GREGORY, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH
NOTICE
(Galland, *Veterum Patrum Biblioth.* tom. XII, Proleg., p. xx.)
I. Gregory, having first professed the monastic life, conducted himself so commendably in its pursuit that he attained to the highest ranks. For we understand from John Moschus (a) that he was the superior of the Pharon laura; and that he furthermore governed the monastery of the Byzantines and the hermitage of Mount Sinai; and Evagrius (b) teaches us that he was summoned from there to the pontificate of Antioch by the command of the Emperor Justin II, who had deposed the elder Anastasius. The same Evagrius, who knew him well, commended his illustrious deeds to posterity. "He was," he says, "in council and virtue and in other matters, the most excellent of all mortals. And the honor which is paid to the highest powers of this age was inferior to the honor which was shown to this man; since men generally desired of their own accord to see him, or to hear him speak from up close. He was, moreover, an object of admiration not only to the Roman emperors, but also to the Persians, etc." He was indeed a man of great virtues, the chief of which the praised Moschus recounts (c).
II. The same Moschus reports (d) that his patriarchate was foretold to him by the abbot Sergius the anchorite. He attained this dignity in the year 570, and he retained it until the year 593, when he departed from the living. But here it must be observed with Valesius (e) that Gregory had surrendered the government of the Church of Antioch shortly before he died, to Anastasius the Great, in whose place he had been substituted by the emperor's command. "But if it should seem strange (f) to anyone," says the learned Boschius, "that that Church was adjudged away from the surviving Gregory, who was governing it so excellently, let him remember that there is sufficient cause for this, in that the holy Anastasius had long ago been most unworthily and unjustly driven out of it, so that he was recalled not only by the highest will of Gregory himself, but even by his recommendation and effort; especially if he was not unaware that it was in the wishes of Gregory the Roman pontiff, as he had indicated two years prior in writing to Sebastian, Bishop of Rhisina." Thus far that learned man.
III. There exists an oration of Gregory's on the ointment-bearing women, which is read in the Greek Menoea, as Fabricius bears witness (g). From this, furthermore, Combefis appears to have transcribed it: for he cites no manuscript, as he is accustomed to do, from which he extracted it; although we gather from Montfaucon (h) that it exists in manuscript in many libraries. This oration, rendered into Latin, was published by the same man at Paris in the year 1648 (j), regarding which he holds these things in the notes appended (k): "It is," he says, "a pious and learned oration, delivered at Antioch outside the city in the cemetery; where Saint John Chrysostom, still an Antiochene presbyter, also delivered two himself, which exist in volume V of Ducaeus; one on the appellation of the cemetery and the cross, the other on the Ascension: where he also assigns two reasons for that sacred ceremony; to which is added a third by our Gregory, yielding nothing to them, unless indeed it appears more illustrious: so that the station spoken in such a place and time might be, as it were, a silent preaching of our resurrection, in the likeness of Christ." Thus he says. To this oration of our prelate we have subjoined another, which he, lying in bed, delivered to the riotous soldiers. Evagrius preserved it for us (l), from whom Nicephorus drew the same in other words (m).
IV. In the inscription of the former oration we have designated him the holy Gregory, Bishop of Antioch, following Combefis, who added these things to the margin at the beginning of the same oration (n): "Index to the books of the palace of holy Gregory." Thus also do the Menoea celebrate it. And below (o): "Holy..."
...or rather the title after the index of the books of the Palace and the Menaea, I thought I might safely ascribe: for thus he is ascribed to Andrew of Crete and others, who themselves are not inscribed in the registers of the Roman Church. Nor do those Greeks now exist who are clearly distinguished by the title of sanctity, besides those written in the common martyrologies of the Latins, but the Latins also; and the very clause added daily to the reading of the Roman and Baronian Martyrology indicates as much, "And elsewhere of others," etc., as does the appendix of saints omitted by Baronius, which appeared later. Thus far he: Pagi (p) excerpted Combefis as speaking thus; who, however, was about another matter when he said that he had stated that our Gregory was called a saint by Andrew of Crete and others, as Boschius (q) rightly notes. The same error was also made by Castellanus, perhaps having Pagi himself before his eyes (r). Moreover, Saint Gregory the Great, to speak with the lauded Boschius, not only calls our prelate, who had been dead for two years, his former brother and fellow bishop (s), but also in the year of Christ 599 names Gregory, Bishop of Antioch, of venerable memory (t).
GREGORY, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH
ORATION ON THE MYRRH-BEARING WOMEN, AND ON THE BURIAL OF THE DIVINE BODY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND ON JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, AND ON THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ON THE THIRD DAY
I. This law of the Church is also worthy of praise, whereby A we celebrate the memory of the three-day death of our Savior, in a solemn gathering in the treasury of the dead. For who, considering with himself the life-giving death of the Savior, would not think that the dead, as if in tents, are placed in cells awaiting the heavenly trumpet, at whose blast we are all to be summoned from the monuments to the fearsome day of judgment? Who indeed, looking upon that saving sepulcher, does not now approach the sepulchers as if they were bridal chambers of life? And who, believing that the Lord was raised from the dead, is not so affected that he is like one who shall raise himself up, and through Him is about to obtain the resurrection? Since, therefore, having followed the beautiful law of the Church, you who are vigilant have approached those who sleep in the sepulchers; when, pressed by the narrowness of the place, you are expanded by desire; when the people who love Christ exist like a beautiful cluster of grapes B, so bound together and joined are you; hear the mystery of death, longed for by you, which no one, even after he has learned it, can fully comprehend.
II. Christ the Lord, the only-begotten Son of God, his
A own will, and not by any necessity, ascended the cross, and by the stretching forth of his hands he avenged the whole of creation, and put to open shame all the invisible and wicked powers by his own passion in the flesh. He willed that his holy flesh should taste of the three-day death for the sake of the whole of nature, so that through it he might bestow immortality upon the dead race. And, indeed, bowing his holy head, he commanded Death, as a handmaid, to approach his flesh; and immediately Death arrived like a servant, obeying the kingly command, and taking that which it was permitted to take, it held the body. While that body, which is glorious to the Cherubim and fearful to the Seraphim, was held by death, just as the Lord of the body desired; and while the soul of the Savior sped off to evangelize B redemption to the souls there, and his divinity—being present both with the body and with the soul (for the divinity was nowhere and at no time separated from the humanity after the union), but was also in the heavens and was present in the tomb impassibly, keeping its own garment untainted by corruption—while matters were thus ordered, a certain man named Joseph, noble and rich, hailing from Arimathea, who had become a disciple of the Crucified, wishing to render a final service to his Master after his death, approached Pilate, beseeching him and saying: «I offer this petition for a dead man—for a dead man, I say, who has suffered calumny from enemies and has been abandoned by friends in the time of his passion. I entreat for a dead man who possesses neither gold nor silver, nor soldiers, nor allies, nor guards, save only a poor mother whom he made rich by his birth. C I intercede for a dead man who died voluntarily; for had he not willed it, he would not have died at all. Let him, therefore, be taken down from the cross, who has wronged no one, but has honored all with myriad benefits. Grant me a grace than which you have no better; grant me a favor that will render blessed me who receives it. Bestow upon me this life-giving dead man, that on receiving him, I may cover him with the earth. Grant me the thrice-blessed body, upon seeing which, dead, the creation mourned. Grant me the body which, as it breathed its last, the temple beheld and tore its own veil. Grant me the body through which the split rocks revealed their mourning. I shall kiss the wounds of those holy hands, by which the wounds of my soul were healed. I shall touch that immaculate side, from which gushed forth mystic blood and the water of regeneration. D May these hands bury him who is to loosen the swaddling clothes of death. May these sinful fingers perform the funeral rites for the worker and teacher of all righteousness. I shall touch the sinless flesh, touching which with faith, everyone is thrice-blessed. I shall escort to the monument him who is to open the monuments for the dead. I shall bring to those in the underworld the fountain of resurrection, and even to those held in hell, the lamp of the resurrection.
A Thus Joseph spoke piously; and Pilate listened kindly. For the divine power of the dead man whom he sought acted toward the doers in a way worthy of God, and softened and bent the mind of Pilate toward obedience; and immediately, he who had come to request the body became an undertaker. For having received the longed-for body, being poured out over it, he kissed it, and pressed his own lips to the holy limbs, reasoning with himself: "If the woman suffering from hemorrhages, when she touched his garment with faith, dried up the fountain of blood, what gifts shall I not obtain, touching his very divine body?" Then, having wrapped the pure pearl in a clean linen cloth, he placed it in his own new monument; and having rolled a stone to the door of the tomb, he returned lamenting; returning often to the tomb and mourning himself, bereaved of his teacher. But the impiety of the Jews forestalled the piety of Joseph. For again, the enemies of God, having gathered together on the day of the Sabbath, approached Pilate, saying: "Lord, we remember that that deceiver, while still alive, said, 'After three days I rise.' Command therefore that the tomb be secured until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him, and say to the people, 'He is risen from the dead,' and the last error will be worse than the first." B What are you saying, you deceiver and lawless Jew? Was he a deceiver who healed the lepers of your own race? Was he a deceiver who delivered your fellow-tribesmen from the blindness that was born with them? Was he a deceiver who freed those possessed from the madness of the demons? Was he a deceiver who set for you a table in the desert that was not cultivated? Was he a deceiver who summoned Lazarus from the tomb, and awakened the dead man as if he were sleeping with a word? Was Christ a deceiver? And who else is true? Was Christ a deceiver? Why then do you fear what the deceiver uttered? Was he a deceiver? Why then do you fear the voice of the dead man? Did he say something at all about the resurrection while still living? Do you have any faith in what he predicted at all? Why then do you labor in vain for the outcome? If therefore this dead man, about whom you are anxious, does not rise, he is a deceiver, just as you blasphemously say. C D IV. What then does Pilate say to them? "You have a guard; go, secure it as you know how. If you are so terrified of the anti-God and lawless one, as you call him; if you who are living are so afraid of the dead man, you have a guard; you have soldiers; you many, draw up your battle array against the one; secure the dead man who is terrible to you, as you know how. Do you wish to seal the tomb? Seal it. Do you wish to encircle it with iron chains? Encircle it. Do not say in the end, 'If we had been allowed to guard and secure the tomb, we would not have lost the dead man.' Go, secure it, as you know how."
A If, then, Peter is seen there, lay hands upon him. If any of the disciples of the Nazarene arrive, arise immediately and kill them. Remain awake and guard strictly, that no one who is not faithful may be able to steal away your enemy." Equipped, therefore, with such words, as well as with arms and soldiers, the enemies of the Savior reached the tomb with great zeal and fury; and having placed iron seals upon the monument, they sat by, guarding it until he whom they were guarding willed it.
V. Meanwhile, when the second day had arrived, B death, which on the first day was moving about its prey within itself, wishing to chew it with the teeth of corruption, was in no way able. And again, on the second day, wishing in the same way to taste it, it could not. Therefore, at a loss regarding its plan, it pondered within itself, and, as may be supposed, it was reasoning with itself: "Who is this unassailable and strange dead man? Who, I say, is this who died according to the law, and yet is preserved incorrupt above the law? He is certainly not God, for he would not be dead who is incorporeal. Neither is he an angel, for he has put on a human form. C He is subject to me as Adam is, but he is not subject to corruption like Adam. He suffered death as a man, but he does not tolerate being affected like a mortal. His flesh is stronger than corruption. None of the dead whom I have had subject to me from the beginning of time has ever come to me with such a body. Could this body be a vessel of God, and is it for this reason that it is braced so firmly against my mouth? Is this the tent of the Word of God? Is this the temple of him who said to the Jews, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up'? D Is this one preserved incorrupt for a resurrection? Has this strange dead man come as an explorer of the dead? Does he indeed intend to take those whom I swallowed long ago and lead them back with him? Is it the case that, just as Jonah resided in the belly of the sea monster without any danger to his salvation, so this one also dwells with me and awaits the third day of resurrection, so that then, rising first himself, he may show the gates to the other dead as well?" Thus, death was speaking through deeds, not words.
VI. With these things thus having come to pass, and the guards of the Jews sitting by the monument, late in the Sabbath, as it dawned toward the first day of the week, when the Lord's day was about to begin, Mary Magdalene came, and the other Mary, to see the tomb. O, things new and marvelous! Peter, the first commander of Christ, fearing the tongue of a maidservant, denied the living Lord; and women, very weak and timid, A arrived with her to honor their own teacher. They came to see the tomb. For they did not yet believe accurately the word of the
A resurrection. They came to see the tomb, so that they might receive some consolation for their despondency at the sight of the monument. For the tomb, being revealed, knows how to console souls that are in pain, and summons forth tears. They came to see the tomb, and they approached as much as they longed to; but they did not dare [to come closer] because of fear of the Jews. Stealing away, therefore, to the entrance by stealth, they sprinkled spices upon the tomb and withdrew again unnoticed, and standing thus from afar, and stretching their tear-filled eyes toward the tomb, they seemed with sighs and wailings to be tending the Lord. And here and there, they spoke against the Jews in a hushed voice among themselves, making accusations, and saying such things as one might expect: “How did they dare to do such things against such a Master, having nothing just to charge Him with? How did they not shudder to nail Him to the cross, when the sun fled upon seeing Him crucified? How were they not afraid to deliver to death Him who had done nothing worthy of death? How did they not have their fill of their own wickedness, nor even after His death cease their plotting against Him who was vainly pursued by them? Be it that, during the time of His life, they raved with such fury against Him; why do they even after His death sit at the monument, and prevent those who have been benefited from approaching, and from worshiping at the tomb with boldness, and from making some small return in tears for the grace which each received?” B
VII. As the women were thus mourning and lamenting Christ as though He were dead, the Lord Himself, whom they were pursuing with such laments, hiding from the eyes of the guards, and leaving the tomb sealed, and withdrawing Himself from it, in the way that He alone knows, sent an angel, saying to him: “Go to those women, brave and faithful; to the women, I say, who are mourning and still thinking that I am dead, and teach them that I have conquered death, and that I live, just as you see. Transform their minds from sadness to joy. Remove with your right hand the stone which the right hands of many have fortified. Persuade them how much one legitimate soldier of a just and legitimate King can do against many tyrannical and unlawful soldiers. Lead the women into the chamber of the tomb; so that, having learned the place of my voluntary burial after my death, they may hymn my power. Appear also terrible to the guards of the monument. Strike all with terror by the sight of you, so that they may learn from your strength that it was C not out of weakness, but out of philanthropy, that I endured their crime. You walk along at the same time, carrying on your lips the sign of the kingdom; and I, coming with you, will again move… D
A the earth, so that the earthquake may become a witness to your proclamation.
VIII. But the angel quickly reached the sepulcher of the Lord; for he did not dare to disobey the command of the Master. And when he first arrived, he shook the earth from its foundations, so that, having awakened the guards, he might set forth the reason for his arrival before them as witnesses. Then, while they watched, he rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb and sat upon it, mocking the iron seals as weak, and insulting the Jews as men who had entrusted a guard to a stone. His appearance was like lightning. For where the cloud of sin does not overshadow, there is great splendor of form. And his garment was white as snow. For whatever he was destined to announce, he possessed a form and robe appropriate to those events. For it was fitting, truly fitting, that the messenger of a joyous matter should be joyous in all respects. B Having struck the guards with great fear, and having all but rendered all the present Jews dead men, he said to them: "Why are you afraid, you Pharisees? Why do you tremble, and why have you all fallen upon your faces like the dead? Before me, the servant, you are as dead men, but before the Master you are fierce and reckless? Does the soldier appear terrible to you, yet the King of heaven contemptible? You cannot endure the presence of one angel without danger; and how do you imagine you can dim or retard the activity of the Creator of the angels? You, who could not prevent me, a heavenly worker, from moving the stone, how could you have prevented the Artificer of the whole creation, who wished to restore the temple of his own body? You who were unable to hinder the creature, how do you attempt to resist the Creator? C But rise and look around carefully on every side. Is Peter with me now? Does any of the fishermen steal the dead man with me? Does God need a helper? Does God the Word need the work of any person for the resurrection of his own flesh?"
IX. When the angel had spoken these things to the guards and the Pharisees, leaving them prostrate and trembling, he turned his face toward the women; and first he refreshed them with the glance of a mild and gentle countenance; then he drove the fear from their souls, calling out to them: "Do not be afraid, you. Let these men be cowardly and afraid; for they are enemies and foes. But you, do not be afraid, D but rather leap and rejoice. For you have done things worthy of crowns. Do not be afraid, you; for we are under one lordship: we glorify the same Lord. I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified." (He did not say, "Jesus the dead man," for he was not dead at that time; but, "Jesus who was crucified, he who for your sake trampled down the shame of the cross." He whom you seek is he who seeks those who seek him.)
A Seek him who is near to those who call upon him. I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified; he is not here; he is not where you think; he is not in the place where he was laid. What do you say, O angel? Is our Lord and Master not here? Is he not the reason for our tears? Have we lamented him in vain? Have we brought the gifts for the dead to him in vain? Is he not here? Have the wicked moved him elsewhere again? Have those who envied him his life also envied him his burial? Is he not here? But where is he? Tell us, we beseech you, quickly. Steady our trembling souls; do not add one grief of mourning to another; show us the place of the dead one whom we seek, so that running there quickly, we may empty out our sorrow through our eyes.
B X. But the angel said: "Do you wish to know where he whom you seek is, and how he rose? I will tell you; for I have been sent-to you by that very dead one whom you seek, so that I may teach you of his resurrection, and heal your souls, and stop your tears, and raise you to joy by my account. He has risen, as he said. The truth has been truthful, and as it spake in words, so it fulfilled in deeds. His immortal divinity remained immortal; and at the time when his flesh was dead, his mortal body received the sleep of death with its physical eyes. For lying down, he slept like a lion C as a king; but rising, he went forth from thence as befits God. The guards did not recognize the passage of him whom they were guarding; for they were not worthy to see him whom they were fighting against, rising again. The iron seals did not prevent the exit of the Lord; the tomb could not hinder the resurrection of the Almighty; death could not bind him who was not at all bound by sins. Unwillingly, the tyrant yielded place to the King. The underworld itself, fearing, was seized with terror; the gatekeepers of the underworld, having thrown away their keys and opened the doors, dared say nothing to any of those who rose with him. He has risen, therefore, as he said. How shall I tell you of the mysteries? With what proclamation shall I celebrate what surpasses all speech and understanding? How shall I explain the sacrament of the Lord's resurrection? Even the cross is a sacrament; his three-day death is also a sacrament; and in short, everything pertaining to the Savior is a sacrament. For just as he was born with the virginal D gates closed, so did he rise with the tomb closed; and just as the only-begotten Son of God became the first-born from his mother, so, rising, he became the first-born from the dead. Therefore, just as, being born, he did not at all undo the virginity of the Virgin mother, so also, rising, he did not undo the seals of the tomb, having arisen.
A Nor therefore can I comprehend his birth in speech, nor do I have the power to grasp his course from the tomb. I behold the place of the resurrection, and I worship the resurrection; I do not inquire too curiously into the resurrection. I worship the place of the miracle, even if I do not grasp the mode of the event. What I see, this I also show to you. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. For on account of this I removed this stone, not that I might provide a door of exit for Jesus; for the Helper of all did not need my help; for before I rolled away the stone, the cornerstone leapt up as he willed; but that you might observe the place, and hymn the Christ who has arisen. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. For now behold the place, and little by little you shall see also the strange fruit of the place. Come, see the place in which the devil received a mortal wound. Come, see the place in which the symbols of your own resurrection were written. Come, see the place in which death lay dying. Come, see the place in which the unsown seed of the body, released, caused a many-eared ear of immortality to sprout. Come, see the place, more delightful than all paradise. Come, see the place, more splendid than any royal bridal chamber. Come, see the tomb, mutely crying out the power of him who was buried. Lean in and look into the grave, which has become the gate of incorruptible life. Lean in and look into the cave, from which you shall be transplanted to the heavens. Cease your groaning and tears. Cease seeking the living among the dead. Speak, dancing against death: "Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory?" And going quickly, tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead; B and behold he goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him—behold I have told you. See that you do not hide the miracle in silence; for it is not without danger for servants to be silent concerning the miracles of the Master. And going out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And behold he goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him. Behold he has told you.
XI. On the Myrrh-bearing Women
C XI. The Holy Spirit, urging these women to a swifter course, cried out through the prophet Isaiah: "Women coming from a spectacle, come; for it is not a people having understanding." And while the myrrh-bearing women were running with much fear and desire, and were competing with one another in the speed of their journey, and each wished to arrive first and bring to the apostles the gospel entrusted to them, the Savior, standing suddenly before them, sealed the words of the angel with the seal of his own form; and as it were added wings to their souls, saying to them: "Rejoice." D The condemned Eve has been justified; the exiled Adam has been recalled; the sentence has been set aside; the
A malignant serpent has been crushed; the devil has fallen; the devil's advocates have been put to shame; the enemies have been destroyed; the Jews mourn inconsolably; the Pharisees lament their bold crime; the Cross has appeared as my advocate; the tomb has borne witness to my power; Death confesses its defeat; the rights of immortality have been granted to men. In me human nature is renewed; in me all the dead have come to life; in me the whole mass of humanity reigns; in me my image is crowned. These are the fruits of my three-day burial; these are the garlands of my victory over death; these are the royal pearls of my kingdom, which I fished out from the depths of Hades and brought to those who love me. Therefore, rejoice; dance; exult; keep the feast and the gathering. Go, announce it to my disciples. See how I am unmindful of injuries and merciful! I call those my brothers who abandoned me at the time of my passion. For I know how to be long-suffering when insulted; I know how to endure those who act with ignorance; I know how to be easy-going toward the infirmities of my friends; I know how to pursue and receive sinners with mercy. Go, announce to my brothers that they should go into Galilee; there they will see me 28. Announce to my disciples the mysteries you have seen. Be the first teachers of the teachers. B Let Peter, who denied me, learn that I can make even women apostles. Let them go into Galilee and see the lowly lake from which I fished them for the catching of rational fish. Let them see that lake from which I took them to challenge the sea of mankind.
XII. These things the Lord said to the women. But He Himself, even now, stands invisibly by the faithful at the pool [of baptism]. He embraces the newly baptized as friends and brothers and says to them, "Rejoice." He fills their hearts and souls with gladness and joy. He washes the filthy with the streams of grace. He anoints those who are reborn with the ointment of the Spirit. He becomes their nurse and their food 14. He provides spiritual rations to His own servants. He says to all the pious: "Take, eat the heavenly bread; take the fountain of my side, which, though always being drawn, is never exhausted. You who are hungry, be filled; you who are thirsty, be drunken with a sober and salutary drunkenness." But, O King of heaven, You who sit at the right hand of Majesty on high, You who are the Lord of the incorporeal Virtues, who direct creation according to Your will, C who govern human nature with kindness, who have granted us this day and this gathering, have mercy on us as You had mercy on the harlot; do not reject us when, trusting in Your clemency, we have dared to hold Your sacred body with our wicked hands. And just as You did not reject that sinful harlot, D [when she touched] Your undefiled
dare to touch your holy body with sinful hands. And just as you did not drive away that sinner, the harlot, who touched your immaculate feet, suffer us also, unworthy as we are, to be held by you; and as a lover of mankind, gather us all, and as a lover of mankind, draw us into the net of your fear. Just as you captured the thrice-blessed Paul from heaven for the apostolate, prepare us also to celebrate, with a pure conscience, the day of your three-day and life-giving resurrection. For you alone are the good and man-loving Master, Christ our God; and to you belongs glory and power, together with your most immaculate Father, and the life-giving Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
MONITUM
I saw this dogmatic sermon on the baptism of Christ, most truly inscribed under the name of Gregory, presbyter of Antioch (and subsequently patriarch from the year of Christ 570 until 593, while Gregory the Great was Pope in Rome), in a very old Vatican manuscript (Ottob. 85), and I have edited it in Greek (Collectio nova Patrum, vol. X, p. 560), so that I might finally vindicate this excellent writing for its true author, which another codex brought from Greece to England had attributed to Chrysostom, despite the strong opposition of the renowned Montfaucon, to whom it was offered while he was editing Chrysostom, though he could not determine the true author in any way. Furthermore, the matter now being finally discovered, another sermon by the same Gregory has occurred to me, an excellent and most truthful witness of the aforesaid, on the same subject, but in an ancient Latin translation only. Namely, at the beginning of the Greek sermon, Gregory says that on the preceding Lord’s day he had delivered another sermon to the people about the baptism of Christ, and that work having been completed, those words of the eternal Father were heard from heaven: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." However, he narrates that the time allotted for the sermon prevented him from proceeding further in that part of the sermon which was about the baptism, and for that reason he descended from the ambo with the subject still, as it were, imperfect; but that now, at length, a new sermon having been held, he comes to complete the proposed matter. From this, therefore, it became clear to me that that earlier sermon of Gregory had indeed existed, and although I had not found it in the Greek codices of the Vatican library, I recently found it unexpectedly in the Latin ones, specifically in a very old Vatican codex of homilies written in Lombardic letters, under no. 4222, p. 92, b, with the prefixed title: *Sermon of Saint Gregory, Presbyter of Antioch*. However, the name of the Latin translator does not appear, although I lightly suspect it is Anastasius the Librarian, both because the humble and unpleasing speech smacks of his pen, and because we know that Anastasius gave much effort to translating Greek writings of this kind into the Latin language. Certainly, anyone who has read the Greek Sophronius translated by Anastasius in our *Spicil. Rom.*, vol. III, will find the translator to be no less crudely Grecizing. I have, however, gladly transcribed this Latin sermon from the codex; I judged that the other Greek one ought to be subjoined with a translation of my own: for I discovered that what I once said, that there existed an ancient translation of it in the Vatican codices, is slightly different—namely, that it is not the Latin of this present sermon that lies hidden there, but the Latin of the earlier one, which we now bestow upon the light. Evagrius concluded his history in the year of the death of Gregory, Patriarch of Antioch. Finally, Combefis published his sermon on the Myrrh-bearing women at Christ’s tomb in the *Auctarium*, vol. I.
SERMON OF GREGORY, PRESBYTER OF ANTIOCH, ON THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
From an ancient interpreter.1. You who are lovers of Christ, brothers who are beloved and in the place of hospitality, receive my speech, and today open your ears, as if they were doors, and store my sermon within them. Let each one store the wholesome preaching in his mind. Because our Savior Christ was immersed in the Jordan, let us love him as much as he condescended to us, and let us feast upon him with avid souls. Come, everyone: let us accompany Christ from Galilee into Judea; for blessed is he who accompanies the way of life. Come with the feet of your mind, and let us see the Lord being baptized, who has no need of baptism, so that he may bestow upon us the grace of baptism. Come, let us behold the image of our regeneration depicted in those waters: *Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan*...
A unto John, to be baptized by him. Oh, what humility of the Lord! Oh, what condescension! The King of heaven was hastening to John, his own forerunner. He did not move the host of angels, nor did he send ahead his incorporeal powers as forerunners, but he came simply in a martial habit to his own soldier. And as one among many, he approached him with the many: the Judge numbers himself with the guilty; the good Shepherd gathers himself with the wandering sheep, he who, for the sake of the wandering sheep, descending from heaven, did not abandon the heavens. The celestial wheat mingled itself with the tares.
2. John the Baptist, therefore, seeing him and recognizing him whom he had known from his mother’s womb, worshipped him. And diligently understanding that he was the one for whom he had leaped in the womb when he came upon him, recognizing the order of nature, he drew back his right hand within his cloak, and inclining his head, like a beloved servant of his Lord, he used these words: *I have need to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me?* B What are you doing, O Lord? Why do you change the order of servants? Why do you seek from servants the things that belong to servants? Why do you desire that which you do not need to receive? Why do you burden me, your own, with such great condescension? I have need to be baptized by you, but you do not need to be baptized by me. The inferior is built up by the superior; the superior is not sanctified by the inferior. The lamp is overshadowed by the sun, not the sun radiated by the wick. Clay is perfected by the potter, not the potter fashioned by the clay. The building is renewed by the builder, not the builder mended by the building. The sick man is healed by the physician, not the physician cured by the sick man. The needy man is lent to by the rich, not the rich man borrows from the pauper. I have need to be baptized by you. Am I ignorant of who you are, and from what you have shone forth, or from where you have arrived? Do I deny the great works of your divinity because, for my sake, you became what I am? Do I despise the invisible in you because you condescended to me so much as to even draw near to a body, that you might bear the whole of me in yourself, that you might save the whole of man? Do C I, because for my salvation you put on my skin, ignore you who are clothed with light as with a garment? Am I hidden from the ray of your sparkling brilliance, because you are clothed in my known flesh, so that you might appear to men, as much as they are able to perceive? Because I discern my form in you, do I despise your divine substance, which is invisible and incomprehensible? I know, Lord, and you know that I know you: I know you diligently; I know you, Lord, having been taught by you; for no one could understand you unless he enjoyed the love of your most splendid charity. I know you, Lord, well; for I saw you spiritually before I had seen this light. You, indeed, existing in the incorporeal bosom of the Father, willed to be included in the womb of that handmaid and mother of yours. But I, in the womb of Elizabeth, as if in a prison, being constrained and shackled D by the indissoluble bonds of the flesh, was exulting and rejoicing, going ahead and tasting your birth beforehand. You, therefore, whose coming I preached before birth, shall I desist from your presence after birth? I who existed from infancy as a teacher of your power, shall I be found as a youth at your perfect understanding? I cannot fail to worship you, who are worshipped by all creation; I cannot fail to preach him whom the heaven displayed by a star, and the earth announced by the magi, and the choir of angels praised rejoicing from heaven, and the shepherds watching glorified as the leader of shepherds and of rational sheep. I cannot be silent while you are present: for I am a voice, the *voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.* 18 I have need to be baptized by you. I, who was born and solved the sterility of my parent, and while still an infant, when I was without speech to my father, became a healer, receiving from you the grace of this miracle. But you were born from the Virgin Mother as you willed; and you alone know how you were born: you did not dissolve her virginity, but even preserved it, and granted to her the title of mother: and neither did virginity hinder your birth, nor birth [your virginity]. Opposing things, that is birth and virginity, [came] to one concord, because it seemed so to you who are the fashioner of nature. For I am a man, only a partaker of divine glory, but you are God and man, the same himself, because you are mercy itself. You are the brightness of the Father’s glory: you are the perfect image of the perfect Father: you are the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 19 You who, existing in the world, came to where you were: you the Word who became flesh, but were not changed into flesh: you who dwelt among us, and appeared to your servants in the form of a servant: you who made the way of heaven and earth equal through your holy name: you came to me, so great to such as I am, a king to a forerunner, the Lord to a servant. But although you did not blush to be made in low human measures, I nevertheless cannot transgress the measure of my nature. I know how great the difference is between dust and the fashioner: I know how great the betterment is of the sun and justice. Although you are clothed in the cloud of a worldly body, I understand your dominion, I confess my servitude, I preach my lowliness. I am not worthy to unloose the latchet of your shoe, and how shall I touch your holy head? How shall I extend my right hand over you, who extend the heaven like a curtain? How shall I spread my servile fingers over your divine head? How shall I wash the immaculate and sinless Lord? How shall I illuminate the light? What kind of prayer shall I make over you, who receive even the entreaties of the ignorant? I baptize others in your name, that they may believe in you, who come after me; baptizing you, of whom shall I be mindful, in whose name shall I baptize you? In the Father’s? But the whole...
A Father is in you, and you exist in the Father. In the Son’s? But there is no other natural Son of God besides you. In the Holy Spirit’s? But He is always with you, as consubstantial and omnipotent, and He receives at the same time with you the prayers of all. Baptize me now, if you will, Lord; baptize the baptizer, regenerate him whom you made to be born; stretch out your terrible right hand, which you fashioned for yourself, and crown my head with your palms, so that, running before your kingdom as the forerunner of the sun, I may preach you to sinners, crying out to them and saying: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world. River Jordan, keep company with me, and rejoice and move your eddies vigilantly, just as [they do] in exultations; for your Creator shall stand beside you with a body. You have seen Israel passing through you and dividing your waters, and you stood expecting the passage of the people: now, however, [it is time] to gush forth more strongly and to flow and to encompass his immaculate members. And then the Hebrew crossed over. Mountains and hills, valleys and torrents, sea and rivers, bless the Lord, who ascends the river: for He himself, as the Lord of the waters, allows holiness to these waters.
3. Jesus answered and said to him: Suffer it now, for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Suffer it; grant, Baptist, the silence of the time of my dispensation. Learn what I will; learn to be obedient to those things which I am constrained to do, and not to inquire into those things which I am thinking. Suffer it; do not yet preach my Divinity, do not yet celebrate with your lips my kingdom, lest the tyrant, perceiving it, flee; but he desires to join battle with me. Allow the devil for the present to approach me and to fight and to receive a most gentle blow. Allow me to fulfill the intent for which I came upon the earth. This mystery, which is finished today in the Jordan, is a secret mystery to me and to mine: not performing my own work, but applying a healing to the wounded. The mystery of the great mystery of my washing is a mystery of initiation and an omen. Describing in these waters the regenerations of men of the heavenly water. Suffer it. When you see me working as God, in a way perceptible in my deeds, that which pleases me, then compose hymns to the deeds: when you see me cleansing lepers, then remember me as Creator of nature: when you see me making the lame into runners, then [remind] the foot as it moves, and do you, O lame one, move your tongue articulately: when you see me raising the dead from the tombs, then glorify me with those who rise as the bestower of life. When you see me sitting at the right hand of the Father, then call me God, as co-throned and co-eternal with the Father. Suffer it, for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness.
A I am Legislator, and Son of the Legislator, and it behooves me, first of all, to come through the constitution, and then to set before them the burden of the precept. It behooves me to fulfill the law, and then to bestow grace. It behooves me to repel the image of the shadow, and then to offer the truth. It behooves me to make the Old Testament rest, and then to dictate the New, and to write it even with my own blood upon the hearts of men, and to seal it with the Spirit. It behooves me to ascend the cross, and to be fixed with nails, and to suffer, and to heal wounds, and through wood to buy back that wound which, through the transgression of the wood, was inflicted upon men. It behooves me to descend into the very depth of hell, where you ought to announce me, for the sake of those who are held there as dead. It behooves me on the third day to destroy the power of long-lasting death by the death of my flesh. It behooves me to kindle the lamp of my body for those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. It behooves me to ascend in the flesh where I am by Divinity. It behooves me to offer to the Father Adam, who reigns in me. It behooves me to perform all these things, for I stood by for the sake of my creatures. It behooves me to be baptized now with this baptism, and afterward, with the consubstantial Trinity, to bestow baptism upon all men. I lend my right hand to the present dispensation, just as my mother lent me her womb for my birth. Immerse me in these Jordanic currents, just as she who bore me wrapped me in infant swaddling clothes. Give me baptism, as the Virgin gave milk. Hold my head, whom the Seraphim worship: hold it with the finger of your right hand: hold him who allowed himself to be held: hold him who was made for such purposes, and possesses the Spirit: hold my head, which if anyone holds piously, he never suffers shipwreck. Baptize me, who am about to baptize the believers with water and Spirit and fire; with water able to purge the filth of sins, with the Spirit able to make earthly ones spiritual, with fire to kindle the thorns of iniquity.
4. The Baptist heard this sermon and, offering his mind and guarding the mystery which he had received, he ministered to the divine precept. For he was religious and at the same time gentle; and extending his right hand, even as he was trembling, he baptized God. But the Jews who were present, standing at a distance, thinking among themselves and saying to one another: Have we vainly opined that John is greater than Jesus? Have we vainly thought him to be better than this one? Does not the baptism itself signify the improvement of the baptizer? Does not this one, indeed, baptize as one who is preeminent, while that one is baptized as one who is inferior? Of those whispering such things, who were ignorant of the mystery of the dispensation, the Lord alone and...
nature of the Father of the Only-Begotten, whom alone He knows how to love, A who alone has begotten impassively, correcting the erroneous opinions of the Jews, He opened the gates of heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, showing with His finger the new Noah and the Creator of Noah. And He Himself cried out from heaven: *This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.* He is not that one: Jesus, or John; He who was baptized, not he who baptized; He who was born of Me before every span of time, B not... who first bloomed from Zechariah; who was born of Mary according to the flesh, not he who appeared from Elizabeth without hope; who is the fruit from indissoluble virginity without labor, not a branch from resolved sterility; who was nourished with us, not he who was nourished in the desert; who together with Me sent the Holy Spirit from above: and again, He who sent Him, received the Spirit into Himself. To whom be honor and glory unto the ages. Amen.
OF GREGORY THE PRESBYTER OF ANTIOCH
On the words, *“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”*
1. This B loving Father, by reason of the love which He has towards us, signified to me His will that I should speak, and He rewards the applause which you gave Him through my mouth with the present discourse, deeming the profit of His children to be His own gain. I, for my part, have gladly accepted His exhortation, and I raise my voice again among you, and I am ready to resume the sequence of the former discourses, just as you desire. For on the previous Lord’s Day I showed you Christ coming to baptism in the company of His servants; then, the Baptist, recognizing the Master who had come, and refusing to impart baptism to the Giver of baptism, yet in the end fulfilling the ministry of the oeconomy, as the Savior willed. Afterward, I brought in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ crying out from heaven: *This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.* And C when I had reached this testimony, I descended from the ambo, the hour having cut short the course of the discourse. Today, therefore, I wish to take up what I was then compelled by the narrowness of time to omit, and I have decided to connect the chain of my discourse, so that you, grasping it, may ascend through it to Him who was its Smith.
2. *This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.* This is He who with Me sent the Holy Spirit upon Himself, and in turn received into Himself the Spirit whom He had sent. This is He who before all ages was begotten of Me; begotten, I say, not created; begotten, not assumed; the Son begotten of Me alone, only-begotten, by a unique generation, as I alone know, and as He Himself only knows. This is the perfect expression of My perfection; this is He who expresses My divinity D in Himself; this is He who... my substance.
incorporeally, impassibly, and timelessly; He did not emerge from another substance. He is My Son by nature, not by grace; He is My Son, coeternal with Me, not younger, not secondary, not coming into being later. He is My Son, consubstantial with Me, not consisting of a different substance. He is consubstantial with Me, as light from light, life from life, fountain from fountain, truth from truth, power from power, God from God. I have begotten, He has been begotten; between Me and Him there is nothing intermediate. I have begotten as it befits Me to beget, being as I am God; He has been begotten as it befits Him to be begotten, being God the Word. Human is the name of “generation,” but the timeless generation is a mystery. Time knows not the B mystery of My generation; for it did not yet exist. The angels also are ignorant of this, for they came into being after it.
3. The Cherubim and the Seraphim, the many-eyed and many-faced ones, covering their own faces with their wings as if with hands, incessantly cry out: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord Sabaoth.” They do not say: “Holy, Holier, Holiest.” They do not construct a lower, a slightly higher, and again a superior degree of divinity. They do not divide the one substance into unequal principles; they do not dogmatize about what they do not see. They hymn, they do not curiously inquire into Him whom they worship; they adore, they do not demand an accounting for the identity of the Trinity. They offer the hymnody to Me and to My Son equally, and they possess as their life the uninquiring hymn; they possess as their existence the untroubled melody. The heavens declare the glory of God who made them; they do not search into the substance of the Maker. The heavens declare His glory by their appearance, not by speech. The prophets have not been able to comprehend the Incomprehensible; for the whole nature of men is weak when facing the comprehension of Him. The mind does not have the power to contain the Uncontainable; reason cannot conceive of the God who has become man. Faith alone perceives the Invisible; faith alone approaches the Inaccessible, as far as is permitted and as far as is possible.
4. “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” This is My coworker, but not an assistant; He created the heaven and the earth; He arched the circle D of the firmament upwards and spread it out, smoothing it over the lower things. He variegated the visible aspect with stars as if with eyes; He made the sun the leader and commander of the day; He yoked to the nocturnal darkness the brightness of the moon, which drives away the gloom of the night. He poured out the soft nature of the air, to be breathed in easily by those living in it, and to be cleft easily by the faces of those walking through it, and again at the back...
A inserting the seeds of the fruits into the earth as if casting seed, and crowned its face with ten thousand plants and flowers. He set the fine sand as a boundary between the earth and the sea, which the sea seeing, remains within its own borders, not daring to pass beyond, nor to encroach upon the neighboring land. He fashioned the turnings of the hours, the shifts of the seasons, and the unceasing successions of the years. He brought into existence the visible and invisible creation, needing no assistance from time, nor being enslaved to labor or effort, but by His will alone He produced all things easily; for He beckoned, and the beckoning became substance for the things that are. He pondered alone, and the thought stood as a thing realized. He called the things that were not as though they were, and all things, as if pre-existing and subservient, ran with haste to the Lordly call. This is He with whom I spoke in common counsel: "Let us make man according to our image and likeness." This is He who with me fashioned man, and who for the sake of man became man, yet was not changed into man; having become man, He was not transformed into that which He became. Having become man by taking the first-fruits of humanity, not by casting aside the splendor of divinity, He became man and remained God.
5. This is He who was not separated from my bosom, and yet occupied the bosom of Mary; who remained in me inseparably, and yet came to be in her B uncircumscribedly; who exists in the heavens indivisibly, and yet dwelt in the virginal womb undefiledly. For having created her, He was not defiled, and by dwelling in her, He was not stained. This is He who came forth from a blessed womb, as a radiant bridegroom from an unwedded bridal chamber; who honored by His birth the birth of those born of earth, and sealed by His delivery the virginity of the one who bore Him; who entered into the world through the gates of virginity, from which He was never absent, and did not break the locks of integrity; who, carried by His mother, was bearing all things at once; who needed milk as an infant, and was feeding the whole of creation as its nourisher; who, wrapped in infant swaddling clothes as a little child, was as God unloosing the swaddling bands of sins; who, lying in a manger, was pointed out by the star as the creator of the stars; who was hunted for slaughter by Herod, and called Lord by the prophet and priest Simeon; C who descended into Egypt and shook the man-made idols of Egypt, and fulfilled my prophecy which said: "Out of Egypt I have called my Son." He who grew in the stature of His body, but not in His divine essence; for how could He grow who is present everywhere? Who, baptized by the Baptist, illuminated creation.
6. This is He, my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. It is not one who is my Son, and another who is the Son of Mary; it is not one who lay in the cave, and another who was worshipped by the Magi; it is not one who was baptized, and another...
who is A a stranger to baptism; but this is my Son, this is the one who is understood and seen; one and the same who is invisible and beheld by you; eternal and temporal; the same who is consubstantial with me in divinity, and consubstantial with you in humanity, in all things without sin. Do not seek the father of his flesh on earth, for he is without father below; do not seek the mother of his divinity in the heavens, for he is without mother above. Do not divide his divinity from his humanity; do not become wicked dividers of the indivisible. Do not separate his humanity from his divinity; for this is inseparable and unconfused after the union. Do not separate the things that are in him, but acknowledge the things that are in him; do not make two persons out of the one person of Christ; do not ordain two Only-begotten ones where there is one Only-begotten; do not set my Son apart, and apart from him that which was taken from him; do not dare to divide the unconfused union, which it is impossible to divide; do not suspect the Lord who became man to be either mere God or mere man. But believe him to be the same, God together with man; always existing and pre-existing as God, but not always as man; becoming man from that time and existing as such, from which he willed to take hold of the seed of Abraham.
7. Even if you see this Son of mine hungry, or thirsty, or sleeping, or walking, or growing weary, or being scourged, or being crucified B voluntarily, or held by the nails by his own will, or dying by his own intent, or guarded as a dead man in the tomb, attribute these things to his flesh. And again, if you see this Son of mine cleansing leprosy with a word, healing the blindness of eyes with clay, re-forming nature with a nod, satisfying five thousand men with five loaves, and, as in a field, cultivating for the hands of the disciples an extemporaneous and unplowed harvest, calming the raging sea that mimics the peaks of mountains with his voice, treading the deep as if it were a floor, commanding the demons as slaves with lordly C authority, attribute these things to his divinity. Do not think that the high acts belong to one, and the lowly deeds to another, but credit both the former and the latter to one and the same. For all divine things are his, all human things are his, his are the creations, his are the sufferings; for one and the same is my Son, performing the works of his own divinity and making all things of his own flesh his own. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is the vine and the door for the sheep who were previously wandering; the vine that has its roots in heaven and its branches upon the earth; the vine D pruned in its body, but not withered in its root; the vine that, after the third day from being pruned, put forth the cluster of the resurrection. This is the door; for through him the one who believes enters to me. This is the mediator between me and his servants; for he joins to me those who have offended in him.
A This is my Son and lamb; this is priest and victim; the same one offering and being offered; the same one becoming sacrifice, and the same one receiving the sacrifice.
8. These things, then, the Father testified concerning the Only-Begotten after the baptism by the Jordan. But when Christ was transfigured on the mountain in the sight of the disciples, and his face emitted splendors that obscured the rays of the sun, then also he uttered again that same voice: *This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased*. Not once does the Father call his Son by the name of Son, and with his voice, as if with a hand, hold fast the Only-Begotten, for the sake of those who say that he who is timeless was born in time; for the sake of those who rank the Creator of creation with his creature; B for the sake of those who make the Liberator a servant; for the sake of those who fabricate one son after another. For this reason he constantly testifies: *This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him*. If he should say: *I am in the Father, and the Father in me*, listen to him. If he should say: *He who has seen me, has seen the Father*, listen to him as one recounting a true thing. If he should say: *The Father who sent me is greater than I*, ascribe this utterance to the economy of his condescension. If he should say: *This is my body which is broken for you for the remission of sins*, behold the body shown to you by him; behold that which was taken from you, and became his own, and for your sake is broken. If he should say: *This is my blood*, consider the blood of him who is speaking to you, and not that of anyone else besides him. If he should say: *My soul is sorrowful even unto death*, attribute the passion of sorrow to his soul.
9. These things we have been taught by God the Father; these things we have been taught by the Only-Begotten Son of God; C these things are proclaimed by the divine Scriptures; these things have been preached by the holy Fathers. Let us, therefore, keep what we have received; let us hold fast what we have learned. Why do we vainly fight against one another? Why do we wage civil war, we who are commanded even to love our enemies? Why, abandoning simple faith, do we elaborate an artificial creed? Was he born, or was he not born? Did he suffer, or did he not suffer? Did he rise, or did he not rise? Why do we contend as if in judgment with the Liberator? Why do we settle accounts with the Benefactor? Once, as he willed, he came, and suffered, and rose, and he comes as judge of the living and the dead; D he will come, I say, just as he arrived before, with our form. For he did not strip off that which he loved so much; he did not cast aside that which he cherished so greatly; he did not leave behind in the tomb his own flesh, which out of love for mankind he hypostatically united to himself; but thus he is to return to judge the living and
A dead, that Judas may see whom he sold to the Lord’s murderers; that the Jews may see what kind of head they crowned with thorns; and finally, that when they see him sitting upon the judgment seat, and the Cherubim and Seraphim standing by with fear and trembling, and they say: "We did not crucify this one, but condemned a certain Jesus of Nazareth, the Bethlehemite," he will show them his side, that they may see whom they pierced, and worship him even against their will.
B 5. (39) Why then, casting aside simple faith, do we craft technicalities about the faith? Why do we fulfill the desire of the common enemy? For the devil, that common destroyer of mankind, reasoning that when peace prevails among us, the things of piety flourish, and as the faith shines forth (40), a good life prevails; and when a God-beloved manner of life is achieved, and blessedness dwells within (41), we — becoming friends of the Creator — run back towards the One who is longed for (42), so that we might not ascend (43) to where he fell from—see what he has done, and how cunningly and deceitfully (44) he has woven a war against us, he the master-craftsman of evils, the wise in deceptions, the multifaceted in plots, and the rich in wicked inventions! He has prepared (45) some to campaign under the guise of piety, and has armed the investigation of the faith against the faith itself, and through them he has cast an untimely and soul-destroying war of contention upon all the pious, and has made the members of the Church C war against one another. Then he laughs a wide laugh, seeing those who were persuaded by his councils rejoicing in him, and rejoicing him with the deeds they perform against one another, and not even after the trial of these evils do they cease. Let us, therefore, turn (47) this very cleverness back upon the head of the wicked one, and convert his joy into grief and inconsolable mourning; and let us desire the peace which he hates; let us leave off weighing (48) and measuring the words of dogma; let us stop wishing to be teachers of teachers; let us hate wrangling over words to the destruction of those who hear; let us believe as our Fathers have handed down to us. We are not wiser than the Fathers; we are not more accurate than our teachers; we are not the shepherds of the shepherds, but sheep; the sheep D do not shepherd the shepherds, but the shepherds the sheep. God has called (49) us in peace (50), not in war; as we have been called, so let us abide. Let us tremble (51) at the mystical table at which we partake of the heavenly mysteries. Let us not be, at the same time, guests and one another’s plotters; let us not be companions in communion, while outside we should not have omitted to [ensure that].
be contentious, nor be fellow-diners here, while outside we are of differing factions, A lest the Lord also say concerning us: "I have begotten sons and exalted them, and with my own flesh I nourished them, but they have renounced me." May He Himself, the Savior of all, the Author of peace, drive from you the devil who is desirous of tumult and war! May He Himself bestow tranquility upon His own Churches! May He preserve this sacred flock! May He protect the shepherd of the flock! May He guard our pious and Christ-loving emperor! May He gather the wandering sheep into His own fold, so that there may be one flock, one sheepfold. To Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
GREGORY OF THEOPOLIS: ORATION TO THE ARMY
I indeed imagined, O men, Romans in name and in deed, that you would have come to me a long time ago, both to share with me concerning the things that had happened, and to take such counsel as my goodwill toward you promises. This [goodwill] was most certainly confirmed by my previous deeds, at the time when I relieved your naval disturbance and the storm aroused from it by sending food. But since until now this has been neglected—perhaps because divine providence did not grant the opportunity for B the matter: partly so that the Persians might fully learn the bravery of the Romans, having been repelled by men bereft of their leaders; and partly so that your sincere goodwill toward the republic might be confirmed in every way, having been tested at the opportune time and proven by the deeds themselves. For you have clearly shown that, even if you have causes for pain and discord against your commanders, nevertheless nothing is more important to you than the republic. Come now, let us consider what is to be done. The emperor invites you, promising oblivion for all past events, and receiving your goodwill toward the republic and your bravery in battle as the branches and sacred herbs of suppliants; and he gives you the most certain C pledges of his indulgence, as he says: "If God has granted victory to your goodwill toward the republic, and as the sins have been cast aside, your bravery has shone forth, having become a clear proof of forgiveness, how could I not follow the divine judgment?" The heart of the emperor is in
in the hand of God, and whithersoever He wills, He inclines it. A Purge your sins, for your strength has shone forth, which is the surest proof of granted clemency: how could I not follow the example of God Himself? "The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, and whithersoever He wills, He inclines it" (Prov. xxi, 1). Obey me therefore with all speed, O Romans; let us not betray the present moment, nor let it slip away, having failed. For it is wont to disdain being grasped, and as if resentful that it was passed over, it will not endure being easily caught.
Inherit, therefore, the obedience of your fathers, just as you inherited their bravery, so that in all things you may show yourselves to be Romans, and no stain of reproach may touch your name, or show you to be degenerate sons. Your ancestors, established under the rule of consuls and emperors, subdued the whole world by their obedience and their bravery. Manlius Torquatus slew his own son, who had indeed conducted himself with bravery, but had not obeyed orders. B For it is by the prudence of the leaders and the obedience of the soldiers that the greatest things are wont to be accomplished; but if one is deprived of the help of the other, it immediately goes lame and stumbles, and falls completely, the most excellent yoke of those two virtues being dissolved. Do not therefore delay, but be persuaded by me, who as a priest am the mediator between the emperor and the army, to restore concord. Show that there is no rebellion in what you have done, but a just indignation undertaken for a brief time against your commanders, by whom you have been treated with injury. For unless you hasten to the emperor as quickly as possible, I for my part shall have fulfilled both the benevolence I owe to the republic, and the duty of my friendship toward you. C But you, I pray you, consider what the ends of tyrants are. For by what reasoning will you put an end to the present state of affairs? To remain gathered together in one place is in no way possible. For from where will grain be conveyed to you, or those goods which the sea is wont to supply to the mainland, unless by waging war on Christians, and being in turn attacked by them, you cause and endure the most terrible of all things? And what will be the end of these things? Scattered this way and that, you will pass your lives. Justice will be present on the spot, not allowing you to obtain pardon any longer. Giving your right hands, therefore, let us weigh what will be profitable both to us and to the republic, since we have the feast days of the saving passion and the most holy resurrection of our God Jesus Christ, which support us in this.