imperishable.

VII. He says that the devil is a spirit, made by God,
in the neighbourhood of matter, as was said also by Athena-
goras (as of course the rest of the angels are), and that he
was entrusted with the oversight of matter, and the forms
of matter. For, according to the original constitution of
angels, they were made by God, in His providence, for the
care of the universe ; in order that, while God exercises a
l^erfect and general supervision over tlie whole, and keeps
the supreme authority and power over all — for upon Him
their existence depends — the angels appointed for this
purpose take charge of particulars. Now the rest of
them remained in the positions for which God made and
appointed them ; but the devil was insolent, and ha%dng
conceived envy of us, behaved wickedly in the charge com-
mitted to him ; as also did those who subsequently were
enamoured of fleshly charms, and had illicit intercourse with
the daughters of men. For to them also, as was the case
with men, God granted the possession of their own choice.
And how is this to be taken ?

VIII. He says that by the coats of skins is signified
death. For he says of Adam, that when the Almighty God
saw that by treachery he, an immortal being, had become
evil, just as his deceiver the devil was. He prepared the
coats of skins on this account ; that when he was thus, as it

DiscounsE oy tiik nESuiuux'iio^. 155

■were, clotlied in mortality, all that was evil in liim might
(lie in the dissolution of the body.

IX. He holds that St Paul had two revelations. For tlie
apostle, he says, does not suppose paradise to be in the
third hea.ven, in the opinion of those who know how to
observe the niceties of language, when he says, " I know
such a man caught up to the third heaven ; and I know
such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, God
knoweth, that was caught \\\^ into paradise." ^ Here he
signifies that he has seen two revelations, having been evi-
dently taken up twice, once to the third heaven, and once
into paradise. For the words, " I know such a man caught
up," make it certain that he was personally shown a revela-
tion respecting the third heaven. And the words which
follow, " And I know such a man, whether in the body or
out of the body, God knoweth, that he was caught up into
paradise," show that another revelation was made to him
respecting paradise. Now he was led to make tins state-
ment by his opponents having laid it down from the
apostle's words that paradise is a mere conception, as it ia
above the heaven, in order to draw the conclusion that life
in paradise is incorporeal.

X. He says that it is in our power to do, or to avoid
doing, evil ; since otherwise we should not be punished for
doing evil, nor be rewarded for doing well ; but the presence
or absence of evil thoughts does not depend upon ourselves.
"VVlierefore even the sainted Paul says, " For what I would,
that do I not, but what I would not, that I do ;"^ that is to
say, "My thoughts are not what I would, but what I would
not." Now he says that the habit of imagining evil is
rooted out by the approach of physical death, since it was
for this reason that death was appointed by God for the
sinner, that evil might not remain for ever.

P>ut what is the meaning of this statement (it is to be
noted that it has been made by others of our Fathers as
well), seeing that those who meet death find in it at tlie
time neither increase nor decrease of sins.

1 i Cur. xii. 2, :}. 2 ii„„i. vii. \:y.

156 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

A Synopsis of some Apostolic Words from the same

Discourse.

[PnoTius: Blbliotheca, ihid.]

I. ricad a compendious interpretation of some apostolic
words from the same discourse. Let us see, then, what it is
that we have endeavoured to say respecting the apostle.
For this saying of his, "I was alive without the law once,"^
refers to the life which was lived in paradise before the law,
not without a body, but with a body, by our first parents,
as we have shown above ; for we lived without concu-
piscence, being altogether ignorant of its assaults. For not
to have a law according to which we ought to live, nor a
power of establishing what manner of life we ought to
adopt, so that we might justly be approved or blamed, is
considered to exempt a person from accusation. Because
one cannot lust after those things from which he is not
restrained, and even if he lusted after them, he would not
be blamed. For lust is not directed to things which are
before us, and subject to our power, but to those which are
before us, and not in our power. For how should one care
for a thing which is neither forbidden nor necessary to
him ? And for this reason it is said, " I had not known lust,
except the law had said. Thou shalt not covet." - For when
[our first parents] heard, " Of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,"^ then they conceived
lust, and gathered it. Therefore was it said, " I had not
known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet;"
nor would they have desu-ed to eat, except it had been said,
" Thou shalt not eat of it." For it was thence that sin took
occasion to deceive me. For when the law was given, the
devil had it in his power to work lust in me ; " for without
the law, sin was dead ;"^ which means, " when the law was
not given, sin could not be committed." But I was alive
and blameless before the law, having no commandment in
accordance with which it was necessary to live ; " but when

1 Rom. vii. 9. ^ Rom. vii. 7. ^ Gen. ii. 17. ^ Rom. vii. S.

DISCOURSE OX THE RESURRECTION. Vol

the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the
commandment, whicli was ordained to life, I found to be
imto deatli."^ For after God had given the law, and had
commanded me what I ought to do, and what I ought not to
do, the devil wrought lust in me. For the promise of God
which was given to me, this was for life and incorruption, so
that obeying it I miglit have ever-blooming life and joy
unto incorruption ; but to him who disobeyed it, it would
issue in death. But tlie devil, whom he calls sin, because
he is the author of sin, taking occasion by the command-
ment to deceive me to disobedience, deceived and slew
me, thus rendering me subject to the condemnation, " In
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."^
" Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy,
and just and good;"^ because it was given, not for injury,
but for safety ; for let us not suppose that God makes
anything useless or hurtful. Wliat then ? " Was then that
which is good made death unto me ?"* namely, that which
was given as a law, that it might be the cause of the greatest
good ? " God forbid." For it was not the law of God that
became the cause of my being brouglit into subjection to
corruption, but the devil ; that he might be made manifested
who, through that which is good, wrouglit evil ; that the
inventor of evil might become and be proved the greatest of
all sinners. "For we know that the law is spiritual ;"^ and
therefore it can in no respect be injurious to any one; for
spiritual things are far removed from irrational lu.st and sin.
"But I am carnal, sold under sin;'"* which means: But 1
being carnal, and being placed between good and evil as a
voluntary agent, am so that I may have it in my power to
choose what I will. For " behold I set before thee life and
death ;"^ meaning that dcatli woidd n^suU iVom disobedi-
ence of the s])iritual law, tliat is of the comniandmrnt; and
from obedience to the carnal law, that is the counsel of the
serpent; for by such a choice " 1 am sold" to the devil,

1 Rom. vii. n, 10. ^ Con. ii. 17. •' Uniii. vii. 12.

* Rom. vii. 13. '"> Rom. vii. J 4. " Rom. vii 14.

^ Jcr. xxi. H; Ecclu-'. xv. 8; Di'Ut. xxx. 1').

158 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

falling under sin. Hence evil, as tliough besieging me,
cleaves to me and dwells in me, justice giving me up to be
sold to the Evil One, in consequence of having violated the
law. Therefore also the expressions : " That which I do, I
allow not," and " what I hate, that do I," ^ are not to be
understood of doing evil, but of only thinking it. For it is
not in our power to think or not to think of improper things,
but to act or not to act upon our thoughts. For we cannot
hinder thoughts from coming into our minds, since we
receive them wdien they are inspired into us from without ;
but we are able to abstain from obeying them and acting
upon them. Therefore it is in our power to will not to
think these things ; but not to bring it about that they shall
pass away, so as not to come into the mind again ; for this
does not lie in our power, as I said ; which is the meaning
of that statement, "The good that I would, I do not;"^ foi
I do not will to think the things which injure me ; for this
good is altogether innocent. But " the good that I w^ould,
I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I do ;" not
willing to think, and yet thinking what I do not will. And
consider whether it was not for these very things that David
entreated God, grieving that he thought of those things
Avhich he did not will : " O cleanse Thou me from my secret
faults. Keep Thy servant also from presumptuous sms,
lest they get the dominion over me ; so shall I be undeliled,
and innocent from the great offence."^ And the apostle too,
in another place : " Casting down imaginations, and every
high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ."*

II. But if any one should venture to oppose this state-
ment, and reply, that the apostle teaches that we hate not
only the evil which is in thought, but that we do that which
we will not, and we hate it even in the very act of doing it,
for he says, " The good which I would, I do not ; but the
evil wdiich I would not, that I do;"^ if he who says so

^ Rom. vii. 15. - Rom. vii. 19. ^ Pd. xix. 12, 13.

* 2 Cor. X. 5. ^ Rom. vii. 19.

DISCOURSE OX THE RESURRECTION. 159

speaks the truth, let us ask lum to explain what was tlie
evil which the apostle hated and willed not to do, but did ;
and the good which he willed to do, but did not ; and con-
versely, whether as often as he willed to do good, so often
he did not do the good which he willed, but did the evil
which he willed not ? And how he can say, when exhort-
ing us to shake off all manner of sin, " Be ye followers of
me, even as I also am of Christ?"^ Thus he meant the
things already mentioned which he willetl not to do, not to
be done, but only to be thought of. For how otherwise
coidd he ]je an exact imitation of Christ ? It would be
excellent then, and most delightful, if we had not those who
oppose us, and contend with us ; but since this is impos-
sible, we cannot do what we will. For we will not to have
those who lead us to passion, for then we could be saved
without weariness and effort; but that does not come to
pass which we will, but that which we will not. For it is
necessary, as I said, that we should be tried. Let us not
then, my soul, let us not give in to the Evil One ; but
putting on " the whole armour of God," which is our pro-
tection, let us have " the breast-plate of righteousness, and
your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel [of peace].
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be
able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take
the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God," ^ that ye may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil ; " casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of Christ,"^ " for we wrestle not against flesh and blood ;"■*
" for that which I do, I allow not ; lor what I woidd, that
do I not; but what I hate, that do 1. If then I do that
whicli I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwel-
leth no good thing."^ And tliis is rightly said. For re-
member how it has been already shown that, liom the time

M C(.r. xi. 1. '-iEph. vi. 13, 14-r.. ' 2 Cor. x. 5.

* Eph. vi. 12. '•> Kom, vii. 15-18.

160 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

when man went astray and disobeyed the law, tlience sin,
receiving its birth from his disobedience, dwelt in him. For
thus a commotion was stirred up, and we were filled with
agitations and foreign imaginations, being emptied of the
divine inspiration and filled with carnal desire, which the
cunning serpent infused into us. And, therefore, God
invented death for our sakes, that He might destroy sin,
lest rising up in us immortals, as I said, it should be
immortal. When the apostle says, " for I know that in
me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing," by
which words he means to indicate that sin dwells in us,
from the transgression, through lust ; out of which, like
young shoots, the imaginations of pleasure rise around us.
For there are two kinds of thoughts in us; the one which
arises from the lust which lies in the body, which, as I said,
came from the craft of the Evil Spirit; the other from the
law, which is in accordance with the commandment, which
we had implanted in us as a natural law, stirring up our
thoughts to good, when we delight in the law of God
according to our mind, for this is the inner man; but in the
law of the devil according to the lust which dwells in the
flesh. For he who wars against and opposes tlie law of
God, that is, against the tendency of the mind to good, is
the same who stirs up the carnal and sensual impulses to
lawlessness.

III. For the apostle here sets forth clearly, as I think,
three laws : One in accordance with the good which is
implanted in us, which clearly he calls the law of the mind.
One the law which arises from the assault of evil, and which
often draws on the soul to lustful fancies, which, he says,
" wars against the law of the mind."^ And the third, Avhicli
is in accordance with sin, settled in the flesh from lust,
which he calls the "law of sin which dwells in our
members;" 2 Avhich the Evil One, urging on, often stirs up
against us, driving us to unrighteousness and evil deeds.
For there seems to be in ourselves one thing which is better
and another which is worse. And when that which is in
1 Rom. vii. 23. 2 Rq^. yii. 23.

DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 161

its nature better is about to become more powerful than
tliat which is worse, the whole mind is carried on to that
which is good; but wlien that which is woi-se increases and
overbalances, man is on the contraiy urged on to evil imagi-
nations. On account of which the ajtostle prays to be
delivered from it, regarding it as death and destruction; as
also does the prophet when he says, " Cleanse Thou me
from my secret faults."^ And the same is denoted by the
words, " For I delight in the law of God after the inward
man; but I see another law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the
law of sin which is in my members. wretched man that I
am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?"2
By which he does not mean that the body is death, but the
law of sin which is in his members, lying hiddeu in us
through the transgression, and ever deluding the soul to the
death of unrighteousness. And he immediately adds, clearly
showing from what kind of death he desired to be delivered,
and who he was who delivered him, " I thank God, through
Jesus Christ."^ And it should be considered, if lie said
that this body was death, Aglaophon, as you supposed,
he would not afterwards mention Christ as delivering him
from so great an evil. For in that case what a strange
thing should we have had from the advent of Christ? And
how could the apostle have 'said this, as being able to be
delivered from death by the advent of Christ; when it was
the lot of all to die before Christ's coming into the world ?
And, tlierefore, Aglaophon, lie says not that this body
was death, but the sin which dwells in the body through
lust, from wdiich God has delivered him by the coming of
Christ. " For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
hath made me free from the law of sin and death;" so that
" He that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you;"
having " condemned sin" which is in the body to its destruc-
tion; " that the righteousness of the law"* of nature which

I Ps. xix. 12. 2 Rom. vii. -22-24. ^ j^^^, y\\ o").

*Rom. viii. 2. 11.3. 4.

1G2 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

(liiuvs us to i,'oo(l, and is in accordance with the command-
iiient, might be kiiuUed and manifested. For the good
which " the law " of nature " couhl not do, in that it was
weak," being overcome by the lust which lies in the body,
God gave strength to accomplish, " sending His own Son in
the likeness of sinful ilesh;" so that sin being condemned,
to its destruction, so that it should never bear fruit in the
fiesh, the righteousness of the law of nature might be ful-
filled, abounding in the obedience of those who walk not
according to the lust of the flesh, but according to the lust
and guidance of the Spirit; " for the law of the Spirit of
life," which is the Gospel, being different from earlier laws,
leading by its preaching to obedience and the remission of
sins, delivered us from the law of sin and death, having
conquered entirely sin which reigned over our flesh.

IV. He [Methodius] says that plants are neither nour-
ished nor increased from the earth. For he says, let any
one consider how the earth can be changed and taken up
into the substance of trees. For then the place of the eartli
which lay around, and was drawn up through the roots into
the whole compass of the tree, where the tree grew, must
needs be hollowed out; so that such a thing as they hold
respecting the flux of bodies is absurd. For how could the
earth first enter in through the roots into the trunks of
the plants, and then, passing through their channels into all
their branches, be turned into leaves and fruit? Now there
are large trees, such as the cedar, pines, firs, which annually
bear much leaves and fruit; and one may see that they con-
sume none of the surrounding earth into the bulk and sub-
stance of the tree. For it would be necessary, if it were
true that the earth went up through the roots, and was
turned into wood, that the whole place M^here the earth lay
round about them should be hollowed out ; for it is not the
nature of a dry substance to flow in, like a moist substance,
and fill up the place of that, which moves away. jMoreover,
there are fig-trees, and other similar plants, which frequently
grow in the buildings of monuments, and yet they never
consume the entire building into themselves. But if anv

DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 163

one should clioosc to collect their fniit and leaves for many
years, he would perceive that their hulk had become mudi
larger than the earth upon tlie monuments. Hence it is
absurd to suppose that the earth is consumed into the crop
of fruits and leaves ; and even if they were all made by
it, they would be so only as using it for their seat and
place. Tor bread is not made without a mill, and a place,
and time, and fire; and yet bread is not made out of any of
these things. And the same may be said of a thousand
other things.

V. Now the followers of Origen bring forward this pass-
age, " For we know that if our earthly house of this taber-
nacle were dissolved,"^ and so forth, to disprove the resur-
rection of the body, saying that the " tabernacle " is the
body, and the " house not made with hands " " in tlie
heavens" is our spiritual clothing. Therefore, says the
holy Methodius, by this eartlily house must metaphorically^
be understood our short-lived existence here, and not this
tabernacle ; for if you decide to consider the body as being
the earthly house which is dissolved, tell us what is the
tabernacle whose house is dissolved ? For the tabernacle is
one thing, and the house of the tabernacle another, and still
another we who have the tabernacle. " For," he says, " if
our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved" — by
which he points out that the souls are ourselves, that the
body is a tabernacle, and that the house of the tabernacle
figuratively represents the enjoyment of the flesh in tlie
present life. If, then, this present life of the body be di.^-
solved like a house, we shall have that which is not maile
with hands in the heavens. " Not made with hands," he
says, to point out the dilference; because this life may be
said to be made with hands, seeing that all the employ-
ments and pursuits of life are carried on by the hands of
men. For tlie body being the wurkmanship of God, is not

1 2 Cor. V. 1.

^ The word moans literally, " liy an aliiiso, or misapplication;"
"but the author's moaning is very iioarly that o.vjirossed in the lo.vt.
— Tr.

1C4 Till': WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

said to be made with hands, inasmuch as it is not formed
by tlic arts of men. But if they shall say that it is made
with hands, because it was the workmanship of God, then
our souls also, and the angels, and the spiritual clothing in
the heavens, are made with hands; for all these things, also,
are the workmanship of God. What, then, is the house
wliich is made with hands? It is, as I have said, the short-
lived existence which is sustained by human hands. For
God said, " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread;" ^
and when that life is dissolved, we have the life which is
■ not made with hands. As also the Lord showed, when He
said : " Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of un-
righteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into
everlasting habitations."^ For what the Lord then called
" habitations " [ffzyivag,] the apostle here calls " clothing "
[i-Tsi/^i/ffatr^a/].^ And what He there calls "friends" "of
unrighteousness," the apostle here calls " houses " " dis-
solved." As then, when the days of our present life shall
fail, those good deeds of beneficence to which we have
attained in this unrighteous life, and in this " world " wliich
"lieth in wickedness,"* wiU receive our souls; so when this
perishable life shall be dissolved, we shall have the habita-
tion which is before the resurrection — that is, our souls
shall be with God, until we shall receive the new house
whicli is prepared for us, and which shall never fall.
Whence also " we groan," " not for that we would be
unclothed," as to the body, "but clothed upon"^ by it in
the other life. For the " house in heaven," with which we
desire to be "clothed," is immortality; with which, when
we are clothed, every weakness and mortality will be en-
tirely " sM^allowed up " in it, being consumed by endless
life. "For we walk by faith, not by sight ;"^ that is, for
^ye still go forward by faith, viewing the things which are
beyond with a darkened understanding, and not clearly, so
that we may see these things, and enjoy them, and be in
them. " Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood can-

^ Gen. iii. 19. 2 L^^^e xvi. 9. ' 2 Cor. v. 2, 3.

* 1 John V. 19. 6 3 Cor. y. 4. « 2 Cor. v. 7.

DISCOURSE 0.\ Tin-: JiESL'lUiECTWX. IGj

not inherit tlie kingdom of God; neitlier doth con'U])tion in-
herit incorrnption." ^ By Hesh, he did not mean lle.sh itself,
but the irrational impulse towards the lascivious pleasures
of the soul. And therefore when he says, " Flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God," he adds tlie explana-
tion, " Neitlier dotli corruption inherit incorruption." Xow
corruption is not the thing which is corrupted, but the thing
wliich corruj^ts. For when death prevails the body sinks
into corruption ; but when life still remains in it, it stand?
uncorrupted. Therefore, since the flesh is the boundary
between corruption and incorruj^tion, not being either cor-
ruption or incorruption, it was vanquished by corruption on
account of j)leasure, although it was the work and the pos-
session of incorruption. Therefore it became subject to
corruption. When, then, it had been overcome by corruption,
and was given over to death for chastisement, lie did not
leave it to be vanquished and given over as an inheritance
to corruption ; but again conquering death by the resurrec-
tion, lie restored it to incorruption, that corruption miglit
not inherit incorrui^tion, but incorruption that wliich is
corrnptil)le. And therefore the apostle answers, "This
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal im-
mortality."^ But the corruptible and mortal putting on
incorruption and immortality, what else is this, but tliat
which is sown in corruption rising in incorruption?^ For,
" as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also
bear the image of the heavenly."* For the "image of tlie
e.arthly" which we have borne refers to the saying, "Dust
thou art, and unto dust thou slialt return."^ And the
" image of the heavenly is the resurrection from the di-ad
and incori'uption."

VI. Now Justin of Neapolis,^ a man not far removed
either i'roni the times or from the virtues of the apostles,
says that that which is mortal is inherited, but that life
inherits; and tliat Ik'sh dies, but that tlie kingdom of heaven

1 1 Cor. XV. no. - 1 Cor. xv. 53. ^ 1 L'ur. .\v. 4l'.

* 1 Cor. XV. 4i). s Cen. iii. 19.

'' Cuniiuoulv known ;is S. Juslin Martyr. — Tii.

J r.fi THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

lives. When, then, Paul says that "flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of heaven,"^ he does not so speak as
seeming to slight the regeneration of the flesh, but as teach-
ing that the kingdom of God, which is eternal life, is not
inherited by the body, but the body by life. For if the
kingdom of God, which is life, were inlierited by the
body, it would happen that life was swallowed up by
corruption. But now life inherits that which is mortal,
that death may be swallowed up of life unto victory, and
that which is corruptible appear the possession of incor-
ruption ; being made free from death and sin, and become
the slave and subject of immortality, that the body may
become the possession of incorruption, and not incorruption
of the body.

YII. Now the passage, " The dead in Clu-ist shall rise
iii'st : then we which are alive," S. Methodius thus explains :
Those are our bodies ; for the souls are we ourselves, who,
rising, resume that which is dead from the earth ; so that
being cauglit up with them to meet the Lord, we may glori-
ously celebrate the splendid festival of the resurrection,
because we have received our everlasting tabernacles, which
shall no longer die nor be dissolved.

VIII. I saw, he says, on Olympus^ (Olympus is a moun-
tain in Lycia), a fire spontaneously arising on the top of the
mountain from the earth, beside which is the plant Puragnos,
so flourishing, green, and shady, that it seemed rather as
though it grew from a fountain. For what cause, although
they are by nature corruptible, and their bodies consumed
by fire, was this plant not only not burnt, but rather more
flourishing, although in its nature it is easily burnt, and the
Are was burning about its roots ? Then I cast branches of
trees out of the surrounding wood into the place where the
fire streamed forth, and, immediately bursting up into flame,
they were converted into cinders. What then is the mean-
ing of this contradiction ? This God appointed as a sign
and prelude of the coming Day, that we may know tliat,
when all things are overwhelmed by fire, the bodies which
1 1 Cor. XV. 50. 2 (jf_ p. 151,

DISCOURSE ON THE liESURliECTIOX. 167

are endowed witli chastity and righteousness shall ])a33
through it as though it were cold water.

IX. Consider, he says, whether too the blessed John, when
he says, " And the sea gave up the dead whicli were in it :
and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in
them," ^ does not mean the parts which are given \i]i by the
elements for the reconstruction of each one ? By the sea is
meant the moist element ; by hell (Hades), the air, derived
from aiiok, because it is invisible, as was said by Origen ;
and by death, the earth, because those who die are laid in
it; whence also it is called in the Psalms the "dust of
death," ^ Christ saying that He is brought " into tlie dust of
death/'

X. For, he says, whatever is composed and consists of
pure air and pure fire, and is of like substance with the
angelic beings, cannot have the nature of earth and water ;
since it would tlien be earthy. And of such nature, and
consisting of such things, Origen has shown that the body
of man shall be which shall rise, which he also said would
be spiritual.

XL And he asks wliat will Ijc the appearance of the risen
body, when this human form, as according to him useless,
shall wholly disappear ; since it is the most lovely of all
things which are combined in living creatures, as being the
form which the Deity Himself employs, as the most wise
Paul explains : " For a man indeed ought not to cover his
head, Ibrasmuch as he is the image and gloiy of God ;" ^ iu
accordance with which the rational bodies of the angels are
set in order ? will it be circular, or polygonal, or cubical, or
pyramidal ? For tliere are very many kinds of forms ; but
this is impossible. Well then, what are we to think of the
assertion, tliat the godlike shape is to be rejected as moro
ignoble (for he himself allows that tlie soul is like the body),
and tliat man is to rise again without liaiids or feet ?

XII. The transformation, he says, is the restoration into
an impassible and glorious state. For now tlie b(;dy is a
body of desire and of humiliation,* and therefore Daniel

1 Rev. x.\. 13. - Ps. .\.\ii. 15. ^ i q^„._ ^i. 7. ^ IMiil. iii. :>1.

1G8 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

was called " a man of desires." ^ But then it will be trans
figured into an impassible body, not by the change of the
arrangement of the members, but by its not desiring carnal
pleasures.

Then he says, refuting Origen, Origcn therefore thinks
that the same flesh will not be restored to the soul, but tliat
the form of each, according to the a]Dpearance by which the
flesh is now distinguished, shall arise stamped upon another
spiritual body ; so that every one will again appear the same
in form ; and that this is the resurrection wliich is promised.
For, he says, the material body being fluid, and in no wise
remaining in itself, but wearing out and being replaced
around the appearance by which its shape is distinguished,
and by which the figure is contained, it is necessary that
the resurrection should be only that of the form.

XIII. Then, after a little, he says : If then, Origen, you
maintain that the resurrection of the body changed into a
spiritual body is to be expected only in appearance, and put
forth the vision of Moses and Elias as a most convincing
proof of it ; saying that they appeared after their departure
from life, preserving no different appearance from that which
they had from the beginning ; in the same way will be the
resurrection of all men. But Moses and Elias arose and
appeared with this form of which you speak, before Christ
suffered and rose. How then could Christ be celebrated by
prophets and apostles as "the first begotten of the dead?"^
For if Christ is believed to be the first begotten of the dead.
He is the first begotten of the dead as having risen before all
others. But Moses appeared to the apostles before Christ
suffered, having this form in which you say the resurrection
is fulfilled. Hence, then, there is no resurrection of the form
without the flesh. For either there is a resurrection of the
form as you teach, and then Christ is no longer "the fii'st
begotten of the dead," from the fact that souls appeared
before Him, having this form after death ; or He is truly
the first begotten, and it is quite impossible that any should
liave been thought meet for a resurrection before Him, eo as
^ Dan. ix. 23, marginal reading. ^Eev. i. 5.

DISCOURSE ON THE HESURRECTIOX. 1C9

not to die again. But if no one arose before Him, and
Moses and Elias appeared to the apostles not having llesh,
but only its appearance, the resurrection in the ilesh is
clearly manifested. For it is most absurd that the resur-
rection should be set forth only in form, since the souls,
after their departure from the flesh, never appear to lay
aside the form which, he says, rises again. But if that
remains with them, so that it cannot be taken away, as with
the soul of j\Ioses and Elias ; and neither perislies, as you
think, nor is destroyed, but is everywhere present with
them ; then surely that form which never fell cannot be
said to rise again.

XIV. But if any one, finding this inadmissible, answers,
But how then, if no one rose before Christ went down into
Hades, are several recorded as having risen before Him \
Among whom is the son of the widow of Sarepta, and the
son of the Shunammite, and Lazarus. We must say : These
rose to die again ; but we are speaking of those who shall
never die after their rising. And if any one should speak
doubtfully concerning the soul of Elias, as that the Scrip-
tures say that he was taken up in the flesh, and we say that
he appeared to the apostles divested of tlie flesh, we must
say, that to allow that he appeared to the apostles in the
flesh is more in favour of our argument. For it is shown
by this case that the body is suscej^tible of immortality, as
was also proved by the tran.slation of Enoch. For if he
could not receive immortality, he could not remain in a
state of insensibility so long a time. If, then, he appeared
with the body, that was truly after he was dead, but certainly
not as having arisen from the dead. And this, we may say,
if we agree with Origen when he says that the same form is
given to the soul after death ; when it is separated from tlie
body, which is of all things the most impossible, from tlie
fact that the form of the flesh was destroyed before by its
changes, as also tlie form of the molted statue before its
entire dissolution. Because the quality cannot be separ-
ated from the material, so as to exist by itself; for the
shape wliich disappears around the brass is separated

1 70 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

from the melted statue, and lias not longer a substantial
existence.

XV. Since the form is said to be separated in death from
the flesh, come, let us consider in how many ways that
which is separated is said to be separated. Now a thing is
said to be separated from another either in act and subsis-
tence, or in thought ; or else in act, but not in subsistence.
As if, for instance, one should separate from each other wheat
and barley which had been mingled together ; in as far as
they are separated in motion, they are said to be separated
in act ; in as far as they stand apart when separated, they
are said to be separated in subsistence. They are separated
in thought when we separate matter from its qualities, and
qualities from matter ; in act, but not in subsistence, when
a thing separated from another no longer exists, not having
a substantive existence. And it may be observed that it is
so also in mechanics, when one looks upon a statue or a
brazen horse melted. For, when he considers these things,
he will see their natural form changing ; and they alter into
another figure from which the original form disappears.
For if any one should melt down the works formed into the
semblance of a man or a horse, he Avill find the appearance
of the form disappearing, but the material itseK remaining.
It is, therefore, untenable to say, that the form shall arise in
nowise corrupted, but that the body in which the form was
stamped shall be destroyed.

XVI. But he says that it will be so ; for it will be changed
into a spiritual body. Therefore, it is necessary to confess
that the very same form as at first does not arise, from its
being changed and corrupted with the flesh. For although
it be changed into a spiritual body, that wiU not be properly
the original substance, but a certain resemblance of it,
fashioned in an etherial body. If, however, it is not the
same form, nor yet the body wdiich arises, then it is another
in tlie place of the first. For that which is like, being
different from that which it resembles, cannot be that very
first thing in accordance with which it was made.

XVII. Moreover, he says that that is the appearance or

DISCOURSE OX TllK RESURIiECTIOX. 171

form which shows forth the identity of the members iu the
distinctive character of tlie form.

XVIII. And, when Origeu allegorises that which is said
hy the prophet Ezekiel concerning the resurrection of the
dead, and perverts it to the return of the Israelites from their
captivity in Babylon, the saint in refuting him, after many
other remarks, says this also : For neither did they [the
Israelites] obtain a perfect liberty, nor did they overcome
theirenemiesbyagi'eater power,and dwellagain in Jerusalem;
and when they frequently intended to build [the temple],
they were prevented by other nations. Whence, also, they
were scarce able to build that in forty-six years, which
Solomon completed from the foundations in seven years.
But what need we say on this subject ? For from the time
of Xebuchadnczzar, and those who after him reigned over
Babylon, until the time of the Persian e;cpedition against the
Assyrians, and the empire of Alexander, and the war which
was stirred up by the Eomans against the Jews, Jerusalem was
six times overthrown by its enemies. And this is recorded
by Josephus, who says : " Jerusalem was taken in the second
year of the reign of Vespasian. It had been taken before
five times ; but now for the second time it was destroyed.
For Asocha3us, king of Egj'pt, and after him Antiochus,
next Pompey, and after these Sosius, \\itli Herod, took the
city and burnt it ; but before these, the king of Babylon
conquered and destroyed it."

XIX. He says that Origen holds these opinions which he
refutes. And there may be a doubt concerning Lazarus and
the rich man. The simpler persons think tliat tliese things
were spoken as though both were receiving their due for the
things which they had done in life in their bodies ; but the
more accurate think that, since no one is left in life after
the resurrection, these things do not happen at the resurrec-
tion. For the rich man says : " I have five brethren ; . . . .
lest they also come into this ])lace of torment,"' send
Lazarus, that he may tell them of those things which are
here. And, therefore, if we ask respecting the "tongue,"

> Luke xvi. L'S.

172 Till': WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

and tlie "finder," and "ALraliaiii's bosom," and the reclinini'
there, it may perliaps be that the soul receives in the change
a form similar in appearance to its gross and earthly body.
Jf, then, any one of those who have fallen asleep is recorded
as having appeared, in the same way he has been seen in
the form which he had when he was in the flesh. Besides,
when Samuel appeared,^ it is clear that, being seen, he was
clothed in a body ; and this must especially be admitted, if
we are pressed by arguments which prove that the essence
of the soul is incorporeal, and is manifested by itself^ But
the rich man in torment, and the poor man who was com-
forted in the bosom of Abraham, are said, the one to be
punished in Hades, and the other to be comforted in Abra-
ham's bosom, before the appearing of the Saviour, and
before the end of the world, and therefore before the re-
surrection; teaching . that now already, at the change, the
soul uses a body. Wherefore, the saint says as follows:
Setting forth that the soul, after its removal hence, has a
form similar in appearance to this sensitive body ; does
Origen represent the soul, after Plato, as being incorporeal?
And how should that which, after removal from the world,
is said to have need of a vehicle and a clothing, so that
it might not be found naked, be in itself other than incor-
poreal ? But if it be incorporeal, must it not also be incap-
able of passion ? For it follows, from its being incorporeal,
that it is also impassible and imperturbable. If, then, it
was not distracted by any irrational desire, neither was it
changed by a pained or suffering body. For neither can
that which is incorporeal sympathise with a body, nor a
body with, that which is incorporeal, if,^ indeed, the soul
should seem to be incorporeal, in accordance with what has
been said. But if it sympathise with the body, as is proved
by the testimony of those who appear, it cannot be incor-
poreal. Therefore God alone is celebrated, as the unbe-
gotten, independent, and unwearied nature; being incorpo-

^ 1 Sam. xxviii. 12.

^ The reading of Jahn, '* x.u§ suvt'/}i/" i.-^ here adopted. — Tr.

^ Jahn's readin"

DISCOURSE OX THE RESURRECTION. 173

real, and therefore invisible; for "no man hath seen God."^
]jut soids, being rational bodies, are arranged by the Maker
and Father of all things into members which are visible to
reason, having received this impression. Whence, also, in
Hades, as in the case of Lazarus and the rich man, they are
spoken of as having a tongue, and a finger, and the other
members; not as though they had with them another invi-
sible body, but that the souls themselves, naturally, when
entirely stripped of their covering, are such according to
their essence.

XX. The saint says at the end : The words, " For to this
end Christ both died, and rose, and re\'ived, that He might
1)6 Lord both of the dead and living," ^ must be taken as
referring to souls and bodies; the souls being the living, as
being immortal, and the bodies being dead.

XXI. Since the body of man is more honouraV^le than
other living creatures, because it is said to have been formed
by the hands of God, and because it has attained to be the
vehicle of the reasonable soul ; how is it that it is so short-
lived, shorter even than some of the irrational creatures ?
Is it not clear that its long-lived existence wiU be after the
resurrection ?

^ John L 18. * Roni. iiv. 9.

FRAGMENT ON THE HISTORY OF JONAH.

FEOM THE BOOK ON THE EESUEEECTIOK

[Given by Combefis, in Latin, in the Bihliotheca Concionatoria, t. ii.
p. 263, &c. Published in Greek from the Vatican MS. (1611),
by Simon de Magistris, in Acta Martyrum ad ostia Tiberina
sub Claudio Gothico. (Rome, 1792, folio. Append, p. 462.) ]

HE history of Jouali contains a great mystery.
For it seems that the whale signifies Time,
which never stands still, but is always going
on, and consumes the things which are made
by long and shorter intervals. But Jonah, who fled from
the presence of God, is liunseK the first man who, having
transgressed the law, fled from being seen naked of immor-
tality, having lost through sin his confidence in the Deity.
And the ship in wliich he embarked, and which was tem-
pest-tossed, is this brief and hard life in the present time;
just as though we had turned and removed from that
blessed and secure life, to that which was most temj)estu-
ous and unstable, as from solid land to a ship. For what a
ship is to the land, that our present life is to that which
is immortal. And the storm and the tempests which beat
against us are tlie temptations of this life, which in the
world, as in a tempestuous sea, do not permit us to have
a fair voyage free from pain, in a calm sea, and one which
is free from evils. And the casting of Jonah from the ship
into the sea, signifies the fall of the first man from life to
death, who received tliat sentence because, through having
sinned, he feU from righteousness : " Dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt tliou return."^ And his being swallowed by the
^ Gen. iii. 19.

FRAGMENT ON THE HISTORY OF JOXAH. 175

whale signifies our inevitable removal by time. For the
belly in which Jonah, when he was swallowed, was con-
cealed, is the all-receiving earth, which receives all things
which are consumed by time.

II. As, then, Jonah spent three days and as many nights
in the whale's belly, and was delivered up sound again, so
shall we all, who have passed through the three stages of
our present life on earth — I mean the beginning, the middle,
and the end, of which all this present time consists — rise
again. For there are altogether three intervals of time, the
past, the future, and the present. And for this reason the
Lord spent so many days in the earth symbolically, thereby
teaching clearly that when the fore-mentioned intervals of
time have been fulfilled, then shall come our resurrection,
which is the beginning of the future age, and the end of
this. For in that age (or dispensation) there is neither past
nor future, but only the present. Moreover, Jonah having
spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale,
was not destroyed by his flesh being dissolved, as is the case
with that natural decomposition which takes place in the
belly, in the case of those meats which enter into it, on
account of the greater heat in the liquids, that it might be
shown that these bodies of ours may remain undestroyed.
For consider that God had images of Himself made as ot
gold, that is of a purer spiritual substance, as the angels ;
and others of clay or brass, as ourselves. He united the
soul which was made in the image of God to that which
was earthy. As, then, we must here honour all tlie images
of a king, on account of the form which is in tlieni, so also
it is incredible that we wlio are tlie images of God should
be altogether destroyed as being without honour. Whence
also the AVord descended into our world, and \\as incarnate
of our bod}'-, in order that, having fashioned it to a more
divine image, He might raise it incorrupt, altliougli it had
been dissolved by time. And, indeed, when we trace out
the dispensation which was figuratively set forth by the
prophet, we shall find the whole discourse visibly extending
to this.

176 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

EXTEACTS FEOM TTTE WOEK ON THIXGS
CEEATED.

[Photius : Bihliotheca, cod. 235.]
I. This selection is made, by way of compendium or
synopsis, from the work of the holy martyr and Lisliop
Methodius, concerning things created. The passage, " Give
not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your
pearls before swine," ^ is explained by Origen as signifying
that the pearls are the more mystical teachings of our God-
given religion, and the swine those who roll in impiety and
in all kinds of pleasures, as swine do in mud ; for he said
that it was taught by these words of Christ not to cast
about the divine teachings, inasmuch they coidd not bear
them who were held by impiety and brutal pleasures. The
great Methodius says : If we must understand by pearls the
glorious and divine teachings, and by swine those who are
given up to impiety and pleasures, from whom are to be
withheld and hidden the apostle's teachings, which stir men
up to piety and faith in Christ, see how you say that no
Christians can be converted from their impiety by the teach-
ings of the apostles. For they would never cast the mys-
teries of Christ to those who, through want of faith, are like
swine. Either, therefore, these things were cast before all
the Greeks and other unbelievers, and were preached by the
disciples of Christ, and converted them from impiety to the
faith of Christ (as we believers certainly confess), and then
the words, " Cast not your pearls before swine," can no
longer mean what has been said ; or meaning this, we must
say that faith in Christ and deliverance from impiety have
been accorded to none of the unbelievers, whom we compare
to swine, by the apostolic instructions enlightening their
soids like pearls. But this is blasphemous. Tlierefore the
pearls in this place are not to be taken to mean the deepest
doctrines, and the swine the impious ; nor are we to under-
stand the words, " Cast not your pearls before swine," as
^ Matt. vii. fi.

FROM THE WORK ON THINGS CREATED. 177

forbidding us to cast before the impious and unbelieving
the deep and sanctifying doctrines of faith in Christ ; but
we must take the pearls to mean virtues, with which the
soul is adorned as vrith precious pearls ; and not to cast
them before swine, as meaning that we are not to cast these
virtues, such as chastity, temperance, righteousness, and
truth, that we are not to cast these to impure pleasures (for
these are like swine), lest they, fleeing from the virtues,
cause the soul to live a swinish and a vicious life.

II. Origen says that what he calls the Centaur is the
universe which is co-eternal with the only wise and indepen-
dent God. For he says, since there is no workman without
some work, or maker without some tiling made, so neither
is there an Almighty without an object of His power. For
the workman must be so called from his work, and the
maker from what he makes, and the Almighty Euler from
that which He rules over. And so it must be, that these
things were made by God from the beginning, and that there
was no time in which tliey did not exist. For if there was
a time when the things that are made did not exist, tlicn, as
there were no things which had been made, so there was no
maker; which you see to be an impious conclusion. And
it will result that the unchangeable and unaltered God has
altered and changed. For if He made the universe later,
it is clear that He passed from not making to making. But
this is absurd in connection with what has been said. It is
impossible, therefore, to say that the universe is not un-
beginning and co-eternal with God. To whom the saint re-
plies, in the person of another, asking, " Do you not consider
God the beginning and fountain of wisdom and glory, and
in short of all virtue in substance and not by acquisition?"
" Certainly," he says. " And what besides ? Is He not by
Himself perfect and independent?" "True; for it is im-
possible that he who is independent should have his inde-
pendence from another. For we must say, that all which
is full by anotlicr is also imperfect. For it is the thing
which has its completeness of itself, and in itself alone,
wliicli can alone be considered perfect" "You say most

178 THE WRITINGS OF :\IETnODIUS.

truly. For would you pronounce that which is neither hy
itself complete, nor its own completeness, to be independent?"
" By no means. For that which is perfect through anytliin;,'
else must needs be in itself imperfect." " Well, then, shall
God be considered perfect by Himself, and not by some
other?" "Most rightly." "Then God is something differ-
ent from the world, and the world from God?" "Quite
so." " We must not then say that God is perfect, and
Creator, and Almighty, through the world ?" " No ; for He
must surely by Himself, and not by the world, and that
changeable, be found perfect by Himself." " Quite so."
" But you will say that the rich man is called rich on ac-
count of his riches ? And that the wase man is called wise
not as being wisdom itself, but as being a possessor of sub-
stantial wisdom?" "Yes." "Well, then, since God is
something different from the world, shall He be called on
account of the world rich, and beneficent, and Creator?"
"By no means. Away wdth such a thought!" "Well,
then, He is His own riches, and is by Himself rich and
powerful." " So it seems." " He was then before the world
altogether independent, being Father, and Almighty, and
Creator ; so that He by Himself, and not by another, w^as
this." " It must be so." " Yes ; for if He were acknow-
ledged to be Almighty on account of the world, and not of
Himself, being distinct from the world (may God forgive the
words, which the necessity of the argument requires), He
would by Himself be imperfect and have need of these
things, through w^hich He is marvellously Almighty and
Creator. We must not then admit this pestilent sin of those
who say concerning God, that He is Almighty and Creator
by the things which He controls and creates, which are
changeable, and that He is not so by Himself.

III. Now consider it thus : " If, you say, the world was
created later, not existing before, then we must change the
])assionless and unchangeable God ; for it must needs be,
that he who did nothing before, but afterwards, passes from
not doing to doing, changes and is altered." Then I said,
"Did God rest from making the world, or not?" "Ho

FROM THE WORK ON THINGS CREATED. 170

rested." " Because otherwise it would not have been com-
pleted." " True." " If, then, the act of making, after not
making, makes an alteration in God, does not His ceasing
to make after making the same ?" " Of necessity." " But
should you say that He is altered as not doing to-day, from
what He was, wdien He was doing." "By no means. There
is no necessity for His being changed, when He makes the
world from what He was wdien He was not making it ; and
neither is there any necessity for saying that the universe
must have co-existed with Him, on account of our not being
forced to say that He has changed, nor that the universe is
co-eternal with Him."

IV. But sj^eak to me thus : " Should you call that a thing
created which had no beginning of its creation ?" "Not at
all." " But if there is no beginning of its creation, it is of
necessity uncreated. But if it was created, you will grant
that it was created by some cause. For it is altogether
impossible that it should have a beginning without a cause."
" It is impossible." Shall we say, then, that tlie world and
the things which are in it, having come into existence and
formerly not existing, are from any other cause than God ? "
"It is plain that they are from God." "Yes; for it is
impossible that that which is limited by an existence
which has a beginning should be co-existent with the
infinite." " It is impossible." " But again, Centaur,
let us consider it from the beginning. Do you say that the
things wdiich exist were created by Divme knowledge or
not?" "Oh, begone, they will say; not at all." "Well, but
was it from the elements, or from matter, or tlie firmaments,
or however you choose to name them (for it makes no difl'er-
ence) ; these things existing beforehand uncreated and borne
along in a state of chaos ; did God separate them and reduci^
them all to order, as a good painter who forms one picture,
out of many colours ?" " No, nor yet this." For they will
quite avoid making a concession against tliemselves, le.=^t
agreeing that there was a beginning of the separation and
transformation of matter, they should be forced in con-
sistency to say, tliut in all things God began the oixiering

180 77//'; WniTlNGS OF METHODIUS.

and a(li)niiiig of matter wliicli liitlierto had been without
ronn.

V. V>\\t come now, since by the favour of God we have
arrived at this point in our discourse; let us suppose a
beautiful statue standing upon its base ; and that those who
behold it, admiring its harmonious beauty, differ among
themselves, some trying to make out that it had been made,
others tliat it had not. I should ask them : For what reason
do you say that it was not made ? on account of the artist,
because he must be considered as never resting from his
work ? or on account of the statue itself ? If it is on
account of the artist, how could it, as not being made, be
fashioned by the artist ? But if, when it is moulded of
brass, it has all that is needed in order that it may receive
whatever impression the artist chooses, how can that be said
not to be made which submits to and receives his labour ?
If, again, the statue is declared to be by itself perfect and
not made, and to have no need of art, then we must allow,
in accordance with that pernicious heresy, that it is self-
made. If perhaps they are unwilling to admit this argu-
ment, and reply more inconsistently, that they do not say
that the figure was not made, but that it was always made,
so that there was no beginning of its being made, so that
artist might be said to have this subject of his art with-
out any beginning. Well then, my friends, we will say
to them, if no time, nor any age before can be found in
the past, when the statue was not perfect, will you teU
us what the artist contributed to it, or wrought upon
it ? For if this statue has need of notliing, and has no
beginning of existence, for this reason, according to you, a
maker never made it, nor w^iil any maker be found. And
so the argument seems to come again to the same conclu-
sion, and Ave must allow that it is self-made. For if an
artificer is said to have moved a statue ever so slightly, he
will submit to a beginning, when he began to move and
adorn that which was before unadorned and unmoved.
But the world neither was nor wiU be for ever the same.
Now we must compare the artificer to God, and the statue

FROM THE WORK ON TJI/XaS CREATED. 181

to the world. ]>ut how then, foolish men, can you
imagine the creation to be co-eternal with its Artificer, and
to have no need of an artificer ? For it is of necessity that
the co-eternal should never have had a l)(\t!;inning of l)eing,
and should be ecjually uncreated and powerl'ul with llim.
]jut the uncreated appears to be in itself perfect and
unclumgeable, and it will have need of nothing, and be free
from corruption. And if this be so, the world can no lunger
be, as you say it is, capable of change.

VI. He says that the Church ('ExxAJio/a) is so called from
being called out (^£-/iKf/./.ri-/.smi) with resjDcct to pleasures.

VII. The saint says : We said there are two kinds of forma-
tive power in what we have now acknowledged; the one
which works by itself what it chooses, not out of things
which already exist, by its bare will, without delay, as soon
as it wills. This is the power of the Father. The otlier
which adorns and embellishes, by imitation of the former, the
things which already exist. This is the power of the Son, tlie
almighty and powerful hand of the Father, by which, after
creating matter not out of things which were already in
existence. He adorns it.

VIII. The saint says that the Book of Job is by ^Moses.
He says, concerning the words, " In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth," ^ that one will not err
who says that the " Beginning " is AVisdom. For Wisdom
is said by one of the Divine band to speak in this manner
concerning herself: "The Lord created me the beginning
of His ways for His works : of old He laid my foun-
dation."^ It was fitting and more seemly that all things
which came into existence, should be more recent than
Wisdom, since they existed through her. Now consitler
whether the saying : " In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning witli God;"^ — wliethor
these statements be not in agreement with tlioso. For
we must say that the Beginning, out of wliich the most
upright Word came forth, is tlie Father and Maker of all

' (len. i. 1. - Prov. viii. 2± •* Joliii i. 1, 2.

182 THE WIUTINGS OF METHODIUS.

things, in whom it was. And the words, "The same
was in the beginning with God," seem to indicate the
position of authority of the Word, which He had with the
Father before the world came into existence ; beginning
signifying His power. And so, after the peculiar unbegin-
ning beginning, who is the Father, He is the beginning of
other things, by whom all things are made.

IX. He says that Origen, alter having faljled many things
concerning the eternity of the universe, adds this also : Nor
yet from Adam, as some say, did man, previously not exist-
ing, first take his existence and come into the world. Kor
again did the world begin to be made six days before the
creation of Adam. But if any one should prefer to differ in
these points, let him first say, whether a period of time be
not easily reckoned from the creation of the world, according
to the Book of jMoses, to those who so receive it, the voice
of prophecy here proclaiming : " Thou art God from everlast-
ing, and world without end. . . . For a thousand years in
Thy sight are but as yesterday : seeing that is past as a
watch in the night." ^ For when a thousand years are
reckoned as one day in the sight of God, and from the
creation of the world to His rest is six days, so also to our
time, six days are defined, as those say who are clever
arithmeticians. Therefore, they say that an age of six
thousand years extends from Adam to our time. For they
say that the judgment will come on the seventh day, that is
in the seventh thousand years. Therefore, all the days from
our time to that which was in the beginning, in which God
created the heaven and the earth, are computed to be thir-
teen days ; before which God, because he had as yet created
nothing according to their folly, is stripped of His name
of Father and Almighty. But if there are thirteen days in
the sight of God from the creation of the world, how can
Wisdom say, in the Book of the Son of Sirach : " Who can
number the sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and
the days of eternity ?"2 This is what Origen says seriously,
and mark how he trifles,

1 Ps. xc. 2, 4. 2 Ecclus. L 2.

WORKS OF METHODIUS AGAINST PORPHYRY. 183

FRAGMENTS FROM THE WORKS OF METHODIUS
AGAINST PORPHYRY.

[From the Parallels of S. Joliii Damascene. Opera torn. ii. p. "778,
Ed. Lequieii.]

This, in truth, must be called most excellent and praise-
worthy, which God Himself considers excellent, even if it
be despised and scoffed at by all. For things are not what
men think them to be.

II.
[lUd, p. 784, B.]

Then repentance effaces every sin, when there is no delay
after the fall of the soul, and the disease is not suffered to
go on through a long interval. For then evil will not have
power to leave its mark in us, wlicn it is drawn up at the
moment of its being set down like a plant newly planted.

III.

{Ihld, \). ISb, E.]
Ill truth, our evil comes out of our want of resemblance
to God, and our ignorance of Him ; and, on the other hand,
our great good consists in our resemblance to Him. And,
therefore, our conversion and faith in the Being who is in-
corruptible and divine, seems to be truly our proper good,
and ignorance and disregard of Him our evil; if, at least,
those things which are produced in us and of us, being the
evil effects of sin, are to be considered ours.

FROM HIS DISCOURSE CONCERNING MARTYRS.

[From Theodoretus, Dial. 1, ' ArptTrr. 0pp. ed. Sinnond.
Tom. iv. p. 37.]

For martyrdom is so admirable and desirable, that the
Lord, the Son of God Himself, honouring it, testified, " He
thought it not robbery to be equal with God,"^ that He
might lionour man to whom He descended with this gift.
I Phil. ii. c

ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA
ON THE DAY THAT THEY MET IN THE TEMPLE.

The Oration likewise treats of the Holy Mother of God.

ALTHOUGH I have before, as briefly as possible,
in my dialogue on chastity, sufficiently laid the
foundations, as it were, for a discourse on vir-
ginity, yet to-day the season has brought for-
ward the entire subject of the glory of virginity, and its
incorruptible crown, for the delightful consideration of the
Church's foster-children. Eor to-day the council chamber
of the divine oracles is opened wide, and the signs prefigur-
ing this glorious day, with its effects and issues, are by the
sacred preachers read over to the assembled Church. To-
day the accomplishment of that ancient and true counsel is,
in fact and deed, gloriously manifested to the world. To-
day, without any covermg,^ and with unveiled face, we see,
as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, and the majesty of the
divine ark itself. To-day, the most holy assembly, bearing
upon its shoulders the heavenly joy that was for generations
expected, imparts it to the race of man. " Old things are
passed away"^ — things new burst forth into flowers, and
such as fade not away. No longer does the stern decree of
the law bear sway, but the grace of the Lord reigneth, draw-
ing all men to itself by saving long-saffering. No second
time is an Uzziah ^ invisibly punished, for daring to touch
what may not be touched; for God Himself imdtes, and
who will stand hesitating with fear ? He says : " Come unto
Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden." * Who, then,
^ 2 Cor. iii. 18. 2 2 Cor. v. 17. ^ Sam. vi. 7. * Matt. xi. 28.

ORATION COiXCEnXING SIMEON AND ANNA. 185

will not run to Him ? Let no Jew contradict tlie truth,
looking at the type which went before the house of Obede-
dom.^ The Lord has " tnanifestly come to Hvi own!''^ And
sitting on a living and not inanimate ark, as upon the
mercy-seat, He comes forth in solemn procession upon the
earth. The publican, when he touches this ark, comes away
just ; the harlot, when she approaches this, is remoulded, as
it were, and becomes chaste; the leper, when he touches
this, is restored whole without pain. It repulses none ; it
shrinks from none ; it imparts the gifts of healing, without
itself contracting any disease ; for the Lord, who loves and
cares for man, in it makes His resting-place. These are the
gifts of this new grace. This is that new and strange thing
that has happened under the sun ^ — a thing that never had
place before, nor will have place again. That which God of
His compassion toward us foreordained has come to pass.
He hath given it fulfilment because of that love for man
which is so becoming to Him. AVith good right, therefore,
has the sacred trumpet sounded, " Old things are passed
away, behold all things are become new."* And what shall
I conceive, what shall I speak worthy of this day ? I am
struggling to reach the inaccessible, for the remembrance of
this holy virgin far transcends all words of mine. Where-
fore, since the greatness of the panegyric required completely
puts to shame our limited powers, let us betake ourselves to
that hymn which is not beyond our faculties, and boasting
in our own^ unalterable defeat, let iis join the rejoicing
chorus of Christ's Hock, who are keeping holy-day. And do
you, my divine and saintly auditors, keep strict silence, in
order that througli the narrow channel of ears, as into the

1 2 Sam. vi. 10.

-John i. 11 ; V». 1. 3. Tf^dtv — e/ic(pxi/u;. Tlie text plainly riuiuiiv.s
tliis connection with evident allusion to Psalm 1. " Our God will
manifestly come" ef<,(pxvci>; vj^n, which passage our author connects
with another from J<ilin i. — Tk.

^ Ecclus. i. 10. •'2 Cor. v. 17.

* TJji/ ccKivriToi/ TjTTXv iyx.otv^r,a(x.icivot. It seems hettcr to retain this.
I'antinus would substitute civiK/nvi/ for dy.i'vnrov, and render less hai)pily
"invicto hoc certamine victos."

186 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

liarbour of the understanding, the vessel freighted with truth
may peacefully sail. We keep festival, not according to the
vain customs of the Greek mythology; we keep a feast which
brings with it no ridiculous or frenzied banqueting of the
gods, but which teaches us the wondrous condescension
to us men of the awful glory of Him who is God over
all.i

II. Come, therefore, Isaiah, solemnest of preachers and
greatest of prophets, wisely unfold to the Church the mys-
teries of the congregation in glory, and incite our excellent
guests abundantly to satiate themselves with enduring
dainties, in order that, placing the reality which we possess
over against that mirror of thine, truthful prophet as thou
art, thou mayest joyfully clap tliine hands at the issue of
thy predictions. It came to pass, he says, " in the year in
which king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up ; and the house was full of Hia
glory. And the seraphim stood round about him : each one
had six wings. And one cried unto another, and said. Holy,
holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of
His glory. And the posts of the door ^\evQ moved at the
voice of him that cried, and the house was filled v.'ith smoke.
And I said. Woe is me ! I am pricked to the heart, for I
am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips : for mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. And one of the seraphim was sent unto
me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with
the tongs from off the altai-. And he touched my mouth,
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips ; and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin is purged. Also I heard the
voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will
go unto this people ? Then said I, Here am I ; send me.
And He said. Go, and tell this people. Hear ye indeed, but
understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not."-
These are the proclamations made beforehand by the pro-
phet tlu-ough the Spirit. Do thou, dearly beloved, consider

^ Rom. ix. 5.

* Isaiah vi. 1-9. The quotations are from Lxx. version.

ORATION CO^X'ERNING SLUE OX AXD AXXA. 187

tlie force of these words. So shalt thou understand the issue
of these sacramentaP symbols, and know both what and
how great this assembling together of ourselves is. And
since the prophet has before spoken of this miracle, come
thou, and with the greatest ardour and exultation, and alacrity
of heart, together with the keenest sagacity of thine intel-
ligence, and therewitli approach Bethlehem tlie renowned,
and place before thy mind an image clear and distinct, com-
paring the prophecy with the actual issue of events. Thou
wilt not stand in need of many words to come to a know-
ledge of the matter; only fix thine eyes on the tilings which
are taking place there. " All things tnily are plain to them
that understand, and right to them that find knowledge." -
For, behold, as a throne high and lifted up by the glory of
Him that fashioned it, the virgin-mother is there made
ready, and that most evidently for the King, the Lord of
hosts. Upon this, consider the Lord now coming unto thee
in sinful flesh. Upon this virginal throne, I say, worship
Him who now comes to thee by this new and ever-adorable
way. Look around thee with the eye of faith, and thou
wilt find around Him, as by the ordinance of their courses,^
the royal and priestly company of the serapliim. These, as
His body-guard, are ever wont to attend the presence of
their king. "SVlienco also in this place they are not only said
to ]i}Tnn with their praises the divine substance of the divine
unity, but also the glory to be adored by all of that one of
the sacred Trinity, wliich now, by the appearance of God in
the flesh, hath even lighted upon earth. They say : " The
whole earth is full of Plis glory." For we believe that, together
with the Son, wlio was made man for our sakes, according
to the good pleasure of His will,"* was also present the Fathei-,

1 fivarvipiou is, in the Greek Fathers, equivalent to the Latin Sacra-
vientum. — Tr.

* Prov. viii. 9.

' hpocTivfist. Perhaps \ch^ definitely priesthood. Ace. Arist. it is
If TT-pl Toyj dtoi/; tTifii'Aiiet. The cult, and ordinances of religion to he
oUserved especially hy the priests, whose business it is to celebrate the
excellence of God. — Tr.

■* KUT» T>ji/ ivooKixu. Allusion is made to Eph. i. f), According to the

188 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

wlio is inseparable from Him as to His divine nature, and
also the Spirit, who is of one and the same essence with Hini>
For, as says Paul, the interpreter of the divine oracle,^
" God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them."^ He thus shows that
the Father was in the Son, because that one and the same
will worked in them.

III. Do thou, therefore, lover of this festival, when
thou hast considered well the glorious mysteries of Beth-
lehem, which were brought to pass for thy sake, gladly join
thyself to the heavenly host, which is celebrating magni-
ficently thy salvation.^ As once David did before the ark,
so do thou, before this virginal throne, joyfully lead the dance.
Hymn with gladsome song the Lord, who is always and
everywhere present, and Him who from Teman,^ as says the
prophet, hath thought fit to appear, and that in the flesh, to
the race of men. Say, wdth Moses, " He is my God, and I
will glorify Him ; my father's God, and I w^ill exalt Him."^
Then, after thine hymn of thanksgiving, we shall usefully
inquire what cause aroused the King of Glory to appear in
Betlilehem. His compassion for us compelled Him, who
cannot be compelled, to be born in a human body at Beth-
lehem. But what necessity was there that He, when a
suckling infant,'' that He wdio, though born in time, was not

good pleasure of God, and His decree for tlie salvation of man. Less
aptly Pantinns renders, ob propensani secfem in nos voluntatera. — Tr.

^ " One and the same essence." This is the famous 6,uoo'jaiog of the
Nicene Council. — Tr.

- ispotpxvryjs, teacher of the divine oracles. This, which is the technical
term for the presiding priest at Eleusis, and the Greek translation
of the Latin Pontifex Maximus, is by our author apj^lied to St
Paul.— Tr. 3 2 Cor. v. 19. * 2 Sam. vi. 14.

5 Habak. iii. 3. « Exod. xv. 2.

^ uTrortrdiof royxxi/ouTx. It is an aggravation, so to speak, that He not
only willed to become an infant, and to take upon Him, of necessity,
the infirmities of infancy, but even at that tender age to be banished
from His coimtry, and to make a forcible change of residence, fiiroiKo;
yividdoLv. [^kroix-ot are those who, at the command of their jirinces, are
tninsferred, by way of punishment, to another State. Their lauds are
confiscated. Thev are sometimes called dyde.rj'Tru.arot. Like to the con-

ORATION CONCEUSIXG SIMEON AND ANNA. 189

limited by time, that lie, ^vho though wrapped in swaddling
clothes, was not by them held fast, what necessity was there
that He should be an exile and a stranger from His country ?
Should you, forsooth, wisli to know this, ye congregation
most holy, and upon whom the Spirit of God hath breathed,
listen to Moses proclaiming plainly to the people, stimulat-
ing them, as it were, to the knowledge of this extraordinary
nativity, and saying, " Every male that opcnetli tlie womb,
shall be called holy to the Lord."^ wondrous circuni-
stance ! " the depth of the riches both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God!"" It became indeed the Lord of
the law and the prophets to do all things in accordance
with His own law, and not to make void the law, but to
fulfil it, and rather to connect with the fullilment of the law
the beginning of His grace. Therefore it is that the mother,
■\\\\o was superior to the law, submits to the law. And
she, the holy and undefiled one, observes that time of forty
days that was appointed for the unclean. And He who
makes us free from the law, became subject to the law;
[ind there is offered for Him, who hath sanctified us, a
pair of clean birds/ in testimony of those who approach
clean and blameless. Now that that parturition was unpol-
luted, and stood not in need of expiatory victims, Isaiah is
our witness, who proclaims distinctly to the whole earth
under the sun: "Before she travailed," he says, " she brought
forth ; before her pains came, she escaped, and brought forth
a man-child."'* Who hath heard such a thing ? Wlio hath
seen such things ? The most holy virgin mother, therefore,
escaped entirely the manner of women even before slie
l)rought forth : doubtless, in order that the Holy Si)irii>,
lietrothing lier unto Himself, and sanctifying her, she might
conceive without intercourse with man. She hath brought
forth her first-born Son, even the only-begotten Son of God,
Him, I say, who in the licavens above shone forth as the

(litiori of these was that of Jesus, who tleil into Egypt soon after His
liirth. For the conditiuii of tlie fiiroiKoi at Athens, see Art. Smith's
Did. Antiq. — Tr.

^ Exod. xxxi. lit. ^ Koni. \i. ?>'i. •* Luke xi. 24. * Lsaiah Ixvi. 7.

190 7V//'.' WRITINGS OF METIIODHJS.

only-begotten, Avitliout mother, from out His Father's sub-
stance, and preserved the virginity of His natural unity
undivided and inseparable ; and who on earth, in the
virgin's nuptial chamber, joined to Himself the nature of
Adam, like a bridegroom, by an inalienable union, and pre-
served liis mother's purity uncorrupt and uninjured — Him,
in short, who in heaven was begotten without corruption,
and on earth brought forth in a manner quite unspeakable.
But to return to our subject.

IV. Therefore the prophet brought the virgin from Xaza-
reth, in order that she might give birth at Bethlehem to her
salvation-bestowing child, and brought her back again to
Nazareth, in order to make manifest to the world the hope of
life. Hence it was that the ark of God removed from the
inn at Betlilehem (for there He paid to the law that debt of
the forty days, due not to justice but to grace), and rested
upon the mountains of Sion, and receiving into His pure
bosom as upon a lofty throne, and one transcending the
nature of man, the IMonarch of all,^ she presented Him there
to God the Father, as the joint-partner of His throne, and
inseparable from His nature, together with that pure and
undefiled flesh which he had of her substance assumed.
The holy mother goes up to the temple to exhibit to the law
a new and strange wonder, even that child long expected,
Avho opened the virgin's womb, and yet did not burst the
barriers of virginity ; that child, superior to the law, who
yet fulfilled the law ; that child that was at once before the
law, and yet after it; that child, in short, who was of her
incarnate beyond the law of nature. For in other cases
every womb being first opened by connection with a man,
and, being impregnated by his seed, receives the beginning of
conception, and by the pangs which make perfect parturition,
doth at length bring forth to light its offspring endowed with
reason, and with its nature consistent, in accordance with
the wise provision of God its Creator. For God said, " Be
fruitful, and multiply, and rejilenish the earth." But the
womb of this virgin, without being opened before, or being
1 Cf. Luke ii. 22.

ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA. 101

impregnated Avith seed, gave birtli to an offspring that tran-
scended nature, "while at the same time it was cognate to it,
and that without detriment to the indivisible unity, so that
the miracle was the more stupendous, tlie prerogative of
virginity likewise remaining intact. She goes up, therefore,,
to the temple, she who was more exalted than the temple,
clothed with a double glory — the glory, I say, of undefiled
virginity, and that of ineffable fecundity, the benediction of
the law, and the sanctification of grace. Wherefore he says
who saw it : " And the whole house was full of His glory,
and the seraphim stood round about him ; and one cried unto
another, and said. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts : the
whole earth is full of His glory." ^ As also the blessed pro-
phet Habakkuk has charmingly sung, saying, " In the midst
of two living creatures thou shalt be known : as the years
draw nigh thou shalt be recognised — when the time is come
thou shalt be shown forth." ^ See, I pray you, the exceeding
accuracy of the Spirit. He speaks of knowledge, recogni-
tion, showing forth. As to the first of tliese : " In the midst
of two living creatures thou shalt be known," ^ he refers to
that overshadowing of the divine glory which, in tlie time
of the law, rested in the Holy of holies upon the covering of
the ark, between the typical cherubim, as He says to ]\Ioses,
" Tliere will I be known to thee." * But He refers likewise
to that concourse of angels, which hath now come to meet
ns, by the divine and ever adorable manifestation of the
Saviour Himself in the flesh, although He in His very
nature cannot be beheld by us, as Isaiah has even before
declared. But when He says, "As the years draw nigli, thou
shalt be recognised," He means, as has been said before, tliat
glorious recognition of our Saviour, God in the liesh, who
is otherwise invisible to mortal eye; as somewhere Paul,
that great interpreter of sacred mysteries, says : " But when
the fulness of the time was come, CJod sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them

^ Lsaiah vi. 3.

'■^ The quotation from the prophet ITaliakkuk is IVoin the lxx. ver-
sion.— Tii. 3 H.iV,. iii. 2. * Exod. XXV. i»2.

l'J2 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

tliat were under tlie law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons."^ And tlien, as to that which is subjoined, "When
the time is come, thou shalt be shown forth," what exposi-
tion doth this require, if a man diligently direct the eye of
his mind to the festival which we are now celebrating?
" For then shalt thou be shown forth," He says, " as upon a
kingly charger, by thy pure and chaste mother, in the
temple, and that in the grace and beauty of the flesh
assumed by thee." All these things the proj^het, summing
up for the sake of greater clearness, exclaims in brief : " The
Lord is in His holy temple;"^ "Fear before Him all the
earth."3

V. Tremendous, verily, is the mystery connected w^ith
thee, virgin mother, thou spiritual throne, glorified and
made worthy of God. Thou hast brought forth, before the
eyes of those in heaven and earth, a pre-eminent wonder.
And it is a proof of this, and an irrefragable argument, that
at the novelty of thy supernatural child-bearing, the angels
sang on earth, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good- will towards men,"'* by their threefold song
bringing in a threefold holiness.^ Blessed art thou among
the generations of women, thou of God most blessed, for
by thee the earth has been filled with that divine glory of
God ; as in the Psalms it is sung : " Blessed be the Lord God
of Israel, and the whole earth shall be filled with His glory.
Amen. Amen."^ And the posts of the door, says the pro-
phet, moved at the voice of him that cried, by which is
signified the veil of the temple drawn before the ark of the
covenant, which typified thee, that the truth might be laid
open to me, and also that I might be taught, by the t}^es
and figures wdiich went before, to approach with reverence
and trembling to do honour to the sacred mystery which

1 Gal. iv. 4, 5. 2 jjab. ii. 20. ^ Ps_ ^cvi. 9. * Luke ii. 14.

'• Tov rptv'hoe.(!tccci[^6u rvig ikyiorrtro;, Pantiniis translates triplicem
sanctitatis rationem, but this is hardly theological. Allusion is made
to the song of the seraphim, Is. vi. ; and our author contends that the
threefold hymn sung by the angels at Christ's birth answers to that
threefold acclamation of theirs in sign of the triune Deity. — Tr.

" Ps. l.x.xii. 18, 19.

ORATION COXCEUXiyG SIMEON AND ANNA. 103

is connected with tlioe ; and tlmt by means of this pri(jr
shadow-painting of the Law I might be restrained i'rom boklly
and irreverently contemplating with fixed gaze Him who,
in His incomprehensibility, is seated far above all.^ For if
to the ark, wliich was the image and type of tliy sanctity,
such lionour was paid of God that to no one but to the
jtriestly order only was the access to it open, or ingress
allowed to behold it, the veil separating it ofl', and keeping
the vestibule as that of a queen, wliat, and what sort of
veneration is due to thee from us who are of creation the
least, to thee who art indeed a queen; to thee, the living ark
of God, the Lawgiver; to thee, the heaven that contains Him
who can be contained of none ? For since thou, holy
virgin, hast dawned as a briglit day upon the world, and hast
brought forth the Sun of Kighteousness, that hateful horror
of darkness has been chased away ; the power of the tyrant
has been broken, death hath been destroyed, iiell swallowed
up, and all enmity dissolved before the face of peace ;
noxious diseases depart now that salvation looks forth; and
the whole universe has been filled wnth the pure and clear
light of truth. To whicli things Solomon alludes in the
Book of Canticles, and begins thus : " My beloved is mine,
and I am his ; he feedeth among the lilies until the day
break, and the shadows flee away."- Since then, the God
of gods hath appeared in Sion, and the splendour of His
beauty hath appeared in Jerusalem; and "a light has sprung
up for the righteous, and joy for those who are true of heart."^
According to tlie blessed David, the Perfecter and Lord of
the perfected'* Imtli, by the Holy Spirit, called the teacher
and minister of the law to minister and testify of those
things which were done.

VI. Hence the aged Simeon, jtutling off tlie weakness of

^ TQV rX 'Tra.tlTOt, fj CiKXTX'A/l-J/l'ct V-77iOIQpVfiivlJV. Of. 1 Tilll. vi. Id,

(flug oiKcui/ ccrrpooiToy, 6u siOtj/ oi/Oil; ocu^pu-:Tu> oi/Ot' /oe/» ovi/xrcti. — Til.

- Cant. ii. !(!, 17. ^ P.-^. xcvii. 11.

* d Tuu Ti'Kovy.ivuv n'hsiuTti;, initiator, consniiuniitor. oioc rov Ilvct/-
fiocTo; uyiou is to be relened to fffVcx«A-<7:>, lulhur tlian to t<u»

19i THE WlilTING'S OF METllODIUS.

tlie flesh, and putting on the strength of hope, in the face of
the law hastened to receive the Minister of the law, the
Teacher^ with authority, the God of Abraham, the Protector
of Isaac, tlie Holy One of Israel, the Instructor of Moses ;
Him, I say, who promised to show him His divine incar-
nation, as it were His hinder parts;- Him who, in the midsfc
of poverty, was rich ; Him who in infancy was before the
ages ; Him who, though seen, was invisible ; Him who in
comprehension was incomprehensible ; Him who, though in
littleness, yet surpassed all magnitude — at one and the same
time in the temple and in the highest heavens — on a royal
throne, and on the chariot of the cherubim ; Him who is
both above and below continuously; Him who is in the
form of a servant, and in the form of God the Fathei- ; a
subject, and yet King of all. He was entirely given up to
desire, to hope, to joy ; he was no longer his own, but His
who had been looked for. The Holy Spirit liad announced
to him the joyful tidings, and before he reached the
temple, carried aloft by the eyes of his understanding, as
if even now he possessed what he had longed for, he
exulted with joy. Being thus led on, and in his haste
treading the air wath his steps, he reaches the shrine hitherto
held sacred; but, not heeding the temple, he stretches
out his holy arms to the Euler of the temple, chant-
ing forth in song such strains as became the joyous occa-
sion : I long for Thee, Lord God of my fathers, and Lord
of mercy, who hast deigned, of Thine own glory and good-
ness, which provides for all, of Thy gracious condescension,
with which Thou inclinest towards us, as a Mediator bring-
ing peace, to establish harmony between earth and heaven.
I seek Thee, the Great Author of all. With longing I ex-
pect Thee who, with Thy word, embracest all things. I
wait for Thee, the Lord of life and death. For Thee I look,
the Giver of the law, and the Successor of the law. I
hunger for Thee, who quickenest the dead; I thirst for
Thee, who refreshest the weary ; I desire Thee, the Creator

^ riv ui/dii/r/iv I/Iugkoi^^qv. The alliu'.inii is to Mark i. 22.
« Exod. iii. 2:^.

ORATION CO.XCERXIXG SIMEON AND ANNA. 195

and liedeemer of the world.^ Thou art our God, and Tliee
we adore ; Thou art our holy Temple, and in Thee we pray ;
Thou art our Lawgiver, and Thee we ohey ; Thou art God
of all things the First. Before Thee was no other god
begotten of God the Father ; neither after Thee shall there
be any other son consubstantial and of one glory with the
Father. And to know Thee is perfect righteousness, and to
know Thy power is the root of immortality.- Thou art He
who, for our salvation, was made the head stone of the
corner, precious and honourable, declared before to Sinn.^
For all things are placed under Thee as their Cause and
Author, as He who brought all things into being out of
nothing, and gave to what was unstable a firm coherence ;
as the connecting Band and Preserver of that which has
been brought into being ; as the Framer of things by nature
different ; as He who, with wise and steady hand, holds the
helm of the universe; as the very Principle of all good
order; as the irrefragable Bond of concord and peace. For
in Thee we live, and move, and have our being.* Wliere-
fore, Lord my God, I will glorify Thee, I will praise Thy
name ; for Thou hast done wonderful things ; Thy counsels
of old are faithfulness and trutli ; Thou art clothed witli
majesty and honour,^ For what is more splendid for a king
than a purple robe embroidered around with flowers, and a
shining diadem ? Or \\\\Ai for God, who delights in man, is
more magnificent than this merciful assumption of the man-
hood, illuminating with its resplendent rays those who sit
in darkness and the shadow of death ?^ Fitly did that tem-
poral king and Thy servant once sing of Thee as the King
Eternal, saying, Thou art fairer than the children of men,
who amongst men art very God and man.' For Thou hast
girt, by Thy incarnation. Thy loins with righteousness, and
anointed Thy veins with faithfulness, who Tliyself art
very righteousness and truth, the joy and exultation of

1 Is. xliii. 10. - Wisd. xv. 3.

3 Ps. cxviii. 22 ; Is. xxviii. 16 ; 1 Pt-t. ii. 6. * Acts xviiL 2a

* Exod. XV. 2 ; Is. xxv. 1 ; Ps. civ. 1. '' Is. .xlii. 7 ; Luke i. 79.

"> 1 Tim. i. 17 : Ps. xlv. 2.

190 TiiK wnrnyus of metuoijius.

'Si\} Therefore rejoice Avitli me this day, ye heavens, for
the Lord liath showed mercy to His people. Yea, let the
clouds drop the dew of righteousness upon the world;
Ifct the foundations of the earth sound a trumpet-blast
to those in Hades, for the resurrection of them that sleep
i;s come.- Let the earth also cause compassion to spring
up to its inhahitants ; for I am filled with comfort ; I
am exceeding joyful since I have seen Thee, the Saviour
of men.^

VIL While the old man was thus exultant, and rejoic-
ing with exceeding great and holy joy, that which had
before been spoken of in a figure by the prophet Isaiah,
the holy mother of God now manifestly fulfilled. For
taking, as from a pure and undefiled altar, that coal living
and ineffable, with man's flesh invested, in the embrace of
her sacred hands, as it were with the tongs, she held him
out to that just one, addressing and exhorting him, as it
seems to me, in words to this effect : Eeceive, reverend
senior, thou of priests the most excellent, receive the Lord,
and reap the full fruition of that hope of thine which is not
left widowed and desolate. Eeceive, thou of men the most
illustrious, the unfailing treasure, and those riches which
can never be taken away. Take to thine embrace, thou
of men most Avise, that unspeakable might, that unsearch-
al^le power, which can alone support thee. Embrace,
thou minister of the temple, the Greatness infinite, and the
Strength incomparable. Fold thyself around Him who is
the very life itself, and live, thou of men most venerable.
Cling closely to incorruption and be renewed, thou of
men most righteous. Not too bold is the attempt; shrink
not from it then, thou of men most holy. Satiate thyself
with Him thou hast longed for, and take thy delight in Him
who has been given, or rather who gives Himself to thee,
thou of men most divine. Joyfully draw thy light, thou of
men most pious, from the Sun of Eighteousness, that gleams
around thee through the unsullied mirror of the flesh. Fear
not His gentleness, nor let His clemency terrify thee, thou
^ Is. xi. 5. - Is. xlv. S. 2 2 Cor. vii. 4.

OBATIOX COXCERXIXG SIMI'.OX A XI J AXXA. l'.)?

of men most blessed. Be not afraid of His lenity, nor
slirink from His kindness, O thou of men most modest.
Join thyself to Him with alacrity, and delay not to obey
Him. That which is spoken to thee, and held out to thee,
savours not of over-boldness. Be not then reluctant, thou
of men the most decorous. The flame of the grace of my
Lord does not consume, but illuminates thee, thou of men
most just.^ Let the bush which set forth me in type, witli
respect to the verity of that fire which yet had no subsist-
ence, teach thee this, thou who art in the law the best
instructed. - Let that furnace which was as it were a breeze
distilling dew persuade thee, master, of the dispensation
of this mystery. Then, beside all this, let my M'omb be a
proof to thee, in which He was contained, who in nouglit
else was ever contained, of the substance of wliich the in-
carnate Word yet deigned to become incarnate. The blast^
of the trumpet does not now terrify those who approach,
nor a second time does the mountain all on smoke cause
teiTor to those wlio draw nigli, nor indeed does the law
I)unish relentlessly ^ those who would boldly touch. Wliat
is here present speaks of love to man; what is here apparent,
of the Divine condescension. Thankfully, then, receive tlie
God who comes to thee, for He shall take away thine
iniquities, and thoroughly purge thy sins. In thee, let the
cleansing of the world first, as in type, have place. In thee,
and by tliee, let that justification which is of grace become
known beforehand to the Gentiles. Thou art worthy of
tlie quickening first-fruits. Thou hast made good use of
tlie law. Use grace henceforth. "With the letter thou liast
gi'own weary; in the spirit be renewed. Put oil" that which
is old, and clothe thyself with that wliich is new. For of
these matters I think not that tliou art ignoi-ant,

VIIL Upon all this that righteous man, waxing bold and
yielding to the exhortation of the mother of God, who is
the handmaid of God in regard to tlie things wliicli pert^xin
to men, received into his aged arms Him wlio in infancy
was yet the ancient of days, and blessed God, and said,

I Exod. iii. 2. ^ i;^,,^ jij, £1. s E.vud. .\i.\. IG. * Ps. vi. G.

198 THE WRTTTXGS OF METHODIUS.

" Lord, now lettest Thou Tliy servant depart in peace,
according to Thy word : for mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation, which Tlioii liast prepared before the face of all
people ; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of
Thy people Israel." ^ I have received from Thee a joy
unmixed with pain. Do thou, Lord, receive me rejoicing,
and singing of Thy mercy and compassion. Thou hast
given unto me this joy of heart. I render unto Thee with
gladness my tribute of thanksgiving. I have known the
power of the love of God. Since, for my sake, God of Thee
begotten, in a manner ineffable, and -svithout corruption,
has become man. I have known the inexplicable greatness
of Thy love and care for us, for Thou hast sent forth Thine
o%\Ti bowels to come to our deliverance. N^ow, at length, I
understand what I had from Solomon learned : " Strong as
death is love : for by it shall the sting of death be done
away, by it shall the dead see life, by it shall even death
learn what death is, being made to cease from that dominion
which over us he exercised. By it, also, shall the serpent,
the author of our evils, betaken captive and overwhelmed.'"^
Iliou hast made known to us, Lord, Thy salvation,^
causing to spring up for us the plant of peace, and we shall
no longer wander in error. Thou hast made known to us,
Lord, that Thou hast not unto the end overlooked Thy
servants ; neither hast Thou, beneficent One, forgotten
eotirely the works of Thine hands. For out of Thy com-
passion for our low estate Thou hast shed forth upon us
abundantly that goodness of Thine which is inexhaustible,
and with Thy very nature cognate, having redeemed us by
Thine oidy begotten Son, who is unchangeably like to Thee,
and of one substance with Thee; judging it unworthy of Thy
majesty and goodness to entrust to a servant the work of
saving and benefiting Thy servants, or to cause that those
who had offended should be reconciled by a minister. But
by means of that light, which is of one substance with
Thee, Thou hast given light to those that sat in darkness *■

1 Luke ii. 29-32. 2 Caut. viii 6. ^ p^, xc\-iii. 2.

* Is. ix. 2, xlii. 7 ; Luke i. 79.

ORATION COXCERSING SIMEON AND ANNA. 109

and in the shadow of death, in order that in Thv light
they might see tlie light of knowledge;^ and it has seemed
good to Thee, by means of our Lord and Creator, to fashion
xis again unto immortality ; and Thou hast graciously given
unto us a return to Paradise by means of Him who separated
us from the joys of Paradise ; and by means of Him who
hath power to forgive sins Thou hast" blotted out the
h.andwriting which was against us. ^ Lastly, by means
of Him who is a partaker of Thy throne, and who cannot
be separated from Thy divine nature, Thou hast given
unto us the gift of reconciliation, and access unto Thee with
confidence, in order that, by the Lord who recognises the
sovereign authority of none, by the true and omnipotent God,
the subscribed sanction, as it were, of so many and such gi-eat
blessings might constitute the justifying gifts of grace to
be certain and indubitable rights to those who have obtained
mercy. And this very thing the prophet before had an-
nounced in the words : No ambassador, nor angel, but the
Lord Himself saved them ; l)ecause He loved them, and
spared them, and He took them up, and exalted them.*
And all this was, not of works of righteousness'' which we
have done, nor because we loved Thee (for our first earthly
forefather, who was honourably entertained in the delightful
abode of Paradise, despised Thy divine and saving command-
ment, and was judged unworthy of that life-giving place,
and mingling his seed with the bastard oli-shoots of sin, he
rendered it very weak) ; but Thou, Lord, of Thine own
self, and of Thine ineffable love toward the creature of Thine
hands, hast confirmed Thy mercy toward us, and, pitying
our estrangement from Thee, hast moved Thyself at the
sight of our degradation*' to take us into compassion.
Hence, for the future, a joyous festival is established for us
of the race of Adam, because the first Creator of Adam of
His own free will has become the Second Adam. And the
brightness of the Lord our God hath come down to sojourn
with us, so tliat we see God face to face, and are saved.

1 Ps. xxxvi. S). - Mark ii. 10. ^ Col. ii. 4.

* Is. Ixiii, 9, Sept. version. •'• Titii.s iii. "). '^ Jno. iv. !).

200 THE WHITINGS OF METHODIUS.

Therefore, Lord, I seek of Thee to he allowed to depart.
I have seen Thy salvation ; let me be delivered from the
bent yoke of the letter. I have seen the King Eternal, to
whom no other succeeds ; let me be set free from this servile
and burdensome chain. I have seen Him who is by nature
my Lord and Deliverer ; may I obtain, then, His decree for
my deliverance. Set me free from the yoke of condemnation,
and place me under the yoke of justification. Deliver me
from the yoke of the curse, and of the letter that killeth ; ^
and enrol me in the blessed company of those who, by the
grace of this Thy true Son, who is of equal glory and power
with Thee, have been received into the adoption of sons.

IX. Let then, says he, what I have thus far said in
brief, suffice for the present as my offering of thanks to
God. But what shall I say to thee, mother-virgin and
virgin-mother ? For the praise even of her who is not
man's work exceeds the power of man. Wherefore the dim-
ness of my poverty I will make bright with the splendour
of the gifts of the spirits that around thee shine, and offer-
ing to thee of thine own, from the immortal meadows I will
pluck a garland for thy sacred and divinely crowned head.
With thine ancestral hymns will I greet thee, daughter of
David, and mother of the Lord and God of David. For ^t
were both base and inauspicious to adorn thee, who in thine
own glory excellest with that wdiich belongeth unto another.
Eeceive, therefore, lady most benignant, gifts precious,
and such as are fitted to thee alone, thou who art exalted
above all generations, and w^ho, amongst all created tilings,
both visible and invisible, shinest forth as the most hon-
ourable. Blessed is the root of Jesse, and thrice blessed
is the house of David, in which thou hast sprung up.^ God
is in the midst of thee, and thou shalt not be moved, for the
^lost High hath made holy the place of His tabernacle.
For in thee the covenants and oaths made of God unto the
fathers have received a most glorious fulfilment, since by
tliee the Lord hath appeared, the God of hosts with us.
That bush which could not be touched,^ whicli beforehand
1 2 Cor iii. (?. 2 p^. xlvi. 4, d. '■^ Exod. iii. 2.

ORATION CONCERXIXG SIMEON AND ANNA. 201

shadowed forth thy figure endowed with divine majest)',
bare God without being consumed, who manifested Himself
to the prophet just so far as He willed to be seen. Then,
again, that hard and rugged rock,^ wliich imaged forth the
grace and refreshment which has sprung out from thee for
all the world, brought Ibrth abundantly in the desert out oi"
its tliirsty sides a healing draught for the fainting people.
Yea, moreover, the rod of the priest wliich, witliout culture,
blossomed forth in fruit,- the pledge and earnest of a per-
petual priesthood, furnished no contemptible symbol of thy
supernatural child-bearing.^ What, moreover ? Hath not
the miglity Moses expressly declared, that on account of
these types of thee, hard to be understood,* he delayed
longer on the mountain, in order that he might learn,
holy one, the mysteries that with thee are connected ? For
being commanded to build the ark as a sign and similitude
of this thing, he was not negligent in obeying the command,
although a tragic occurrence happened on his descent from
the mount ; but having made it in size five cubits and a
half, he appointed it to be the receptacle of the law, and
covered it with the wings of the cherubim, most evidently
presignifying thee, the mother of God, who hast conceived
Him without corruption, and in an ineffable manner brouglit
forth Him who is Himself, as it were, the very consistence
of incorruption, and that within the limits of the five and a
half circles of the world. On thy account, and the undefiled
Incarnation of God, the Word, which by thee had place for
the sake of that flesh whicli immutably and indivisibly
remains with Him for ever.^ The golden pot also, as a most
certain type, preserved the manna contained in it, which in
other cases was changed day by day, unchanged, and keej)-
ing fresh for ages. The prophet Elijah*' likewise, as prescient
of thy chastity, and being emulous of it through the Spirit,
bound aroiind him the crown of that fiery life, being by tlie
divine decree adjudged superior to death. Thee also, iire-
figuring his successor Elisha," having been instructed by a

» E.xod. xvii. (i. '^ Nwiiili. xvii. 8. ■' H.-b. i.x. 4. * E.xod. xxv. 8.
•' lleb. i.\. 4. '' -J. \\\\\'jfi ii. 1 1. " Ecclus. xlviii. 1.

202 THE WRITINGS OF MKTIIOBIUB.

wise master, and anticipating thy presence who wast not
yet born, by certain sure indications of the things that
would have place liereafter/ ministered help and healing to
those who were in need of it, which was of a virtue beyond
nature; now with a new cruse, which contained healing
salt, curing the deadly waters, to show that the world was
to be recreated by the mystery manifested in thee; now
with unleavened meal, in type responding to thy child-
bearing, without being defiled by the seed of man, banishing
from the food the bitterness of death ; and then again, by
efforts which transcended nature, rising superior to the
natural elements in the Jordan, and thus exhibiting, in
signs beforehand, the descent of our Lord into Hades, and
His wonderful deliverance of those who were held fast in
corruption. For all things yielded and succumbed to that
divine image which prefigured thee.

X. But why do I digress, and lengthen out my discourse,
giving it the rein with these varied illustrations, and that
when the truth of thy matter stands like a column before
the eye, in which it were better and more profitable to
luxuriate and delight in ? Wlierefore, bidding adieu to the
spiritual narrations and wondrous deeds of the saints
throughout all ages, I pass on to thee who art always to
be had in remembrance, and who boldest the helm, as it
were, of this festival. Blessed art thou, all-blessed, and to
be desired of all. Blessed of the Lord is thy name, full of
divine grace, and grateful exceedingly to God, mother of
God, thou that givest light to the faithful. Thou art the
circumscription, so to speak, of Him who cannot be circum-
scribed ; the roof^ of the most beautiful flower ; the mother
of the Creator ; the nurse of the Nourisher ; the circumfer-
ence of Him who embraces all things; the upholder of Him^
who upholds all things by His word ; the gate through which
God appears in the flesh;'' the tongs of that cleansing coal f
the bosom in small of that bosom which is all-containing ;
the fleece of wool,*^ the mystery of which cannot be solved ;

1 2 Kings, ii. 20, iv. 41, v. 2 jg, ^i, 1, 3 jjgij, j, 3.

* Ezek. xliv. 2. ^ Is. vi. G. ^ Judges vi. 37.

ORATIOX COXCERXJNG SIMKOX AXD AXXA. 203

the well of Betlileliem/ that reservoir of life which David
longed for, out of which the draught of immortality gushed
forth ; the mercy-seat^ from which God in human form was
made known unto men ; tlie spotless robe of Ilim who clothes
Himself with light as with a garment.^ Thou hast lent to
God, who stands in need of nothing, that flesh which He had
not, in order that the Omnipotent niiglit become that which
it was His good pleasure to be. What is more splendid
than this ? What than this is more sublime ? He who fills
earth and heaven,^ whose are all things, has become in need
of thee, for thou hast lent to God that flesh which He had not.
Thou hast clad the Mighty One with that beauteous panoply
of the body by which it has become possible for Him to be
seen by mine eyes. And I, in order that I might freely
approach to behold Him, have received that by which all
the fiery darts of the wicked shall be quenched.^ Hail !
hail ! mother and handmaid of God. Hail ! hail ! thou to
whom the great Creditor of all is a debtor. We are all
debtors to God, but to thee He is Himself indebted. For
He who said, " Honour thy father and thy mother,"^ will
have most assuredly, as Himself willing to be tested by
such proofs, kept inviolate that grace, and Ilis own decree
towards lier who ministered to Him that nativity to which
He voluntarily stooped, and will have glorified with a divine
honour her wdiom He, as being without a father, even as
she was without a husband. Himself has written down as
mother. Even so must these things be. For the hymns
which we offer to thee, thou most holy and admirable
liabitation of God, are no merely useless and ornamental
words. Nor, again, is thy spiritual laudation mere secular
trifling, or the shoutings of a false flattery, thou who of
God art praised ; thou who to God gavest suck ; who by
nativity givest unto mortals their beginning of being, but
they are of clear and evident truth. But tlie time would
fail us, ages and succeeding generations too, to render unto
thee thy fitting salutation as the mother of the King Eternal/

1 2 Sam. .\xiii. 17. " Exod. x.vxv. 17. ^ p.^ ,.iv. 2. * Jer. xxiii. 2-i.
«Eplies. vi. IG. "Exod. xx. 12. ^ 1 Tim. i. 17.

20-1 THE WRITIXGS OF METHODIUS.

even as somewliere the illustrious prophet says, teaching us
how incomprehensible thou art.^ How great is the house of
God, and how large is the place of His possession ! Great,
and hath none end, high and unmeasurable. For verily,
verily, this prophetic oracle, and most true saying, is con-
cerning thy majesty; for thou alone hast been thought
worthy to share with God the things of God ; who hast
alone borne in the flesh Him, who of God the Father was
the Eternally and Only-Begotten. So do they truly believe
who hold fast to the pure faith.

XL But for the time that remains, my most attentive
hearers, let us take up the old man, the receiver of God, and
our pious teacher, who hath put in here, as it were, in safety
from that virginal sea, and let us refresh him, both satisfied
as to his divine longing, and conveying to us this most
blessed theology ; and let us ourselves follow out the rest of
our discourse, directing our course unerringly with reference
to our prescribed end, aud that under the guidance of God
the Almighty, so shall we not be found altogether unfruitful
and unprofitable as to what is required of us. "When, then,
to these sacred rites, prophecy and the priesthood had been
jointly called, and that pair of just ones elected of God
(Simeon, I mean, and Anna, bearing in themselves most evi-
dently the images of both peoples) had taken their station
by the side of that glorious and virginal throne (for by the
old man was represented the people of Israel, and the law
now waxing old ; whilst the widow represents the Church of
the Gentiles, which had been up to tliis point a widow), the old
man, indeed, as personating the law, seeks dismissal; but the
widow, as personating the Church, brought her joyous con-
fession of faith," and spake of Him to all that looked for re-
tlemption in Jerusalem, even as the things that were spoken
of both have been appositely and excellently recorded, and
quite in harrdony with the sacred festival. For it was fit-
ting and necessary that the old man who knew so accurately
that decree of the law, in which it is said : Hear Him, and
every soul that will not hearken unto Him shall be cut off
^ Baruch iii. 24, 25. - Luke ii. 3S.

ORATION CO^X'ERXL\G SIMEOX AND ANNA. 205

from His people,^ should seek a peaceful discharge from the
tutorship of the law ; for in truth it were insolence and pre-
sumption, when the king is present and addressing the
people, for one of his attendants to make a speech over
against him, and that to this man his subjects should in-
cline their ears. It was necessary, too, that the widow wlio
had been increased with gifts beyond measure, sliould in
festal strains return her thanks to God ; and so the things
which there took place were agreeable to the law. But,
for what remains, it is necessary to inquire how, since
the prophetic types and figures bear, as has been shown,
a certain analogy and relation to this prominent feast,
it is said that the house was filled with smoke. Nor does
the prophet say this incidentally, but with significance,
speaking of that cry of the Thrice-Holy,- uttered by the
heavenly seraphs. You will discover the meaning of tliis,
my attentive hearer, if you do but take up and examine what
follows upon this narration : For hearing, he says, ye shall
hear, and shall not understand; and seeing, ye shall see, an<i
not perceive.^ When, therefore, the foolish Jewish children
had seen the glorious wonders which, as David sang, the
Lord had performed in the earth, and had seen the sign
from the depth'* and from the height meeting together,
without division or confusion ; as also Isaiah had before de-
clared, namely, a mother beyond nature, and an ott'spring
beyond reason ; an earthly mother and a heavenly son : a
new taking of man's nature, I say, by God, and a child-
bearing without marriage ; what in creation's circuit could
be more glorious and more to be spoken of than this ! yet
when they had seen this it was all one as if tliey had not
seen it ; they closed their eyes, and in respect of praise were
supine. Therefore the house in which they boasted was
filled with smoke.

XII. And in addition to this, wlien besides the spectacle,
and even beyond the spectacle, they heard an old man, very
righteous, very worthy of credit, worthy also of emulation,

^ Deut. xviii. 15-19. - I-. vi. 4. - Is. vi. 9 ; Acts xxviii. :i(J.
* Ps. xlvi. 8 : Is. vii. 1 1.

20G THE WPdTINGS OF METHODIUS.

inspired Ly the Holy Spirit, a teacher of the law, honoured
with the priesthood, illustrious in the gift of prophecy, by
the hope which he had conceived of Christ, extending the
limits of life, and putting off the debt of death — when they
saw him, I say, leaping for joy, speaking words of good
omen, quite transformed with gladness of heart, entirely
rapt in a divine and holy ecstasy; who from a man had
been changed into an angel by a godly change, and, for the
immensity of his joy, chanted his hymn of thanlcsgiving,
and openly proclaimed the " Light to lighten the Gentiles,
and the glory of Thy people Israel." ^ Not even then were
they willing to hear what was placed within their hearing,
and held in veneration by the heavenly beings themselves ;
wherefore the house in which they boasted was filled with
smoke. Now smoke is a sign and sure evidence of wrath ;
as it is written, " There w^ent up a smoke in His anger, and
fire from His countenance devoured ;" ^ and in another
place, "Amongst the disobedient people shall the fire
burn,"^ wdiich plainly, in the revered gospels, our Lord
signified, when He said to the Jews, " Behold your house is
left unto you desolate."^ Also, in another place, "The
kinfT sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers,
and burnt up their city."^ Of such a nature was the
adverse reward of the Jews for their unbelief, which
caused them to refuse to pay to the Trinity the tribute
of praise. For after that the ends of the earth were
sanctified, and the mighty house of the Church was filled,
by the proclamation of the Thrice Holy, with the glory
of the Lord, as the great waters cover the seas,^ there hap-
pened to them the things which before had been declared,
and the beginning of prophecy was confirmed by its issue,
the preacher of truth signifying, as has been said, by the
Holy Spirit, as it were in an example, the dreadful destruc-
tion which was to come upon them, in the words : " In the
year in which king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord " — Uzziah,
doubtless, as an apostate, being taken as the representative

^ Luke ii. 32. ^ pg. xviii. 8. ^ Ecclus. xxii, 7.

* Matt, xxiii. 38. * ^latt. xvii. 7. « Is. vi. 3, 4, L

ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA. 207

of the whole apostate body — the head of which he certainly
was — who also, paying the penalty due to his presumption,
carried on his forehead, as upon a brazen statue, the divine
vengeance engraved, by the loathsomeness of leprosy,
exhibiting to all the retribution of their loathsome impiety.
Wherefore with divine wisdom did he, who liad foreknow-
ledge of these events, oppose the bringing in of the thankful
Anna to the casting out of the ungrateful synagogue. Her
very name also presignifies the Church, that by the grace
of Christ and God is justified in baptism. For Anna is,
by interpretation, grace.

XIII. But here, as in port, putting in the vessel that
bears the ensign of the cross, let us reef the sails of our
oration, in order that it may be with itself commensurate.
Only first, in as few words as possible, let us salute the city
of the Great King,^ together with the whole body of the
Church, as being present with them in spirit, and keeping
holy-day with the Father, and the brethren most held in
honour there. Hail, thou city of the Great King, in which
the mysteries of our salvation are consummated. Hail, thou
heaven upon earth, Sion, the city that is for ever faithful unto
the Lord. Hail, and shine thou Jerusalem, for thy light is
come, the Light Eternal, the Light for ever enduring, the
Light Supreme, the Light Immaterial, the Light of one sul)-
stance with God and the Father, the Light which is in the
Spirit, and in which is the Father; the Light which illu-
mines the ages; the Light which gives light to mundane and
supramundane things, Christ our very God. Hail, city
sacred and elect of the Lord. Jo)i"ully keep thy festal days,
for they will not multiply so as to wax old and pass away.
Han, thou city most happy, for glorious things are spoken
of thee ; thy priest shall be clothed with righteousness, and
thy saints shall shout for joy, and thy poor shall be satisfied
with bread.2 Hail ! rejoice, Jerusalem, for the Lord
reigneth in tlie midst of thee.^ That Lord, I say, who in
His simple and immaterial Deity, entered our nature, and

» Ps. xlviii. 2 ; Matt, v, 35 ; Is. i. 26.

- Is. k. 1 ; Py. Ixxxvii. :} ; P.<. c.xxxii. IG. ^ jg ^jj p^

208 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

of tlie virgin's womb became ineffably incarnate; tliat Lord,
who was partaker of nothing else save the lump of Adam,
who was by the serpent tripped up. For the Lord laid not
lioid of the seed of angels^ — those, T say, Avho fell not away
i'rom that beauteous order and rank that was assigned to
them from the beginning. To us He condescended, that
Word wlio was always with the Father co-existent God.
Nor, again, did He come into the world to restore ; nor will
He restore, as has been imagined by some impious advo-
cates of the devil, those wicked demons who once fell from
light ; but when the Creator and Framer of all things had,
as the most divine Paul says, laid hold of the seed of Abra-
ham, and through him of the whole human race. He was
made man for ever, and without change, in order that by
His fellowship with us, and our joining on to Him, the
ingress of sin into us might be stopped, its strength being
broken by degrees, and itself as wax being melted, by that
fire which the Lord, when He came, sent upon the earth.'
Hail to thee, thou Catholic Church, which hast been planted
in all the earth, and do thou rejoice with us. Fear not,
little ilock, the storms of the enemy ,^ for it is your Father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom, and that you should
tread upon the necks of your enemies.'* Hail, and rejoice,
thou that wast once barren, and without seed unto godli-
ness, but who hast now many children of faith.^ Hail,
thou people of the Lord, thou chosen generation, thou royal
priesthood, thou holy nation, thou peculiar people — show
forth His praises who hath called you out of darkness into
His marvellous light ; and for His mercies glorify Him.^

XIV. Hail to thee for ever, thou virgin mother of God,
our unceasing joy, for unto thee do I again return. Thou
art the beginning of our feast; thou art its middle and end ;
the pearl of great price that belongest unto the kingdom ;
the fatof every victim, the living altar of the bread of life.

' Ileb. ii. 16. 2 L^^e xii. 49.

^ ToiKv/ictcts, stormy waves. Latin, decimiani fluctus. Methodius per-
liaj)s alludes to Diocletian's persecution, in which he perished as a
martyr.— Tr. * Luke xii. 32. ^ i^. Jiv. 1. 1 Peter ii. 9.

ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA. 209

Hail, thou treasure of the love of God. Hail, thou fount of
the Son's love for man. Hail, thou overshadowing mount^
of the Holy Ghost. Thou gleamedst, sweet gift-bestowing
mother, of the light of the sun ; thou gleamedst with the
insupportable fires of a most fei-vent charity, bringing forth
in the end that which was conceived of thee before the
beginning, making manifest the mystery hidden and un-
speakable, the invisible Son of the Father — the Prince of
Peace, who in a marvellous manner showed Himself as less
than all littleness. Wherefore, we pray thee, the most
excellent among women, who boastest in the confidence of
thy maternal honours, that thou wouldest unceasingly keep
us in remembrance. holy mother of God, remember us, I
say, who make our boast in thee, and who in hymns august
celebrate the memory, which will ever live, and never fade
away. And do thou also, honoured and venerable
Simeon, thou earliest host of our holy religion, and teacher
of the resurrection of the faithful, be our patron and advo-
cate with that Saviour God, whom thou wast deemed worthy
to receive into thine arms. We, together with thee, sing
our praises to Christ, who has the power of life and death,
saying. Thou art the true Light, proceeding from the true
Light; the true God, begotten of the true God; the one
Lord, before Thine assumption of the humanity ; that One
nevertheless, after Thine assumption of it, which is ever to
be adored ; God of Thine own self and not by grace, but
for our sakes also perfect man ; in Thine own nature the
King absolute and sovereign, but for us and for our salva-
tion existing also in the form of a servant, yet immacu-
lately and without defilement. For Thou who art incor-
ruption hast come to set corruption free, that Thou miglitest
render all things uncon-upt. For Thine is the glory, and
the power, and the greatness, and the majesty, with tlie
Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.

1 Habak. iii. 3.

ORATION ON THE PALMS.

[LESSED be God : let us proceed, brethren, from
wonders to the miracles of the Lord, and as it
were, from strength to strength.^ Eor just as in
a golden chain the links are so intimately joined
and connected together, as that the one holds the other, and
is fitted on to it, and so carries on the chain — even so
the miracles that have been handed down by the holy
gospels, one after the other, lead on the Church of God,
which delights in festivity, and refresh it, not with the meat
that perisheth, but with that which endureth unto everlast-
ing life.^ Come then, beloved, and let us, too, with pre-
pared hearts, and with ears intent, listen to what the Lord
our God shall say unto us out of the prophets and gospels
concerning this most sacred feast. Verily, He will speak
peace unto His people, and to His saints, and to those
which turn their hearts unto Him. To-day, the trumpet-
blast of the prophets have roused the world, and have made
glad and filled Avith joyfulness the Churches of God that
are every^vhere amongst the nations. And, summoning the
faithful from the exercise of holy fasting, and from the
palaistra, wherein they struggle against the lusts of the flesh,
they have taught them to sing a new hymn of conquest
and a new song of peace to Christ who giveth the victory.
Come then, every one, and let us rejoice in the Lord ;
come, all ye people, and let us clap our hands, and make a
joyful noise to God our Saviour, with the voice of melody.^
Let no one be without portion in this grace ; let no one
come short of this calling; for the seed of the disobedient is
appointed to destruction. (Let no one neglect to meet the
^ Ps. Ixxxiv. 8. 2 John vi. 27. ^ Ps. Ixxxv. 9, xcv. 1, xlvii. 1.

ORATION OX THE PALMS. 211

King, lest he be shut out from the Bridegroom's chamber.)
Let no one amongst us be found to receive Him with a sad
countenance, lest he be condemned with those wicked citi-
zens — the citizens, I mean, who refused to receive the Lord
as King over them.^ Let us all come together cheerfully;
let us all receive Him gladly, and hold our feast with all
honesty. Instead of our garments, let us strew our hearts
before Him.^ In psalms and hymns, let us raise to Him
our shouts of thanksgiving ; and, without ceasing, let us
exclaim, " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the
Lord;"^ for blessed are they that bless Him, and cursed are
they that curse Him.* Again I wiU say it, nor will I cease
exhorting you to good, Come, beloved, let us bless Him who
is blessed, that we may be ourselves blessed of Him. Every
age and condition does this discourse simimon to praise the
Lord ; kings of the earth, and all people ; princes, and all
judges of the eartli; both young men and maidens^ — and
what is new in tliis miracle, the tender and innocent a<fe of
babes and sucklings hath obtained the first place in raising
to God with thankful confession the hymn which was of God
taught them in the strains in which Moses sang before to
the people when they came forth out of Egypt — namely,
" Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord."

II. To-day, holy David rejoices with great joy, being by
babes despoiled of his lyre, with wliom also, in spirit, leading
the dance, and rejoicing together, as of old, before the ark
of God,° he mingles musical harmony, and sweetly lisps out
in stammering voice. Blessed is He that cometh in the name
of the Lord. Of whom shall we inquire ? Tell us, pro-
phet, who is this that cometh in the name of the Lord?
He will say it is not my part to-day to teach you, for He
hath consecrated the school to infants, who hath out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings perfected praise to destroy
the enemy and the avenger,^ in order that by the miracle

» Luke xix. 27. 2 p..,. ixii. a

3 Ps. cxviii. 2() ; Matt. xxi. 9 ; Mark xi. !) ; Luke xix. 38 ; Jno. xii. 13.
* Gen. xxvii. 29. * Ps. cxlviii. 11, 12.

" 2 Sam. vi. 14. ' Ps. viii. 2.

212 THE WJllTJXGS OF METHODIUS.

of these tlie hearts of the fathers might be turned to the
children, and the disobedient unto the wisdom of the just.^
Tell us, then, children, whence is this, your beautiful
and graceful contest of song ? Who taught it you ? Wlio
instructed you ? Who brought you together ? Wliat were
your tablets ? Who were your teachers ? Do but you, they
say, join us as our companions in this song and festivity,
and you will learn the things which were by Moses and the
prophet earnestly longed for.^ Since then the children have
invited us, and have given unto us the right hand of fellow-
ship,^ let us come, beloved, and ourselves emulate that holy
chorus, and with the apostles, let us make way for Him who
ascends over the heaven of heavens towards the East,^ and
who, of His good pleasure, is upon the earth mounted upon
an ass's colt. Let us, with the children, raise the branches
aloft, and with the olive branches make glad applaud, that
upon us also the Holy Spirit may breathe, and that in due
order we may raise the God-taught strain : " Blessed is He
that Cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the
highest."^ To-day, also, the patriarch Jacob keeps feast in
spirit, seeing his prophecy brought to a fulfilment, and with
the faithful adores the Father, seeing Him who bound liis foal
to the vine,® mounted upon an ass's colt. To-day the foal
is made ready, the irrational exemplar of the Gentiles, who
before were irrational, to signify the subjection of the people
of the Gentiles ; and the babes declare their former state
of childhood, in respect of the knowledge of God, and their
after perfecting, by the worship of God and the exercise
of the true religion. To-day, according to the prophet,^ is
the King of Glory glorified upon earth, and makes us, the
inhabitants of earth, partakers of the heavenly feast, that
He may show Himself to be the Lord of both, even as He
is hymned with the common praises of both. Therefore it
was that the heavenly hosts sang, announcing salvation upon
earth, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts; the
v;hole earth is fiill of His glory." ^ And those below, join-

» Mai. iv. 6 ; Luke i. 17. ^ Luke x. 24. ^ Qal. ii. 9. ^ Ps. Ixviii. 4, 34.
* Matt. xxi. 5. <^ Gen. xlix. 10. ^ Ps. cxlviii. 9. » jg. yj. 3.

ORATION OX THE PALMS. 213

ing in liarmony with the joyous hymns of heaven, cried :
" Hosanna in the highest ; Hosanna to tlie Son of David."
In heaven tlie doxology was raised, " Blessed be the glory
of the Lord from His place ;"^ and on earth was this cauglit
up in the words, " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of
the Lord."

III. But while these things were being done, and the
disciples were rejoicing and praising God witli a loud voice
for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed
be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord ; peace in
heaven, and glory in the highest;^ the city began to inquire,
saying. Who is this ?^ stirring up its hardened and inveterate
envy against the glory of the Lord. But when thou Iiearest
me say the city, understand the ancient and disorderly
multitude of the synagogue. They ungratefully and malig-
nantly ask, Who is this ? as if they had never yet seen their
Benefactor, and Him whom divine miracles, beyond the
power of man, had made famous and renowned ; for the dark-
ness comprehended not* that unsetting light wliich shone in
upon it. Hence quite appositely with respect to them hath
the prophet Isaiah exclaimed, saying. Hear, ye deaf; and
look, ye blind, that ye may see. And who is blind, l)ut mv
children ? and deaf, but they that have the dominion over
them?^ And the servants of the Lord have become bhnd ;
ye have often seen, but ye observed not ; your ears are
opened, yet ye hear not. See, beloved, liow accurate are
these words ; how the Divine Spirit, who Himself sees be-
forehand into the future, has by His saints foretold of things
future as if they were present. For these thankless men
saw, and by means of His miracles handled the wonder-
working God, and yet remained in unbelief.^ They saw a
man, blind from his birth, proclaiming to them tlie God who
had restored his siglit. They saw a paralytic, who had grown
up, as it were, and become one witli his infirmity, at His
bidding loosed from his disease.'^ They saw Lazarus, who
was made an exile from tlie ivgion of death.* They heard

1 Ezek. iii. 22. 2 l„i^(. xix. 37, 38. ^ U-M. xxi. 10. * J„lin i. T).
* Is. xlii. 18-20. «Jolinix. ^Julmv. 5. *Johuxi, 44.

2U THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

that He had walked on the sea.^ They heard of the wine
that, without previous culture, was ministered ;- of the bread
that was eaten at that spontaneous banquet;^ they heard
that the demons had been put to flight ; the sick restored to
health.* Their very streets proclaimed His deeds of wonder;
their roads declared His healing power to those who jour-
neyed on them. All Judea was tilled with His benefit ;
yet now, when they hear the divine praises, they inquire,
"Wlio is this ? the madness of these falsely-named
teachers ! incredulous fathers ! foolish seniors !
seed of the shameless Canaan, and not of Judah the devout !^
The children acknowledge their Creator, but their unbeliev-
ing- parents said, Who is this ? The age that was young and
inexperienced sang praises to God, w^hile they that had waxen
old in wickedness inquired. Who is this ? Sucklings praise
His Divinity, while seniors utter blasphemies ; children
piously offer the sacrifice of praise, whilst profane priests
are impiously indignant.*^

IV. ye disobedient as regards the wisdom of the just,^
turn your hearts to your children. Learn the mysteries of
God • the very thing itseK w^hich is being done bears witness
that it is Gocl that is thus lipnned by uninstructed tongues.
Search the Scriptures, as ye have heard ^ from the Lord ; for
they are they which testify of Him, and be not ignorant of
tliis miracle. Hear ye men without grace, and thankless,
what good tidings the prophet Zechariah brings to you. He
says, Eejoice greatly, daughter of Zion ; behold thy King
Cometh unto thee: just and having salvation; lowly, and
riding upon the foal of an ass.^ Why do ye repel the joy ?
Why, when the sun shineth, do ye love darkness ? Why do
ye against unconquerable peace meditate w^ar ? If, there-
fore, ye be the sons of Zion, join in the dance together with,
vour children. Let the religious service of your children be
to you a pretext for joy. Learn from them wdio was their
Teacher; who called them together; whence was the

^ Matt. xiv. 26. ^ John ii. 7. ^ John vi. 11.

* Luke viii. 29, etc. * Dan. iii. 5G (lxx.) ^ Matt. xxi. 15.

■ Luke L 17. ^ John v. 39. » Zech. ix. 9.

ORATIOX OX THE PALMS. 215

doctrine ; what means this new theology and old pro-
phecy. And if no man hath taught them this, but of their
own accord they raise the hymn of praise, then recognise
the work of God, even as it is written in the law : Out of
the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou perfected
praise.^ Eedouble, therefore, your joy, that you have been
made the fathers of such cliildren who, under the teaching
of God, have celebrated with their praises things unknown
to their seniors. Turn your hearts to your children,- and
close not your eyes against the truth. But if you remain
the same, and hearing, hear not, and seeing, perceive not,^
and to no purpose dissent from your children, then shall
they be your judges,^ according to the Saviom-'s word. Well,
therefore, even this thing also, together Avith others, has the
prophet Isaiah spoken before of you, saying, Jacob shall
not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
But when they see their children doing my works, they shall
for me sanctify My name, and sanctify the Holy One of
Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that err
in spirit shall come to imderstanding, and they that mur-
mured shall learn obedience, and the stammering tongues
shall learn to speak peace.^ Seest thou, foolish Jew, how
from the beginning of his discourse, the prophet declares
confusion to you because of your unbelief. Learn even
from him how he proclaims the God-inspired hymn of praise
that is raised by your children, even as the blessed David
hath declared beforehand, saying, Out of the mouth of babes
and sucklings hast Thou perfected praise. Either then (as
is right), claim the piety of your children for your own, or
devoutly give your children unto us. We with them will
lead the dance, and to the new glory will sing in concert the
divinely-inspired hymn.

V. Once, indeed, the aged Simeon met the Saviour,® and
received in his arms, as an infant, the Creator of the world,
and proclaimed Ilim to be Lord and God ; but now, in the
place of foolish elders, children meet the Saviour, even as

1 Ps. viii. 2. - Luke i. 17. ^ U. vi. 10.

* Matt. xii. 27. ' Is. x-vi.\. 22, 24. « Luke ii. 29.

216 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

Simeon did, and instead of their arms, strew under Him the
branches of trees, and bless the Lord God seated upon a
colt, as upon the cherubim, Hosanna to the son of David :
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord ; and
together with these let us also exclaim, Blessed is He that
cometh, God the King of Glory, who, for our sakes, became
poor, yet, in His own proper estate, being ignorant of
poverty, that with His bounty He might make us rich.
Blessed is He who once came in humility, and who will
hereafter come again in glory : at the first, lowly, and seated
upon an ass's colt, and by infants extolled, in order that it
might be fulfilled which was written : Thy goings have
been seen, God; even the goings of my God, my King, in
the sanctuary; but at the second time seated on the clouds,
in terrible majesty, by angels and powers attended. the
mellifluous tongue of the children ! the sincere doctrine
of those who are well pleasing to God ! David in prophecy
hid the spirit under the letter; children, opening their
treasures, brought forth riches upon their tongues, and, in
language full of grace, invited clearly all men to enjoy them.
Therefore let us with them draw forth the unfading riches.
In our bosoms insatiate, and in treasure-houses which cannot
be filled, let us lay up the divine gifts. Let us exclaim with-
out ceasing. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the
Lord ! Very God, in the name of the Very God, the Omni-
potent from the Omnipotent, the Son in the name of the
Father. The true King from the true King, whose kingdom,
even as His who begat Him, is with eternity, coeval and
pre-existent to it. For tliis is common to both ; nor does
the Scripture attribute this honom' to the Son, as if it came
from another source, nor as if it had a beginning, or could be
added to or diminished — away with the thought ! — but as
that which is His of right by nature, and by a true and
proper possession. For the kingdom of the Father, of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is one, even as their substance
is one and their dominion one. Whence also, with one
and the same adoration, we worship the one Deity in three
Persons, subsisting without beginning, uncreate, without

OliATION OX THE PALMS. 217

end, and to which there is no successor. For neither
Avill the Father ever cease to he the Father, nor again
the Son to he the Son and King, nor the Holy Ghost
to be what in substance and personality He is. For
nothing of the Trinity will suffer diminution, either in
respect of eternity, or of communion, or of sovereignty. For
not on that account is the Son of God called king, because
for our sakes He was made man, and in the flesh cast down
the tyrant that was against us, having, by taking this upon
Him, obtained the victory over its cruel enemy, but because
He is always Lord and God ; therefore it is that now, both
after His assumption of the flesh and for ever. He remains a
king, even as He who begat Him. Speak not, heretic,
against the kingdom of Christ, lest thou dishonour Him who
begat Him. If thou art faithful, in faith approach Christ,
our very God, and not as using your liberty for a cloak of
maliciousness. If thou art a servant, with trembling be
subject unto thy Master; for he who fights against the
Word is not a weU-disposed servant, but a manifest enemy,
as it is written : He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth
not the Father which hath sent Him.

VI. But let us, beloved, return in our discourse to that
point whence we digressed, exclaiming. Blessed is He that
cometh in the name of the Lord : that good and kind
Shepherd, voluntarily to lay down His life for His sheep.
That just as hunters take by a sheep the wolves that
devour sheep, even so the Chief Shepherd,^ offering Himself
as man to the sph-itual Avolves and those who destroy the
soul, may make His prey of the destroyers by means of that
Adam who was once preyed on by them. Blessed is He that
cometh in the name of the Lord: God against the devil;
not manifestly in His might, which cannot be looked on,
but in the weakness of the flesh, to bind the strong man-
that is against us. Blessed is He that cometh in the
name of the Lord : the King against the tyrant ; not with
omnipotent power and wisdom, but with that wliich is
accounted the foolishness ^ of the cross, wliich hath reft his
' 1 IVt. V. 4. - Matt. xii. 29. ^ i to,., j. oi_

218 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

spoils from the sei-pent wlio is wise in wickedness. Blessed
is He that cometh in the name of the Lord : the True One
against the liar ; the Saviour against the destroyer ; the
Prince of Peace ^ against him who stirs up wars; the Lover
of mankind against the hater of mankind. Blessed is He
that cometh in the name of the Lord: the Lord to have
mercy upon the creature of His hands. Blessed is He
that cometh in the name of the Lord : the Lord to save
man who had wandered in error ; to put away error ; to
give light to tliose who are in darkness ; to abolish the
imposture of idols ; in its place to bring in the saving know-
ledge of God; to sanctify the w^orld; to drive away the
abomination and misery of the worship of false gods.
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord : the one
for the many ; to deliver the poor- out of the hands of them
that are too strong for him, yea, the poor and needy from
him that spoileth him. Blessed is He that cometh in the
name of the Lord, to pour wine and oil upon him who had
fallen amongst thieves, ^ and had been passed by. Blessed
is He that cometh in the name of the Lord : to save us by
Himself, as says the prophet ; no ambassador, nor angel, but
the Lord HimseK saved us.* Therefore we also bless Thee,
Lord; Thou with the Father and the Holy S^^irit art blessed
before the worlds and for ever. Before the world, indeed
and until now being devoid of body, but now and for ever
henceforth possessed of that divine humanity which cannot
be changed, and from which Thou art never divided.

VII. Let us look also at what follows. What says the
most divine evangelist ? When the Lord had entered into
the temple, the blind and the lame came to Him; and He
healed them. And when the chief priests and Pharisees
saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children
crying, and saying, Hosanna to the Sou of David : Blessed is
He that cometh in the name of the Lord,^ they brooked not
this honour that was paid Him, and therefore they came to
Him, and thus spake, Hearest Thou not what these say ? As

1 Is. ix. 6. 2 ps. XXXV. 10. 3 Lu]^e x. 34.

* Is, Ixiii. 9. 5 Tjiatt. xxi. 14-lG.

OnATlOX ON Till-: I'AI.MS. 219

if tliey said, Art Thou not grieved at hearing from tliese
innocents tilings which beiit God, and God alone ? Has not
God of old made it manifest by the prophet, " My glory will
I not give unto another ;"^ and how dost Thou, being a man,
make Thyself God?- 15ut what to this answers the long-
suffering One, He who is abundant in mercy, ^ and slow to
wrath ?^ He bears with these frenzied ones; with an
apology He keeps their wrath in check; in His turn He calls
the Scriptures to their remembrance ; He brings forward
testimony to what is done, and shrinks not from inquiry.
Wherefore He says. Have ye never heard ^Nle saying by the
prophet, Then shall ye know that I am He that doth speak ? ^
nor again. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast
Thou perfected praise because of Thine enemies, that Thou
mightest still the enemy and the avenger ? Which without
doubt are ye, who give heed unto the law, and read the
prophets, while yet ye despise ]\Ie who, both by the law and
the prophets, have been beforehand proclaimed. Ye think,
indeed, under a pretence of piety, to avenge the glory of God,
not understanding that he that despiseth Me despiseth ^ly
Father also.^ I came forth from God, and am come into the
world, ^ and My gloiy is the glory of ]\ry Father also. Even
thus these foolish ones, being convinced by our Saviour-God,
ceased to answer Him again, the truth stopping their
mouths ; but adopting a new and foolish device, they took
counsel against Him. But let us sing. Great is our Lord, and
great is His power; ^ and of His understanding there is no
number. For all this was done that the Lamb and Son of
God, that taketli away the sins of the world, might, of His
own will, and for us, come to His saving Passion, and might
be recognised, as it were, in the market and place of selling;
and that those who bought Him might for thirty pieces of
silver covenant for Him who, with His life-giving blood, was
to redeem the world ; and that Christ, our passover, might be
sacrificed for us, in order that those wlut wfre sprinkled
with His precious blood, and sealed on their lips, as the posts

1 Is. xlii. 8. 2 j„o. X. 3:5. ^ j,,,.] ij. i;>. •• Junics i. 10,

* Is. Hi, 6. ' John xv. -I'i. '' Juliii .w i. 2S. * Pd. cl.wii. 5.

220 THE \VR1TL\(JS OF METHODIUS.

of the door,^ might escape from the darts of the destroyer;
and that Christ having thus suffered in the flesh, and hav-
ing risen again the third day, might, with equal honour
and glory with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be by all
created things equally adored ; for to Him every knee shall
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth,^ sending up glory to Him, for ever and ever.
Amen.

1 Exod. xi 7. 2 piiU^ ii io.

THREE FRAGMENTS

FROM THB

HOMILY ON THE CROSS AND PASSION OF CHRIST.

[Apud. Gretserum, torn. ii. De Sancta Cruce, p. 401.
Nov. edit. Rutisb. 1754.]

[ETIIODIUS, Bishop, to those who say: Wliat
dotli it profit us that the Son of God was
crucified upon earth, and made man? And
wherefore did He endure to suffer in the
manner of the cross, and not by some other punishment ?
And what was the advantage of the cross ?

Christ, the Son of God, by the command of the Father,
became conversant witli the visible creature, in order that,
by overturning the dominion of the tyrants, the demons,
that is. He might deliver our souls from their dreadful
bondage, by reason of which our whole nature, intoxicated
by the draughts of iniquity, had become full of tumult and
disorder, and could by no means return to the remembrance
of good and useful things. Wherefore, also, it was the
more easily carried away to idols, inasmuch as evil had
overwhelmed it entirely, and had spread over all genera-
tions, on account of the change which had come over our
fleshy tabernacles in consequence of disobedience; until
Christ, the Lord, by tlie flesh in which He lived and
appeared, weakened the force of Pleasure's onslaughts, l)y
means of which the infernal powers that were in arms
against us reduced our minds to slavery, and fre«Hl man-
kind from all their evils. Fur witli this end the Lord
Jesus both wore our flesh, and became man, and by the
divine dispensation was nailed to the cross ; in order that

222 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

by the flesh in which the demons had proudly and falsely
feigned themselves gods, having carried our souls captive
unto death by deceitful wiles, even by this they might be
overturned, and discovered to be no gods. For he prevented
their arrogance from raising itself higher, by becoming man ;
in order that by the body in which the race possessed of
reason had become estranged from the worship of the true
God, and had suffered injury, even by the same receiving
into itself in an ineffable manner the Word of Wisdom, the
enemy might be discovered to be the destroyers and not the
benefactors of our souls.

For it had not been wonderful if Christ, by the terror of
His divinity, and the greatness of His invincible power, had
reduced to w^eakness the adverse nature of the demons.
But since this was to cause them greater grief and torment
(for they would have preferred to be overcome by one
stronger than themselves), therefore it was that by a man
He procured the safety of the race ; in order that men, after
that very Life and Truth had entered into them in bodily
form, might be able to retm-n to the form and light of the
Word, overcoming the power of the enticements of sin;
and that the demons, being conquered by one weaker than
they, and thus brought into contempt, might desist from
their over-bold confidence, their hellish wrath being re-
pressed. It was for this mainly that the cross was brought
in, being erected as a trophy against iniquity, and a deter-
rent from it, that henceforth man might be no longer subject
to wrath, after that he had made up for the defeat which,
by his disobedience, he had received, and had lawfully con-
quered the infernal powers, and by the gift of God had been
set free from every debt. Since, therefore, the fiirstbom
Word of God thus fortified the manhood in which He
tabernacled with the armour of righteousness. He overcame,
as has been said, the powers that enslaved us by the figure
of the cross, and showed forth man, who had been oppressed
by corruption, as by a tyrant power, to be free, with im-
fettered hands. For the cross, if you wish to define it, is
the confirmation of the victory, the way by which God to

THREE FRAGMENTS. 223

man descended, the trophy against material spirits, the repul-
sion of death, the foundation of the ascent to the true day;
and the ladder for those who are liastening to enjoy the
light that is there, the engine by which those who are
fitted for the edifice of the Church are raised up from below,
like a stone four square, to be compacted on to the divine
Word. Hence it is that our kings, perceiving that tlie figure
of the cross is used for the dissipating of every evil, have
made vcxillas, as they are called in the Latin language.
Hence the sea, yielding to this figure, makes itself navig-
able to men. For every creature, so to speak, lias, for the
sake of liberty, been marked with this sign ; for the birds
which fly aloft, form the figure of the cross by tlie expan-
sion of their wings ; and man himself, also, with his hands
outstretched, represents the same. Hence, when the Lord
had fashioned him in this form, in which He had from the
beginning framed him, He joined on liis body to the Deity,
in order that it might be henceforth an instrument con-
secrated to God, freed from all discord and want of harmony.
For man cannot, after that he has been formed for the
worship of God, and hath sung, as it were, the incorruptible
song of truth, and by this hath been made capable of hold-
ing the Deity, being fitted to the lyre of life as the chords
and strings, he cannot, I say, return to discord and cor-
ruption,

[Apud. Gretserum, ibid. p. 403.]

Tlic same Mdliodius to those who are ashamed of the

Cross of Christ.

Some think that God also, whom they measure with the
measure of their own feelings, judges the same tiling that
wicked and foolish men judge to be subjects of praise and
blame, and that He uses the opinions of men as His rule and
measm-e, not taking into account the fact that, by reason of
the ignorance that is in tliem, every crcatuit; falls short
of the beauty of God. For He draws all things to life by

224 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

His Word, from their universal substance and nature. For
whether He would have good, He Himself is the Very
Good, and remains in HimseK; or, whether the beautiful is
pleasing to Him, since He HimseK is the Only Beautiful,
He beholds Himself, holding in no estimation tlie things
which move the admiration of men. That, verily, is to be
accounted as in reality the most beautiful and praiseworthy,
which God Himself esteems to be beautiful, even though it
be contemned and despised by all else — not that which men
fancy to be beautiful. Whence it is, that although by this
figure He hath willed to deliver the soul from corrupt affec-
tions, to the signal putting to shame of the demons, we
ought to receive it, and not to speak evil of it, as being
that which was given us to deliver us, and set us free from
the chains which for our disobedience we incurred. For the
Word suffered, being in the flesh af&xed to the cross, that
He might bring man, who had been deceived by error, to His
supreme and godlike majesty, restoring him to that divine
life from which he had become alienated. By this figure,
in truth, the passions are blunted; the passion of the passions
having taken place by the Passion, and the death of death
by the death of Christ, He not having been subdued by
death, nor overcome by the pains of the Passion. For neither
did the Passion cast Him down from His equanimity, nor
did death hurt Him, but He was in the passible remaining
impassible, and in the mortal remaining immortal, com-
prehending all that the air, and this middle state, and the
heaven above contained, and attempering the mortal to the
immortal divinity. Death was vanquished entirely; the
fiesh being crucified to draw forth its immortality.

THREE FliAGMENTS. 225

III.

[Apud. Allatiura, Diatr. de Methodiorum scriptis, p. 349.]

27te same Methodius: How Christ the Son of God, in a brief
and definite time, being enclosed hy the body, and existiwj
impassible, became obnoxious to the Passion.

For since this virtue was in Him, now it is of the essence
of power to be contracted in a small space, and to be dimi-
nished, and again to be expanded in a large space, and to
be increased. But if it is possible for Him to be with the
larger extended, and to be made equal, and yet not with the
smaller to be contracted and diminished, then power is not
in Him. For if you say that this is possible to power, and
that impossible, you deny it to be power; as being infirm
and incapable with regard to the things which it cannot do.
Xor again, further, will it ever contain any excellence of
divinity with respect to those tilings which suffer cliange.
Tor both man and the other animals, with respect to those
things which they can effect, energise ; but with respect to
those things which they cannot perform, are weak, and fade
away. AVherefore for this cause the Son of God was in
the manhood enclosed, because this was not impossil)le to
Him. For with power He suffered, remaining impassil^le;
and He died, bestowing the gift of immortality upon mortals.
Since the body, when struck or cut by a body, is just so far
struck or cut as the striker strikes it, or he that cuts it cut
it. For according to the rebound of the thing struck, the
blow reflects upon the striker, since it is necessary that the
two must suffer equally, both the agent and the sufferer.
If, in truth, that which is cut, from its small size, does not
correspond to that which cuts it, it will not be abh^ to cut
it at all. For if the subject body does not resist the blow
of the sword, but rather yields to it, the operation will be
void of effect, even as one sees in the thin and subtle bodies
of fire and air; for in such cases the impetus of the more
solid bodies is relaxed, and remains without cfTecl. But if
fire, or air, or stone, or iron, or anything whir.h men use

220 THE WRITJXaS OF METHODIUS.

against themselves for the purposes of mutual destruction —
if it is not possible to pierce or divide these, Ixicause of tlie
subtle nature which they possess, why should not rather
Wisdom remain invulnerable and impassible, in nothing
injured by anytliing, even though it were conjoined to the
body which was pierced and transfixed with nails, inas-
much as it is purer and more excellent than any other
nature, if you except only that of God who begat Him ?

SOME OTHER FRAGMENTS OF THE SAME
METHODIUS.!

[Ex Nicetae Catena on Job, cap. xix. p. 429, edit. Londin. 1637.]

But, perhaps, since the friends of Job imagkied that they
understood the reason why he suffered such things, that
just man, using a long speech to them, confesses that the
wisdom of the divine judgment is incomprehensible, not
only to him, but also to every man, and declares that this
earthly region is not the fitting place for understanding the
knowledge of the divine counsels. One might say, that
perfect and absolute piety — a thing plainly divine, and of
God alone given to man, is in this place called wisdom.
But the sense of the words is as foUows : God, he says,
hath given great things unto men, sowing, as it were, in
their nature the power of discovery, together with wisdom,
and the faculty of art. And men having received this, dig
metals out of the earth, and cultivate it ; but that wisdom
which is conjoined with piety, it is not possible in any place
to discover. Man cannot obtain it from his own resources,
nor can he give it unto others. Hence it was that the wise
men of the Greeks, who in their own strength sought to
search out piety, and the worship of the Deity, did not

^ All the shorter fragments collected in the editions of Migne and
Jahn are here appended.

SOME OTHER FRAGMENTS. 227

attain their end. For it is a tiling, as we have said, wliich
exceeds human strength, the gift and the grace of God ; and
therefore from the beginning, partly by visions, partly by
the intervention of angels, partly by the discourses of the
divinely-inspired prophets, God instructed man in the prin-
ciples of true religion. Nay, moreover, that contemplative
wisdom by which we, are impelled to the arts, and to other
j)ursuits, and with which we are all in common, ju.st and
unjust, alike endued, is the gift of God : if we have been
made rational creatures, we have received this. "WTierefore,
also, in a former place it was said, as of a thing that is of
God bestowed, " Is it not the Lord who teacheth under-
standing and knowledge ?"^

II.

[^Ihid. cap. x.xvi. p. 538.]

Observe that the Lord was not wont from the beginning
to speak with man ; but after that the soul was prepared,
and exercised in many ways, and had ascended into the
height by contemplation, so far as it is possible for human
nature to ascend, then is it His wont to speak, and to reveal
His Word unto those who have attained unto this elevation.
But since the whirlwind is the producer of the tempests,
and Job, in the tem])est of his afflictions, had not madii
shipwreck of his faith, but his constancy shone forth the
rather ; therefore it was that He who gave him an answer
answered him by the whirlwind, to signify the tempest of
calamity which had befallen Imn ; but, because He changed
the stormy condition of his affairs into one of serene tran-
quillity. He spoke to him not only by the whirlwind, but in
clouds also.

HI.

iUnd. ]). 547.]

Many have descended into the deep, not so as to walk on
it, but so as to be by its bonds restrained. Jesus ali>ne
walked on the dee]), wlicre there are no traces of walkers,
' Job .\.\i. 22, x.\ii. 2. •

228 THE WniTlNGS OF M h/rnODlL'S.

aa a free man. For He chose death, to which He was not
subject, that He might deliver those who were tlie bond-
slaves of death; saying to the prisoners, "Go forth ; and to
them that are in darkness, show yourselves."^ With which,
also, the things which follow are consistent.

IV.

\Ihid. cap. x.xviii. p. 570.]

Seest thou how, at the end of the contest, with a loud
proclamation he declares the praises of the combatant, and
discovers that which was in his afflictions hidden, in the
words : " Thinkest thou that I had else answered thee, but
that thou shouldest appear just."^ This is the salve of his
wounds, this the reward of his patience. For as to what
followed, although he received double his former possessions,
these may seem to have been given him by divine provi-
dence as small indeed, and for trifling causes, even though
to some they may appear great.

Fragment, Uncertain.

Thou contendest with Me, and settest thyself against Me,
and opposest those who combat for Me. But where wert
thou when I made the world ? What wert thou then ?
Hadst thou yet, says He, fallen from thy mother ? for there
was darkness, in the beginning of the world's creation. He
says, upon the face of the deep. Now this darkness was no
created darkness, but one which of set purpose had place, by
reason of the absence of light.

[Ihid. cap. xix. p. 418, ex Olympiodoro.]

But Methodius : The Holy Spirit, who of God is given
to all men, and of whom Solomon said, " For Thine incor-

1 Is. xlix. 9. - Job xl. 3 (lxx.)

SOME (rniF.n fragments. 2W

niptible Spii-it is in all things,"^ He receives for the con-
science, which condemns the offending soul.

\J.

[Ex Parallelis. Daniascen. 0pp. tom. ii. p. 331. D.]

2'hc same Mdhodius.

1 account it a greater good to be reproved than to reprove,
inasmuch as it is more excellent to free one's-self from evil
than to free another.

VII.

[Ihid. p. 488, B.]

The same Methodw^.

Human nature cannot clearly perceive pure justice in the
soul, since, as to many of its thoughts, it is but dim-sighted,

VIII.
The same Methodius.
Wickedness never could recognise virtue or its own self.

IX.

The same Methodius.

Justice, as it seems, is four square, on all sides equal and
like.

The just judgment of God is accommodated to our affec-
tions; and such as our estate is, proportionate and similar
.shall the retribution be which is allotted us.

TWO FEAGMENTS, UNCEETAIX.

The beginning of every good action has its foundation in
our wills, but the conclusion is of God.
1 Wisd. \ii. 1.

230 THE WRITINGS OF METHODIUS.

TT.

Perhaps these three persons of our ancestors, being in an
image the consubstantial representatives of all humanity,
are, as also Methodius thinks, types of the Holy and Con-
substantial Trinity, the innocent and unbegotten Adam
being the type and resemblance of God the Father Almighty,
who is uncaused, and the cause of all; his begotten son
shadowing forth the image of the begotten Son and Word of
God ; whilst Eve, that proceedeth forth from Adam, signifies
the person and procession of the Holy Spirit.

ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF LYCOPOLIS.

a«i

ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF LYCOrOLIS.

NOTICE OF HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS.

[Titmslated from Gallandi, Vet. Patr. Biblioth.}

|0]\rBEriS conjectured that Alexander was called
AoTco-TTOAirrig^ as having been born at L}xus, a city
of the Thebaid, and so by race an Egyj^tian, and
to his opinion both Cave and Fabricius are
inclined. But this conjecture is plainly uncertain, if we
are to trust Photius, in his JEpitome Be Manicliccis, which
Montfaiicon has edited.^ For in this work Photius, whilst
speaking of the authors who wrote against those heretics,
makes mention also of Alexander as Bishop of the city of

LycUS, oTi rric to'Xewc a'jkuv AXi^ccvdpog rovg apyjtpariy.o\ji co'/xouj

iyxt^iifiis/Mivog.^ So that it is no easy matter to state whether
our author was called Avxo'ro}JTr,g, because he was born either
at Lycopolis in the Thebaid, or at another Lycopolis in Lower
Egypt, which Stephanus places close to the sea in the Seben-
nj'tic nome, or whether he was nut rather called Ai/x&'T&X/V?;;,
as having held the bishopric of Lycopolis. The unwontt'd
manner of speaking employed by Photius need not delay
the attention of any one, wlien he makes Alexander to
have been Archbishop of Lycopolis ; for it is established
that the P)ishop of Alexandria alone was Archbishop and

^ Cf. Cuiiibef. Audar. Noviss. part ii. p. 2 ; Cav., Dmert. de. Script.
EccL, incert. actat. p. 2 ; Fabricius, Bill. Gr., tuui. v. p. 2S7 ; Muut-
faucon, Bibl. Coisl., p. 349, seqq.

* Photius, Epist. de Manich, B. C. p. 3^4.

234 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

Patriarch of the whole Egyptian diocese.' Epijjhanius^ cer-
tainly says, when speaking of Meletius/ the schismatical
Bishop of Lycopolis, shoy-n ds 6 MsX^nog ruv xaTo, rrjv A/'yoTrot
Tpori'/.uv, %at hiunpivuv rw Ui-pu rui r^g A'As^avdpeiag ■/.a.ra, rr,v

apy^itincsxorrT}]/. And to the same purpose he says elsewliere,

MiXrjTiog, 6 r^g Aiyo'TTOu octto @7ij3atdoi do'/Sjv ihai za! aurhg apyj-

srrisxoTog. Bvit however these matters are understood, it is
admitted that Alexander came just before Meletius in the
see of Lycopolis, and we know that he occupied the episco-
pal chair of that city in the beginning of the fourth centuiy,
in which order Le Quien places him among the Lycopolitau
prelates, on the authority of Photius.

But however it be, wdiether Alexander was called
AvxorroXirfig from his birthj)lace, or from his episcopal see,

^ In the time of Constantine, the Eastern and Western Empire were
each divided into seven districts, called dioceses (hioiniiaeig), which com-
prised abont one hundred and eighteen provinces {t7:-ctpxi»i) ; each
province contained several cities, each of which had a district {•^xpoix.ix)
attached to it ; the ecclesiastical rulers of the dioceses were called
patriarchs, exarchs, or archbishops, of whom there were fourteen ; the
rulers of the provinces were styled metropolitans (i.e. governors of the
finrpo-Tro'hts or mother city), and those of each city and its districts
were called bishops. So that the division which we now call a diocese,
in ancient times was a union of dioceses, and a parish was a combina-
tion of modem parishes, — Tr.

2 Epiph. Hcer. lx\Tii. n. 1, Ixix. n. 2 ; Le Qiiien, Oriens CfliristianxLS,
torn. ii. p. 597. .

^ Meletius of Lycopolis, a schismatical bishop of the third and fourth
centuries. Athanasius tells us that Meletius, who was Bishop of
Lycopolis in Upper Egypt at the time of the persecution under
Diocletian and his successors, yielded to fear and sacrificed to idols ;
and being subsequently deposed, on tliis and other charges, in a Syuoii
over which Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, presided, determined to
separate from the Church, and to constitute with his followers a
separate community. Epiphanius, on the other hand, relates that both
Peter and Meletius, being in confinement for the faith, differed con
cerning the treatment to be used toward those who, after renouncing
their Christian profession, became penitent, and ■wished to be restored
to the commixnion of the Church. The Meletians afterwards co-
operated with the Arians in their hostility to Athanasius. — See Art
Meletius, in Smithes Biograph. Diet. — Ti^.

NOTICE OF Ills LIFE ASl) WIUTIXGS. 235

this is certain and acknowledged, tliat lie of good riglit
claims for himself a place among ecclesiastical writers, for
he has given us an elaborate treatise against the Manichaean
tenets ; and he is therefore styled by Allatius auctor
cruditisswuis et (piXocopx^rarog^ and his work lihcllus aureus.
Allatius ■v\Tote out and brought to light two passages from
it, while as yet it was lying hid in the libraries. From the
inscription of the work, we learn that Alexander was first
a pagan; and afterw^ards, having given up the religion of the
Greeks, became an adherent of the ]\Ianichaean doctrines,
which he says that he learnt from those who were on
terms of familiar intercourse with the heresiarch, a-rh ri*
ymfili(t,v Tou dvdpog ;i so that he would seem to be not far
wrong in his conjecture who would place our author at
no very distant date from the times of Manes himself.
From the errors of this sect he was divinely reclaimed,
and, taking refuge in the Church, he exposed the scandals
ittaching to the heresiarch, and solidly refuted his unwhole-
some dogmas. From having been an adherent of the sect
himself, he has given us more information concerning their
tenets than it was in the power of others to give, and on
that account his treatise seems to be held in much estima-
tion.^

* Cf. Alex., De Manich. placit., cap. 2.

- Tliis treatise of Alexander was first puhli.sheil by Combefis, with .\
Latin version, in the Anctarium novis^simum, Bihl. S. S. Patrum,
Ps. ii. p. 3. It is published also by Gallandi, Bib!. Patrum, vol.
iv. p. 73,

TREATISE OF ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF LYCOPOLIS,
ON THE TENETS OF THE MANICHiEANS.

ALEXANDER OF LYCOPOLIS, WHO TUENED FROM PAGANISM
TO THE MANIC H^AN OPINIONS.

Chap. i. — The excellence of the Christian philosophy — Tlic
origin of Jteresies amongst Christians.

The philosophy of the Christians is termed simple. But
it bestows very great attention to the formation of manners,
enigmatically insinuating words of more certain truth
respecting God ; the principal of which, so far as any
earnest serious purpose in those matters is concerned,
all will have received when they assume an efficient
cause, very noble and very ancient, as the originator of all
things that have existence. For Christians leaving to
etliical students matters more toilsome and difficult, as,
for instance, what is virtue, moral and intellectual ; and to
those who employ their time in forming hypotheses respect-
ing morals, and the passions and affections, without marking
out any element by which each virtue is to be attained, and
heaping up, as it were, at random precepts less subtle — the
common people, hearing these, even as we learn by experi-
ence, make great progress in modesty, and a character of
piety is imprinted on their manners, quickening the moral
disposition which from such usages is formed, and leading
them by degrees to the desire of what is honourable and
good.

But this being divided into many questions by the number
of those who come after, there arise many, just as is tlie case

ox THE TENETS OF THE MAXICJLEAXS. 2;i7

with those who are devoted to dialectics/ some more skilful
than others, and, so to speak, more sagacious in handling
nice and suhtle questions ; so that now they come forward
as parents and originators of sects and heresies. And by
these the formation of morals is hindered and rendered
obscure ; for those do not attain unto certain verity of
discourse who wish to become the heads of the sects, and
the common people is to a greater degree excited to strife
and contention. And there being no rule nor law by whicli a
solution may be obtained of the things which are called in
question, but, as in other matters, this ambitious rivalry
running out into excess, there is nothing to which it does
not cause damage and injury.

Chap. ii. — 77ie age of Manichceus, or Manes — His first dis-
ci2')lcs — The two pi'inciples — Manichcean matter.

So in these matters also, whilst in novelty of opinion each
endeavours to show himself lirst and superior, they brought
this philosophy, which is simple, almost to a nullity. Such
was he whom they call IManichajus,^ a Persian by race, my
instructor in ^\•hose doctrine was one I'apus by name, and
after him Thomas, and some others followed them. They
say that the man lived when Valerian was emperor, and
that he served under Sapor, the king of the Persians, and
having ofTended him in some way, was put to death. Some
such report of his character and reputation has come to me
from those who were intimately acquainted with him. He
laid down two principles, God and Matter. God lie called
good, and matter he affirmed to be evil. But God excelled

^ ill To/f ipiartKol;. The philosophers of the Megarean school, who
were devoted to dialectics, were nicknamed o« EpiariKoi, See Diog.
Laertius. — Tr.

'^ Manes, or ManichsBus, lived about a.d. 240. He was a Persian liy
birth, and this accounts for the Parsooisin which can bo detected in
his teaching. He was probably ordained a priest, but wa.s afterwards
expelled from the Christian community, and ])ut to death by Uie
Persian govevnmcnt. His tcnet.s spread considerably, and were in
early youth eml)raced by St Augustine. Til.

238 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

more in good than matter in evil. But he calls matter
not that which Plato calls it,^ which becomes everything
when it has received quality and iigure, whence he terms it
all-embracing — the mother and nurse of all things; nor
what Aristotle^ calls an element, with which form and
privation have to do, but something beside these. For the
motion which in individual things is incomposite, this he
calls matter. On the side of God are ranged powers, like
handmaids, all good ; and likewise, on the side of matter
are ranged other powers, all evil. Moreover, the bright
shining, the light, and the superior, all these are with God ;
while the obscure, and the darkness, and the inferior are
with matter. God, too, has desires, but they are all good ;
and matter, likewise, which are all evil.

Chap. in. — The Fancies of Manichmus concerning Matter.

It came to pass on a time that matter conceived a desire
to attain to the superior region ; and when it had arrived
there, it admired the brightness and the light which was
with God. And, indeed, it wished to seize on for itseK the
place of pre-eminence, and to remove God from His position.
God, moreover, deliberated how to avenge HimseK upon
matter, but was destitute of the evil necessary to do so, for
evil does not exist in the house and abode of God. He sent,
therefore, the power which we call the soul into matter, to
permeate it entirely. For it will be the death of matter,
when at length hereafter this power is separated from it.
So, therefore, by the providence of God, the soul was com-
mingled with matter, an unlike thing with an unlike.
Now by this commingling the soul has contracted evil, and
labours under the same infirmity as matter. For, just as in
a corrupted vessel, the contents are often-times vitiated in
quality, so, also the soul that is in matter suffers some such
change, and is deteriorated from its own nature so as to par-
ticipate in the evil of matter. But God had compassion

^ Plato, Timceus, 51.

2 In substance, but not in words, Aristotle, Met., Book A 4 (1070' h).

OA TUK TENETS OE THE MANICH^ANS. 239

upon the soul, and sent forth another power, wliich we call
hriiMiovpyov (that is, the Creator of all things) ; and when this
power had arrived, and taken in hand the creation of tlie
world, it separated from matter as much power as from the
commingling had contracted no vice and stain, and hence the
sun and moon were first formed ; but that which had con-
tracted some slight and moderate stain, this became the
stars and the expanse of heaven. Of the matter from whicli
the sun and the moon was separated, part was cast entirely
out of the world, and is that fu'e in which, indeed, there is the
power of burning, although in itself it is dark and void uf
light, being closely similar to night. But in the rest of the
elements, both animal and vegetable, in those the divine
power is unequally mingled. And therefore the world was
made, and in it the sun and moon who preside over the
birth and death of things, by separating the divine virtue
from matter, and transmitting it to God.

CiiAP. lY. — The Moon's Increase and Wane — The Manicha:an
IWifiing respecting it — Their Dreams about Man and
Christ — Their Foolish System of Abstinence.

He ordained this, forsooth, to supply to the Br,/ji,iovpyh;, oi
Creator, another power which miglit attract to the splendour
of the sun ; and the thing is manifest, as one might say,
even to a blind person. For the moon in its increase receives
the virtue which is separated from matter, and during the
time of its augmentation comes forth full of it. But when
it is full, in its Avanings, it remits it to the sun, and tlie sun
goes l)ack to God. And when it has done this, it waits
again to receive from another full moon a migration of the
soul to itself, and receiving this in the same way, it suffers
it to pass on to God. And this is its work continually,
and in eveiy age. And in tlie sun some such image is
seen, as is the form of man. And matter ambitiously strove
to make man from itself by mingling together all its virtue,
so that it might have some portion of soul. But his form con-
tributed much to man's obtaining a greater share, and one

240 tup: writings of ALEXANDER.

beyond all other aninuils, in the divine virtue. For he is the
image of the divine virtue, but Christ is the intelligence. Who,
when He had at length come from the superior region, dis-
missed a very great part of this virtue to God. And at length
being crucified, in this way He furnished knowledge, and
fitted the divine virtue to be crucified in matter. Because,
therefore, it is the Divine will and decree that matter should
perish, they abstain from those things which have life, and
feed upon vegetables, and everything which is void of sense.
They abstain also from marriage and the rites of Venus,
and the procreation of children, that virtue may not strike
its root deeper in matter by the succession of race ; nor do
they go abroad, seeking to purify themselves from the stain
which virtue has contracted from its admixture with matter.

Chap. v. — The ivorsJiip of the Sun and Moon iinder God —
Support sought for the Manichceans in the G^'ecian
Fables — The authority of the Scriptures and Faith
despised hy the Manichmans.

These things are the principal of what they say and
tliink. And they honour very especially the sun and moon,
not as gods, but as the way by which it is possible to attain
imto God. But when the divine virtue has been entirely
separated off, they say that the exterior fire will fall, and
burn up both itself and all else that is left of matter. Those
of them who are better educated, and not unacquainted with
Greek literature, instruct us from their own resources.
From the ceremonies and mysteries, for instance : by
Bacchus, who was cut out from the womb, is signified that
the divine virtue is divided into matter by the Titans, as
they say ; from the poet's fable of the battle with the Giants,
is indicated that not even they were ignorant of the rebellion
of matter against God. I indeed will not deny, that these
things are not sufficient to lead away the minds of those
who receive words without examining them, since the de-
ception caused by discourse of this sort has drawn over to
itself some of tliose who have pursued the study of philosophy

ox THE TEXETS OF THE MAXICILEAXS. 241

with me; but in what manner I sliould approach the thing to
examine into it, I am at a loss indeed. For their hypotheses
do not proceed by any legitimate method, so that one might
institute an examination in accordance with these ; neither
are there any principles of demonstrations, so that we may
see what follows on these ; but theirs is the rare discovery
of those who are simply said to philosophize. These men,
taking to themselves the Old and New Scriptures, though
they lay it down that these are divinely inspired, draw their
own opinions from thence ; and then only think they are
refuted, when it happens that anything not in accordance
with these is said or done by them. And what to those
■who philosophize after the manner of the Greeks, as respects
principles of demonstration, are intermediate propositions ;
this, with them, is the voice of the prophets. But here,
all these things being eliminated, and since those matters,
which I before mentioned, are put forward without any
demonstration, and since it is necessary to give an answer
in a rational way, and not to put forward other things more
plausible, and which might prove more enticing, my attempt
is rather troublesome, and on this account the more ardu-
ous, because it is necessary to bring forward arguments of
a varied nature. For the more accurate arguments will
escape the observation of those who have been convinced
beforehand by these men without proof, if, when it comes to
persuasion, they fall into the same hands. For they imagine
that they proceed from like sources. There is, therefore,
need of much and great diligence, and truly of God, to be
the guide of our argument.

Chap. vi. — The hoo principles of the Manicha'ans — Them-
selves controverted — The Pythagorean opinion ratpccting
first pn'inciplcs — Good and evil contrary — Tlic victory
on the side of good.

They lay down two principles, God ami Matter. If lie
(Manes) separates that which comes into being from that
which really exists, tlie supposition is not so faulty in this,

242 THE WrJTh\GS OF ALEXANDER.

that neither does matter create itself, nor does it admit two
contrary qualities, in being both active and passive ; nor,
again, are other such theories proposed concerning the
creative cause as it is not lawful to speak of. And yet
God does not stand in need of matter in order to make
things, since in His mind all things substantially exist, so
far as the possibility of their coming into being is concerned.
But if, as he seems rather to mean, the unordered motion
of things really existent under Him is matter, first, then, lie
unconsciously sets up another creative cause (and yet an evil
one), nor does he perceive what follows from this, namely,
that if it is necessary that God and matter should be sup-
posed, some other matter must be supposed to God ; so that
to each of the creative causes there should be the subject
matter. Therefore, instead of two, he will be shown to give
us four first principles. Wonderful, too, is the distinction.
For if he thinks this to be God, which is good, and wishes to
conceive of something opposite to Him, why does he not, as
some of the Pythagoreans, set evil over against Him ? It is
more tolerable, indeed, that two principles should be spoken
of by them, the good and the evil, and that these are con-
tinually striving, but the good prevails. For if the evil
were to prevail, all things would perish. Wherefore matter,
by itself, is neither body, nor is it exactly incorporeal, nor
simply any particular thing ; but it is something indefinite,
which, by the addition of form, comes to be defined ; as,
for instance, fire is a pyramid, air an octahedron, water an
eikosahedron, and earth a cube ; how, then, is matter the
unordered motion of the elements ? By itself, indeed, it
does not subsist, for if it is motion, it is in that which is
moved ; but matter does not seem to be of such a nature,
but rather the first subject, and unorganized, from which
other things proceed. Since, therefore, matter is unordered
motion, was it always conjoined with that which is moved,
or was it ever separate from it ? For, if it ^vere ever by
itself, it would not be in existence ; for there is no motion
witliout something moved. But if it was always in tliat
which is moved, then, again, there ^^•ill be two principles — ■

ON THE TENETS OF THE MANICH.EANS. 243

that whicli moves, and that which is moved. To wliich of
these two, then, will it he granted that it subsist as a primary
cause along with God ?

Chap. vii. — 3rotion vindicated from the charge of irregular-
ity — CirculcLi — Straight — Of generation and corrup-
tion — Of alteration, and qucdity affecting sense.

There is added to the discourse an appendix quite
foreign to it, rh ara-ATov. For you may reasonably speak of
motion not existing. And what, also, is the matter of
motion ? Is it straight or circular ? Or does it take place
by a process of change, or by a process of generation and
corruption ? The circular motion, indeed, is so orderly and
composite, that it is ascribed to the order of all created
things ; nor does this, in the ^lanichrean system, appear
worthy to be impugned, in which move the sun and the
moon, whom alone, of the gods, they say that they venerate.
But as regards that which is straight : to this, also, there is
a bound when it reaches its own place. For that which is
earthly ceases entirely from motion, as soon as it lias touched
the earth. And every animal and vegetable makes an end
of increasing when it has reached its limit. Therefore the
stoppage of these tilings would be more properly the death of
matter, than that endless death, which is, as it were, woven
for it by them. But the motion which arises by a process
of generation and corruption it is impossible to think of
as in harmony with this hypothesis, for, according to
them, matter is unbegotten. But if they ascribe to it the
motion of alteration, as they term it, and that by whicli
we suffer change by a quality allecting tlie sense (for this
seems to be the principal thing that they assert, since by
matter it comes to pass, as they say, that maunei-s are
changed, and that vice arises in the soul), it is worth
while to consider how they come to say this. For in
altering, it will always begin from the beginning ; and, pro-
ceeding onwards, it will reach the middle, and thus will it
attain unto the end. But when it has reached the end, it

244 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

will not stand still, at least if alteration is its essence.
But it will again, by the same route, return to the begin-
ning, and from thence in like manner to the end ; nor will
it ever cease from doing this. As, for instance, if a and y
suffer alteration, and the middle is /3, a by being changed;
will arrive at /3, and from thence will go on to y. Again
returning from the extreme y to /3, it will at some time or
other arrive at a ; and this goes on continuously. As in
the change from black, the middle is dun, and the extreme,
white. Again, in the contrary direction, from white to dun,
and in like manner to black ; and again from white the
change begins, and goes the same round.

Chap. viii. — Is matter iviclxd ? — Of God and matter.

Is matter, in respect of alteration, an evil cause ? It is
thus proved that it is not more evil than good. For let the
beginning of the change be from evil. Thus the change
is from this to good through that which is indifferent. But
let the alteration be from good. Again the beginning goes
on through that which is indifferent. AMiether the motion
be to one extreme or to the other, the method is the same,
and this is abundantly set forth. All motion has to do with
quantity ; but quality is the guide in virtue and vice. Xow
we know that these two are generically distinguished. But
are God and matter alone principles, or does there remain
anything else which is the mean between these two ? For
if there is nothing, these things remain unintermiugled one
with another. And it is well said, that if the extremes are
intermingled, there is a necessity for some thing inter-
mediate to connect them. But if something else exists, it
is necessary that that something be either body or incor-
poreal, and thus a third adventitious principle makes its
appearance. First, therefore, if we suppose God and matter
to be both entirely incorporeal, so that neither is in the
other, except as the science of grammar is in the soul ; to
understand this of God and matter is absurd. But if, as in
a vacimm, as some sax the vacuum is surroundeil by this

ON THE TENETS OF THE MANlCJIyEANS. IVo

universe ; the other, again, is without substance, for the
substance of a vacuum is nothing. But if as accidents, first,
indeed, this is impossible ; for the thing that wants sub-
stance cannot be in any place ; for substance is, as it
were, the vehicle underlying the accident. But if botli are
bodies, it is necessaiy for both to be either heavy or light,
or middle ; or one hea^y, and another light, or intermediate.
If, then, both are heavy, it is plainly necessary that these
should be the same, both among light things and those
things which are of the middle sort ; or if they alternate,
tlie one will be altogether separate from the other. For
that which is heavy has one place, and that which is middle
another, and the light another. To one belongs the superior,
to the other the inferior, and to the third the middle. Xow
in every spherical figure the inferior part is the middle ; lor
from this to all the higher parts, even to the topmost super-
ficies, the distance is every way equal, and, again, all hea\y
bodies are borne from all sides to it. "Wlierefore, also, it
occurs to me to laugh when I hear that matter moving with-
out order (for this belongs to it by nature), came to the region
of God, or to light and brightness, and such-like. But if oiw^.^
be body, and the other incorporeal, first, indeed, that which
is body is alone capable of motion. And then if they are
not intermingled, each is separate from the otlier according
to its proper nature. But if one be mixed up with the other,
they will be either mind or soul or accident. For so only it
haj)pens that things incorporeal are mixed up with bodies.

CiiAP. IX. — Tlic ridiculous fancies of the Manichcrans ahcmf
ike motion of matter towards God — God tlic Author of
the rebellion of matter in the, Manicha-an sense — The
longing of matter for light and brightness good —
Divine good none tlie less for being communicated.

But in what manner, and from wliat cause, Avas matter
brought to the region of God ? for to it by nature belongs
the lower place and darkness, as they say ; and the upper
region and light is contrary to its nature. "Wherefore

246 THE WETTINGS OF ALEXANDEIL

there is then attributed to it a supernatural motion; and
something of the same sort happens to it, as if a man were
to throw a stone or a lump of earth upwards ; in this way,
the thing being raised a little by the force of the person
throwing, when it has reached the upper regions, falls back
again into the same place. Who, then, hath raised matter to
the upper region ? Of itself, indeed, and from itself, it would
not be moved by that motion which belongs to it. It is
necessary, then, that some force should be applied to it for it
to be borne aloft, as with the stone and the lump of earth.
But they leave nothing else to it but God. It is manifest,
therefore, what follows from their argument. That God,
according to them, by force and necessity, raised matter
aloft to Himself. But if matter be evil, its desires are
altogether evil. Now the desire of evil is evil, but the
desire of good is altogether good. Since, then, matter
has desired brightness and light, its desire is not a bad
one ; just as it is not bad for a man living in vice, after-
wards to come to desire virtue. On the contrary, he is
not guiltless who, being good, comes to desire what is
evil. As if any one should say that God desires the evils
which are attaching to matter. For the good things of God
are not to be so esteemed as great wealth and large estates,
and a large quantity of gold, a lesser portion of which
remain with the owner, if one effect a transfer of them to
another. But if an image of these things must be formed
in the mind, I think one would adduce as examples wisdom
and the sciences. As, therefore, neither wisdom suffers
diminution nor science, and he who is endowed with these
experiences no loss if another be made partaker of them;
so, in the same way, it is contrary to reason to think that
God grudges matter the desire of what is good; if, indeed,
M'ith them we aUow that it desires it.

Oi\ THE TEMCTS OF THE MANlCHyEANS. 247

Chap. X. — Tlic mythology respecting the gods — The dogmas of
the Manichccans resemble this: The Homeric allegory
of the battle of the gods — Envy and emulation existing
in God according to the llanichctan ojnnion — These
vices are to he fouoid in no good man, and are to he
accounted disgraceful.

Moreover, they far surpass the mythologists in fables,
those, namely, who either make Coelus suflier mutilation, or
idly tell of the plots laid for Saturn by his son, in order that
tliat son might attain the sovereignty ; or those again who
make Saturn devour his sons, and to have been cheated of his
purpose by the image of a stone that was presented to him.
Por how are tliese things which they put forward dissimilar
to those ? When they speak openly of the war Ijetweeu
God and matter, and say not these things either in a
mythological sense, as Homer in the Iliad ;^ when he
makes Jupiter to rejoice in the strife and war of the gods
with each other, thus obscurely signifying that the world
is formed of unequal elements, fitted one into anothei",
and either conquering or submitting to a conqueror. And
this has been advanced by me, because I know that people
of this sort, when they are at a loss for demonstration,
bring together from all sides passages from poems, and
seek from them a support for their own opinions. Which
would not be the case with them if they had only read
what they fell in with with some reliection. But wlien all
evil is banished from the company of tlie gods, surely
emulation and envy ought especially to have been got rid
of. Yet these men leave these things witli God, when they
say that God formed designs against matter, because it felt
a desire for good. But with which of those things which
God possessed could He have wished to take vengeance on
matter? In truth, I think it to be more accurate iloctrine to
say that God is of a simple nature, than what tliey advance.
Nor, indeed, as in the other things, is the enunciation of this
> Hum. 11. \\. :i;}-r>i.

248 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

fancy easy. For neither is it possible to demonstrate it
simply and with words merely, hut with much instruction
and labour. But we all know this, that anger and rage, and
the desire of revenge upon matter, are passions in him
who is so agitated. And of such a sort, indeed, as it could
never happen to a good man to be harassed by them, much
less then can it be that they are connected with the Absolute
Good.

Chap. xi. — Tlic transmitted virtue of the Manichcvans — Tlie
virtues of matter mixed vnth equal or less amount of evil.

To other things, therefore, our discourse has come round
about again. For, because they say that God sent virtue
into matter, it is worth our while to consider whether this
virtue, so far as it pertains to good, in respect of God is
less, or whether it is on equal terms with Him. For if it is
less, what is the cause ? For the things which are with God
admit of no fellowship with matter. But good alone is the
characteristic of God, and evil alone of matter. But if it
is on equal terms with Him, what is the reason that He, as a
king, issues His commands, and it involuntarily undertakes
this labour ? Moreover, with regard to matter, it shall be
inquired whether, with respect to evil, the virtues are alike
or less. For if they are less, they are altogether of less
evil. By fellowship therefore with the good it is that
they become so. For there being two evils, the less has
plainly by its fellowship with the good attained to be what
it is. But they leave nothing good around matter. Again,
therefore, another question arises. For if some other virtue,
in respect of evil, excels the matter which is prevailing, it
becomes itself the presiding principle. For that which is
more evil will hold the sway in its own dominion.

ON THE TENETS OF THE MANlCJIyEAN.^. 249

CiLU*. xiT. — T7ie destruction of evil hij the immission oj
virtue rejected ; because frovi it arises no dlminutiun
of evil — Zends opinion discarded, that iJic warld will
he burnt up hy fire from the sun.

But that God sent virtue into matter is asserted witliout
any proof, and it altogether wants probability. Yet it is
right that this should have its own explanation. The
reason of this they assert, indeed, to be that there might be
no more evil, but that all things should become good. It
was necessary for virtue to be intermingled with evil, after
the manner of the athletes, who, clasped in a firm embrace,
overcome their adversaries, in order that, by conquering
evil, it might make it to cease to exist. But I think it
far more dignified and worthy of the excellence of God,
at the first conception of things existent, to have abolished
matter. But I think they could not allow this, because
that something evil is found existing, which they call
matter. But it is not any the more possible that things
should cease to be such as they are, in order that one should
admit that some things are changed into that which is worse.
And it is necessary that there should be some perception of
this, because these present things have in some manner or
other suffered diminution, in order that we might have
better hopes for the future. For well has it been answered
to the opinion of Zeno of Citium, who thus argued that the
world would be destroyed by fire : "Everything which has
anything to burn will not cease from burning until it has
consumed the whole ; and the sun is a fire, and will it not
burn what it has ?" Whence he made out, as he imagined,
that the universe would be destroyed by fire. But to
him a facetious fellow is reported to have said, " But 1 in-
deed yesterday, and the year before, and a long time ago,
have seen, and now in like manner do I see, that no injury
has been experienced by the sun ; and it is rea.sonable that
this should happen in time and by degrees, so that we may
believe that at some time or other the wliole will be burnt uj).
And to the doctrine of Manichieus, although it rests upon no

250 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

proof, I think that the same answer is apposite, namely,
that there has been no diminution in the present condition
of things, but what was before in the time of the first
man, when brother killed brother, even now continues to be;
the same wars, and more diverse desires. Now it would be
reasonable that these things, if they did not altogether
cease, should at least be diminished, if we are to imagine
that they are at some time to cease. But while the same
things come from them, what is our expectation of them for
the future ?

Chap. xiii. — Evil ly no means found in the stars and
constellations — All the evils of life vain in the
Manichwan opinion, luhich hring on the extinction
of life; their fancy having been above explained
concerning the transportation of souls from the moon
to the sun.

But what things does he call evil ? As for the sun and
moon, indeed, there is nothing lacking ; but with respect
to the heavens and the stars, whether he says that there is
some such thing, and what it is, it is right that we should
next in order examine. But irregularity is according to
them evil, and unordered motion, but these things are al-
ways the same, and in the same manner ; nor will any one
have to blame any of the planets for venturing to delay at
any time in the zodiac beyond the fixed period ; nor again
any of the fixed stars, as if it did not abide in the same
seat and position, and did not by circumvolution revolve
equally around the world, moving as it were one step back-
ward in a hundred years. But on the earth, if he accuses
the roughness of some spots, or if pilots are ofi'euded at the
storms on the sea ; first, indeed, as they think, these things
have a share of good in them. For should nothing ger-
minate upon earth, all the animals must presently perish.
But this result will send on much of the virtue which is
intermingled with matter to God, and there will be a
necessity for many moons, to accommodate the great multi-

Oy THE TEXETS OF THE MANICHyEANS. 251

tude that suddenly approaclies. And the same language
they hold with respect to the sea. For it is a piece of un-
looked for luck to perish, in order that those things which
perish may pursue the road whicli leads most quickly
to God. And the wars which are upon the earth, and
the famines, and every thing which tends to the destruction
of life, are held in very great honour by them. For every
thing which is the cause of good is to be had in honour.
But these things are the cause of good, because of the
destruction which accompanies them, if they transmit to
God the virtue which is separated from those who perish.

Chap xrv. — Noxious animals worshii'iiJcd ly (lie Egyptians —
Man by arts an evil-doer — Lust and injustiee connected
by laws and discipline — Contingent and necessary
things in which there is no stain.

And, as it seems, we have been ignorant that the
Egyptians rightly Avorship the crocodile and tlie lion and
the wolf, because these animals being stronger tlian the
others devour their prey, and entirely destroy it ; the eagle
also and the hawk, because they slaughter tlic weaker
animals both in the air and upon the earth, liut })erhaps
:ilso, according to them, man is for this reason held in
especial honour, because most of all, by liis subtle inven-
tions and arts, he is wont to subdue most of the animals.
And lest he himself should have no portion in this good,
he becomes the food of others. Again, the te fore, those
generations are, in their opinion, absurd, which from a
small and common seed produce what is great ; and it is
nuicli more becoming, as they tliink, tliat tliese sliould be
destroyed by God, in order that the divine virtue may be
quickly liberated from the troubles incident to living in this
world. But what shall we say with respect to lust, and in-
justice, and things of this sort, ^faniclueus will ask. Surely
against these things discipline and law come to the rescue.
Discipline, indeed, using careful forethought that nothing of
this sort may have jdace amongst men ; l)Ut law inllicting

2i}2 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

punishirieut upon any one who has been caught in the
commission of anything unjust. But, then, why should it
be imputed to the earth as a fault, if the husbandman
has neglected to subdue it ? because the sovereignty of
God, which is according to right, suffers diminution, when
some parts of it are productive of fruits, and others not
so; or when it has happened that when the winds are
sweeping, according to another cause, some derive benefit
therefrom, whilst others against their will have to sustain
injuries ? Surely they must necessarily be ignorant of tlie
character of the things that are contingent, and of those
that are necessary. For they would not else thus account
such things as prodigies.

Chap xv. — The lust and desire of sentient things — Demons —
Animals sentient — so also the sun and the Tnoon and
stars — TJie Platonic docti'inc, not the Christian.

Whence, then, come pleasure and desire ? For these are
the principal evils that they talk of and hate. Nor docs
matter apioear to be anything else. That these things,
indeed, only belong to animals which are endowed witli
sense, and that nothing else but that which has sense per-
ceives desire and pleasure is manifest. For what percep-
tion of pleasure and pain is there in a plant ? Wliat
in the earth, water, or air ? And the demons, if indeed
they are living beings endowed with sense, for this reason,
perhaps, are delighted with what has been instituted in
regard to sacrifices, and take it ill when these are wanting
to them ; but nothing of this sort can be imagined with
respect to God. Therefore those who say, " Why are
animals affected by pleasure and pain ? " should first make
the complaint, "Why are these animals endowed with
sense, or why do they stand in need of food ? " For if
animals were immortal, they would have been set free
from corruption and increase ; such as the sun and moon
and stars, although they are endowed with sense. They
are, however, bej'ond the power of these, and of such a

ON THE TEXETS OF THE MANICIIJEANS. 2j3

complaint. But man, being able to perceive and to jud<'e,
and being potentially wise (for he has the power to become
so), when he has received what is peculiar to himself, treads
it under foot.

Chap. xvi. — Because some are wise, nothing prevents others
from hcing so — Virtue is to be acquired by diligence
and study — By a sounder philosophy men are to be
carried omoards to the good — TJie common study oj
virtue has by Christ been opened up to all.

In general, it is worth M-liile to inquire of these men, " Is
it possible for no man to become good, or is it in the power
of any one ? " For if no man is wise, what of IManicluTus
himself ? I pass over the fact that he not only calls others
good, but he also says that they are able to make othere
such. But if one individual is entirely good, Mhat prevents
all from becoming good ? For what is possible for one is
possible also for all. And by the means by which one has
l)ecome virtuous, by the same all may become so, unless
they assert that the larger share of this virtue is inter-
cepted by such. Again, therefore, first, Y\'hat necessity is
there for labour in submitting to discipline (for even whilst
sleeping we may become virtuous), or what cause is there
for these men rousing their hearers to hopes of good ?
For even though wallowing in tlie mire with harlots, they
can obtain their proper good. But if discipline, and better
instruction and diligence in acquiring virtue, make a man
to become virtuous, let all become so, and that oft-re})eated
] )lnase of theirs, the unordered motion of matter, is made void.
But it would be much better for them to say that wisdom is
an instrument given by God to man, in order that by bring-
ing round by degi'ees to good that wliich arises to them, from
the fact of their being endowed with sense, out of desire
or pleasure, it might remove from them the absurdities
that How from them. For thus tliey themselves wlio
profess to be teachers of virtue would be objects of emula-
tion for their purpose, and for tlieir mode of life, and there

254 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

would be great hopes that one day evils will cease, when
all men have become wise. And this it seems to me that
Jesus took into consideration ; and in order that husband-
men, carpenters, builders, and other artisans, might not be
driven away from good, He convened a common council of
them altogether, and by simple and easy conversations He
both raised them to a sense of God, and brought them to
desire what was good.

Chap. xvii. — The Maniclicean idea of virtue in matter
scouted — If one virtue has been created immaterial,
the rest are also immaterial — Material virtue an
exploded notion.

Moreover, how do they say, did God send divine virtue
into matter ? For if it always was, and neither is God
to be understood as existing prior to it, nor matter either,
then again, according to Manichseus, there are three first
principles. Perhaps also, a little further on, there will
appear to be many more. But if it be adventitious, and
something which has come into existence afterwards, how
is it void of matter ? And if they make it to be a part of
God, first, indeed, by this conception, they assert tliat God
is composite and corporeal. But this is absurd, and im-
possible. And if He fashioned it, and is without matter, I
wonder that they have not considered, neither the man
himself, nor his disciples, that if (as the orthodox say, tlie
things that come next in order, subsist while God remains)
God created this virtue of His own freewill, how is it
that He is not the author of all other things that are
made without the necessity of any pre-existent matter ?
The consequences, in truth, of this opinion are evidently
absurd; but what does follow is put do\vji next in
order. Was it, then, the nature of this virtue to dif-
fuse itself into matter ? If it was contrary to its nature,
in what manner is it intermingled with it ? But if this
was in accordance with its nature, it was altogether surely
and always with matter. But if this be so, how is it tliat

0^' THE TENETS OF THE MANICII^ANS. 255

they call matter evil, which, from the beginning, was inter-
mingled with the divine vu-tue ? In what manner, too, will
it be destroyed, the divine vii'tue wliich was mingled witli
it at some time or other seceding to itself ? For that it
preserves safely what is good, and likely to be productive of
some other good to those to whom it is present, is more
reasonable than that it should bring destruction or some
other evil upon them.

CiiAP. xviii. — Dissolntion and inherence according to the
Manicharins — This is well piit, ad hominem, icifh
respect to Manes, icho is himself in matter.

This then is the wise assertion which is made by them
— namely, that as we see that the body perishes when the
soul is separated from it, so also, when virtue has left
matter, that which is left, which is matter, will be dissolved
and perish. First, indeed, they do not perceive that nothing
existent can be destroyed into a non-existent. For that
which is non-existent does not exist. But when bodies
are disintegrated, and experience a change, a dissolution of
them takes place; so that a part of them goes to earth, a j>art
to air, and a part to something else. Besides, they do not
remember that their doctrine is, that matter is unordereil
motion. But that which moves of itself, and of which motion
is the essence, and not a thing accidentally belonging to it
— how is it reasonable to say that when virtue departs, that
which was, even before virtue descended into it, should
cease to be ? Nor do they see the difl'erence, that every
body which is devoid of soul is immovable. For plant.s
also have a vegetable soul. But motion itself, and yet un-
ordered motion, they assert to be the essence of mutter. But
it were better, that just as in a lyre which sounds out of
tune, by the addition of harmony, everything is brouglit into
concord ; so the divine virtue wlien intermixed with that
unordered motion, which, according to them, is matter,
should add a certain order to it in the place of its innate
disorder, and should always add it suitably to tlie divine

256 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

time. Por I ask, liow was it that Manicliteus himself
became fitted to treat of these matters, and when at
length did he enunciate them ? For they allow that he
himself was an admixture of matter, and of the virtue
received into it. Whether therefore being so, he said these
things in unordered motion, surely the opinion is faulty ; or
whether he said them by means of the divine virtue, the
dogma is dubious and uncertain ; for on the one side, that
of the divine virtue, he participates in the truth ; wdiilst on
the side of unordered motion, he is a partaker in the other
part, and changes to falsehood.

Chap. xix. — Tlie second virtue of the Manicliccans hesct with
the former, and luith new absurdities — Virtue, active
and passive, the fashioner of matter, and concrete with
it — Bodies divided hy Manichmus into three parts.

But if it had been said that divine virtue both hath
adorned and does adorn matter, it would have been far more
wdsely said, and in a manner more conducing to conciliate
faith in the doctrine and discourses of Manichseus. But
God hath sent dow^n another virtue. What has been already
said with respect to the former virtue, may be equally
said with respect to this, and all the absurdities which
follow on the teaching about their first virtue, the same may
be brought forward in the present case. But another, who
will tolerate ? For why did not God send some one virtue
which could effect every thing ? If the human mind is so
various towards all things, so that the same man is endowed
with a knowledge of geometry, of astronomy, of the carpen-
ter's art, and the like, is it then impossible for God to find
one such virtue which should be sufiicient for him in all
respects, so as not to stand in need of a first and second ?
And why has one virtue the force rather of a creator, and
another that of the patient and recipient, so as to be well
fitted for admixture with matter. For I do not again see
here the cause of good order, and of that excess wdiich is
contrary to it. If it was e\dl, it was not in the house of

ON THE TENETS OF THE MANICILEANS. 2.37

God. For since God is the only good, and matter the only
evil, we must necessarily say that the other things are of a
middle nature, and placed as it were in the middle. But
there is found to be a different framer of those things M'hich
are of a middle nature, when they say that one cause is
creative, and another admixed with matter ? Perhaps,
therefore, it is tliat primaiy antecedent cause which more
recent writers speak of in the book -rrepl ru>v dia:popuiv. But
when the creative virtue took in hand the making of the
world, then they say that there was separated from matter
that which, even in the admixture, remained in its own
virtue, and from this the sun and the moon had their begin-
ninjT. But that which to a moderate and slit>ht degree had
contracted vice and evil, this formed the heaven and the
constellations. Lastly came the rest encompassed within
these, just as they might happen, which are admixtures of
the divine virtue and of matter.

Chap. xx. — The divine virtue in the view of the same
Manichccus corjjorcal and divisible — TJie divine virtue
itself matter which becomes every thing — This is not
fitting.

I, indeed, besides all these things, wonder that they do
not perceive that they are making the divine virtue to be
corporeal, and dividing it, as it were, into parts. For why,
as in the case of matter, is not the divine virtue also passible
and divisible throughout, and from one of its parts tlie sun
made, and iVom another the moon ? For clearly this is wliat
they assert to belong to the divine virtue ; and this is what
we said was the property of matter, which by itself is
nothing, but when it has received form and qualities, every
thing is made which is divided and distinct. If, tlierefore,
as from one subject, the divine virtue, only the sun and the
moon have their beginning, and these things are different,
why was any thing else made ? But if all tilings are made,
what follows is manifest, tliat divine virtue is matter, and
that, too, such as is made into loniis. But il nothing else

2:,S TIIK WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

but the sun and moon are wliat was created by the divine
virtue, then what is intermixed with all things is the sun
and moon ; and each of the stars is the sun and moon, and
each individual animal of tliose who live on land, and ot
fowls, and of creatures amphibious. But this, not even
those who exhibit juggling tricks would admit, as, I think,
is evident to every one.

Oi.vr. XXI. — Some portions of the virtue have good in them,
others more good — In the sun and the moon it is in-
corrupt, in other things depraved — An iniprolaUe
opinion.

But if any one were to apply his mind to what follows,
the road would not appear to be plain and straightforward,
but more arduous even than that which has been passed.
For they say that the sun and moon have contracted no
stain from their admixture with matter. And now they
cannot say how other things have become deteriorated
contrary to their own proper nature. For if, when it
was absolute and by itself, the divine virtue was so
constituted that one portion of it was good, and another
had a greater amount of goodness in it, according to
the old tale of the centaurs, who as far as the breast were
men, and in the lower part horses, which are both good
animals, but the man is the better of the two ; so also, in
the divine virtue, it is to be understood that the one portion
of it is the better and the more excellent, and the other will
occupy the second and inferior place. And in the same
way, with respect to matter, the one portion possesses, as it
were, an excess of evil ; while others again are different, and
about that other the language will be different.^ For it is
possible to conceive that from the beginning the sun and
moon, by a more skilful and prudent judgment, chose for
themselves the parts of matter that were less evil for the
pm-poses of admixture, that they might remain in their own

^ This passage and the followiug sentences are corruj)t. Possibly
Bomething is wanting. — Tr.

ON THE TENETS OF THE MANltTEEANS. 209

perfection and virtue ; but in the lapse of time, m lien the
evils lost their force and became old, they brought out so
much of the excess in the good, while the rest of its parts
fell away, not, indeed, without foresight, and yet not with
the same foresight, did each object share according to its
quantity in the evil that was in matter. But since, with
respect to this virtue, nothing of a different kind is asserted
by them, but it is to be understood throughout to be
alike and of the same nature, their argument is im-
probable ; because in the admixture part remains pure
and incorrupt, while the other has contracted some share
of evil.

CiiAr. XXII. — The light of the moon from, the sun — The
inconvenience of the ojnnion that souls are received in
it — The two deluges of the Greeks.

Now, they say that the sun and the moon having by
degrees separated the divine virtue from matter, transmit it
to God. But if they had only to a slight degree frequented
the schools of the astronomers, it woukl not have happened
to them to fall into these fancies, nor M'ould they have been
ignorant that the moon, which, according to the opinion of
some, is itself without light, receives its light from the sun,
and that its configurations are just in proportion to its di.s-
tance from the sun, and that it is then full moon wlieu
it is distant from the sun one hundred and eiglity degrees.
It is in conjunction when it is in the same degree with the
sun. Then, is it not wonderful how it comes to pass that
there should be so many souls, and from such diverse
creatures ? For there is the soul of tlie world itself, and (if
the animals, of plants, of nymphs, and demons, and among.st
these are distinguished by api)earance those of fowls, of
land animals, and animals amphibious ; but in the moon
one like body is always seen by us. And what of the con-
tinuity of this body ? When the moon is half-full, it appears
a semicircle, and when it is in its third quarter, the same again.
How then, and with what figure, are tliey assumed into the

200 THE WIHTINGS OF ALEXANDER.

moon ? For if it be light as fire, it is probable that they
would not only ascend as far as the moon, Ijut even higher,
continually ; but if it be heavy, it would not be possible for
them at all to reach the moon. And what is the reason
that that which first arrives at the moon is not immediately
transmitted to the sun, but waits for the full moon until the
rest of the souls arrive ? When then the moon, from having
been full, decreases, where does the virtue remain during
that time ? until the moon, which has been emptied of the
former souls, just as a desolated city, shall receive again a
fresh colony. For a treasure-house should have been marked
out in some part of the earth, or of the clouds, or in some
other place, where the congregated souls might stand ready
for emigration to the moon. But, again, a second question
arises. What then is the cause that it is not full immedi-
ately ? or why does it again wait fifteen days ? Nor is
this less to be wondered at than that which has been said,
that never within the memory of man has the moon become
full after the fifteen days. Nay, not even in the time of the
deluge of Deucalion, nor in that of Phoroneus, when all
things, so to speak, which were upon the face of the earth
perished, and it happened that a great quantity of virtue was
separated from matter. And, besides these things, one must
consider the productiveness of generations, and their barren-
ness, and also the destruction of them; and since these
things do not happen in order, neither ought the order of
the full moon, nor the times of the waning moon, to be so
carefully observed.

CiiAP. XXIII. — Tlic image of matter in the sun, after which man
is formed — Trifling fancies — It is a mere fancy, too,
that man is formed from matter — Man is either a
comjiosite heing, or a soid, or mind and understanding.

Neither is this to be regarded with slight attention. For
if the divine virtue which is in matter be infinite, those
things cannot diminish it which the sun and moon fashion.
For that which remains from that finite thing which has

0.\ Till': TEXKT6 OF THE MAMCJE^-JAXS. 2G1

been assumed is infinite. But if it is finite, it would lie
perceived by the senses in intervals proportionate to the
amount of its virtue that had been subtracted from the
world. But all things remain as they were. Xow what
understanding do these things not transcend in their in-
credibleness, when they assert that man was created and
formed after the image of matter that is seen in the sun {
For images are the forms of their archetypes. But if tlu'V
include man's image in the sun, where is the exemplar after
which his image is formed ? For, indeed, they are not gning
to say that man is really man, or divine virtue; for this,
indeed, they mix up with matter, and they say that tiie
image is seen in the sun, which, as they think, was formed
afterwards from the secretion of matter. Neither can they
bring forward the creative cause of all things, for this they
say was sent to preserve safety to the divine virtue ; so that,
in their opinion, this must be altogether ascribed to the sun ;
for this reason, doubtless, that it haj)pens by his arrival
and presence that the sun and moon are separated from
matter.

Moreover, they assert that the image is seen in the sun ;
but they say that matter fashioned man. In what manner,
and by what means ? For it is not possible that this should
fashion him. For besides that, thus according to them,
man is the empty form of an empty form, and having no
real existence, it has not as yet been possible to conceive
how man can be the product of matter. For the use of
reason and sense belongs not to that matter which they
assume. Now what, according to them, is man ? Is he
a mixture of soul and body ? Or another thing, or th;it
which is superior to the entire soul, the mind ? But if he
is mind, how can the more perfect and the better part be
the product of that which is worse ; or if he be soul (for
this they say is divine virtue), how can they, when they
have taken away from God the divine virtue, subject this
to the creating workmanship of matter? But if they leave
to him body alone, let them remember again that it is by
itself immovable, and that thev say that the essence of

2G2 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

matter is motion. Neither do they think that any thing ot
itself, and its own genius, is attracted to matter. Nor is it
I'casonable to lay it down, tliat wliat is composed of these
things is the product of this. To think, indeed, that that
wliich is fashioned by any one is inferior to its fashioner
seems to be beyond controversy. For thus the world is
inferior to its Creator or Fashioner, and the works of art
inferior to the artificer. If then man be the product of
matter, he must surely be inferior to it. Now, men leave
nothing infeiior to matter; and it is not reasonable that
the divine virtue should be commingled with matter, and
with that which is inferior to it. But the things which
they assert out of indulgence, as it were, and by way
of dispensation, these they do not seem to understand.
For what is the reason of their thinking that matter has
bound the image of God to the substance of man ? Or,
why is not the image sufficient, as in a mirror, that man
sliould appear ? Or, as the sun himself is sufficient for the
origination and destruction of all things that are made, hath
lie imitated an image in the work of their creation ? With
which of those things which he possessed ? AVas it with the
divine virtue wdiich was mingled with it, so that the divine
virtue should have the office of an instrument in respect
of matter ? Is it by unordered motion that he will thus
give matter a form ? But all like things, in exquisite and
accurate order, by imitating, attain theu' end. For they do
not suppose that a house, or a ship, or any other product of
art, is effected by disorder ; nor a statue which art has
fashioned to imitate man.

Chap. xxiy. — Christ is mind, according to the 3fanichceans —
What is He in the viciv of the Church? — Incon-
gruity in their idea of Christ — That He suffered only
in ajopcarancc, a dream of the Manichcccins — Nothing
is attributed to the Word hy tcay of fiction.

Christ, too, they do not acknowledge ; yet they speak of
Christ, but they take some other element, and giving to tlie

ox THE TENETS OF THE MAXICHJEAXS. 2G3

Word, designating His sacred person, some other significa-
tion than that in which it is rightly received, they say that
He is mind. But if, when they speak of Him as that
which is known, and that which knows, and wisdom as
having the same meaning, they are fountl to agree with those
things wliich the Church doctors say of Him, how comes it
then that they reject all that is called ancient history ?
l>ut let us see whether they make Him to be something
adventitious and new, and which has come on from with-
out, and by accident, as the opinion of some Ls. For they
who hold this opinion say, as seems very plausible, that
about the seventh year, when the powers of perception
became distinct, He made His entrance into the body. But
if Christ be mind, as they imagine, then will He be both
Christ and not Christ. For before that mind and sense
entered, He was not. But if Christ, as they will have it,
be mind, then into Him already existing does the mind
make its entrance, and thus, again, according to their opinion,
will it be mind. Christ, therefore, is and is not at the same
tiine. But if, according to the more approved sect of them,
mind is all things which are, since they assume matter to
be not produced, and coeval so to speak with God, this first
mind and matter they hold to be Christ; if, indeed, Clnist be
the mind, which is all things, and matter is one of tliose
things which are, and is itself not produced.

They say it was by way of appearance, and in tliis
manner, that the divine virtue in matter was affixed to the
cross ; and that He Himself did not undergo this punish-
ment, since it was impossible that He should suft'er tliis;
which assertion Manichceus himself lias taken in hand to
teach in a book written upon the subject, that the divine
virtue was enclosed in matter, and again departs from it.
The mode of this they invent. That it should be said,
indeed, in the doctrine of tlie Church, that He gave Him-
self up for the remission of sins obtains credit from the
vulgar, and ap])ears likewise in the Greek liistories, which
say that some " surrendered themselves to death in order to
ensure safety to their countrymen." And of this doctrine

264 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

the Jewish history has an example, which prepares the son
of Abraham as a sacrifice to God.* But to subject Christ to
His passion merely for the sake of display, betrays great
ignorance, for the Word is God's representative, to teach and
inform us of actual verities.

Chap. xxv. — The Manichcean abstinence from living things
ridiculoiis — Their 7nadness in abhorring marriage —
The mythologij of the giants — Too allegorical an
exposition.

They abstain also from living things. If, indeed, the
reason of their abstinence were other than it is, it ought
not to be too curiously investigated. But if they do so
for this reason, that the divine virtue is more or less
absent or present to them, this their meaning is ridiculous.
For if plants be more material, ho-w is it in accordance with
reason to use that which is inferior for food and susten-
ance ? or, if there be more of the divine virtue in them,
how are things of this sort useful as food, when the soul's
faculty of nourishing and making increase is more cor-
poreal? Now in that they abstain from marriage and
the rites of Venus, fearing lest by the succession of the
race the divine virtue should dwell more in matter, I
wonder how in thinking so they allow of themselves ? For
if neither the providence of God suffices, both by genera-
tions and by those things which are always and in the
^ame manner existent, to separate off the divine \'irtue from
matter, what can the cunning and subtlety of Manicheeus
effect for that purpose ? For assuredly by no giant's co-
operation does assistance come to God, in order by the
removal of generations to make the retreat of the divine
virtue from matter quick and speedy. But what the poets
say about the giants is manifestly a fable. For those who lay
it down about these, bring forward such matters in allegories,
by a species of fable hiding the majesty of their discourse ;
as, for instance, when the Jewish history relates that angels
^ Gen. xxii. 1.

ON THE TENETS OF THE MANICH.EANS. 2C5

came clown to hold^ intercourse with the daughters of men ;
for this saying signifies that the nutritive powers of the
soul descended from heaven to earth. But the poets wlio
say that tliey, when they had emerged in full armour from
the earth, perished immediately after they stirred up rebellion
against the gods, in order that they might insinuate tlie frail
and quickly -perisliing constitution of the body, adorn their
poetry in this way for the sake of refreshing the soul by
the strangeness of the occurrence. But these, understanding
nothing of all this, wheresoever they can get hold of a para-
logism, from whatsoever quarter it comes, gi-eedOy seize on
it as a God-send, and strive with all their arts to overturn
truth by any means.

Chap. xxvi. — Tlte much talked of fire of the Manichceans —
TJiatfire matter itself.

That fire, endowed indeed with the power of burning, yet
possessing no light, which is outside the world, in what
region has it place ? For if it is in the world, why does the
world hitherto continue safe ? For if at some time or other
it is to destroy it, by approaching it, now also it is conjoined
with it. But if it be apart from it, as it were on high in its
own region, what will hereafter happen to make it descend
upon the world ? Or in what way will it leave its own
place, and by what necessity and violence ? And what sub-
stance of fire can be conceived without fuel, and how can
what is moist serve as fuel to it, unless what is rather
physiologically said about tliis does not fall within the pro-
vince of our present disquisition ? But this is quite mani-
fest from what has been said. For the fire existing outside
the world is just that winch they call matter, since the sun
and the moon, being the purest of the pure, by their divine
vh'tue, are separate and distinct from that fire, no part of them
being left in it. This fire is matter itself, absolutely and
jt)«r se, entirely removed from all admixture with the divine
virtue. Wherefore when the world has been emptied of ail

1 (Jen. vi. 2.

266 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

the divine virtue which is opposed to it, and again a fire of
this sort shall be left remaining, how then shall the fire
either destroy any thing, or be consumed by it ? For, from
that which is like, I do not see in what way corruption is to
take place. For what matter will become when the divine
virtue has been separated from it, this it was before that
the divine virtue was commingled with it. If indeed
matter is to perish when it is bereft of the divine virtue,
why did it not perish before it came in contact with the
divine virtue, or any creative energy ? "Was it in order that
matter might successively perish, and do this ad infinitum ?
And what is the use of this ? For that which had not
place from the first volition, how shall this have place from
one following ? or what reason is there for God to put off
things which, not even in the case of a man, appears to be
well ? For as regards those who deliberate about what is
impossible, this is said to happen to them, that they do not
wish for that which is possible. But if nothing else, they
speak of God transcending substance, and bring Him forward
as some new material, and that not such as intelligent men
always think to be joined with Him, but that which investi-
gation discovers either to be not existing at all, or to be the
extreme of all things, and which can with difficulty be con-
ceived of by the human mind. For this fire, devoid of light,
is it of more force than matter, which is to be left desolate
by divine virtue, or is it of less ? And if it is of less, how
will it overcome that which is of more ? but if it is of more,
it will be able to bring it back to itself, being of the same
nature ; yet will it not destroy it, as neither does the Nile
swallow up the streams that are divided off from it.

PETER, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA.

267

PETER, BISHOP OF ALEXANURIA, AND MARTYR.
HISTOEICAL XOTICE.

[From Gallandi. I

USEBIUS alone, of the more ancient writers,
speaks in terms of the highest praise of Peter,
Bishop of Alexandria. He was, says he, a
divine bishop, both for the sanctity of his life,
and also for his dDigent study and knowledge of the Holy

Scriptures : ^sTov iTiazorruv yJr^iLa, iSlOV Ti xa/' apirr,; mxa y.ai
rrj; ruv iipuv Xoyuv 6\jm6-/.r,<!iui; ;^ and in another place he styles
him "that excellent doctor of the Christian religion," who,
indeed, during the whole period of his episcopate, which
lie held for twelve years, obtained for himself the highest
renown. He obtained the bisliopric of Alexandria next in
succession to Theonas. He governed that church about
three years before the persecution broke out : Trph roD oiuyiMnZ
rpkiv ovi' oXoig rr/nffafii'^og rr,: ExxAj;ff/a; ; the rcst of his time
he spent in the exercise of a closer discipline over himself,
yet did he not in the meanwhile neglect to provide for the
common interests of the Church. Tn the ninth year of
the persecution lie was beheadeil, and gained the crown of
martyrdom. So far we have the account of Eusebius, whom
Dodwell" proves to have accurately distributed the yeai-s
of Peter's episcopate. After IV'ter had .spent twelve years
a,s bishop, and in the ninth year of the jiersecution which
broke out imder Maximin, he was beheaded ; so that his
martyrdom falls in the year of our Lord oil — as the

^ EusebuiP, J7i.s^ EccL, Vih. i.\. cap. G; lil). viii. cap. Kl ; lil>. vii. cap.
.1-2, towards the end.

- Dodwell, IHsscrt. Sing. ad. I'tars., cap. G, .sec. 21, p. 71.

270 THE \VIUTh\GS OF PETER.

Egyptians reckon on the 29th day of the month Athyi-,
whicli answers to our 25th of November, as Lequien/ after
Ilenaudot,^ has observed.

St Peter wrote in the fourth year of the persecution,
A.D. 306, some Canons Penitential with reference to those
who had lapsed. They are to be met with in every collec-
tion of Canons. In the 2v\/odixov sive Pandecta Canonum
of Bishop Beveridge (vol. ii. p. 8, fol. Oxon. 1672), they
are accompanied by the notes of Joannes Zonaras and
Theodoras Balsanion. Upon these Penitential Canons, how-
ever, Tillemont-^ should be consulted. Moreover, according
to Kenaudot,* Echmimensis, Ebnapalus, Abulfaragius, and
other Oriental Christians of every sect, make use of tlie
testimony of these Canons ; and in the anonymous collec-
tions of them called Eesponsa, some fragments of other
works of Peter are extant. Some of these are praised by
the Jacobites, in the work which they call Fides patrum.
In another work, entitled Unio pretiosus, occurs a homily
of Peter on the baptism of Christ.

The fragments of the other w^ritings of this holy martyr,
which have been preserved by the Greeks, are here appended
to the Penitential Canons. Eor instance : (1.) An extract from
his book De Deitatc, which is extant in the Acta Conciliorum
Ejphesini et Chalcedonoisis ; (2.) Another fragment from the
homily Be Advcntu Salvatoris, cited by Leontius Byzantinus
in his first book against Nestorius and Eutyches ; (3.) An
epistle of the same prelate to the Alexandrine Church
recently published, together with some other old ecclesi-
astical monuments by Scipio Maffei.^ Peter is said to have
written this epistle after one addi-essed to jMeletius, Bishop
of LycopoUs. In it, after interdicting the Alexandrians
from communion with Meletius, he says that he will himself
come in company with some wise doctors, and will examine

^ Lequien, Oriens Christ, torn. ii. p. 397.

- Eenaudot, Hist. Patriarch Alex., p. 60.

3 Tillemont, Mem., torn. v. p. 450.

* Renaudot, I.e., p. 61, seqq.

^ Maffei, Osservazione Letterarie, torn. iii. p. 17.

HISTORICAL NOTICE. 271

into his tenets ; alluding, most probably, to the Synod held
afterwards at Alexandria, in which Meletius was deposed
from his office. Athanasius says,^ respecting this Synod,
Peter, who was amongst us as bishop before the persecu-
tion, and who died a mart}'T in the persecution, deposed
in common council of the bishops, jNIeletius, an Egyptian
bishop, M'ho had been convicted of many crimes. But with
respect to the time in Avhich the mournful Meletian schism
commenced, MaiTei ^ defends the opinions of Baronius,^ wlio
connects it with the year a.d. 306, against I'agius and
Montfaucon, both from this epistle of Petrus Alexandrinus,
and also from another of tlie four bishops, of M-liich Peter
makes mention in his own ; (4.) A passage from the Scrmo
in Sanctum Fascha, or from some other work of Peter's on
the same subject, is given in the Diatriha de Pascliate,
prefixed to the Chronicon Alcxandrinum S. Paschalc, and
published separately in the Uranologion of Petavius, fob
Paris, 1630, p. 396.

^ Athana.sius, Apol. contra Avian, sec. 39, toni. i. p. 177.

^ MaiTei, I.e., p. 24. ^ Baronius, Ad. Annum, 306, sec 44.

THE GENUINE ACTS OF PETER,

BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, AND MARTYil,
AS INTERPRETED BY ANASTASIUS BIBLIOTHECARIUS.^
[Apud Maium, Sjndlegii, torn. iii. p. 671.] -

Were all the limbs of my body to be turned into tongues,
and all the joints of my limbs to utter articulate sounds, it
would noways be sufficient to express who, how great and
how good, was our most blessed Father Peter, Archbishop
of Alexandria. Especially incongruous do I consider it to
commit to paper what perils he underwent by tyrants, what
conflicts he endured with Gentiles and heretics, lest I should
seem to make these the subjects of my panegyric rather
than that passion to which he manfully submitted to make
safe the people of God. Nevertheless, because the office of
the narrator must fail in narrating his inmost conversation
and wonderful deeds, and language is noways sufficient for
the task, I have considered it convenient to describe only

^ That Anastasius BibUotliecarms translated from the Greek the
Passion of St Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, is affirmed by Anastasius
liimself in his j^rologue, Ad Passionem Martyrum, mcccclxxx.,
published by Mabillon in the Museum Italicum, torn. i. part ii. p. 80 :
" Post translatam a me ad petitionem sanctitatis tuse (he is addressing
Peter, Bishop of Gavinum), passionem prsecipui doctoris et martyris,
Petri Alexandrinse urbis episcopi." And then an anonymous bio-
grapher of John VIII., in Miiratori R.I.S., tom. iii. p. i. p. 269, confirms
the same. Anastasius, the librarian of the Roman Church, translated
from the Greek into Latin the Passion of St Peter, Archbishop of
Alexandria. But it is a matter of conjecture which of the different
Passions of St Peter Anastasius translated. Of the Acts of St Peter,
there are three different records : — (1.) Acta Sinccra, which, according
to Baronius, are the most genuine. (2.) A shorter Latin version, by
Surius. (3.) A Greek version, by CoAbefis.

272

THE GENUINE ACTS. 273

those exploits of liis by wliicli he is known to have attained
to the pontificate, and after Arius had been cut off from
the unity of the Church, to have been crowned with the
martyr's laurel. Yet this do I consider to be a glorious end,
and a spectacle of a magnificent contest, sufficient for those
who do not doubt of a truthful narration, which is unstained
by falsehood. In commencing, therefore, our account of the
episcopate of this most holy man, let us call to our aid his
own language, in order that we may make it co-operato
with our ow-n style.

Alexandria is a city of exceeding magnitude, ^\•hich holds
the first place not only among the Egyptians, but the
Thebans also and the Libyans, who are at no great distance
from Egypt. A cycle of two hundred and eighty-five years
from the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
had rolled round, when the venerable Theonas, the bishop
of this city, by an ethereal flight, mounted upwards to the
celestial kingdoms. To him Peter, succeeding at the lielm
of the Church, was by all tlie clergy and the whole Christian
community appointed bishop, the sixteenth in order from
Mark the Evangelist, who was also archbishop of the city.
He in truth, like Lucifer rising among the stars, shining
forth with tlie radiance of his sacred virtues, most magni-
ficently governed the citadel of tlie faith. Inferior to none
who had gone before him in his knowledge of Holy Scrip-
ture, he nobly applied himself to the advantage and instruc-
tion of the Church ; being of singular prudence, and in all
things perfect, a true priest and victim of God, he watch-
fully laboured night and day in every sacerdotal care.

But because virtue is the mark of the zealot, " it is the
tops of the mountains that are struck by lightning,"^ he
hence endured multifarious conflicts with rivals. Why
need I say more ? He lived in persecution almost the
whole of his life. Meanwhile he ordained fifty-five bishops.
Meletius lastly, in mind and name most black, was made
the schismatical bishop of the city of Lycopolis, doing many
things against the rule of the canons, and sui-jiassiug even
1 Hor. Od. ii. 10, 11.

274 THE WRITINGS OF PF.TER.

the Lloody soldiery in cruelty who, at the time of the Lord's
Passion, feared to rend His coat ; he was so hurried on by
giving the rein to his madness, that, rending asunder the
Catholic Church not only in the cities of Egypt, but even in
its villages, he ordained bishops of his own party, nor cared
he ought for Peter, nor for Christ, who was in the person of
Peter. To him Arius, who was yet a laic, and not marked
with the clerical tonsure, adhered, and was to him and his
family most dear ; and not without reason : every animal, as
says the Scripture, loves its like. But upon this coming to
his knowledge, the man of God being affected with grief,
said that this persecution was worse than the former. And
although he was in hiding, yet, so far as his strength per-
mitted, directing everywhere his exhortations, and preaching
up the unity of the Church, he strengthened men to with-
stand the ignorance and nefarious temerity of Meletius.
Whence it came to pass that not a few, being influenced
by his salutary admonitions, departed from the Meletian
impiety.

Nearly about the same time Arius, armed with a viper's
craft, as if deserting the party of Meletius, fled for refuge to
Peter, who at the request of the bishops raised him to the
honours of the diaconate, being ignorant of his exceeding
hypocrisy. For he was even as a snake suffused with deadly
poison. Yet neither can the imposition of hands upon this
false one be imputed as a crime to this holy man, as the
simulated magic arts of Simon is not ascribed to Philip.
Meanwhile, the detestable wickedness of the Meletians in-
creased beyond measure ; and the blessed Peter, fearing lest
the plague of heresy should spread over the whole flock com-
mitted to his care, and knowing that there is no fellowship
with light and darkness, and no concord betwixt Christ and
Belial, by letter separated the Meletians from the communion
of the Church. And because an evil disposition cannot long
be concealed, upon that instant the wicked Arius, when he
saw his aiders and abettors cast do"UTi from the dignity of
the Church, gave way to sadness and lamentation. This did
not escape the notice of this holy man. For when his

THE GENUINE ACTS. 275

hypocrisy was laid bare, immediately using the evangelical
sword, " If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast
it from thee," ^ and cuttmg off Arius from the body of the
Church as a putrid limb, he expeHed and baui^slied him
from the communion of the faithful.

This done, the storm of persecution suddenly abating,
peace, although for a short time, smiled. Then this most
choice priest of the Lord shone manifestly before the people,
and the faithful began to run in crowds to keep the memory
of the martyrs, and to assemble in congregations to the praise
of Christ. Whom this priest of the divine law quickened
with his holy eloquence, and so roused and strengthened
that the multitude of believers increased continually in the
Church. But the old enemy of salvation of man did not
long remain quiet and look on these things with favouring
eyes. For on a sudden the storm-cloud of paganism gave
forth its hostile thunder, and like a winter shower struck
against the serenity of the Church, and chased it away in
flight. But that this may be understood more clearly, we
must necessarily turn back to the atrocities of Diocletian,
that impious one, and rebel against God, and also to ^Maximian
Galerius, who at that time, with his son ]Maximin, harassed
the regions of the East with his tyrannical sway.

For in the time of this man the fire of Christian persecu-
tion so raged, that not only in one region of the imiverse, but
even throughout the whole world, both by land and by sea,
the storm of impiety gave forth its thunder. The imperial
edicts and most cruel decrees running hither and tliitlier, the
worshippers of Christ were put to death now openly, and
now by clandestine snares ; no day, no night, passed off free
from the effusion of Christian blood. Nor was the type of
slaughter of one kind alone ; some were slain with diverse and
most bitter tortures ; some again, that they might want the
humanity of kinsmen, and buiial in their own country, were
transported to other climes, and by certain new machina-
tions of punishment, and as yet to the age unknown, were
driven to the goal of martyrdom. Oli, the horrible wicked-
» :\Iatt. V. 29.

27G THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

ness ! So great was their impiety that they even upturned
from their foundations the sanctuaries of divine worship,
and hurned the sacred books in the fire. Diocletian of
execrable memory having died, Constantinus Major was
elected to administer the kingdom, and in the western parts
began to hold the reins of government.

In these days information was brought to Maximin about
the aforesaid archbishop, that he was a leader and holding
chief place among the Christians ; and he, inflamed with
his accustomed iniquity, on the instant ordered Peter to be
apprehended and cast into prison. For which purpose he
despatched to Alexandria five tribunes, accompanied with
their bands of soldiers, who, coming thither as they had been
commanded, suddenly seized the priest of Christ and com-
mitted him to the custody of a prison. "Wonderful was the
devotion of the faithful ! When it was known that this holy
man was shut up in the dungeon of the prison, an incredibly
large number ran together, principally a band of monks and
of virgins, and with no material arms, but with rivers of tears
and the affection of pious minds, surrounded the prison's
circuit.-^ And as good sons towards a good father, nay, rather
as the Christian members of a most Christian head, adhered
to him with all their bowels of compassion, and were to him
as walls, observing that no pagan might get an opportunity
of access to him. One indeed was the vow of all, one their
voice, and one their compassion and resolve to die rather
than see any evil happen to this holy man. Now while the
man of God was being kept for a few days in the same
stocks, with his body thrust back, the tribunes made a
suggestion to the king concerning him, but he, after his
ferocious manner, gave his sentence for capitally punish-
ing the most blessed patriarch. And when this got to the
ears of the Christians, they all with one mind began to
guard the approaches to the prison with groaning and

^ Thus watched the faithful at ^lilan around Ambrose, their bishop,
against whom the WTatli of the Arian Empress Justina was directed,
according to the testimony of Augustine, who was an eye-witne.ss,
Cf. Can/ess., lib. ix. cap. 7.

THE GENUINE ACTS. 211

lamentation, and persistently prevented any Gentile from
obtaining access to liim. And when the tribunes could
by no means approach him to put him to death, they
held a council, and determined that the soldiers shoukl
with drawn swords break in upon the crowd of people, and
so draw him forth to behead him ; and if any one opposed,
he should be put to death.

Arius, in the meanwhile, having as yet been endowed
only with the dignity of a Levite, and fearing lest, after
the death of so great a father, he should noways be able Lo
iret reconciled to the Church, came to those who held the
chief place amongst the clergy, and, hypocrite that he was,
by his sorrowful entreaties and plausible discourse, en-
deavoured to persuade the holy archbishop to extend to
him his compassion, and to release him from the ban of
excommunication. But what is more deceptive than a
feigned heart ? What more simple than a holy composure ?
There was no delay ; those who had been requested went
in to the priest of Christ, and, after the customary oration,
prostrating themselves on the gi'ound, and with groans and
tears kissing his sacred hands, implored him, saying : " Thee,
indeed, most blessed father, for the excellence of thy faith,
the Lord hath called to receive the martyr's crown, which
we noways doubt does quickly await thee. Therefore do
we think it right that, with thy accustomed piety, thou
shouldest pardon Arius, and extend thy indulgence to liis
lamentations."

Upon hearing this the man of God, moved with indignation,
put them aside, and, raising his hands to heaven, exclaimed :
" Do ye dare to supplicate me on belialf of Arius ? Arius, both
here and in the future world, will always remain banished
and separate from the glory of the Son of God, Jesus Christ
our Lord."^ He thus protesting, all who were present, being

^ Tlie Acta Combefisiana, add, queinadinodinii illc Dei Filium a natcma
gloria et substantia sequestravit, even as lie has sejiarated tlio Son of God
from the glory and substance of His Fatlier. But Arius had not a.s yet
laid bare his heresy, but had been excluded from the Church for join-
ing in the Meletian schism, and a suspicious course of action. — Tr.

278 THE WPdTINGS OF PETER.

struck with terror, like men dumb, kept silence. Moreover
they suspected that he, not without some divine notification,
gave forth such a sentence against Arius. But when the
merciful father beheld them silent and sad from compunction
of heart, he would not persist in austerity, or leave them, as
if in contempt, without satisfaction ; but taking Achillas
and Alexander, who amongst the priests appeared to be tlie
elders and the most holy, having one of them at his right
hand, and the other on his left, he separated them a little
from the rest, and at the end of his discourse said to them :
" Do not, my brethren, take me for a man inhuman and
stern ; for indeed I too am living under the law of sin ;
but believe my words. The hidden treachery of Arius sur-
passes all iniquity and impiety, and not asserting this of
mine own self, have I sanctioned his excommunication.
For in this night, whilst I was solemnly pouring forth my
prayers to God, there stood by me a boy of about twelve
years, the brightness of whose face I could not endure, for
this whole cell in whicli we stand was radiant with a great
light. He was clothed with a liuen tunic ^ divided into
two parts, from the neck to the feet, and holding in his
two hands the rents of the tunic, he applied them to his
breast to hide his nakedness. At this vision I was stupefied
with astonishment. And when boldness of speech was given
to me, I exclaimed : Lord, who hath rent thy tunic ? Then
said he, Arius hath rent it, and by all means beware of
receiving him into communion ; behold, to-morrow they
will come to entreat you for him. See, therefore, that thou
be not persuaded to acquiesce : nay, rather lay thy com-

^ x.o7.63iou — this is the tunicle, tunica, tunicella, dalmatica. It
original^ had no sleeves ; it is said that ^Wde sleeves were added iii
the West about the foui'th century ; and the garment was then called
dalmatic, and was the deacon's vestment when assisting at the holy
communion ; while that worn by sub-deacons, called by the Anglo-
Saxons "roc," and "tunicle" generally after the 13th century, was
of the same form, but smaller and less ornamented (Palmer, Orig.
Ltturgicce, vol. ii. p. 314). The word, in its classical use, meant an
under-garment with its sleeves curtailed (xoXo/3df) — i.e. reaching only
half do^vn to the elbow, or entirely without sleeves. — Tr.

THE GENUINE ACTS. 279

mands upon Achillas and Alexander the priests, who after
thy translation will rule my Church, not by any means
to receive him. Thou shalt very quickly fulfil the lot
of the martyr. Now there was no other cause of this
vision. So now I have satisfied you, and I have declared
unto you what I was ordered. But what you will do in
consequence of this, must be your o\m care. Thus much
concerning Arius.

Ye know too, beloved, and ye know well, what has been
the manner of my conversation amongst you, and what
conflicts I have endured from the idolatrous Gentiles, who,
being ignorant of the Lord and Saviour, do not cease in
their madness to spread abroad the fame of a multitiule
of gods who are no gods. Ye know likewise how, in
avoiding the rage of my persecutors, I wandered an exile
from place to place. For long time I lay in hiding in
Mesopotamia, and also in Syria amongst the Phoenicians ;
in either Palestine also I had for a long time to wander ;
and from thence, if I may so say, in another element, tliat
is, in the islands I tarried no short time. Yet in the
midst of all these calamities I did not cease day and night
WTiting to the Lord's flock committed to my poor care, and
confirming them in the unity of Christ. For an anxious
solicitude for them constantly kept urging my heart, and
suffered me not to rest; then only did I think it to be more
tolerable to me when I committed them to the Po\\\t
above.

Likewise also, on account of those fortunate prelates,
Phileus, I mean, Ilesychius and Theodorus, who of divine
grace have received a worthy vocation, what great tribula-
tion agitated my mind. For these, as ye know, for the
faith of Christ were with the rest of the confessors wiusted
with diverse torments. And because in such a conflict
they were not only of the clergy but of the laity also
the standard-bearers and preceptors, I on this account
greatly feared lest they should be found wanting under their
long affliction, and lest their defection, which is terrible to
speak of, should be to many an occasion of stumbling and

280 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

of denying tlio faith, for there were more than six hundred
and sixty confined along with them within the precincts of a
dungeon. Hence, although oppressed with great labour and
toil, I ceased not to write to them with reference to all those
predicted passages [of Scripture], exhorting them to earn the
martyr's palm with the power of divine inspiration. But
when I heard of their magnificent perseverance, and the
glorious end of the passion of them all, falling on the
ground I adored the majesty of Christ, who had thought
fit to count them amongst the throng of the martyrs.

Why should I speak to you about Meletius of Lycopolis ?
What persecutions, what treachery, he directed against me,
I doubt not but that ye well know. Oh, the horrible wicked-
ness ! he feared not to rend asunder the holy Church, which
the Son of God redeemed with His precious blood, and to
deliver which from the tyranny of the devil He hesitated
not to lay down His life. This Church, as I have begun to
say, the wicked Meletius rending asunder, ceased not to
imprison in dungeons, and to afflict holy bishops even, who
have a little before us by martyrdom penetrated to the
heavens. Beware therefore of his insidious devices. Tor
I, as ye see, go bound by divine charity, preferring above all
things the will of God. I know, indeed, that under their
breath the tribunes whisjDer of my death with eager haste ;
but I will not from this circumstance open any communica-
tion with them, nor will I count my life more precious than
myself. Nay, rather, I am prepared to finish the course which
my Lord Jesus Christ hath deigned to promise to me, and
faithfully render up to Him the ministry which from Him I
have received. Pray for me, my brothers; you will not see
me longer living in this life with you. Wherefore I testify
before God and your brotherhood, that before all of you have
I preserved a clean conscience. For I have not shunned to
declare unto you the injunctions of the Lord, and I have
refused not to make known to you the things which will
hereafter be necessary.

Wherefore take heed unto yourselves, and the whole
flock over which the Holy Ghost has appointed you as

THE GENUINE ACTS. 281

overseers in succession — thee Achillas in the first place,
and next to thee Alexander. Behold with living voice I
protest to you, that after my death men will arise in the
Church speaking perverse things/ and will again divide
it, like JMeletius, drawing away the people after their mad-
ness. So I have told you before. But I pray you, mine
own bowels, be watchful ; for ye must undergo many tribu-
lations. For we are no better than oui- fathers. Are ye
ignorant what things my father endured from the Gentiles,
he who brought me up, the most holy bishop Theonas,
whose pontifical chair I have undertaken to fill ? AVould that
I had his manners also ! Why too should I speak of the
gi-eat Dionysius his predecessor ? "Who wandering from
place to place sustained many calamities from the frantic
Sabellius. Nor will I omit to mention you, )'e most holy
fathers and high priests of the divine law, Heraclius and
Demetrius, for whom Origen, that framer of a perverse dogma,
laid many temptations, who cast upon the Church a detest-
able schism, which to this day is throwing it into confusion.
But the grace of God which then protected them, will, I
believe, protect you also. But why do I delay you longer,
my very dear brethren, with the outpouring of my prolix
discourse. It remains, that with the last words of the
Apostle ^ who thus prayed I address you : " And now I com-
mend you to God and the word of His grace, which is power-
ful to direct both you and His flock." "When he had finished,
falling on his knees, he prayed with them. And his speech
ended, Achillas and Alexander kissing his hands and feet
and bursting into tears sobbed bitterly, specially grieving at
those words of liis which they heard when he said tliat they
should henceforth see him in this life no more. Tiien this
most gentle teacher going to the rest of the clergy, who, as
I have said, had come into him to speak in behalf of Arius,
spake to them his last consoling words, and such as were
necessary ; then pouring forth his prayers to God, and
bidding them adieu, he dismissed thcni all in ])eace.

1 Cf. 1 Tim. iv. 1.

^ Cf. St Paul's farewell address to the elders at MLletu.s, Acts xx. 17-37.

282 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

These things having thus ended, it was everywliere pub-
lished far and wide that Arius had not been cut oil' i'roui
the catholic unity without a divine interposition. But that
contriver of deceit, and disseminator of all wickedness, ceased
not to keep hidden his viper's poison in the labp-inth of his
bosom, hoping that he should be reconciled by Achillas and
Alexander. This is that Arius the heresiarch, the divider
of the consubstantial and indivisible Trinity. This is he
who with rash and wicked mouth, was not afraid to
blaspheme the Lord and Saviour, beyond all other heretics ;
the Lord, I say, and Saviour, who out of pity for our human
wanderings, and being sorely grieved that the world should
perish in deadly destruction and condemnation, deigned for
us all to suffer in the flesh. For it is not to be believed
that the Godhead which is impassible was subject to the
passion. But because the theologians and fathers have
taken care in better style to remove from catholic ears the
blasphemies of this nature, and another task is ours, let us
return to our subject.

This most sagacious pontiff then, perceiving the cruel
device of the tribunes, who, in order to bring about his
death, were willing to put to the sword the whole Christian
multitude that was present, was unwilling that they should
together with him taste the bitterness of death, but as a
faithful servant imitating his Lord and Saviour, whose
acts were even as his words, "The good Shepherd giveth
His life for the sheep,"^ prompted by his piety, called to
liim an elder of those who there waited on his words, and
said to him : " Go to the tribunes who seek to kill me,
and say to them, Cease ye from all your anxiety, lo ! I am
ready and willing of mine own accord to give myself to
them." Bid them come this night to the rereward of the
house of this prison, and in the spot in which they shall
hear a signal given on the wall from within, there let them
make an excavation, and take me and do with me as they
have been commanded. The elder, obeying the commands
of this most holy man (for so great a father could not be
1 John X. 11.

THE GENUINE ACTS. 28S

contradicted), departed to the tribunes, and made the inti-
mation to them as he had been commanded. They, when
they had received it, were exceedingly rejoiced, and talcing
with them some stonemasons, came about the dawn of
the day without their soldiers to the place which had been
pointed out to them. The man of God had passed the whole
night as a vifjil without sleep in prayer and watchfulness.
But when he heard their approach, whilst all who were with
him were rapt in slumber, with a slow and gentle step he
descended to the interior part of the prison, and according
to the agreement made, made a sound on the wall ; and
those outside hearing this, forcing an aperture, received this
athlete of Christ armed on all sides with no brazen breast-
plate, but with the virtue of the cross of the Lord, and fully
prepared to carry out the Lord's words who said, " Fear not
them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul :
but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and
body in hell."^ "VVonderfid was the occurrence ! Such
a heavy whirlwind of wind and rain prevailed during that
night, that no one of those who kept the door of the prison
coidd hear the sound of the excavation. This martyr most
constant too, kept urging on his murderers, saying, Do
what ye are about to do, before those are aware who are
guarding me. •

But they took him up and brouglit him to tlie place
called Bucolia, where the holy St ]\Iavk underwent martyr-
dom for Christ. Astonishing is the viitue of the saints (
As they carried him along, and beheld his great con-
stancy and strength of mind when in peril of death, on
a sudden a fear and trembling came upon them to such a
degree, that none of them could look steadfastly into his
face. ^Toreover, the blessed martyr entreated them to allow
him to go to the tomb of St Mark, for he desired to com-
mend himself to his patronage. But they from confusion,
looking down on the ground, said, " Do as you wish, but
make haste." Thcretbre approacliing the burial-i)lace of
the evangelist, he embraced it, and speaking to liini as if
1 Miiit. X. -^A.

284 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

he were yet alive in the flesh, and able to hear him, he
prayed after this manner : father most honourable, thou
evangelist of the only-begotten Saviour, thou witness of His
passion, thee did Christ choose, who is the Deliverer of us
all, to be the first pontiff and pillar of this see ; to thee did
He commit the task of proclaiming the faith throughout
tlie whole of Egypt and its boundaries. Thou, I say, hast
watchfully fulfilled that ministry of our human salvation
which was intrusted to thee ; as the reward of this labour
thou hast doubtless obtained the martyr's palm. Hence,
not without justice, art thou counted worthy to be saluted
evangelist and bishop. Thy successor was Anianus, and the
rest in descending series down to the most blessed Theonas,
who disciplined my infancy, and deigned to educate my
heart. To whom I, a sinner and unworthy, have been
beyond my deservings appointed as successor by an heredi-
tary descent. And, what is best of all, lo ! the largeness of
the divine bounty has granted me to become a martyr of His
precious cross and joyful resurrection, giving to my devotion
the sweet and pleasant odour of His passion, that I should
be made meet .to pour out unto Him the offering of my blood.
And because the time of making this offering is now instant,
pray for me that, the divine power assisting me, I may be
meet to reach the goal of this agony with a stout heart
and ready faith. I commend also to thy glorious patronage
the flock of Christ's worshippers which was committed to
my pastoral care ; to thee, I say, I with prayers commend
it, who are approved as the author and guardian of all pre-
ceding and subsequent occupiers of this pontifical chair,
and who, holding its first honours, art the successor not of
man, but of the God-man, Christ Jesus. Saying these words,
he went back to a little distance from the sacred tomb,
and, raising his hands to heaven, prayed with a loud voice,
saying : thou Only-begotten, Jesus Christ, Word of the
Eternal Father, hear me invoking Thy clemency. Speak
peace, I beseech Thee, to the tempest that shakes Thy
Church, and with the effusion of my blood, who am Thy
servant, make an end to the persecution of Thy people.

THE GEM' IX K ACTS. 28.1

Tlien a certain virgin dedicated to God, who had lier cell
adjoining to the tomb of the evangelist, as she was spending
the night in prayer, heard a voice from heaven, saying :
Peter was the first of the apostles, Peter is the last of the
martyred bishops of Alexandria.

Having ended his prayer, he kissed the tomb of the
blessed evangelist, and of the other pontiffs who were
buried there, and went forth to the trilnines. But they
seeing his face as it had been the face of an angel, being
terror-stricken, feared to speak to him of his instant
agony. Nevertheless, because God does not desert those
who trust in Him, He willed not to leave His martyr
without consolation in the moment of so great a trial. For
lo ! an old man and an aged virgin, coming from the
smaller towns, were hastening to the city, one of whom was
carrying four skins for sale, and the otlier two sheets of
linen. The blessed prelate, when he perceived them, recog-
nised a divine dispensation with reference to himself. Ho
inquired of them on tlie instant, "Are ye Christians ?" And
they replied, " Yes." Then said he, " "Whither are ye going ?"
And they replied, " To the market in the city to sell these
things that we are carrying." Then the most merciful
father answered, " My faithful children, God has marked
you out, persevere M'ith me." And they immediately re-
cognising him, said, " Sire, let it be as thou hast commanded."
Then turning to the tribimes, he said, " Come, do what ye
are about to do, and fulfil the king's command ; for the
day is now on the point of breaking." But they, suffering
vialence as it were on account of the wicked decree of the
prince, brought him to a spot opposite to the sanctuary of
the evangelist, into a valley near the tombs. Then said the
holy man, " Spread out, thou aged man, the skins which thou
earnest, and thou too, aged woman, the linen sheets."^ And
when they had been spread out, this most constant martyr,
mounting upon them, extended botli his hands to lioavon,
and bending his knees on the ground, and fixing his mind

^ The Latin reads here : " Sjiread out, ye aged men, the skins which

ye are carrying."

286 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

upon heaven, returned his thanks to the Almighty Judge ^
of tlie contest, and fortifying himself with the sign of the
cross, said, Amen. Then loosening his omophorion^ from
his neck, he stretched it forth, saying, " What is commanded
you, do speedily."

Meanwhile the hands of the tribunes were paralyzed,
and looking upon one another in turn, each urged his fellow
to the deed, but they were all held fast with astonishment
and fear. At length they agreed that out of their common
Btock a reward for the execution should be appointed, and
that the man who should venture to perpetrate the murder
should enjoy the reward. There Y\"as no delay, each of them
brought forth five solidi.^ But, as says the heathen poet, —
" Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,
Auri sacra fames ?"*

one of them, after the manner of the traitor Judas, em-

^ liyauoSiirng — the president of the Grecian games, the jiidge. — Tr.

2 The omoi^horion, which is worn by every eastern h'«hop, resembles
the Latin pallium, except that it is broader, and tied round the neck
in a knot. Cf. following passage from Neale's Introduction to the
TraTislation of the Eastern Liturgies: But while the Gospel i;- being
read, the bisho]j lays aside his omophorion, thereby making profession
of liis service to the Lord. For since it is the Lord who is represented
as speaking by the Gospel, and is, as it were, Himself present, the
bishop at that time ventures not to be arrayed with the symbol of His
incarnation — I mean the "omophorion;" but taking it off from liis
shoulders, he gives it to the deacon, who holds it folded in his right
hand, himself standing near the bishop, and preceding the holy gifts.
When he has finished the litiu'gy, and comes to the communion, he
again assumes the omophorion, manifesting that before this he was one
of the ministers, and was afraid to put upon himself tliat holy garment.
But when the work is accomplished, and he goes on to elevate the
bread, and to divide it into parts, and to receive it himself, and dis-
tribute it to others, it is necessary that he should put on all the sacred
symbols of his dignity ; and since the omophorion is the principal A^est
of a pontift', he necessarily assumes that, and iu that is partaker of the
most divine things. — Tr.

^ A solidus or aureus worth 25 denarii, denarius being 8fd. ; it was
woilh 17s. 8id. ; five solitli, £4, 8s. G^d.— Tr.

* Virgil, ^71., book iii. 56 :

" O sacred hunger of pernicious gold,
What bands of faith «m impious lucre liold?" — Dryden.

THE GENUINE ACTS. 287

boldened by the desire of money, drew his sword and
beheaded the pontiff, on the 25th day of November, after
he had held the pontificate twelve years — three of which
were before the persecution, but the nine remaining were
passed by him under persecutions of diverse kinds. The
blood-money being instantly claimed by the executioner,
these ^vicked purchasers, or rather destroyers, of man's life
quickly returned, for they feared the multitude of the people,
since, as I have said, they were without their military escort.
But the body of the blessed martyr, as the fathers athrm who
went first to the place of execution, remained erect, as if
instant in prayer, until many people, coming together, dis-
covered it standing in the same posture ; so that what was
his constant practice whilst living, to this his inanimate
body testified. They found also the aged man and woman
\vatching with grief .and lamentation the most precious relic
of the Church. So, honouring him with a triumphal funeral,
they covered his body with the linen sheets ; but the sacred
blood which had been poured forth, they collected reverently
in a wallet.

In the meanwliilc an innumerable multitude of eitlier
sex, flocking together from the populous city, with groans
and ejaculations asked each other in turn, being ignorant, in
what manner this had happened. In trutli, from the least
to the greatest, a very great grief was prevalent amongst all.
For when the chief men of the city beheld the laudable
importunity of the multitude, who were busied in dividing
his sacred spoils to keep tlicm as relics, they wrai»})c'd him
np the tighter in the skins and linen sheets. Tor the most
holy minister of God was always clothed in sacerdotal vest-
ments of a white colour — that is, with the tunic, the kulobiou,
and the omophorion. Then there arose among tliem no small
contention; for some were for carrying the most sacred limbs
to the church which he had himself built, and where he now
rests, but others were endeavouring to carry liim to the
sanctuary of the evangelist, wliere he attained the goal of
martyrdom ; and since neither party would yield to the
other, they began to turn tlieir religious observance into a

288 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

wrangling and a fight. In the meanwhile a spirited body
of senators of those who are engaged in the public trans-
port service, seeing what had happened, for they were near
the sea, prepared a boat, and suddenly seizing upon the
sacred relics, they placed them in it, and scaling the Pharos
from behind, by a quarter which has the name of Leucado,
they came to the church of the most blessed mother of God,
and Ever- Virgin Mary, which, as we began to say, he had
constructed in the western quarter, in a suburb, for a
cemetery of the martyrs. Thereupon the throng of the
people, as if the heavenly treasure had been snatched from
them, some by straight roads, and others by a more devious
route, followed with hasty steps. And when they at length
arrived there, there was no longer any altercation where he
was to be placed, but by a common and unimpeachable
counsel they agreed first to place him in his episcopal chair,
and then to buiy him.

And this, most prudent reader, I would not have you
regard as a wild fancy and superstition, since, if you learn
the cause of this novelty, you will admire and approve
of the zeal and deed of the populace. For this blessed
priest, when he celebrated the sacrament of the divine
mysteries, did not, as is the ecclesiastical custom, sit
upon his pontifical throne, but upon its footstool under-
neath, which, when the people beheld, they disliked, and
complaiuingly exclaimed. Thou oughtest, father, to sit
upon thy chair; and when they repeated this frequently,
the minister of the Lord rising, calmed their complaints with
tranquil voice, and again took his seat upon the same stool.
So all this seemed to be done by him from motives of
humility. But upon a certain great festival it happened
that he was offering the sacrifice of the mass, and wished to
do this same thing. Thereupon, not only the people, but
the clergy also, exclaimed with one voice. Take thy seat
upon thy chair, bishop. But he, as if conscious of a mystery,
feigned not to hear this ; and giving the signal for silence
(for no one dared pertinaciously to withstand him), he made
tliem all quiet, and yet, nevertheless, sat down on the foot-

THE GENUINE ACTS. 289

stool of the chair ; and the solemnities of the mass having
been celebrated as usual, each one of the faithful returned
to his own home.

But the man of God sending for the clergy, with tranquil
and serene mind, charged them with rashness, saying, How
is it that ye blush not for having joined the cry of tlie
laity, and reproaching me ? Howbeit, since your reproacli
flows not from the muddy torrent of arrogance, but from
the pure fountain of love, I will unfold to you the secret
of this mystery. Very often when I wish to draw near to
that seat, I see a virtue as it were sitting upon it, ex-
ceeding radiant with the brightness of its light. Then,
being in suspense between joy and fear, I acknowledge
that I am altogether unworthy to sit upon such a seat,
and if I did not hesitate to cause an occasion of ofl'ence
to the people, without doubt I would not even venture
to sit upon the stool itself. Thus it is, my beloved sons,
that I seem to you in this to transgress the pontifical
rule. Nevertheless, many times wlien I see it vacant, as ye
yourselves are witnesses, I refuse not to sit upon tlie cliair
after the accustomed manner. Wherefore do ye, now that
ye are acquainted with my secret, and being well assured
that, if I shall be indulged, I will sit upon the chair, for I
liold not in slight esteem the dignity of my order, cease
any further from joining in the exclamations of the popu-
lace. This explanation the most holy father, whilst he was
yet alive, was compelled to give to the clergy. The faithful of
Christ, therefore, remembering all this with pious devotion,
brought his sacred body, and caused it to sit upon the episco-
l)al throne. As much joy and exultation arose then to heaven
from tlie people, as if they were attending him alive and in
the body. Then "embalming liim with sweet spices, tliey
wrapped him in silken coverings ; what each one of them
could be the first to bring, tliis he accounted to himself as
greatest gain. Then carrying palms, tlie tokens of victory,
with flaming tapers, with sounding hymns, and with fragrant
incense, celebrating the trium])h of his heavenly victor}-,
they laid down the sacred relics, and buried them in the

200 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

cemetery which had been long ago constructed by him,
where too from henceforth, and even to this day, mira-
culous virtues cease not to show themselves. Pious vows,
forsooth, are received with a propitious hearing ; the health
of the impotent is restored ; the expulsion of unclean spirits
testifies to the martyr's merits. These gifts, Lord Jesus,
are Thine, whose wont it is thus magnificently to honour
Thy martyrs after death : Thou who with the Father and tlie
Holy Consubstantial Spirit livest and reignest for evermore.
Amen. After this, how that wolf and framer of treachery,
that is Arius, covered with a sheep's skin, entered into the
Lord's fold to worry and torment it, or in what manner he
was enabled to attain to the dignity of the priesthood, let
us employ oui-selves in relating in brief. ^ And this not to
annoy those who ventured to recall to the threshing-floor
of the Lord those tares of apostacy and contagion that had
been winnowed out of the Church by a heavenly fan ; for
these are without doubt reckoned eminent for sanctity, but
thinking it a light tiling to believe so holy a man, they
transgressed the injunctions of the divine command. What
then ? Do we reprehend them ? By no means. For as
long as this corruptible body weighs us down, and this
earthly habitation depresses the sense of our infirmity,
many are easily deceived in their imaginations, and think
that to be just which is unjust, that to be holy which is
impure. The Gibeonites who, by the divine threatenings,
were to be utterly destroyed, having one thing in their
wishes and another in their voice and mien, were able
quickly to deceive Joshua,^ that just distributor of the land
of promise. David^ also, full of prophetic inspu-ation, when
he had heard the words of the deceitful youth, although
it was by the inscrutable and just judgment of God, yet
acted very differently from what the true nature of the case
required. What also can be more sublime than the apostles,

1 Ackillas, the successor of Peter, admitted Arius to the priesthood-
* Cf. Joshua ix.

3 Perhaps Absalom, or it may be Ziba, is referred to. (2 Sam.
xiv. 33, xvi. 3.)

TIIK GENUhSK ACTS. 291

who have not removed themselves from our infirmity ? For
one of them writes, " In many things we offend all;"^ and
another, " If we say we have no sin, we deceive oui-selves,
and the truth is not in us." - But when we repent of these,
so much the more readily do we obtain pardon, when wc
have sinned not willingly, but through ignorance or frailty.
And certainly offences of this sort come not of prevarication,
but of the indulgence of compassion. But I leave to others
to write an apology for this; let us pursue what is in liand.
After that magnificent defender of the faith, Peter, worthy of
his name, had by the triumph of martyrdom
{The rest is wanting)

i James iiL 2. ^1 John L 8.

THE CANONICAL EPISTLE.

WITH THE

COMMENTARIES OF THEODORE BALSAMON AND JOHN ZONARAS.

The Canons of the Messed Pder, Archhisho}:) of Alexandria,
as they are given in his Sermon "On Penitence."^

Canon T.

iUT since the fourth passover of the perseciiti(jn
has arrived, it is sufficient, in the case of those
who have been appreliended and thrown into
prison, and who have sustained torments not to
he borne,^ and stripes intolerable, and many other dreadful
afflictions, and afterwards have been betrayed by the frailty
of the ilesh, even though they were not at the first received
on account of their grievous fall that followed, yet because
they contended sorely and resisted long ; for they did not
come to this of their own will, but were betrayed by the
frailty of the flesh ; for they show in their bodies the marks
of Jesus,^ and some are now, for the third year, bewailing
their fault : it is sufficient, I say, that from the time of
their submissive approach, other forty days should be
enjoined upon them, to keep them in remembrance of these
things ; those forty days during which, though our Lord

^ These Canons of Peter of Alexandria are interesting as bearing
upon the controversy between Cyprian and the clergy of Carthage,
witli regard to the treatment of the lapsed. They also bear upon the
subject-matter of the Novatian schism.

- Another reading is ai/^xsorofj, "which cannot be cured."

^ Tlie marks of Jesus, (STiyi-cccrot. Cf. Gal. vl 17.

THE CAXOMCAL KPISTLE. 2^3

and Saviour Jesus Clirist liad fasted, He was yet, after He
had been baptized, tempted of the devil. And when they
shall have, during these days, exercised themselves much,
and constantly fasted, tlien let them Awatcli in prayer, medi-
tating upon what was spoken by the Lord to him who
tempted Him to fall down and worship liim: "Get thee
behind me, Satan ; for it is written, Thou shalt worship ilie
Lord tliy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." ^

Balsamon. — The present canons treat of tliose wlio have
in the persecution denied the faith, and are doing peuame.
And the first canon ordains, that upon those who after many
torments have sacrificed to tlie gods, not being able l-y
reason of frailty to persevere, and who have passed tlnee
years in penitence, other forty days should be enjoined,
and that then they should be admitted into the Church.
Observe these present canons which lay down various and
useful rules in favour of those who have denied their God,
and seek for repentance, and concerning those mIio have of
their own accord sought martyrdom, and have lapsed, and
then have afjain confessed the faith, and other thin2[s of the
like nature. Consult also, for you will profitably do so,
many canons of the council of Ancyra.

Zonaras. — Amongst those who in these turbulent times
denied the faith, the holy Peter makes a distinction, ami
says, that upon those who had been brought before the
tyrant, and thrown into prison, and who had endured very
grievous torments, and intolerable scourgings, and sucli as
could be cured by no care or medicine (for axo; signifies
medical care, and dvrixtorov is the same as immedicabile), and
other dreadful afllictions, and afterwards yielding, saerifici'd
to the gods, being betrayed as it were by the weakness of
•the flesh, which could not hold out under the pain unto the
end, that for them the time past should sullice for jiunisli-
ment; since, indeed, says he, the fourth i)a.ssover ha.s imw
past since they made this veiy grievous fall. And although
perhaps at first, when they approached in penitence, they
were not received, yet because they did not of their own

' Malt. iv. 10.

294 rilR WRITINGS OF PET Kit.

free -svill proceed to sacrifice to the gods, and resisted long,
and Lear about witli them the marks of Jesus, that is to
say, the scars of the wounds which, in behalf of Christ, they
have endured, and the third year has now elapsed since
they first bewailed their fall, he decrees that, as an addi-
tional punishment, other forty days from the time that they
came asking to be admitted to communion should be enjoined
on them in the place of any further severity ; during which
they should exercise a still greater degree of penance, and
should fast more earnestly, that is, with more attentive care,
keeping guard over themselves, being watchful in prayer,
meditating upon, that is, turning over perpetually in their
minds, and saying in words, the text quoted by the Lord
against the tempter, " Get thee behind me, Satan ; for it is
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him
only shalt thou serve."

CxVNON II.

But in the case of those who, after that they were thrown
into prison, and in the dungeon, as in a place besieged,
endured afflictions and nauseous odours, but afterwards,
without the conflict of torments, were led captive, being
broken in spirit by poverty of strength, and a certain blind-
ness of the understanding, a year in addition to the foregoing
time wiU suffice ; for they gave themselves up to be afflicted
for the name of Christ, even though in their dungeon they
enjoyed much consolation from their brethren; which,
indeed, they shall return many fold, desiring to be set free
from that most bitter captivity of the devil, especially
remembering Him who said : " The spirit of the Lord is
upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the
Gospel to the poor ; He hath sent me to heal the broken-
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised ;
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of
recompense unto our God."^

1 Is. Ixi. ], 2 ; Luke iv. 18. 19.

THE CAXOXICAL K PINTLE. 295

Balsamon. — This canon enacts tliat those who have only
been evil entreated in prison, and who without torment
have lapsed, should be punislied after tlie tliree yeai-s witli
an additional year. For though they obtained consolatiun,
certain of the faithful ministering to tliem tlie necassaries
of life, yet they ought to obtain pardon, as being those who
have suffered severely for the faith.

Zonaras. — In the second order, he places those wlio
have onl)"- been thrown into prison, and evil entreated in
the dungeon, and yet, though harassed by no torments, have
offended ; upon whom, besides the time past, the three years,
namely, of which we have spoken, he proposes to inflict tlie
penalty of an additional year, since they also, says he, have
for Christ's name endured hardness, even though it may be
that they obtained some consolation from the brethren
whilst in prison. For it is probable that the faithful, who
were not in custody, ministered to those in bonds the neces-
saries of life, and brought to them some alleviation of their
lot. "Which things, indeed, they shall return many fold ; for
those consolations which they enjoyed in prison they shall
vex themselves with penance, and alUict themselves in
diverse ways, if they wish to be set free from the captivity
of the devil, having become his captives and slaves by their
denial of Christ. He subjoins the words of the prophet,
taken from Isaiah, which he says that they ought to keep in
remembrance.

Canon III.

But as for those who have suffered none of the.se things,
and have shown no fruit of faith, but of their own accord
have gone over to wickedness, being betrayed by fear and
cowardice, and now come to repentance, it is necessary and
convenient to propose the parable of the unfruitful fig-tree,
as the Lord says : " A certain man had a fig-tree planted iu
his vineyard ; and he came and sought fruit tliereon, and
found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard.
Behold, these three years I come seeking iruit on this tig-

296 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

tree, and find none : cut it down ; wliy cuinLercth it the
ground ? And he answering, said unti^ him, Lord, let it
alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it.
And if it bear fruit, well ; and if not, then after that thou
shalt cut it down." Keeping this before their eyes, and
showing forth fruit worthy of repentance, after so long an
interval of time, they will be profited.

Balsamon. — Those who from fear only and timidity
deserted the faith, and then had an eye towards repentance,
the canon punishes with three years' exclusion, according to
the parable of the fig-tree in the Gospels. For the Lord
said. Three years I come to it seeking fruit, and find
none ; but the vine-dresser replies, Lord, let it alone this
year also.

Zoncn-as. — But those, he says, who having suffered no
hardness, have deserted from fear only and timidity, in
that they of their own accord have approached to wicked-
ness, and then looked towards repentance, their case the
pai'able of the fig-tree in the Gospels will exactly suit.
Let them keep this before their eyes, and show forth for an
equal period labours worthy of penitence, and they shall be
profited; that is, after the fourth year. For the Lord
said. Three years I come to it seeking fruit, and find
none; and the vine-dresser answered. Lord, let it alone
this year also.

Canon IV.

To those who are altogether reprobate, and unrepentant
who possess the Ethiopian's unchanging skin,^ and the
leopard's spots, it shall be said, as it was spoken to another
fig-tree, " Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever ;
and it presently withered away."- For in them is fulfilled
what was spoken by the Preacher : " That wdiich is crooked
cannot be made straight ; and that which is wanting cannot
be numbered."^ For unless that whicli is crooked shall
first be ma/le straight, it is impossible for it to be adorned ;
^ Jeremiah iii. 23, -Matt xxi. 19. species, i. 15.

THE CA\0\ICAL EPISTLE. 297

and unless that wliich is wanting shall first be made up,
it cannot be numbered. Hence also, in tlie end, will happen
imto them what is spoken by Esaias tlie prophet : " They
shall look upon the carcases of the men that have trans-
gressed against ^le ; for their worm shall not die, neither
shall tlieir lire be quenched ; and they shall be an abhorring
unto all Hcsh."^ Since as by the same also has been pre-
dicted, " But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it
cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is
no peace, saitli my God, to the wicked." ^

Bcdsamon. — What has been previously said of the lapsed,
has been said of the repentant. But against those who are
unrepentant, he brings forward the cursing of another fig-
tree, to A\hich the Lord said, because of its unprofitableness,
"1^0 fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever."

Zonaras. — "What has been previously said of the lapsed,
has been said of the repentant. Against those whom, from
desperation or depraved ojnnion, are impenitent, and caiTy
about with them perpetually the inherent and indelible
blackness of sin, as of an ^Ethiopian's skin, or the leopard's
spots, he brings forward the cursing of another fig-tree.
To which the Lord said for its barrenness, " Let no fruit
grow on thee henceforward for ever. And he says that in
them must be fidfilled that word of the Preacher : " That
which is crooked cannot be made straight ; and that whicli
is wanting cannot be numbered." Then having explained
these things, he subjoins the words of Isaiali.

Canon V.

But upon those who have used dissimulation like David,
who feigned himself to be mad^ to avoid death, being not
mad in reality; and those who have not nakedly written
down their denial of the faith, but being in nnuh tribula-
tion, as boys endowed with sagacity and prudence amongst
foolish children, have mocked the snares of their enemies,
either passing by the altars, or giving a writing, or sending
1 Is. l.wi. 24. =« l.s Ivii. :i<i, 21. ^ Cf. 1 Saiu. xxi. 13.

298 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

heathen to do sacrifice instead of themselves, even tliough
some of them who have confessed have, as I have heard,
pardoned individuals of them, since with the greatest caution
they have avoided to touch the fire with their own hands,
and to offer incense to the impure demons ; yet inasmuch
as they escaped the notice of their persecutors by doing this,
let a penalty of six months' penance be imposed upon them.
For thus will they be the rather profited, meditating upon the
prophet's Avords, and saying, " Unto us a child is born, unto
us a Son is given ; and the government shall be upon His
shoulder : and His name shall be called the Messenger of
My mighty counsel."^ Who, as ye know, when another
infant in the sixth month- of his conception had preached
before His coming repentance for the remission of sins, was
himself also conceived to preach repentance. Moreover, we
hear both also preaching, in the first place, not only repent-
ance, but the kingdom of heaven, which, as we have learned,
is within us f for the word which we believe is near us, in
our mouth, and in our heart ; which they, being put in
remembrance of, will learn to confess with their mouths
that Jesus is the Christ ; believing in their heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, and being as those who hear,
that " with the heart man believeth unto righteousness ;
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."*

Balsamon. — But if any have pretended to approach the
altars, or to write their denial of the faith, and have not
done this nakedly and openly, but by feigned arts have
illuded those who offered them violence, as David did, who,
when he w^as flying from Said, and was amongst sti-angers,
feigned himself to be mad, and thus escaped death. So they
mocked the snares of their enemies, as children endowed
with wisdom and prudence mock foolish children; for
they deceived the impious heathen, in that they seemed to
sacrifice, although they did not sacrifice, or perhaps they
suborned heathens and infidels to take their place, and by
these means they thought that they offered sacrifice; for
them, he says, a period of six months will sufi&ce for

lis. ix. 6. 2 Luke i. 76, 77 ^ Luke xvii. 21. * Rom. x. 8-10.

TIIK CAXOXICAL EPISTLE. 299

penance. For although they did not sacrifice, yet because
they promised to sacrifice, or sent others to do so in their
place, they are thought to stand in need of repentance, even
tliough some of tliose who have given their testimony for
the faith have pardoned individuals of them. He compares
them to children, as not having manfully -withstood the
idolaters, but to prudent children, because by artifice tliey
avoided doing sacrifice.

Zonaras. — But if any have pretended to approach the
altars, or to write their denial of tlie faith, l)ut have not
nakedly written down their abnegation, that is, not mani-
festly, not openly; but by a sort of trick have cheated those
who offered them violence ; as David, who while he was
Hying from Saul, and had come amongst strange people,
feigned himself to be mad, and in this way avoided death.
They mocked indeed, he says, the insidious devices of their
enemies ; as prudent children, endowed with wisdom and
sagacity, and tliose who skilfully take counsel, deceive
foolish children. Now he compares those to prudent
children by whom the impious heathen were deceived, and
those who though they did not sacrifice, yet seemed to
sacrifice, prudent indeed, as having thus far avoided sacri-
ficing ; but cliildren, in that tliey did not show fortli a
mature and manly spirit, and did not nobly resist the wor-
shippers of idols, but covenanted to sacrifice, even though
they suborned some in their places, heatliens, forsooth, and
infidels, and when these sacriliceil, they were considered to
have sacrificed. For men of this sort, he says, a period of
six months will suffice for penance. For although they did
not sacrifice, yet because they covenanted to sacrifice, or
suborned others to do so, and thus themselves appeared to
have sacrificed, they were judged to stand in need of repent-
ance ; even though some confessors might have pardoned
individuals of them; for some of those who witnessed to the
faith and suffered for it, pardoned tliose who by an artifice,
as has been said, escaped offering sacritiop, and aihuitted
them to communion with the faithful, because they
studiouslv avoided offerinfj sacrifice to (U-mons. And on

500 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

account of the fixing of this term of six months, he calls to
remembrance the annunciation made by Gabriel, in the
sixth month of the conception of the Forerunner, in which
the Lord was conceived. Then he subjoins the words of
the apostle.

Canon VI.

In the case of those who have sent Christian slaves to
offer sacrifice for them, the slaves indeed as being in their
master's hands, and in a manner themselves also in the cus-
tody of their masters, and being threatened by them, and
from their fear having come to this pass and having lapsed,
shall during the year show forth the works of penitence,
learning for the future, as the slaves of Christ, to do the will
of Christ and to fear Him, listening to this especially, that
" whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he
receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free."^

Balsamon. — The slaves who under the commands and
threatenings of their masters offered sacrifice, this father
punishes with a year's exclusion ; yet he pardons them as
having acted under the orders of a master, and does not
inflict a heavy punishment upon them. But yet since they
are much more the servants of Christ, even as they ought
to fear Hun more, he imposes on them a moderate punish-
ment; for, as says the great Paul, "whatsoever good thing
any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord,
whether he be bond or free."

Zonaras. — Some have sent their o^\^l Christian servants,
even against their will, to offer sacrifice in their stead.
These servants, therefore, although not of their own free
win, but being compelled by their masters, they offered
sacrifice, this father ordains shall pass a year in penance,
and enjoins them to remember that, being of the number of
the faithful, they are the servants of Christ, and that Him
they ought rather to fear ; for " whatsoever any man doeth,"
says the great apostle, " the same shall he receive, whether
he be bond or free."

^ Eph. vi. 8.

THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 301

Canox VI r.

But the free men shall be tried by penance for three
years, both for their dissimulation, and for liaving com-
pelled their fellow-servants to offer sacrifice, inasmuch as
they have not obeyed tlie apostle, who would have the
masters do the same things unto the servant, forbearing
threatening ;^ knowing, says he, that our and tlieir Master
is in heaven; and that there is no respect of persons with
Him.^ Now, if we all have one I\Iaster, with whom is no
respect of persons, since Christ is all and in all, in barbarian,
Scythian, bond or free,^ they ought to consider what they
have done, wishing to preserve their own lives. They
have drawn their fellow-servants to idolatry wlio would
have been able to escape, had they given to them that
which is just and equal, as again says the apostle.

Balsamon. — But upon the freemen, or the masters of the
servant compelled to sacrifice, he enjoins a punishment of
three years, both because they pretended to sacrifice, and
seemed to assent to it ; and also because they compelle<l
their fellow-servants to ofter sacrifice, and did not obey the
apostle, who ordered them to forbear threatening their
servants, inasmuch as they themselves, the masters, are thu
servants of God, and fellow-servants with their own
domestics. And then they have made haste to preserve
their own lives, and have driven their fellow-servants to
idolatry who might have escaped.

Zonaras. — But upon the freemen, that is, the masters of
the servants who were compelled to sacrifice, he enjoins a
penalty of three years, both because they pretended to sacrifice,
and altogether appeared to succimib ; and also because they
compelled their fellow-servants to offer sacrifice, and did not
obey the apostle's injuncti(jn to forbear threatening their
servants ; since they also, the masters, are the servants of
God, and the fellow-servants of their own domestics. And
they indeed made haste to preserve their own lives, and drove
their fellow-servants, who niiglit have escaped, to idolatry.
lEpl). vi. 9. - Rom. ii. 11. 'Col. iii. 11.

302 THE WRITINGS OF VLTEll.

Canon VIII.

But to those who have been delivered up, and have
fallen, who also of their own accord have approached the
contest, confessing themselves to be Christians, and have
been tormented and thrown into prison, it is right with joy
and exultation of heart to add strength, and to communicate
to them in all things, both in prayer, and in partaking of
the body and blood of Christ, and in hortatory discourse ;
in order that contending the more constantly, they may be
counted worthy of "the prize of their high calling."^ For
" seven times," he says, " a just man falleth, and riseth up
again," ^ which, indeed, if all that have lapsed had done,
they would have shown forth a most perfect penitence, and
one which penetrates the whole heart.

Balsamon. — Some had had information laid against them
before the tyrant, and had been delivered up, or themselves
had of their own accord given themselves up, and then being
overcome by their torments, had failed in their testimony.
Afterwards repenting, and acknowledging what was right
and good, they confessed themselves to be Christians, so that
they were cast into prison, and afflicted with torments.
These this holy man thinks it right to receive with joy of
heart, and to confirm in the orthodox faith, and to com-
municate with, both in prayers and in partaking of the
sacraments, and to exhort with cheering words, that they
may be more constant in the contest, and counted worthy of
the heavenly kingdom. And that it might not be thought
that they ought not to be received, because they had lapsed,
he brings forward the testimony of Scripture to the effect
that "seven times," that is, often, "the just man falleth, and
riseth up again." And, says he, if all who have failed in
their confession had done this, namely, taken up their
struggle again, and before the tyrant confessed themselves
to be Christians, they would have shown forth a most
perfect penitence. The subject, therefore, comprehended
in this canon differs from that contained in the first
^ Philipp. iii. 14. - Prov. xxiv. 1(5.

THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 303

canon, for there indeed those who by reason of their tor-
ment had lapsed, were not converted so as to confess the
faith before tlie tyrants ; but here those who by reason of
their torment have lapsed, with a worthy penitence, confess
tlie Lord before the tyrants, wherefore they are reckoned not
to liave fallen.

Zonarus. — But, says he, if any have had information laid
against them before the tyrants, and have been delivered up,
or have of themselves given themselves up, and being over-
come by the violence of their torments have failed in their
testimony, not being able to endure the distresses and afHic-
tions with which in the dungeon they were afllicted. And
afterwards taking uj) the contest anew, have confessed
themselves to be Christians, so that they have been again
cast into prison and afllicted with torments. Such men
this holy martyr judges it reasonable that they should be
joyfully received ; and that they should be strengthened,
that is, have strength, spirit, and confidence added to tliem,
in order that they may confess the faith, and that tliey
should be communicated with in all things, both in
prayer, and in partaking of the sacraments, and that they
should be exhorted with loving words, to rouse themselves
to give testimony to the faith, that they may be more con-
stant in the contest, and counted worthy of the heavenly
kingdom. And that it might not be thought by any that
they ought not to be received from the fact that they had
lapsed, and sacrificed to the idols, he brings forth this testi-
mony from Holy Scripture : " Seven times," that is, often,
" the just man falleth, and riseth up again." And, says he,
if all who have failed in their confession had done this, that
is, after their fall, taken up the contest afresh, and confessed
themselves to be Christians l)cfore the tyrants, they would
have given jiroof of a most })erfect repentance.

Canon IX.

"With those also who, as it were from sleep, themselves
leap forth upon a contest whicli is travailing long and likely

304 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

to be protracted, and draw upon tliemselves tlie temptations
as it were of a sea-fight, and the inundations of many waves,
or rather are for the brethren kindling the coaLs of the
sinners, with them also we must comnnmicate, inasmuch
as they come to this in the name of Christ, even though
they take no heed unto His words, when He teaches us
"to pray that we enter not into temptation;"^ and again
in His prayer. He says to His Father, " and lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil."^ And perhaps also
they know not that the Master of the House and our Great
Teacher often retired from those who would lay snares for
Him, and that sometimes He walked not openly because
of them ; and even when the time of His passion drew on.
He delivered not up Himself, but waited until they came
to Him with " swords and staves." He said to them there-
fore, " Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and
staves, for to take Me?"^ And they "delivered Him," He
says, " to Pilate."* As it was with Him it happens to
those who w^alk keeping Him before them as an example,
recollecting His divine words, in which, confirming us. He
speaks of persecution : " Take heed unto yourselves, for they
will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge
you in their synagogues."^ Now% He says, they will deliver
you up, and not, ye shall deliver up yourselves ; and " ye
shall be brought before rulers and kings for My sake,"^ but
not, ye shall bring yourselves, for He would have us pass
from place to place as long as there are those who persecute
us for His name's sake ; even as again we hear Him saying,
"But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into
another."'' For He would not have us go over to the
ministers and satellites of the devil, that we might not be
the cause to them of a manifold death, inasmuch as thus
we should be compelling them both to be harsher, and to
carry out their deadly works, but He would have us to wait,
and to take heed to ourselves, to watch and to pray, lest we

1 Matt. XXVI. 41. - Matt. vi. 13. ^ Matt. xxvi. 55.

< Matt, xxvii. 2. ^ Matt. x. 17. « ilatt. x. la

^ Matt. X. 23.

THE CANONICAL EPISTL?:. 305

enter into temptation.^ Thus first Stephen, pressing on His
footsteps, suffered mart}T:dom, being apprehended in Jeru-
salem by the transgi-essors, and being brought before tlie
council, lie was stoned, and glorified for the name of Christ,
praying with the words, " Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge."^ Thus James; in the second place, bemg of Herod
apprehended, was be}ieaded with the sword. Thus Peter,
the first of the apostles, having been often apprehended,
and thrown into prison, and treated with ignominy, was
last of all crucified at Rome. Likewise also, the renowned
Paul having been oftentimes delivered up and brought in
peril of death, having endured many evils, and making his
boast in his numerous persecutions and aftlictions, in tlie
same city was also himself beheaded; who, in the things
in which he gloried, in these also ended his life ; and at
Damascus he was let down by night in a basket by tlie
■wall, and escaped the hands ^ of him who sought to take
him. For \\'hat they set before themselves, first and fore-
most, was to do the work of an evangelist, and to teach the
Word of God, in which, confirming the brethren, that they
might continue in the faith, they said this also, " that we
must out of much tribulation enter into the kingdom of
God."* For they sought not what was profitable for them,
but that which was profitable for the many, that they miglit
be saved, and that tliey might be enabled to say unto them
many things conducing to this, that they might act suitably
to the "Word of God, "unless," as says the apostle, "the time
should fail me in speaking."^

Bahamon. — Those who have but just arisen from sleep,
and especially if they were weighed down with a heavy and
profound sleep, have no constant reason, but one perturbed
and unsteady. To such as tliese this blessed martyr likens
those who, not in due order, but rashly and inconsiderately,
thrust themselves upon the contest, whicli is as it were in
travail, and delayed and protracted, inasmucli as it has nrt
yet burst forth openly, but meditates and delays, hesitating

» Matt. xxvi. 41. 2 Acts vii. no. ' 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33.

* Acts xiv. 22. ' Hub. xi. 32.

30G TIIK WJUTINGS OF FETE It.

ill truth to bring foi'th tlie combatants, wlio bring tempta-
tion upon themselves, or draw it towards them. Now
these especially are, for the rest of the faithful, kindling the
coals of the sinners, that is to say, the punishment of the
t}a\ants. But although he reprehends those who act so,
yet he enjoins the faithful nevertheless to communicate
with them, because on account of Christ they have under-
gone the contest, even though they have ignored His teach-
ing ; for He teaches them to pray that they may not be
tempted; and He did not deliver up HimseK, but was
delivered up ; and we are not to go over to the tormentors,
that we may not be the cause of bringing upon them the
guilt of many murders, as those do who incite them to
inflict punishment upon the godly. The canon brings
forward different examples from Holy Scripture.

Zonaras. — Those who have recently arisen from sleep,
especially if they were oppressed with a heavy sleep, have
no steady reason, but one inconstant and perturbed. To
men of this sort this holy martyr likens those who rush
upon the contest, that is, those who, not in due course, but
rashly and inconsiderately, intrude themselves upon it. It is,
as it were, in travail, and delayed and protracted, inasmuch
as it has not yet burst forth openly, but meditates and
delays, and hesitates to bring forth the combatants, who
bring temptation upon themselves, that is, draw it towards
themselves, or rather, for the rest of the faithful, kindle the
coals of the sinners, the torments, namely, which are by the
tyiunts inflicted. But although he finds fault with those
who act in this way, he nevertheless decrees that the faith-
ful must communicate with them, because in the name of
Christ they come forward to this, trusting, that is, in Christ,
or in His name demanding this trial for themselves, even
though, perhaps, they are not obeying His precepts ; for He
taught them to pray that they might not be tempted ; and
they are ignoring the fact too that the Lord retired from
those who were laying snares for Him, and was wont some-
times to walk not openly ; neither did He give up Himself
to His passion, but was given up by others ; and He com-

THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 307

mandecl His disciples, when their enemies persecuted them,
to fly iVoiu city to city, and not of their own accord to give
themselves up to the tormentors, lest tliey should he tlie
cause of bringing the guilt of much blood upon their heads,
irritating them as it were to inflict punishment upon godly
men. And he brings forward the exani])le of the apostles,
of Stephen, of James, and the chiefs of the order, Peter and
Taul.

Canox X.

Whence it is not right either that those of the clergy wlio
have deserted of their own accord, and have lapsed, and
taken up the contest afresh, should remain any longer in
their sacred office, inasmuch as they have left destitute tlie
Hock of the Lord, and brought blame upon themselves,
which thing did not one of the apostles. For when the
blessed ajoostle Paul had undergone many persecutions, and
liad shown forth the prizes of many contests, though he
knew that it was far better to "depart, and to be with
Christ," yet he brings this forward, and says, " Nevertheless
to abide in the liesh is more needful for you."^ For con-
sidering not his own advantage but the advantage of many,
that they might be saved, he judged it more necessary than
his own rest to remain with the brethren, and to have a
care for them ; who also would have him that teacheth to
be "in doctrine"^ an example to the faithful. "Whence it
follows that those who, contending in prison, have fallen
from their ministry, and have again taken up the struggle,
are plainly wanting in perception. For how else is it that
they seek for that which they have left, when in this present
time they can be useful to the brethren ? For as long Jis
they remained firm and stable, of that which they liail
done contrary to reason, of this indulgence was accorded
them. But when they lapsed, as having carried themselves
with ostentation;'^ and brought reproach upon themselves.

1 Pliilipp. i. 23, 24. "■^ Titus ii. 7.

^ Cf. St Paul'-s description of cluiiity, 1 Cor. .\iii. 4: " Cluuily
vaunteth not itself," ov -Tzip-Tzipivi-rui.

308 Till': wniTixas of peter.

tliey can no longer discharge their sacred ministiy; and,
tlierefore, let them the rather take lieed to pass their life
in humility, ceasing from vainglory. For communion is
sufficient for them, which is granted them with diligence
and care for two causes ; both that they should not seem to
be affiicted with sorrow, and hence by violence seize on
their departure from this world; and also lest any of the
lapsed should have a pretext for being remiss by occasion
of the punishment. And these indeed will reap more sliame
and ignominy than all others, even as he who laid the
foundation and was not able to finish it ; for " all that pass
by," He says, " will begin to mock him, saying, " This man
laid the foundation, and was not able to finish it."

Bahamon. — The father having spoken of those who of
their own accord went over to the contest of martyrdom,
now also speaks of those of the clergy who are in such a
case, and he says, that if any clergyman hath of his own
accord sought the contest, and then, not being able to bear
the tortures, has fallen, but returning to himself, has recanted
his error, and before the tyrants confessed himself a Christian,
such an one shall no longer discharge his sacred ministry,
because he hath deserted the Lord's flock, and because,
having of his OM'n accord sought the contest, through not
being able to endure the torment, he hath brought reproach
upon himself. For to neglect the teaching of the people,
and to prefer their own advantage, this did not the apostles.
For the mighty Paul, after that he had endured many tor-
ments, though he perceived that it was far better to leave
this life, yet chose rather to live and to be tormented for
the salvation and instruction of the people. They are there-
fore altogether devoid of perception who seek the sacred
ministry from which they have fallen of their own accord.
For how is it that they seek for that which they have left,
when they are able in this season of persecution, that is, to
be nseful to their brethren ? If indeed they had not fallen,
of that which they had done contrary to reason, their
spontaneous flight for instance, or their slackness in teach-
ing and confirming the brethren, of these things indulgence

THE CAXOMCAL EPISTLE. SOU

would be extended to tliein. But if from their own arro-
gance and conceit they have lapsed (lor of such a nature is
it rashly to venture to expose themselves to torture, and not
to be able to endure it, and thus a triumph has been gained
over tliem), they cannot any longer execute their sacred
office. Wherefore let them the rather take heed that thcv
perfect their confession by humility, ceasing from the vain-
glory of seeking for the sacred ministry; for conmiunion
with the faithful is sufficient for them, wliich is granted for
two reasons, Avith diligent caution, and just judgment. For
if we say that we will not hold them to be comnmnicants,
we shall both afllict them with grief, giving our sentence
as it were that they should dejiart this life with violence ;
and we shall cause others also, who may have lapsed, and
wish to return to what is right, to be negligent and remiss
in this respect, having as a pretext, tliat they will not l)e
admitted to communicate with the faithful, even though
after their fall they should confess the faith, who, if they
are not converted, will undergo more shame and ignominv
than others, even as he who laid the foundation, and
did not finish the building. For such an one do those
resemble, who, for Christ's sake indeed, have offered them-
selves to be tormented, and having laid as it were a good
foundation, have not been able to perfect that M'hich is good
by reason of their fall. Observe, then, that not even con-
fession for Christ's sake restores him who lias once lapsed
and thus become an alien from his clerical ofiice.

Zonaras. — The father having spoken of those who have
of their own accord exposed themselves to the contest of
martyrdom, now begins to discourse about those of the
clergy who have done the same thing; and says that if any
clergyman has of his own accord given himself up, and then,
not being able to endure the violence of the torment, ha.s
fallen, and again recollecting himself has roused himself
afresh to the contest, and has confessed himself a Christian
before the tyrants, a man of this sort is not any longer to be
admitted to the .sacred ministry. And the reason of this he
subjoins; because he nns foicnlccn the Lord's tlock, and

310 THE WRITINGS OF RKTEn.

because having of his own accord offered himself to the
enemy, and not having with constancy endured his torments,
he has brouglit reproach upon himself. But that they
should despise the instruction of the people, and prefer
their own advantage, this did not the apostles. For the
mighty Paul, though he had endured many torments, and
felt that it was better for him to leave this life, preferred to
live and to be tormented for the salvation and instruction of
the people. Wlierefore he demonstrates those to be alto-
gether devoid of perception who ask for the sacred ministry
from which they have voluntarily fallen. For how is it,
says he, that they ask for that which they have left, when
in a season of this sort, of raging persecution forsooth, they
can be of great assistance to the brethren ? As long as
they were free from the charge of having lapsed, they would
have obtained pardon for their action that was raslily imder-
taken, that, namely, of voluntarily offering themselves to the
adversary, or their negligence in instructing the brethren.
But since they have fallen, inasmuch as they have acted
ostentatiously, they are not to be permitted any longer to dis-
charge their sacred functions. If, says he, that they had not
fallen they would have obtained pardon for their action w^hicli
was devoid of reasan ; calling that action devoid of reason,
not only because they gave themselves up to the enemy, but
rather because they deserted the Lord's flock, and did not
remain to guard it, and to confirm the brethren who were
harassed in this time of persecution. But if they have
fallen, from the fact that they have carried themselves
vauntingiy, and he here calls pride and arrogance 'jnp'ZBpsia,
because it is from arrogance that they have put confidence
in themselves, and have put an end to the contest, and have
brought reproach upon themselves ; that is, by reason of
tlieir fall, they have contracted a blemish and stain, it is
not lawful for them any longer to be occupied in the sacred
ministry. Wherefore let them study, says he, to perfect
their confession by humility, ceasing forsooth from all vain-
glory. For in that they seek to be enrolled in the sacred
ministry, this proceeds from ambition and self-seeking. For

THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 311

communion is snfTicicnt for them, tliat the faithful should
communicate "with tliem, and pray with them, and that they
should participate in the sacred mysteries. And this should
he granted witli diligent caution and care, both lest tliey
should seem to bo atliicted with grief, seizing on a dissolu-
tion of this life, lest, that is, as he says, being overcome
■with grief, they should depart and get free from the body,
that is, go out from it, from the violence of the torment
and atiiictions which they undergo in the prison ; and
that none should have the pretext of their punishment
for carrying themselves dissolutely and cowardly in the
contest of confession, and thus fall away. AVho will the
rather be put to shame, according to the saying in the
Gospel, " AVho could not finish after that he had laid the
foundation."

[Tlce dir/rcssion ichich foUoivs is entirely directed af/ninst
Iluzalon.]

IMoreover, let those ap])ly their minds to what is in
thi^ place brought forward by this great father and holy
martyr, who say that it is lawl'ul for bishops to give up
their sees, and to retain tlie dignity of the priesthood.
For if to the clergy who voluntardy offered themselves to
the contest of confession, and who, when tormented, failed
in constancy and yielded, and afterwards returned to the
contest, if to them indulgence is scarcely granted, because
they deferred to execute their ministerial duties ; nor, in the
opinion of this divine father, is any thing else ol)jectcd to
them but that they deserted the brethren, when in advei-se
and turbulent timea they might have been useful in con-
firming them in the faith, and that after that they had been
counted worthy to bear testimony to the faith, ami carried
about in their flesh the marks of Christ ; how shall that chief
priest and pastor, who ought to lay down liis life for the
sheep, when he has' deserted the flock that was committed
unto him, and repudiated its care and administration, and
as far as in him lies given it over to the wolf, be thought
worthy to retain the dignity of the sacred ministry, and not
rather be judged worthy of tlic severest punisliments for

312 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

deserting the people entrusted to his care? Nay, but he
will demand a reward for this thing, or rather he will him-
self supply it to himself : refusing that which brings labour
to them, namely, the office of teaching and of correcting
vice ; but embracing that which gains for them honour and
glory, making it their own, keeping hold of it with their
teeth as it were, and not letting it go in the least. For if
in the case of the clergy it be called an action contrary to
reason to desert the people, and to go away from them to
the contest in the cause of piety ; how much more contrary
to reason shall it be judged for a bishop to desert his people,
not in order that he may contend in a contest, but that he
may deliver himself up to ease and indolence, and lay aside
and escape entirely from his cares for the salvation of souls ?
The sixteenth canon also of the seventh Oecumenical Council
gravely accuses those of folly who decree that the dignity
of the sacred ministry can be retained by a bishop who has
repudiated his bishopric. For if according to the sentence
of the aforesaid canon, a bishop wdio has been absent from
his see more than six months, unless some one of the causes
there enumerated shall have intervened, has both fallen
from the episcopate and the highest dignity of the priesthood,
and is deprived of both ; how shall he who has repudiated the
episcopate, and refuses any longer to feed the flock entrusted
to him, and despises the care of it through his desire of an
easy life, be held to be of the number of bishops ? For if he
who has committed the lesser fault, of leaving for more tlian
six months the people placed under him destitute of the
care and administration of a pastor, incurs the privation of
the episcopate and of his sacred dignity ; he who ojffends in
a way greater and much more grievous, namely, in desert-
ing altogether the multitude which the grace of the Holy
Spirit has committed to him to be cared for and guarded,
shall deservedly be punished wdth greater severity, and will
pay the heavier penalty of losing, as far as he is concerned,
the flock of which he was appointed shepherd by the great
and chief Shepherd and High Priest. But those who
decree the dignity of the priesthood to him as a reward

THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 313

and honorarium for declining his office, in my opinion
make both tliemselves and him obnoxious to the judg-
ment of God.

Canon XT.

For those who first, when the persecution waxed warm,
leaped forth, standing around the judgment-seat, and behold-
ing the holy martyi'S who were hastening to the " prize of
their high calling,"^ then, fired Avilh a holy zeal, gave them-
selves up to this, using much boldness, and especially when
they saw those who were drawn aside and lapsed, on their
account they were roused mightily within, and, as it were
by some inward voice, impelled to war down and subdue the
adversary who was exulting; for this they earnestly con-
tended, that he might not seem "to be wise in his own
conceit," ^ on account of those things in which by reason of
his subtlety they appeared to be inferior to liim, even though
it escaped his observation that he was overcome by those
who with constancy endured the torments of the lasli and
scourge, and the sharp edge of the sword, the burning iu
the fire, and the immersion in the water. To those also who
entreat that the prayers and supplications of faith shouhl be
made either in behalf of those wlio have been punished by
imprisonment, and have been delivered up by hunger ami
thirst, or for those who out of prison have by the judges
been tortured with whippings and scourgings, and afterwards
have been overcome by the infirmity of the flesh, it is right
to give our consent. For to sympathize with the soitow and
affliction of those who sorrow and mourn for tliose wlio in the
contest have been overcome by the great strength of the evil-
contriving devil, whether it be for parents, or brethren, or
children, hurts no one. For we know that on account of the
faitli of others some have obtained the goodness of CJoil, Ijoth
in the remission of sins, and in the health of their bodies, and
in the resurrection of the dead. Therefore, beiug mindful
of the many labours and distresses which for the name (if
Christ they have sustained, since they have themselves also
1 I'liilipp. iii. 14. • Roiu. xii. 1(5.

314 TJIK WRITINGS OF PETKR.

repented, and have bewailed that which was done by them
through their being betrayed by the languor and niortiftca-
tion of the body ; and since, besides this, they testify that in
their life they have as it were been aliens from their city,
let us pray together with them and entreat for tlieir recon-
ciliation, together with other things tliat are befitting,
through Him who is "our Advocate with the Father, and
makes propitiation for our sins." " And if any man sin,"
says he, " we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous : and He is the propitiation for our sins."^

Balsamon. — The saint having said before that those who
of their own accord entered upon the contest and lapsed,
and did not repent nor recant their error, would be covered
with more shame, as being like men who did not go on with
the building beyond the foundation, that is, did not perfect
that which is good, now brings forward a confirmation of
this and other matters, saying. Those who taking their stand
in the fervour and vehemence of the persecution, seeing the
holy martyrs, and with what divine zeal they contended to
receive the celestial crown, gave themselves up to martjT-
dom with much boldness, and especially wlien they saw
some drawn aside, that is, led astray and deluded by the
devil, and lapsing or denying godliness ; wherefore being
inwardly inflamed, and with hearts enkindled, as hearing that
they by this means should war down and subdue the proud
adversary the devil, were eager to undergo martj^dom lest
the devil should boast and seem " to be wise in his own
conceit," as having by his subtlety and malice overcome
those who of their own accord sought martp-dom : even
though it escaped him that he was rather overcome by
those combatants who bravely withstood the torments.
Therefore to the faithful who pray for those who are
enduring punishment, and afflicted by it, it is right to
assent or to concur in this, which is also decreed ; and it
can by no means be hurtful to sympathize in their sorrow
and affliction with the parents or other relatives in behalf
of those who have given tlieir testimony and undergone
1 1 John ii. 1.

THE CAXOMCAL KPISTLP:. 31:,

martyrdom, but have lapsed by the arts and snares of the
devil. For we know that many have obtained tlie .t,foodness
and compassion of God by the prayers of others. Therefore
we will pray for tliem that remission of their sins be i^ranted
them by God ; and with the others who ha\e lapsed, and
have afterwards recanted their error, and confessed godli-
ness, we will communicate, being mindful of those contest?
wliich before their fall they sustained for God's sake, and
also of their subsequent worthy repentance, and that they
testify that on account of their sin they have been as it
were aliens from their city ; and we will not only com-
municate with them, but pray also for their reconciliation,
together with other things that are convenient, eitlier v/ith
the good works whicli ought to be done by them — fasting,
for instance, almsgiving, and penance ; by which tiling;; lie
who is our Advocate makes the Father propitious tovtards
us. Then he makes use of a passage of Holy Scripture, and
this is taken from the first catholic epistle of the holy apostle
and evangelist John.

Zonaras. — The meaning of tlie present canon is as
follows : — Those, he says, who set in the fervour of t'/ie i)er-
secution, that is, in its greatest height and most veiiement
heat, beheld the martyrdoms of the saints, and how eagerly
they hastened to receive tlie celestial crown, fired with a
holy emulation, gave themselves up to martp-dom, leajnng
as it were into the contest with much boldness, in imitation
of the saints who suffered, and offered themselves reailily
for the confirming of the faith by their testimony ; and on
that account especially, because they beludd many who
were drawn aside, that is, led astray, denying their fiiith.
Whereupon they being inflamed, that is, fired in licart,
endeavoured to subdue the adversary that was hostile to
them, that he might not, as a victor, e.xult over the gotUy.
Although it escaped him that he was r.ither conquered by
them, many even unto death showing forth constancy for
the faith. They hastened, therefore, says he, to do this, l)iit
overcome by the violence of their torments, by reason of the
infinuity of the flesh, being some of them evil entreated in

316 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

prison, and others punished by decree of the judges, and
not being able to endure their punishment. It is meet,
therefore, to sympathize with those who mourn for their
sakes. Now tliey mourn, says he, some the lapse of parents,
others of brethren, and others of children. To mourn,
therefore, with those who bewail the lapsed, hurts no one ;
neither to join in prayer and grief with those who pray foi
themselves, together with other things that are reasonable,
namely, that they who have lapsed may show forth other
things that are consistent with penitence ; such as are fasting
and tears and other humiliations, and observe the punish-
ment inflicted on them, and, if their means allow, bestow
money upon the poor ; by which means He who is the
Advocate in our behalf Avill render the Father propitious to
us. Tlien he brings forward a passage from Holy Scripture,
which is taken from the first epistle of the holy ajpostle
and evangelist John.

Canon XII.

Against those wdio have given money that they might be
entirely undisturbed by evil [/.axia], an accusation cannot
be brought. For they have sustained the loss and sacrifice
of their goods that they might not hurt or destroy their soul,
which others for the sake of filthy lucre have not done; and
yet the Lord says, " What is a man profited, if he shall gain
the whole world, and lose his own soul?^ and again, "Ye
cannot serve God and mammon."^ In these things, then,
they have shown themselves the servants of God, inasmuch
as they have hated, trodden under foot, and despised money,
and have thus fulfilled what is written : " The ransom of a
man's life are his riches."^ For we read also in the Acts of
the Apostles that those who in the stead of Paul and Silas
were dragged before the magistrates at Thessalonica, were
dismissed with a heavy fine. For after that they had been
very burdensome to them for his name, and had troubled
the people and the rulers of the city, " having taken secu-

1 Matt. xvi. 2G. - Matt. vi. 24. = Prov. xiiL 8.

Till-: CAXOMCAL KPISTLE. 317

rity," he says, "of Jason, and of the otlicrs, tliey let tlieiii
go. And tlie brethren immediately sent away Paul and
Silas by night unto Berea."^

Balsamon. — After tliat the saint had finislied liis discourse
concerning those who of their own accord had offered tliem-
selves to martyrdom, he said that those were not to be
reprehended who by a sum of money paid down freed them-
selves from the afliiction of persecution. For they preferred
to make a sacrifice of their money rather than of their souls.
Then he confirms this, and brings forward different Scripture
examples from the Acts of the Apostles concerning the
blessed apostle Paul and others.

Zonaras. — But those, he says, are not to be reprehended
who have paid money down, and thus escaped, and main-
tained their piety, nor for this thing may any one bring an
accusation against them. For they have preferred to lose
their money rather than their souls, and have shown that
they wish to serve God and not mammon ; that is, riches.
And he brings forward the words of Scripture, and the
example, as in the Acts of the Apostles, of the blessed
apostle Paul and others. Now, when it is said that they
have been undisturbed by all evil [zax/a], it is to be so
taken, either that they have been left undisturbed, so far
as the denial of the faith is concerned, whicli overcomes
all evil [y-axia], or he means by xax/a;, the atliiutious of
persecutions.

Canon XI 11.

Hence neither is it lawful to accuse those who have left
all, and have retired for the safety of their life, as if otliei-s
had been held back by them. For at Ephesus also they
seized Gains and Aristarchus instead of Paul, and rushed
to the theatre, these being I'aul's companions in travel,- and
he wishing himself to enter in unto the peo])le, since it wa.s
by reason of his having persuaded tliem, and (h-awing away
a great multitude to the worsliij) o( tlie true God, that the
tumult arose. "The disciples suffered him not," he says.
1 Acts xvii. 9, 10. - Acts .xi.x. 20-30.

TJLE WRITINGS OF PETEIl

" Nay, moreover, certain of the cliief of Asia, who were his
friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he would not
adventure himself into the theatre." But if any persist in
contending with them, let them apply their minds with
sincerity to him who says, " Escape for thy life ; look not
behind thee."^ Let tliem recall to their minds also how
Peter, the chief of the apostles, " was thrown into prison, and
delivered to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him;"^ of
whom, when he had escaped by night, and had been preserved
out of the hand of the Jews by the commandment of tlie
angel of the Lord, it is said, " As soon as it was day, there
was no small stir among the soldiers, what was become of
Peter, And when Herod had sought for him, and found
him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they
should be put to death," ^ on account of whom no blame is
attributed to Peter; for it was in their power, when they
saw what was done, to escape, just as also all the infants
in Bethlehem,* and all the coast thereof, might have escaped,
if their parents had known Avhat was going to happen.
These were put to death by the murderer Herod, in order
to secure the death of one Infant whom he sought, which
Infant itself also escaped at the commandment of the angel
of the Lord, who now began quickly to spoil, and to hasten
the prey, according to the name whereby he was called ; as
it is written, " Call his name Maher-shalal-hasli-baz : for
before the child shall have knowledge to cry, ]My father
and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of
Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Ass}Tia."^
The Magi then as now having been despoiled and divided
for a prey, humbly, and in the guise of suppliants, adore
the Child, opening their treasures, and offering imto Him
gifts most o^iportune and magnificent — gold, and frank-
incense, and myrrh — as to a king, to God, and to man;
whence they were no longer wiQing to return to the

1 Gen. xix. 17. ^ Acts. xii. 4.

3 Acts xii. 18, 19. ^ Matt. ii. 13-16.

* Is. viii. 3, 4. The literal meaning of the name Maher-shalalhash-
baz is, " In speed spoil, booty hastens."

THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 319

Assyrian king, being forbidden to do so by Providence.
For "being warned of God in a dream," lie says, " that they
sliould not return to Herod, they departed into their own
country another way." ^ Hence the bloodthirsty " Herod,
when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was
exceeding wroth, and sent forth," he says, "and slew all
the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coast
thereof, from two years old and under, according to the
time that he had diligently inquired of the wise men."^
Together with whom, having sought to kill another infant
that had been previously born, and not being able to find
him, he slew his father Zacharias between the teniple and
the altar, the Child having escaped witli his mother Eliza-
beth. Whence these men that have withdrawn themselves
are not at all to be blamed.

Balsamon. — But if any, says he, have left their good and
gone away, lest they should be detained and brought into
peril, as being those perhaps who might not be able to per-
sist in their confession to the end, on account of the cruelty
of their tormentors, they shall not be found fault with, even
though others have been detained on their account. And
he brings forward as an instance on this score Gains and
Aristarchus, who were detained instead of Paid; the soldiers
who kept Peter ; the infants who were massacred by Herod
on account of Christ; and Zacharias, the father of the revered
and blessed forerunner.

Zoiutras. — But if' any, says he, have left their possessions,
and have gone away, lest being detained they should be
endangered, and because, perhaps, they would not be able
to persist in their confession unto the end, on account of
the cruelty of the tormentors, they are not to be accused,
even if others are detained and i)unished on their account.
And, again, he brings forward an example Irom the Acts of
the Apostles, saying that at Ephesus also Gaius and Aris-
tarchus were apprehended in the stead of Paul, and that
Paul was not blamed lor this ; nor was l*eter, wlien he was
brought forth out of prison by an angel, and escaped the
^ Matt. ii. ll-i:}. '^ ^r;ill. ii. 10.

320 THE WRITINGS OF PET Kit.

danger, and the soldiers who guarded liini were on his
account punished. Then he cites another example from
the Gospel, namely, the infants who were put to death by
Herod ; on account of which, says he, our Lord was not
blamed. And when Elizabeth had taken to flight witli
John, and had preserved him, his father Zacharias was put
to death, the child being demanded of him ; nor was this
imputed as a crime to John.

Canon XIV.

But if any have endured much violence and the strong pres-
sure of necessity, receiving into their mouths iron and chains,
and for their good affection towards the faith have bravely
borne the burning of their hands that against their will had
been put to the profane sacrifice, as from their prison the
thrice-blessed martyrs have ^vritten to me respecting those
in Libya, and others their fellow-ministers; such, on the
testimony of the rest of their brethren, can be placed in
the ministry amongst the confessors, as those who have been
mortified by many torments, and were no longer able either
to speak, or to give utterance, or to move, so as to resist
those who vainly offered them violence. For they did
not assent to their impiety ; as I have again heard from
their fellow-ministers, they will be reckoned amongst the
confessors, as also he who hath after the example of Timothy
ordered his life, obeying him who says, "Follow after
righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, where-
unto thou art also called, and hast professed a good pro-
fession before many witnesses." ^

Balsatnon. — Those who by the violence of the tyrant
seemed to eat meat that had been offered to idols, or to
drink wine from the Greek libations (for it happened some-
times that they were thrown upon the ground, and hooks
or pieces of iron put into their mouths to keep them open,
and then the tyrants poured wine down their throats, or
1 1 Tim. -^-i. 11, 12.

THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 321

threw into them pieces of meat; or putting hot coals into
their hands, together with incense, they compelled them to
sacrifice), if they were clergymen, the canon decrees that
they should each in his own degree bo ranked amongst tlie
confessors. But if laymen, that they shoidd be reckoned as
martyrs, because they did not these things of their own free
will, nor did they at all assent to the action ; as also amongst
the confessors are to be reckoned those who from the ex-
tremity of the tortures lost their strength of body, and were
i\ot able to resist those who poured into their mouths the
wine of the libations. And next in order he speaks of
those who give the testimony of a good conscience, and
enumerates them amongst the confessors.

Zonaras. — Those who chastised the blessed martyrs, after
many torments, in the case of some violently poured into
their mouths the wine of the libations, or even crammed
into their mouths some of the meat that had been offered to
idols, and putting incense into their hands, they dragged
them to the altars, and then violently seizing on their hands,
they either sprinkled the incense upon the altar, or placed
liot coals together Avith the incense into their hands, that,
not being able to bear the pain of the burning, they might
drop the incense together with the coals upon the altar ; for
tliey were constrained by them. Men of this sort, lie affirms,
can remain enrolled in the sacred ministry, or rather be
placed in the rank of confessors. For they did not by their
own choice either taste the libations, or ])lace the incense
upon the altar, but being compelled by violence, their reason
not consenting to the action ; as also those who from the
extremity of the suffering lost their bodily vigour, so as
neitlier to be able to speak or move, nor to resist those
who were violently pouring into their mouths the wine of
libations, these also are to be placed amongst the confessors.
And next in order he discourses of those who give the
testimony of a good conscience, and phices them also in
the number of confessors.

322 TiJE WRITINGS OF i'ETELl.

Canon XV.

No one shall find fault with us for observing the fourtli
(lay of the week, and tlie preparation [the sixth day],^ on
which it is reasonably enjoined us to last according to the
tradition. On the fourth day, indeed, because on it the
Jg'vs took counsel for the betrayal of the Lord ; and on tlie
sixth, because on it He himself suffered for us. But the
Lord's day we celebrate as a day of joy, because on it He
rose again, on Avhich day we have received it for a custom
not even to bow the ki •t.o..

Balsamon. — Conformably to the sixty-fourth apostolical
canon, which decree <» that we are not to fast on the
Sabbath, with one f iception, the great Sabbath ; and to
the sixty-ninth canon, which severely punishes those wlio
do not fast in the Holy Lent, and on every fourth day of
the week and day of prejiaration. Thus also does the pre-
sent canon decree.

Zonaras. — iVlways, says he, are the fourth and sixth days
of every week to be kept as fasts ; nor will any one find
fault with us for fasting on them ; and the reasons he sub-
joins. But on the Lord's day we ought not to fast, for it
is a day of joy for the resurrection of the Lord, and on it,
says he, we have received that we ought not even to bow
the knee. This word, therefore, is to be carefully observed,
" we have received," and " it is enjoined upon us according
to the tradition." For from hence it is evident that long-
established custom was taken for law. Moreover, the great
Basil annexes also the causes for which it was forbidden to
bend the knee on the Lord's day, and from the Passover to
Pentecost. Eead also the sixty-sixth and sixty-ninth a^aos-
tolical canons.

1 The dav before the Hebrew Sabbath.— Tb.

FRAGMENTS. 32i

LETTER TO THE CHUECH AT ALEXANDRIA.^

Peter, to the brethren beloved and established in the
faith of God, peace in the Lord. Since I have found out
that Meletius acts in no way for the common good (for
neither is he contented with the letter of the most holy-
bishops and martyrs), but, invading my parish, hath
assumed so nmch to himself as to endeavour to separate
iiom my authority the priests, and those who had been
entrusted with visiting the needy ; and, giving proof of liis
desire for pre-eminence, has ordained in the prison several
unto himself; now, take ye heed to this, and hold no com-
munion with him, until I meet him in company with some
wise and discreet men, and see what the designs are which
he has thought upon. Fare ye well.

A FRAGMENT FROM THE BOOK ON THE
GODHEAD.

[From the Acts of tlie Council of Ephesus, i. and vii. 2. — Galland.]

Since certainly " grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,"'
whence also by grace we are saved, according to that word
of the apostle, " and that not of yourselves, nor of works,
lest any man shovdd boast ;"^ by the will of God, " the "Word
was made llesh,"* and "was found in fashion as a man."^
But yet lie was not left without His divinity. For neither
"though He was rich did He become poor"^ that He might
iiljsolutcly be separated from His power and glory, but that
He might Himself endure death for us sinners, the just for
the unjust, that He might bring us to God, " being put to
death in the ilesli, but quickened by the Spirit;" and after-
wards otlier things. Whence the evangelist also asserts the
truth when he says, " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us ;" then indeed, from the time when the angel
' From Galkndius. 2 j„],n i. 17. 3 Epij, ij, v^^ 9,

* John i. 14. •'• riiil. ii. 7. « 2 Cor. viii. 9.

324 THE wmrixas of peter.

liad saluted the virgin, saying, " Hail, thou that art highly
favoured, tlie Lord is with thee." Now when Gabriel said,
" The Lord is with thee," he meant God the Word is with
thee. Tor he shows that He was conceived in the womh,
and was to become flesh; as it is written, "The Holy
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of tlie Highest
shall overshadow thee ; therefore also tliat holy tiling, which
shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God;"^ and
afterwards other things. ISTow God the Word, in the absence
of a man, by the will of God, who easily effects every thing,
was made flesh in the womb of the virgin, not requiring the
operation or the presence of a man. For more efficacious
than a man was the power of God overshadowing the virgin,
together with the Holy Ghost also who came upon her.

A FEAGMENT FEOM THE HOIMILY ON THE
ADVENT OF OUE SAVIOUE.

[Apud Leontium Byzant., lib. i., contra Nestor, et Eutycli., torn, i
Thes. Canis. p. 550.]

And He said unto Judas, " Betrayest thou the Son of God
with a kiss ?"^ These things and the like, and all the signs
which He showed, and His miracles, prove that He is God
made man. Both things therefore are demonstrated, that
He was God by nature, and that He was man by nature.

A FEAGMENT FEOM THE HOMILY ON THE
SOJOUENING OF CHEIST WITH US.

[Ex Leontio Hierosolymitano, contra Monophysitas, Ap. Mai. Script.
Vet, torn, vii. p. 134.]

Born therefore is proved, that he was God by nature, and
was made man by nature.

1 Luke i. 35. - Luke xxii. 4S.

FRAGMENTS. 325

That up to the time of the Destruction of jEPa's.vLE.M,
THE Jews eightly appointed the fourteenth day of
the first lunar month.

[Apud Galland, Ex Clironico Paschal., p. 1, seqq., edit.
Venet. 1729.]

1. Since the mercy of God is every where great, let us bless
Him, and also because He has sent unto us the Spirit of
truth to guide us into all truth. For for this cause tlie
month Abib was appointed by the law to be the beginning
of months, and was made known imto us as the first among
the months of the year; both by the ancient writers who
lived before, and by the later who lived after the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem, it was sliown to possess a most clear and
evidently defined period, especially because in some places
the reaping is early, and sometimes it is late, so as to be
sometimes before the time and sometimes after it, as it
happened in the very beginning of the giving of the law,
before the Passover, according as it is written, "But tlie
\vheat and the rye were not smitten, for they were not grown
up."^ Whence it is rightly prescribed by the law, that from
the vernal equinox, in whatsoever week the fourteenth day
of the first month shall fall, in it the Passover is to be coh;-
brated, becoming and conformable songs of praise ha\iiig
been first taken up for its celebration. For this first niuntli,
says he, " shall be unto you the beginning of months,"- when
the sun in the simamer time sends forth a far stronger and
clearer light, and the days are lengthened and become lungii-,
whilst the nights are contracted and shortened. Mori-ovt-r,
when the new seeds have sprung up, they are thorougldy
purged, and borne into the tlireshing floor ; nor only tliis,
but also all the shrubs blossom, and burst forth into flower.
Immediately therefore tliey are discovered to send forth in
alternation various and diverse I'ruits, so tliat the grape-
clusters are found at that time; as says the lawgiver, " Nom-,
1 E\od. ix. 32. - Ex(k1. .\ii. :>.

32G THE WRITINGS OF PICTEIL

it was tlie time of spring, of tlie first ripo grapes ;"^ and wlien
ho sent the men to spy out the hin<l, they brought on bearers
a large cluster of grapes, and pomegranates also, and figs.
For then, as they say, our eternal God also, the Maker and
Creator of all things, framed all things, and said to them,
" Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and
the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in
itself upon the earth." Then he adds, "And it was so;
and God saw that it was good."" Moreover, he makes
(juite clear that the first month amongst the Hebrews was
appointed by law, which we know to have been observed
by the Jews up to the destruction of Jerusalem, because
this has been so handed down by the Hebrew tradition.
But after the destruction of the city it was mocked at by
some hardening of heart, which we observing, according
to the law, with sincerity have received ; and in this,
according to the AVord, when he speaks of the day of our
holy festivity, which the election hath attained : but the
rest have become hardened,^ as said the Scripture ; and after
other things.

. 2. And He says as follows : " All these things will they
do unto you for My name's sake, because they know not
Him that sent Me."* But if they knew not Him who sent,
a,nd Him who was sent, there is no reason to doubt but
that they have been ignorant of the Passover as prescribed
by the law, so as not merely to err in their choice of the
place, but also in reckoning the beginning of the month,
which is the first amongst the months of the year, on the
fourteenth day of which, being accurately observed, after
the equinox, the ancients celebrated the Passover, according
to the divine command; whereas the men of the present
day now celebrate it before the equinox, and that altogether
through negligence and error, being ignorant how they cele-
brated it in its season, as He confesses who in these things
was described.

3. Whether therefore the Jews erroneously sometimes
celebrate their Passover according to the course of the

1 Niuii. xii. 24. - Gen. i. 11, 1-2. ^ Rqiu. xi. 7. * John xv. 21.

FnAG}fKXTS. 327

moon in the month Phcamenoth, or according to the interca-
lary month, every third year in the month Pharmuthi,
matters not to us. For we have no other object than to
keep the remembrance of His Passion, and that at this very
time ; as those who were eye-witnesses of it have from the
beginning handed down, before the Egyptians believed. For
neitlier by observing the course of the moon do they neces-
sarily celeljrate it on the sixteenth day of Phamenotli, but
once every three years in the month Pharniutlii ; for from
the beginning, and before the advent of Christ, they seem to
have so done. Hence, when the Lord reproves them by the
prophet. He says, " They do always err in their heart ; ;ind I
have sworn in My wrath that they shall not enter intu ^ly
rest."i

4. Wherefore, as thou seest, even in this thou appeurest
to be lying greatly, not only against men, but also against
God. First, indeed, since in this matter the Jews never
erred, as consorting with those wlio were eye-witnesses and
ministers, much less from the beginning before the advent
of Christ. For God does not say that they did always err
in their heart as regards the precept of the law concerning
tlie Passover, as thou hast written, but on account of all
their other disobedience, and on account of their evil and
unseemly deeds, when, indeed. He perceiv^ed them turning
to idolatry and to fornication.

5. And after a few things. So that also in tliis respect,
since thou hast slumbered, rouse thyself much, and very
much, with the scourge of the Preacher, being mindful
especially of that passage where he speaks of " slipping on
the pavement, and with the tongue."^ For, as thuu seest
again, the charge cast by thee upon their leaders is rellected
back ; nay, and one may suspect a great subsequent danger,
inasmuch as we hear that the stone which a man casts up on
high falls back upon his head. Much more reckless is he
who, in this respect, ventures to bring a charge against
Moses, that mighty servant of God, or Joshua, the son of
Nun, who succeeded him, or those who in succession riglitly

^ Ps. xcv. 1(1, 11. - Ecchis. x.\. IS.

828 THE WRITINGS OF PETER.

followed them and niled ; the judges, I mean, and the
kings who appeared, or the prophets whom the Holy Spirit
inspired, and those who amongst the high-priests were
blameless, and those who, in following the traditions, changed
nothing, but agreed as to the observance of the Passover in
its season, as also of the rest of their feasts.

6. And after other things. But thou oughtest rather to
have pursued a safer and more auspicious course, and not to
have written rashly and slanderously, that they seem from
the beginning, and always, to have been in error about the
Passover, which you cannot prove, whatever charge you
may wish to bring against those who, at the present time,
have erred with a grievous wandering, having fallen away
from the commandment of the law concerning the Passover
and other things. For the ancients seem to have kept it
after the vernal equinox, wdiich you can discover if you read
ancient books, and those especially which were written by
the learned Hebrews.

7. That therefore up to the period of the Lord's Passion,
and at the time of the last destruction of Jerusalem, which
happened under Vespasian, the Eoman emperor, the people
of Israel, rightly observing the fourteenth day of the first
lunar month, celebrated on it the Passover of the law, has
been briefly demonstrated. Therefore, when the holy pro-
phets, and all, as I have said, who righteously and justly
walked in the law of the Lord, together with the entire
people, celebrated a typical and shadoAvy Passover, the
Creator and Lord of every visible and invisible creature, the
only-begotten Son, and the Word co-eternal with the Father
and the Holy Spuit, and of the same substance with them,
according to His divine nature, our Lord and God, Jesus
Christ, being in the end of the world born according to the
flesh of our holy and glorious lady. Mother of God, and
Ever- Virgin, and, of a truth, of Mary the jSIother of God ;
and being seen upon earth, and having true and real con-
verse as man with men, who were of the same substance
with Him, according to His human nature. Himself also,
with the people, in tlie years before His public ministry and

FRAGMENTS. 329

during His public ministry, did celebrate the legal and
shadowy Passover, eating the typical lamb. For " I came
not to destroy the law, or the prophets, but to fulfil them,"
the Saviour Himself said in the Gospel. But after His
public ministry He did not eat of the lamb, but Himself
suffered as the true Lamb in the Paschal feast, as John, the
divine and evangelist, teaches us in the Gospel written by
lum, where he thus speaks : " Then led they Jesus from
Caiaphas imto the hall of judgment : and it was early ; and
they themselves went not into the judgment-hall, lest they
.shoidd be defiled, but that they miglit eat the passover."^
And after a few things more. " When Pilate therefore
heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in
the judgment-seat, in a place that is called the Pavement,
but in tlie Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation
of the passover, and about the third hour," ^ as the correct
books render it, and the copy itself that was written by the
hand of the evangelist, which, by the divine grace, has been
preserved in the most holy Church of Ephesus, and is there
adored by the faithful. And again the same evangelist
says : " The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation,
tliat the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the
Sabbath-day (for that Sabbath-day was an high day), be-
souglit Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they
raigiit be taken away."^ On that day, therefore, on wliich
the Jews were about to eat the Passover in the evening,
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was crucified, being
made the victim to those who were about to partake by
faith of the mystery concerning Him, according to what is
written by the blessed Paul : " For even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us;"'* and not as some who, carried along
by ignorance, confidently affirm that after He had eaten the

^ John xviii. 28.

2 John xix. 13, 14. And about the si.vth hour is the reading of our
Englisli version. According to St Alark, the crucifixion took i)Iace at
the third hour (chap. xxv. 25.) Eusebius, Theo])hyhict, and Severua
(in the Catena, ed. Liicke, iL) suppose that there lias been some very
early erratum in our copies. Hee Alford's note on the pa-ssage. — Tr.

^ John xix. 31. * 1 Cor. v. 7.

330 TUB WRITINGS OF PETER.

Passover, lie was betrayed ; wliich we neither leani from
the holy evangelists, nor has any of the blessed apostles
handed it down to us. At the time, therefore, in which our
Lord and God Jesus C 'rist suffered for us, according to the
flesh, He did not eat of the legal Passover ; but, as I have
said. He Himself, as the true Lamb, was sacrificed for us in
the feast of the typical Passover, on the day of the prepara-
tion, the fourteenth of the first lunar month. The typical
Passover, therefore, then ceased, the true Passover being
present : " For Christ our Passover was sacrificed for u.s," as
has been before said, and as that chosen vessel, the apostle
Paul, teaches.

[Ihid. p. 175, D.]

Now it was the preparation, about the third hour, as the
accurate books have it, and the autograph copy itself of the
Evangelist John, which up to this day has by divine gi-ace
been preserved in the most holy Church of Ephesus, and is
there adored by the faithful.

OF THE SOUL AND BODY.

[Ex Leontii et Joannis Rer. Sacr. lib. ii. Apud Mai. Scrii)t. Vet.
torn. vii. p. 85.]

From his demonstration that the soul was not jjrc-cjcistc^it
to the body.

The things which pertain to the divinity and humanity
of the Second Man from heaven, in what has been written
above, according to the blessed apostle, we have explained ;
and now we have thought it necessary to explain the things
which pertain to the first man, who is of earth and earthy,
being about, namely, to demonstrate this, that he was created
at the same time one and the same, although sometimes he
is separately designated as the man external and internal.

FRAGMEXTS. 331

For if, according to the AVord of salvation, He who made
what is without, made also that which is within, He cer-
tainly, by one operation, and at tlie same time, made both,
on that day, indeed, on which God said, " Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness ;"^ whence it is manifest that
man Avas not formed by a conjunction of tlie body with a
certain pre-existent tj^pe. For if the earth, at the bidding
of the Creator, brought forth the other animals endowed
with life, much rather did the dust which God took from
the earth receive a vital energy from the will and operation
of God.

FEAGMEXT.

[Ex Leontio et Joanne Rer. Sacr. lib. ii. Apud. Mai. Script. J'ct.
torn. vii. p. 96.1

Wretch that I am ! I have not remembered that God
observes the mind, and hears the voice of the soul. I turned
consciously to sin, saying to myself, God is merciful, and
will bear with me ; and when I was not instantly smitten,
I ceased not, but rather despised His forbearance, and
exhausted the lons-sufierins of God.

ON ST matthp:\v.

[From the Treatise of the Emperor Justinian against the Monophysitea.

Apud Mai. Script. Vet. vii. 306, 307.]

And in the Gospel according to ^Matthew, the Lord said
to him who betrayed K[ira : " Betrayest thou the Son of 'Slan
with a kiss?" which Peter the MartjT and Archbishop of
Alexandria exj)ounding, says, this and other tilings like,
" All the signs which He showed, and the miracles that He
did, testify of Him that He is God incarnate ; both things
therefore are together proved, that He was God by nature,
and was made man by nature."

' Ucu. i. JG.

3o2 THE \VllJTL\aS OF PETER.

FEOM A SERMON OE A TREATISE ON THEOLOGY.

In the meanwhile the evangelist se.ys with firmness, " The
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."^ Erom this
we learn that the angel, when he saluted the virgin with
the words, " Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is
with thee,"" intended to signify God the Word is with thee,
and also to show that He would arise from Her bosom, and
would be made flesh, even as it is written, " 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."^

» John i 14. * Luke i. 2S. ^ l^^^ i 35^

ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA.

INTliODUCTIOX.

jjLEXAXDEIi ^ya.s appointed successor to Achilles,
as Bishop of Alexandria, about a.d. 312. The
virtues of this prelate, which Eusebius has
passed over entirely without mention, other
ecclesiastical writers have greatly extolled. For on all
sides he is styled " tlie staunchest upholder of evangelical
doctrine," "the patron and protector of apostolic doctrine ;"
and "that bishop of divine faith, full of wisdom and of
zeal enkindled by the Holy Spirit." He was the first to
detect and to condemn Arius ; and taking his stand upon
passages of Holy Scripture, as Theodoret remarks,-^ he taught
tliat the Son of God was of one and the same majesty with
the Father, and had the same substance with the Father
who begat Him.

At first he sought to bring back Arius from his lieresy.
But when he perceived that he openly and obstinately
taught his false doctrines, he assembled a first and then a
second synod of the bishops of Egypt, and degraded him
from the order of the priesthood, and cut him off from the
communion of the Church. This proving ineffectual, the
("(nincil of Nicrea was convened, in which he was finally
condemned. In comljating the Arian heresy, .tUexander
endured, although at a great age, many trials, and died
shortly after the holding of the Council.

' //. A", i. 2.

EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY
THE DEPOSITION OF ARIUS.

[Apud. Theodoritiim, Hist. EccL, Look l chap. 4.]

The Epistle of Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, to
Alexander, Bishop of the City of Constantinople.

To the most reverend and like-minded hrotlier, Alexander,
Alexander sends greeting in the Lord :

The ambitious and avaricious will of wicked men is
always wont to lay snares against those churches which
seem greater, by various pretexts attacking the ecclesiasti-
cal piety of such. For incited by the devil who works in
them, to the lust of that which is set before them, and
throwing away all religious scruples, they trample imder
foot the fear of the judgment of God. Concerning which
things, I who suffer, have thought it necessary to show to
your piety, in order that you may be aware of such men,
lest any of them presume to set foot in your dioceses,
whether by themselves or by others ; for these sorcerers
know how to use hypocrisy to carry out their fraud ; and
to employ letters composed and dressed out with lies, which
are able to deceive a man wlio is intent upon a simple and
sincere faith. Arius, therefore, and Achilles, having lately
entered into a conspiracy, emulating the ambition of
Colluthus, have turned out far worse than he. For Colluthus,
indeed, who reprehends these very men, found some pre-
text for his evil purpose ; but these, beholding his ^ bartt^r-

^ Colluthus, being a presbyter of Alexandria, puffed up -vvitli arro-
gance and temerity, had acted as a bishop, and had ordaiaed many

THE EPISTLES ON THE AlUAX IIEnESY. 335

ing of Chiist, endured no longer to be subject to the
Church ; but building for themselves dens of thieves, they
hold their assemblies in them unceasingly, night and day
directing their calumnies against Christ and against us. For
since they call in question all pious and apostolical doctrine,
after the manner of the Jews, they have constructed a work-
shop for contending against Christ, denying the Godhead of
our Saviour, and preaching that He is only the equal of aU
others. And having collected all the passages which speak
of His plan of salvation and His humiliation for our sakes,
they endeavour from these to collect the preachiug of their
impiety, ignoring altogether the passages in which His
eternal Godhead and unutterable glory with the Father is
set forth. Since, therefore, they back up the impious opinion
concerning Christ, which is held by tlie Jews and Greeks,
in every possible way they strive to gain their approval;
busying themselves about all those things which they are
wont to deride in us, and daily stirring up against us
seditions and persecutions. And now, indeed, they drag us
before the tribunals of the judges, by intercourse with silly
and disorderly women, whom they have led into error ; at
another time they cast opprobrium and infamy upon the
Christian religion, their young maidens disgiacefully wan-
dering about every village and street. Nay, even Cluist's
indivisible tunic, wliicli His executioners were unwilling to
divide, these wretches have dared to rend.

2. And M'e, indeed, though we discovered ratlier late, on
account of their concealment, their manner of life, and their
unholy attempts, by the common suffrage of all have ^ cast
them forth from the congregation of the Church which adores
the Godhead of Christ. But they, running hither and thither
against us, have begun to betake themselves to our colleagues

priests and deacons. Bvit in the Synod tliat was assonibled at Alex-
andria all Ids acts of ordination were rescinded ; and tliose Avlio had
teen ordained by him degraded to the rank of laymen. — Tr.

^ It is interred from these words that this letter of Alexander was
written after the Synod of Ale.\andria in which Arius and his com-
panion were condemned. But Ale.xiuuler convened two synods of the
bishops of Egj'pt ayainst Arius and his friends. — Tr.

336 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

who are of the same mind with us ; in appearance, indeed,
pretending to seek for peace and concord, but in reality
seeking to draw over some of them by fair words to their
own diseases, asking long wordy letters from them, in order
that reading these to the men whom 'they have deceived,
they may make them impenitent in the errors into which
they have fallen, and obdurate in impiety, as if they had
bishops thinking the same thing and siding with them.
Moreover, the things which amongst us they have wrongly
taught and done, and on account of which they have been
expelled by us, they do not at all confess to them, but they
either pass them over in silence, or throwing a veil over
them, by feigned words and writings they deceive them.
Concealing, therefore, their pestilent doctrine by their
specious and flattering discourse, they circumvent the
more simple-minded and such as are open to fraud, nor
do they spare in the meanwhile to traduce our piety to
all. Hence it comes to pass that some, subscribing their
letters, receive them into the Church, although in my opinion
the greatest guilt lies upon those ministers who venture to do
this ; because not only does the apostolic rule not allow of
it, but the working of the devil in these men against Christ
is by this means more strongly kindled. Wherefore with-
out delay, brethren beloved, I have stirred myself up to
show you the faithlessness of these men who say that there
was a time when the Son of God was not ; and that He who
was not before, came into existence afterwards, becoming
such, when at length he was made, even as every man is
wont to be born. For, they say, God made all things from
things which are not, comprehending even the Son of God
in the creation of all things, rational and irrational. To
which things they add as a consequence, that He is of
mutable nature, and capable both of virtue and vice. And
this hypothesis being once assumed, that He is "from
things which are not," they overturn the sacred waitings
concerning His eternity, which signify the immutability
and the Godhead of Wisdom and the "Word, which are
Christ.

THE EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY. 337

3. We, therefore, say these wicked men, can also be the
sons of God even as He. For it is written, "I have
nourished and brought up children."^ But when what
follows was objected to them, "and they have rebelled
against me," which indeed is not applicable to the nature
of the Saviour, who is of an immutable nature ; they,
throwing off all religious reverence, say that God, since He
foreknew and had foreseen that His Son would not rebel
against Him, chose Him from all. For He did not choose
Him as having by nature anything specially beyond His
other sons, for no one is by nature a son of God, as they
say ; neither as having any peculiar property of His own ;
but God chose Him who was of a mutable nature, on ac-
count of the carefulness of His manners and His practice,
which in no way turned to that wliich is evil ; so tliat, if
Paul and Peter had striven for this, there would have been
no difference between their sonship and His. And to con-
firm this insane doctrine, playing with Holy Scripture, tliey
bring forward what is said in the Psalms respecting Christ :
" Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness : there-
fore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of glad-
ness above Thy fellows." ^

4. But that the Son of God was not made " from things
which are not," and that there M-as no time when He was
not, the evangelist John sufficiently shows, when lie thus
writes concerning Him: "The only-begotten Son, who is in
the bosom of the Father." ^ For since that divine teacher
intended to show that the Father and the Son are two
tilings inseparable the one from the other, he spoke of
of Him as being in the bosom of the Father. Now that
also the Word of God is not comprehended in the number
of things that were created " from things which are not,"
the same John says, " All things were made by Him." For
he set forth His proper personality, saying, " In the begin-
ning was the Word, and the AVord was with God, anil the
Word was God. All things were made by Him ; and with-
out Him was not any thing made that was made." * For if

1 Ls. i. 2. "^ r«i. xlv. 7. 3 j„i,„ i_ 13 4 j^,i„i j_ i.3_

538 THE WPdTINGS OF ALEXANDER.

all things were made by Him, how comes it that He who
gave to the things which are made their existence, at one
time Himself was not. For the Word which makes is not
to be defined as being of the same nature with the things
which are made ; since He indeed was in the beginning,
and all things were made by Him, and fashioned "from
things which are not." Moreover, that which is seems to
be contrary to and far removed from those things which are
made " from things which are not." For that indeed shows
that there is no interval between the Father and the Son,
since not even in thought can the mind imagine any dis-
tance between them. But that the world was created
" from things which are not," indicates a more recent and
a later origin of substance, since the universe receives an
essence of this sort from the Father by the Son. When,
therefore, the most pious John contemplated the essence of
the divine Word at a very great distance, and as placed
beyond all conception of those things that are begotten, he
thought it not meet to speak of His generation and creation.
Not daring to designate the Creator in the same terms as
the things that are made. Not that the Word is unbe-
gotten, for the Father alone is unbegotten, but because the
inexplicable subsistence of the only-begotten Son transcends
the acute comprehension of the evangelists, and perhaps
also of angels.

5. Wherefore I do not think that he is to be reckoned
amongst the pious who presumes to inquire into any thing
beyond these things, not listening to this saying: "Seek not
out the things that are too hard for thee, neither search the
things that are above thy strength."^ For if the knowledge
of many other things that are incomparably inferior to this,
are hidden from human comprehension, such as in the
apostle Paul, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love Him." - As also God said
to Abraham, that " he could not number the stars ; " ^ and
that passage, " Who can number the sand of the sea, and

^ Ecclus. iii. 22. - 1 Cor. ii. 9. ^ Gen. xv. 5.

THE EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY. 339

the drops of rain." ^ How shall any one he ahle to investi-
gate too curiously the suhsistence of the divine "Word, unless
he he smitten with frenzy ? Concerning wliich the Spirit
of prophecy says, "Who shall declare his generation?"^
And our Saviour Himself, who blesses the pillars of all
things in the world, sought to unburden them of the know-
ledge of these things, saying that to comprehend this was
quite beyond their nature, and that to the Father alone
belonged the knowledge of this most divine mystery. " For
no man," says He, " knoweth the Son, but the Father ;
neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son." "'
Of this thing also I think that the Father spoke, in the
words, " My secret is to J\Ie and jNIine."

G. Now that it is an insane thing to think that the Son
was made from things which are not, and was in being in
time, the expression, " from things which are not," itself
shows, although these stupid men understand not the in-
sanity of their own words. For the expression, " was not "
ought either to be reckoned in time, or in some place of an
age. But if it be true that " all things were made by Him,"
it is established that both every age and time and all space,
and that " when " in which the " was not " is found, wai
made by Him. And is it not absurd that He who fasluoned
the times and the ages and the seasons, in which that " was
not " is mixed up, to say of Him, that He at some time was
not ? For it is devoid of sense, and a mark of great ignor-
ance, to afhrm that He who is the cause of every thing is
posterior to the origin of that thing. For according to them,
the space of time in wliich they say that the Sou had not
yet been made by the Father, preceded the wisdom of Gud
that fashioned all things, and the Scripture speaks falsely
according to them, which calls Him " the First-born of every
creature." Conformable to which, that whicli the majesti-
cally-speaking Paul says of Him : " AVhom He hath ap-
pointed heir of all things. By wliom also He made the
worlds. But by Him also were all things created that are
in lieaven, and that are in earth, viaible and invisible,
i Ecclus. i. 2. - Is. liii. 8. ^ yi^^^^^ ^i_ 07,

340 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or
powers ; all things were created by Ilim, and for Him ; and
He is before all things." ^

7. Wherefore, since it appears that this hypothesis of a
creation from tilings which are not is most impious, it is
necessary to say that the Father is always the Father.
But He is the Father, since the Son is always with Him,
on account of whom He is called the Father. Wherefore,
since the Son is always with Him, the Father is always per-
fect, being destitute of nothing as regards good ; who, not in
time, nor after an interval, nor from things which are not,
hath begotten His only-begotten Son. How, then, is it not
impious to say, that the wisdom of God once was not, which
speaks thus concerning itself : " I was with Him forming
all things ; I was His delight;"^ or that the power of God
once did not exist ; or that His Word was at any time muti-
lated ; or that other things were ever wanting from which
the Son is known and the Father expressed ? For he who
denies that the brightness of the glory existed, takes away
also the primitive light of which it is the brightness. And
if the image of God was not always, it is clear also that He
was not always, of whicli it is the image. INIoreover, in
saying that the character of the subsistence of God was not.
He also is done away with who is perfectly expressed by it.
Hence one may see that the Sonship of our Saviour has
nothing at all in common with the sonship of the rest. For
just as it has been shown that His inexplicable subsistence
excels by an incomparable excellence all other things to
which He has given existence, so also His Sonship, whicli
is according to the nature of the Godhead of the Father,
transcends, by an ineffable excellence, the sonship of those
who have been adopted by Him. For He, indeed, is of
an immutable nature, every way perfect, and wanting in
nothing; but these, since they are either way subject to
change, stand in need of help from Him. For what progress
can the wisdom of God make ? What increase can the
truth itself and God the Word receive ? In what respect
1 Col. i. 16, 17. - Prov. viii 30 (lxs.)

77//; EPISTLES OX THE APJAX J/ EI! EST. 041

can the life aud the true light be made better ? And if this
be so, how much more unnatural is it that wisdom should
ever be capable of folly; that the power of God should be
conjoined with infirmity ; tliat reason shoidd be obscured by
unreason; or that darkness should be mixed up with the
true light ? And the apostle says, on this place, " ^^^lat
communion hatli light with darkness ? and what concord
hath Christ with Belial?"^ And Solomon says, that it is
not possible that it should come to pass that a man should
comprehend with his understanding " the way of a serpent
upon a rock," which is Christ, according to the opinion of
Paul. But men and angels, who are His creatures, have
received His blessing that they might make progi'ess, exer-
cising themselves in virtues and in the commandments of
the law, so as not to sin. Wherefore our Lord, since He is
by nature the Son of the Father, is by all adored. But
these, laying aside the spirit of bondage, ^hen by brave
deeds and by progress they have received the spirit of adop-
tion, being blessed by Him who is the Son by nature, are
made sons by adoption.

8. And His proper and pecidiar, natural and excellent
Sonship, St Paul has declared, who thus speaks of God:
" Who spared not His own Son, but for us," who were not
His natural sons, "delivered Him up."^ For to distinguish
Him from those who are not properly sons. He said that
He was His own Son. And in the Gospel we read : "This is
;My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."^ jNIoreover,
in the Psalms the Saviour says : " The Lord hath said unto
^[e. Thou art my Son."'* Where, showing tliat He is the
true and genuine Son, He signilies that there are no other
genuine sons besides Himself. And what, too, is the
meaning of this ? " From the womb before the morning I
begat thee."^ Does He not plainly indicate tlie natuml
sonship of paternal bringing forth, which He obtained not
by the carefid framing of His manners, not by the exer-
cise of and increase in viiiue, but by property of nature ?

> 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. 2 R„m. viii. 32. = Matt. iiL 17.

* Ps. .\i. 7. 6 Ps. c.\. 3 (LXX).

:H2 the writings of ALEXANDER.

Wherefore, the only-lDcgotten Son of the Father, indeed, pos-
sesses an indefectible Sonship ; but the adoption of rational
sons belongs not to them by nature, but is prepared for them
by the probity of their life, and by the free gift of God.
And is mutable as the Scripture recognises : " Por when
the sons of God saw the daughters of men, they took them
wives," ^ &c. And in another place : " I have nourished and
brought up children, but they have rebelled against Me,"-
as we find God speaking by the prophet Isaiah.

9. And though I could say much more, brethren beloved,
I purposely omit to do so, as deeming it to be burdensome
at great length to call these things to the remembrance of
teachers who are of the same mind with myself. For ye
yourselves are taught of God, nor are ye ignorant that this
doctrine, which hath lately raised its head against the piety
of the Church, is that of Ebion and Artemas ; nor is it
ought else but an imitation of Paul of Samosata, bishop of
Antioch, who, by the judgment and counsel of all the
bishops, and in every place, was separated from the Church.
To whom Lucian succeeding, remained for many yeara
separate from the communion of three bishops. And now
lately having drained the dregs of their impiety, there have
arisen amongst us those who teach this doctrine of a creation
from things which are not, their hidden sprouts, Arius
and Achilles, and the gathering of those who join in their
wickedness. And three bishops in Syria, having been in
some manner consecrated on account of their agreement with
them, incite them to worse things. But let the judgment
concerning these be reserved for your trial. For they, re-
taining in their memory the words which came to be used
with respect to His saving Passion, and abasement, and
examination, and what they call His poverty, and in short
of all those things to which the Saviour submitted for our
sakes, bring them forward to refute His supreme and eternal
Godhead. But of those words which signify His natural
glory and nobility, and abiding with the Father they have
become unmindful. Such as this : " I and INIy Father are
^ Geu. vi. 2. ^ Is. i. 2.

THE EPISTLES ON THE A HI AN HE REST. 343

one/'^ which indeed the Lord says, not as proclaiming Him-
self to be the Father, nor to demonstrate that two persons
are one; but that the Son of the Father most exactly
preserves the expressed likeness of the Father, inasmuch as
He has by nature impressed upon Him His similitude in
every respect, and is the image of the Father in no way
discrepant, and the expressed figure of the primitive ex-
emplar. Whence, also, to Philip, who then was desirous to
see Him, the Lord shows this abundantly. For when he
said, "Show us the Father,"^ He answered : " He that hath
seen Me, hath seen the Father," since tlie Father was
Himself seen through the spotless and living mirror of
the divine image. Similar to whicli is what the saints
say in the Psalms : " In Thy light shall we see light."^
" "\Mierefore he that honoureth the Son, honoureth the Father
also;"^ and with reason, for every impious word M'liicli they
dare to speak against the Son, has reference to the Fallier.

10. But after these things, brethren beloved, what is there
wonderful in that which I am about to write, if I shall set
forth the false calumnies against me and our most pious
laity ? For those who have set themselves in array against
the Godhead of Christ, do not scruple to utter their ungrateful
ravings against us. Who will not either that any of the
ancients should be compared with them, or suffer that any
of those whom, from our earliest years, we have used as-
instructors should be placed on a level with them. Nay,,
and they do not tliink that any of all those who are now our
colleagues, has attained even to a moderate amount of wis-
dom ; boasting themselves to be the only men who are wise
and divested of worldly possessions, the sole discoverei-s of
dogmas, and that to them alone are those things revealed
which have never before come into the mind of any other
under the sun. Oh, the impious arrogance ! Oh, the
immeasurable madness ! Oh, the vainglory befitting tliose
that are crazed ! Oh, the pride of Satan which has taken
root in their unholy souls. The religious perspicuity of
the ancient Scriptures caused them no sliame, nor did the

1 Jdliii X. 30. - Juliu xiv. 8, 9. ^ Pd. xxxvi. 1). * John v. 23.

844 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

consentient doctrine of our colleagues concerning Christ
keep in check their audacity against Him. Their impiety
not even the demons will bear, who are ever on the watch for
a Idaspheinous word uttered against the Sou.

11. And let these things be now urged according to our
power against those who, with respect to matter which they
know nothing of, have, as it were, rolled in the dust against
Christ, and have taken in hand to calumniate our i^iety
towards Him. For those inventors of stupid fables say, that
we who turn away with aversion from the impious and un-
scriptural blasphemy against Christ, of those who speak of
His coming from the things which are not assert, that
there are two unbegottens. For they ignorantly affirm that
one of two things must necessarily be said, either that He
is from things which are not, or that there are two unbe-
gottens ; nor do those ignorant men know how great is the
difference between the unbegotten Father, and the things
which were by Him created from things which are not, as
well the rational as the irrational. Betv/een which two, as
holding the middle place, the only begotten nature of God,
the Word by which the Father formed all things out of
nothing, was begotten of the true Father Himself. As in a
certain place the Lord Himself testified, saying, " Every one
that loveth Him that begat, loveth Him also that is begotten
of Him." 1

12. Concerning whom we thus believe, even as the Apos-
tolic Church believes. In one Father unbegotten, who has
from no one the cause of His being, who is unchangeable
and immutable, who is always the same, and admits of no
increase or diminution ; who gave to us the Law, the pro-
phets, and the Gospels ; who is Lord of the patriarchs and
apostles, and all the saints. And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God ; not begotten of things which
are not, but of Him who is the Father ; not in a corporeal
manner, by excision or division as Sabellius and Valentinus
thought, but in a certain inexplicable and imspeakable
manner, according to the words of the prophet cited above :

1 Jnllll V. 1.

THE EPISTLES OX THE A lit AX IIEllESY. 345

" ^Vho sliall declare His generation?" ^ Since tliat His sub-
sistence no nature which is begotten can investigate, even
as the Father can be investigated by none ; because that the
nature of rational beings cannot receive the knowledge of
His divine generation by the Father. But men who are
moved by the Spirit of truth, have no need to learn these
things from me, for in our ears are sounding the words
before uttered by Christ on this very thing, "No man
knoweth the Father, save the Son ; and no man knoweth who
the Son is, save the Father." - That He is equally with the
Father unchangeable and immutable, wanting in nothing,
and the perfect Son, and like to the Father we have learnt;
in this alone is He inferior to the Father, that He is not
unbegotten. For He is the very exact image of the Father,
and in nothing differing from Him. For it is clear that He
is the image fully containing all things by which the
greatest similitude is declared, as the Lord Himself hath
taught us, when He says, " My Father is greater than 1." ^
And according to this we believe that the Son is of the
Father, always existing. " For He is the brightness of His
glory, the express image of His (Father's) person." ■* But
let no one take that word ahcays so as to raise suspicion
that Ho is unbegotten, as they imagine who have their
senses blinded. For neither are the words, " He was," or
" always," or "before all worlds," equivalent to unbegotten.
But neither can the human mind employ any other word to
signify unbegotten. And thus I think that you understand
it, and I trust to your right purpose in all things, since these
words do not at all signify unbegotten. For these words
seem to denote simply a lengthening out of time, but the
(jodhead, and as it were the antiquity of the only-begotten,
they cannot worthily signify ; but they have been employed
by holy men, whilst each, according to his capacity, seeks to
express this mystery, asking indulgence from the hearere,
and pleading a reasonable exciLse, in saying. Thus far have
we attained. I>ut if there be any wIkj are expecting from
mortal Y\\)s some word whicli exceeds human caimcity,
1 l^^. liii. 8. 2 ]^iatt. xi. :i7 ^ j„i,i, ^jv. 2S. * Heb. i. 3.

346 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

saying that those things have l)een done away wliich are
known in part, it is manifest that the words, "He was,"
and " always," and " before all ages," come far short of what
they hoped. And whatever word sliall be employed is not
equivalent to nnbegotten. Therefore to the unbegotten
Father, indeed, we onglit to preserve His proper dignity, in
confessing that no one is the cause of His being ; but to the
Son must be allotted His fitting honour, in assigning to
Him, as we have said, a generation from the Fatlier with-
out beginning, and allotting adoration to Him, so as only
piously and properly to use the words, " He was," and
" always," and " before all worlds," with respect to Him ;
by no means rejecting his Godhead, but ascribing to Him a
similitude which exactly answers in every respect to tlie
Image and Exemplar of the Father. But we must say that
to the Father alone belongs the property of being unbegotten,
for the Saviour Himself said, " My Father is gTeater than I." ^
.A-nd besides the pious opinion concerning the Father and
the Son, we confess to one Holy Spirit, as the divine
Scriptures teach us; who hath inaugurated both the holy
men of the Old Testament, and the divine teachers of thai
which is called the New. And besides, also, one only
Catholic and Apostolic Church, which can never be de-
stroyed, though all the world should seek to make war
with it ; but it is victorious over every most impious revolt
of the heretics who rise up against it. For her Goodman
hath confirmed our minds by saying, " Be of good cheer, I
have overcome the world." ^ After this we know of the
resurrection of the dead, the first fruits of which was our
Lord Jesus Christ, who in very deed, and not in appearance
merely, carried a body, of IMary, JNIother of God, who in the
end of the world came to the human race to put away sin,
was crucified and died, and yet did He not thus perceive
any detriment to His divinity, being raised from the dead,
taken up into heaven, seated at the right hand of majesty.

13. These things in part have I written in this epistle,
thinking it burdensome to write out each accurately, even
1 John xiv. 28. - John xvi. 33.

Till-: EPISTLES OX THE ARIAX HERESY. 347

as I said before, iDecause tliey escape not your religious
diligence. Thus do we teach, thus do we preach. These
are the apostolic doctrines of the Church, for which also we
die, esteeming those but little who would compel us to
forsware them, even if they would force us by tortures, and
not casting away our hope in them. To these Arius and
Achilles opposing themselves, and those who Avith them are
the enemies of tlie truth, have been exi)elled from the
Church, as being aliens from our holy doctrine, according to
the blessed Paul, who says, " If any man preach any other
gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be
accursed ; even though he feign himself an angel from
heaven." ^ And also," If any man teach otherwise, and con-
sent not to the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and to the doctrine which is according to godliness ; lie
is proud, knowing nothing,"- and so forth. These, therefore,
who have been anathematized by the brotherhood, let no
one of you receive, nor admit of those things which are
either said or written by them. For these seducers do
always lie, nor will they ever speak the truth. They go
about the cities, attempting nothing else but that under tlie
mark of friendship and the name of peace, by tlieir hypo-
crisy and blandishments, they may give and receive letters,
to deceive by means of these a few " silly women, and laden
with sins, who have been led captive by tliem,"^ and so forth,
14. These men, therefore, who liave dared such tilings
against Christ ; who have partly in public derided the
Christian religion ; partly seek to traduce and inform
against its professors before the judgment-seats; who in
a time of peace, as far as in them lies, have stiiTe<l up a
persecution against us ; who have enervated the ineffable
mystery of Christ's generation ; from these, I say, beloved
and like-minded brethren, turning away in aversion, give
your suffrages with us against their mad daring ; even as
our colleagues have done, who being moved with indigna-
tion, have both written to us letters against these men,
and have subscribed our letter. Which also I have sent
' Gal. i. 8, 0. - \ Tim. vi. X 4. ^ 2 Tim. iii. 4.

3-.^ THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

unto you by my son Apion the deacon, being some of
them from the whole of Egypt and the Thebaid, some from
Libya and Pentapolis. There are others also from Syria,
Lycia, Pamphylia, Asia, Cappadocia, and the other neighbour-
ing provinces. After the example of which I trust also that
I shall receive letters from you, For though I have pre-
pared many helps towards curing those who have suffered
injury, this is the especial remedy that has been devised for
healing the multitudes that have been deceived by them,
that they may comply with the general consent of our col-
leagues, and thus hasten to return to repentance. Salute
one another, together with the brethren who are with you.
I pray that ye may be strong in the Lord, beloved, and
that I may profit by your love towards Christ.

Epistle IT.

[Taken from the Works of St Atlianasius, vol. i. part i. p. 397, seqq.
Edit. Benedic. Paris, 1698.]

To our beloved and most reverend fellow-ministers of tJie
CatJiolic Church in every ^lace, Alexander sends greet-
ing in tlie Lord :

1. Since the body of the Catholic Church is one, and it is
sommanded in Holy Scripture that we should keep the bond
of unanimity and peace, it follows that we shoidd write and
signify to one another the things wliich are done by each of
us ; that whether one member suffer or rejoice we may all
either suffer or rejoice with one another. In our diocese,
then, not so long ago, there have gone forth lawless men, and
adversaries of Christ, teaching men to apostatize ; which
thing, with good right, one might suspect and call the pre-
cursor of Antichrist. I indeed wished to cover the matter
up in silence, that so perhaps the evil might spend itself in
the leaders of the heresy alone, and that it might not spread
to other places and defile the ears of any of the more simple-
minded. But since Eusebius, the present bishop of Xico-

THE EPISTLES OX THE ARIAX HERESY. 349

media, imagining that witli him rest all ecclesiastical matters,
because, having left Beiytus and cast his eyes upon the
Church of the Nicomedians, and no punishment has been
inflicted upon him, he is set over these apostates, and lias
undertaken to write every where, commending them, if by
any means he may draw aside some who are ignorant to this
most disgraceful and Antichristian heresy ; it became neces-
sary for me, as knowing what is written in the law, no longer
to remain silent, but to announce to you all, that you may
know both those who have become apostates, and also the
^^Tetched words of their heresy ; and if Eusebius write not
to give lieed to him. For he, desiring by their assistance to
renew that ancient wickedness of his mind, with respect to
which he has for a time been silent, pretends that he is
"WTiting in their behalf, but he proves by his deed that he is
exerting liimseK to do this on his own account.

2. Now the apostates from the Church are these : Arius.
Achilles, Aithales, Carpones, the other Arius, Sarmates, wlio
were formerly priests; Euzoius, Lucius, Julius, Menas,
Helladius, and Gaius, formerly deacons ; and with them
Secundus and Tlieonas, who were once called bishops. And
the words invented by them, and spoken contrary to tlie
mind of Scripture, are as follows : —

3. God was not always the Father ; but there was a time
when God was not the Father. The Word of God was not
always, but was made "from things that are not;" for He
who is God fashioned the non-existing from the non-exist-
ing ; wherefore there was a time when lie was not. For
the Son is a thing created, and a thing made : nor is He
like to the Father in substance; nor is He the true and
natural Word of the Father ; nor is He His true Wisdom ;
but He is one of the things fashioned and made. And He
is called, by a misapplication of the terms, the Word and
Wisdom, since He is Himself made by tlie proper Word of
God, and by tliat wisdom Avhich is in God, in which, as God
made aU other things, so also did He make Him. Where-
fore, He is by His very nature changeable and mutable,
e([ually Avitli otlier ration:il Iteings. Th'' Word, too, is alien

350 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

and separate from the substance of God. The Father also
is ineffable to the Son; for neither does the Word per-
fectly and accurately know the Father, neither can He
perfectly see Him. For neither does the Son indeed know
His own substance as it is. Since He for our sakes was
made, that by Him as by an instrument God might create
us ; nor would He have existed had not God wished to
make us. Some one asked of them whether the Son of God
could change even as the devil changed ; and they feared
not to answer that He can; for since He was made and
created. He is of mutable nature.

4. Since those about Arius speak these things and shame-
lessly maintain them, we, coming together with the Bishops
of Egypt and the Libyas, nearly a hundred in number, have
anathematized them, together with their followers. But those
about Eusebius have received them, earnestly endeavouring
to mix up falsehood with truth, impiety with piety. But
they will not prevail ; for the truth prevails, and there is no
communion betwixt light and darkness, no concord between
Christ and Belial.^ For who ever heard such things ? or
who, now hearing them, is not astonished, and does not stop
his ears that the pollution of these words should not touch
them ? Who that hears John saying, " In the beginning
was the Word,"^ does not condemn those who say there was
a time when He Avas not ? W^ho that hears these words of
the Gospel, "the only-begotten Son ;" ^ and, " by Him were
all things made,"* will not hate those who declare He is one
of the things made ? For how can He be one of the things
made by Him ? or how shall He be the only-begotten who,
as they say, is reckoned with all the rest, if indeed He is a
thing made and created ? And how can He be made of
things which are not, Avhen the Father says, " ~Mj heart
belched forth a good Word ;"^ and, " From the womb, before
the morning have I begotten Thee ?" *^ Or how is He unlike
to the substance of the Father, who is the perfect image and
brightness of the Father, and who says, " He that hath seen

^ 2 Cor. vi. 14. ^ John i. i, 3 jdm i. IS. * John i. 3.
5 Ps. xlv. 1. 6 Ps. ex. 3 ; Heb. i. 3.

THE EPISTLES OX THE APJAN HEllESY. ?,h\

Me hatli seen the Father ?" ^ And how, if the Son is tlie
Word or Wisdom and Eeason of God, was there a time
when He was not ? It is all one as if they said, that there
was a time when God was without reason and wisdom.
How, also, can He be changeable and mutable, who say3
indeed by Himself : " I am in the Father, and the Fatlier in
]\Ie,"- and, " I and My Father are one;" ^ and by the prophet,
" I am the Lord, I change not ? " * For even though one say-
ing may refer to the Father Himself, yet it would now be
more aptly spoken of the "Word, because when He became
man. He changed not ; but, as says the apostle, " Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."^ Who
hath induced them to say, that for our sakes He was made ;
altliougli I'aul says, " for whom are all tilings, and by whom
are all things ?"<*

5. Now concerning their blasphemous assertion who say
that the Son does not perfectly know the Father, we need
not wonder: for having once purposed in their mind to
wage war against Christ, they impugn also these words of
His, " As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the
Father." ^ AVlierefore, if the Father only in part knoweth
the Son, then it is evident that the Son doth not perfectly
know the Father. But if it be wicked thus to speak, and if
the Father perfectly knows the Son, it is plain that, even as
the Father knoweth His own Word, so also the Word
knoweth His own Father, of whom He is the Word.

6. By saying these things, and by unfolding the divine
Scriptures, we have often refuted them. But they, chame-
leon-like, changing their sentiments, endeavour to claim for
themselves that saying: "When the wicked cometh, then
cometh contempt." ^ Before them, indeed, many heresies
existed, which, having dared more than was riglit, have
fallen into madness. But these by all their words have
attempted to do away ^ith the Godhead of Christ, have
made those seem righteous, since they have come nearer to
Antichrist. Wherefore they have been excommunicated and

1 John xiv. 9. "- Jolm xiv. 10. ^ Jdlm x. 30. ■• ]\I;il. iii. H.
•' Hub. xiii. 8. « Ilfl.. xi. 10. ' Jolm x. 15. « Prov. xviii. 3.

852 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

anathematized liy the Church. And indeed, although we
grieve at the destruction of these men, especially that after
having once learned the doctrine of the Church, they have now
gone hack ; yet we do not wonder at it ; for this veiy thing
Hymenoeus and Philetus suffered,^ and before them Judas,
who, though he followed the Saviour, afterwards became a
traitor and an apostate. Moreover, concerning these very men,
warnings are not wanting to us, for the Lord foretold : "Take
heed that ye be not deceived : for many shall come in My
name, saying, I am Christ ; and the time draweth near : go
ye not therefore after them." ^ Paul, too, having learnt these
things from the Saviour, wrote, " In the latter times some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits,
and doctrines of devils which turn away from the truth." ^

7. Since, therefore, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
has thus Himself exhorted us, and by His apostle hath
signified such things to us ; we, who have heard their im-
piety with our own ears, have consistently anathematized
such men, as I have already said, and have declared them
to be aliens from the Catholic Church and faith, and we
have made known the thing, beloved and most honoured
fellow-ministers, to your piety, that you should not receive
any of them, should they venture raslily to come unto you,
and that you should not trust Eusebius or any one else who
WT-ites concerning them. For it becomes us as Christians
to turn with aversion from all who speak or think against
Christ, as the adversaries of God and the destroyers of souls,
and " not even to wish them God speed, lest at any time
we become partakers of their evil deeds," ^ as the blessed
John enjoins. Salute the brethren who are with you. Those
who are with me salute you.

1 2 Tim. ii. 17. « Luke xxi. 8. ^ I Tim. iv. 1. * 2 Jolm x.

THE EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY. 353

Presbyters of Alexandria.

I, Colluthus, presbyter, give my suffrage to the things
which are written, and also for the deposition of Arius,
and those who are guilty of impiety with him.

Alexander, presLyter, in like Arjiocration, presbyter, in like

manner.
Dioscorus,

manner.
Dionysius,

manner.
Eusebius, presbyter,

manner.
Alexander, presbyter, in like

manner.
Nilaras, presbyter, in like

manner.

presbyter, in like
presbyter, in like
like

maimer.
Agatlms, presbyter.
Neniesius, j^resbyter.
Longiis, presbyter.
Silvanus, presbyter.
Perous, presbyter.
Apis, presbyter.
Proteiius, presbyter.
Puuhis, presbyter.
C}Tus, presbyter, in

maimer.

Deacons.

Ammonias, deacon, in like

manner.
Macarius, deacon.
Pistus, deacon, in like manner.
Athanasius, deacon.
Eumenes, deacon.
ApoUonius, deacon.
Olympius, deacon.
Aphthonius, deacon.
Athanasius, deacon.
Macarius, deacon, in like manner.
Paulus, deacon.
Petrus, deacon.
Ambytianus, deacon.

Gaius, deacon, in like manner.
Alexander, deacon.
Dionysius, deacon.
Agathon, deacon.
Polybius, deacon, in like

manner.
Thconas, deacon.
Marcus, deacon.
Commodus, deacon.
Serapion, deacon.
Nilus, deacon.

Komanus, deacon, in like
manner.

Presbytery of ;Mareotis,

I, ApoUonius, presbyter, give my suffrage to the things
wliicli are written, and also for the deposition of Arius, and
of those who are guilty of impiety with hiuL

Ingenius, presbyter, in like Dioscorus, presbyter,
manner. Sostras, presbyter.

Ammonias, presbyter.

Theon, presbyter.

S54

THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

T^Tannuf?, presbyter.
Coi)res, presbyter.
Ammonas, presbyter.
Orion, presbyter.
Serenus, presbyter.
Didymiis, presbyter,
Heracles, presbyter.

Boccon, presbyter.
Agathus, presbyter.
Achilles, presbyter.
Paulus, presbyter.
Thalela3us, presbyter.
Dionysius, presbyter, in like
manner.

Deacons.

Sarapion, deacon, in like

manner.
Justus, deacon, in like manner.
Didymus, deacon.
Demetrius, deacon-
Maurus, deacon.
Alexander, deacon.
Marcus, deacon.
Comon, deacon.
Tryphon, deacon.
Ammonius, deacon.

Didymus, deacon.
Ptollarion, deacon.
Seras, deacon.
Gains, deacon.
Hierax, deacon.
Marcus, deacon.
Theonas, deacon,
Sarmaton, deacon,
Carpon, deacon.
Zoilus, deacon,
manner.

III.

[Athanas., ibid. p. 396.]

The Deposition of Arius and his roLLOWERS by
Alexander, Archbishop of Alexandria.

Alexander, to the priests and deacons, of Alexandria and
Mareotis, being ^w-escw^ to them present, brethren beloved
in the Lord, sends greeting:

Although you have been forward to subscribe the letters
that I sent to those about Arius, urging them to abjure their
impiety, and to obey the wholesome and Catholic faith ;
and in this manner have shown your orthodox purpose,
and your agreement in the doctrines of the Catholic Church;
yet because I have also sent letters to all our fellow-minis-
ters in every place with respect to the tilings which concern
Arius and his companions ; I have thought it necessary to
call together you the clergy of the city, and to summon you
also of Mareotis; especially since of your number Chares

THE EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY. 355

and Pistus, the priests; Sarapion, Parammon, Zosimus, and
Irenseus, the deacons, have gone over to the party of Arius,
and have preferred to be deposed with them ; that you
may know what is now written, and that you should de-
clare your consent in these matters, and give your suffrage
for the deposition of those about Arius and Pistus. For it
is right that you should know wdiat I have written, and
that you should each one, as if he had Amtten it himself,
retain it in his heart.

IV.
TWO FEAGMENTS

FROM AN EPISTLE TO iEGLON, BISHOP OF CYNOPOLIS, AGAINST
THE ARIAXS.

[St Maxim. Theological and Polemical Works, vol. ii. pp. lo2-155.
Edit. Paris, 1675.]

From a letter of St Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, to
^glon, bishop of Cynopolis, against the Arians.

1. Natural will is the free faculty of every intelligent
nature as having nothing involuntary which is in respect of
its essence.

2. Natural operation is the innate motion of all sub-
stance. Natural operation is the substantial and notifying
reason of every nature. Natural operation is the notifying
virtue of every substance.

Note to the Discourse on the Soul and Body, and the Passion
of tlie Lord.

Many writiiigs of the ancients, as Cardinal Mai has remarked, may be
disinterred from the Oriental manuscripts in the Yalican library, some
of which have been brought to light by that eminent scholar. In an
Arabic MS. he discovered a large portion of the following discourse by
St Alexander, the patriarch of Alexandria, which he afterwards met
with entire in the Syrian Vatican manuscript 368. Tlie Greek version
heing lost, Mai, with the assistance of the erudite Maronites, Matthcciis

856 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

Scialuianus, and Francisciis Mehasebus, translated tlie discourse into
Latin, and his version has been chiefly followed in the following trans-
lation. Of its genuineness there is no doubt, and it is quite worthy of
a place among his other writings.

ON THE SOUL AND BODY AND THE PASSION
OF THE LOED.

The Word wliich is ungrudgingly sent down from heaven,
is fitted for the irrigation of our hearts, if we have been
prepared for His power, not by speaking only, but by listen-
ing. For as the rain without the ground does not produce
fruit, so neither does the Word fructify without hearing,
nor hearing without the Word. Moreover, the Word then
becomes fruitful when we pronounce it, and in the same
way hearing, when we listen. Therefore since the Word
draws forth its power, do you also ungTudgingiy lend your
ears, and when you come to hear, cleanse yourselves from
all ill-will and unbelief. Two very bad things are ill-will
and unbelief, both of which are contrary to righteousness ;
for ill-will is opposed to charity, and unbelief to faith; just in
the same way as bitterness is opposed to sweetness, darkness
to light, evil to good, death to life, falsehood to truth.
Those, therefore, who abound in these vices that are re-
pugnant to virtue, are in a manner dead ; for the malignant
and the unbelieving hate charity and faith, and they who
do this are the enemies of God.

2. Since therefore ye know, brethren beloved, that the
malignant and the unbelieving are the enemies of righteous-
ness, beware of these, embrace faith and charity, by which
all the holy men who have existed from the beginning of the
world to this day have attained unto salvation. And show
forth the fruit of charity, not in words only, but also in
deeds, that is, in all godly patience for God's sake. For, see !
the Lord Himself hath shown His charity towards us, not
only in words but also in deeds, since He hath given Him-
self up as the price of our salvation. Besides, we were not
created, like the rest of the world, by word alone, but also

OA' THE I'AiiSlON OF THE LOUD. 357

by deed. For God made the world to exist "by the power
oi' a siugie word, Liit us lie produced by the efficacy alike of
His word and working. For it was not enough lor God to
say, " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,"^
but deed followed word ; for, taking the dust from the
ground, He formed man out of it, conformable to His image
and similitude, and into him He breathed the breath of lil'e,
so that Adam became a living soul.

3. But when man afterwards by his fall had inclined to
death, it was necessary that that form should be recreated
anew to salvation by the same Artificer. For the form
indeed lay rotting in the gTOund; but that inspiration
which had been as the breath of life, %vas detained separate
from the body in a dark place, which is called Hades.
There was, therefore, a division of the soul from the body; it
was banished ad inferos, whilst the latter was resolved into
dust ; and there was a great inter\'al of separation between
them ; for the body, by the dissolution of the flesh, becomes
corrupt ; the soul being loosened from it, its action ceases.
For as when the king is thrown into chains, the city falls
to ruin ; or as when the general is taken captive, the army
is scattered abroad; or as when the helmsman is sliakcn
o{{, the vessel is submerged; so when the soul is bound in
chains, its body goes to pieces ; as the city without its king,
so its members are dissolved ; as is the case with an army
when its general is lost, they are drowned in death, even as
happens to a vessel when deprived of its helmsman. Tlie
soul, therefore, governed the man, as long as the body sur-
vived ; even as the king governs the city, the general tlie
army, the helmsman the ship. But it was powerless to
rule it, from the time when it was immovably tied to it,
and became immersed in error; therefore it was that it
declined from the straight path, and followed tempters,
giving heed to fornication, idolatry, and sliedding of blood ;
by which evil deeds it has destroyed the i)roper manliood.
Nay, but itself also being carried at length to tlie lower
regions, it was there detained by the wicked tempter. Else

1 Gen. i. 2G.

358 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

was it wont, as the king restores the ruined city, tlie general
collects the dispersed army, the sailor repairs the broken ship,
even so, I say, the soul used to minister supplies to the body
before that the body was dissolved in the dust, being not as
yet itself bound fast with fetters. But after that the soul
became bound, not with material fetters but with sins, and
thus was rendered impotent to act, then it left its body in
tlie ground, and being cast down to the lower regions, it was
made the footstool of death, and despicable to all.

4. Man went forth from paradise to a region which was
the sink of unrighteousness, fornication, adultery, and cruel
murder. And there he found his destruction ; for all things
conspired to his death, and worked the ruin of him who
had hardly entered there. Meanwhile man wanted some
consolation and assistance and rest. For when was it well
with man ? In his mother's womb ? But when he was
shut up there, he differed but little from the dead. ^Vhen
he was nourished with milk from the breast ? Not even
then, indeed, did he feel any joy. "Was it rather whilst he
was coming to maturity? But then, especially, dangers
impended over him from his youthful lusts. Was it,
lastly, when he grew old ? Nay, but then does he begin to
groan, being pressed down by the weight of old age, and the
expectation of death. For what else is old age but the
expectation of death? Verily all the inhabitants of earth
do die, young men and old, little children and adults, for no
age or bodily stature is exempt from death. Why, then, is
man tormented by this exceeding grief? Doubtless the
very aspect of death begets sadness ; for we behold in a
dead man the face changed, the figure dead, the body
shrunk up with emaciation, the mouth silent, the skin cold,
the carcase prostrate on the ground, the eyes sunken, the
limbs immovable, the flesh wasted away, the veins con-
gealed, the bones whitened, the joints dissolved, all parts of
him reduced to dust, and the man no longer existing. What,
then, is man ? A flower, I say, that is but for a little time,
which in his mother's Avomb is not apparent, in youth
flourishes, but wliich in old age withers and departs in death.

ox THE PAS.iioy of the loud. 355

5. But now, after all this bondage to death and corruption
of the manhood, God hath visited His creature, which He
formed after His own image and similitude ; and this He
liath done that it might not for ever be the sport of death.
Therefore God sent down from heaven His incorporeal Son
to take flesh upon Him in the virgin's womb ; and thus,
equally as thou, was He made man ; to save lost man, and
collect all His scattered members. For Christ, when He
joined the manhood to His person, united that wliich death
by the separation of the body had dispersed. Christ suffered
that we should live for ever.^ For else why should Christ
have died? Had He committed any thing worthy of deatli ?
AVTiy did He clothe HimseK in flesh who was invested with
glory ? And since He was God, why did He become man ?
And since He reigned in heaven, why did He come down
to earth, and become incarnate in the virgin's womb ?
What necessity, I ask, impelled God to come down to
earth, to assume flesh, to be ^^Tapped in swaddling clothes
in a manger-cradle, to be nourished with the milk from
the breast, to receive baptism from a servant, to be lifted up
upon the cross, to be interred in an eartlily sepulchre, to
rise again the third day from the dead ? What necessity, I
say, impelled Him to this ? It is sufficiently discovered
that He suffered shame for man's sake, to set him free from
death ; and that He exclaimed, as in the words of the pro-
phet, " I have endured as a travailing woman." ^ In very
deed did He endure for our sakes sorrow, ignominy, torment,
even death itself, and burial. For thus He says Himself by
the prophet : " I went down into the deep." ^ AVlio made

1 The folloAving passage, as far as to "rise again the tliird <lay from
the dead," is generally marked with inverted commas, and Mai n-raarks
that it had been already brought to light by him under the name of
the same Alexander, in the Spicileg. Roman., vol. iii. p. (399, amongst
some extracts of the Fathers from the Arabic Vatican Codex, 101, in
Avhich is contained the celebrated Monophysite work entitled Fides
Patrum. It is established therefore that this discourse was written in
Greek by Alexander, and afterwards tran.slated not only into the Syriac,
but also into tiie Arabic language. — Tr.

- Isaiali xlii. 14. ^ Jonah ii. 4.

3G0 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER.

Him thus to go down ? The impious people. Behold, ye
sons of men, behold what recompense Israel made unto
Him ! She slew her Benefactor, returning evil for good,
affliction for joy, death for life. They slew by nailing to
the tree Him who had brought to life their dead, had healed
their maimed, had made their lepers clean, had given light
to their blind. Behold, ye sons of men ! behold, all ye
people, these new wonders ! They suspended Him on the
tree, who stretches out the earth ; they transfixed Him
with nails who laid firm the foundation of the world ; they
circumscribed Him who circumscribed the heavens; they
bound Him who absolves sinners ; they gave Him vinegar
to drink who hath made them to dri»k of righteousness;
they fed Him with gall who hath offered to them the Bread
of Life; they caused corruption to come upon His hands
and feet who healed their hands and feet ; they violently
closed His eyes who restored sight to them ; they gave Him
over to the tomb, who raised their dead to life both in the
time before His Passion and also whilst He was hanging on
the tree.

6. For when our Lord was suffering upon the cross, the
tombs were burst open, the infernal region was disclosed,
the souls leapt forth, the dead returned to life, and many of
them were seen in Jerusalem, whilst the mystery of the cross
was being perfected; what time our Lord trampled upon
death, dissolved the enmity, bound the strong man, and
raised the trophy of the cross, His body being lifted up upon
it, that the body might appear on high, and death to be
depressed under the foot of flesh. Then the heavenly
powers wondered, the angels were astonished, the elements
trembled, every creature was shaken whilst they looked on
this new mystery, and the terrific spectacle which was being
enacted in the universe. Yet the entire people, as uncon-
scious of the mystery, exulted over Christ in derision;
although the earth was rocking, the mountains, the valleys,
and the sea were shaken, and every creature of God was
smitten with confusion. The lights of heaven were afraid,
the sun fled away, the moon disappeared, the stars withdrew

ON THE PASSION OF THE LORD. 301

their shining, the day came to end ; the angel in astonish-
ment departed from the temple after the rending of the veil,
and darkness covered the earth on which its Lord had closed
His eyes. IMeamvhile heU. (Hades) was with light resplen-
dent, for thither liad the star descended. The Lord, indeed,
did not descend into hell in His body but in His Spirit. He
forsooth is working every where, for whilst He raised the
dead by His body, by His spirit was He liberating their
souls. For when the body of the Lord was himg upon the
cross, the tombs, as we have said, were opened ; hell was
unbarred, the dead received their life, the souls were sent
back again into the world, and tliat because the Lord
liad conquered hell, had trodden down death, had covered
the enemy with shame ; therefore was it that the souls
came forth from Hades, and the dead appeared upon the
earth,

7. Ye see, therefore, how great was the effect of the death
of Christ, for no creature endured His fall with equal mind,
nor did the elements His Passion, neither did the earth
retain His body, nor hell His Spirit. All things were in
the Passion of Christ disturbed and convulsed. The Lord
exclaimed, as once before to Lazarus, Come forth, ye dead,
from your tombs and your secret places ; for I, the Christ,
give unto you resurrection. For then the earth could not
long hold the body of our Lord that in it was buried ; but
it exclaimed, O my Lord, pardon mine iniquities, save me
from Thy wrath, absolve me from the curse, for I have
received the blood of the righteous, and yet I have not
covered the bodies of men or Thine own body ! Wliat is at
length this wonderful mystery ? "Why, Lord, didst Tliou
come down to earth, unless it was for man's sake, who has
been scattered every where : for in every place has Thy fair
image been disseminated ? Nay ! but if thou sliouldest give
but one little word, at the instant all bodies would stand
before Thee. Now, since Thou hast come to earth, and hast
sought for the members of Thy fashioning, undertake for
man who is Thine own, receive that which is committed to
Thee, recover Thine imago, Thine Adam. Then the Lord,

862 THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER. .

the third day after His death, rose again, thus bringing man
to a knowledge of the Trinity. Then all the nations of the
human race were saved by Christ. One submitted to the
judgment, and many thousands were absolved. Moreover,
He being made like to man wliom He had saved, ascended
to the height of heaven, to offer before His Father, not
gold or silver, or precious stones, but the man whom
He had formed after His own image and similitude; and
the Father, raising Him to His right hand, hath seated
Him upon a throne on high, and hath made Him to be
judge of the peoples, the leader of the angelic host, the
charioteer of the cherubim, the Son of the true Jerusalem,
the Virgin's spouse, and King for ever and ever. Amen.

The Addition in the Codex, with a Vapjous Peading.

God, therefore, wishing to visit His own form which He
had fashioned after His own image and similitude, hath in
these last times sent into the world His incorporeal and
only Son, who being in the virgin's womb incarnate, was
born perfect man to raise erect lost man, re-collecting His
scattered members. For why else should Christ have died ?
Was He capitally accused ? And since He was God, why
was He made man ? Why did He who was reigning in
heaven come down to earth ? Who compelled God to come
down to earth, to take flesh of the holy virgin, to be
wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, to be
nourished with milk, to be baptized in the Jordan, to be
mocked of the people, to be nailed to the tree, to be buried
in the bosom of the earth, and the third day to rise again
from the dead; in the cause of redemption to give life for
life, blood for blood, to undergo death for death ? For Christ,
by dying, hath discharged the debt of death to which man
was obnoxious. Oh, the new and ineffable mystery ! the
Judge was judged. He who absolves from sin was bound ;
He was mocked who once framed the world; He was
stretched upon the cross who stretched out the heavens;
He was fed with gall who gave the manna to be bread ; He

ON THE PASSION OF THE LOUD. 3G3

died who gives life ; He was given up to tlie tomb wlio
raises the dead. The powers were astonished, the angels
wondered, the elements trembled, the whole created universe
was shaken, the earth quaked, and its foundations rocked ;
the sun fled away, the elements were subverted, the light of
day receded ; because they could not bear to look upon
their crucified Lord. The creature, in amazement, said,
What is this novel mystery ? The judge is judged and is
sQent; the invisible is seen and is not confounded; the
incomprehensible is grasped and is not indignant at it ; the
immeasurable is contained in a measure and makes no
opposition ; the impassable suffers and does not avenge its
own injury ; the immortal dies and complains not ; the
celestial is buried and bears it with an equal mind. "\Miat,
I say, is this mystery ? The creature surely is transfixed
with amazement. But when our Lord rose from death and
trampled it down, when He bound the strong man and set
man free, then every creature wondered at the Judge who
for Adam's sake was judged, at the invisible being seen,
at the impassable suffering, at the immortal dead, at the
celestial buried in the earth. For our Lord was made man ;
He was condemned that He might impart compassion;
He was bound that He might set free ; He was apprehended
that He might liberate ; He suffered that He might heal our
sufferings ; He died to restore life to us ; He was buried to
raise us up. For when our Lord suffered. His humanity
suffered, that which He had like unto man ; and He dis-
solves the sufferings of him who is His like, and by dying
He hath destroyed death. It was for this cause that He
came down upon eartli, that by pursuing deatli He might
kill the rebel that slew men. For one underwent the
judgment, and myriads were set free ; one was buried, ami
myriads rose again. He is the IMediator between C!od and
man ; He is the resurrection and the salvation of all ; He
is the Guide of the erring, the Shepherd of men who have
been set free, the life of the dead, tlie charioteer of the
cherubim, the standard-bearer of the angels, and the King
of kings, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

THE EPISTLES OF CLEMENT
CONCERNING VIRGINITY.

INTRODUCTOKY NOTICE.

|HILE the great mass of early Christian litera-
ture bearing the name of Clement of Eome is
undoubtedly spurious, the case is somewhat
different with regard to the two followiug
epistles. Not only have Eoman Catholic writers main-
tained their genuineness with great ingenuity and learn-
ing, but "SVetstein, who first edited them, argued jwwer-
fully for their being received as the authentic productions
of Clement ; and even Neander has admitted that they
may possibly have been written by that friend and fellow-
labourer of the apostles.

Their literary history in modern times is somewhat
curious. Wetstein unexpectedly discovered them appended
to a copy of the Syriac Peschito version of the New Testa-
ment furnished to him by Sir James Porter, then British
ambassador at Constantinople. He soon afterwards (1752)
published them in Syriac, accompanied by a Latin version
of his own, with Prolegomena, in which he upheld their
genuineness. This speedily called forth two works, one by
Lardner (1753), and a second by Venema (1754), in botli of
which their authenticity was disputed. To these writings
Wetstein himself, and, after his death, Gallandius, pub-
lished rejoinders ; but the question remained as far from
j)ositive settlement as ever, and continues sub judice even
at the present day.

366 THE WHITINGS OF CLEMENT.

It is generally admitted (and, of course, asserted by those
that maintain their truly Clementine origin) that Greek was
the original language of these epistles. Many have argued
that they contain plain references to the sub-introdudce
spoken of in the literature of the third century, and that
therefore they were j)robably composed in the Oriental
Church about that period.

These epistles have been very carefully edited in recent
times by the Eoman Catholic scholars Villecourt (1853)
and Beelen (1856). Both have argued strenuously for the
genuineness of the letters, but it may be doubted if they
have succeeded in repelling all the objections of Lardnei
and Venema. Beelen's work is a highly scholarly produc-
tion, and liis Prolegomena are marked by great fulness and
perspicuity.

A German translation of these epistles was published by
Zingerle (1821). They are now for the first time translated
into the English language.

The translation is made from the text of Beelen.

The division into chapters is due to Wetstein.

TWO EPISTLES CONCERNING VIRGINITY,

BY THE BLESSED CLEMENT,

THE DISCIPLE OF PETER TUE APOSTLE.

The First Epistle of the blessed Clement, the disciple
OF Peter the Apostle.

Chap. i. — The Salutation.

To all those who love and cherish their life [which is] in
Christ through God the Father, and obey the truth of God
in hope of eternal life ; to those who bear affection towards
their brethren and towards their neighbours in the love of
God; to the blessed [brother] virgins,^ who devote them-
selves to preserve vii-ginity " for the sake of the kingdom
of heaven;" 2 and to the holy [sister] virgins: the peace
which is in God.^

CiLVP. II. — For true Virginity perfect virtue is necessary.

Of all virgins of either sex who have truly resolved to
preserve virginity for the sake of the kingdom of lieaven —
of each and every one of them it is required that he be
worthy of the kingdom of heaven in every tiling. For not

1 In later Greek vap6iuos was used of both sexes (comp. Rev.
xiv. 4). The Syriac original employs both a masculine and a feminine
form. This will not always be indicated in the following transla-
tion. 2 Matt. xix. 12.

3 Or " to the holy virgins who are in God : jtcace." So Zingerle, and
probably Wctstein.

367

308 THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

by eloquence ^ or renown,^ or by station^ and descent, or by
beauty or strength, or by length of life,* is the kingdom of
heaven obtained ; but it is obtained by the power of faith,
when a man exhibits the works of faith. For whosoever
is truly righteous, his works testify concerning his faith,
that he is truly a believer, with a faith which is great,
a faith which is perfect, a faith which is in God, a faith
which shines in good works, that the Father of all may be
glorified through Christ. Now, those who are truly virgins
for the sake of God give heed to Him who hath said,
" Let not righteousness and faith fail thee ; bind them on
thy neck, and thou shalt find favour for thyself; and
devise thou good things before God and before men."^
" The paths," therefore, " of the righteous shine as the light,
and the light of them advances until the day is perfect." ®
For the beams of their light illumine the whole creation
even now by good works, as those who are truly " the
light of the world," ^ giving light to "those who sit in dark-
ness," ^ that they may arise and go forth from the darkness
by the light of the good works of the fear of God, " that
they may see our good works, and glorify our Father who is
in heaven." ^ For it is required of the man of God, that in.
all his words and works he be perfect, and that in his life he
be adorned with all exemplary and well-ordered behaviour,^"
and do all his deeds in righteousness, as a man of God.

^ Zing. , not so well, takes tMs to mean, " by the confession of the
mouth" (dnrch das mundliche Bekeimtniss), comparing Matt. vii. 21.

2 Lit. " by word or by name."

2 The Greek word a^jh^cc, here adopted in the Syriac, is sometimes
thus used. — Beelen. * Lit. " much time."

5 Prov. iii. 3, 4 (lxx.) « Lit. " fixed." Prov. iv. 18.

7 Matt. V. 14. 8 jg_ ix 2 ; Matt. iv. 16.

9 Matt. V. 16 ; 1 Peter ii. 12.
" Probably referring to 1 Cor. xiv. 40, — Beelen.

TWO EPISTLES CONCERNING VIRGINITY. 3G9

Chap. hi. — Trzie Virgins prove themselves such hy self-denial,
as docs the true believer hy good works.

For virgins are a beautiful pattern to believers, and to
those wlio shall believe. The name alone, indeed, without
works, does not introduce into the kingdom of heaven ; but,
if a man be truly a believer, such an one can be saved.
For, if a person be only called a believer in name,
whilst he is not such in works, lie cannot possibly be a
believer. " Let no one," therefore, " lead you astray with
the empty words of error." ^ For, merely because a person
is called a virgin, if he be destitute of works excellent and
comely, and suitable to virginity, he cannot possibly be
saved. For our Lord called such virginity as that " foolish,"
as He said in the Gospel ; - and because it had neither
oil nor light, it was left outside of the kingdom of
heaven, and was shut out from the joy of the bridegroom,
and was reckoned with His enemies. For such persona
as these "have the appearance only of the fear of God,
but the power of it they deny." ^ For they " think with
themselves that they are something, whilst they are nothing,
and are deceived. But let every one constantly try * liis
works," ^ and know himself; for empty worship does he
offer, whosoever he be that makes profession of virginity
and sanctity, " and denies its power." For virginity of such
a kind is impure, and disowned by all good works. For
" every tree whatsoever is known from its fruits."*^ "See
that thou understand^ what I say: God will give thee under-
standing."^ For wliosoever engages before God to preserve
sanctity must be girded with all the holy power of God.
And, if with true fear^ he crucify his body, he for the sake

1 Eph. V. 6. - Matt. xxv. 2.

3 2 Tim. iii. 5. * Lit. "let every one be trying."

6 Gal. vi. 3, 4. " Matt. xii. 33.

^ Or " consider." Tliore is no play on words in the passage quoti*!
(2 Tim. ii. 7), nor perhaps was this intended in tlie Syriac.

8 2 Tim. ii. 7.

» Lit. "true in fear [of God]." The reading is probably faulty.—
Beelen.

2 A

870 TITE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

of the fear oi" God excuses himself from tliat word [in]
which [the Scripture]^ has said: "Be fruitful, and multiply,"^
and [shuns] all the display, and care, and sensuality,^ and
fascination of this world, and its revelries and its drunken-
ness, and all its luxury and ease, and withdraws from the
entire life of* this world, and from its snares, and nets,
and hindrances; and, w^hilst thou walkest^ upon the
earth, be zealous that thy work and thy business be in
heaven.

Chap. iv. — Continuation of the remarhs on Self-denial —
Ohjcct and reward of true Virgins.

For he who covets for himself these things [so] great
and excellent, withdraws and severs himself on this account
from all the world, that he may go [and] live a life divine
and heavenly, like the holy angels, in work pure and holy,
and "in the holiness® of the Spirit of God,"^ and that he
may serve God Almighty through Jesus Christ for the
sake of the kingdom of heaven. On this account he severs
himself from all the appetites of the body. And not only
does he excuse himself from this [command], " Be fruitful,
and multiply," but he longs for the " hope promised " and
prepared " and laid up in heaven "^ by God, who has
declared with His mouth, and He does not lie, that it is
"better than sons and daughters,"^ and that He wiU give
to virgins a notable place in the house of God, which
is [something] " better than sons and daughters," and
better than [the place of] those who have passed a wedded
life in sanctity, and whose "bed has not been defiled." ^"^

^ The ellipsis is usually to be thus filled up in these epistles ; the
brackets ■will be henceforth omitted.

2 Gen. i. 28. ^ Or " the sensual i^leasures."

* Or " from all intercourse with."

^ Either something is here omitted by the transcriber, or Clement
has varied the form of expression. — Beelen.

6 " Sanctification."— ^ec^f?!. ^ £ Thess. ii. 13.

8 Col. i. 5. » Is. Ivi. 4, 3. lo Heb. xiii. 4.

TWO EPISTLES CONCERNING VIRGINITY. 371

For God will give to virgins the kingdom of heaven, as to
the holy angels, by reason of this great and noble profession.

Chap. v. — The irJcsomeness and the enemies of Virginity.

Thou desirest, then, to be a virgin ? Knowest tliou what
hardship and irksomeness there is in true virginity — that
which stands constantly at all seasons before God, and does
not withdraw [from His service], and " is anxious how it
may please its Lord with a holy body, and witli [its] spirit?"^
Knowest thou what great glory pertains to virginity, and is
it for this that thou dost [set thyself to] practise it ? Dost
thou really know and understand what it is thou art eager
to do ? Art thou acquainted with the noble task of holy
virginity? Dost thou know how, like a man, to enter
"lawfully" upon 2 this contest and "strive,"^ that, in the
might of the Holy Spirit,* thou choosest this for thyself, that
thou mayest be crowned with a crown of light, and that
they may lead thee about [in triumph] through " the
Jerusalem above "?^ If so be, then, that thou longest
for all these things, conquer the body ; conquer the appe-
tites of the flesh; conquer the world in the Spirit of
God; conquer these vain things of time, which pass
away and grow old, and decay, and come to an end ;
conquer the dragon ;^ conquer the lion -J conquer the ser-
pent;^ conquer Satan; — through Jesus Christ, who doth
strengthen thee by the hearing of His words and the
divine Eucharist.^ "Take up thy cross and follow "^*' Him
who makes thee clean, Jesus Christ thy Lord. Strive to
run straight forward and boldly, not with fear, but witli
courage, relying on the promise of thy Lord, that thou shalt
obtain the victor-crown^^ of thy "calling on high"^- through

1 1 Cor. vii. 34. ^ m^ i< Jescend to." ^ 2 Tiiu. ii. 0.

•« The words, " in the might of the Holy Spiiit," appear to obscure
the sense. — Bcclen.

* Gal. iv. 26. " Rev. xii. 7.

7 1 Peter v. 8. * 2 Cor. xi. 3.

» Lit. "the Eucharist of tlie Godhead." ^^ Matt. xvi. 24.
" Lit. "crowTi of victory." '- Phil. iii. 14.

372 THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

Jesus Christ. For whosoever walks perfect in faith, and not
fearing, doth in very deed receive the crown of virginity,
which is great in its toil and great in its reward. Dost thou
understand and know how honourable a thing is sanctity ? ^
Dost thou understand how great and exalted and excellent
is the glory of virginity 1^

Chap. vi. — Divinity of Virginity.

The womb of a holy virgin^ carried our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God ; and the body which our Lord wore, and in
which He carried on the conflict in this world, He put on
from a holy virgin. From this, therefore, understand the
greatness and dignity of virginity. Dost thou wish to be a
Christian ? Imitate Christ in every thing. John, the am-
bassador, he who came before our Lord, he " than whom
there was not a greater among those born of women,"* the
holy messenger of our Lord, was a virgin. Imitate, therefore,
the ambassador of our Lord, and be his follower^ in every
thing. [That] John, again, who " reclined on the bosom of
our Lord, and whom He greatly loved," ^ — he, too, was a holy
person." For it Avas not without reason that our Lord loved
him. Paul, also, and Barnabas, and Timothy, with all the
others, " whose names are Avritten in the book of life," ^
— these, I say, all cherished and loved sanctity,^ and ran in
the contest, and finished their course without blemish, as
imitators of Christ, and as sons of the living God. More-
over, also, Elijah and Elisha, and many other holy men, we
find to have lived a holy^° and spotless life. If, therefore,
thou desirest to be like these, imitate them with all thy
power. For the Scripture has said, " The elders who are
among you, honour ; and, seeing their manner of life and

^ i.e. continency.

2 The last two sentences properly belong to cha}). vi.

3 Or " the Holy Virgin." * ]Matt. xi. 11.
5 Lit. " lover," or " friend." ^ Jno. xxi. 20.
' i.e. a virgin. * Phil. xiv. 3.

• i.e. virginity. ^^ i.e. celibate, or chaste

TWO EPISTLES CONCERNING VIRGINITY. 373

conduct, imitate tlieir faith." ^ And again it saith, "Imi-
tate me, my brethren, as I [imitate] Clirist."^

CiLvr. Yii. — The true Virgin.

Those, therefore, who imitate Christ, imitate Ilim earnestly.
Tor those who have " put on Christ"^ in truth, express His
likeness in their thoughts, and in their whole life, and in all
their behaviour : in word, and in deeds, and in patience, and
in fortitude, and in knowledge, and in chastity, and in long-
suffering, and in a pure heart, and in faith, and in hope, and
in full and perfect love towards God. No virgin, therefore,
unless they be in every thing as Cluist, and as those " who
are Christ's,"* can be saved. !For every virgin who is in
God is holy in her body and in her spirit, and is constant
in the service of her Lord, not turning away from it any
whither, but waiting upon Him always in purity and holi-
ness in the Spirit of God, being " solicitous how she may
please her Lord,"^ [by living] purely and without stain, and
solicitous to be pleasing before Him in every thing. She
who is such does not withdraw from our Lord, but in spirit
is [ever] with her Lord : as it is written, " Be ye holy, as I
am holy, saith the Lord."^

Chap. VIII. — Virgins, hj the laying aside of all carnal
affection, arc imitators of God.

For, if a man be only in name called holy, he is not holy ;
but he must be holy in every thing : in his body and in his
spirit. And those who are virgins rejoice at all times in
becoming like God and His Christ, and are imitators of them.
For in those that are such there is not "the mind" uf the
flesh." In those who are truly believers, and " in whom
the Spirit of Christ dwells "^ — in them " the mind of the
tlesh " cannot be : wluch is fornication, uncleanness, wanton-

1 lleb. xiii. 7. - 1 Cor. xi. 1. ^ Uoiii. xiii. 14.

< Gal. V. 24. 5 1 Cor. vii. 32. « 1 IVt. i. 15 (<•/. Lev. xL -U.,

^ Rom. viii. 6 {(pp6vnf/..et). * I'diii. viii. <).

374 THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

ness ; idolatry/ sorcery ; enmity, jealousy, rivalry, wrath,
disputes, dissensions, ill-will; drunkenness, revelry; buf-
foonery, foolish talking, boisterous laughter; backbiting,
insinuations ; bitterness, rage ; clamour, abuse, insolence
of speech ; malice, inventing of evil, falsehood ; talkative-
ness,2 babbling ;^ threatenings, gnashing of teeth, readiness
to accuse,* jarring,^ disdainings, blows ; perversions [of the
right],^ laxness [in judgment]; haughtiness, arrogance,
ostentation, pompousness, [boasting] of family, of beauty,
of position, of wealth, of an arm of flesh ;'^ quarrelsomeness,
injustice,^ eagerness for victory; hatred, anger, envy, perfidy,
retaliation ;^ debauchery, gluttony, " overreaching (which is
idolatry)," 1° "the love of money (which is the root of all
evils) ;"^^ love of display, vainglory, love of rule, assumption,
pride (which is called death, and which "God fights
against "),^2 Every man with whom are these and such
like things — every such man is of the flesh. For, " he that
is born of the flesh is flesh ; and he that is of the earth
speaketli of the earth," ^^ and his thoughts are of the earth.
And " the mind of the flesh is enmity towards God. For it
does not submit itself to the law of God ; for it cannot [do
so],"^* because it is in the flesh, " in which dwells no good,"^^
because the Spirit of God is not in it. For this cause justly
does the Scripture say regarding such a generation as this :

^ Lit. "tlie worsliip of idols." The single word '{l^.'^Lsij some-
times used to express "idolatry" (as in Eph. Syr., opp. tom. i. p. 116),
is not found in these epistles.

2 Lit. " much talking." ^ j^{_i_ « empty words."

* The word thus rendered is not in the lexicons, but is well illus-
trated by Isaiah xxix. 21 (" who make a man an offender "), where the
Hiphil of xon is used, corresponding to the Aphel of the same root,

from whicli the present word is derived.

^ The word is used in the Peschito of 1 Tim. vi. 5, to express
oixTccpxipttiu.i ("incessant quarrellings," Alf.)

* Ex. Conject. Beelen. The word is not in the lexicons.

^ Or " power." « Lit. " folly ;" but so used in 2 Cor. xii. 13.

^ Or " returning of e\als." ^^ Col. iii. 5.

" I Tim. vi. 10. 12 j Peterv. 5 ; James iv. 6.

" Jno. iii. 6, 31. " Rom. viii. 7. ^^ Rom. vii. 18.

TJVO EPISTLES CONCERNING VIRGINITY. 375

" IMy Spirit shall not dwell in men for ever, because they are
liesh." ^ " Whosoever, therefore, has not the Spirit of God
in him, is none of His i"*^ as it is written, " The Spirit of God
departed from Saul, and an evil spirit troubled him, which
was sent upon him from God."-^

Chap. ix. — Continuation of the subject of mortification-
Dignity of persons consecrated to God.

He in whomsoever the Spirit of God is, is in accord with
the will of the Spirit of God ; and, because he is in accord
with the Spirit of God, therefore does he mortify the deeds
of the body and live unto God, "treading do^\^l and subju-
gating the body and keeping it under ; so that, while preacli-
ing to others," he may be a beautiful example and pattern
to believers, and may spend his life in works which are
worthy of the Holy Spirit, so that he may " not be cast
away,"^ but may be approved before God and before men.
For in " the man who is of God,"^ with him [I say] there
is nothing of the mind of the flesh ; and especially in virgins
[of either sex] ; but the fruits of all of them are " the
fruits of the Spirit"^ and of life, and they are tndy the
city of God, and the houses and temples in Avhich God
abides and dwells, and among which He M'alks, as in
the holy city of heaven. For in this "do ye appear to
the world as lights, in that ye give heed to the Word of
life,"^ and thus ye are in truth the praise, and the boast,
and the crown of rejoicing, and the delight of good seiTants
in our Lord Jesus Christ. For all who see you \\\\\
"acknowledge tliat ye are the seed which tlie Lord luith
blessed;"^ in very deed a seed honourable and holy, and " a
priestly kingdom, a holy people, the people of the inheri-
tance,"'' the heirs of the promises of God ; [of] things
which do not decay, nor witlier ; of " that whicli eye hath
not seen, and ear hath not heard, and wliich hath not

1 Gen vi. 3. - Worn. viii. 9. ^ 1 Sam. xvi. 14.

* 1 Cor. ix. 27. * 1 Tim. vi. 11. « Gal. v. 22.

" Phil. ii. 15. 8 U. l.\i. i). 1 Pet. ii. 0.

376 THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

come up into the heart of man ; of tliat which God hath
prepared for those who love Him and keep His command-
ments." ^

Chap. x. — Denunciation of dangerous and scandalous
association ivith maidcyis.

Now, we are persuaded of you, my brethren, that
your thoughts are occupied about those things which
are requisite for your salvation.^ But we speak thus^ in
consequence of the evil rumours and reports concerning
shameless men, who, under pretext of the fear of God, have
their dwelling with maidens, and [so] expose themselves to
danger, and walk with them along the road and in solitary
places* alone — a course which is full of dangers, and full
of stumbling-blocks and snares and pitfaUs ; nor is it in
any respect right for Christians and those who fear God so to
conduct themselves. Others, too, eat and drink with them
at entertainments [allowing themselves] in loose behaviour
and much imcleanness — such as ought not to be among
believers, and especially among those who have chosen
for themselves [a life of] holiness.^ Others, again, meet
together for vain and trifling conversation and merriment,
and that they may speak evil of one another ; and they
hunt up tales against one another, and are idle : persons
with whom we do not allow you even to eat bread. Then,
others gad about among the houses of virgin brethren
or sisters, on pretence of visiting them, or reading the
Scriptures [to them], or exorcising them. Forasmuch as they
are idle and do no work, they pry into those things which
ought not to be inquired into, and by means of plausible
words make merchandize of the name of Christ. [These
are] men from whom the divine apostle kept aloof, because
of the multitude of their evil [deeds] ; as it is written :

1 1 Cor. ii. 9. ~ Or " life."

^ The words wliicli follow, " concerning those things which we
speak," appear not to he genuine. — Beelen.

* Beelen supposes a 'iv "hioi Ivoh : " along the lonely road."

* i.e. virginity.

TWO EPISTLES COXCERXIXG VIRGINITY. 377

" Thorns sprout in the hands of the idle ;" ' and, " The ways
of the idle are full of thorns."^

Chap. xi. — Pernicioiisness of Idleness — Warning against the
empty longing to he teachers — Advice about teaching and
the icse of Divine gifts.

Such are the ways of all those who do not work, but go
hunting for tales, and think to themselves that this is pro-
fitable and right.^ For such persons are like those idle and
prating widows " who go wandering about* among houses"^
with their prating, and hunt for idle tales, and carry them
from house to house with much exaggeration, without fear
of God. And besides all this, barefaced men as they are,®
imder pretence of teaching, they set forth a variety of doc-
trines. And would that they taught the doctrines of truth !
But it is this which is [so] disquieting, that they under-
stand not what they mean, and assert that which is not
[true] : because they wish to be teachers, and to display
themselves as skilful in speaking; because they traffic in
iniquity in the name of Christ — which it is not right for the
servants of God [to do]. And they hearken not to that
which the Scripture has said : " Let not many be teachers
among you, my brethren, and be not all of you prophets." ^
For " he who does not transgress in word is a perfect man,
able to keep down and subjugate his whole body." ^ And,
" If a man speak, let him speak in the words ^ of God." ^'^
And, " If there is in thee understanding, give an answer to
thy brother ; but if not, put thy liand on thy mouth." ^^
For, "at one time [it is proper] to keep silence, and at
another time to speak." ^- And again it says : " When a
man speaks in season, it is honourable ^^ to him." ^* And

1 Prov. xxvi. 9. - Prov. xv. 19 (lx.\.)

3 Lit. " prolit and righteousness."

♦ Lit. "go about and wander." * 1 Tim. v. 13.

« Lit. " in their barefacedness." ' 1 Cor. xii. 29.

8 James iii. 2. " Lit. " speech." ^^ 1 Pet. iv. 11.

" Eccl. V. 14. '■ Eccl. iii. 7.

" Lit. "beautiful." " Prov. xxv. 11.

&78 THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

again it says : " Let your speech be seasoned with gi-ace.
For it is required of a man to know how to give an answer
to every one in season."^ For "he that ntters whatsoever
comes to his mouth, that man produces strife ; and he that
utters a superfluity of words increases vexation ; and he that
is hasty with his lips falls into evil. For because of the
unruliness of the tongue cometh anger; but the perfect
man keeps watch over his tongue, and loves his soul's
life." 2 For these are they "who by good words and fair
speeches lead astray the hearts of the simple, and, while
offering them blessings, lead them astray." ^ Let us, tliere-
fore, fear the judgment which awaits teachers. For a
severe judgment will those teachers receive " who teach, but
do not,"^ and those who take [upon them] the name of
Christ falsely, and say : We teach the truth, and [yet]
go wandering about idly, and exalt themselves, and make
their boast " in the mind of the flesh." ^ These, moreover,
are like " the blind man who leads the blind man, and they
both fall into the ditch." ^ And they will receive judgment,
because in their talkativeness and their frivolous teaching
they teach natural ^ wisdom, and the " frivolous error of the
plausible words of the wisdom of men," ^ " according to the
will of the prince of the dominion of the air, and of the
spirit which works in those men who will not obey,
according to the training of this worlu, and not according to
the doctrine of Christ." ^ But if thou hast received " the
word of knowledge, or the word of instruction, or of pro-
phecy," ^° blessed be God, " who helps every man without
grudging — that God who gives to every man and does not
upbraid [liim]."^^ With the gift, therefore, which thou hast
received from our Lord, serve [thy] spiritual brethren, the
prophets who know that the words which thou speakest are

1 Lit " in his place." Col. iv. 6.

2 Lit. "Ms soul for life." Prov. xviiL 6 ; xiii. 3 ; xxi. 13.

3 Rom. XV. 17-19. * Matt, xxiii. 3.
6 Col. ii. 18. « Matt. xv. 14.

^ As 1 Cor. XV. 44 (-tpuxix-oi). — See James iii. 15.
8 See Col. ii. 8. ^ Eph. ii. 2 ; Col. ii. 8.

^^ 1 Cor. xii. 5. ^^ James i. 6.

TWO EPISTLES COXCEllNIXG VIllGlMTY. 37'J

[those] of our Lord ; and declare the gift which thou liast
received in the Church for the edification of the brethren
in Christ (for good and excellent are those things which help
the men of God), if so be that they are truly ^ith tliee.^

Chap. xn. — Rvles for visits, exorcisms, and how people arc to
assist the sick, and to walk in all things without offence.

Moreover, also, this is comely and useful, that a man
" visit orphans and widows,"^ and especially those poor per-
sons who have many children. These tilings are, without
controversy, required of the servants of God, and comely and
suitable for them. This also, again, is suitable and right
and comely for those who are brethren in Christ, that they
should visit those who are harassed by evil spirits, and pray
and pronounce adjurations ^ over them, intelligently, [offer-
ing] such prayer as is acceptable before God; not with a
multitude of fine words,^ well prepared and arranged, so that
they may appear to men eloquent and of a good memory.
[Such men] are " like a sounding pipe, or a tinkling c^tu-
bal;"^ and they bring no help to those over whom they
make their adjurations ; but they speak with terrible words,
and affright people, but do not act with true faith, according
to the teaching of our Lord, who hath said : " This kind
goeth not out but by fasting and prayer," ^ offered unceas-
ingly and with earnest mind. And let them holily ask and
beg of God, with cheerfulness and all circumspection and
purity, without hatred and witliout malice. In this way let
us approach a brother or a sister w^ho is sick, and visit tlieni
in a way that is right, without guile, and without covetous-
ness, and without noise, and without talkativeness, and
without such behaviour as is alien from the fear of God,
and without haughtiness, but with the meek and lowly

^ An obscure clause, whicli Beelen supposes to be due to the mi^i-
apprehension of tlie Syrian translator. Perliaps the diHiculty will be
met if we read "gifts," as do "Wets, and Zing., by a change in the pointing.

- James i. 27. ^ Or " e.\orcL3ni.s."

* Lit. "elegant and nuiiii;rou3 words." ^ 1 Cor. xiii. 1.

6 Matt. xvii. 2 it.

380 r///-; wmTjyas of clement.

spirit of Christ. Let them, therefore, with fasting and with
prayer make their adjurations, and not with the elegant and
well-arranged and fitly-ordered words of learning, but as
men who have received the gift of healing from God, confi-
dently, to the glory of God. By^ your fastings and prayers
and perpetual watching, together with your other good
works, mortify the works of the flesh by the power of the
Holy Spirit. He who acts thus " is a temple of the Holy
Spirit of God." ^ Let this man cast out demons, and God
will help him. For it is good that a man help those that
are sick. Our Lord hath said : " Cast out demons," at the
same time [commanding] many other acts of healing ; and,
" Freely ye have received, freely give." ^ For such persons
as these a goodly recompense is [laid up] by God, because
they serve their brethren with the gifts which have been
given them by the Lord. This is also comely and helpfiil
to the servants of God, because they act according to the
injunctions of our Lord, who hath said : " I was sick, and ye
visited Me, and so on." * And this is comely and right and
just, that we visit our neighbours for the sake of God with
all seemliness of manner and purity of behaviour ; as the
Apostle hath said : " Who is sick, and I am not sick ? who is
offended, and I am not offended ? " ^ But all these things
are spoken in reference to the love with which a man should
love his neighbour. And in these things let us occupy our-
selves,^ without giving offence, and let us not do anything
with partiality or for the shaming of others, but let us love
the poor as the servants of God, and especially let us visit
them. For this is comely before God and before men, that
we should remember the poor, and be lovers of the brethren
and of strangers, for the sake of God and for the sake of
those who believe in God, as we have learnt from the law and
from the prophets, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, concern-
ins the love of the brotherhood and the love of strangers : for
ye know the words which have been spoken concerning the

1 Or " in." 2 1 Cor. vi. 19. ^ j^j^tt. x. 8.

* Lit. " and things similar to these," Matt. xxv. 36.

° 2 Cor. i.\. 29. ^ Lit. "let us be."

TWO EPISTLES COXCERNIXG VIIIGIMTY. 381

love of the brotherhood and the love of strangers ;^ power-
fully are the words spoken to all those who do them.

Chap. xiii. — What priests should he and should not he.

Beloved brethren ! that a man should build up and
establish the brethren on the faith in one God, this also is
manifest and well-known. This too, again, is comely, that
a man should not be envious of his neighbour. And more-
over, again, it is suitable and comely that all those who
work the works of the Lord should work the works of tlie
Lord in the fear of God. Thus is it required of them to
conduct themselves. That " the harvest is great, but the
workmen are few," this also is well-known and manifest.
Let us, therefore, "ask of the Lord of the harvest" tliat
He would send forth workmen into the harvest;^ such
workmen as " shall skdfully dispense the word of truth ;"
workmen "who shall not be ashamed ;"^ faithful workmen;
workmen who shall be " the light of the world ; " * workmen
who "work not for the food that perisheth, but for that food
which abideth unto life eternal ; " ^ workmen who shall be
such as the apostles ; workmen wlio imitate the Fatlier, and
the Son, and the Holy Sjjirit ; wlio are concerned for tlie
salvation of men ; not " hireling " ° workmen ; not workmen
to whom the fear of God and righteousness appear to be
gain ; not workmen who " serve their belly ; " not workmen
who "with fair speeches and pleasant words mislead the
hearts of the innocent ; " ^ not workmen wlio imitate the
children of light, while they are not light but darkness —
"men whose end is destruction;"^ not workmen who prac-
tise iniquity and wickedness and fraud ; not " crafty work-
men ; " ^ not workmen " drunken " and " faithless ; " ^'^ nor
workmen who traffic in Christ ; not misleaders ; not " lovers
of money ; not malevolent." ^^

1 Beelen here omits, as spurious, the words, " because this same thing
is pleasant and agreeable to you : because ye are all tauj.jht of Go<J."
' Matt. ix. 37, 38. ^ Lit. "without shame," 2 Tim. ii. 1.';.

< Mutt. V. 14. 6 Jno. vi. 17. « Jno. x. 12, 13.

' Kom. xvi. 18. 8 piiii. iii. 11). 9 2 Cor. xi. 13.

1'^ See Matt. xxiv. 45-50. " 1 Tim. iii. 3 ; Tit. i. 7.

382 THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

Let us, therefore, contemplate and imitate the faithful who
have conducted themselves well in the Lord, as is becoming
and suitable to our calling and profession. Thus let us do
service before God in justice and righteousness, and without
blemish, " occupying ourselves with things good and comely
before God [and] also before men." ^ For this is comely,
that God be glorified in us in all things.

[Thus] endeth the first Epistle of Clement.

THE SECOND EPISTLE OF THE SAME CLEMENT.

Chap. i. — He describes the circumsjjectness of his intercourse
with the other sex, and tells how in his Journeys he acts
at places where there are brethren only.

I would, moreover, have you know, my brethren, of what
sort is our conduct in Christ, as well as that of all our
brethren, in the [various] places in which we are. And if
so be that you approve it, do ye also conduct yourselves in
like manner in the Lord. Now we, if God help us, conduct
ourselves thus : with maidens we do not dwell, nor have
we any thing in common with them ; with maidens we do
not eat, nor drink ; and, where a maiden sleeps, \ve do not
sleep ; neither do women wash our feet, nor anoint us ; and
on no account do w^e sleep where a maiden sleeps w^ho is
unmarried or has taken the vow:^ even though she be in
some other place [if she be] alone, we do not pass the
night there.^ Moreover, if it chance that the time [for rest]
overtake us in a place, w^hether iti the country, or in a
village, or in a town, or in a hamlet,* or wheresoever we
happen to be, and there are found brethren in that place, we
turn in to one who is a brother, and call together there all
the brethren, and speak to them words of encouragement
and exhortation.^ And those among us who are gifted in

^ Eom. xii. 17. ^ ^' Lit. "or [is] a daughter of the covenant."
^ Beelen's rendering, " we do not even pass the night," seems not to
be favoiu'ed either by the arrangement or the context.

* Lit. " dwelling-place."

* Or "consolation." So -Trapxx.'KriGi; in the N. T. has both senses.

TWO EPISTLES CONCERNING VIRGINITY. 383

speaking will speak such words as are earnest, and serious,
and chaste, in the fear of God, and [exhort them] to please
God in every thing, and abound and go forward in good
works, and "be free from^ anxious care in every thing,"- as
is fit and right for the people of God.

Chap. n. — His behaviour i^i jylaces where there were Christians
of both sexes.

And if, moreover, it chance that we are distant from our
homes and from our neighbours, and the day decline and
the eventide overtake us, and the brethren press us, through
love of the brotlierhood and by reason of their affection for
strangers, to stay with them, so that we may watch with
them, and they may hear the holy word of God and do [it],
and be fed with the words of the Lord, so that they may
be mindful of them, and they set before us bread and
water and that which God provides, and we be willing and
consent to stay through the night with them ; if there be
there a holy man,^ with him we turn in and lodge, and
that same brother will j)i'ovide and prepare whatever is
necessary for us ; and he himself waits upon us, and he
himself washes our feet for us and anoints us with ointment,
and he himself gets ready a bed for us, that we may sleep
in reliance on God. All these things will that consecrated
brother, who is in the place in which we tarry, do in his
own person. He will himself serve the brethren, and each
one of the brethren who are in the same place will join with
him in rendering all those services' which are requisite for
the brethren. But with us may no female, whether young
maiden or married woman, be there at that time ; nor slie
that is aged,^ nor she that has taken the vuw ; not even a
maid-servant, whether Christian or heatlien ; but there shidl

1 Lit. " Avithuut." 2 i^iiii, iy (3_

3 i.e. oue wlio lias taken the vow of celibacy.
* Lit. "will with him iniuister all tlioso thing's."
s ]n > Av iK-eleu's conjecture fur "J^AL "rich." Zingerlc pro-
poses ]^Z'.ik " about [to be married]."

384 THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

only "be men with men. And, if we see it to be requisite
to stand and pray for the sake of the women, and to speak
words of exhortation and edification, we call [together] the
brethren and all the holy sisters and maidens, [and] like-
wise all the other women who are there, [inviting them] with
all modesty and becoming behaviour to come and feast on the
truth.^ And those among us who are skilled in speaking
speak to them, and exhort them in those words which God
has given us. And then we pray, and salute^ one another,
the men the men. But the women and the maidens will
wrap their hands in their garments ; [and] we also, with
circumspection and with all purity, our eyes looking
upwards, shall wrap our right hand in our garments ; and
then they will come and give us the salutation on our right
hand wrapped in our garments. Then we go where God
permits us.

Chap. hi. — Rules for the conduct of celihate brethren in places
where there are only married Christians.

And if, again, we chance to come into a place where there
is no consecrated brother, but all are married, all those who
are there will receive the brother who comes to them, and
minister to him, and care for his wants^ in every tiling,
assiduously, with good-will. And the brother shall be
ministered to by them in the way that is suitable. And
the brother will say to the married persons who are in
that place : "VVe holy men do not eat or drink with women,
nor are we waited on by women or by maidens, nor do
women wash our feet for us, nor do women anoint us,
nor do women prepare our bed for us, nor do we sleep
where women sleep, so that we may be without reproach
in every thing, lest any one should be offended or stumble
at us. And, whilst we observe all these things, " we are
without offence to every man."* As persons, therefore,

1 Lit. " come to the delight of the truth."

2 Lit. " ask of the peace of."

3 Lit. " for that which is his ;" or " for what [belongs] to him."
* 2 Cor. vi. 3.

TWO EPISTLES CONCERNING VIRGINITY. 385

" who know the fear of the Lord, we persuade meu, and
to God we are made manifest." ^

Chap. iv. — Conduct of the hoJy man where there are
women only.

But if we chance to come into a place where there are
no [Christian] men, but all the believers are women and
niaidens,^ and they press us to pass the night there in that
l^lace, we call them all together to some suitable place,^
and ask them how they do ; and according to that which
we learn from them, and what we see to be their state of
mind, we address them in a suitable manner, as men fear-
ing God. And when they have all assembled and come
[together], and we see that they are in peace,* we address
to them words of exhortation in the fear of God, and read
the Scripture to them, with purity and in the concise^
and weighty w^ords of the fear of God. We do every thing
as for their edification. And as to those who are married,
we speak to them in the Lord in a manner suited to them.
And if, moreover, the day decline and the eventide draw on,
M'e select, in order to pass the night there, a woman who
is aged and the most exemplary® of them all ; and we
speak to her to give us a place all to ourselves, where
no woman enters, nor maiden. And this old w^oman her-
self will liring us a lamp, and whatever is requisite for us
she will herself bring us. I'rom love to the bretln-en, she
will bring whatever is requisite for the service of stranger
brethren. And she herself, wdien the time for sleep is
come, will depart and go to her house in peace.

1 2 Cor. V. 11.

2 Lit. " all of them are believing women and maidens."

' Lit. " some place on the right side." The Syrian translator has
probably mistaken the meaning of t/f "« lovov "hi^iov, where o»|/o'i» may
be compared with dexter in Hor. Sat., ii. 1, 18. — Bechii.

* Probably meaning, " when we have inquired of their welfare.''

^ Lit. " compressed."

« Lit. " chaste," or " modest."

S86 THE WIUTINGS OF CLEMENT.

Chap. v. — Where there is only one woman, the father docs
not make a stay. How carefully stumhling-hloelcs must
he avoided.

But if, moreover, we chance upon a place, and find there
one believing woman only, and no other person be there but
she only, we do not stop there, nor pray there, nor read the
Scriptures there, but we flee as from before the face of a
serpent, and as from before the face of sin. Not that we
disdain the believing woman — far be it from us to be so
minded towards our brethren in Christ ! — but, because she
is alone, we are afraid lest any one should make insinuations
against us in words of falsehood. For the hearts of men are
firmly set^ on evil. And, that we may not give a pretext
to those who desire to get a pretext against us and to speak
evil of us, and that we may not be a stumbling-block to any
one, on this account we cut off the pretext of those who
desire to get a pretext against us ; on this account we must
be " on our guard that we be to no one a stumbling-block,
neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor yet to the Church
of God ; and we must not seek that which is profitable to
ourselves only, but that which is for the profit of many, so
that they may be saved."- For this does not profit us,
that another stumble because of us. Let us, therefore, be
studiously on our guard at all times, that we do not smite
our brethren and give them to drink of a disquieting con-
science through our being to them a stumbling-block. For
" if for the sake of meat our brother be made sad, or
sliocked, or made weak, or caused to stumble, we are not
walking in the love of God. For the sake of meat thou
causest him to perish for whose sake Christ died."^ For,
[in] " thus sinning against your brethren and wounding their
sickly consciences, ye sin against Christ Himself. For, if for
the sake of meat my brother is made to stumble," let us
[who are] believers say, " Never will we eat flesh, that we
may not make our brother to stumble."* These things,

1 Or "are set and fixed." 2 \ Qqp_ x. 32, seqq.

3 Rom. xiv, 15. ■* 1 Cor. viii. 12, 13.

TWO EPISTLES CONCERNING VinGIXlTY. 387

moreover, does every one who truly loves God, who truly
takes up his cross, and puts on Christ, and loves his neigh-
bour ; the man who watches over himself that he be not a
stumbling-block to any one, that no one be caused to stumble
because of him and die because he is constantly with maidens
and lives in the same house with them — a tiling wliich is not
right — to the overthrow of those who see and hear. Evil
conduct like this is fraught with stumbling and peril, and
[is] akin^ to death. But blessed is that man who is circum-
spect and fearful in every thing for the sake of purity I

Chap. vi. — How Christians should behave iJiemselves among
heathens.

If, moreover, it chance that we go to a place in Mliieh
there are no Christians, and it be important for us to stay
there a few days, let us be "wise as serpents, and harmless as
doves ;^ and let us " not be as the foolish, but as the "^'ise,"^
in all the [self-] restraint of the fear of God, that God
may be glorified in every thing through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through our chaste and holy behaviour. For,
" whether we eat, or drink, or do any thing else, let us
do it as for the glory of God."* Let " all those who see
us acknowledge that we are a blessed seed,"^ "sons of the
living God,"^ in every thing — in all [our] words, in shame-
fastness, in purity, in humQity, forasmuch as we do not
copy the heathen in any tiling, nor are [as] believers like
[other] men, but in every thing are estranged from tlie
wicked. And we " do not cast that which is holy before
dogs, nor pearls before s^^^.ne;"^ but with all possible
[seK-] restraint, and with all discretion, and with all fear
of God, and -with earnestness of mind we praise God. For
we do not minister where heathens are drinking and blas-
pheming in their feasts with words of impurity, because of
their wickedness.^ Therefore do we not sing [psalms] to the

1 Lit. "near." 2 ]^iatt. x. 16. ^ YL^ih. v. 15, IG. * 1 Cor. x. 31.

* Is. IxL 9. " riiil. ii. 15. ^ Matt. vii. G.

® Beelen joins " because of tlicir wickedness" wth the words that follow.

388 THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

heathens, nor do we read to them the Scriptures, that we
may not be like [common] singers, either those who play
on the lyre,-^ or those who sing with the voice, or [like]
soothsayers, as many are, w^ho follow these practices and
do these things, that they may sate themselves with a paltry
mouthful of bread, and who, for the sake of a sorry cup of
wine, go [about] " singing the songs of the Lord in the
strange land"^ of the heathen, and doing what is not right.
Do not so, my brethren ; we beseech you, my brethren,
let not these deeds be done among you; but put away
those who choose thus to behave themselves with infamy
and disgrace. It is not proper, my brethren, that these things
should be so. But we beseech you, brethren in righteous-
ness, that these things be so [done] with you as with us, as
for a pattern of believers, and of those who shall believe. Let
us be of the flock of Christ, in all righteousness, and in all
holy and unblemished conduct, behaving ourselves with
uprightness and sanctity, as is right for believers, and
observing those things which are praiseworthy, and pure,
and holy, and honourable, and noble ; and do ye promote^
all those things which are profitable. For ye are " our joy,
and our crown," and our hope, and our life, " if so be that
ye stand in the Lord."* So be it !^

Cpiap. VII. — Uses of considering admonitory exanvples, as well
as instructive patterns.

Let us consider, therefore, my brethren, and see how all
the righteous fathers conducted themselves during the
whole time of their sojourn in [this] life, and let us search
and examine from the law [down] to the New Testament.
For this is both becoming and profitable, that we should
know how many men there have been, and who [they were],
that have perished through women ; and who and how many
have been the women that have perished through men, by
reason of the constancy with which they have associated

^ Or " citbara." ^ pj, cxxxvii. 4. ^ Or "set on foot."'

* Phil. iv. 1. 5 Or"Ameii."

TWO EPISTLES COXCEUXTXG VinGiyiTY. 389

with one another. And further, also, for the same reason, I
will show how many have heen the men, and who [they
were], that lived all their lifetime, and continued even to
the close, with one another in [the perfonnance of] chaste
w^orks without blemish. And it is manifest and well-known
that this is so.-^

Chap. viii. — Joseph and Potiphar's wife — Of v:hat kind love
to females ought to he.

[There is] Joseph, faithful, and intelligent, and wise, and
who feared God in every thing. Did not a woman conceive
an excessive passion for the beauty of this chaste and
upright man ? And, w^hen he would not yield and consent
to gratify her passionate desire,^ she cast the righteous man
into every kind of distress and torment, to within a little ol
death,^ by [bearing] false witness. But God delivered him
from all the evils that came upon him through [thiii]
wTctched woman. Ye see, my brethren, what distresses
the constant sight of the person of the Egyptian woman
brouglit upon the righteous man. Therefore, let us not be
constantly with women, nor with maidens. For this is
not profitable for those who truly wish to " gird up their
loins." * For it is required that we love the sisters in all
purity and chasteness, and w4tli all curbing of thought, in
the fear of God, not associating constantly with them, nor
finding access to them at eveiy lioui".

Chap. ix. — Samson's admonitory fall.

Hast thou not heard concerning Samson the Xazarite,
" with whom was tlie Spirit of God," ^ tlie man of great
strengtli ? This man, who was a Nazarite, and consecrated
to God, and who was [gifted] with strength and might, a
woman brought to ruin with [her] wretched botly, and with

^ Wetstein and Zingerle join on this sentence to the next, by a
change of the constructi-jn.

2 Lit. " her pa.ssion and her desire." ^ Lit. " even to death."

* Luke xii. 35. ' Judges xiii. 11.

390 THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

[her] vile passion. Art thou, perchance, such a man
as he ? Know thyself, and know the measure of thy
strength.^ "The married woman catcheth precious souls." ^
Therefore, we do not allow any man whatsoever to sit
with a married woman ; much less to live in the same house
with a maiden who has taken the vow, or to sleep where she
sleeps, or to be constantly with her. For this is to be hated
and abominated by those who fear God,

Chap. x. — David's sin, so admonitory to us weak men.

Does not the case of David instruct thee, whom God
"found a man after His heart," ^ one fiuthful, faultless, pious,
true ? This same man saw the beauty of a woman — I
mean of Bathsheba — when he saw her as she was cleansing
herself and Avashing unclothed. This woman the holy man
saw, and was thorouglily* captivated with desire by the sight
of her.^ See, then, what evils he committed because of a
woman, and [how] this righteous man sinned, and gave
command that the husband of this woman should be killed
in battle. Ye have seen what wicked schemes he laid and
executed, and [how], because of his passion for a woman, he
perpetrated a murder — [he], David, who was called "the
anointed of the Lord." ^ Be admonished, man : for, if such
men as these have been brought to ruin through women,
what is thi/ righteousness, or what art thou among the holy,
that thou consortest with women and with maidens day and
night, with much silliness, without fear of God ? Not [thus],
my brethren, not thus let us conduct ourselves ; but let us
be mindful of that word which is spoken concerning a
woman : " Her hands lay snares, and her heart spreadeth
nets ; but the just shall escape from her, whilst the wicked
falleth into her hands." '' Therefore let us, who are conse-

1 Lit. " know tliy measure." - Prov. vi. 26.

^ 1 Sam. xiii. 14 ; Ps. Ixxxviii. 20, seqq.; Acts xiii. 22.
* Lit. " verily."

^ " By the pleasure [derived] from the sight of heT."—Beelen.
« Ps. xvii. 51 : 2 Sam. xix. 21. ' Eccl. vii. 27.

TWO EPISTLES CONCERNING VIRGINITY. 391

crated/ be careful not to live in the same house with females
who have taken the vow. Por such conduct as this is not
becoming nor right for the servants of God.

Chap. xi. — Admonitory history of the incestuous children of

David.

Hast tliou not read concerning Amnon and Tamar, the
children of David ? This .Amnon conceived a passion for
his sister, and humbled her, and did not spare her, because
he longed for her with a sliameful passion ; and he proved
wicked and profligate because of his constant intercourse
with her, without the fear of God, and he " wrought un-
cleanness in Israel."- Therefore, it is not proper for us,
nor right for us, to associate with sisters, [indulging] in
laughter and looseness ; but [we ought to behave towards
them] with aU chasteness and pmity, and in the fear of the
Lord.

Chap. xii. — Solomoiis infatuation through u-omen.

Hast thou not read the history of Solomon, the son of
David, the man to whom God gave wisdom, and knowledge,
and largeness of mind,^ and riches, and much glory, beyond
all men ? Yet this same man, through women, came to
ruin,'' and departed from the Lord.

Chap. xni. — The history of Susanna teaches circumspection
icith the eyes and in society.

Hast thou not read, and dost thou not know, concerning
those elders wlio were in the days of Susanna, wlio,
because they were constantly with women, and looking
upon the beauty which was another's,* fell into the depths
of wantonness, and were not able to keep themselves in a
chaste mind,'' but were overcome by a depraved disposition,

1 Ut. "holy." 2 Gen. xxxiv. 7. ' Lit. "heart."

'' Or "perished." * Susanna ha\diig a liusliand, Joacliini.

" Lit. " a mind of chasteness."

392 THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

and came suddenly ^ upon the blessed Susanna to corrupt
her. But she did not consent to their foul passion, but
cried unto God, and God saved her out of the hands of the
bad old men. Does it not, therefore, behove us to tremble
and be afraid, forasmuch as these old men, judges and elders
of the people of God, fell from their dignity because of a
woman? For they did not keep in mind that which is
said : " Look thou not on the beauty which is another's ; "
and, " The beauty of woman has destroyed many ; " ^ and,
" With a married woman do not sit ; " ^ and that, again,
[in] w^hich it says : " Is there any one that puts fire in his
bosom, and does not burn his clothes;"* or, "Does a man
walk on fire, and his feet are not scorched ? So whosoever
goeth in to another man's wife is not pure from e\nl, and
whosoever comes near to her shall not escape."^ And
again it says : " Thou shalt not long after the beauty of a
woman, lest she take thee captive with her eyelids ; " ^ and,
"Thou shalt not look upon a maiden, lest thou perish
through desire of her ; " '^ and, " With a woman that sings
beautifully thou shalt not constantly be ; " ^ and, " Let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he faU."^

Chap. xiv. — Examples of cirmimsjject hehaviour from the
Old Testament.

But see what it says also concerning [those] holy men, the
prophets, and concerning the apostles of our Lord. Let us
see whether any one of [these] holy men was constantly
vnth maidens, or with young married women, or with
such widows as the divine apostle declines to receive. Let
us consider, in the fear of God, the manner of life of [these]
holy men. Lo ! we find it \\Titten concerning Moses and
Aaron, that they acted and lived in the company of^°
men, who [themselves also] followed a course of conduct

1 Lit. "rose." 2 Ecclus. ix. 8. ^ Ecclus. ix. 12.

* Prov. xi. 27. * Prov. vi. 28, seq(i. ^ Prov. vi. 25.

^ Ecclus. ix. 5. 8 Ecclus. ix. 4. » 1 Cor. x. 12.

^^ Lit. "their conduct and livinc: was with."

TWO EPISTLES COXCERNIXG VIRGIXITY. 393

like theirs. And thus [did] Joshua also, the son of Nun.
Woman was there none with them ; but tliey by themselves
used holily to minister before God, men with men. And
not only so ; but they taught the people, that, whensoever
the host moved, every tribe should move on apart, and the
women with the women apart, and that they should go into
the rear behind the host, and the men also apart by their
tribes. And, according to the command of the Lord, so did
they set out, like a wise people, that there might be no dis-
order on account of the women when the host moved. Witli
beautiful and well-ordered arrangements did they march
without stumbling. For lo ! the Scriptures bear testimony
to my words : " "Wlien the children of Israel had crossed
over the Sea of Suph, Moses and the children of Israel sang
the praises of the Lord, and said : We will praise the Lord,
because He is exceedingly to be praised."^ And, after that
Moses had finished^ singing praises, then ]Miriam, the sister
of Moses and Aaron, took a timbrel in her hands, and all the
women went out after her, and sang praises with her, women
with women apart, and men with men apart. Then again, we
find that Elisha and Gehazi and the sons of the prophets
lived together in the fear of God, and that they had no females
living with them. Micah [too], and all the prophets likewise,
we find to have lived in this manner in the fear of the Lord.

CuAP. XV. — The example of Jesus — Hoio we may allow
ourselves to he served hy women.

And, not to extend our discourse to [too] great length, what
shall we say concerning our Lord Jesus Christ ? Our Lord
Himself was constantly with His twelve disciples when He
had come [forth] to the world. And not only so ; but also,
when He was sending them out, He sent them out two and
two together, men with men ; but women were not sent
with them, and neither in the higliway nor in the house did
they associate with women or with maidens : and thus thty
pleased God in every tiling. Also, when our Lord Jesua
^ Exodub XV. 1. - Lit. "ceased from."

394 THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT.

Christ Himself was talking with the woman of Samaria by
the well alone, "His disciples came" and found Him talking
with her, " and wondered that Jesus was standing and talk-
ing with a woman." ^ Is He not a rule, such as may not be
set aside, an example, and a pattern to all the tribes of men ?
And not only so ; but also, when our Lord was risen from
the place of the dead, and Mary came to the place of sepul-
ture, she ran and fell at the feet of our Lord and worshipped
Him, and would have taken hold of Him. But He said to
her : " Touch Me not ; for I am not yet ascended to My
Father."^ Is it not, then, matter for astonishment, that,
while our Lord did not allow Mary, the blessed woman, to
touch His feet, yet thou livest with them, and art waited on
by women and maidens, and sleepest where they sleep,
and women wash thy feet for thee, and anoint thee !
Alas for this culpable state of mind ! Alas for this
state of mind which is destitute of fear ! Alas for this
effrontery and folly which is without fear of God ! Dost
thou not judge thine own self? Dost thou not examine
thine own self ? Dost thou not know thine own self and
the measure of thy strength ? These things, moreover, are
trustworthy, and these things are true and right ; and
these are rules immutable for those who behave themselves
uprightly in our Lord. Many holy women, again, ministered
to holy men of their substance, as the Shunammite woman
ministered to Elisha ; but she did not live with him, but the
prophet lived in a house apart. And, when her son died, she
wanted to throw herself at the feet of the prophet ; but his
attendant would not allow her, but restrained her. But
Elisha said to his servant : " Let her alone, because her soul
is distressed."^ From these things, then, we ought to
understand their manner of life. To Jesus Christ our Lord
women ministered of their substance; but they did not
live A^dth him ; but chastely, and holily, and unblameably
they behaved before the Lord, and finished their course, and
received the crown in* our Lord God Almighty.

1 Jno. iv. 27. - Jno. xx. 17. ^ 2 Kings iv. 27.

* Beelen suggests the reading " from," or to render the present
text "bj."

TWO EPISTLES CONCERNING VIIiGrNITY. 305

Chap xvi. — Exhoi'tation to vnion and to obedience —
Conclusion.

Therefore, we beseecli you, our brethren in our T^rd, that
these things be observed with you, as with us, and that we
may be of the same mind, that we may be one in you and
ye may be one in us, and that in ever}"thing we may be [of]
one soul and one heart in our Lord. Wliosoevcr knowcth
the Lord heareth us ; and every one who is not of God
heareth not us. He who desires truly to keep sanctity
heareth us ; and the virgin who truly desires to keep
virginity heareth us ; but she who does not truly desire
to keep virginity doth not hear us. Finally, farewell in our
Lord, and rejoice in the Lord, all ye saints. Peace and joy
be with you from God the Father through Jesus Christ our
Lord. So be it.

[Thus] endeth the second Epistle of Clement, the disciple
of Peter. His prayer be with us ' Sc be it.

FRAGMENTS OF WRITERS OF THE
THIRD CENTURY.

THEOGNOSTUS OF ALEXANDRIA.

BIOGEAPHICAL NOTICE.

|F this Theognostus we have no account "by
either Eusebius or Jerome. Athanasius, how-
ever, mentions him more than once with honour.
Thus he speaks of him as dvrip Xoyiog, an eloqvxnt
or learned man (De Becrd. Nic. Syn. 25, Works, vol. i.
part i. p. 230), and again as QidyvuoTog o dau/j^dawg xai
cTovdaTog, the admirable and zealous Theognostus (Epist. 4,
to Serapion, sec. 9, vol. i. part ii. p. 702). He seems
to have belonged to the Catechetical school of Alexandria,
and to have flourished there in the latter half of the third
century, probably about 260. That he was a disciple of
Origen, or at least a devoted student of liis works, is clear
from Photius (Bihl. cod. 106). He wrote a work in seven
books, the title of which is thus given by Photius : roZ
/jLay.aptou Oioyvudrov AXs^uiidpiug xai e^i^yriTOu vTorv^uetig ; TJie
Outlines of the blessed Theognostus, the exegete of Alexandria.
Dodwell and others are of opinion that by this term i^nynroxj
is meant the presidency of the Catechetical school and the
privilege of public teaching; and that the title i/Torucrcoffg/c,
or Outlines, was taken from Clement, his predecessor in
office. According to Photius, the work was on this plan.
The first book treated of God the Eather, as the maker of
the universe ; the second, of the necessary existence of the
Son ; the third, of the Holy Spirit ; the fourth, of angek

FRAGMENTS. 397

and demons ; the fifth and sLxth, of the incarnation of God ;
■wliile the seventh bore the title, On God's Creation {de Dei
creation). Photius has much to say in condemnation of
Theognostus, who, however, has been vindicated by Bull
{Defens. fid. Nic., sec. ii. chap. 10), and Prudentius ^Nlaranus
{Divinit. I. C, iv. 24). Gregory of Xyssa has also charged
him with holding the same error as Eunomius on the sub-
ject of the Son's relation to the work of creation (book iii.,
against Eunomius). He is adduced, however, by Athanasius
as a defender of the Homousian doctrine.

FEAGMENTS OF HIS SEVEN BOOKS OF
HYPOTYPOSES OE OUTLINES.

[From Book ii. In Athanasius,^ On the Decrees of the Niccne Council,
sec. XXV. From the edition B.B., Paris, 1698, vol. i. part L p. 230.J

The substance (outr/a) of the Son is not a substance
devised extraneously Q^adiv ifsvpeOiTga), nor is it one intro-
duced out of nothing (ix firi ovt uv imieri-xdn) ; but it was born
of the substance of the Father, as the reflection of light or as
the steam of water. For the reflection is not the sun itself,
and the steam is not the water itseK, nor yet again is it any
thing alien ; [neither is He Himself the Father, nor is He
alien, but He is]- an emanation (drro^poia) from tlie substance
of tlie Father, this substance of the Father suflering the
while no partition. For as the sun remains the same and
suffers no diminution from the rays tliat are poured out
by it, so neither did the substance of the Father undergo
any change in having the Son as an image of itself.

^ Athanasius introduces this fragment in the following terms : —
Learn then, ye Christ-opposing Arians, that Theognostus, a man of
learning, did not decline to use the expression " of the substance" {U r^;
ovaixg). For, writing of the Son in the second book of his Outlines, he
has spoken thus : The substance of the Son. — Tr.

- The words within brackets were inserted by Routh from a Catena
on the Epistle to the ne1)rews, where they are ascribed to ThcognostUiJ ;
" He Himself" is the Sun.

398 THE WRITINGS OF TIIEOGNOSTUS.

II.

[In Athanasius, Epist. 4, toSeraitiou, sec. 11, vol. i. part ii. p. 703.]

Theognostus, moreover, himself adds words to this effect :
He who has offended against the first term {opo)/), and the
second may be judged to deserve smaller punishment ; but
he who has also despised the third, can no longer find
pardon. For by the first term and the second, he says, is
meant the teaching concerning the Father and the Son ; but
by the third is meant the doctrine committed to us with
respect to the perfection {nXuujcu) and the partaking of the
Spirit. And with the view of confirming this, he adduces
the word spoken by the Saviour to the disciples : " I have yet
many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
But when the Holy Spirit is come. He will teach you."^

III.

[In the same."]

Then he says again : As the Saviour converses with those
not yet able to receive what is perfect {ra tsXsio), conde-
scending to their littleness, while the Holy Spirit com-
munes with the perfected, and yet we could never say on
that account that the teaching of the Spirit is superior to
the teaching of the Son, but only that the Son condescends
to the imperfect, while the Spirit is the seal of the per-
fected ; even so it is not on account of the superiority of the
Spirit over the Son that the blasphemy against the Spirit is
a sin excluding impunity and pardon, but because for the
imperfect there is pardon, while for those who have tasted
the heavenly gift,^ and been made perfect, there remains no
plea or prayer for pardon.

1 Jno. xvi. 12, 13. * Heb. vi. 4

FRAGMENTS. 399

PIERIUS OF ALEXANDRIA.

BIOGEArHICAL NOTICE.

Among the very eminent men ^vho flourished near his own
time, Eusehius mentions I'ierius, a presbyter of Alexandria,
and speaks of him as greatly renowned for his voluntary
poverty, his philosophical erudition, and his skill in tlie
exposition of Scrij)tiire and in discoursing to the public
assemblies of the Church {Hist. UccL, vii. 32). He lived in
the latter part of the third century, and seems to have been
for a considerable period president of the Catechetical school
at Alexandria. Jerome says that he was called Origcnes,
junior ; and according to Photius, he shared in some of the
errors of Origen, on such subjects especially as the doctrine
of the Holy Ghost and the pre-existence of souls. In his
manner of life he was an ascetic. After the persecution
under Galerius or INIaximus he lived at Eome. He appears
to have devoted himself largely to sacred criticism and the
study of the text of Scripture ; and among several treatises
MTittcn by him, and extant in the time of Photius, we find
mention made of one on the prophet Hosea. And, in
addition to the Commentary on the First Epistle to the
Corinthians^ Photius notices twelve books of his, and
praises both their composition and their matter. — Sec
Eusebius as above, Jerome in the preface to Hosea,
Fhotius, cod. 118, 119 ; Fjnphanius, 69, 2 ; Zardncr, part ii.
book i. chap. 24 ; &c.

^ Lai'daer (part ii. book i. chap, xxiv.) does not tliink that tlicre was
a commentary written by Pierius on this epistk^ but only that the
word of Paul, nientionetl behjw, was e.xjiounded at lonj^'th in some work
or other by Pierius. Fabricius holds the opposite opiuiou. — Tr.

400 THE WRITINGS OF FIERI US.

A Fragment of a Work of Pierius on the First Epistle
OF Paul to the Corinthians.

This very brief quotation is preserved in Jerome's Second EpLstle to
PammacMus. Thus :

Origen, Dionysius, Pierius, Eusebius of Caesareia, Didy-
mus, and Apollinaris, have interpreted this epistle most
copiously (latissimc) ; of whom Pierius, when he was
expounding and unfolding the meaning of the apostle,
and purposed to explain the words. For I tvould that all
men were even as I myself} added this remark : In saying
this, Paul, without disguise, preaches celibacy (vol. iv.
p. 243, edit. Benedictin).

II.
A SECTION ON THE WPJTINGS OF PIEEIUS.

From the Bibliotheca of Photius, cod. 119, p. 300, ed. Hoeschel.]

Different Discourses of the Preshyter Pierius.

There was read a book by Pierius the presbyter, who,
they say, endured the conflict (of martjTdom) for Christ,
along with his brother Isidorus. And he is reputed to have
been the teacher of the martyr Pamphilus in ecclesiastical
studies, and to have been president of the school at Alex-
andria. The work contained twelve books {X6yo\ig). And
in style he is perspicuous and clear, with the easy flow,
as it were, of a spoken address, displajang no signs of
laboured art {IviiliXh, hdBixrjfMivog), but bearing us quietly
along, smoothly and gently, like off-hand speaking. And
in argument he is most fertile, if any one is so. And he
expresses his opinion on many things outside what is now
established in the Church, perhaps in an antique manner :
but with respect to the Father and the Son, he sets forth his
^ 1 Cor. vii. 7.

FRAUMEMS. 401

sentiments piously, except that lie speaks of two substances
and two natures; using, however, the terms substance and
nature, as is apparent from what follows, and from what
precedes tliis passage, in the sense of person (u-rosraaig) and
not in the sense put on it by the adherents of Arius. AVith
respect to the Spirit, however, he lays down his opinion in
a very dangerous and far from pious manner. For he
affirms that He is inferior to the Father and the Son in
glory. He has a passage also in the book (s/; rov /.6yoi)
entitled, On the Gospel according to Luke, from which it
is possible to show that the honour or dishonour of the
image is also tlie honour or dishonour of the original.
And, again, he indulges in some obscure speculations, after
the manner of the nonsense of Origen, on the suliject of tlie
" pre-existence of souls." And also in the book on the
Passover (Easter) and on Hosea, he treats both of the
cherubim made by Moses, and of the pillar of Jacob, in
which passages he admits the actual construction of those
things, but propounds the foolish theory that they were
given economically, and that they were in no respect like
other things which are made ; inasmuch as tliey bore the
likeness of no other form, but had only, as he foolishly says,
the appearance of wings.^

MALCHION,

A PEESBYTEIi OF THE CIIUllCII OF ANTIOCH.

BIOGEArHICAL NOTICE.

Eusebius {llid. EccL, vii. 29) speaks of Maldiion as a
man accomplished in other branches of learning («»;/» ra n

1 The text here is evidently corrupt. It runs thu.s : oUoi>of*.iei{ li
"hoyu avyx^p/t&^Doti fioi.-vxio'hoyu u; ovOiu vjioi!/ u: tTtox ri '/i'/(»r,un>et.
u; oi/Oi rifzov oi'h'Kov i^ips fioolffi;, ocXAot /aoixii/ rrrtovyusi KmoMyu TtOUf
ctvTx a%riU.oi. Hoe.sclieliiis propo.ses <u; ovhiv ^oui>, u; 'irtpov *i<Jitv, iii
inpcc, &c. ; and lie rejects the u; in u; ovhiv ri/xov on the authority oi
four codices. — Tu.

402 THE WniTINGS OF MALCJJWN.

a)Xa 'Koytoi), and well-vcrscd in Greek letters in particular,
and as liolding the presidency of the Sophists' school at
Antioch. Jerome {De viris illustr., ch. 71) says that he
taught rhetoric most successfully in the same city. Nor
was it only that he excelled in secular erudition ; but for
the earnest sincerity of his Christian faith he obtained the
dignity of presbyter in the church of that place, as Eusebius
also tells us. He took part in the Synod of Antioch, whicli
Eusebius calls the final council, and which Gallandi and
others call the second, in opposition to Pearson, who holds
that there was but one council at Antioch. This synod met
apparently about 269, and dealt with Paul of Samosata, who
had introduced the heresy of Artemon into the Chm'ch of
Antioch; and Eusebius says that Malchion was the only
one who, in the discussion which took place there with the
arch-heretic, and which was taken down by stenographers
who were present, was able to detect the subtle and crafty
sentiments of the man. Paul's real opinions being thus
unveiled, after he had baffled the acuteness of his ecclesias-
tical judges for some time, he was at length convicted ; and
the discussion was published, and a synodical epistle was
sent on the subject to Dionysius, bishop of Eome, and to
Maximus of Alexandria, and to all the provinces, which,
according to Jerome {De vir. illustr., ch. 71), was \^Titten by
Malchion, and of which we have extracts in Eusebius
(vii. 30).

The Epistle written by Malchion, in name of the Synod
OF Antioch, against Paul of Samosata.

(In Eusebius, vii. 30.)

To Dionysius and ]\Iaximus, and to all our fellows in the
ministry throughout the world, both bishops and presbyters
and deacons, and to the whole Catholic Church under
heaven, Helenus and Hymena^us and Theoi)hilus and Theo-
tecnus and Maximus, Proclus, Nicomas and Aelianus, and
Paul and Bolanus and ProtoQ'enes and Hierax and Eutychius

FRAG MEMS. 4(i3

and Theodorus and jNIalcliion and Lucius, and all the others
who are with us, dwelling in the neighbouring cities and
nations, both bishops and presbyters and deacons, together
wath the churches of God, send greeting to our brethren
beloved in the Lord.

1. After some few introductory words, they proceed thus :
— AVe wrote to many of the bishops, even those who live at
a distance, and exhorted them to give their help in relieving
us from this deadly doctrine ; among these, we addi-esscd,
for instance, Dionysius, the bishop of Alexandria, and Fir-
milian of Cappadocia, those men of blessed name. Of these,
the one wrote to Antioch without even deigning to honour
the leader in this error by addressing him ; nor did he write
to him in his own name, but to the whole district (^apoixicf.),
of which letter we have also subjoined a copy. And Fir-
milian, who came twice in person, condemned the innova-
tions in doctrine, as we who were present know and bear
witness, and as many others know as well as we. But when
he (Paul) promised to give up these opinions, he believed
him ; and hoping that, without any reproach to the A\'ord,
the matter would be rightly settled, he postponed his
decision ; in wliich action, however, he was deceived by that
denier of his God and Lord, and betrayer of the faith whicli
he formerly held. And now Firmilian was minded to cross
to Antioch ; and he came as far as Tarsus, as having already
made trial of the man's infidel (apvrjdidkv) iniquity. But
when we had just assembled, and were calling for liini and
waiting for his arrival, his end came upon liim.

2. After other matters again, they tell us in the following
terms of what manner of life he was : — But there is no need
of judging his actions when he was outside (the Church),
w'hen he revolted from the faith and turned aside t<>
spurious and illegitimate doctrines. Nor need we say any
thing of such matters as this, that, whereas he wa.s formeily
poor and beggarly, having neither inherited a single posses-
sion from his fathers, nor acquired any property by art or
by any trade, he has now come lo have excessive wealtli by
liis deeds of iiii(|uity ami sacrilege, and by tliose means by

404 THE WIUTIXGS OF MALClllON.

^vllich lie despoils and concusses the brethren, casting- the
injured unfairly in their suit/ and promising to help them
for a price, yet deceiving them all the while and to their
loss, taking advantage of the readiness of those in difficulties
to give in order to get deliverance from what troubled
them, and thus supposing that gain is godliness.- Neither
need I say any thing about his pride and the haughtiness
with which he assumed worldly dignities, and his wishing
to be styled procurator^ rather than bishop, and his strutting
through the market-places, and reading letters and reciting
them {yrtayofiLoiv) as he walked in public, and his being
escorted by multitudes of people going before liim and fol-
lowing him ; so that he brought ill-will and hatred on the
faith by his haughty demeanour and by the arrogance of
his heart. Nor shall I say any tiling of the quackery
which he practises in the ecclesiastical assemblies, in the
way of courting popularity and making a gTeat parade,
and astounding by such arts the minds of the less sophis-
ticated ; nor of his setting up for himself a lofty tri-
bunal and throne, so unlike a discij)le of Christ; nor of
his having a secretum^ and calling it by that name, after
the manner of the rulers of this world ; nor of his striking
his thigh with his hand and beating the tribunal with his
feet ; nor of his censuring and insulting those who did not
applaud him nor shake their handkerchiefs,^ as is done in
the theatres, nor bawl out and leap about after the manner of
his partisans, both male and female, who were such dis-
orderly listeners to him, but chose to hear reverently and
modestly as in the house of God ; nor of his unseemly and
\dolent attacks in the congregation upon the expounders of
the AVord who have already departed this life, and his magni-

1 x«T«/3j5s£/3it)wj/, perhaps=receiviiig bribes from. - 1 Tim. vi. 5.

^ aovx-rivotpto;, the name given under tbe Emperors to those procura-
tors who received 200 sestertia of annual salary.

* aiix-prfrov (from the Latin secerno, to separate) was the name given to
the elevated place, railed in and curtained, where the magistrate sat to
decide cases.

^ KXTxaziovixi TOil; 666uccts, alluding to the custom of sliakiiig the
orana or linen handkerchiefs as a token of applause.

FRAUMKXTS. 40,j

fying of himself, not like a bishop, hut like a soplii^t and
juggler; nor of his putting a stop to the psalms sung iu honour
of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the recent compositions of recent
men, and preparing women to sing psalms in honour nf
himself in the midst of the Church, in the great day of the
Paschal festival, which choristers one might shudder to hear.
And besides, he acted on those bishops and presbyters, who
fawned upon him in the neighbouring districts and cities, to
advance the like opinions in their discourses to their people.

3. For we may say, to anticipate a little what we intend
to \STite below, that he does not wish to acknowledge that
the Son of God came down from heaven. And this is a
statement wliich shall not be made to depend on simple asser-
tion; for it is proved abundantly by those memoranda whith
we sent you, and not least by that passage in which he says
that Jesus Christ is from below. And they who sing his
praise and eidogise him among the people, declare that their
impious teacher has come down as an angel from heaven.
And such utterances the haughty man does not check, but
is present even when they are made. And then again there
are these women — these adopted sisters,^ as the peojile of
Autioch call them — who are kept by him and by the presby-
ters and deacons with him, whose incurable sins in this and
other matters, though he is cognisant of them, and has con-
A'icted them, he connives at concealing, with the view of
keeping the men subservient to himself, and preventing
them, by fear for their own position, from daring to accuse
him in the matter of his impious words and deeds. Besides
this, he has made liis followers rich, and for that he is loved
and admired by those who set their hearts on these things.
But why should we write of these things ? For. beloved,
we know that the bishop and all tlie clergy (itpartm) ought

^ avvii7ot.x.Tov; yvi/ocixct;, ])riests'-lioust'keeperp. Sec Lanf,'e on Nitf-
jdiorus, vi. 30, and 1'. Ixlunanus on llutinu.s, vii. The third canon «)f
the Nicene Council in the Code.v Corl)eien.si.s has this title, De subin-
trodiidis id f.s< adopthns sororibits, 0/ the subintmduced, that i'.*, the
adopted sisters. See also on the abuse, Jerome, in the Kpij<tle to Ktts-
tochius. They appear also to have Iteen call''1 '""• """•• »'"■• :ni<l nn<ip' fir.
See the. note of Valesius in Minnie. —Ta.

406 THE WRITINGS OF MALClllON.

to be an example in all good works to the people. Nor are
we ignorant of the fact that many have fallen away through
introducing these women into their houses, while others
have fallen under suspicion. So that, even although one
should admit that he has been doing nothing disgraceful in
this matter, yet he ought at least to have avoided the sus-
picion that springs out of such a course of conduct, lest
])erchance some might be offended, or find inducement to
imitate him. For how, then, shoidd any one censure another,
or warn him to beware of yielding to greater familiarity
with a woman, lest perchance he might slip, as it is written : ^
if, although he has dismissed one, he has still retained two
with him, and these in the bloom of their youth, and of fair
counteuan(3e ; and if when he goes away he takes them with
him ; and all this, too, while he indulges in luxury and sur-
feiting ?

4. And on account of these things all are groaning and
lamenting Avith themselves ; yet they have such a dread of
liis tyranny and power that they cannot venture on accusing
him. And of these things, as we have said already, one
miffht take account in the case of a man who held catholic
sentiments and belonged to our own number ; but as to one
who has betrayed (ggop^Jiffa/xsvov, danced away) the mystery
(of the faith), and who swaggers (-vxTo/xcrsioi/ra) with the
abominable heresy of Artemas (for why should we hesitate
to disclose Ms father ?), we consider it unnecessary to exact
of him an account for these things.

5. Then at the close of the epistle they add the following
vwrds : — We have been compelled, therefore, to exconmiuni-
cate this man, who thus opposeth God Himself, and refuses
submission, and to appoint in his place another bishop for the
Church catholic, and that, as we trust, by the providence of
God — namely, the son of Demetrianus, a man of blessed
memory, and one who presided over the same Church with
distinction in former times, Domnus by name, a man en-
dowed with all the noble qualities which become a bishop.
And this fact we have communicated to you in order that

1 Eeferrini,^ either to Proverbs vi. or to Ecclesiasticus xxv.

FRAGMEXTS. 407

ye may write him, and receive letters of commuuiou^ fruin
him. And that other may MTite to Artemas, if it please
liim ; and those who think with Artemas may hold com-
munion with him, if they are so minded.

II.

Fragments apparkntly of the same Eimstle of the Synod
OF Antioch ; to wit, of that part of it which it is

AGREED THAT EUSEBIUS LEFT UNNOTICED.
[In Lcontius of Byzantium, contra Nestor., book iii., towards the end.]

He says, therefore, in the commentaries (they speak of
I*aul), that he maintains the dignity of wisdom.
And thereafter:

If, however, he had been united (copulatus crnt) according
to formation and generation, this is M'hat befalls the man.
And again : For that wisdom, as we believe, was not con-
generate {congencratam) with humanity substantially, but
qualitatively {secundum qualitatem).
And thcreriftcr :

In what respect, moreover, does he mean to allege that
the formation {formationem) of Christ is different and
diverse from ours, when we liold that, in this one thing of

^ x-oiuuvix-d. yo»t4,y.*Tx. On this Valesius gives the foUowin;^ note : —
The Latins call these littcrce comv\unicatori<B , the use of which is of
very ancient date in tlie Church. They called the sanie also formatce,
as Augustine witnesses in Epistle 163. There were, moreover, two
kinds cif them. For there were some which were given to the clerg}'
and laity when about to travel, that they might be admitted to com-
munion by foreign bishops. And there were others which bishop:^
were in the way of sending to other bishops, and which they in turn
received from others, for the purpose of attesting their intercommunion ;
of which sort the Synod speaks here. These were usually sent by
recently-ordained bishops soon after their ordination. Augustine,
Epistle 102 ; Cyprian, in the Epistle to Conielius,p. 92 ; and the Synoili-
cal Epistle of the Coimcil of Sardica, appear to refer to these, though
thev may refer also to \'\\(t formatce.

408 THE WRITINGS OF MALCIIION.

prime consequence, His constitution differs from ours, to
wit, that what in us is the interior man, is in Him the
■Word.i

And thereafter:

If he means to allege that Wisdom dwells in Him as in
no other, this expresses indeed the same mode of inhabita-
tion, though it makes it excel in respect of measure and
multitude ; He being supposed to derive a superior know-
ledge from the Wisdom, say for example, twice as large as
others, or any other number of times as large ; or, again, it
may be less than twice as large a knowledge as others have.
This, however, the catholic and ecclesiastical canons disallow,
and hold rather that other men indeed received of Wisdom
as an inspiration from without, which, though with them, is
distinct from them (cdia est apud iinos) ; but that Wisdom
in verity came of itself substantially into His body by Mary.
And after other matters :

And they hold that there are not two Sons. But if Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, and if Wisdom also is the Son of
God; and if the Wisdom is one thing and Jesus Clirist
another, there are two Sons.

And thereafter:

Moreover understand (Paul would say) the union with
the Wisdom in a different sense, namely as being one accord-
ing to instruction and participation ; - but not as if it were
formed according to the substance in the body.
And after other matters:

Neither was the God who bore the human body and had
assumed it, without knowledge (exjjers) of human affections
{passionum, sufferings) in the first instance {principalitcr) ;
nor was the human body without knowledge, in the first
instance, of divine operations in him in whom He (the God)

^ We .saj', tliat as the exterior and the iiiteiior man are one person,
so God the Word and humanity have been assumed as one person, a
thing which Paul denies. — Can.

2 Secundum disciplinam et participationem. Paul of Samosata used
to say that the humanity was united with the Wisdom as instruction
(discij^lina) is united witli the learner by iiarticipation. — Can.

lUA(iMi:M\'S. 409

was, and by whom He wrought these operations. lie was
formed, in the first instance, as man in the woml^ ; and,
in the second instance,^ the God also was in the womb,
united essentially with the human {awovaiuiMho; rQ ai-iJ^wrA'^),
that is to say, His substance being wedded with the man.

III.

Feom the Acts of the Disputation conducted by
jNIalchion against Paul of Samos.vta.

[In Petrus Diacoims, l)e Incarnat. ad Fulgentiiim, cli. G. Among the
works of Fulguntius, Epistle 16.]

The compound is surely made up of the simple elements
(ex simplicibics jit certc compositum), even as in the instance
of Jesus Christ, who was made one (person), constituted by
God the Word, and a human body which is of the seed of
David, and who subsists without having any manner of divi-
sion between the two, but in unity. You, however, appear to
me to decline to admit a constitution {com2)ositio7ic7n)ahev this
fashion : to the effect that there is not in this person, the Son
of God according to substance, but only tlie Wisdom accord-
ing to participation. For you made this assertion, that the
Wisdom bears dispensing, and therefore cannot be com-
pounded ;- and you do not consider that the divine Wi.sdom
remained undiminished, even as it was before it evacuated
itself (exinanissct) ; and thus in this self-evacuation, wliich
it took upon itself in compassion (for us), it continued
undiminished and unchangeable. And this assertion you
also make, that the Wisdom dwelt in Him, just as we also
dweU in houses, the one in the otlicr,^ and yet not as if we
formed a part of the house, or the house a part of us.

^ Secundaria, i.e. kxtcc Ozirnpov Xsyov. — Turridii.

* Quia sapientia dii^pcndium patiatur et ideo composita esse non possit —
the sense intended being perhaps just that Paul alleged that the divine
AVisdoni admitted of being disjiensed or imparted to another, but not
of being substantially unit(d witli him. — Tr.

•* Some read alter in <tlliru, otiiurs alter in altera.

410 THE WHITINGS OF ANATOLI US.

IV.

[From the same Acts in Leontius, as above.]

Did I not say before that you do not admit that the only-
begotten Son, who is from all eternity before every creature,
was made substantially existent {ohaiuadai) in the whole
person of the Saviour (m toto Salvatore) ; that is to say, was
united (with Him) according to substance ?

ANATOLIUS OF ALEXANDRIA,

BISHOP OF LAODICEA, IX SYRIA.

BIOGEAPHICAL NOTICE.

From Jerome [De illustr. viris., ch. 73) we learn that
Anatolius flourished in the reign of Probus and Carus, that
he was a native of Alexandria, and that he became bishop
of Laodicea. Eusebius gives a somewhat lengthened account
of him in the 32d chapter of the seventh book of his
Ecclesiastical History, and speaks of him in terms of the
strongest laudation, as one surpassing all the men of his
time in learning and science. He tells us that he attained
the highest eminence in arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy,
besides being a great proficient also in dialectics, physics,
and rhetoric. His reputation was so great among the Alex-
andrians that they are said to have requested him to open a
school for teaching the Aristotelian philosophy in their city.
He did great service to his fellow-citizens in Alexandria on
their being besieged by the Eomans in a.d. 262, and was
the means of saving the lives of numbers of them. After
this he is said to have passed into Syria, where Theotecnus,
the bishop of Caesareia, ordained him, destining him to be
his own successor in the bishopric. After this, however,
having occasion to travel to Antioch to attend the synod
convened to deal with the case of Paul of Samosata, as he
passed through the city of Laodicea, he was detained by the
people and made bishop of the place, in succession to Euse-

FRAGMK.XTS. 411

bius. This must have Ijeen about tlie year 270 a.d. How
long he held that dignity, however, we do not know.
Eusebius tells us that he did not write many books, but yet
enough to show us at once his eloquence and his erudition.
Among these was a treatise on the Chronolony of EaMer, of
which a considerable extract is preserved in Eusebius. The
book itself exists now only in a Latin version, which is
generally ascribed to Eufinus, and which was published by
-^gidius Bucherius in Ids Doctrina Teyi^iorum, which was
issued at Antwerp in 1G34. Anotlier work of his was the
Institutes of Arithmetic, of wliicli we have some frajmients
in the koXoyoliuva Tr,g dpiO/i-rirr/.r^g wliich, was published at
Paris in 1543. Some small fragments of his mathematical
works, which have also come down to us, were published
by Fabricius in his Bihliotheca Grccca, iii. p. 4G2.

THE PASCHAL CANON OF ANATOLIUS
OF ALEXxVNDRIA,

[First edited from au ancient nianusciii)t by .^gidius Buclieriua,
of the Society of Jesus.]

As we are about to si)eak on the subject of the order of
the times and alternations of the world, we sliall first dispose
of the positions of diverse calculators ; who, by reckoning
only by the course of tlie moon, and leaving out of account
the ascent and descent of the sun, with the addition of
certain problems, have constructed diverse periods (circulos),
seK-contradictory, and such as are never found in the
reckoning of a true computation ; since it is certain that no
mode of computation is to be ajtproved, in Nvhicli these two
measures are not found together. For even in the ancient
exemplars, tliat is, in the books of the Hebrews and d reeks,
we find not only the course of the moon, but also tliat of tlie
sun, and, indeed, not simply its course in the gencrae (f/rcssuji),
but even the separate and ndnutest moments of its hours all

412 riii<: \yjiiTL\(;s of anatotaus.

calculatud, as we shall sliow at the proper time, when tlie
matter in hand demands it. Of these Hippolytus made up
a period of sixteen years with certain imknown courses of
tlie moon. Others have reckoned by a period of twenty-five
years, others by thirty, and some by eighty-four years,
without, however, teaching thereby an exact method of cal-
culating Easter. But our predecessors, men most learned
in the books of the Hebrews and Greeks (I mean Isidore
and Jerome and Clement), althougli they have noted dis-
similar beginnings for the montlis, just as they differ also
in language, have, nevertheless, come harmoniously to one
and the same most exact reckoning of Easter, day and month
and season meeting in accord with the highest honour for
the Lord's resurrection. But Origen also, the most erudite
of all, and the acutest in making calculations (a man, too, to
whom the epithet y(^a,x-/.iUT7]g^ is given), has published in a
very elegant manner a little book on Easter. And in this
book, while declaring, with respect to the day of Easter, that
attention must be given not only to the course of the moon
and the transit of the equinox, but also to the passage
(traoisccnsum) of the sun, which removes every foul ambush
and offence of all darkness, and brings on the advent of light
and the power and inspiration of the elements of the whole
world, he speaks thus : In the (matter of the) day of Easter,
he remarks, I do not say that it is to be observed that the
Lord's day should be found, and the seven ^ days of the
moon which are to elapse, but that the sun should pass that
division, to wit, between light and darkness, constituted in
an equality by the dispensation of the Lord at the beginning
of the world ; and that, from one hour to two hours, from
two to three, from three to four, from four to five, from five
to six hours, while the light is increasing in the ascent of

the sun, the darkness should decrease,^ and the

addition of the twentieth niunber being completed, twelve

^ i.e. "smitli" or "brasier," probaWy from liis assiduitii.
~ Limae vii. Perhaps, as Buclier conjectui-es, Limae xiv., fourteen
days, &c.

2 The text is doubtful and corrui't here.

1 n AG ME MS. 41:3

parts should be su])plieJ in one and the same day. But if
I should liave attenq^ted to add any little drop of mine
{aliqiLxd stillicidii) after the exuberant streams of the
eloquence and science of some, what else should there
be to believe but that it should be ascribed by all to
ostentation, and (to speak more truly) to madness, did
not the assistance of your promised prayers animate us
for a little ? For we believe that nothing is impossible to
your power of prayer, and to your faith. Strengthened,
therefore, by this confidence, we shall set bashfulness aside,
and shall enter this most deep and unforeseen sea of tlie
obscurest calculation, in which swelling questions antl
problems surge around us on all sides.

II.

There is, then, in the first year, the new moon of the
first month, which is the beginning of every cycle of nine-
teen years, on the six and twentieth day of the month called
by the Eg\q)tians Phamenoth. But, according to the montlis
of the j\Iacedonian.s, it is on the tM'o-aiid-twentieth day of
Dystrus. And, as the Eomans would say, it is on the
eleventh day before the Kalends of April. Now the sun is
found on the said six-and-twentieth day of riiamenoth, not
only as having mounted to the first segment, but as already
passing the i'ourth day in it. And this segment tliey are
accustomed to call the first dodecatemorion (twelfth part),
and the equinox, and the beginning of months, and the
head of the cycle, and the starting-])oint^ of the cour.se of the
planets. And the segment before this they call the last of
the months, and the twelfth segment, and the last dodecate-
morion, and the end of the circuit {mptCbou) of the planets.
And for this reason, also, we maintain that tliose who place
the first month in it, and who determine the fourteenth day
of the Paschal season by it, make no trivial or common
blunder.

^ The Avonl is Alpiaig, wliicli Vali'.^ius makos equivalent to elt-rr.oi'x,
the rope or po.st from whicli the chariots started in the race, and so=ai
etarting-point. — Tu.

414 THE WIUTINGS OF ANATOLI US.

III.

Nor is this an opinion confined to ourselves alone. For
it was also known to the Jews of old and before Christ, and
it was most carefully observed by them.^ And this may be
learned from what Philo, and Josephus, and Musseus have
written ; and not only from these, bnt indeed from others
still more ancient, namely, the two Agathobuli,^ who were
surnamed the Masters, and the eminent Aristobulus," who
was one of the seventy who translated the sacred and holy
Scriptures of the Hebrews for Ptolemy Philadelphus and
his father, and dedicated his exegetical books on the law of
Moses to the same kings. These writers, in solving some
questions which are raised with respect to Exodus, say
that all alike ought to sacrifice the Passover (?« diaidri-ripia
'^■jsiv) after the vernal equinox in the middle of the first
month. And that is found to be when the sun passes
through the first segment of the solar, or, as some among
them have named it, the zodiacal cii'cle.

^ -^po; oci/rZv — others read -^po, before them.

2 Anatolius -writes that there were two Agathobuli with the siir-
name Masters ; but I fear that he is wrong in his opinion that they
were more ancient than Philo and Josephns. For Agathobuliis,
the philosopher, flourished in the tianes of Adrian, as Eusebius writes
in his Clironicon, and after him Georgius Syncellus. — Vales.

^ ' ApioTofiov'Aov rov Trxuu — Rufinus erroneously renders it Aristobulum
ex Paneade, Aristobulus of Paneas. Scaliger also, in his Animadvcr-
sioncs EiLsehiana, p, 130, strangely thinks that the text should be
corrected from the version of Rutinus. And Bede, ia his De Rations
Computi, also follows the faulty rendering of Rufinus, and writes Aris-
tobulus et Paniada, as though the latter word were the proper name of a
Je\vish writer, finding probably in the Codex of Rufinus, wliich he pos-
sessed, the reading Aristobulus et Paneada, which indeed is found in a
very ancient Paris manuscript, and also in the Codex Corbeiensis. But
that that Aristobulus was not one of the seventy translators, as Anatolius
wTites, is proved by Scaliger in the work cited above. This Aristobulus
was also surnamed B^oao-xaAoj, or Master, as we see from the Maccabees,
ii. 1. Por I do not agree with Scaliger in distinguishing this Aristo-
bulus, of whom mention is made in the Maccabees, from the Peripatetic
philosopher who dedicated lus Commentaries on the Law of Moses to
Ptolemy Philometor. — Vales.

FHAGMENTS. 41.

TV.

But tins Aristobulus also adds, that for the feast of the
Passover it was necessaiy not only that the sun should pass
the equinoctial segment, but the moon also. For as there are
two equinoctial segments, the vernal and the autumnal, and
these diametrically opposite to each other, and since the day
of the Passover is fixed for the fourteenth day of the month,
in the evening, the moon will have the position diametrically
opposite the sun; as is to be seen in full moons. And the
sun will thus be in the segment of the vernal equinox, and
the moon necessarily will be at the autumnal equinox.

T am aware that very many other matters were discussed
by them, some of them with considerable probability, and
others of them as matters of the clearest demonstration,^ by
which they endeavour to prove that the festival of the
Passover and unleavened bread ought by all means to be
kept after the equinox. But I shall pass on without de-
manding such copious demonstrations (on subjects-) from
which the veil of the Mosaic hiw has been removed ; for now
it remains for us with unveiled face to behold ever as in a
glass Christ Himself and the doctrines and sufferings of
Christ. But that the first month among the Hebrews is
about the equinox, is clearly shown also by what is taught in
the book of Enoch.^

^ Kvpixjccc; xvooiilii? — Cliristophorsonus renders it ratas ; Riifinua
gives validissimas assertiones. The Greelcs u.sc x-Cpio; in this si-nso,
xvplxi oUxi, 16^x1, &c., decisive, ra^'J, judgment.'^, opinions, &c.

■^ The text gives dTrxiruv uv Tiptfip/trxi, 6ic. ; various codices read
uv xvrau, &c. Valesiu.s now i)roposes vJ^x; eiTrxnun' ^ "x^tpifip/rrxi, I
shall pass on without .... for the veil is removed from me.

^ An apocryphal book of some antiquity, which professes to proceed
from the i)aliiarch of that name, Init of wliose existence prior to the
Cliristian era there is no real evidence. The lirst author who clearly
rclers to it by name is Tertullian. — Tii.

416 THE WRITINGS OF ANATOLIUS.

VI.

And, therefore, in this concurrence of the sun and moon,
the Paschal festival is not to be celebrated, because as long
as they are found in this course the power of darkness is not
overcome ; and as long as equality between light and dark-
ness endures, and is not diminished by the light, it is shown
that the Paschal festival is not to be celebrated. Accord-
ingly, it is enjoined that that festival be kept after the
equinox, because the moon of the fourteenth,^ if before the
equinox or at the equinox, does not fill the whole night. But
after the equinox, the moon of the fourteenth, with one day
being added because of the passing of the equinox, although
it does not extend to the true light, that is, the rising of the
sun and the beginning of day, will nevertheless leave no
darkness behind it. And, in accordance with this, Moses is
charged by the Lord to keep seven days of unleavened
bread for the celebration of the Passover, that in them no
power of darkness should be found to surpass the light.
And although the outset of four nights begins to be dark,
that is, the 17th and 18th and 19th and 20th, yet the
moon of the 20th, which rises before that, does not permit
the darkness to extend on even to midnight.

VII.

To us, however, with whom it is impossible for all these
things to come aptly at one and the same time, namely, the
moon's fourteenth, and the Lord's day, and the passing of the
equinox, and whom the obligation of the Lord's resurrection
binds to keep the Paschal festival on the Lord's day, it is
granted that we may extend the beginning of our celebra-
tion even to the moon's twentieth. For although the moon
of the 20th does not fill the whole night, yet, rising as it
does in the second watch, it illumines the greater part of

^ xiv. hina. The Romans used tlie phrase lima prima, secunda, &c.,
as meanin.?, the first, second day, Sec, after new moon. — Tr.

FRAGMENTS. 417

the night. Certainly if the rising of the moon should be
delayed on to the end of two watches, that is to say, to
midnight, the light would not then exceed the darkness,
but the darkness the light. But it is clear that in the
Paschal feast it is not possible that any part of the darkness
should surpass the light; for the festival of the Lord's
resurrection is (one of) light, and there is no fellowship
between light and darkness. And if the moon should
rise in the third watch, it is clear that the 22d or 23d of
the moon would then be reached, in which it is not pos-
sible that there can be a true celebration of Easter. For
those who determine that the festival may be kept at this
age of the moon, are not only unable to make that good by
the authority of Scripture, but turn also into the crime of
sacrilege and contumacy, and incur the peril of their soids ;
inasmuch as they affirm that the true light may be cele-
brated along with something of that power of darkness
which dominates all.

VIII.

Accordingly, it is not the case, as certain calculators of
Gaul allege, that this assertion is opposed by that passage
in Exodus,^ where we read : " In the first month, on the
fourteenth day of the first month, at even, ye shall eat
unleavened bread until the one-and-twentieth day of tlie
month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found
in your houses." From this they maintain that it is quite
permissible to celebrate the Passover on the twenty-first
day of the moon; imderstandiug that if the twenty-second
day were added, there would be found eight days of
unleavened bread. A thing which cannot be found with
any probability, indeed, in the Old Testament, as the Lurd,
through Moses, gives this charge : " Seven days ye shall eat
unleavened bread." ^ Unless perchance the fourteentli day
is not reckoned by them among tlie days of unleavened
bread with the celebration of the feast ; which, however, is
1 Exocl xii. 18, 19. ' Exod. xii. 15 ; Lovit. xxiii. C.

2 D

418 THE WRITINGS OF ANATOLWS.

contrary to the Word of the Gospel which says : " Moreover,
on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to
Jesus."^ And there is no doubt as to its being the fourteentli
day on which the disciples asked the Lord, in accordance
with tlie custom established for them of old, " Where wilt
Thou that we prepare for Thee to eat the Passover ? " But
they who are deceived with this error maintain this addition,
because they do not know that the 13th and 14th, the 14th
and 15th, the 15th and 16th, the 16th and 17th, the 17th
and 18th, the 18th and 19th, the 19th and 20th, the 20th
and 21st days of the moon are each found, as may be most
surely proved, within a single day. For every day in the
reckoning of the moon does not end in the evening as the
same day in respect of number, as it is at its begin-
ning in the morning. For the day which in the morning,
that is up to the sixth hour and half, is numbered the 13th
day of the month, is found at even to be the 14th. "Wliere-
fore, also, the Passover is enjoined to be extended on to the
21st day at even ; which day, without doubt, in the morning,
that is, up to that term of hours which we have mentioned,
was reckoned the 20th. Calculate, then, from the end of
the 13th ^ day of the moon, which marks the beginning of
the 14th, on to the end of the 20th, at which the 21st day
also begins, and you wall have only seven days of unleavened
bread, in which, by the guidance of the Lord, it has been
determined before that the most true feast of the Passover
ought to be celebrated.

IX.

But what wonder is it that they should have erred in the
matter of the 21st day of the moon who have added three
days before the equinox, in which they hold that the Pass-
over may be celebrated ? An assertion which certainly
must be considered altogether absurd, since, by the best-
known historiographers of the Jews, and by the Seventy

^ Matt, xxvi 17 ; Mark xiv. 12 ; Luke xxii. 7.
2 But the text gives 12tli.

FRAG MEMS. 419

Elders, it has been clearly determined that the Paschal
festival cannot be celebrated at the equinox.

But nothing was difficult to them with whom it was la\s -
ful to celebrate the Passover on any day when the four-
teenth of the moon happened after the equinox. Following
their example up to the present time aU the bishops of
Asia (as themselves also receiving the rule from an unim-
peachable authority, to wit, the evangelist John, who leant
on the Lord's breast, and drank in instructions spiritual
without doubt) were in the way of celebrating the Paschal
feast, without question, every year, M'henever tlie fourteentli
day of the moon had come, and the lamb was sacrificed by
the Jaws after the equinox was past ; not acquiescing, so far
as regards this matter, with the authority of some, namely,
the successors of Peter and Paul, wlio have taught all the
churches in which they sowed the spiritual seeds of the
Gospel, that the solemn festival of the resurrection of the
Lord can be celebrated only on the Lord's day. Whence,
also, a certain contention broke out between the successors
of these, namely, Victor, at that time bishop of the city of
Eome, and Polycrates, wlio then appeared to hold the
primacy among the bishops of Asia. And this contention
was adjusted most rightfully by Irenreus, at that time pre-
sident of a part of Gaul, so that both parties kept by their
own order, and did not decline from the original custom of
antiquity. The one party, indeed, kept the Paschal day on
the fourteenth day of the first month, according to tlie
Gospel, as they thought, adding nothing of an extraneous
kind, but keeping through all things the rule of faith. And
the other party, passing the day of the Lord's Passion as one
replete with sadness and grief, hold tliat it should not be
lawful to celebrate the Lord's myster}' of the Passover at
any other time but on the Lord's day, on wliich the resur-
rection of the Lord from death took place, and on which
rose also for us tlie cause of everlasting joy. For it is one

420 THE WHITINGS OF ANATOLIUS.

tiling to act in accordance with the precept given by the
apostle, yea, by the Lord Himself, and be sad with the sad,
and suffer with him that suffers by the cross, His own word
being : " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death ;" ^
and it is another thing to rejoice with the victor as he
triumphs over an ancient enemy, and exults with the
highest triumph over a conquered adversary, as He Him-
self also says : " Eejoice with Me ; for I have found the
sheep which I had lost."^

XI.

Moreover, the allegation which they sometimes make
against us, that if we pass the moon's fourteenth we cannot
celebrate the beginning of the Paschal feast in light {luci-
dum), neither moves nor disturbs us. For, although they lay
it down as a thing unlawful, that the beginning of the
Paschal festival should be extended so far as to the moon's
twentieth ; yet they cannot deny that it ought to be ex-
tended to the sixteenth and seventeenth, which coincide
with the day on which the Lord rose from the dead. But
we decide that it is better that it should be extended even
on to the twentieth day, on account of the Lord's day, than
that we should anticipate the Lord's day on account of the
fourteenth day ; for on the Lord's day w^as it that light was
shown to us in the beginning, and now also in the end,
the comforts of all present and the tokens of all future
blessings. For the Lord ascribes no less praise to the
twentieth day than to the fourteenth. For in the book of
Leviticus^ the injunction is expressed thus : " In the first
month, on the fourteenth day of this month, at even, is the
Lord's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of this mouth
is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord. Seven days
ye shall eat unleavened bread. The first day shaU be to
you one most diligently attended {celebcrriiimis, honoured,
solemn) and holy. Ye shall do no servile work thereon.
And the seventh day shall be to you more diligently
^ Matt. xxvi. 38. - Luke xv. 6. ^ Levit. xxiii. 5-7.

FliAGMENTS. 421

attended (solemn) and holier ; ye shall do no servile work
thereon." And hence we maintain that those have con-
tracted no guilt before the tribunal of Christ, who have
held that tlie beginning of the Paschal festival ou^lit to be
extended to this day. And this, too, the must especially, as
we are pressed by three difficulties, namely, that we should
keep the solemn festival of the Passover on the Lord's
day, and after the equinox, and yet not beyond the limit
of the moon's twentieth day.

XII.

But this again is held by other wise and most acute nun
to be an impossibility, because within that narrow and
most contracted limit of a cycle of nineteen years, a
thoroughly genuine Paschal time, that is to say, one held
on the Lord's day and yet after the equinox, cannot occur.
But, in order that we may set in a clearer light the
difficulty which causes their incredulity, we shall set down,
along with the courses of the moon, that cycle of yeare
which we have mentioned ; the days being computed before
in which the year rolls on in its alternating courses, by
Kalends and Ides and Nones, and by the sun's ascent and
descent.

XIIL

{Tlie moorCs age set forth in the Julian Calendar.)

January, on the Kalends, one day, the moon's first (day) ;
on the Nones, the 5th day, the moon's 5th ; on the Ides,
the 13th day, the moon's 13th. On the day before the
Kalends of February, tlie 31st day, the moon's 1st ; on the
Kalends of February, the 32d day, the moon's 2d ; on the
Nones, the 3Gth day, the moon's 6th ; on the Ides, the 44th
day, the moon's 14th. On the day before the Kalends of
March, the 59th day, the moon's 29th ; on the Kalends of
March, the 60th day, the moon's 1st ; on the Nones, the
66th day, the moon's 7th ; on the Ides, the 74th day.

422 THE WRITINGS OF ANATOLI US.

the moon's 15tli. On the day before the Kalends of April,
the 90th day, the moon's 2d ; on the Kalends of A])ril, the
91st day, the moon's 3d; on the Nones, the 95th day, the
moon's 7th; on the Ides, the 103d day, the moon's 15th.
On the day before the Kalends of May, the 120th day, the
moon's 3d ; on the Kalends of May, the 121st day, the
moon's 4th ; on the Nones, the 127th day, the moon's 10th ;
on the Ides, the 135th day, the moon's 18th. On the day
before the Kalends of June, the 151st day, the moon's 3d;
on the Kalends of June, the 152d day, the moon's 5th ; on
the Nones, the 153d day, the moon's 9th ; on the Ides,
the 164th day, the moon's 17th. On the day before the
Kalends of July, the 181st day, the moon's 5 th ; on the
Kalends of July, the 182d day, the moon's 6th ; on the
Nones, the 188th day, the moon's 12th ; on the Ides, the
196th day, the moon's 20th. On the day before the Kalends
of August, the 212th day, the moon's 5th; on the Kalends
of August, the 213th day, the moon's 7th ; on the Nones,
the 217th day, the moon's 12tli ; on the Ides, the 225th day,
the moon's 19th. On the day before the Kalends of Sep-
tember, the 243d day, the moon's 7th ; on the Kalends of
September, the 244th day, the moon's 8th , on the Nones,
the 248th day, the moon's 12th; on the Ides, the 256th
day, the moon's 20th. On the day before the Kalends of
October, the 273d day, the moon's 8th; on the Kalends of
October, the 274th day, the moon's 9th; on the Nones, tlie
280th day, the moon's 15th; on the Ides, the 288th day, the
moon's 23d. On the day before the Kalends of November,
the 304th day, the moon's 9th ; on the Kalends of Novem-
ber, the 305th day, the moon's 10th; on the Nones, the
309th day, the moon's 14th ; on the Ides, the 317th day, the
moon's 22d. On the day before the Kalends of December,
the 334th day, the moon's 10th ; on the Kalends of Decem-
ber, the 335th day, the moon's 11th; on the Nones, the
339th day, the moon's 15th ; on the Ides, the 347th day, the
moon's 23d. On the day before the Kalends of January,
the 365th day, the moon's 11th ; on the Kalends of January,
the 366th day, the moon's 12th.

FRAGMENTS.

423

XIV.

[The Paschal {or EoMer) Table of A?iatolitts.]

Now, then, after the reckoning of the days and the ex-
position of the course of the moon, whereon the whole
revolves on to its end, the cycle of the years may be set
forth from the commencement {annorum circidi jyrincipuun
inchoanduvi est). This makes the Passover (Easter season)
circulate between the 6th day before the Kalends of April
and the 9th before the Kalends of ^lay, according to the
foUowinsT table : —

EQUINOX.

JIOOX.

EASTER. 1 iluoX.

1. Sabbath, .

XXVI.

XVth before the Kiik'uds of
May, i.e. 17th April,

XVIIL

2. Lord's Day,

VII.

Kalends of April, i.e. 1st
April, ....

XIV.

3. ILSD DAY (ferial),

XVIII.

Xlth before the Kalends of
May, i.e. 21st April,

XVI.

4. IIIrd day, .

XXIX.

Ides of April, i.e. 13th April,

XIX.

5. IVtii day, .

IVth before the Kalends of
April, i.e. L'inh iMarch, .

XIV.

6. Vxn DAY, .

XXI.

XlVth before the Kalends
of May, i.e. 18th April,

XVI.

7. Sabbath,^ .

Vlth before the Kalends of
April, i.e. 27th March,

XVII.

8. Lord's Day,

XIII.

Kalends of April, i.e. Ist
April, ....

XX.

9. IInd day, .

XXIV.

XVIIIth before the Kalends
of May, i.e. 14th March,

XV.

10. IIIrd day, .

Vlllth before the Ides of
April, i.e. 6th April,

XV.

11. IVtii day, .

XVI.

IVth before the Kalends of
April, i.e. 29th March,

XX.

* Bissextile reckoning.

42i

THE WRITINGS OF ANATOLIUS.

EQUINOX.

MOON.

EASTER. MOON.

12. Vth day, .

XXVII.

Ilird before the Ides of
April, i.e. 11th April,

XV.

13. VItH DAT, .

VIII.

Ilird before the Nones of
April, i.e. 3d April,

XVII.

14. Sabbath,

XX.

IXth before the Kalends of
May, i.e. 23d April,

XX.

15. Lord's Day,

VIth before the Ides of
April, i.e. 8th April,

XV.

16. IInd day, .

XII.

Ilnd before the Kalends of
April, i.e. 31st March,

XVIII.

17. IVth day,^ ,

XXIII.

XlVth before the Kalends
of May, i.e. 18th April,

XIX.

18. Vth day,

IV.

Ilnd before the ISTones of
April, i.e. 4th April,

XIV.

19. VIth day, .

XV.

VIth before the Kalends of
April, i.e. 27th March,

XVII.

XV.

This cycle of nineteen years is not approved of by certain
African investigators who have drawn up larger cycles,
because it seems to be somewhat opposed to their surmises
and opinions. For these make up the best proved accounts
according to their calculation, and determine a certain be-
ginning or certain end for the Easter season, so as that the
Paschal festival shall not be celebrated before the eleventh
day before the Kalends of April (i.e. 24th IMarch), nor after the
moon's twenty-first, and the eleventh day before the Kalends
of May {i.e. 21st April). But we hold that these are limits
not only not to be followed, but to be detested and over-
turned. For even in the ancient law it is laid down that
this is to be seen to, viz., that the Passover be not celebrated
before the transit of the vernal equinox, at which the last
of the autumnal (term) is overtaken {in quo autumtuilis

^ Bissextile again.

FRAGMENTS. 425

novissima x>ars vincitur), on the fourteenth day of the first
month, which is one calculated not by the beginnings of the
day, but by those of the moon {lunce orsibus). And as this
has been sanctioned by tlie charge of the Lord, and is in
all things accordant with the Catholic faith, it cannot be
doubtful to any wise man that to anticipate it must be a
thing unlawfid and perilous. And, accordingly, this only
is it sufficient for all the saints and catholics to observe,
namely, that giving no heed to the diverse opinions of very
many, they should keep the solemn festival of tlie Lord's
resurrection within the limits which we have set forth.

XVL

Furthermore, as to the proposal subjoined to your epistle,
that I should attempt to introduce into tliis little book some
notice of the ascent and descent of the sun, which is made
out in the distribution of days and nights. The matter pro-
ceeds thus : In fifteen days and half an hour, the sun
ascending by so many minutes, that is, by four in one day,
from the eighth day before the Kalends of January {i.e. Sfjth
December) to the eighth before tlie Kalends of April
{i.e. 25th March), an hour is taken up {diminuitur); at
which date there are twelve hours and a twelfth. On this
day, towards evening, if it happen also to be the moon's
fourteenth, the lamb was sacrificed among the Jews. But
if the number went beyond that, so that it was the moon's
fifteenth or sixteenth on the evening of the same day, on
the fourteenth day of the second moon, in the same month,
the Passover was celebrated ; and the people ate unleavened
bread for seven days, up to the twenty-first day at evening.
Hence, if it happens in like manner to us, that the seventh
day before the Kalends of April (26th March), proves to be
both the Lord's day and the moon's fourteenth, Easter is to
be celebrated on the fourteenth. But if it proves to be the
moon's fifteenth or sixteenth, or any day up to the twentieth,
then our regard for the Lord's resurrection, wliich took place
on the Lord's day, will lead us to celebrate it on the same

426 THE WRITINGS OF ANATOLIUS.

principle ; yet this should be done so as that the beginning
of Easter may not pass beyond the close of their festival, that
is to say, the moon's twentieth. And therefore we have said
that those parties have committed no trivial offence who
have ventured either on anticipating or on going beyond this
number, which is given us in the divine Scriptures them-
selves. And from the eighth day before the Kalends of
April (25th March), to the eighth before the Kalends of July
(24th June), in fifteen days an hour is taken up : the sun
ascending every day by two minutes and a half, and the
sixth part of a minute. And from the eighth day before
the Kalends of July (24th June) to the eighth before the
Kalends of October (24th September), in like manner, in
fifteen days and four hours, an hour is taken up : the sun
descending every day by the same number of minutes. And
the space remaining on to the eighth day before the Kalends
of January (25th December), is determined in a similai
number of hours and minutes. So that thus on the eighth
day before the Kalends of January, for the hour there is the
hour and half. For up to that day and night are distributed.
And the twelve hours which were established at the vernal
equinox in the beginning by the Lord's dispensation, being
distributed over the night on the eighth before the Kalends
of July, the sun ascending through those eighteen several
degrees which we have noted, shall be found conjoined with
the longer space in the twelfth. And, again, the twelve hours
which should be fulfilled at the autumnal equinox in the
sun's descent, should be found disjoined on the sixth before
the Kalends of January as six hours divided into twelve, the
night holdincr eighteen divided into twelve. And on the
eighth before the Kalends of July, in like manner, it held
six divided into twelve.

XYII.

Be not ignorant of this, however, that those four deter-
mining periods {tcmporum confinia), which we have men-
tioned, although they are approximated to the Kalends of

FRAGMEXTS. 427

the following months, yet hold each the middle of a season,
viz., of spring and summer, and autumn and winter And
the beginnings of the seasons are not to be fixed at that point
at which the Kalends of the month begin. But each season
is to be begun in such way that the equinox divides the
season of spring from its first day ; and the season of
summer is divided by the eighth day before the Kalends of
July, and that of autumn by the eighth before the Kalends
of October, and that of winter by the eighth before the
Kalends of January in like manner.

FEAGMENTS OF THE BOOKS ON ARITHMETIC.

[FaLricius, Biblioth. Graca, ed. Harlcs, vol. iii. p. 462.
Hamburgh, 1793.]

What is mathematics ?

Aristotle thinks that aU philosophy consisted of theory
and practice (huf^t'ag xal 'rpd^iug), and divides the practical
into ethical and political, and the theoretic again into the
theological, the physical, and the mathematical. And thus
very clearly and skilfully he shows that mathematics is (a
branch of) philosophy.

The Chaldaeans were the originators of astronomy, and
the Egyptians of geometry and arithmetic

And whence did mathematics derive its name ?

Those of the Peripatetic school affirmed that in rhetoric
and poetry, and in the popular music, any one may be an
adept though he has gone through no process of study ; but
that in those pursuits properly called studies (/xa^^/xara), none
can have any real knowledge unless he lias first become a
student of them. Hence they supposed that the theory of
these things was called Mathematics (from fidOmMa^ study,
science). And the followers of Pythagoras are said to have
given this more distinctive name of mathematics to geometry
and arithmetic alono. For of old these had eacli its own

428 THE WRITINGS OF ANATOLIUS.

separate name ; and they had up till then no name common
to both. And he (Archytas) gave them this name, because
he found science {rh iirisrrifj.ovr/.ov) in them, and that in a
manner suitable to man's study (/xdSTjm). For they (the
Pythagoreans) perceived that these studies dealt with things
eternal and immutable and perfect (s/X/x^/i/^, absolute), in
which things alone they considered that science consisted.
But the more recent philosophers have given a more exten-
sive application to this name, so that, in their opinion, the
mathematician deals not only with substances (vXriv) incor-
poreal, and falling simply within the province of the under-
standing (voT^T'^v), but also with that which touches upon
corporeal and sensible matter. For he ought to be cog-
nisant of C^supririKog) the course of the stars, and their
velocity, and their magnitudes, and forms, and distances.
And, besides, he ought to investigate their dispositions to
vision, examining into the causes, why they are not seen as
of the same form and of the same size from every distance,
retaining, indeed, as we know them to do, their dispositions
relative to each other (rovg 'xphg oKkrika Xoyovg), but producing,
at the same time, deceptive appearances, both in respect of
order and position. And these are so, either as determined
by the state of the heavens and the air, or as seen in reflect-
ing and all polished surfaces and in transparent bodies, and
in all similar kinds. In addition to this, they thought that
the man ought to be versed in mechanics and geometry and
dialectics. And still further, that he should engage himself
with the causes of the harmonious combination of sounds,
and with the composition of music; wliich things are bodies
(ffoi/iara, substances), or at least are to be ultimately referred
to sensible matter.

What is mathematics ?

Mathematics is a theoretic science (iTiff-TjfiT} ^suprinxri)
of things apprehensible by perception and sensation for

communication to others (rrphg rriv rojv VTOT/Trovrm boSiv).

And before this a certain person indulging in a joke, while
hitting his mark, said that mathematics is that science (to
which Homer's description of Discord may be applied) : —

FRAGMENTS. 429

" Small at her birth, hut rising every hour,
While scarce the skies her horrid (mighty) head can bound,
She stalks on earth and shakes the world around." "^

For it begins with a point and a line (ari/jLiIov xa) ypaiiiir,;),
and forthwith it takes heaven itself and all things within
its compass.

How many divisions arc there of mathematics ?

Of the more notahle and the earliest mathematics there
are two principal divisions, viz., arithmetic and geometry.
And of the mathematics which deals with things sensible
there are six divisions, viz., computation (practical arith-
metic), geodesy, optics, theoretical music, mechanics, and
astronomy. But that neither the so-called tactics nor archi-
tecture (to apy^iTiKTovixov), nor the popular music, nor physics,
nor the art which is called equivocally the mechanical, con-
stitutes, as some think, a branch of mathematics, we shall
prove, as the discourse proceeds, clearly and systematically.

As to the circle having eight solids and six superficies and

four angles What branches of arithmetic have

closest affinity with each other? Com])utation and theo-
retical music have a closer allinity than others with arith-
metic ; for this department, being one also of quantity and
ratio, approaches it in number and proportion {avaXoyiag).
Optics and geodesy, again, are more in aihnity with
geometry. And mechanics and astrology are in general
affinity with Ijolh.

As to mathematics having its principles {apy^d;, begin-
nings) in hypothesis and about hypothesis. Now, the term
hypothesis is used in three ways, or indeed in many ways.
For according to one usage of the term we have the dramatic
revolution (aef/Tsrf/a, reversal of circumstances on which the
plot of a tragedy hinges) ; and in this sense there are said
to be h}'potheses in the dramas of Euripides. According to a
second meaning, we have the investigation of matters in the
special in rhetoric ; and in tliis sense the Sopliists say that a
hypothesis must be proposed. And, according to a third
signification, the beginning of a proof is called a hj'pothesis,
> Iliixd, iv. 442-3 (Pope).

430 THE WRITINGS OF ANATOLI US.

as Ijeing the begging of certain matters with a view to the
establishment of another in question. Thus it is said that
Democritus^ used a hypothesis, namely, that of atoms and a
vacuum; and Asclepiades^ that of atoms (oyxo/s) and pores.
Now, when applied to mathematics, the term hypothesis is
to be taken in the third sense.

That Pythagoras was not the only one who duly honoured
arithmetic, but that Ms best known disciples did so too, being
wont to say that " all things fit number."

That arithmetic has as its immediate end chiefly the
theory of science (rriv £TiaTri/jjovrA.^v deuplav), than which there
is no end either greater or nobler. And its second end
is to bring together in one all that is found in determi-
nate substance (^evXX7]j3di^v zaTaXalSBlv To'ca rfi upis/xsnj] ouela

Who among the mathematicians has made any discovery ?

Eudemus^ relates in his Astrologies that (Enopides^ found
out the circle of the zodiac and the cycle {'XipisTaaiv, revolu-
tion) of the great year. And Thales^ discovered the eclipse of
the sun and its period in the tropics in its constant inequality.
And Anaximauder^ discovered that the earth is poised in
space (fiiTsupog), and moves round the axis of the universe.

^ A native of Abdera, in Tiirace, born about 4G0 B.C., and, along
■vvitli Leucippns, the founder of the philosophical theory of atoms,
according to which the creation of all things was explained as being
due to the fortuitous combination of an infinite niunber of atoms
floating in infinite space.

2 A famous physician, a native of Bithynia, but long resident in
great repute at Rome in the middle of the first century B.C. He
adopted the Epicurean doctrine of atoms and pores, and tried to form
a new theory of disease, on the principle that it might be in all cases
reduced to obstruction of the pores and irregular distribution of the
atoms.

^ A native of Rhodes, a disciple of Aristotle, and editor of his works.

* A native of Chios, mentioned by Plato in connection A\ith Anaxa-
goras, and therefore supposed by some to have been a contemporary of
the latter sage.

^ Of Miletus, one of the sages, and founder of the Ionic school.

® Of Miletus, born 610 B.C., the immediate successor of Thales in the
Ionic school of philosophy.

FRAGMENTS. 431

And Anaximenes^ discovered that the moon has her liglit
from the sun, and found out also the way in which she
suffers eclipse. And the rest of the matliematicians have
also made additions to these discoveries. "We may instance
the facts — that the fixed stars move round the axis passing
through the jioles, while the planets remove from each other
{arriy^oveiv aXXj^Xwv) round the perpendicular axis of the
zodiac ; and that the axis of the fixed stars and the planets
is the side of a pentedecagon with four-and-twenty parts.

THEONAS, BISHOr OF ALEXANDRIA.
BIOGEAPHICAL NOTICE.

Of this Theonas we know extremely little. EuseLius
{Hist. Eccl., vii. 32) tells us that Maximus, who had held the
episcopal office at Alexandria for eighteen years after the
death of Dionysius, was succeeded by Theonas. That
bishopric, we also learn, he held for nineteen years. Ilis
date is fixed as from about 282 to 300 a.d. The only thing
of his that has come down to our time is his letter to
Lucianus, the chief chamberlain {pra-positiis citbicidariorum),
and a person in high favour with the emperor. Tliis epistle,
which is a letter of advice to that individual on the duties
of his office, was first published in the Spicilegium of
Dacherius, and again in Gallandi's Bihliothcca. The name
of the emperor is not given, neither does the letter itself
tell us who the Bishop Theonas was who wrote it. Hence
some have, without much reason, supposed anotlier Theonj^s,
bishop of Cyzicus, as the author. And some, such a.s Cave,
have thouglit the emperor in question was Constantius
Chlorus. But the wliolc circumstances suit Diocletian
best. See Neander's Church Hvitury, vol. i. p. 197 (Bohu).
Some infer from the diction of the epistle, as we have it,
that it is a translation from a Greek original.

^ Of Miletus, tlie tliiril in the scries of Ionic i)hilosophcr9.

432 THE WRITINGS OF THEONAS.

The ErisTLE of Theonas, Bishop of Alexandria, to
LuciANUS, the Chief Chamberlain.

(In Dacherii Spicilegium, iii. pp. 297-299.)

Bishop Theonas to Zucianus, the Chief Chamberlain of our
Most Invincible Emperor.

I. I give thanks to Almighty God and our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has not given over the manifesting of His faith
throughout the whole world, as the sole specific for our
salvation (in salutis nostras unicum remedium), and the
extending of it even in the course of the persecutions of
despots. Yea, like gold reduced in the furnace, it has only
been made to shine the more under the storms of perse-
cution, and its truth and grandeur have only become always
the more and more illustrious, so that now, peace being
granted to the churches by our gracious prince, the works of
Christians are shining even in sight of the unbelieving, and
God your Father, who is in heaven, is glorified thereby;^
a thing which, if we desire to be Christians in deed rather
than in word, we ought to seek and aspire after as our first
object on account of our salvation. For if we seek our own
glory, we set our desire upon a vain and perishing object,
and one which leads ourselves on to death. But the glory
of the Father and of the Son, who for our salvation was
nailed to the cross, makes us safe for the everlasting redemp-
tion ; and that is the greatest hope of Christians.

Wherefore, my Lucianus, I neither suppose nor desire that
you should make it a matter of boasting, that by your means
many persons belonging to the palace of the emperor have
been brought to the knowledge of the truth; but rather does
it become us to give the thanks to our God who has made
thee a good instrument for a good work, and has raised thee
to great honour with the emperor, that you might diffuse the
sweet savour of the Christian name to His ow^n glory and to
the salvation of many. For just the more completely that the
emperor himself, though not yet attached {ascriptus) to the
1 Matt. V. 16.

FRAGMENTS. 433

Christian religion, has entrusted the care of his life and
person to these same Christians as liis more faithful
servants, so much the more careful ought ye to be, and the
more diligent and watchful in seeing to his safety, and in
attending upon him, so that the name of Christ may be
gTeatly glorified thereby, and His faith extended daily
through you who wait upon the emperor. For in old times
some former princes thought us malevolent and filled with
all manner of crime ; but, now, seeing your good works,
they should not be able to avoid glorifying Christ Himself.
II. Therefore you ought to strive to the utmost of your
power not to fall into a base or dishonourable, not to say
an absolutely flagitious way of thinking, lest the name of
Christ be thus blasphemed even by you. Be it far from
you that you should sell the privilege of access to the
emperor to any one for money, or that you should by any
means place a dishonest account of any affair before youi
prince, won over either by prayers or by bribes. Let all the
lust of avarice be put from you, which serves the cause of
idolatry rather than the religion of Christ.^ No filthy lucre,
no duplicity, can befit the Christian Avho embraces the
simple and unadorned {nudum) Christ. Let no scunilous
or base talk have place among you. Let aU things be done
with modesty, courteousncss, affability, and uprightness, so
that the name of our God and Lord ifcsus Christ may be
glorified in all.

Discharge the official duties to which you are severally
ai)pointed with the utmost fear of God and aflection to your
])rince, and perfect carefulness. Consider that every com-
mand of the emperor which does not offend God has pro-
ceeded from God Himself; and execute it in love as well as
in fear, and with all cheerfulness. For there is nothing
which so well refreshes a man who is wearied out with
weighty cares as the seasonable cheerfulness and benign
jiatience of an intimate servant; nor, again, on the otht-r
hand, docs any thing so much annoy and vex him as the
moroseness and impatience and grumbling of his servant
> Epli. V. 4, :..
2 E

434 THE WRITINGS OF TIIEONAS.

Be such things far IVoin you Christians, whose walk is in
zeal for the faith {qui zelo fidei inceditis). But in order that
God may be honoured ^ in yourselves, suppress ye and tread
down all your vices of mind and body. Be clothed with
patience and courtesy ; be replenished with the virtues and
the hope of Christ. Bear all things for the sake of your
Creator Himself; endure all things; overcome and get
above all things, that ye may win Christ the Lord. Great
are these duties, and fuU of painstaking. But he that
striveth for the mastery^ is temperate in all things ; and they
do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

III. But because, as I apprehend it, ye are assigned to
different offices, and you, Lucianus, are styled the head of
them all, whom, also, by the grace of Christ given you, you
are able to direct and dispose in their different spheres,
I am certain that it wiU not displease you if I also bring
before your notice, in a particular and summary manner,
some of my sentiments on the subject of these offices. For
I hear that one of you keeps the private monies of the
emperor ; another the imperial robes and ornaments ; another
the precious vessels ; another the books, who, I understand,
does not as yet belong to the believers ; and others the dif-
ferent parts of the household goods. And in what manner,
therefore, these charges ought, in my judgment, to be exe-
cuted, I shall indicate in a few w^ords.

IV. He who has charge of the private monies of the
emperor ought to keep every thing in an exact reckoning.
He should be ready at any time to give an accurate account
of aU things. He should note down every thing in writing,
if it is at all possible, before giving money to another. He
should never trust such things to his memory, which, being
drawn off day by day to other matters, readily fails us,
so that, without writing, we sometimes honestly certify
thino-s which have never existed ; neither should this kind
of wTiting be of a commonplace order, but such as easily
and clearly unfolds all things, and leaves the mind of the
inquirer without any scruple or doubt on the subject;

1 1 Peter iv. 11. - 1 Cor. ix. 25.

FRAGMENTS. 435

a thing which will easily he effected if a distinct and
separate account is kept in writing of all receipts, and of
the time when, and the person by whom, and the place at
which they were made. And, in like manner, all that is
paid out to others, or expended by order of the emperor,
should be entered in its own place by itself in the reckon-
ing; and that servant shoidd be faithful and prudent, so
that his lord may rejoice that he has set him over his goods,^
and may glorify Christ in him.

V. Nor will the diligence and care of that servant be less
who has the custody of the robes and imperial ornaments.
All these he should enter in a most exact catalogue, and he
should keep a note of what they are and of what sort, and
in what places stored, and when he received them, and from
whom, and whether they are soiled or unsoiled. All these
things he should keep in his diligence ; he should often
review again, and he should often go over them that they
maybe the more readily known again. All tliese he should
have at hand, and all in readiness; and he should always
give the clearest information on every matter on which
it is sought, to his prince or his superior, whenever they
ask about any thing ; and all tliis at the same time in such
wise that every thing may be done in humility and cheerful
patience, and that the name of Christ may be praised even
in a small matter.

VI. In a siiudar maimer should he conduct himself to
whose fidelity are entrusted the vessels of silver and gold,
and crystal or nmrrlia,'^ for eating or for drinking. All
these he should arrange suitably, of them all he should keep
an account, and with all diligence he should make an
inventory of how many and which sort of precious stones
are in them. He should examine them all with great
prudence; he should produce them in their proper places

1 Matt. xxiv. 45, 47.

- Munhiiie vessels were lirst introduced into Rome by l\»nij>cy,
Tlu'v were valued cliiefly for their variegated colours, and weiv
extremely costly. Some think they were made of onyx stone, others
of variegated glass ; but most modem writers suppose that what is
meant was some sort of porcelain.

^36 Till': WRITINGS OF Til EON AS.

and on their proper occasions. And lie should observe
most carefully to whom he gives them, and at what tinn?,
and from whom he receives them again, lest there should
occur any mistake or injurious suspicion, or perhaps some
considerable loss in things of value.

VII. The most responsible person, however, among you,
and also the most careful, will be he who may be entrusteil
by the emperor with the custody of his lil)rary. He will
himself select for this office a person of proved knowledge, a
man grave and adapted to great affairs, and ready to reply
to all applications for information, such an one as Phila-
delphus chose for this charge, and appointed to the superin-
tendence of his most noble library — I mean Aristeus, his
confidential chamberlain, whom he sent also as his legate to
Eleazar, with most magnificent gifts, in recognition of the
translation of the Sacred Scriptures ; and this person also
wrote the full history of the Seventy Interpreters. If, there-
fore, it should happen that a believer in Christ is caUed to
this same office, he should not despise that secular literature
and those Gentile intellects which please the emperor. To
be praised are the poets for the greatness of their genius,
the acuteness of their inventions, the aptness and lofty
eloquence of their style. To be praised are the orators ; to
be praised also are the philosophers in their own class. To
be praised, too, are the historians, who unfold to us the order
of exploits, and the manners and institutions of our ances-
tors, and show us the rule of life from the proceedings of
the ancients. On occasion also he will endeavour to laud
the divine Scriptures, which, with marvellous care and most
liberal expenditure, Ptolemy Philadelphus caused to be
translated into our language ;^ and sometimes, too, the
Gospel and the Apostle will be lauded for their divine
oracles ; and there will be an opportunity for introducing
the mention of Christ ; and, little by little. His exclusive
divinity will be explained ; and all these things may happily
come to pass by the help of Christ.

» It is from these words that the inference is drawn that this epistle
was written by a Greek.

FltAaMEM,<. 4?n

He ought, therefore, to know all the books which the
emperor possesses ; he sliould often tnrn them over, an«l
arrange them neatly in their proper order by catalogue ; if,
however, he shall have to get new books, or old ones tr.m-
scribed, he should be careful to obtain the most accurate
copyists; and if that cannot be done, he should appoint
learned men to the Avork of correction, and recompense
them justly for their labours, lie should also cause all
manuscripts to be restored according to their need, and
should embellish them, not so much with mere superstitious
extravagance, as with useful adornment ; and therefore he
should not aim at having the whole manuscripts written on
purple skins and in letters of gold, imless the emperor has
specially required tliat. With the utmost submission, how.-
ever, he should do every thing tliat is agreeable to Ciesar.
As he is able, he should, with all modesty, suggest to the
emperor that he should read, or hear read, those books
which suit his rank and honour, and minister to good use
rather than to mere pleasure. He should himself lirst be
thoroughly familiar with those books, and he should often
commend them in presence of the emperor, and set forth, in
an appropriate fashion, the testimony and the weight of
those who approve them, that he may not seem to lean to
his own understanding only.

VIII. Those, moreover, who have tlie care of the emi)e-
ror's person should be in all things as prompt as possible;
always, as we have said, cheerful in countenance, sometimes
merry, but ever with such perfect modesty as tliat he may
commend it above aU else in you all, and perceive that it is
the true product of the religion of Christ. You should also
all be elegant and tidy in person and attire, yet, at the same
time, not in such wise as to attract notice by extravagance or
affectation, lest Christian modesty be scandalised. Let every
thing be ready at its proper time, and disposed as well as
possible in its own order. There sliould also be diU3
an-angement among you, and carefulness that no confusion
appear in your work, nor any loss of property in any way ;
and appropriate places shoidd be settled and suitably jue-

438 THE WRITINGS OF TIIEONAS.

pared, in accordance with the capacity {cajplu) and importance
of the places.

Besides this, your servants should be the most thoroughly
honest, and circumspect, and modest, and as serviceable to
you as possible. And see that you instruct and teach them
in true doctrine with all the patience and charity of Christ ;
but if they despise and lightly esteem your instructions,
then dismiss them, lest their wickedness by any hap recoil
upon yourselves. For sometimes we have seen, and often
we have heard, how masters have been held in ill-repute
in consequence of the wickedness of their servants.

If the emperor visits her imperial majesty, or she him,
then should ye also be most circumspect in eye and
demeanour, and in all your words. Let her mark your
mastery of yourselves and your modesty ; and let her fol-
lowers and attendants mark (your demeanour) ; let them
mark it and admire it, and by reason thereof praise Jesus
Christ our Lord in you. Let your conversation always be
temperate and modest, and seasoned with religion as with
salt.^ And, further, let there be no jealousy among you or
contentiousness, which might bring you into all manner of
confusion and division, and thus also make you objects of
aversion to Christ and to the emperor, and lead you into
the deepest abomination, so that not one stone of your
building could stand upon another.

IX. And do thou, my dearest Lucianus, since thou art
wise, bear with good-will the unwise;^ and they too may
perchance become wise. Do no one an injury at any time,
and provoke no one to anger. If an injury is done to you,
look to Jesus Christ ; and even as ye desii^e that He may
remit your transgTCSsions, do ye also forgive them theirs f
and then also shall ye do away with all ill-will, and brviise
the head of that ancient serpent,* who is ever on the M-atch
with all subtlety to undo your good works and your pros-
perous attainments. Let no day pass by without reading
some portion of the Sacred Scriptures, at such convenient
hour as offers, and giving some space to meditation. And
1 Col. iv. 6. 2 2 Cor. xi. 19. ^ m^j-Jj. ^i. 25. * Rom. xvi. 20.

FRAGMENTS. 4:39

never cast off the habit of reading in the Holy Scriptures ;
for nothing feeds the soul and enriches the mind so well as
those sacred studies do. But look to this as the chief gain
you are to make by them, that, in all due patience, ye may
discharge the duties of your office religiously and piously —
that is, in the love of Christ — and despise all transitory
objects for the sake of His eternal promises, which in truth
surpass all human comprehension and understanding,^ and
shall conduct you into everlasting felicity.

A happy adieu to you in Christ, my I.,ord Lucianus.

P H I L E A S,

Bishop of Thmuis and ]Martyr.

BIOGRAPHICAL XOTICE.

From Jerome {Dc vir. illustr., chap. 78) we learn that
this Phileas belonged to Thmuis, a town of Lower Egypt,
the modern Tmai, which was situated between the Tanite
and ]Mendesian branches of the Nile, an episcopal seat, and
in the time of Valentinian and Theodosius the Great a
place of considerable consequence, enjoying a separate
government of its own. Eusebius {Hist. Eccks., viii. 9
and 10) speaks of him as a man not less distinguished for
his services to his country than for his eminence in jihiloso-
phical studies and his proficiency in foreign literature and
science. He teUs us further, that, along with another person
of considerable importance, by name Philoromus, being
brought to trial for his faith, he withstood the threats
and insults of the judge, and all the entreaties of rela-
tives and friends, to compromise his Christian belief,
and was condemned to lose his head. Jerome also,
in the passage already referred to, names him a true
yMlosophcr, and, at tlce same time, a godly martyr ; and
states, that on assuming the bishopric of his native dis-
1 Phil. iv. 7.

440 THE WRITINGS OF nil LEAS.

trid, lie wrote a very elegant hooJc in ^^raise of the martyrs.
Of this book certain fragments arc preserved for us in Euse-
l)ius. In addition to these we have also an epistle which
the same Phileas seems to have written in name of other
three bishops, as well as himself, to Meletius, the bishop of
Lycopolis, and founder of the Meletian schism. This epistle
a]:)pears to have been written in Greek; but we possess only
a Latin version, which, however, from its abrupt style, is
believed to be very ancient. The four bishops whose names
stand at the head of the epistle — viz., Hesychius, Pachomius,
Theodorus, and Phileas, are also mentioned by Eusebius
(Hist. EccL, viii. 13) as distinguished martyrs. This epistle
was written evidently when those bishops were in prison,
and its date is determined by the mention of Peter as the
then bishop of Alexandria. The martyrdom of Phileas is
fixed with much probability as happening at Alexandria,
un'der Maximus, about the year 307 a.d.

FEAGMENTS OF THE EPISTLE OF PHILEAS
TO THE PEOPLE OF THMUIS.

[In Euse^jius, Hist. Eccles., viii. 10.]

I. Having before them all these examples and signs and
illustrious tokens which are given us in the divine and holy
Scriptures, the blessed martyrs who lived with us did not
hesitate, but, directing the eye of their soul in sincerity to
that God who is over all, and embracing with willing mind
the death which their piety cost them, they adhered stead-
fastly to their vocation. For they learned that our Lord Jesus
Christ endured man's estate on our behalf, that He might
destroy all sin, and furnish us with the provision needful
for our entrance into eternal life. " For He thought it not
robbery to be equal with God : but made Himself of no
reputation, taking upon Him the form of a servant: and
being found in fashion as a man. He humbled Himself unto
death, even the death of the cross." ^ For which reason aLso
1 Phil. ii. G-8.

FRAGMEXrS. 141

these Clirist-"bearing^ martjTs sought zealously the greater
gifts, and endured, some of them, every kind of pain and
all the varied contrivances of torture not merely once, but
once and again ; and though the guards showed their fury
against them not only by threatenings in word, but also by
deeds of violence, they did not swerve from their resolution,
because perfect love casteth out fear}-

II. And to narrate their virtue and their manly endur-
ance under every torment, what language would suffice ?
For as every one who chose was at liberty to abase them,
some beat them with wooden clubs, ^ and others with rods,
and others with scourges, and others again with thongs, and
others with ropes. And the spectacle of these modes of
torture had great variety in it, and exhibited vast malignity.
For some had their hands bound behind them, and w-ere
suspended on the rack and had every limb in their body
stretched with a certain kind of pullevs {iMuyyd'joi; na'i).
Then after all this the torturers, according to their orders,
lacerated Avith the sharp iron claws * the whole body, not
merely, as in the case of murderers, the sides only, but also
the stomach and the knees and the cheeks. And others
were hung up in mid-air, suspended by one hand from the
portico, and their sufferings were fiercer than any other
kind of agony by reason of the distention of their joints
and limbs. And others w^ere bound to pillars, face to face,
not toucliing the ground with their feet, but hanging with
all the weight of the body, so that their chains were drawn
all tlie more tightly by reason of the tension. And this
they endured not simply as long as the governor^ spoke with

^ Xpt(Tro(f:6pot. So Ignatius of Antiocli was called dio^6po{, God-bearer.

- 1 John iv. 18.

^ |yAo/f. What is meant, however, may be the instrument called by
the Romans equuleus, a kind of rack in the shape of a horse, com-
monly used in taking the evidence of slaves.

■• The text gives oc/uvvt/ioioi; tKo'Kot^ou, for which Nicophorus reads
d^uvvrnptoi; tx; Ko'hdcaii;. The oitAvj~Y,Diot. were ])robably the Latin
imgulcr, an instrument of torture like claws. So Rulinus understauda
the phrase.

* iiyiuu-j. That is probably the Umnan Prajfectus Augustalis.

442 THE WRITINGS OF PIIILEAS.

them, or had leisure to hear them, but well-nigh through
the whole day. For when he passed on to others he left
some of those under his authority to keep watch over these
former, and to observe whether any of them, being over-
come by the torture, seemed likely to yield. But he gave
them orders at the same time to cast them into chains with-
out sparing, and thereafter, when they were expiring, to
throw them on the ground and drag them along. For
they said that they would not give themselves the slightest
concern about us, but would look upon us and deal witli us
as if we were nothing at all. This second mode of torture
our enemies devised then over and above the scourging.

III. And there were also some who, after the tortures,
were placed upon the stocks and had both their feet stretched
through all the four holes, so that they were compelled to
lie on their back on the stocks, as they were unable (to
stand) in consequence of the fresh wounds they had over
the whole body from the scourging. And others being
thrown upon the ground lay prostrated there by the exces-
sively frequent application of the tortures ; in which con-
dition they exhibited to the onlookers a still more dreadful
spectacle than they did when actually undergoing their
torments, bearing, as they did, on their bodies the varied
and manifold tokens of the cruel ingenuity of their tortures.
"While this state of matters went on, some died under their
tortures, putting the adversary to shame by their constancy.
Arid others were thrust half-dead into the prison, where in a
few days, worn out with their agonies, they met their end.
But the rest, getting sure recovery under the application of
remedies, through time and their lengthened detention in
prison, became more confident. And thus then, when they
were commanded to make their choice between these alter-
natives, namely, either to put their hand to the unholy
sacrifice and thus secure exemption from further trouble,
and obtain from them their abominable sentence of absolu-
tion and liberation (r^s s--apdTov iXsuhpia;), or else to refuse
to sacrifice, and thus expect the judgment of death to be
executed on them, they never hesitated, but ^^'ent cheerfully

FRAGMENTS. 443

to death. For they knew the sentence declared for us of
old by the Holy Scriptures : " He that sacrihceth to other
gods," it is said, " shall be utterly destroyed." ^ And again, ^
" Thou shalt have no other sods before IMe."^

The Epistle of the same Thileas of Thmuis to ]\Ieletius,
Bishop of Lycopolis.

The beginning of the Epistle of tlie Bishops. *

Hesy chins, Pachomius, Theodorus, and Pliileas, to Mele-
tius, our friend and fellow-minister in the Lord, greeting.
Some reports having reached us concerning thee, which, on
the testimony of certain individuals who came to us, spake
of certain things foreign to divine order and ecclesiastical
rule which are being attempted, yea, rather which are being
done by thee, we, in an ingenuous manner held them to
be unreliable, regarding them to be such as we would not
"willingly credit, when we thought of the audacity implied
in their magnitude and their uncertain attempts. But
since many who are visiting us at the present time have
lent some credibility to these reports, and have not hesitated
to attest them as facts, we, to our exceeding surprise, have
been compelled to indite this letter to thee. And what agi-
tation and sadness have been caused to us all in common
and to each of us individually by (the report of) tlie ordina-

i Exod. xxii. 20. 2 Exod. xx. 3.

3 Eusebius, after quoting these passages, adds : — " These are the
words of a true philosopher, and one who was no less a lover of God
than of wisdom, which, before the final sentence of his judge, and
while he lay yet in prison, he addressed to the brethren in his church,
at once to represent to them in what CDudition he was himself, and to
exhort them to maintain steadfastly, even after his speedy death, their
piety towards Christ." — Tr.

* This epistle was first edited by Scijjio Maffeius from an ancient
Verona manuscript in the O.fserv. Letter, vol. iii. pp. 11-17, wliere is
given the Fragment of a History of the Mi. Iftian Schi.im. See Neander's
important remarks on this whole document, Church History, iii. p. 310
(Bohn).— Tr.

444 THE WRITINGS OF rill LEAS.

tion carried through by thee in parishes having no manner of
connection with thee, we are unable sufhciently to express.
We have not delayed, however, by a sliort statement to
prove your practice wrong. There is tlie law of our fathers
and forefathers, of which neither art thou thyself ignorant,
established according to divine and ecclesiastical order ; for
it is all for the good pleasure of God and the zealous regard
of better things {zdo racliorum). By them it has been
established and settled that it is not lawful for any bishop to
celebrate ordinations in other parishes than his own ; a law
which is exceedingly important (&cwc nimis magna) and
wisely devised. For, in the first place, it is but right that
the conversation and life of those who are ordained should
be examined with great care ; and in the second place, that
all confusion and turbulence should be done away with.
Eor every one shall have enough to do in managing his own
jDarish, and in finding with great care and many anxieties
suitable subordinates (among these) with whom he has
passed his wdiole life, and who have been trained under his
hands. But thou, neither making any account of these
tilings, nor n^garding the future, nor considering the law of
our sainted fathers and those who have been taken to Christ
time after time, nor the honour of our great bishop and
father, Peter, on whom we all depend in the hope which we
have in the I,ord Jesus Christ, nor softened b}' our im-
prisonments and trials, and daily and multiplied reproach,
hast ventured on subverting all things at pnce. And what
means will be left thee for justifying thyself with respect to
these tilings ? But perhaps thou wilt say : I did this to
prevent many being drawn away with the unbelief of many,
because the flocks were in need and forsaken, there being
no pastor with them. Well, but it is most certain that
they are not in such destitution : in the first place, because
there are many going about them and in a position to act as
visitors; and in the second place, even if there was some
measure of neglect on their side, then the proper way would
have been for the representation to be made promptly by
the people, and for us to take account of them according to

FRAGMKXTS. 415

tjipiv desert {(ypm^tvcrat ex j)oimlo pivpcrare oc nos exi</nv
jyi'O mcrito). But they knew that they were in no want of
ministers, and therefore they did not come to seek them.
They knew that we were wont to discharge them witli an
admonition from such inquisition for matter of complaint,
or that every thing was done with all carefulness wliich
seemed to he for their profit ; for all was done under correc-
tion {s^Lb argiicntc), and all was considered with well-approved
honesty. Thou, however, giving such strenuous attention
to the deceits of certain parties and their vain words, hast
made a stealthy leap to the celebrating of ordinations. For
if, indeed, those with thee were constraining thee to this,
and in their ignorance were doing violence to ecclesiastical
order, thou oughtest to have followed the common rule and
have informed us by letter ; and in that way what seemed
expedient would have been done. And if perchance some
persuaded you to credit their story that it was aU over with
us (a tiling of which thou couldest not have been ignorant,
because there were many passing and repassing by us who
might visit you), even although, I say, this had been the
case, yet thou oughtest to have waited for tlie judgment of the
superior father and for his allowance of this practice. But
without giving any heed to these matters, but indulging a
different expectation, yea rather, indeed, denying all respect
to us, thou hast provided certain rulers for the people. Fur
now we have learned, too, that there were also divisions,^
because thy unwarrantable exercise of the right of ordina-
tion displeased many. And thou wert not persuaded to
delay such procedure or restrain thy purpose readily even
by the v>'ord of the Apostle Paul, the most blessed seer,- and
the man who put on Christ, who is the Christ of all of us no
less ; for he, in writing to his dearly-beloved son Timothy,
says : " Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker
of other men's sins."^ And thus he at once shows his own

^ The maiiuscriiit reads chrismata, lor wliich schi.tmata is jimposed.

2 I'rovisoris — perhaps ratlier, the ruoviUEU — the mini who with cart-
ful Jorcthowjht has mapped out our proper course in such matters.

3 1 Tim. V. 2±

446 THE WRITINGS OF PIIILEAS.

anxious consideration for him [crcia ilium providcntiam), and
gives him his example and exhibits the law according to
which, with all carefulness and caution, parties are to be
chosen for the honour of ordination.^ We make this decla-
ration to thee, that in future thou mayest study ^ to keep
within the safe and salutary limits of the law.

The Conclusion of the Epistle of the Bishops.

After receiving and perusing this epistle, he neither wrote
any reply nor repaired to them in the prison, nor went to
the blessed Peter. But when all these bishops and presby-
ters and deacons had suffered martyrdom in the prison at
Alexandria, he at once entered Alexandria. Now in that city
there was a certain person, by name Isidorus, turbulent in
character, and possessed with the ambition of being a
teacher. And there was also a certain Arius, who wore the
habit of piety, and was in like manner possessed with the
ambition to be a teacher. And when they discovered the
object of Meletius's passion {cv'piditatc7n) and what it was
that he sought, hastening to him, and looking with an
evil eye on the episcopal authority of the blessed Peter,
that the aim and desire of Meletius might be made patent
{ut cogniscatar concupiscentia Mcldii), they discovered to
Meletius certain presbyters, then in hiding, to whom the
blessed Peter had given power to act as parish-visitors.
And Meletius recommendmg them to improve the oppor-
tunity given them for rectifying their error, suspended them
for the time, and by his own authority ordained two persons
in their place,^ namely, one in prison and another in the
mines. On learning these things the blessed Peter, with
much endurance, wrote to the people of Alexandria an
epistle in the following terms.'*

^ The manuscript gives ordinando adnuntias, for whicli is proposed
ordinandi. Admintiamus.

2 Reading studeas for studetur.

^ The text is — Gommendans ei occasionem Meletius, separavit eos, &c. ;
on "which see especially Neander, iii. p. 311 (Bokn).

* Tliis epistle is given elsewliere.

FRAGMENTS. 447

PAMPHILUS,

PRESBYTER OF THE CIIUKCII OF C.ESAKEIA, AND MARTYR,

BIOGEAPHICAL NOTICE.

According to tlie common account I*amphilus was a
native of Berytus, the modern Beii-ut, and a member of a
distinguished Phoenician family. Leaving Berytus, how-
ever, at an early period, he repaired to Alexandria and
studied under Pierius, the well-known head of the Cate-
chetical school there. At a subsequent period he went to
the Palestinian CiEsareia, and was made a presbyter of the
Church there under Bishop Agapius. In course of the
persecutions of Diocletian he was thrown into prison by
Urbanus, the governor of Palestine. This took place towards
the end of the year 307 A.D., and his confinement lasted tiU
the beginning of the year 309, when he suffered martyrdom
by order of Firmilianus, who had succeeded Urbanus in the
governorship of tlie country. During his imprisonment he
enjoyed the affectionate attendance of Eusebius, the Church
historian, and the tender friendship which subsisted long
between the two is well known. It Mas as a memorial of
that intimacy that Eusebius took the surname of Pampliili.
Pampliilus appears to have given himself up with great
enthusiasm to the promotion of Biblical studies, and is
spoken of as the founder of a theological school in which
special importance was attached to exposition. He busied
himself also with the transcription and disseminatitjn of tlie
Scriptures and other writings, such as those of Origen, of
whom he was a devoted follower. At Ca^sareia he estab-
lished a great public library, consisting mainly of ecclesias-
tical writers ; and among the treasures of that library are
mentioned the Tetrapla and Hexapla of Origen, from wliicli,
with the help of Eusebius, he produced a new and revised
edition of the Septuagint. There is a statement in Jerome
(Apol. contr. Hit/., book i. mun. 9, Works, ii. p. 4G5) to
the effect tliat, thougli he was so great a student of the

448 THE WRITINGS OF rAMPIIILUS.

writings of others, Pampliilus, tlirougli an excess of modesty,
■wrote no work of his own, witli exception of some letters to
his friends (projmi operis nihil omnino scrijmt, exceptis
epistolis quas ad amicos forte mittcbat ; m tantum se humi-
litate dejecerat). But there is a work bearing the title of
An Expiosition of the Chapters of the Acts of the Ap)ostlrs,
which is attributed by many to him, although others ascribe
it to Euthalius, bishop of Sulce. And besides this there is
also the Apology for Origcn, of which, according to the
statement of Photius (Bibl. Cod., cxviii. p. 295), the first
five books were compiled by Pamphilus, in conjunction with
Eusebius, during the period of his imprisonment, the sixth
book being added by Eusebius after his friend's martyrdom.
Of this Apology we possess now only the first book, and that,
too, only in the faulty Latin version of Eufinus. There are
repeated and warmly eulogistic references to Pamphilus in
the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius. Thus he speaks ol
him as that holy martyr of our day (vi. 32) ; and as thai
most eloquent man, and that philosopher truly such in his life
(vii. 32) ; and again, as that most admirable man of our times,
that glory of the Church of Cmsareia (viii. 13). He devotes
the eleventh chapter of the eighth book also to a notice of
Pampliilus and other martyrs. And besides all this he wrote
a separate life of his friend, in three books, of which, how-
ever, all has perished, with exception of a few disputed
fragments.

An Exposition of the Chapters of the Acts of the
Apostles, by Pamphilus the Martyr.^

Having had ourselves the advantage of the method and
model received from our fathers an.d teachers, we attempt,
in a modest way, to give these in this exposition of the

^ This iyJtatg was edited, under the name of Euthalius, Bishop of Sulce,
towards the end of the preceding century, by Laurentius Zacagnius, in
the collection of Monumenta Vetera, p. 428, published at Eome.
Fabricius also compared the edition of Montfaucon with the Roman.
This collation is added here. — Migne.

FRAGMENTS. 440

chapters, entreating your forgiveness for the rashness of
such an endeavour in us who are young in point both of
years and of study ,^ and looking to have the indulgence
{(j-jlimpifofav -AoiMi^CiMivoi) of every one who reads tliis MTiting
in prayer on our behalf. We make this exposition, there-
fore, after the history of Luke, the evangelist and historian.
And, accordingly, we have indicated whole chapters by the
letters of the alphabet,^ and their subdivisions into parts we
have noted by means of the asterisk.^

A. Of Christ's teaching after His resurrection, and of His

appearing to the disciples, and of the promise of the
gift of the Holy Ghost, and of the spectacle and
manner of Christ's assumption.*

B. Peter's discourse to those who were made disciples, on

the subject of the death and reprobation (a-ro/So/.^;)
of Judas ; ^ * in this chapter we have also the section
on the substitution of Matthias, who was elected by
lot tlirough the grace of God with prayer.

C. Of the divine descent {im^oirrietug) of the Holy Ghost on

the day of Pentecost which lighted on tliem who
believed. In this we have also * the instruction
delivered by Peter, and * passages from the prophets
on the subject, and * on the passion and resurrection
and assumption of Christ, and the gift of the Holy
Ghost ; also * of the faith of those present, and tlieir
salvation by baptism ; and, further,* of the unity of
spirit pervading the believers and promoting the com-
mon good, and of the addition made to their number,

^ Tlic text is vioi %pd'J<^ T£ Kxl fioc6/!f4.»raiu, tKotarov, &c. ; for which
Euthal., )(,p6vuv re kuI /nxS/i/xoiruv vocp Uftcus/ iKuarov.

^ But Euthal., lici pLiv Tov i^i>.avoi ... 0/« Ss toD Kivyx^iptu;, i.6.,
hv the (liflerent colours of Llack and vermilion.

3 These marks are wholly wanting in the Coislin Codex, from which
Montfaucon edited the piece. But they are found in the Vatican
Codex.— Tr.

* Euthal. adds, k»1 mpi rii; ttiOo^rjV y.ctl Oiuripx; ai/roii —xoovaixi, i.t,
and of His glorious and second coming.

* But Eutlial., aTOffTo/^,-. apostleship.

450 THE ^VIUTJ^■as of rAMriiiLUS.

D. Of the healing in (the name of) Christ of the man lame

from his birth ; and of the discourse (y.arriyj^Gi'jiz) of
Peter, in which he reasons and sympathizes and
counsels with respect to his ^ salvation. And here
we have * the interposition {i-mGraaia) of the chief
priests through jealousy of what had taken place,
and their judgment on the miracle, and Peter's con-
fession^ of the power and grace of Christ. Also the
section on * the unbelieving chief priests, command-
ing that they should not speak boldly in the name of
Christ,^ and of the dismissal* of the apostles. Then*
the thanksgivings offered up by the Church for the
faithful constancy of the ajDostles.

E. Of the harmonious and universal fellowship of the be-

lievers ; and also * of Ananias and Sapphira and their
miserable end.

F. Of the apostles being cast into prison, and led out of it

by night by the angel of the Lord, who enjoined
them to preach Jesus without restraint ; and * of the
fact that, on the following day, the chief priests
apprehended them again, and, after scourging them,
sent them away with the charge not to teach any
longer. Then* the trusty opinion of Gamaliel
touching the apostles, together with certain examples
and proofs.

G. Of the election of the seven deacons.

H. The rising and slanderous information of the Jews
against Stephen, and his address concerning the
covenant of God with Abraham, and concerning the
twelve patriarchs. Also the account of the famine
and the buying of corn, and the mutual recognition
of the sons of Jacob, and of the birth of IMoses and
the appearance of God {kocpaviia) to Moses, which

^ But Eutlial., uvTuv, their.

- Eutlial. inserts Tnol cc'ttsi'?^?;;, and of the threatening of the chief
2:iriests.

^ M rq> o'j(/y.u.Ti ; but Eutlial., i~\ to duouot.

* Reading cc-Aaecj; witli Euthal., instead of dvxviiiasu;.

FIIAGMEXTS. 451

took place at Mount Sinai. *Also of the exodus
and the calf-making of Israel (and other matters),
up to the times of Solomon and the building of the
temple. *Then the acknowledgment of the super-
celestial glory of Jesus Christ wliich was revealed to
Stephen himseK, on account of wliich Stephen was
himself stoned, and fell asleep piously.

I. Of the persecution of the Church and the burial of
Stephen ; also * of the healing of many in Samaria
by Philip the apostle.

J. Of Simon JMagus, who believed and was baptized witli
many others ; also * of the sending of Peter and
John to them, and their praying for the descent of
the Holy Ghost upon the baptized.

K. That the participation of the Holy Ghost was not given ^
for money,- nor to hypocrites, but to saints by faith ;
also * of the hypocrisy and the reproof of Simon.

L. That the Lord helps the good and the believing on the
way to salvation, as is shown from the instance of the
eunuch.

M. Of the divine call that came from heaven for Paul to
the apostleship of Clirist ; also * of the healing ami
the baptism of Paul by the hand of Ananias, iu
accordance with the revelation from God, and of his
boldness of speech and his association with tl»e
apostles by the instrumentality of Barnabas.^

N. Of the paralytic -(Eneas who was cured by Peter at
Lydda. Also * the account of Tabitha, the friend of
widows, whom Peter raised from the dead by means
of prayer iu Joppa.

O. Of Cornelius, and what the angel said to him. Alsii
what was spoken* to Peter from heaven with respect
to the calling of the Gentiles. Then * that Peter, on
being summoned, came to Cornelius. *The repetition

^ ihiaoTo ; Euthal., oiovrxt is given.

^ crT/ ovK dpyvoiov ; Euthiil., oi/ 6/' dpyvptou.

3 Eutluil., oix Vjupuxiixv, on Barnubas's acrouiU.

* Euthal. insert .s x«A<v, again.

452 Tin: WIUTINGS OF rAMPIlILUS.

by Cornelius of the things wliich tlie angel said ^ to
Cornelius himself.* Peter's instruction of them in
Christ, and the gift of the Holy Ghost upon those
who heard him, and how those who believed from
among the Gentiles were baptized there.

P. That Peter recounts to the apostles who contended with
him {hia-A.pi6iTei rrpi; avrov) all the things that had
happened in order and separately. * Then the send-
ing of Barnabas to the brethren in Antioch.

Q. The prophecy of Agabus respecting the famine in the
world,^ and the liberal relief sent to the brethren in
Jerusalem.

U. The slaying of the Apostle James. * Also the appre-
hension of Peter by Herod, and the account of the
manner in which the angel by divine command
delivered him from his bonds, and how Peter, after
showing himself to the disciples by night, quietly
withdrew. Also of the puni.shment of the keepers,
and then of the miserable and fatal overthrow^ of the
impious Herod.

S. The sending of Barnabas and Paul by the Holy Ghost to
CyjDrus. * The things which he did ■* there in the
name of Christ on Elymas the sorcerer.

T. Paul's admirable (suSaXyjg) exposition of the truth con-
cerning Christ, both from the law and from the
prophets in their order, both historical and evangeli-
cal; *his use both of the confuting and the argu-
mentative mode of discourse on the subject of the
transference of the word of preaching to the Gen-
tiles, and of their persecution and their arrival at
Iconium.

U. How, when they had preached Christ in Iconium, and
many had believed, the apostles were persecuted.

^ The text is Zv u-ttsu 6 alyysT^og, &c. But Eutlial., Zv 6 xy/sio;
l-rsi^ecprvpriai x-ul v(pr,y'/;(j!>Lro, which the angel testified, and showed.
" The text gives oiKov/nsvit'/i; ; Euthal., oUovf4,ev/i;.
•'' The text gives KxrctdXccyiig; Euthal., x^ccrctarpoip'/i;
* Eutliiil., iipyciauvro, fhcij did.

FRAGMENTS. V,u\

V. Of the man lame from his birth in Lystra who was
healed by the apostles ; on account of which they
were taken by the people of the place for gods who
had appeared on eartli. After that, however, Paul
is stoned there by the neighbouring people.

W. That according to the decree and judgment of the
apostles, the Gentiles who believe ought not to be
circumcised. Here, also, is the epistle of the
apostles themselves to those from among the Gentiles,
on the subject of the things from which they should
keep themselves.^ * The dissension of Paul with
Barnabas on account of Mark.

X. Of the teaching of Timothy, and of the coming of Paul
into Macedonia according to revelation. * Of the
faith and salvation of a certain woman Lydia, and *
of the cure of the damsel having a spirit of divina-
tion, on account of which the masters of the dam.sel
cast Paul into prison ; and * of the earthquake and
miracle which happened there; and how the jailer
believed and was baptized forthwith that same night
with all his house.^ *That the apostles on being
besought went out from the prison.

Y. Of the tumult that arose in Thessalonica on account oi
their preaching, and of the flight of Paul to Lerea,
and thence to Athens.

Z. Of the inscription on the altar at Atliens, and of tlie
philosophic preaching and piety of Paul.

AA. Of Aquila and Priscilla, and the unbelief of the Corin-
thians, and of the good-will of God towards theni
according to foreknowledge revealed to Paul. Also*
of Priscus,^ the chief ruler of the synagogue, wlio
believed witli certain others and was baptized.
And* that a tumult being stirred up in Corintli.
Paul departed; and coming to Ephesus, and haviiig

* Reading <pv'Ku.KTiuv -with Eiitluil., instead of <pv/^uKtui>.

^ The text gives '^utiiinio; ; Eutlial., xocj/tVr/o;. Muiitfaucon reads

XUVOtKl'.

^ But Euthal., Kpia-TTov, t'rispi(.'<.

454 THE WHITINGS OF PAMPIIILUS.

discoursed there, he left it. * And concerning
Apollos, an eloquent man and a believer.

WW. Of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost conferred
by means of the prayer of Paul on those who be-
lieved in Ephesiis, and of the healing of the people.
*0f the sons of Sceva, and as to its not being
meet to approach^ those who have become unbeliev-
ing and unworthy of the faith ; and of the confes-
sion of those who believed ;* and of the tumult that
was stirred up in Ephesus by Demetrius, the silver-
smith, against the apostles.

CO. Of the circuit of Paul, in which also we have the
account of the death of Eutychus and his restora-
tion by prayer in Troas ; also Paul's own pastoral
exhortations^ to the presbyters at Ephesus ; alsc
Paul's voyage from Ephesus to Caesareia in Pales-
tine.

DD. The prophecy of Agabus as to what should befall Paul
in Jerusalem.

EE. The address of James to Paul touching the matter that
he should not offer to keep the Hebrews back from
the practice of circumcision.

FE. Of the tumult that was excited against Paul in Jerusa-
lem, and how the chief-captain rescues him from the
mob. *Also Paul's speech {v-aTacraeii) concerning
himseK and his vocation to be an apostle; *and of
what Ananias said to Paul in Damascus, and of the
vision and the voice of God that befell him once in
the temple. *And that when Paul was about to be
beaten for these words, on declaring that he was a
Pioman, he was let go.

GG. What Paul endured, and what he said, and what he
did exactly^ when he came down into the council.

HH. Of the aml3ush planned by the Jews against Paul,
and its discovery to Lysias; *and that Paul was

,-' ^ Tpoc^xi^psh ; Euthal., kyxupuv.

- Eiitlial., TTctpxti/siTi; Troiucti/TiKii, pastoral exhortation.

2 svdvfio'Ku;, perhaps here, as Montfaucon makes it, sagaciously.

FKAGMENTS. 455

sent to Crcsareia to tlie governor with soldiers and
with a letter.

IT. Of the accusation laid by Tertullus in Paul's case, and
of his defence of himself before the governor.

J J. Of the removal of Felix and the an-ival of Festus as his
successor, and of Paul's pleading before them,^ and
his dismissal.

KK. The coming of Agrippa and Bernice, and their inquiry
into the case of Paul.^ * Paul's defence of himself
before Agrippa and Bernice, respecting his nurture
in the law, and his vocation to the gospel. That
Paul does no wrong to the Jews, Agrippa said to
Festus.

LL. Paul's voyage to Eome, abounding in very many and
very great perils. * Paul's exhortation to those with
him as to his hope of deliverance. The shipwreck of
Paul, and how they effected their safety on the
island of ]Melita, and what marvellous things he did
on it.

MM. How Paul reached Eome from Melita.

NX. Of Paul's discourse with the Jews in Eome.

There are in all forty chapters ; and the sections follow-
ing these, and marked with the asterisk,^ are forty-eight.

^ Eutlial., iv sivTov, before him.

2 Euthal., KXTx II«Daoj/, against Paul.

^ Euthal., Old. Kivi/cct^upsu;, with tJce vennilion.

INDEXES.

I.-INDEX OF TEXTS.

ENES

PAOr

PA OF.

iii. 2.3

. 194

1.1 181

iii. 9, 32

. 325

i. 11, 12,

. 326

xi. xii..

. 56

i. 14,

. 85

xii. 2, . , . .

. 325

i. 18,

. 428

xii. 15, .

. 417

i. 26,

. 331

xii. 18, 19,

. 417

i. 28,

\2bis, 370

XV. 1

. 393

ii. 1,

. 91

XV. 2

188, 195

ii. 7,

. 19

xvii. 6, . . .

. 201

ii. 9,

27, 96

xix. 6, . . .

. 197

ii. 17,

. 156

XX. 1-9, ,

. 50

ii. 18,

29,30

XX. 3, . . .

. 443

ii. 23,

. 12

XX. 12, .

. 203

ii. 23, 24,

21, 139

xxii. 20, .

. 443

ii. 24,

. 30

XXV. 8, . . .

. 201

iii. 3,

. (;3

XXV. 17, .

. 203

iii. 7,

. 103

XXV. 22, .

. 191

iii. 19, 23

,2G,

L09, 1

49,1

J4, 169, 174

XXV. 40, .

. 51

iii. 21,

. 139

xxxi. 19, .

. 189

iii. 22,

. 23

iv. 5,

. 127

LE\TriCU8.

iv. 10,
V. 29,

. 113
. 105

xi. 7, . .

xi. 13, . . .

xi. 29, . . .

. 220

vi.2,
vi.3,
ix. 22,

265, 342

. 375
. 103

xi. 44,

373

XV. 5,

. 338

xviii. 19, .

XV. 9,

. 44

XX. 17, . . .

7
. 417
. 420
. 93

xix. 17,

. 318

xxiii. 6, . . .

xxii. 1,

. 264

xxiii. 5-7, .

xxvii. 29,

. 211

xxiii. 39-42,

xxvii. 41,

. 121

xxiii. 40. .
xxiv. 2, 3, .

96. 97

iixxiv. 7.

. 391

•'•'

xxxvii. 4,

xxiv. 3, . . .

b>^

121

xxxix. 12,

. 113

Xlmiiehs.

xlix. 10, .

. 212

vi. 12, . . .

IXODUS.

vi. 1-4. .
vi.2.

48
46

i. IC.

. 38

xii. 24, . . .

. 326

iii. 2,

. 197. 200

xvii. 8, . . .

. 201

iii. 14.

. 69

xxxiiL 5, .

. 100

458

INDEX OF TEXTS.

EOTERONOMY.

PACK

PAGE

xix. 12 161

vi. 5,

. 81

xix. 12, 13,

. 158

xviii. 15-19,

. 205

xxii. 15, .

. 167

XXX. 15,

. 157

XXXV. 10, .

. 218

xxxii. 32, 83,

. 48

xxxvi. 9, .

. 199, 343

xxxii. 33, .

. 106

xxxvii. 6 (lxx.)

xxxii. 39, .

JosiruA.

. 146

xxxviii. 5 (e.v.;
xiii. 4,
xlv. 1,

. 100
. 350

ix., .

Judges.

. 290

xlv. 2,
xlv. 7,
xlv. 10, .

47, 65, 195

. 337

. 20, 112

vi. 37,

. 202

xlv. 14, .

. 61

ix. 18. 19, .

. 102

xlv. 15, 16,

. 62

xiii. 14,

1 Samuel.

. 389

xlvi. 4, 5, .
xlvi. 8, .
xlviL 1,

. 200
. 205
. 210

xiii. 14,

. 390

xlviii. 2, .

. 207

xvi. 14,

. 375

Ii. 3, .

. 185

xxi. 13,

. 297

Ixii. 8,

. 211

xxviii. 12, .

2 Samuel.

. 172

Ixviii. 4, 34,
Ixxii. 18, 19,
Ixxxiv. 8, .

. 212
. 192
. 210

vi. 7,

. 184

Ixxxv. 9, .

. 210

vi. 10,

. 185

Ixxxvii. 3,

. 207

vi. 14,

188, 211

Ixxxviii. 20,

. 390

xiv. 33, .

. 290

xc. 2, 4,

. 182

xvi. 3,

. 290

xcv. 1,

. 210

xix. 21, .

. 390

xcv. 10, 11,

. 327

xxiii. 17, .

. 203

xcvi. 9,

. 192

xcvii. 11,

. 193

1 Kings.

civ. 1,

. 195

xix. 4,

2 Kings.

. 104

civ. 2,
civ. 15,
civ. 30,

. 203
. 106
. 145

ii. 11,

. .

. 201

civ. 31,

. 93

ii. 20,

. 202

cv. 11,

. 56

iv. 27,

. 394

cv. 15,

. 75

iv. 41,

. 202

ex. 3.

. 341, 350

XX. 7,

Job.

. 107

cxviii. 2,
cxviii. 22,
cxviii. 26,

. 198
. 195
. 211

X. 8,

. 13

exxxii. 16,

. 207

xxi. 22, .

. 227

cxxxvii., .

. 38

xxii. 2,

. 227

cxxxvii. 1, 2,

. 39

xxxviii. 11,

. 122

cxxxvii. 4,

. 3SS

xxxviii. 14,

. 13

cxxxviii. 5, 6, .

. 41

xl. 3,

Psalms.

. 228

cxxxix. 4,
cxli. 3,
cxlvii. 5, .

. 46
. 46
. 219

ii. 7,

cxlviii. 9, .

212

vi. 6,

. 197

cxlviii. 11, 12, .

.' 211

viii. 2,

211,215

viii. 5,

, 147

Proverbs.

xi. 7,

. 341

i. 5. 6 94

xviii. 8,

. 206

iii. 3, 4, 368

xviii. 50 (51),

. 390

iii. 10,

. 97

INDEX OF TEXTS.

45D

PAGE

PAOB

iv. 18 3G8

xxxviii. 21, ... . 107

V. 18,

xl. 1,

. 292

vi. 25,

. 392

xJii. 7,

. 195, 198

vi. 26,

. 390

xiii. 8,

. 219

vi. 28,

. 392

xiii. 14,

. 359

vi. 47,

. 392

xiii. 18-20.

. 213

viii. 9,

. 187

xlllL 9,

199, 218

viii. 22,

. 181

xllii. 10,

• 195

viii. 30,

. 340

xliv. 4,

. 98

xiii. 3,

. 378

xliv. .5,

. 39

xiii. 8,

. 316

xlv. 8,

. 196

XV. 19,

. 377

xlv. 18,

. 144

xviii. 3,

. 351

xlix. 9,

228

xviii. 6,

. 378

11. 6,

'. 144

xsi. 13,

. 378

111. 2,

. 144

xxiv. 16,

. 302

Hi. 6,

. 219

XXV. 11,

. 377

liii. 8,

339, 345

xxvi. 9,

. 377

liv. 1.

. 20S

Ivl. 4, 5,

. 370

ECCLESIASTES.

Ivll. 20, 21,

. 297

i. 15. .... 190

Ix. 1,

42, 207

iii. 7 377

Ix. 1-i

. 72

V. 14 377

Ixi. 1, 2,

. 294

vii. 27, 390

1x1. 9,
Ixvl. 7,

375, 337

. 189

Caktici-es.

Ixvl. 7, 8.

. 74

ii.2 59

Ixvl. 22,

. lU

ii. 16, 17,

. 193

Ixvi. 24,

. 297

iv. y-12,
iv. 13,

. 59
. 90

jEREJnAH.

iv. 16,
vi. 8, 9,

. 78
61, 65

i. 5, .
11. 32,

viiL 6,

. 198

ill. 3,

ill. 23,

296

ISAIAIX.

V. 8,

i.2. .

337, 342

. 207
. 186

viii. 4,
viii. 13, .

14S
io;5

1. J<>, •
vi. 1-9,

xiii. 23,

138

vi. 3,

191, 212

xxviii. 3, 4.

vi. 3, 4,

. 206

xxviii. 3-<;,

142

vi. 4,

. 205

xxiil. 24, .

2n3

vi. 6,

. 202

xxiv. 3,

lot;

vi. 9,

. 205

xxxl. 8, io«

vi. 10.

. 215

LAMEyTATIOSS.

vii. 11,

. 205

ill. 27, 45

viii. 1,

viii. 3, 4,

. 318

EZKKIEU

ix. 2,

198, 268

Hi. 22, 213

ix. 6,

218, 398

xvll. 3, .'•o

X. 1.

. 42

xxxvli. 4, 1''0

xi. 2,

. 29

xliv. 2, 202

xi. 5,

. 196

xii. 6,

. 207

Daniku

XXV. 1,

. 195

111.21 197

xxviii. 16,

. 195

ill. 56, 214

.'cxix. 21,

. 374

ix. 23 168

xxix. 22,

. 215

xU. 2,

14S

4 GO

INDEX OF TEXTS.

Joel

PA OK

PlOE

ix. 12 392

ii. 13,

. 219

XV. 8,

157

ii. 21-23, ■

. 107

xviii. 1,

201

ii. 22,

Amos.

. 104

xviii. 30, .
six. 2,
XX. IS,

327

iv. 5,

. 40

xxii. 7,

206

ix. 11,

. 148

xxiii. 1, 4, 6,

Jonah.

Baruoh.

ii. 4,

. 359

iii. 14, 15, 69

iii. 24, 25 204

MiCAH.

iv. 4,

. 107

Matthew.
i. 18, 114

Habakkuk.

ii. 11-13,

. 319

ii. 20,

, .

. 192

ii. 13-16, .

. 318

iii. 2,

, ,

. 191

ii. 16,

. 319

iii. 3,

Zechaiuah.

188, 209

iii. 17,
iv. 10,
iv. 16,

. 341
. 393
. 3G8

iv. 1-3, .

. 108

V. 8, .

. 117

iv. 14,

. 108

V. 13,

6, 304

ix. 9,

•

. 214

V. 13-16,
V. 14,

. CI
. 368

Malachi.

V. 16,

55, 368, 381

iii. 6,

. 351

V. 29,

. 275

iv. 6,

APOCRYPHA.
Judith.

. 212

V. 35,
vi. 13,
vi. 24,

vii. 6,
ix. 12,
ix. 37, 38,

. 207
. 304
. 316
W, 176, 387
5
. 381

viii.

Wisdom.

. 113

X. 8,
X. 16,
X. 17,

. 380
. 387
. 304

iv. 14,

. 143

X. 18,

. 304

ii. 23,

. 146

X. 23,

. 304

iii. 16,

. 14

X. 28,

. 383

iv. 1, 2,

42, 57

xi. 11,

. 372

iv. 3,

xi. 27,

. 339, 345

iv. 6,

. 18

xi. 28,

. 184

vii. 9,

. 110

xii. 27,

. 215

vii. 22,

. 58

xii. 29,

. 217

xii. 1,

. 229

xii. 33,

. 369

XV. 3,

. 195

xiii. 16, 17,

. 65

XV. 10, 11,

. 19

xiv. 26,

. 214

xvi. 24,

. 151

XV. 14.

. 378

xvi. 16,

. 432

ECCLESIASTICDS

xvi. 24, .

. 371

i. 2, .

182, 338

xvi. 26,

. 316

i. 10,

. 185

xvii. 7,

. 206

iii. 22,

. 336

xvii. 20,

. 379

vi. 36,

. 5,47

xix. 4. 5, .

. 140

ix. 4,

. 392

xix. 12, .

20, 367

ix. 5,

. 392

xxi. 5,

. 212

ix. 8,

•

. 392

xxi. 9,

211

INDEX OF TEXTS.

AC]

PACK

PACS

xxi. 10, .

. 213

x'ii- 21 398

xxi. 14-16,

. 218

xix. 27,

211

xxi. 15, .

. 214

xix. 37, 38,

213

xxi. 19, .

. 107. 396

xix. 38, .

211

xxii. 2;5,

147 /;w.

xxi. 34, .

xxii. 30,

19, 145

xxii. 7,

41H

xxiii. 3, . . .

. 378

xxiL 48, .

324

xxiii. 38, .

. 206

xxiv. 22, .

. . 13

JOII.N

xxiv. 35, .

. 144

i. 1, .

25, 350

xxiv. 45, 47.

. 435

i. 1, 2,

. ISi

xxiv, 45-50,

. 281

i. 1-3,

. 337

XXV.

54 his.

L3,

. 351

XXV. 2, . . .

. 369

i. 5,

. 213

XXV. 6, . . .

. 56

i. 11,

. 185

XXV. 11, .

. 112

i. 14,

. 323, 332

XXV. 3G, .

. 380

i. 17,

. 323

xxvi. 17. .

. 418

i. 18,

21, 173, 337, 350

xxvi. 38, .

. 420

ii. 7,

. 214

xxvi. 41, .

, 304, 305

iii. G, 31,

. 374

xxvi. 55, .

. 304

iv. 9.

. 199

XXV ii. 2, .

. 304

iv. 27,
V. 1,

. 394
. 344

Mark.

V. 5,

. 213

i. 22

. 104

V. 17,

. 12, 152

ii.To,

. 197

V. 23,

. 343

ix. 40, . . .

V. 39,

. 71, 214

xi. 19, . . .

. 211

vi. 11,

. 214

xi. 25. . . .

438

vi. 17.

. 381

xiv. 12, ,

. 418

vi. 27,
ix.

. 210
. 213

Luke.

X. 11,

. 282

i. 17, ... 21

2. 214, 215

X. 12, 13,

. 3SI

i. 2S.

. 332

X. 15,

. ;{.-. I

i. 3.5.

324, 332

X. 31),

. 34.!. 351

i. 76, 77, .

. 398

X. 33.

. 219

i. 79

195, 198

xi. 44.

. 213

ii. 14,

. 192

xii. i:{.

. 211

ii. 22,

. 190

xiv. S, 9. .

. 343

ii. 29

. 215

xiv. 9,

. 351

ii. 29-32, .

. 198

xiv. 10, .

. 351

ii. 32

. 206

xiv. 16.

. 95

ii. 38, . . . .

. 204

xiv. 28, .

59. 345, 346

iv. 18, 19

. 394

XV. 1, .

. 107

viii. 29

. 214

XV. 1,5,

X.24, . . . .

. 212

XV. 21,

. 326

X. 34

. 218

XV. 23,

. 219

xi. 24

. 189

xvi. 12, i:i.

. 398

xii. 32

. 208

xvi. 28, .

. 219

xii. 3i>

. 389

xvi. ,33. ,

. 346

xii. 35, 38, . . .

. 45

xix. 31, .

. 329

xii. 49, 55 .

. 208

XX. 17,

. :?94

XV. 6, . . . .

. 420

xxi. 20, .

. 372

XV. 8, . . • .

. 98

XV. 23, . . . .

. (;2

Acts.

xvi. 9, . . . .

. 164

vii. 5.5,

. 305

xvi. 28, . . . .

. 171

xii. 4,

318

4G2

INDEX OF TEXTS.

xii. 18, 19,
xiii. 22,
xiv. 22, .
xvii. 9, 10,
xviii. 28, .
xix. 26-30,
XX. 17, 37,
xxviii. 26,

i. 21,
ii. 11,
V. 14,
vi. 4,
vii. 7,
vii. 8,
vii. 9,
vii. 9, 10,
vii. 12,
vii. 13,
vii. 14,
vii. 15,
vii. 15, 18,
vii. 18,
vii. 19,
vii. 22, 24,
vii. 23,
vii. 25,
viii. 2,
viii. 3, 4,
viii. 6,
viii. 7,
viii. 9,
viii. 11,
viii. 19-21,
viii. 32,
ix. 5,
X. 8-10,
xi. 7,
xi. 33,
xii. 16,
xiii. 14,
xiv. 9,
xiv. 15,
XV. 17-19
xvi. 18,
xvi. 30,

i. 1, .
ii. 9,
iii. 7,
iv. 15,
V. 7, .
V. 25-28,
vi. 19,
vii. 1,

Romans.

1 CORINTniANS.

PAGE

, 318

vii. 2 32

. 390

vii. 2-6, .

. 32

. 305

vii. 5,

. 32

. 317

vii. 7,

. 400

. 195

vii. 8, 9, .

. 317

vii. 28,

:;4 his.

. 281

vii. 29,

33, 39

205

vii. 31,
vii. 32-34,
vii. 34,

. 144
'. 6, 46, 3'7i

. 83

vii. 35,

. 35

. 300

vii, 36,

. 35

. 38

vii. 37,

. 36

. 149

vii. 38,

. 19

. 156

viii. 12, 13

. 386

. 156

ix. 25,

. 434

. 156

ix. 27,

. 375

. 157

X. 12,

. 392

. 157

X. 31,

. 387

. 157

X. 32,

. 386

\o7 bis.

xi. 1,

. 59, 373

. 155, 158

xi. 7,

. 167

. 159

xii. 5,

. 378

. 374

xii. 29,

. 377

158 his.

xiii. 1,

. 379

. 161

xiii. 2, 3,

. 98

. 160 bis.

xiii. 4,

. 307

. 161

xiii. 10,

. 95

. 161

xiii. 12,

51, 95

. 161

XV. 22,

26, 27, 149

. 373

XV. 41, 42,

. 61

. 374

XV. 42,

. 148, 165

. 373, 375

XV. 44,

. 378

. 161

XV. 49,

. 149, 165

. 143

XV. 50,

. 149, 165, 166

. 341

XV. 53,

. 148, 165

. 186

XV, 54,

. 149

. 298

. 326

2 CORIXTIUANS.

. 189

iii. 6, 200

. 313

iii. 18,

. 184

. 373

V. 1,

. 163

. 173

V. 2, 3,

. 164

. 386

V. 4,

. 164

. 378

V. 7,

. 164

. 381

V. 11,

, 385

. 438

V. 17,
V. 19,
vi. 3,

. 184, 165

. 185
. 384

. 217

vi. 14, .

. 350

. 338, 376

vi. 14, 15,.

. 341

. 152

vii. 5.

. 106

. 30

vii. 32, .

. 373

. 329

viii. 9,

. 323

. 34

ix. 29, .

. 3S0

. 380

X. 5,

. 158, 159

31, 32

xi.2.

. 3, 41

INDEX OF TEXTS.

4G3

xi. 3,

xi. 12,
xi. 13,
xi. 14,
xi. 19,
xi. 32, 33,
xii. 2, 3,

i. B. 9,
ii. 9,
iv. 4. 5,
iv. 19,
iv. 26,
V. 17,
V. 22,
V. 22, 23,
V. 24,
Ti. 3, 4,
vi. 17,

i. 21,
ii. 2,
ii. 8, 9,
iii. 10,
iii. 14-17,
V. 4, 5,
V. 6,
V. 16,
V. 25, 26,
V. 26, 27,
V. 28, 32,
V. 31,
V. 32,
vi. 8,
vi. 9,
vi. 12,
vi. 13, 14,
vi. 16,
vi. 17,

23, 24,
. 6.
.6-8,
. 7,
. 10,
. 15,
i. 14,
i. 19,
i. 21,
r. 1,
r.3,
r.6,

Galatians,

EpH£SIANS.

17,

PlIILIPPIANS.

. 79,

375,
302, 313,

PAOG

371
29
381
KiG
438
305
155

347
212
192

30
371

90
375
107
373
369
392

378

323

433

369

387

300

301

159

203

307
183
440
323
220
387
371
381
167
388
372
3S3
439

Colo-ssiaxs.

TAOE

i. 5,

. 370

i. 1.-..

. 23

i. 16, 17,

. 340

ii. 4,

. 199

ii. 8,

. 378 bis.

iii. 5,

. 374

iii. 11,

. 301

iv. 6,

370, 438

THESSALONIANS.

iv. 16.

. 67

iv. 16, 17,

. 56

iv. 17,

ii. 13,

2 TlIESSALONIANS.

i. 17,
ii. 4.
iii. 3,
iv. 1,
V. 13,
V. 22,
vi. 3, 4,
vi. 5,
vi. 10,
vi. 11,
vi. 11, Y.
vi. 16,

11. /,
ii. 15,
ii. 1 7.
iii. 4,
iii. 5,

i. 7. .

ii. 7, .
iii. 5,

i. 1, .
i. 3, .
i. 16,
iv. 14,
vi. 4,
ix. 4,
X. 1..
xi. 10,
xi. 23.
xi. 32,
xii. l.")

1 Tlvotuv.

2 Tnioniv.

Titus.

HEBREW'S.

370

195, 203
19
381
352
377
445
347
404
374
375
320

53, 193

371
3t;9
3M
3:.2
347
369

381
3(i;
199

. 37

202, 345, 350

. 208

. 100

. 398

201 bif.

5(1

51, 351

. 63

. 305

. 141

464

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

xiii. 4,

xiii. 7,
xiii. 8,

i. 6, .
i. 19,
i. 27,
iii. 2,
iii. 15,
iv. 6,

i. 15,
ii. 6, .
ii. 9, .
ii. 10,
ii. 12,
iv. 11,
T. 4, .
V. 5, .
V.8, .

James.

1 Peter.

291,

208,

377,

PAOR

.370
373
351

378
219
379
377
378
374

373
195
375
41
368
434
217
374
371

i. 8, .
ii. 1, .
iv. 18,
V. 19,

i. 10,

i. 5, .

ii. 7, .
vii. 4,
vii. 9,
xii. 1-G,
xii. 7,
xiv. 1-4,
xiv. 4,
xiv. 4, 5,
XX. G,
XX, 13,

1 John.

2 John.

Revelation.

PAOB

. 391

. 314

. 441

104, 386

352

168
23
57
11
71

371

7,367

167

II.-INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Abib, the month, 325.

Abraham, his sacrifice of a heifer, a
goat, and a ram three years old, its
meaning, 44, 45.

Abstinence, the foolish, practised by
the ISIanichc-eans, 240, 260.

Achilles and Arius, 332, &c.

Acta Comhejisiana, 277.

Adam and Eve, the union of, an alle-
gory of the union of Christ and His
Church, 21.

Adam, the first and the second, com-
pared, 22-29.

Adulterous births, God cares for, 17,
18 ; committed to the guardianship
of angels, 18.

Agnos-tree, the, 98, 99. 104; the
singular case of one on Mount Olym-
pus, 151 ; see also 166.

Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, a
notice of, 333 ; an epistle of, against
Arius, 334, &c.

Alexander, bishop of Lycopolis, a notice
of, 233-235.

Alexandria, 273.

Alexandria, a letter of bishop Peter

to the Church of, 323.
Alexandria, the presbyters and deacons

of, 353.
Altar, the double, in the Tabernacle, 50.
Altar of incense, the, 51.
Allegory, the. of the trees demanding

a king, 102, &c.. 104, &c.
Anastasius Bibliothecarius, 272.
Anatolius, of Alexandria, bishop of

Laodicea, a biographical notice of,

410; the Paschal Canon of, 411,

&c. ; Paschal or Easter Table of,

423.
Anaximander, 430.
Angelic salutation, the, to ilary. 332.
Angels, made by God for the care of

the universe, 154 ; the fall of some.

ibid.
Angels, man in the resurrection.

shall be as, 145-149.
Animal worship, the, of the Egyptians,

251.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

4G5

Anna and Simeon, 20-t.

Apostates, from tho Church, 349.

Areto, described, 2, 3 ; tho garden of,
3, 4 ; tho derivation of the name,
67.

Aj-ithmctic, 430.

A rius, adheres to Meletius, 274; for-
sakes Meletius and is ordained
deacon by Peter, bishop of Alexan-
dria, ibid. ; is excommunicated, 274,
275 ; seeks to have the excommuni-
cation removed, but in vain, 277 ;
his excommunication not without
divine interposition, 282 ; epistle of
Alexander, bishop of Alexandria,
against, 334, &c. ; tho views of, ex-
posed and confuted. 335, &c. ; tho
sentence of deposition of, 354.

Artemas, 77.

Asclepiades, 430.

Babes and sucklings, praise perfected
out of tho mouth of, 214, 215.

Babylon, 39 ; the rivers of, 40.

Balsamon, Theodore, and Zonaras, the
commentaries of, on tho Canons of
Peter, archbishop of Alexandria,
292, &c.

Baptism, tho laver of regeneration in
which children are bom to the
Church, 73, 74 ; tho faithful con-
formed to Christ in, 74 j sin after,
141.

Baptist, tho, 114.

Beast, the seven crowns of, taken
away by victorious chastity, 81.

Beginning, the. 181.

Bishop, the, who deserts his see, 311,
&c.

Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost,
the, 398.

Blessed is Ho that conioth in the
name of the Lord, 21(5, 217, 218.

Body, the, the resurrection of, 140 ;
objections to tho resurrection of,
answered, 145, &.c.\ how a fetter to
tho soul, 153; appearance of, when
raised, 107, 108; being honourable,
why so short lived, 173.

Body of death, tho, 161.

Boyhood, virtue best cultivated from,
45.

Bramble, the, the significance of, 104,
106.

Brazen altar, the, its tvpical import,
51.

Celibate brethren, rules for, 38 1, Ac.

Chastity, not the only good, but tho
most honoured, 19; its divine ex-
cellence and usefulness, 37, dtc; the
offering of, a great gift, 43 ; tho vow
of, 47; virtuous, takes away the
seven crowns of tho beast, 81 ; tho
chief ornament of tho true taber-
nacle, 92 ; tho crown of virtue, 98,
99 ; effects tho most praiseworthy
government of the soul, 101 ; signi-
fied by the bramble in Jotham'a
parable, 104, 105 ; violated by pride,
conceit, (tc, 109, 110; a hymn in
honour of, 111-115; maintained
without, and with a contest, — which
of the two the greater, 115-119.

Childhood of the world, tho, 7.

Children, the, in tho temple, praising
Christ, 214, &c.

Christ, fii-st taught virginity, 9 ; tho
first and chief of virgins, 9, 10;
draws to tho exercise of virginity,
10, 11; and Adam, comparetl, 22-
29; seeks tho strayed sheep, 25;
the works of, proper to God and
man, 26 ; the true Vine, 48 ; tho
human nature of, the one Uove of
Canticles, 65 ; the fii st-fniits of tho
resiurection, 168, 109; th3 miracu-
lous birth of, 188, &c. ; the presen-
tation of, in tho temple, 193, 194;
the triumphant entry of into Jeru-
salem, 211, &c. ; His cross, 221-223;
and passion, 225 ; crucified on tho
day of the Passover, 329 ; Go<l in-
carnate, 331 ; the Son of Gotl. 332 ;
assault of Arius on tho deity of,
335, &c. ; 349, &c. ; the equality of
with tho Father, 345 ; took tlcsh,
and suffered to redeem man, 359,
&c. ; events at tho crucifixion of,
300 ; the unity of tho person of,
409.

Christ, Arius' views of, 335, d:c. ; 349,
&c.

Christ, tho Manicha?an view of, 202-
204.

Christ, tho views of Paul of Samosata
of, 409, Ac.

Christian philosophy, tho excellency
of, 236.

Christians, how they should bohnvo
themselves among tlio heathen. 3S7.

Church, tho, compared to a flower-
covered mcad'iw, liO ; her union
with Ciirist illiistratod by tho nuir-
riago union, 21', 21 ; fr>niif><l out of
the ii.Je of Christ, 28, 29 ; intor-

2 (J

4G6

INDEX OF SUBJECTS,

modiato hctwoen tho shadows of the
Liw and tho realities of heaven, 50,
51 ; a typo of heaven, 51 ; tho
Spouse spoken of in Canticles, 62 ;
the vfoman clothed with tho sun, 71,
72, 73, 77, 78.

Circumcision, as given to Abraham,
what it signified, 8.

City of the great King, the, saluted, 207.

Clergy, who have lapsed, not to bo
received again into the ministry, 307-
311.

Coats of skins, 139, 140, 154.

Colluthus, 334, 335.

Concubines, the eighty of Canticles,
64.

Confessors, some forced to sacrifice,
320, &c.

Conflict, the inward, 256, &c.

Consecration to God, perfect, 46.

Continence, Paul's doctrine of, 31.

Creation, from pre-existent matter,
the theory of, refuted, 125, 12G, &c.;
none without a beginning, 1 7'J ;
illustration of, 180; in the begin-
ning, 181.

Creation, difficult and mysterious
questions connected with the con-
sideration of the works of, 121-123.

Creation, the, groaning, to be delivered,
143.

Cross, the, of Christ, its power, 221-223.

Crowns, the seven, of the beast, taken
away by victorious chastity, 81.

Crowns, tiie ten, of the dragon, 81.

Crucifixion, the, of Chi-ist, the miracu-
lous events which occurred at, 360.

Cupiscent, the, who live pure, and the
non-cupiscent, — which are the bet-
ter? 116-119.

David, the sin of, admonitory, 390 ;
the incestuous children of, 391.

Days, the fourth, sixth, and first, ob-
served by Christians, 322.

Deacons, of the Church of Alexandria,
353 ; of Mareotis, 354.

Dead, the sea and hell deliver up the,
who are in them, 167.

Dead in Christ, the, shall rise first, 166.

Death, brought in by sin, 95 ; is the
removal of the wild fig-tree from
the temple built by God, 140, 141 ;
the breaking up of the work of the
divine Artist, spoiled by sin, that it
may be remoulded, 141-143, 160 ;
the separation of foi-m from the flesh
in, 170.

Deception, men are liable to, 290.

Deep, Jesus walks on the, 227.

Democritus, 430.

Destiny, the idea of, refuted, 88-90.

Devil, the, his power in the world, 38 ;
tries to pollute the soul, 53 ; an
imitator of the forms of virtue, 106 ;
injured God's work, 143 ; his fall,
154 ; the author of sin, 157.

Dove, the one, of Canticles, 65.

Dragon, the, 75 ; the ten crowns of,
81.

Easter, the time of the observance of,

411-422; Anatolius' table of, 423.
Esryptians, the, their animal worship,

^251.
'Ex.x.'hwtot, 181.
Endemus, 430.

Enoch, the book of, 415, and note.
Eusebius of Nicomedia, 348, 349.
Eve, the rib from which she was

formed, its allegorical import, 289.
Evil, the origin of, 123, &c., 125, &c.,

130, &c., 135, &c. ; traced to the

free will of the creature, 136 ; in

man's power to avoid, 155.
Evil, the Manichajan view of, stated

and examined, 241, 242, 249, 250.
Evil one, the, 143.
Example, the, of Jesus, 393.
Examples, of an admonitory kind, and

the use of, 388-391.
Examples of circumspection, 391-394.
Exorcism, 379, 380.

Faithfulness in the discharge of public
duties enforced on Christians, 432-
439.

Fall of man, the, 104, 105, 357.

Fate, the doctrine of, refuted, 84, 87-90.

Feast of tabernacles, the, its signifi-
cance, 92, 93, 150 ; preparation for,
98, 99 ; the mystery of, 99, 100.

Fig-tree, the, its significance, 103, 104;
two kinds of, 106 ; sometimes refers
to the Holy Spirit, 107.

Fire, the Manichasan notion of, 265,
266.

Fleeing from persecution, 317.

Flesh, a resurrection of the, 139, 148.

Flesh and blood cannot inherit tho
kingdom of God, how to be under-
stood, 149, 150, 165.

Flesh, the lust of the, 90.

Force, used to make Ckristians sacri-
fice to idols, &c., 320.

Foui-teenth day of the first lunar

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

4C7

month, the, observed by the Jews
as the day of Passover, 225, &c.
Free will, the, of man, 82 ; argued for
against the mathematicians, 86, &c.;
argued and discussed at length, 120,
&c. ; the possession of, renders man
capable of sinning, 136, 155.

Generation, akin to the first formation
of Eve, 13 ; creating power the
chief cause in — the difficulty in re-
gard to, occasioned by adultoi-y and
fornication solved by an illustration,
14-16.

God. not the author of evil, 124, 129,
131, 133, 135, 137, 139 ; the Creator
and matter, 12G, &c. ; had images
of Himself made, 175 ; is diflferent
from, above, and before, the imi-
verso, 177, 178; the Manichajan
notion of, 237.

Godhead, a fragment from Peter of
Alexandria's book on the, 323, 324.

Gods, who are so called by Christ, 117.

Golden altar, the, its tyjjical import,
51, 52.

Harps upon the willows by the waters
of Babylon, what ? 39.

Heresies, the origin of, among Chris-
tians, 236, 237.

Herod, 818, 319.

Holv Spirit, the, blasphemy against,
397.

Homer, quoted or referred to, 2, 39,
80, 82, 88, 121, 247, 273, 429.

House, the earthly, and that not made
by hands, 163.

Housekeepers, priests', 405, 406.

Hymn in praise of chastity, sung by
Arete and the Virgins, 111-115.

lipoCPuUTYJi, 188.

lUegitimac}', note, 14, 15.

Images, of Himself, which God made,
175.

Incontinence and the incontinent, 87.

Jephtha, 113.

Jerusalem, the city of the great King,
saluted, 207.

Jesus, our example, 39.3, 394.

Jews, the, their unbelief and punish-
ment of, 205, &c. ; considered in
their relation to Christ, 213. 214.

Jonah, the history of, its typical char-
actor, 174, 175.

Joseph, eulogised, 113; and Potiphar's
wife, 389.

Jotham's parable, 102-106.

Judith, eulogised, 113.

Julian Calendar, the Moon's age as

determined \>y, 421.
Justin of Xeapolis, quoted, 165, 166.

King, the city of the great, saluted,
207.

VirilVUVlKX. yptAUUXTX, 407.

K(,>.6iiioi>, 278, note, 287.

Lapsed, the, who are penitent, how to
be treated — the first class of, 292
second class, 294; third class, 206
fourth class, 297; fifth class, 3U()
sixth class, 301; seventh class, 302
eighth class, 303 ; treatment of
clergy who are of the number of
the, 307; ninth class, 313; those
who only seem to be of the number
of, but are really not, 320.

Lasciviousness, 87.

Laver of regeneration, the, 7.3. 74.

Law, the, useless in respect to salva-
tion, 105; being alive without, 156;
not the cause, but the occasion, of
lust, 156, 157.

Law, the, a figure and shadow, 95.

Laws, three spoken of, by Paul, 160,
161.

Lazarus and the rich man, 171, 172.

Librarian, the roj-al, his dutv, 43G,
437.

Life, three periods of, shadowed by
Abraham's sacrifice of a heifer, a
goat, and a ram, three years olil, 44,
45.

Literce communicatorice, or Jormata;
note, 407.

Lucian, chief chamberlain of the
emperor, an epistle of Theonas to,
exhorting him to diligence and
faithfulness, 432-439.

Lust of the llesh and spirit, 90, &c.

Lusts of every kind violate chastity,
109, 110.

Magi, the, 318.

Maidens, scandalous and dangerous
association with, condomncd, 376.

Malchion of Antiocb, a biographionl
notice of, 401 ; au epistle of, against
Paul of Samosata, 402, &c.; dispute
conducted by, against Paul of Samo-
sata, 409, &'c.

Mammon of unrighteousness, making
friemls of. 165.

Man, the first, 330, 331,

4G8

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Man, his fall, many apostacios, and
misery, 104, 10"), 357, 858 ; created
free, 136; clothed with mortality,
•why, 140 ; not body or soul alone,
153 ; difference between him and
other creatures, 155 ; Manich.Tan
notions of, 2G0-262 ; visited by God,
359.

Man, the Christian, the holy conduct
demanded of, where there are women
only, 385.

Man child, the, of the woman clothed
with the sun, 73, 74.

Manichajans, the, the abstinence prac-
tised by, 240 ; honour the sun
and moon, 240, 241 ; the two prin-
ciples of, 241 ; views of, respecting
motion, generation, &c., and the evil
nature of matter, refuted, 243-246 ;
other foolish notions of rejected,
247, &c.; their ideas of virtue ex-
posed, 254, &c,, 257, &c. ; other
trifling fancies of, 259, &c. ; their
view of Christ and that of the Church,
262, &c. ; their abstinence from
living things and from marriage
ridiculous, 264 ; the fire of the,
265.

Manichseus or Manes, his age and
opinions, 237; his fancies concern-
ing matter, 238 ; about the moon,
239; about man and Christ, 239,
240.

Mareotis, the presbyters and deacons
of, 353, 354.

Marriage not abolished by the com-
mand of virginity, 11, 12 ; a type of
the union of Christ and his Church,
20, 21 ; abhorred by the Manichseans,
264.

Marriage with sisters at first permitted,
7 ; but afterwards forbidden, 8.

Martyrs, the cruel tortures inflicted on
the, 441, 442.

Mary, Mother of God, ever Virgin, 328.

Mathematicians, the doctrines of, not
wholly to be despised, 81 ; argu-
ments against their views of fate,
44, &c., 86, &c.

Mathematics, import of the name, and
nature and divisions of the science,
427-431.

IMatter, the theory of the creation of
existing things out of some under-
Ij'ing and pre-existing, stated, 125 ;
acd refuted, 126-130.

flatter, the Manichsean notions re-
specting, 238, 241 ; is it evil ? 245 ;

ridiculous fancies of the Mani-

chaians in regard to, 245.
Slatrimony, the uso of, to be rostruined,

99.
Melotius and the Meletians, 273, 274,

280, 323 ; epistle of Phileas to, 443.
Memljers of the body, all to be kept

pure, 110.
Mind, the, the purer when kept from

sin, 97.
Misery, the, of man, 358.
Moon, the ago of, as set forth in the

Julian Calendar, 421.
Moon, her increase and wane, silly

dreams of the Manichseans respect-
ing, 239.
Moon, the, on which the woman in the

Apocalypse stands, 93.
Moses, the law of, useless in respect to

salvation, 105.
Moses and Elias, the appearance of,

and its bearing on the resurrection,

168.
Mother, the, of our Lord lauded, 189,

193, 200, 204.
Mother of God, the, 197, 288, 828, 346.
Motion, the jManichaan notion of,

243.
Mm-rhine vessels, note, 435.
Mysteries of creation and providence,

121, &c.

Natural will and operation, 355.
Nazarites, the consecration of, it«

symbolical import, 48.
Noah, the law preached by, 104, 105.
Numbers, the symbolical signification

of, 78.

CEnopides, 430.

Oil in the lamps, what it means, 55.

Olive-tree, the, in the parable of
Jotham, its signification, 101, 102.

Olive-trees, the two, in the vision of
Zechariah, 108.

Omphorion, 286, note.

Ordinations, not lawfully celebrated by
a bishop in other parishes than his
own, 444, 446.

Origon, his view of the body refuted,
153, 163, 167, 168, 171; his view
of casting pearls before swine exa-
mined, 176; his view of the \miverse
refuted, 177.

Palms, oration on the, 210, &c.
Pamphilus of Cajsareia, martyr, a
biographical notice of, 447, 448; a

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

4C9

Byllabus of an exposition of the
Act8 by, 448-455.

Parable, the, of Jotham, 102-106.

Parable, the, of the ten virgins, 53, &c.

Paradise, where situated, 155.

Tlecpdivi'cc, derivation of the vrord, 67.

Uxpdisiog, 367.

Paschal Tables, the, of Anatolius, 423.

Passover, the, the time of the observ-
ance of, by the Jews, 325-329 ; on
the day of the, our Lord was cruci-
fied, 329, 330; Anatolius on the,
411, &c.

Passion, the, of Christ, 225.

Paul, his mode of discussing subjects,
21, 22 ; the dispensation of gi-ace
given to, 29, 30 ; his doctrine con-
cerning purity, 30, 31 ; an example
to widows and to those who do not
live with their wives, 31-33, his
doctrine of virginity, 33-36 ; other
references to, 305, 307, 317, 328.

Paul of Samosata, 342; an epistle of
Malchion against, 402, &c. ; cha-
racter and conduct of, 404 ; eiTors
of, 405 ; dispute conducted by Mal-
chion against, 409.

Pearls, casting, before swine, 176.

Persecution, on rashly courting, 303 ;
on those who flee from, 317.

Person, the, of Christ, the unity of, 409.

Peter, the apostle, 305, 318.

Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a bio-
graphical notice of, 269-271,
272; relations of, with Moletiua
and Arius, 273-275 ; appiohended
and imprisoned by order of Maxi-
min, 276 ; guarded in prison by
multitudes of Christians, 276; re-
fuses to receive Arius, 277, 278 ; by
a device delivers himself into the
hands of the tribune, and is exe-
cuted, 282, 283 ; circumstances con-
nected with the execution of, 283-
286 ; his burial, and the procedure
of the people in tliis, 287, 288.

Pharaoh, a tyjso of the devil, 38.
Phidias, 154.

Philoas, bishop of Thmnis, and mar-
tyr, a biographical notice of, 539,
440 ; fragments of the epistle of, 440,
&c.
Philosophy, the, of the Christians, the

excellency of, 236.
Pierius of Alexandria, a biographical
notice of, 399 ; extracts from the
writings of, 400, 401.
Plant from heaven, vii-ginity a, 7. I

Potiphar's wife, 389.

Praising, the ti-uo and seemly mode of,

58.
Presbyters and deacons of the church

of Alexandria, a list of the, 353 ;

of Mareotis, 353, 354.
Priests, what they should, and should

not be, 381.
Priests' housekeepers, 405, 406.
Principles, the two, of the Manichxans,

237, 238.
Providence, a divine, difUculties in-
volved in the Ijelief of, 123, &c.
Puragnos, the plant so-called, 166,

see Agnos.
Purity, Paul's doctrine of, 30, 31.
Purity, imiversal, inculcated, 109-111.

Queen, the, of Psalm xlv., what i>
meant by, 65.

Queens, and concubines, the, of the
Canticles, who, 62 ; why called
queens, and why sixty, 63.

Regeneration, the lavor of, 73, 74.

Holies, the, of Peter, bishop of .:\Jex-
andria, eagerly gathered, 287,

Resurrection, the, 95 ; how each
should prepare himself for, 96, 97 ;
of the flesh or body ; the subject
treated of at large, 139, &c. ; of the
flesh, 139, 140; the remoulding of
the body, injured by sin, 141-143;
an objection to, answered, 145-148 ;
corruption overcome by, 148 ; of
Christ's, the pattern of ours, 149 ;
the raising of man's tabernacle
which had fallen down, 148, ir>n ;
rational, 150, illustrated by the
Agnos, or Puragnos tree, 151, Kitl;
Origen's views of, refuted, 153, Ac,
163, 167, 168, 171 ; the case of
Closes and Elias considered in rela-
tion to, 168.

Resurrection bodv, the form of the,
167, 168,170-173.

Rib, the, taken from Adam's side, its
allegorical import, 28, 29.

Sabellius, 77.

Salvation, the law useless for, 105.

Samson, his admonitory fall, 389.

Seven days, Bjipoiute<l for the feast of
tabernacles, the meaning and occa-
sion of, 93, 94.

Sexes, the, the intercourse of, curiously
prescribed for by the psoudo-Clo-
ment, 382, &c

470

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Shoop, the ninety and nine, 24, 25.

Sick, the, rules for visiting, 371).

Sikera, 49.

Simoon, his rejoicing on seeing the
child Jesus, 193-190 ; the Virgin's
supposed address to, 19(!, 197; tlio
song of, 197, 198 ; and Anna, 2U4,
&c.

Sin, brought death on men, 95 ; its
effects illustrated by a wild fig-tree
growing in a temple, 140, 141 ; the
spoiler of the work of the divine
Artist, 141, 142, 143.

Sirens, the, and Ulysses, 120.

Sisters, taken for wives in primitive
ages, 7 ; but since Abraham's time
the custom has been abolished, 8.

Six and sixty, the symbolical import
of, 78, 79.

Skins, coats of, the symbolism of, 139,
140, 154.

Solidtis, a, 286, note.

Solomon, the infatuation of, 391.

Son of God, the, 331, 332 ; the views
of Arius respecting, exposed and
refuted, 335, &c., 349, &c. ; equal
with the Father, 345 ; begotten, 75,
76, 345, 346 ; visits man to redeem
him, 359, &c. ; of one substance with
the Father, 397.

Song, the, of the virgins, in praise of
virginity, 113-115.

Song, the, of the divine choir of pro-
phets, 120, 121.

Soul, the rational, from God, 18, 19 ;
made in the image of God, and
beautiful; therefore sought after
by evil spirits, 53.

Soul and body, man consists of, 330 ;
the division and separation of, caused
by sin, 357.

Stars, the third part of, swept down by
the tail of the dragon, 77.

Statue, the figure of a, employed to
illustrate creation, 180.

Stephen, the proto-martyr, 305.

Susanna, an example of chastity, 113,
114, 391.

Swine, casting pearls before, 176, 177.

Tabernacle, the, a type of the Chm'ch,
51.

Tabernacles, the feast of, its origin and
significance, 92, 93, 150 ; prepara-
tion for keeping the true, 98 ; the
mystery of, 99, 100.

Temperance, and the temperate, 87.

Tempted, the, who conquer — and the

untoniptcd, wliich the more praise-
worthy, 115-119.

Ten virgins, the parable of the, 53, &c.

Thales, 430.

Thcognostus of Alexandria, a bio-
graphical notice of, 396.

Theonas, bishop of Alexandria, a bio-
graphical notice of, 431 ; an epistle
of, to Lucian, chief chamberlain of
the emperor, 432.

Thousand, a, its symbolical signifi-
cance, 78.

Thousand years, a, 182.

Tortures, the cruel, inflicted on the
martyrs, 441, 442.

Trees, and plants, how nurtured, 162.

Trees, the, seeking a king — Jotham's
parable of, 102-104.

Trinity, the, 230.

Two hundred and sixty, the symboli-
cal signification of, 78, 79.

Ulysses, and the sirens, 120.

Uncreated substances, two or more
cannot exist together, 126, &c.

Universe, the, not to be destroyed, but
purified with fire, 143, 144 ; objec-
tions to this view answered, 144.

Universe, the, according to Origen,
co-existent and co-eternal with God,
177.

Vine, the, of what a symbol, 101, 102 ;
sometimes denotes Christ, 107.

Vines, two kinds of, mentioned iu
Scripture in a symbolical sense, 48,
106, 107.

Virgin Mary, the, lauded, 189-193,
200-208 ; her supposed address to
Simeon at the presentation of the
child Jesus, 197 ; invoked, 209 ;
Mother of God, 328. [See Mother
of God.]

Virginity, the excellence and dignity
of, 4-6 ; a plant from heaven, 7 ;
first taught by Christ alone, 9 ;
makes like Christ, 9, 10 ; Christ
draws to the exercise of, 10 ; mar-
riage not abolished by the commen-
dation of, 11, 12; not the only good,
but the most honoured, 19 ; Paul's
doctrine of, explained, 33-36 ; a gift
of God, 35 ; the necessity of praising
it for those who have the power, 37 ;
given to men, that they might
emerge from the mire of vices, 37,
38 ; illustrated by hanging the harps
on the willows by the waters of
Babylon, 39-42 ; to be cultivated

I^DEX OF SUBJECTS.

471

and commendod in every place, 42,
43 ; the offering of, a gi-eat gift, 43 ;
represented by the altar of incense
made of gold, 50, 51 ; the abiding
glory of, 52 ; the reward of, 57 ; the
lily of the Canticles, 59 ; derivation
of the name of 'Trxphvix, G7 ; soars
upward, G8 ; the lot and inheritance
of, G9 ; exhortation to the cultiva-
tion of, 70.

Virgins, tho number of, small com-
pared with the number of the saints,
11; the gifts which adorn — pre-
sented to Christ as tho One Husband,
41, 42; things akin to sins, to be
avoided by, 4'J; typified by the
golden altar, 51, 52; the bride of
Glirist, 5'J ; martyrs of Christ, Gl ;
stand next to the Queen, G6 ; soar
aloft, G8 ; called to imitate the
Chiu'ch in the wilderness, 8G.

Virgins, of both sexes, 367, 3G8 ; how
true, prove themselves, 3G9 ; object
and reward of, 370 ; tho hardship
and enemies to be encountered by,
371 ; tho true, 373 ; imitators of
God, 373, 374; the dignity of, 375 ;
various eiTors and scandals in, con-
demned, 377, 377; rules for the
guidance of. 371) ; what priests [who
are virgins] should be and not be,
381 ; further rules and regulations
for tho conduct of, 382-395.

Virgins, tho song of the, 111-115.

Virgins, tho, without number, of the
Canticles, 64, 65.

Virgins, the parable of the ten, 53-57.

Virtue, to bo cultivated from boyhood,
45 ; to bo acquired by diligence,
253; tho study of, proposed by

Christ to all, 254 ; Manich.-can idea
of, as resident in matter, scouted,
253, 254 ; further views of the
Manichajans respecting, 256, 257,
258.

Virtue and vice, 90.

Visiting orphans and widows, rules
for, 379.

Vow of chastity, tho, 47, &c,

^Vhirlwind, God answered Job out of

the, 227.
Wickedness, in various horrid forms,

how consistent with the providence

of God, 123, &c.
Widows, tj'pified by tho brazen altar,

51,
Willows, the type of, what, 38.
Wisdom, 236.
Woman, tho, clothed with the snn, 71,

72, 73 ; the man-child brought forth

by, 73, 74, 77, 78.
Women, bow unmarried men may

allow themselves to be served bv,

394.
World, tho, not to be destroyed but

purified by fire, 143 ; objections to

this view answered, 144, &c.

Zechariah'a vision of tlie olive-trees,
108.

Zeno, of Citium, his opinion respect-
ing tho destruction of tho world by
fire, 249,

Zodiac, tho twelve signs of the, 83,
84.

Zonoras and Balsamon, tho commen-
tary of, on tho Canons of Peter,
bishop of Alexandria, 292, &c.

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