GENERAL ADMONITION ON THE EPISTLES OF ORIGEN
gregation to our order a token of his benevolence. I shall praise as well the most illustrious and learned patron of all liberal arts, the perpetual lord abbot, Jean-Paul Bignon, consistorial count and royal librarian, by whom, out of his innate kindness, the custodians of this same library—most renowned men of the literary world and distinguished for their learning and humanity, the lord de Targnies, a most celebrated doctor of the Sorbonne, and the lord Sallier, royal professor and most meritorious member of both the French Academy and the Academy of Inscriptions—for his favorable sign and assent, provided me with the most ample and unrestricted opportunity to consult A and transcribe any royal books, whether manuscript or printed. The most distinguished Count de Seignelay also opened the treasures of the Colbertine library to us with great kindness before it was sold and enriched by the splendid addition of its manuscripts; and by his command, the lord Millet lent out the codices as requested. Here, too, there shall be honorable mention of the most learned doctor of the Sorbonne and librarian, the lord Salmon, who very courteously offered to me for fresh collation the notable manuscript codex of Origen’s *De Principiis*, which Merlin had used. With equal gratitude, I shall testify to the singular kindnesses shown toward me by those most distinguished citizens of Basel, Misters Battier and Wetstein; the former of whom, at my request and that of the most learned Iselius, most accurately collated the Basel Greek codex, in which the eight books of Origen *Against Celsus* are contained, with the printed editions, and transmitted the variant readings to me; the latter, while traveling in England, compared with great care and fidelity all the manuscript codices of those same books as well as other of Origen’s treatises with the printed ones, and made the discrepancies in their readings available to me. What shall I say of my master, ever to be honored, the lord Bernard de Montfaucon, whose merits toward me are by no means inferior? He not only incited me to undertake the labor of this edition, but since he has devoted his whole self for a very long span of life to the illumination of ecclesiastical and literary affairs with illustrious works and the publication of ancient monuments, and (would that it be for many years!) persists B in this dedication, mindful of nothing that I might lack, this excellent man has shared with me everything from here and there that he found suitable and appropriate for the edition of Origen. Likewise, I cannot signify in a sufficiently worthy manner what I owe to those blessed men, Dom Charles Peley De Lhostallerie, Superior General of our congregation, and his senior assistant, Dom Mauro Audren. For these truly most loving of all scholarly monks, and themselves most knowledgeable in Gallican history, took care to have as many of the Latin manuscript codices of Origen existing in the various libraries of the provinces of France collated with the printed editions through the help of their friends; indeed, he, prompted by an innate and incredible zeal for promoting letters among us (which is reborn in his third successor, the very reverend Father Dom Jean-Baptiste Alaydon), while the great library building of Saint-Germain was being constructed with great expense, with the cooperation of that excellent man, Dom Barthélemy Delaprade, spared no expense in the meantime to ensure that whatever we sought from the various libraries of Europe should be transcribed as quickly as possible and brought to us; in this, those who obeyed his command at Rome without hesitation—Dom Philippe Raftier, then Procurator General of our congregation at the Roman Curia, Dom François Le Bel, his associate, a learned man, and not least after them, Dom Charles Louis Conrade, who, having performed the same office of Procurator General at the Roman Curia, distinguished himself with great dexterity in the management of affairs—were ever ready. I would truly be ungrateful if I withheld the due praise from my dearest fellow-initiate, Dom Jean-Baptiste Robart, a man altogether praiseworthy for his candor of character, sincere piety toward God, not ordinary skill in the Greek language, and tireless study in learning and illustrating the civil and ecclesiastical history of the Eastern Empire. He shared with me all the labor in preparing this edition, as much as in him lay, with an always eager and prompt spirit, especially where the preparation of rich indices of the passages of Sacred Scripture, the careful collation of the Latin translation with the Greek, or the proofreading and correction of the specimens of the typographic work were required.
GENERAL ADMONITION ON THE EPISTLES OF ORIGEN
1-2. Eusebius (Book VI of the *Ecclesiastical History*, ch. 2) says that he collected the greatest part of what pertains to the life of Origen from his letters; and in ch. 36 of the same book, he narrates that he had arranged whatever he could find scattered and preserved among various people into separate books so that they might not again be dissipated, and that there were more than one hundred of them. Rufinus cites the fourth book of this collection in his booklet *On the Adulteration of the Books of Origen*. But of such a large number of letters, very few have reached us of which we have any special notice.
1. It was sent to those being detained in prison for the sake of the faith, by which he most vehemently exhorted him to martyrdom, admonishing him among other things with these words: "Take heed, lest because of us you think otherwise"—that is, "Beware lest you change your opinion because of us." The remainder of this golden epistle has perished. (Cited by Cedrenus, p. 253, and Suidas s.v. Ὠριγένης, exhibited below in the first place.)
3. He refers to the one in which he defends himself against those who criticized his excessive study of the Greek disciplines. A portion of this is represented below in the second place.