Peter the Sicilian, and Peter, Bishop of Argos

and we have also created the metropolitan of Sardis. Finally, we have received many others who were deposed for their offenses by Saint Ignatius, and the same Saint Ignatius has received into his communion those whom we had deposed. ^A

INTERROGATION X. How many defected from the ecumenical synods?

ANSWER. From the first, eighteen, and these indeed the more learned ones. But more from the second, who, gathering together, completed the number of thirty-six. From the third, thirty, and the pontiff of Antioch. From the fourth, an infinite multitude, or rather all who favored Dioscorus, and who did not subscribe. ^B

IN THE YEARS OF THE LORD 870 — 890.

PETER SICULUS, AND PETER, BISHOP OF ARGOS.

NOTICE.

Petrus Siculus, so called because he was born in Sicily, was a man illustrious in birth, most learned, and most celebrated. In order to escape the tyranny of the Saracens, which was growing cruel in Sicily, he fled to the East in the year 830, according to Octavius Caetanus in his *Animadversiones ad tom. II SS. Siculor.*, p. 18; there he prolonged a long stay; and on account of his excellent learning, he was most acceptable to the Emperor Basil and his sons, Constantine and Leo. He held very great authority among them, and they decorated Peter with many benefits. In the year 870, he was sent by them as an ambassador to the city of Tephrike in Armenia to exchange the captive faithful of Christ, and there he spent a nine-month period, successfully fulfilling the province entrusted to him. But when he had received a full knowledge of the Manichaean heresy, he wrote a history of it and learnedly attacked its errors. Baronius mentions him in *Annales*, vol. X, a. 870, n. 66; he also mentions him in vol. VIII, a. 653, n. 14. But in vol. IX, a. 722, n. 1; a. 810, n. 4, and a. 685, n. 2, he calls him Lucas Siculus. Caetanus also mentions him, loc. cit., pp. 18 and 27; Possevinus in *Apparatus Sacer*, vol. III, p. 69. But in vol. II, p. 354, under the name Lucas Siculus; for as a result of Baronius’s error, he thought Lucas Siculus to be different from Petrus Siculus: but as the most observant Gerard Jo. Vossius in *De historicis Graecis*, lib. IV, cap. 19, p. 490, Casimirus Oudin in *Supplementum ad Bellarminum De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis*, p. 261, and Nicolaus Antonius in *Bibliotheca Hispana vetus*, vol. I, lib. v, cap. 7, n. 395, note, he is the same person. See also Joannes Bollandus in *Acta SS. Januarii*, vol. II, 25 January, p. 1125; Hautbertus Miraeus, in *Auctarium Bibliothecae Ecclesiasticae*, cap. 256, p. 230; Matthaeus Raderus in *Observationes ad historiam Petri Siculi*, who calls into doubt whether he is the one whom Joannes Carapotales, at the beginning of his history, calls the Sicilian master, and suspects that Petrus Siculus is meant. But Caetanus, loc. cit., p. 18, thinks that it must be taken as referring to the Sicilian historian Michael Glycas, which is clearly concluded from the end of each history. Indeed, Vossius, loc. cit. in *Addictiones*, p. 542, doubting whether this Sicilian master mentioned by Carapotales and Cedrenus in their *Exordia historiarum* is Michael Glycas, Petrus Siculus, or Joannes Siculus, thinks it more likely that Joannes Siculus is understood; but in lib. IV, cap. 21, p. 499, writing about the historian Joannes Siculus, he says: Philippus Labbeus promised to untie this knot elsewhere in his *Delineatio apparatus ad historiam Byzantinam*, p. 44. See also Franciscus Seorsus in his *Epistola ad Lectorem Homiliarum Theophylacti Cerami*; Philippus Labbeus in *SS. Patrum, etc., Bibliotheca Chronologica*, p. 106; Guillelmus Cave, in *Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum historia litteraria*, a. 870, p. 302; Lud. Morerius in *Dictionarium*, vol. II, p. 357; and L. Ellies Dupin, in *Bibliotheca auctorum ecclesiasticorum*, vol. VIII, cap. 17, p. 194.

^A Petrus Siculus wrote a *History concerning the vain and foolish heresy of the Manichaeans*, which the Vatican library (as Vossius, cited above, says, the Bavarian Library) preserved in a Greek manuscript. Certain fragments of this, rendered into Latin by Jacques Sirmond of the Society of Jesus, were edited by Baronius in his Annals (t. VIII, IX, and X, loc. cit., and elsewhere); from whence this *History* was sent by Sirmond from Rome to Marcus Welser, then at Augsburg, and from him passed to Matthäus Rader, that he might render it into Latin and give it to the press. This he did, and it appeared in Greek and Latin, illustrated with notes, marked with this title: *The History of Peter the Sicilian, from a Greek manuscript in the Vatican library, edited with a Latin version by Matthäus Rader of the Society of Jesus, Ingolstadt, from the press of Adam Sartorius, 1604, in 4to*. It later appeared in Latin only in vol. II of the *Supplementum Bibliothecae Patrum*, Paris, by Aegidius Morellus, 1639, in folio, with this inscription: *The History of Peter the Sicilian Concerning the Vain and Foolish Manichaean Heresy, dedicated to the Archbishop of the Bulgarians*. And finally, in the new edition of the *Bibliotheca Patrum*, Lyon, by the Anisson brothers, 1677, in folio, it exists in vol. XVI, p. 753.

Possevinus, in *Appar.* t. III, p. 69, makes mention of another work by Peter the Sicilian; he says, in fact: "Peter the Sicilian wrote in Greek a beautiful and elegant book concerning the Manichaeans," which Cardinal Baronius cites several times in volumes VIII and IX, and which our own Matthäus Rader, having received it from said Cardinal, translated and published in both languages at Augsburg. Rader himself also wrote a *History* in Greek, which Matthäus Rader of the Society of Jesus brought to light in Greek and Latin at Ingolstadt in the year 1604. ^B And therefore Possevinus opines that, beyond the *History* related above, Rader translated and edited another work of Peter the Sicilian concerning the Manichaeans; but I believe Possevinus has fallen into error, for learned men do not consider it to have ever been published, nor do the authors cited imply anything about its publication. This work is mentioned by Rader only in the *Epistle to the Reader* prefixed to the *History*, where he says that Peter the Sicilian promises in that same *History* another study, in which he reduces all the errors of the Manichaeans to six chapters and refutes them; and he adds that Jacques Sirmond told him that two chapters of these same errors, most learnedly refuted by Peter, are preserved in the Vatican Library. Du Pin, already cited, affirms the same.

Another Peter, also a Sicilian, as is evident from an *Oration* edited on Saint Athanasius, was bishop of the Argives in the Peloponnese. Octavio Caetani in his *Animad. ad tom. II SS. Sicul.*, p. 18, says it is uncertain if he is the same person as the Peter the Sicilian mentioned above who wrote on the history of the Manichaeans; but he lightly suggests that the evidence, namely the same name, the same nationality, and the same time in which they flourished, leads one to think so. But on p. 27, he leans toward the opinion that they were different people. ^C Francesco Blanditius of Catania, of the Society of Jesus, fell into the aforementioned suspicion, according to Jean Bolland in *Actis SS.*, vol. II of January, p. 1125; but Peter Carrera absolutely affirms that they are the same person in *Mem. Catanen.* vol. II, lib. vi, p. 37, and lib. II, p. 351, as does Giambattista de Grossis in his *Agathia*, cap. 30, p. 238, 242 seq. But I, along with Agostino Ingoves in *Panormit. Sacr.*, p. 207 and 208, and Giuseppe Bonafide of Lucca in the book *Palermo Patria di S. Agatha*, part I, cap. 17, p. 129, and in the *Supplem.* p. 74, believe they are entirely different, for these reasons: first, because the book of Peter the Sicilian, *On the Errors of the Manichaeans*, has the title in both Rader's edition and in the *Bibliotheca Patrum*: *The History of Peter the Sicilian,* etc., whereas the oration has the title: *The Epitaph of Peter, the most humble Bishop of the Argives*, from which you see that the word "Sicilian" is missing here; even though it exists with Carrera and Bolland as an addition by Blanditius, as the same Bolland confesses in *Actis SS. Febr.* I, p. 611, n. 105. Yet the name of the nation is deduced from the narrative of the oration itself, as Caetani observes, loc. cit., p. 18. Secondly, it is gathered from the fact that those who have written regarding the aforementioned Peter the Sicilian, such as Baronius, Possevinus, Rader, Miraeus, Vossius, Oudin, Cave, Labbé, and others, never asserted that Peter was the bishop of the Argives. Thirdly, because the style of each of the two works is widely different. ^D Although Grossis, in responding to the reasons brought forth, toils in vain, nevertheless Bonafide responds amply to Grossis at the cited location. Peter, therefore, lived in the East, was renowned for his learning and virtues, and was the bishop of the Argives. The time in which he lived is uncertain, though Caetani, loc. cit. p. 18, thinks him a contemporary of the first Peter. This alone is certain: since he delivered a eulogy on Saint Athanasius, bishop of Methone, who died in the year 885 (according to Caetani, loc. cit. t. II SS. Sicul., p. 52), he flourished after the year 885, having spoken either at the death of Athanasius or at an anniversary celebration; which is uncertain. Peter wrote an oration inscribed: *The Epitaph of Peter, the most humble Bishop of the Argives, on Blessed Athanasius, Bishop of Methone*. It exists in volume II of the *SS. Siculorum* of Octavio Caetani, p. 52 and seq., from a manuscript codex of the monastery of the Holy Savior near Messina. Although Bolland in *Actis SS. Febr.* vol. I, p. 611, n. 107, suspects that this work is perhaps by Saint Peter the Wonderworker, yet Caetani ascribes it to our Peter (p. 52 and in *Animad.* p. 18 and 49), as do others of our ones cited above, and as Caetani not obscurely elicits from the same oration of Peter. Bonafide, at the cited location, p. 130, shows the conjecture brought forth by Bolland to be futile. Also existing with Peter Carrera, vol. II, *Histor. Catanae*, lib. 1, p. 38 and seq., and with Bolland on January 31, p. 1125, is this assigned title: *The Life of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Methone in the Peloponnese, by the author Peter the Sicilian, Bishop of the Argives, translated by Francesco Blanditius of the Society of Jesus*. Although Bolland thinks this *Life* was translated by Blanditius, from whom he received it, yet it is the same version edited by Agostino Florito of the Society of Jesus, and brought forward by Caetani and Carrera, polished by Blanditius, and in some parts corrupted, as Peter Salernus notices in his *Additamenta* to the cited *Animadversiones* of Caetani, p. 9. This is evident to anyone observing it. I add that the version brought forth by Carrera is not by Leonardo Pate, as Grossis thinks, loc. cit. p. 239. For Pate translated a fragment of the oration only, where it concerns St. Agatha; for thus is Carrera, p. 355, to be understood.

ANOTHER NOTICE

(LEQUIEN, *Or. Christ.* Vol. II, p. 184.)

Peter, bishop of Argos, was a Sicilian by birth and the writer of the Life of St. Athanasius of Methone, or the Funeral Oration for that blessed bishop of Methone, which Athanasius had been born at the time the Saracens made their first incursion into Sicily, therefore around the year 879. He also wrote a narrative concerning the Manichaeans, which he dedicated to the Archbishop of the Bulgarians. At the beginning of the work, he signifies that he was sent from the early times of the Emperor Basil to the progeny of those heretics, which was burgeoning in the parts of Armenia: "Having arrived there at the beginning of the reign of Basil, the one chosen by God, our great emperor." To him and his sons, the emperors, he prays for many years. But he published this history when he had not yet been named bishop of Argos, which is gathered from the Greek synaxaries to have taken place after the year 890, under the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos of Constantinople. For in that [synaxary] which belongs to the Parisian College of the Society of Jesus, the following is recorded on the 3rd of May: "Memory of our Holy Father Peter the wonderworker of Argos, who had Constantinople as his homeland, born there of most pious parents, who with their whole family dedicated themselves to the monastic life. When, however, because of his excellence in virtue, he was urged to accept the archbishopric of Corinth, he could not be persuaded to consent, due to his modesty and humility. Wherefore, his brother Paul having been ordained there, he followed him thither. But being moved by the entreaties of the Argives and his own brother, he is consecrated bishop of Argos. He shone especially in his charity toward the poor, and he foretold the famine that was imminent for the Peloponnese. Finally, in his seventieth year, he rendered his spirit to God." In the short Greek Chronicle that was published in print after the history of the nephew of Michael Ducas, at the year 6929 (Christ 1421), Indiction 14, January 21, the third day of the week: "It is said that the Latin bishop Siguntonanes transferred the precious relics of the most holy Peter, bishop of Nauplion and Argos, from the city of Argos to Nauplion, which is the episcopal see. Those who were present there at the time assert that when the holy monument was opened, the earth was shaken by an earthquake. A sweet odor also flowed forth, filling that place and the air, and the tomb itself shone with light. The precious relics were deposited with great honor, and particles having been received by the faithful, many were healed through them." The Oration of this holy Peter, bishop of Argos, exists on the Holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian.

A NOTICE CONCERNING PETER SICULUS AND HIS WORK

(ANG. MAI, *Bibliotheca nova* Vol. IV, Part II, p. 1.)

1. Regarding Peter Siculus, who did not flourish in the middle century, I shall not speak at length, since Mongitorius has provided a sufficiently rich account of him in the *Sicula bibliotheca*, Vol. II, pp. 158-159. Namely, he, fleeing his homeland oppressed by the tyranny of the Saracens, betook himself early to Byzantium, and having there obtained the favor of Basil the Macedonian and his Caesar sons, he went as an envoy into Armenia for the exchange of captives; and remaining there for about a year in the city of Tibrica, he discovered a multitude of Manichaeans, who were then called Paulicians, specifically from a certain Paul of Samosata, who, some time after the punishment of Manes, continued that heresy and expanded it widely through disciples and successors. From that stay and knowledge, therefore, arose the intention for Peter to write a history of the Manichaeans, from the first author of the evil until his own age, with a refutation of the heresy itself. Fabricius also, in *B. G.*, Vol. VII, p. 829, spoke briefly concerning Peter's work according to his custom. Finally, Wolfius, in the Preface to *Anecdota Graeca*, Vol. I, instituted a comparison of Peter with Photius, a writer of the same subject. Montfaucon had long since said, in *B. Coislin.* p. 349, that Photius had taken the greatest part of his historical lucubration from Peter Siculus. But Wolfius preferred to doubt whether Photius borrowed from Peter, or Peter from Photius. For my part, I wholeheartedly agree with Montfaucon’s opinion. For since Peter declares himself not merely the author of the book, but an actor in the deed, and indeed that he had known the affairs and secrets of the Manichaeans in their presence, and had recorded in commentaries the disputes held with them in the second year of the reign of Basil, who could credibly say that he derived this material from Photius rather than the reverse? And since Peter writes to a most noble prelate, namely the archbishop of the Bulgarians, who could think him to have been so shameless as to send a work compiled from someone else's writings, and indeed those of a man then living, rather than his own? That Photius, on the contrary, was accustomed to behave in the manner of a plagiarist, I think I have sufficiently demonstrated when I edited his *Amphilochia*. But if the hateful title of plagiarist is displeasing, it is certainly permissible to call Photius a reciter of the writings of others, just as in the *Nomocanon* and the *Syntagma*, and in the very *Myriobiblos* of famous name. What then? His treatise, as is commonly believed, is still

^A extant regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit; is it not inscribed in the very ancient Vatican codex to the author Metrophanes of Smyrna, bishop in the Photian age?

2. Now let us come closer to our subject. For the Paulicians of his own time, who professed the Manichaean doctrine, Peter wrote a history comprised in one book; which, tracing it back further as we have already said, he began from Manes himself, or rather even a little further back. Having finished this, and explained the argument of the matter, he then continued with six discourses, in which he manfully refuted the worst errors of the sect. This excellent work has been preserved in a single place, so far as is known, in Vatican codex 511, on parchment, old, and not far removed from the author's own time. The historical part of it, that is, the book placed before the six discourses, having been transcribed from this, the great Jacques Sirmond sent to Velser in Germany; and having obtained a copy of this, Matthaeus Rader committed it to press with a Latin translation at Ingolstadt in the year 1604. Otherwise, Sirmond had warned, as Rader testifies, that two other chapters were to be read in the Vatican codex, refuting just as many errors of the Manichaeans, but that they consisted almost entirely of the bare testimonies of Holy Scripture. In truth, however, Sirmond’s assertion (if perhaps he said it out of a lapse of memory) suffers from two faults: first, because not two, but three ^B discourses remain in the Vatican codex after the history; again, because although testimonies of Holy Scripture are indeed appended to these discourses, they do not nevertheless constitute them. In the meantime, it is to be lamented that only the first three of the six discourses composed by Peter survive in the Vatican exemplar, as we shall say later, the rest perhaps buried in eternal night or consumed by the injury of time.

3. Since these things are so, and I have observed this Vatican codex for these years, which, being a unique copy, is of great value and also exposed to the risks of fortune, I had determined to rescue from any accidental destruction, by the protection of print, the three previously unpublished discourses which follow the history, and to bring the doctrine buried in them to common use. For from the time when Sirmond brought the notice of the codex to light, and Rader published the historical book, nearly two hundred and fifty years have elapsed without an edition of the remainder of the work, as much as is contained there, being arranged by anyone. Indeed, some very learned men (loc. cit. apud Fabric. and Wolf.) have even wished to apply secondary care to the published part as the matter demanded; but they promised this with always vain effect. For my own part, comparing Rader’s edition with the Greek for a little while, I found it highly deplorable and replete with intolerable errors. I think, however, that this happened not because Sirmond, who was most expert in the Greek language and codices (if indeed he used his own hand), transcribed it wrongly, but because Rader’s edition seems to be derived not from Sirmond’s own autograph, but from sheets handed over to the typesetter; of which fact I had indications in certain passages where the Latin of Rader’s edition differs from the Greek of the same, which could not have happened without a different Greek exemplar. Furthermore, certain more significant errors arose from the fact that the abbreviations of the scripture or the nexus of words, as we say, were not understood and therefore wrongly explained, which I will afterwards prove with clear examples. But indeed, not even Rader’s Latin translation, although it commends itself with the ornament of good Latinity, responds to the Greek text with the fidelity that it ought; nay, it departs from the truth not once, but with manifest errors. Having understood this matter in due time, Wolfius (pref. cit. p. 6) said that a new version of the history of Peter of Sicily was required entirely. These points of the matter compelled me to see that a new edition of the history itself should be expressed most accurately from the original codex, and that I should adorn the Latin translation also with my own labor and a simple style: not because I prefer myself to Rader, but because necessity seemed to demand it; and that I should also add scholia from time to time which either give the rationale of my undertaking, or amend Rader’s book, or finally pertain to history or philology. Certainly, if I had not brought forward the whole writing of Peter of Sicily at once, the edition would be quite imperfect; for since the history illustrates the refutation, so this in turn illustrates the history, and all things together had to be subjected to the eyes for the erudition of the reader.

4. The rest is also new, and therefore more noble, and is an ^D outstanding addition to the work, now for the first time taken from the Vatican codex, that is, the three anti-heretical discourses of Peter against the Manichaeans, survivors from the total of six; the first of which is against the sect’s cardinal error concerning the two principles: the second, by which the honor of the most blessed Virgin Theotokos is defended: the third, finally, very brief, concerning the most holy Eucharist. And this third one, the testimonies of Holy Scripture having scarcely been commenced, is broken off in the codex, the quaternions on which the three later discourses were written having been torn away at some time I know not by what chance; namely, the fourth, concerning the veneration of the holy cross; the fifth, concerning the authority of the Old Testament; the sixth, concerning the presbyterate or priesthood: for we learn from chapter 10 of the history that these were the arguments of the lost discourses. Furthermore, whether these latest ones lie hidden anywhere, or whether it may by chance be their lot to see the light, I highly doubt, especially since the earlier ones also, from the single codex, as I said, only with difficulty at last emerge now.

PETER SICULUS USEFUL HISTORY AND REFUTATION AND OVERTHROW OF THE HERESY OF THE MANICHAEANS, WHO ARE ALSO CALLED PAULICIANS, DEDICATED TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF BULGARIA

^A I. Even if ignorance is usefully covered by silence, nevertheless it is necessary not to abandon to a long silence things which do not deserve silence. For the Lord teaches the blind, and he welcomes the stammering of simple words brought forth with faith more than the nets of rhetoricians, which are tangled like a labyrinth. Therefore I too, although unskilled in speech, calling upon the Holy Trinity, our only true God, who is glorified over all and through all and in all, and who fills every mouth opened for his sake, and asking to receive your votes as allies, as the arch-shepherd of the newly chosen holy and precious flock of the Lord, together with all the divine shepherds who are around you and with the entire fullness of the Church; I have resolved to write to you in sequence concerning the abominable heresy of the Manichaeans, who are also called Paulicians, from where and how and through whom this maniacal ^B defection arrived at this point; for these are not other, and those others, but the same Paulicians and Manichaeans, who have connected the heresies invented by themselves to those of old.

^B II. I have necessarily undertaken this work, because I arrived there in the course of a certain royal embassy at the beginning of the reign of Basil, our great emperor chosen by God, who is magnificently adorned with every species of divine gift, who piously and religiously holds the scepter of the Roman—which is to say, most Christian—empire, and who will hold it for many cycles of years together with his holy children and our God-crowned kings, whose unceasing and indelible—immortal, I should say—memory may be preserved both in this age and the age to come, through the prayers and intercessions of our all-holy Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, and of all the saints. Our embassy was for the exchange of captives, which also reached a happy conclusion, while our holy emperors were alive and rejoicing. Therefore, having lingered for a long time during this ^C same embassy among the Paulicians in Tibrica, and having often discussed matters with them, and furthermore having learned the facts about them more accurately from many of the orthodox who dwell there, and moreover having heard from those impious ones themselves that they were planning to send some from their own assembly into the regions of Bulgaria to make some people apostatize from the orthodox faith and to entice them into their own polluted heresy, trusting in the foundation of divine preaching and thinking that they could easily sow their own tares among the guileless and true wheat—for those impious ones are accustomed to do this often, and to undertake many labors and dangers readily in order to impart their own plague to those they encounter—for this reason I have come to this task. Even though I am a lowly man and devoid of any virtue, for the sake of the common safety, I have labored to hand over the things I have learned to you, excellent bankers. But you, most sacred and venerable head, overlooking the inelegance of the words, accept our gift.

I add to the bankers. You, O divine and sacred head, passing over the unadorned nature of my words, receive our intention, not seeking things according to their worth; for you will in no way find among us any trace of virtue, nor beauty of speech, as you will know from the things set down. ^A

PROLOGUE TO PETER, PRIMATE OF BULGARIA

III. With the coming of light, darkness is dissipated; and by the care of shepherds, the plots of thieves and wild beasts are driven away. That is the true shepherd of rational sheep, who is an imitator of the true Shepherd; who, like Him, lays down his own soul for his sheep; whose justice is poured forth like light, and who, with an anxious mind and every effort, aptly opposes the evil arts of the devil. For even though the plots of the wily one are many, nonetheless, that we might not be ignorant of his designs, divine Scripture is present as our teacher: telling us to consider his snares as spiderwebs, while relying upon the aid of the life-originating and all-praised Trinity, of the one God, the Maker of heaven and earth, and the ^B preserver and Lord of all things invisible and visible. Moreover, one should not listen to what will be said in a perfunctory manner; for from this, those who are of a more perfect condition will receive more valid strength for the struggle against the devil and for waging the fight, as they join battle against contrary dogmas, and submerge them, defeated, in the ecclesiastical sea of divine dogmas. But for the simpler ones, and for those still nourished by milk, to speak with the Apostle, a safe station will be prepared as for infants, so that the good may not at any time succumb to the worse. For this will be the best protection for the ^C unlearned: if they turn away from and loathe those profane people, and do not deign to answer their interrogations; but if they should inquire about anything, the unlearned hearers should remain silent, and to the best of their ability avoid them as they would a serpent. For one who converses with them will gain no profit; for they desire to join in conversation with the unlearned for this reason: so that they may trample holy things under their own feet, and tear apart, heavenly and divine-seeming dogmas, if there be no one present who can prudently contradict them. For how will they listen to any human being at all, ^D those who assault the one God, both day and hour, with countless insults, contumelies, and curses? And it is truly very useful that the unlearned should recognize them; yet they should not therefore come into colloquy with them, lest those who engage in conversation without skill should chance to be in danger: for it is difficult for the unlearned not to be led astray by them. For they have all the oracles of the Gospel and the Apostle on their lips; anyway, they—

are discussed by the Apostles; and only those discern their guile ^A who are greatly exercised in the divine Scriptures.

IV. For those nefarious men, when they first address anyone, simulate that they possess good morals, and they deceitfully approve and proclaim all the dogmas of the orthodox Christians; yet they impiously and most ignorantly say that they confess the holy Trinity through allegory, nay, if anyone does not confess it, they say they anathematize him. They also say that our Lord and our God became man in a virgin, but they do so impiously and irreligiously; and they say anathema to those who do not confess it thus; yet they affirm all the properties ^B of the Lord's incarnation in one way with their voice, and in another way in their heart. They also readily anathematize Manes and the other nefarious heretics with him, and Paul of Samosata; for they had other masters and leaders of their wickedness who were much worse than them, as will be shown a little later; and in short, like a polyp or a chameleon, they change according to the time and the manner and the person, so that they may hunt down some of the more simple-minded. And when they know that he is paying attention to their trifles, then they little by little reveal to him also the mysteries that are among them. For this reason, the discernment of harmful things is useful, no less than that of healthy things. For these things must be discerned, not so that we may use them, but so that we may escape the destruction that comes through them. We must therefore come to the proposed subject.

HISTORY

V. The author of evil, the serpent and most wicked dragon, the sower of tares, and the prince and teacher of all wickedness, the leader of the lie and its father, the muddy marsh of pride, the most rotten height of arrogance, he who is trampled under the feet of the faithful like a child, ^C who by his own persuasion drew away from God His precious creature, man; and he labored to drive him from the blessed dwelling of paradise through the highest artifice of malice; here, I say, the most miserable one, compensating for vice with pleasure, bought Adam, sold as it were like a slave, not without his own voluntary consent, alas! as if with the price of sin, with the one God permitting this on account of Adam's fault; and as if in a prison, He allowed the souls of men to be detained in the regions of Hades, until the coming in the flesh of the Son of God, our Lord and God Jesus Christ, one of the holy ^D and most praiseworthy Trinity. The same cunning deceiver...

^A hoped that man, having been captured by various idolatrous cults, by shameful acts, by turpitude, and by pleasures, could never be recalled, when in fact he himself is easily overcome. But the deceitful one shall not long enjoy his prey; for he who always deceives is deceived in his own hope. For the only-begotten Son and Word of God, co-ruler with the Father, and co-eternal with the consubstantial, life-giving, and most holy Spirit, willing in his ineffable goodness to restore again the man whom he had fashioned from the earth and adorned in a manner worthy of God with his own breath; then, by the good pleasure of the Father and the cooperation of the holy Spirit, lowering himself and taking flesh from the holy Virgin, animated by a rational and intellectual soul, he became a man—not changing what he was, for he is immutable, but assuming what he was not, for he is benevolent. And the Virgin, into whom he had entered closed, he left likewise, resplendent and glorious with the light of virginity, to speak prophetically, from within; ^B of which Virgin the Law and all the prophets long ago heralded the preludes in unusual ways, and prefigured her glory to the eye that anticipates it. And one indeed predicted her as a closed gate, reserved for God alone; another as a sealed fountain; another says: There shall be the root of Jesse, the virgin, and a flower shall rise from her root, the Lord our God, being brought into a body from her. The same man furthermore says: Behold, the virgin, he says, shall have in her womb and shall bring forth a son, ^C plainly meaning that from her the Lord is manifested in the flesh, dwelling in her by a creative act, and God emerges from her clothed in flesh. But why should I now enumerate all these testimonies, which are better left for the diligent to pursue?

VI. Yet let no one think that the testimonies hitherto brought forward by us concerning the ever-virgin Mother of God, Mary, have been brought forward in vain; for the enemies of the truth think that her divine birth-giving happened in appearance, but not in truth; and they even fable that after the divine birth, she had other children from Joseph; and they do not admit the testimonies of the prophets concerning her, as will be demonstrated more diligently later. They say that they follow the dictates of the holy Gospel and the Apostle, otherwise, these most foolish men deceitfully and craftily clothe the wolf in sheep's wool. ^D Yet both the holy evangelical book and the apostolic book continuously recite the testimonies of the prophets, and demonstrate them to be trustworthy witnesses, who all without falsehood

^A proclaimed beforehand, and by giving testimony to the truth, stimulated the perception and acuteness of their hearers, so that they might not wander from the truth already arriving, which they impressed upon them as if by certain elements—their own predictions, namely—and they proved the foundation of the thing by the event itself. But let the discourse concerning the ever-virgin, strictly and truly glorified Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, be deferred for a little while; even if this makes the dire Paulicians burst with rage. For we must return to that point from which we departed a short while ago.

VII. Since, therefore, our great God and Savior Jesus Christ appeared on earth and conversed with us men, all idolatry has departed from the feet, and the true knowledge of God has covered the whole earth like much water ^B. From that time on, the life of the heavenly beings began to be lived upon the earth, and men, having become familiar to God, began to vie with the angels in virtues. For the cross having been fixed in the earth, and the Bread of Life having been benevolently sent down from heaven along with the divinity—not that the body was brought down from there, but that He took it from the earth, subject to the same sufferings as we are, and was lifted up upon the wood of the cross, and irrigated the earth with the drops of His divine blood—it has come to pass that this earth has exhaled an odor of sweetness from the sanctification of that very precious blood and water, and because it is moistened by them, it does not cease even now to bloom everywhere with rational, sweet-smelling, and diverse flowers. Therefore, the wood is worshipped through which salvation was granted to the race of men, and through which the author of evils, the enemy, cast down to the earth, received a mortal wound in his inward parts. For in no other symbol of Christ’s sufferings have such ^C fearful prodigies occurred as those which took place upon the venerable and life-giving wood of the Lord’s cross: the dead being raised even before the descent of our Lord and God into Hades, the veil being rent, the earth being shaken, the sun being darkened and then shining again—by the former indicating the darkness of the Jews, and by the latter foreshadowing the brightness of the resurrection. Finally, the redemption of all the souls held in Hades, which took place upon the appearance of our Lord and God to them, and the destruction of Hades, ^D so that it might no longer hold the souls of those who had fallen asleep in the Lord. All these fearful prodigies, the invincible power of the divine cross brought about by the might of Christ our God who was fixed upon it. Let them be ashamed, therefore, and let them be confounded and perish, those who deny His glory and do not worship it with unwavering faith as the

^A God-given and unconquerable trophy. The envious, all-wicked, and evil-hating devil, having had his head crushed and his heart pierced by the spear of the Cross, was no longer able to work his abominations as openly as he was accustomed to do. Yet, having secretly maddened the souls of certain wretched individuals and deceived their minds, he cheated those who, in the hypocrisy of false teachers, have their own conscience seared, making them fuel for the unquenchable fire along with himself.

VIII.

IX.

having through the erring guidance of the author of evil, Satan, travailed with his precursor apostasy, they gave birth to it, producing other carnal demons along with their leader, the devil; whom no one could doubt to be truly demons. For those things which not even demons would dare to say or do, they themselves shamelessly and with brazen impudence perform and say both against God the Almighty and against all men; so that it is possible to look upon them, existing as they do separate from men due to the extreme foulness of their manners, and dwelling in the desert just as demons do. And these sycophants and most polluted wretches put forth certain strange and bizarre problems, as if they were relying upon the words of the holy Gospel and the Apostle. But as to what these things are, and whence and when they arose, I shall here in this part of my discourse relate, having summarized a few points in numbered order for the time being, for the sake of easy memorization. Afterwards, following the history concerning them, we shall also begin the engagement with them, combating them with God's help as much as force allows, and we shall immediately subjoin the scriptural proofs and testimonies for each individual point in parallel order. ^A

X. First, it is an axiom among them to profess two principles, a wicked God and a good one; and that one is the creator and lord of this world, while another is of the world to come. And it is frequent to note this among them, for the sake of a joke, when they are at liberty and are conversing with anyone—whoever the person being spoken to might be: "Tell me," he says, "what is it that separates us from the Romans?" For these truce-breakers, depraved, faithless, ungrateful, and haters of virtue ^B call themselves Christians, while they call us, who are truly eponymous to Christ, our true God, "Romans," attempting to exchange our proper name for a Gentile one—by which, however, we who are true Christians glory more than if each of us possessed thousands and myriads of gold and silver and precious stones existing in the whole world. They say that this is what separates them, because they assert that the one is another God, the creator of the world, and another is the God whom they call the heavenly Father, who has no authority in this world but in the world to come. ^C But we confess one and the same God, and Creator of all, and universal King, and Almighty. And they say to us: "You, you say, believe in the world-creator, but we in Him of whom the Lord says in the Gospels, 'You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape'" (John 5:37)—vainly and foolishly babbling such things, as will be shown hereafter. ^D

^A Second, they rabidly exclude the supremely praised and ever-virgin Theotokos from the very number of good people; nor do they say the Lord was born of her, but rather that He brought His body down from heaven; and they say that after the Lord’s birth, she also bore other children by Joseph.

Third, they turn away from the participation in the divine and fearful sacred mysteries of the body and blood of our Lord and God. And not content with this, they think to persuade others of this opinion as well, saying that it was not bread and wine that the Lord gave to His disciples at the supper, but that He gave them His words symbolically, in place of bread and wine.

^B Fourth, they do not accept the figure, efficacy, and power of the precious and life-giving cross, but strike it with many insults; yet the demons themselves, who are dispersed through the air, when they only see it depicted, flee in terror, together with their prince, the devil.

Fifth, they accept no book of the Old Testament, calling the prophets deceivers and thieves, as will be shown more accurately later in its own place; nor do they accept anything but the four holy Gospels, the fourteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul, the catholic Epistle of James, the three of John, the catholic Epistle of the holy Jude, and the Acts of the Apostles, just as they are among us without the change of any word. ^C Furthermore, they have the epistles of their teacher Sergius, which are hateful to God and filled with every kind of pride and impiety. For they do not receive the two catholic epistles of the great and solid foundation of the Church, the key-holder of the kingdom of heaven, Peter the proto-apostle, because they are infamously disposed toward him and pursue him with insults and countless reproaches, conscious of some evil of their own; but perhaps, as I suppose, and as I have often said to them face-to-face, it is because he prophetically foretold what would happen to them from the character of their own unholy wickedness, in which the blessed apostle writes in his second epistle ^D with these words: "Therefore, beloved, looking forward to all these things,"—namely, those which will happen at the second coming of the Lord—"be diligent to be spotless in peace; and consider the longsuffering of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him..."

wrote to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." ^A This is what is brought by them as a reproach against the Apostle, but which, in the eyes of the truth, is in fact a praise to him, because he speaks with free-spoken prophecy which is removed from all rhetorical artifice. ^B Sixth, that they turn men away from the presbyters of the Church. For he says that the presbyters conspired against the Lord, and for that reason that name is not to be used, and they are offended by the mere sound of the name. Concerning these things, a clearer explanation will be given later, in the deep investigation of each individual chapter. It is now time, therefore, to begin the historical accounts; and I shall commence in this way, setting forth first what was said by the blessed Cyril in his catechetical lectures, and subsequently adding what we have recently come to know, so that the examination of the matter may become more intimate.

XI

driven to extremes, he took refuge with a certain widow. Having climbed onto the roof and invoked the aerial demons—whom the Manichaeans invoke to this very day in their abominable rites—he became possessed, and being cast down from the roof, he breathed his last. And thus the second beast was cut off.

XII. However, the books of the heretics’ teachings remained, and the widow became the heir both of the books and of the money. Since she had neither kin nor any other acquaintance, she decided with that money to purchase a slave boy named Cubricus, and taking him in for adoption, she had him thoroughly instructed in the doctrines of the Persians, sharpening him like an evil weapon against the human race. And so Cubricus, the good servant, grew up among the philosophers; and when the widow died, he inherited both the money and the books. ^B Afterward, so that the servile name of Cubricus might not be a reproach to him, he named himself Manes, which in the Persian dialect signifies "the speech"; for because he seemed to excel in the art of conversation, he called himself Manes, as if to say "an excellent conversationalist." And he indeed garnered glory for himself in the Persian tongue, but the providence of God prepared him, even against his will, to be his own accuser; so that he who thought he was honoring himself in Persia with this name, might announce himself among the Greeks as being synonymous with madness. He even dared to say that he was the Paraclete. Therefore, he blasphemed, calling himself the Holy Spirit, as it is written: *Whoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven* (Marc. III, 29). Thus also, of his predecessors, Scythianus dared to call himself the Father; another, however, Buddas, [dared to call himself] the Son of God the Father, and one born of a virgin and reared in the mountains; ^C whence also, having made twelve disciples, the Antichrist sent out heralds of error. Whoever, therefore, associates with them, let him see with whom he unites himself. The servant shook the whole world, and coming into the midst, he promised things beyond the capability of man.

XIII. The son of the king of the Persians was ill, and there was an abundance of physicians; but Manes promised that he would heal him. The physicians withdrew, and the life of the boy departed with them. The wickedness of the man was exposed, and he was cast into chains. The philosopher was thrust into prison, not because he had convinced the king of the truth, nor because he had overthrown the idols, but because, having promised health, ^D

he had deceived the expectation; or rather, to speak more truly, because he had turned homicide. For he, by dismissing the physicians, had killed the man who could have been cured by medical care, reducing him to death through the withholding of the remedy. But as I set out to recount his many crimes, remember, reader, first his blasphemy; second, his slavery—not because slavery is a disgrace, but because it is wicked for the duties of a free man to be usurped by a slave; third, the falsehood of his promise; fourth, the ignominy of the prison; and not only the ignominy of the prison, but also his escape from it. For he who called himself the Paraclete and the defender of the truth fled; he was certainly not an imitator of Christ, who came ^A willingly to the cross, but this man, on the contrary, was a fugitive. Thereupon the king of the Persians ordered the guards of the prison to be led away to execution. Manes, therefore, was the cause of the boy’s death through his own bragging, and the cause of the death of the guards because of his flight. Is this man, then, the promoter and culprit of death, to be worshipped as the Paraclete? Ought he not to have imitated Jesus and said: "If you seek me, let these go their way"? Ought he not to have said, like Jonah: "Take me and cast me into the sea; for because of me this tempest is"?

XIV. The Conflict with Archelaus

XIV. He flees ^B from the prison and comes into Mesopotamia; but there the weapon of righteousness meets him, Archelaus the bishop, having set the philosophers as judges and having gathered a Greek assembly, so that, if Christians were judging, the judges might not appear to be showing favor. The dispute proceeds. "Tell me," says Archelaus to Manes, "what you preach." ^C But he, having his mouth open like a tomb, began from the blasphemy of the Creator of all things, asserting that the God of the Old Testament is the inventor of evils, saying of himself: "I am a consuming fire." But the wise Archelaus refuted the blasphemy, saying: "If the God of the Old Testament, according to your word, calls himself fire, whose Son is he who says: 'I came to cast fire upon the earth'? And if you blame the one who says: 'The Lord killeth and maketh alive,' why do you honor ^D Peter, who both raised Tabitha and delivered Sapphira to death? But if you blame him for preparing fire, why do you not blame him who says: 'Depart into the eternal fire'? If you find fault that he said: 'I am God, making peace and creating evil,' why do you not blame Jesus, who says: 'I came not to cast peace upon the earth, but a sword'? Since both say the same things, either one or the other must stand; clearly, as either both are good for the same utterance, or if Jesus is blameless in speaking thus, why is he—

^A saying that one who speaks similarly in the Old Testament is to be blamed? Then Manes says to him: "And what God blinds? For it is Paul who says: *In whom the God of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of the Gospel of Christ might not shine upon them* (II Cor. iv, 4)." Archelaus, again, intervening, says: "Read beforehand what he says now: *But if our Gospel is also veiled, in those who are perishing it is veiled* (ibid., 3). Do you see that in those who are perishing it is veiled? For it is not fitting to give what is holy to the dogs (Matt. vii, 6). Then did only the God of the Old Testament blind the minds of the unbelieving? Or did Jesus himself, who also blinded Paul, not say: *For this reason I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see* (Matt. xiii, 13)? Was it because he hated them that he wanted them to lack sight? Or rather because of their unworthiness, since they had shut ^B their own eyes? For where there is self-chosen wickedness, there is also a withdrawal of the illuminating grace; *for to him who has, it will be given; but from him who does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken away* (Luke viii, 18). But if some interpret it correctly, it will be permissible to say this as well: for the statement is not base. Even if he blinded the minds of the unbelievers, as Christ also blinded the eyes of Paul, he did it for good, so that they might look toward holy things. For he did not say, 'He blinded their soul,' but, 'the minds of the unbelievers'; the intended meaning is: 'Blind the fornication-loving mind of the fornicator, so that the man may be saved; blind the robbery-loving and unprofitable mind of the robber, so that the man may be saved.' But if you do not wish to understand the statement thus, there is also another explanation. The sun also blinds ^C dull eyes, and those with sore eyes are blinded, being harmed by the light; not because the sun has a blinding nature, but because the condition of the eyes is weak. Thus, also, the unbelievers, having sick souls, cannot look upon the rays of the Godhead; and he did not say, 'He blinded their minds, so that the Gospel might not shine,' but, 'so that the illumination of the glory of the Gospel of Christ might not shine.' For the hearing of the Gospel is granted to all, but the glory of the Gospel of Christ is reserved for true servants. Therefore, the Lord spoke to those unable to hear in parables; but to the disciples he explained the parables in private (Mark iv, 34); [the shining] of the glory [is] for those who have been illuminated; but the blinding, for those who do not believe. These mysteries the Church now relates to you, who have already come out from the class of catechumens; ^D yet it is not our custom to explain such things to the pagans. For we do not hand down the mysteries concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to the pagans, nor do we communicate the mysteries clearly even to the catechumens themselves; but we speak often under cover, so that those who know may understand, as believers, and those who do not know may not suffer harm.

^A XV. The dragon was refuted by these and many other arguments; with such struggles, I say, did Archelaus defeat Manes. Then he, who had once escaped from prison, fled again; and, avoiding his adversary, he came to a very obscure village, just like that serpent who, having left Adam in paradise, approached Eve. But the good shepherd Archelaus, concerned for the salvation of his sheep, having learned of his flight, immediately hurried with swift pace in pursuit of the wolf. Manes, however, having caught sight of his adversary, suddenly fled away; and he fled his final flight. For the guards of the King of the Persians, searching everywhere, apprehended the fugitive; and the sentence which he was about to receive before Archelaus, these same ministers of the King inflicted upon him. Manes, whom his disciples adore as the Paraclete, was seized and led before the King. The King reproached him for his lie, and mocked his flight and his captivity; he held him guilty of the death of his son and condemned him; and on account of this, and also for the torture of the prison guards, he ordered Manes to be flayed according to the Persian law, and his remaining body to be delivered to wild beasts as food; and finally, this container of a most wicked mind, his skin, was hung before the gates like a wine-skin. Thus, therefore, he who called himself the Paraclete, and promised that he knew things to come, did not know his own flight and apprehension.

^C XVI. There had existed, however, before this man another master of this wickedness, Zaranes by name, who was of the same mind as he. Furthermore, the disciples of the Antichrist Manes were twelve: Sisinnius, his successor; Thomas, who composed the Manichæan Gospel according to himself; Buddas, Hermas, Adantus, and Ademantus, whom he sent as a preacher of error to different climates. His interpreters and commentators were Hierax, Heraclides, and Aphthonius. There were also three other disciples of his: Agapius, who composed the Heptalogus, Zaruas, and Gabriabius. But let no one read the Gospel according to Thomas; for it is not by one of the twelve apostles, but by one of the twelve wicked disciples of the Antichrist Manes. Nor, again, let anyone read the Heptalogus of Agapius, nor the farrago of his epistles, nor any book composed by these impious men, for the corruption of the many and the destruction of one's own soul. For all of their books, as being imbued with impious doctrines and teeming with every kind of blasphemy; likewise all their prayers, in order to...

describe them as mere sorcery, our holy, catholic, and apostolic Church has anathematized, along with those who set them forth as originators of many great evils and as leaders of perdition; and she has anathematized also all those who are taught by them. ^B

XVII. Let no one, therefore, receive harm from the soul-corrupting Manichaeans, who feign a melancholy sort of fasting with water and husks, who malign the Creator of foods while they gorge themselves, and who teach that whoever pulls up a certain herb is transformed into it. For if he who cuts down an herb or any kind of garden vegetable is changed into it, into how many things will farmers and the sons of gardeners be changed? Against how many such things does the gardener bring his scythe, as we see, and into what things, then, will he be changed? These are teachings truly worthy of laughter and full of condemnation and every sort of shame. The same man, a shepherd of sheep, killed a sheep and slew a wolf; into what, then, will he be transformed? The Manichaeans are offspring of sloth, working at nothing and devouring the labor of others; they receive those who offer them food with a smiling countenance, but return curses to them in place of a blessing. For when some foolish person brings them something, they say, "Stand a little aside, and I will bless you." Then, taking the bread into their hands, as those who have converted from their company have confessed, the Manichaean says to the bread, "I did not make you," and immediately hurls curses at the only God, the Most High, and curses the One who made it; and thus he eats what was made by Him. But if you hate the offerings, why did you look upon the one who offered them with a smiling face? If you have gratitude for the one who brought them, why do you return blasphemy to the Author and Creator? And furthermore, he says, "I did not sow you; may the one who sowed you be sown! I did not reap you; may the one who reaped you be reaped with scythes! I did not roast you with fire; may the one who roasted you be roasted!" Indeed, you return excellent rewards for a favor! ^C

XVIII. Great as these evils are, they are small if compared with the rest. I do not dare to recount their bath, neither before men nor women. I am ashamed to explain to anyone into what they dip the dried fig that they give to the wretched. Let this be indicated only by suggestive signs: let men consider what happens to them in their dreams, and women what happens in their periods. We truly pollute our mouths by saying these things.

^A Are the heathen more foul than these? Are the Jews more wicked? Are harlots more impure? For he who commits fornication performs the act in one hour of desire, and soon, repenting of the deed, knows that he needs a bath as one who is impure, and acknowledges the foulness of his act. But the Manichaean, at the altar, as he thinks, sets these things forth and defiles both his tongue and his mouth. Tell me, friend, do you receive doctrine from such a mouth? When you meet this man, do you greet him with a kiss? Do you not, setting aside any other impiety, flee from these foul men, worse than any sodomite and more detestable than any prostitute? The Church denotes these things, and in a way touches the mire so that you might not be mired; she speaks of wounds so that you might not be wounded. It is enough for you to know the matter; take care not to make the experiment. ^B God thunders, and we all tremble; yet they blaspheme. God lightnings, and we all fall to the ground; yet they, meanwhile, exercise their blasphemous tongues against heaven. Jesus, our Lord and God, says regarding His Father that He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and rains on the just and the unjust (Matth. v, 45); yet they say that rains come from erotic fury. They even dare to say that there is a certain beautiful virgin in heaven with a beautiful youth, and that during the season when camels and wolves are in heat, they too are seized by a base lust; and that especially in the winter season, he pursues the virgin furiously, and she indeed flees while he pursues, and as he pursues, he sweats; and from his sweat, the rain comes to be. ^C These things are written in the books of the Manichaeans. We have read these things, not believing what was reported; for the sake of your safety, we have investigated their pestilence. But may the Lord deliver us from such error!

XIX. Socrates Scholasticus, too, the writer of ecclesiastical history, when briefly recounting the affairs of Scythianus and Terebinthus, who was later called Buddas, ^D and Manes, finds himself in great harmony with our great Father Cyril. But also, all the sacred and divine Scripture vehemently censures their heresy. Wherefore, their successors, those who came after them, being unable to bear the reproofs and hastening to conceal their wickedness at the same time, devised a malicious stratagem: namely, to abolish the aforementioned books of the Manichaeans, that target...

they might communicate to one another only the doctrine handed down from generation to generation. They also decree that it is not permitted to read any other books at all, except only the Gospel and the sacred volume of the Apostle. And they do this for such reasons as these: that by the absence of the Manichaean books, and also of our own ancient books, and by the frequent reading of the Gospels and the apostolic volume, they may have plausible pretexts to accuse the truth and deceive the ignorant and unlettered, pretending that they received such an abominable heresy from Christ, and from the teaching of the herald of the orthodox faith, Paul the Apostle. Yet they strive to cover up a most wicked error—the worst among evils—with the most fragrant and precious name of Christ, ^B just as if they were shrouding a wolf in sheep’s clothing. For since they read only these books, they are able to distort their interpretation to suit their own will; but the rest of the divine Scriptures, they do not read at all. Hence, they reject the books of the Old Testament, as I have said, because of the reproofs they contain; and they also reject the writings of our God-bearing Fathers, so that their own head of wickedness might not be triumphed over by them, and that all might flee from them as from fire. But we, the more vehemently to overthrow this sect, shall bring forward testimonies here from another book, for the further persuasion of those who read.

XX. The Account of the Death of Mani

^C XX. For our great Father and wonder-worker, Epiphanius of Cyprus, recalling the defeat of Manes in the disputation and the just judgment of the King of the Persians regarding the death inflicted upon him by divine justice, speaks as follows: In the ninth ^D year of the reign of the Roman emperors Valerian and Gallienus, Manes came up from Persia, having escaped from prison because he had been the cause of the death of the son of the King of the Persians; at which time he also encountered a disputation with Archelaus, the bishop of Carchar in Mesopotamia, from which, having been overcome, he departed and fled secretly. Entering the town of Diodoris, in the vicinity of Carchar, he instituted a debate with a certain most holy presbyter named Tryphon, and was put to shame by him. When Archelaus heard that this very Manes had arrived at Tryphon’s and was holding a discussion with him, he too hastened there at full speed, and debating again with Manes, he completely convicted him with ignominy. Manes was then on the point of being put to death by the people, but having been ransomed by Bishop Archelaus, he returned to Persia. When the King of the Persians heard this, he ordered his skin to be flayed off him like a sack, and thus Manes ended his life.

^A XXI. Some of his disciples arrived at the city of Samosata in Armenia, sowing evil tares there, and they deceived many of the Armenians. After some years, the root of this wicked sowing sprouted and spread its deadly fruit to Phanaroia. For a certain woman from Samosata, Callinice by name, had two children, Paul and John. These two serpents their mother, a viper, reared, and having instructed them in this most abominable heresy, she sent them forth from Samosata as heralds of error. They, having reached the territory of Phanaroia, came to a certain village, and finding those who dwelt therein unlearned and unstable, they sowed there the seed of wickedness and the bitter tares of the enemy. Hence, even to this day, the village has been renamed Episparis, and the heresy has taken its name from those who preached it; for from that time on they were called Paulicians instead of Manichaeans. Our most pious and orthodox emperors, therefore, so that this pestilential faction might not spread further and harm many of our people, moved by divine zeal, have from time to time put to death the Manichaeans found within the Roman ^B realm, according to the saying of the Lord in the Gospels: "As for those who do not wish me to reign over them, bring them before me and slay them."

XXII. Many indeed have been the enemies of the Church of God throughout the ages, but her victories, by His grace, are always multiplied. For the devil, that hater of good and inventor of evils, like some terrible and savage enemy, after having emptied his quiver in vain in the preceding heresies, has launched his most deadly arrow against men in these latter times. Since he is permitted by the God of all to exercise all his malice near the end of the ages, not in secret, but openly, according to the God-breathed and most holy Scriptures. For He says that the Antichrist, working under the influence of the evil one, will perform signs so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Therefore, having acted insolently in all the heresies, he has boasted so greatly in this abominable heresy of the Manichaeans, who are also called Paulicians, that he has even persuaded those who are wounded not to confess their wounds, but rather to drink the deadly poisons as if it were a cheering wine. Yet now, ^C he stands exposed to the mockery of all, together with those who are persuaded by him, being toyed with like a child, after his wickedness was defeated in the days of Basil and Constantine and Leo, our pious and orthodox and great kings. For the worst poisons, which once lay hidden, [now...]

and which had escaped the notice of almost all men, regarding the abominable Paulicians, are now publicly triumphed over, thanks to the sleepless prayers, the vigilant care, the God-accepted watchfulness, and the skillful shepherding of our peace-making and orthodox great kings. For the hidden deceit of this abominable heresy, which had escaped all previous rulers, did not escape the righteous empire of our world-stabilizing and holy great kings. For it was fitting that these twisted evils should at last be led to a public triumph; and indeed this happened through the plain and royal path and the straight way of our truly excellent Emperor, beloved with the highest affection and to be remembered in every age for his extraordinary deeds, along with his God-crowned sons, our great kings, Constantine and Leo, the eternal Augusti. For indeed, this trinity of our holy princes, which equals in number the holy and blessed divine Trinity, the author of life, being illuminated by pure light, sheds a ray of divine knowledge over the world, and never ceases to benefit it in many ways. Surely the nations, even those of barbaric language and savage customs, perceive the magnitude of its benefits. But enough of this. ^A

XXIII. Indeed, we have already spoken copiously about what origin this nefarious heresy had, when we discussed Manes and the others, and Paul of Samosata, the son of Callinica the Manichaean, and his brother John. But even these men of whom we are about to speak, although they added some empty terms to the previous heresies, as has been demonstrated by us in our six sermons, were nevertheless the genuine pupils of the earlier heresiarchs, as we shall show clearly one by one. Furthermore, we must now state who these recently appeared men are, upon whom the Paulicians rely and whom they inscribe as their own teachers. In the days of Constantine, the emperor who was the grandson of Heraclius, there was a certain Armenian by the name of Constantine in a district of the Samosata region called Mananali, which district even today still sustains Manichaeans. This man had a certain deacon as a guest in his house for some days—a captive returning to his own country from Syria (as we have learned accurately)—who had been brought to the district of Mananali. ^{B C D}

as we have accurately learned, and having reached the village, he was lodged for a few days in his house. This captive from Syria was carrying two books, one of the holy Gospel, and the other of the Apostle, and he presented these to Constantine, to compensate him for the benefit of his hospitality. He, having received these two books of the Gospel and the Apostle, and seeing that his own lawless and abominable heresy was held in abomination and shunned by all because of the blasphemies and shameful deeds within it, desiring to renew the evil again, devised through diabolical agency that no other book should be read at all, except the Gospel and the Apostle, so that he might be able by their means to cover up the harm of his malice; just as those who give poisonous drugs to drink cover them over with honey. And indeed, having taken the grounds for each blasphemy from the aforementioned Manichaean books, he was able, through satanic cooperation, to distort the meanings of the Gospel and the Apostle in his interpretation to suit his own purpose. He cast away the often-mentioned books of the Manichaeans, as has been said before; for the reason that you see many ^A being put to death by the sword on their account. For our most godlike and orthodox emperors of the true Christian people, among their other righteous acts, decreed this also: that Manichaeans and Montanists should be punished by the sword; and that their books, when discovered, should be consigned to the flames; and if any person were caught concealing these, such a one should be subjected to the penalty of death, and his property should be confiscated to the state (33).

XXIV. The disciple of Manes, Constantine, in order that he might completely ensnare and destroy those instructed by him, and ^B make his teachings more easily acceptable, decided to set aside the blasphemies and monstrous fables of Valentinus—I refer to the thirty aeons and gods—and, furthermore, the contrived mythology of Cubricus regarding rain, who says that rain is produced from the sweats of a handsome youth pursuing a virgin, and certain other things as being difficult to believe; not at all that he might remove this supreme wickedness from the midst, but so that he might draw more people to himself. Otherwise, having embraced the foul mire of the infamous Basilides and of all the others, he appeared as a new leader of perdition. And hence it happens that all who are now disciples of the Manichaeans, being ignorant of these legends, ^C voluntarily pronounce anathema upon Scythianus, Budda, and Manes, the originators of this evil; but this Constantine, who furthermore called himself Silvanus, and those who appeared after him, they treat with the same honor as the apostles of Christ and Paul. This Constantine, then, who was also Silvanus, having abandoned the village of Mananali, transferred his abode to the fortress of Cibossa near Colonea, ^D

^A claiming himself to be the Silvanus mentioned in the Epistles of the Apostle, whom Paul sent as a faithful disciple into Macedonia. At the same time, he showed his disciples that book of the Apostle which he had received from the aforementioned captive deacon, and used to say: "You are the Macedonians, and I am Silvanus, sent to you by Paul." And this he asserted six hundred years after Paul’s testimony, having appeared, as has been said before, under Constantine, the grandson of Heraclius.

XXV. Now, after having spent twenty-seven full years there ^B and having deceived many of the local inhabitants, he met with an end of life worthy of his teaching. For the emperor, having somehow learned of his affairs, sent a certain palatine official named Simeon, with orders to see to the stoning of this author of wickedness, while his disciples—deceived, as it were, through ignorance—were to be handed over to the Churches of God to be converted and corrected, even if they should remain uncorrected; which is exactly what happened. For Simeon, having arrived and taken up with him one of the local princes named Tryphon, and having reached the place, arrested them all; and leading them to the southern part of the fortress of Colonea, he placed the wretched man before his disciples, whom he commanded to stone him. But they, taking up the stones, and reaching their hands down as if toward their ^C own belts, threw the stones backward, sparing their own master, whom they believed had been sent to them by God. Now this Silvanus, having adopted a certain person named Justus as his son some years before, and having imbued him with the Manichaean heresy, received at that time from him a reward worthy of his upbringing and teaching. For Justus, having been ordered by the palatine official, took a stone, and striking the man as if he were a new Goliath, killed him; and upon him fell the Davidic voice which says: "He hath opened a pit, and digged it: and he shall fall into the hole that he made. His labour shall turn on his own head" (Ps. VII, 16. 17). That place, because of the stones heaped up there, is called the "Cairn" to this very day.

XXVI. Furthermore, Simeon had handed over the disciples of Constantine ^D to the Churches of God for conversion, according to the emperor's command; but they, resisting conversion, preferred to die in their own malice rather than to propitiate God through repentance and obtain eternal salvation. See, however, that while Simeon was inquiring into these people, because he was devoid of divine instruction and also possessed of a light mind, he learned that pernicious heresy. Returning to the emperor, staying three years in Constantinople, and then dwelling in his own home, he was soon stirred by the devil, abandoned all things, fled secretly, came to the aforementioned Cibossa, and gathered the disciples of Constantine, and having become

the heir to his wickedness, and coveting glory like those before him, he called himself Titus. But I shall not call him Titus (for he was no imitator of the Titus who was ordained bishop in Crete by the Apostle Paul), but rather Cetus, for he became a mimic of the sea-monster that dwells in the waters. For some say of the sea-monster that the sea-beast is called an aspidochelone, and that it is in size similar to an island and possesses a great voice; whence sailors, ignorant of this, cast their anchors upon it, and planting stakes, moor their ships; but when they light a fire upon it, the heated animal suddenly submerges, and suffocates them all into the deep. Thus also this man, having led those who were ignorant of the magnitude of his wickedness, and who did not avoid his heavy voice but rather listened to him, and who fixed the anchors of their hope upon him, brought them all through fire into the depths of Hades; for by fire he was destroyed along with all those led astray by him, and he departed to the inextinguishable flame.

^B XXVII. For having spent three years there, and having deceived many, finally, a controversy having arisen and many words being exchanged between the aforementioned Justus—the one by whom Constantine had been struck with a stone—and Simeon, also called Cetus, regarding the apostolic saying in the Epistle to the Colossians which says: *For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, things visible and invisible, whether Thrones, or Dominations, or Powers: all things were created through him and in him; and he is before all, and all things consist in him*; Justus then stood up and said: "Take care, that we do not deceive the people any longer and foolishly destroy the souls of men, teaching things contrary to the apostolic words; for the judgment of these souls we shall pay at the terrible trial." ^C Simeon did not agree, but rather persisted in his custom of distorting the sacred testimonies, twisting the interpretation here and there. A great dispute having therefore arisen between Justus and Simeon, Justus went to the bishop of Colonia, and wishing to learn the power of the apostolic saying, he revealed to him all things regarding himself and those who were with him, and their teaching. But the bishop, without delay, reported these matters to the Emperor Justinian, who reigned after Heraclius; having learned of this, the emperor ordered that all be examined together, and those who persisted in the error be delivered to the flames; which is exactly what happened: for near that place called the heap they lit a great funeral pyre, and burned them all up completely.

^D XXVIII. Yet one of these, by the name of Paul, an Armenian by race, having two sons, whose names were Gegnesius and

Theodore—with whom he fled and reached Episparis, ^A which we have described at length when we were speaking of Paul and John of Samosata, the sons of Callinice, from which Paul the Paulicians were renamed instead of Manichaeans—the aforementioned Paul then promoted his own son Gegnesius, whom he also renamed Timothy, to the mastership of his impiety. A dissension arose, however, between the two brothers, Gegnesius, I say, and Theodore, the one saying that he had received the divine grace of the Spirit, and the other, in turn, asserting his own claim to that same rank. Being thus divided among themselves and burning with ^B extreme hatred, these leaders of the abominable sect persevered in that state until the end of their lives.

XXIX. Having learned of these matters, the Emperor (who was then Leo the Isaurian) summoned Gegnesius—or rather Timothy, or more accurately Thymotheus ("the wrath of God")—and sent him to the Patriarch of Constantinople. When the Patriarch saw him, he said to him, "Why have you denied the orthodox faith?" He replied, "Anathema to him who denies the orthodox faith!"—by which he meant, as the orthodox faith, his own heresy. The Patriarch said again, "Why do you not believe in and worship ^C the honorable Cross?" He replied, "Anathema to him who does not worship and reverence the honorable and life-giving Cross!"—by which he meant Christ himself, who, by the stretching out of his hands, forms a cross. He asked him again, "Why do you not honor and worship the holy Theotokos?" He replied, "Anathema to him who does not worship the most holy Theotokos, into whom our Lord Jesus Christ entered, the mother of us all!"—by which he meant the heavenly Jerusalem, into which Christ, our forerunner, has entered. The Patriarch said to him again, "Why do you not partake ^D of the immaculate body and precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, but instead despise them?" Thymotheus said, "Anathema to him who does not partake of, or who despises, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ!"—by which he meant his own words. When asked in the same way about the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, he replied in the same manner, calling the assemblies of the Manichaeans the catholic Church. He spoke similarly concerning baptism, meaning by that name the Lord Jesus Christ and nothing else, because it is written, "I am the living water" (John IV, 10). By thus distorting everything, Thymotheus, by anathematizing in every instance, was judged free of vice. Having received a sigillum from the Emperor, he returned to Episparis, and having gathered all his disciples, he moved with them to the God-hated Mananalim, from which the aforementioned Constantine took his origin. Then, having remained there for many years, and in the greatest in-

at the peak of madness, experiencing the wrath and the rage and the affliction sent upon him by evil angels, and smitten by God ^A with a bubo, he perished, having been the head of this impiety for a full thirty years.

XXX. He had a son named Zacharias, and also a mercenary, a keeper of goats, whom he had once found on the road wrapped in swaddling clothes, because he had been born from an unlawful and defiled union. For a harlot is accustomed to throw the fruit of her womb onto the roads for fear of blame. When Gegnesius died, therefore, his disciples split into factions; some adhered to Zacharias, while others ran to the bastard Joseph—for that was what he was called. A great sedition thus arose between the two, as it had happened with those before them, and while each one voted for himself that he had received the grace of the Spirit, they had rather received the operation of the impure spirit. Then Zacharias, being enraged as though he were about to miss out on the paternal inheritance, struck Joseph the Aphronetus (the "Senseless") with a stone and almost killed him. After some time, each of them took his own disciples and they wished to flee the place secretly; and indeed, having gone a little way from the village, being suspected by the Hagarenes of wanting to depart ^B towards the Roman territory, and being pursued by them, Zacharias, when he saw the incursion of the Hagarenes, abandoned his own disciples and fled alone; the Hagarenes, having overtaken them, killed them with swords; this matter brought hatred upon Zacharias from the others, as a hireling and not a shepherd.

XXXI. Joseph, however, who was also called Aphronetus, knowing this, turned his carts as if he were going into Syria; and when the Saracens came upon them, he said to them that he had gone out for the sake of dairy work ^C and herds. The Hagarenes, being persuaded by this apology, allowed them to depart unharmed and withdrew. Having attained a suitable hour, Joseph the Aphronetus, fleeing with everyone, removed himself from the place; and having come to the often-mentioned village of Episparis, he was gladly received by those dwelling in it; for all of them, having lit lamps, received in great honor the man worthy of much ignominy, as if they were receiving a disciple of Christ. A certain pious man among the rulers of that place, named Cricoraches, having learned of this, surrounded the house where the disciple of Manes was staying with a great band of soldiers; and he detained his disciples, but he himself fled and went ^D toward Phrygia; and having departed, he settled in Antioch of Pisidia. And having practiced his wickedness there for thirty years, he said to his own disciples that he was Epaphroditus, the disciple of the apostle Paul, and had been sent to them by him. But I shall justly call him Aphronetus (the "Senseless"), for he was entirely devoid of letters and of wisdom; and having involved many in wicked acts

and deeds ^A in liability to eternal punishment, he himself also departed this life in a place called Chortocopium. While he was still alive, a certain woman, a disciple of his in Armenia, having been corrupted by one of his pupils, gave birth to a son, who they say was of Jewish extraction, a man notorious for his wickedness, the filthy Bahanes. Thus, this Bahanes succeeded Aphronetus; and he maintained the heresy intact just as he had received it from those before him, filled with every impurity, and having led many of the foolish to total destruction, he too became a master of iniquity.

^B XXXII. But not long after, another adversary of the truth emerged from the territory of the city of Tabia. For there is a neighboring village there called Annia, which a certain man named Dryinus inhabited. He had a son named Sergius, a soldier of the devil. Sergius, I say, who made many of the sheep into wolves, by whose works he scattered the flock of Christ. Sergius, the wolf in sheep's clothing, the fraudulent simulator of virtues and consequently the deceiver of many; Sergius, the enemy of the cross of Christ, the mouth of atheism, the reviler of the Theotokos and of all the saints, the adversary of the apostles of Christ, the hater of the prophets, and the corruptor of the divine Scriptures, which he distorted toward fables and lies. Sergius, the foe of Christ and the attacker of the Church, ^C who trampled underfoot the Son of God and deemed the blood of the New Testament common, and treated the Spirit of grace with injury. Sergius, who called himself the Paraclete and imposed upon himself the name of Tychicus, and who was worshipped by his own disciples as the Holy Spirit; Sergius, who loved the darkness and yet called himself a shining star. But why should I say more? Or why do I not cut these things short more quickly? For I think that not even an entire age would be enough to relate his iniquity worthily. This Sergius, then, while still of a youthful age, became intimate with a certain Manichaean woman, and having been deceived by her, became a forerunner of the Antichrist. For it was fitting that these masters of the most disgraceful heresy ^D should partly trace their lineage from the Saracens, partly be of servile origin, partly be begotten of fornication, and lastly that some should learn their error from women.

XXXIII. But so that we may not seem to accuse him rashly, we shall set forth his affairs individually. And first we shall tell how the wretched man turned to this heresy; then, from his own words, we shall make plain what sort of person this most miserable man is—or rather, was.

^A And it came to pass that while he was still in the bloom of youth, he fell into the company of a certain shameless woman, of the Manichaean sect, as has been said; and that disciple of the devil, being crafty and deceitful, said to him: "I hear of you, lord Sergius, that you are learned in letters and disciplines, and are in every way an excellent man. Tell me, therefore, why do you not read the divine Gospels?" But he, being beguiled by her words and, above all, not knowing the poison of wickedness concealed within her, said: "It is not permitted for us laity to read these things, but only for the priests." She replied to him: "It is not as you suppose; for there is no respect of persons with God: for the Lord desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But because your priests make merchandise of the Word of God and conceal the mysteries of the Gospels, for this reason they do not read into your hearing all that is written in them; but some things indeed they do, and others not, so that you may not come to the knowledge of the truth. For it is written in them, 'In that day some will say: Lord, Lord, have we not cast out demons in thy name, and done many wonders?' and the King, answering, will say to them: 'Amen, amen, I say to you, I do not know you.' Search and see, is it not so written? And who are these to whom the Lord will say, 'I do not know you'?" But he, being most foolish and ignorant, as he was, was at a loss and remained silent.

^C 34. Reapse, one may interpret the evangelical saying thus: there are some existing up to this very day who put on the guise of Christian customs and seem to live piously, yet by means of incantations they are accustomed to drive out demons and heal sicknesses and infirmities—just as of old the sons of Sceva, or those who were called exorcists, as is written in the Acts of the Apostles, who, exorcising the demon-possessed, used to say: "We adjure you by the Christ whom Paul preaches: come out of the men," and the demons fled through fear of the name of Christ. So now, too, some act in this way, yet they are ignorant that because of their incantations they are suffering the loss of their own salvation. Those, indeed, in that day will cry out, saying: "Lord, Lord, have we not cast out demons in thy name, and done many wonders?" And the Lord, answering, will say to them: "Amen, amen, I say to you, I do not know you." There are also others who had embraced a solitary and irreproachable life, but because of their ignorance and lack of learning, they fell into heresies, and therefore they shall not attain the kingdom of heaven. Yet, so that nothing may be owed to them by the just Judge on that day, they receive healing now; so that when they later cry out,

"Lord, Lord, did we not do many mighty works in your name?" they may hear: "Friend, I do no injury to you; you received what was yours in your life; now take what is yours and go."

XXXV. Sergius, ignorant of these and other like things, began to search the Gospels; and having discovered those words which the vile woman had spoken, he said to her, "Come, tell me, of whom does the Lord speak these things?" But she did not give an answer then, but proceeding further, said: "Of whom did the Lord say, 'Many shall come from the East and the West, and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast into the outer darkness'? Who, then, are the children of the kingdom?" He, not knowing how to say that these are the Israelites, whose was the adoption and the worship and the promises—for in reality Christ called the Israelites sons, just as He Himself said to the Canaanite woman, "It is not good to take the bread of the sons"—and they were cast out because they crucified Him; ^B these things, I say, the wretched Sergius, not knowing, and thinking that that maenad would be for him a guide to salvation, began earnestly to question her about the things already mentioned.

But she, a guide to ruin, having a mouth like an open sepulcher, made a beginning of blaspheming against the saints, saying, "The children of the kingdom are these saints of yours, who drive demons from men, and whom you venerate as gods, having abandoned the living and immortal Lord. These, indeed, on that day will hear from the mouth of the just Judge, 'I never knew you.'" And so, running through the evangelical writings, she perverted the sense of each individual word, as she saw it could be grasped by Sergius, and in a short time she made him a workshop of the devil, and forged a dreadful weapon against the human race, the like of which had existed in no one among his predecessors.

For his precursors, even if they were of signal wickedness because of the foul mire of their lasciviousness, their shameful deeds, and their blasphemous tongue against God, were at least visible to men to be avoided; whence it happened that few were deceived by them. But this man, while avoiding their pollutions and many of their lusts, yet embracing all their blasphemies together as if they were saving dogmas, and having put on the mask of piety, concealed the wolf under a sheep's skin; and although he denied the virtue of true religion, he seemed to the ignorant an excellent guide to salvation. For wickedness imitates virtue, and the tares strive to be thought wheat. By such arts, therefore, do they deceive the weak even to this time. ^D But would that we might all be delivered from their artificial malice, by the prayers and intercession of our immaculate and most holy Lady, properly and truly the Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, and of all the saints! For until they lead the wretched to final destruction, they are never accustomed to reveal to them their great mystery, which is the denial of God.

^A XXXVI. Now indeed that strenuous soldier of the devil, Sergius, having been taught the heresy by an exitious woman, and thinking that all men who hold the pure and blameless faith of us true Christians are lying in perdition, is seized by satanic zeal and becomes a new herald of the error; calling himself that Tychicus who is mentioned in the epistles of the Apostle Paul, he would say to everyone that he was a disciple of the Apostle and had been sent by him to preach the word of God—or rather, a pestilent error. Having gone about all the cities and regions where the Apostle had preached the word of truth eight hundred years before, he turned many away from the orthodox faith and led them to the devil, as he himself narrates in one of his epistles: "From east to west, from north to south I ran, preaching the Gospel of Christ, relying solely on my own knees." For during the whole of thirty-four years, from Empress Irene down to the Emperor Theophilus, he stirred up this present apostasy, which Paul the Apostle had predicted to the Thessalonians, and by which he corrupted a very great part of the Church of Christ. ^B For some he deprived of this temporal life, having stripped them of their own goods and caused them to perish before their time; others he alienated from eternal life, as they became followers of his own wickedness. Many spouses he dissociated, polluting their marriage beds through his disciples; many infants torn from their mothers' breasts he caused to be killed by the hand of his disciples; others he snatched from their parents and alienated from the living God, who had redeemed them with His own blood, and saw to it that they were sold to the Hagarenes. Many youths and maidens of handsome appearance he dragged from their parents and sold as slaves to the Barbarians. Many brothers and sisters, as well as kin and friends, he tore apart from one another and, depriving them of their own, sent them off to foreign lands, whose wailing and lamentation rose even to the heavenly vaults. Many monks and nuns who had dedicated their virginity to Christ he corrupted through his own disciples, and having led them away from the life of celibacy, alienated them from God at the same time. Many priests and Levites he drew away from the orthodox faith, and having changed them from sheep into wild beasts, he turned them into man-eaters; he was the cause that many were killed in bonds and prisons, and others he rendered poor from being wealthy. And does the author of so many evils deserve to be worshipped as the Paraclete? For his disciples, when praying, say: "The prayer of the Holy Spirit will have mercy on us." ^D XXXVII. But he says: "I am innocent of these evils; for I often exhorted them," he says, "that they should turn from [index: entries preserved]

^A abstaining from capturing the Romans; yet they did not obey me." But how do you make yourself innocent? For if they did not obey you, why did you agree with the contumacious people whom you were unable to govern? And why did you remain with them until death? And if you were teaching them the way of Christ, why did you not teach them what the Lord said: "When they persecute you in this city, flee into another?" I shall refute you, however, by your own words. For you wrote thus to the Coloneenses: "Foreknowing the proof of your faith, I call to your memory that, just as the Churches of past time had pastors and teachers (he means, clearly, Constantine and the rest), so also you have received a shining lamp, a splendid star, and a leader of salvation, according to the writing: 'If ^B your eye be simple, your whole body will be bright.'" O most unhappy man, and full of all wickedness! If you are a disciple of Paul, as you boast, why do you not imitate the master who called himself the offscouring of all things, an untimely birth, and the least of the apostles? But you, a teacher of so many evils, performing no good thing, boast more than that Pharisee? Have you not read the saying: "For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends?" But you, being entirely darkened in mind and spirit, how can you falsely call yourself a splendid star, a shining lamp, and a leader of salvation, you who have destroyed so many souls? Are you the eye of the body of Christ, which is the Church, you demented and furious man? ^C You, I say, miserable man, since you are blind, how have you existed as a leader to others for salvation? Have you not read: "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch?" What kind of virtue of yours will they imitate, when you cry out: "Be imitators of me, and hold the traditions which you received from me?" Behold, therefore, the fruit of your faith and teaching has brought forth great impiety. For your disciples, before they knew you, were sheep; but now, having known you, or rather having been known by you, they have been transformed into man-devouring beasts. And a little later he says: "Let no man deceive you by any means." Therefore, having these promises from God, be of good cheer. For we, confident in ^D your hearts, write thus to you: "The doorkeeper and the good shepherd, and the leader of the body of Christ, and the lamp of the house of God, I am; and I am with you always, even unto the consummation of the age. For even if I am absent in body, yet in spirit I am with you. Finally, rejoice; and the God of peace shall be with you." XXXVIII. O enemy of truth, son of the devil, and worker of all manner of malice! How did you dare to speak such things, making yourself equal to God? Certainly, he who exalts

himself shall be humbled; and of him who exalts himself, there is no glory; and he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness, neither in this age, nor in the age to come. You are guilty of all these faults.

Sergius says again: "Furthermore, I say that Paul built the Church in Corinth, but Silvanus and Titus built the Church in Macedonia." He calls the "synedrion" in the city of Cibossa "Macedonia," and he designates Constantine and Simeon by the names of Silvanus and Titus. Timothy instructed Achaia; he calls it "Mananali," and he names Gegnesius "Timothy the true," or rather "Thymotheus." Epaphroditus served the Church of the Philippians; he calls Joseph the goat-herd—who is truly mindless—a man of illicit birth, and he calls his disciples "Philippians." Tychicus instructed the Church of the Laodiceans, the Ephesians, and also that of the Colossians. He calls the Colossians "Argautae," the Ephesians "Mopsuestenians," and the Laodiceans ^B the inhabitants of Cynopolis, the city and province. Regarding all of these, he says that the three are one, and are represented by the one, Tychicus. Do you see how he obtrudes himself as a teacher in the synedria of the Antichrist, in order to deceive the crowd with the names of the Churches of Christ? He unworthily and foolishly usurps the names of those which were thus called anciently in the Epistles of the Apostle, giving names senselessly and very foolishly to those which had been allotted their names many ages ago.

XXXIX. Tell me, you sycophant, you accuser of the truth: Paul the Apostle, who taught from Jerusalem even unto the borders of Illyricum, how did he build the Church of the Corinthians alone? And if those whom you mention were the disciples of Paul, how were they taught by him, and in what place, those who were born eight hundred years later? Why do you fight against the truth? Why are you not ashamed to deceive so many people with deceptive and false words? Why have you loved the glory of men and not the glory of God, and why do you ask to be received by everyone as an Apostle of Christ, writing thus to Leo the Montanist: ^C "But you, take heed to yourself; cease from rending the true faith. For what accusation do you have against us? Have I defrauded anyone, or have I been high-minded?" He cannot say—but even if you should say, "Your testimony is not true," far be it from me to hate you; rather, I pray that, just as you have received the apostles and prophets, who are four, so also you might receive pastors and teachers, lest you become the prey of wild beasts. ^D Elsewhere you also said: "The first fornication, which we inherited from Adam, is a benefit; the second is a greater fornication, concerning which Paul says (I Cor. vi, 18): 'He who fornicates sins against his own body.'" And you add, saying: "We Chri-

Christ; and if anyone departs from the traditions of the body of Christ, that is to say, from mine, he sins; because he runs to those who teach otherwise, and disobeys those who teach sound words." Tell me, you leader of impiety, how is fornication a benefit? Or how can it be so, when it is condemned by the fornicator himself after the act is finished, and is set at naught by all divinely inspired Scripture? How did you dare to nullify the Lord's commands because of your own dissolute apathy, those commands which even look upon lust as adultery? In which He says (Matt. v, 28): "He who looks upon a woman ^B to lust after her," etc. And you dare to nullify these words for the sake of the empty glory of men, and for the sake of drawing to yourself those who are servile and dissolute, saying: "Whom should one believe? Those who speak on behalf of the truth, that there is no other fornication except for fleeing from you, or those who speak on behalf of you, the deceiver and enemy of the truth?"

XL. ^B We have selected these few items from their blasphemies for the sake of refuting him and his disciples, so that we might lay open the small treasure of his heart: "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt. xii, 34). But let no one think that the heresy of Sergius differs from that of Manes: for it is one and the same. Now when this Sergius began his teaching, desiring to gather many ^C disciples for himself and to drag away a large number from the Church of Christ after him, he resisted twice and thrice in the face of Banes, his base disciple and fellow-initiate, and feigning piety, he began to rebuke him in the hearing of all—not indeed for reasons of faith, but because of the enormity of his crimes. Banes answered him: "You, Sergius, have appeared only recently, and you know none of our masters, nor have you lived with them. But I was a pupil of Master Epaphroditus; and as he taught me from the beginning, so I teach." But Sergius, loathing the ^D fetid mire of which he was a master, and rebuking him publicly, split the heresy in twain. Those who remained with him, he called Baniotai; and in turn, he called the disciples of Sergius, Sergiotai. But after the death of Sergius, his disciples, unable to bear the ignominy and reproaches with which they were everywhere assailed, began to kill the Baniotai, so that they might wash away their own infamy. But a certain Theodotus, a fellow-traveler of Sergius, said: "Let there be no discord between you and these men; for we all, up to the appearance of our master, held one faith." And so they desisted from killing.

XLI. But the religious emperor Michael, by surname Abuas (Rhangabes), and Leo after him, when

^A they perceived that a great portion of the Christians was being utterly ruined by this heresy, sent orders throughout the entire Roman domain that as many as were found in this foul heresy should be killed. The emperor's command thus came to Armenia also, to Thomas the bishop of Neocaesarea and to the Paracondaces, who was the exarch. Therefore, in accordance with the emperor's command, they put to death those found to be worthy of death and leaders of perdition. Afterward, some of the disciples of Sergius, called Astati, through treachery and deceit, murdered the exarch; and the Cynopolitae likewise murdered Thomas the metropolitan. In this way the Astati fled to Melitene. The emir of the Saracens who were there at that time was Monocheranes; having therefore received from him the village of Argaoun, the Astati settled there. And ^B thus, having gathered from all parts, they began to plunder Romania. Sergius, however, having lived with his disciples at Argaoun for some years, was afterward, by the righteous judgment of God, cut down by an axe; for as he had split the Church of God in two, he is cast into eternal fire. For a certain Tzanio, who was from the castle of Nicopolis, having found him on the mountain that hangs over Argaoun working with timber, took the axe from his hands and, striking him, killed him. And thus he met this end of life, the last and worst of all the beasts, in the year 6303 from the creation of the world. His more intimate disciples were Michael, and Canacaris, and John the Aoratus, three wicked priests, ^C along with the aforementioned Theodotus, and Basilius, and Zosimus, and many others. These disciples of his, who were even called his fellow-travelers, as if they were certain priests, corrupted the entire people gathered at Argaoun, after the death of their teacher Sergius, with his teachings and those of his predecessors, all being of equal rank; they no longer proclaimed one teacher as had been the custom before, but all being equal, they also had subordinate priests under them, whom they called notaries. ^D XLII. Now Carbeas, who emerged at those times and became the leader of that pestilential people, increased their number to such a degree that, no longer able to be contained within the town of Argaoun, he departed from there and founded the city of Tibrica and dwelt in it; partly to escape the tyranny of the Melitenian Agarenes over them, partly that, by making a separation from men, he might become more akin to demons, and partly that he might be near to Armenia and to Romania. Thus, he bound those who obeyed him to himself in wickedness, and had them as assistants for plundering men; and those who would not obey he sold to the Saracens, while meanwhile ravaging

the heights of Roman territory ^A located near the Pontus; at the same time, he provided a ready refuge for those in the Roman Empire who were being sought out for death because of this heresy, preparing the convenience of the place. Moreover, he not only invited to himself those who were more lascivious and profligate, and those of the foolish ones who approached those heights near Tephrike, but he also lured them into himself, by the liberty of the foulest passions, to the same end. Therefore, while Carbeas was still living, some of his aforementioned priests departed this life, while others still remained.

^B XLIII. But after he too died, Chrysocheres, his cousin and son-in-law, seized the tyranny of that pestilent people. In his days, therefore, we came to Tephrike, at the royal command, to exchange captive leaders—which also happened in the second year of the reign of Basil and Constantine and Leo, our pious and just and great kings. Having stayed there for nine months, while Basil and Zosimus, commonly called fellow-travelers, were still alive, and having carefully investigated and labored over the aforementioned matters, we were eager for these things to be made clear to all, in accordance with the divine command of our same holy and orthodox great kings, as slaves—though base and unworthy ones—obeying with great fear. ^C The knowledge of certain of the more exquisite heresies among them will be set forth for you in what follows, provided that He—to whom be the glory, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, the one true God, and Creator and conservator and Lord of all things visible and invisible, to the ages—favors us in our wretchedness. Amen.

Up to this point, a portion of the work had already been published in the book of Rader: whose Greek text we have corrected with great accuracy according to the manuscript, so that we might exclude very many and very serious errors, whether of Greek, or of orthography, or even of punctuation. We have also made a new Latin translation. Furthermore, it did not please us to point out by name the individual errors in Rader's Latin text. For we do not attribute so much to ourselves that we would consider ourselves immune to errors, especially in a work produced in haste. ^D

VARIOUS READINGS a R. ἀποκτεννομένοις. b R. ἐλαχίστων. c R. ἐννεαμηναίου. q Cod. αὐτῷ, but the syntax seems to demand rather τῷ.

τῷ.

OF THE SAME PETER SICULUS

FIRST SERMON

^A I. That I have professed, from my parents and ancestors, an unwavering, sincere, undoubted, and perfect faith, along with an irreproachable and pure conscience, toward the supreme, divinely dominant, life-giving, and one Trinity, the only true God of us all, creator of heaven and earth and of all invisible and visible created things, their upholder and lord—this is witnessed by the same holy Trinity itself, and by all those men with whom I have associated, even if I, a sinner and unworthy man, am wholly lacking in the deeds proper to the faith, O most holy assembly. For I am persuaded that you are present in a body for the listening to and examination of the matters set before us, and I shall endeavor to connect to the previous ones the things that are left unsaid; or rather, I shall make my discourse not less, but perhaps more careful than before. And first, indeed, I shall publicly set forth in every single chapter the heresies that are manifest among them; then I shall lay out, in their own proper place, the objections and contradictions to each one, as far as I am able; and after this, I shall bring forward the multitude of testimonies from the divine Scripture, having gleaned them from the fourteen epistles of the holy apostle Paul, from James, and John, and the holy Jude, and from the Acts of the Apostles; for as it has been said before, they themselves declare that one must believe in nothing else but these alone.

^B II. For there is one point among them that is most manifest, namely, the acknowledgment of two principles, an evil God and a good God; the former being the creator and lord of this world, and the latter being of the world to come, whom they even call the heavenly Father, fittingly attaching their own deceptions to the heresies of the ill-famed Manes.

And directing their speech to us, they say: "You," he says, "believe in the Creator God of this world, but we believe in Him of whom the holy Gospel says, *that you have neither heard His voice, nor seen His form, and you do not have His word abiding in you.*" But we shall speak of this a little later; for now, let us hear what the scriptural problems are. For what do these senseless ones say? "We have received from the Gospel and the Apostle that we should understand and say that there is one God, the creator and governor of this world, ^B and another of the world to come," according to the statement made by the Apostle: *The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the light of the glory of the Gospel of Christ might not shine upon them*; and in another place he says: *According to the prince of the power of the air*; and according to what is said by the Lord in the holy Gospels: *The prince of this world comes, and he will find nothing in us.* And they frequently call the apostate devil the prince of this world.

^C III. How shall we answer them? That these things are so written, we ourselves do not deny; for it is the duty of bad servants to reject the authority of their master and to rise up against his lordship, and to distort through the wickedness of their own minds what has been piously and justly said and done by them; just as they slander Him who forbids fornication, as if He detested marriage in the Lord, or as if He forbade the tasting of all wine, which is in fact a good creature of God, and not to be rejected, but to be taken temperately with thanksgiving. And you will find ten thousand other such fragments in the holy and divine Scriptures, ^D stated in a poetic, or enigmatic, and sometimes abrupt manner because of the conciseness of the phrasing; things which present a mystical sense to the listeners, if only they attend to the words with a sincere hearing, and are not led by an itching of the ears. But we, the true worshippers of God, the most Christian and most orthodox people, will answer them thus: The passage of Holy Scripture does not stand as you say and understand it, held fast by your own boundaries and rules; for you are very few and easily numbered, and you hold all the things of your sect inconsiderately and rashly, and you always speak of these things in revellings and drunken bouts, and not with a sober mind. But that is the true sense which the crowd of many priests and innumerable wise men has established—those who, laboriously, prudently, and soberly, not without fasts and prayers, have defined with scales and balance what is worthy of God in holy and ecumenical synods. For we carry off the palm in place, and in multitude, and in strength, and in confidence; and it is out of much goodwill that we speak with you—some of whom were once our own members, and can be grafted in again—to speak the truth, if indeed you should wish it, into the good olive tree.

IV. We must, therefore, summarize the apostolic saying

to say that the divine Apostle does not in any way point to the apostate and, to any spider’s web weaker, devil as God or the ruler of ^A the world. Nevertheless, however the sentence may be read, study it; for the phrasing has a certain ambiguity when divided by the punctuation. *If our Gospel be also hidden, it is hidden to those who are perishing, in whom God...* Here one must take a breath and then append: *hath blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world, that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ might not shine unto them.* When constructed in this way, it has this meaning: God has blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world. And most justly so; for what remedy remains for those who labor under unbelief and are voluntarily blinded? *For I came not,* says the Lord, *to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance* 60; and we know that repentance is born of nothing other than a voluntary ^B choice. For that which happens involuntarily is not even stable; and therefore it is not, nor is it called, repentance, but necessity. Repentance, then, requires both things: the power of the Healer, and the sincere humility of the one being healed; for if either is lacking, the outcome is difficult. Certainly, God is omnipotent, who brought all things into existence out of nothing, and is able to make all creation stand before His will, and to compel it to proceed according to His own good pleasure. Yet, by reason of His supreme goodness, He does not will this; but to the inanimate and irrational He has assigned necessity, while to the animate and rational He has granted possibility; showing them two paths ^C and allowing them meanwhile to proceed by [the use of] free will, while promising a reward for each path at the regeneration of His terrible second coming, as each man chooses which path he wishes to walk, receiving according to his merit. Behold, He does not present to us that apostate and most wicked servant as God, but reveals Himself, the hypostatic Truth, blinding the pupils of those who voluntarily choose to be blinded to the truth by the intensity of His light. For no one would accuse the solar rays of being the cause of the blindness of those who have weak eyes and attempt to gaze directly at them, as if they were the cause of their own blindness, but will instead attribute the matter to a bad diet or some involuntary disease that has befallen them; even though all diseases of the soul ^D are wont to befall men voluntarily.

V. But even if we should concede that the divine Apostle calls the devil God, let us observe that he does not assign this name to him by way of authority or lordship. For how could he? The disciple of the meek and peaceful Shepherd strongly rouses us to do battle against him, saying: *Finally, my brethren, be strengthened in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil; for our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers* 62 of this world and age. *Before...*

instruct us to fight against God, he who never possessed anything on earth but a body, and teaches us to wage an implacable war not for the sake of the body, but for the sake of the soul? And he who ^A bids us not to resist those men who are injurious, or who strike us or kill us, how, if he knew this one to be God, would he command us to fight against him? Again, also the Lord in the holy Gospels, when he says: *I was watching Satan as lightning falling*, and when he declares the eternal fire ^B prepared for him and his angels, he points him out as a fugitive and apostate servant and creature, who, on account of his fall through pride, was to be condemned to unquenchable fire along with his apostate powers. But where have you heard or known a God falling, or being punished with eternal fire? But perhaps he called him God by the same name, condescending to the infirmity of the hearers, and secretly drawing them away from idols, and leading them to the one God, and showing what kind of reward will be for the victors in the struggle against him, if indeed mortal men, who are clay, should defeat the incorporeal; and the vile and the least should defeat the great dragon, the apostate.

VI. And you will find this in the first epistle to the same Corinthians, ^C where the blessed Apostle writes and says: *Concerning therefore the food which is sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no idol in the world, and that there is no other God but one; for even if there are those who are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth*. Observe the accurate doctrine of the dogma: "who are called," he says, not "who are." Therefore, men with darkened minds suffer this most miserably, changing the divine name into fables and imaginings and idols. To root this out, the holy Apostle counters by saying: *But to us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things; but also one Holy Spirit, in whom are all things*. The expressions "from whom," and "through whom," and "in whom," do not divide the natures, but designate the persons. And when he had first said "one God" on account of the unity of substance, he soon added by the words "through whom" and "in whom" the ^D difference of the persons. Therefore, one God in three, and the three are one, as we have said, who permeates above all and through all and in all. And in another place, the Apostle calls the human belly a god, not indeed as the Creator of the world, but on account of the care and worship bestowed upon it: wishing by this homonymy to deter the licentious, and to turn them away from the care of it, he says to the Philippians: *For many walk disorderly, of whom I often told you, and now even weeping I say, the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame*. And he adds: *Who mind earthly things; for our citizenship is in heaven*. And again:

^A For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God. For he did not command us to take up a sword or a bow in our hands to meet the enemy, but to prepare ourselves intellectually against incorporeal foes, whose blows do not necessarily strike, but do so only as he who is attacked by them wills. For in this there is a difference from physical wars: in those, even against his will, the combatant endures the blows of his adversaries; in this, there is no such necessity. The enemy indeed strikes, but whether we receive the blow or not depends upon our own free will. If, therefore, we receive the blow as a wound, and are charmed by the bitter sweetness of it as if by some good thing, then, by gradually increasing the putrefaction of our thoughts, we subsequently indulge ourselves without fear in the works of the flesh, which are fornications, adulteries, and the remaining forms of wickedness, from which we should entreat the Lord God to snatch us through repentance, while not refusing to contribute our own part as well.

^B VII. But if, furthermore, we do not even lend an ear to the tempter’s counsel, the enemy will indeed assail us, just as he once assailed God the Word; but being repelled by us through godly replies, he will be driven away into arid places, bereft of divine influx. We, meanwhile, nourished by the ministry of the holy angels with the divine, life-giving, and heavenly bread, and gradually growing in spiritual stature, shall arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, adorned with the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, against which there is no law; for *the law is not laid down for the just*; for whatever the law speaks, it speaks to those who are not well-disciplined. But what law shall tutor those who are called by the grace of God’s Spirit? To them, the unfathomable abyss of wisdom, by its own participation, pours forth divine springs, refreshing those who pass by with most excellent waters. ^C Now, the saying of the Lord, *The prince of this world is coming*, is to be viewed in this way: The heaven is the container of all sensible creatures. We know that the heavenly and intellectual orders are prior and more honorable than those under the heaven, and more glorious, illuminated by their proximity to God, and incorruptible. The others, however, are contrary to these. Therefore, the proud and most wicked devil, on account of his own pride and arrogance, was thrust out of the heavenly precincts with his own host, and is said to be contained beneath the celestial sphere. As he is, therefore, a creature, and one who roams this sensible world, the Lord rightly called him the prince, as if he were the first creature and more honorable than the rest of this sensible world. For he was once better than all sensible things, who is now fouler than stinking dung. And we also ^D call heaven and earth the beginning of all of God’s sensible creatures, not because these dominate the rest,

but because they are the beginning of God’s creation. And we are accustomed to call the first and most honorable persons in cities or villages neighbors and rulers, even if they have no power over anyone. Thus, the ruler of this world is understood by me.

^A VIII. But if we should even grant that he rules and holds power over this world, it must be said thus: Man is also called a little world, and this you will know accurately if you consider the composition of the elements about him, and to which worldly element each part corresponds, and from what each one is derived and consists; so that if, by some design, one of the worldly elements were to be lacking, there would be no rational, mortal living creature at all, nor would the whole arrangement of the earth persist. Therefore, whereas men have willfully separated themselves from the one and purest God, and have been enticed by the flattering baits of the wicked one, and have been snared by carnal corruptions of which he himself is the master, consequently they have made the apostate their own ruler; whom the outcome of events, not divine Providence, has established as the ruler of the world of inconstant, self-willed, and wicked men. For in reality, he ^B dominates only the wicked; but he by no means rules over good and frugal men, so that he serves them rather with fear, and trembling and quaking, he obeys their commands if they instruct him as a bondman. Just as by the command of Paul the pythonic spirit was cast out (Acts xvi. 18), and that man who had sinned at Corinth was delivered by the same Paul to the devil for a short time (I Cor. v. 5), yet he was soon received back with great authority. Furthermore, this is a proven fact: since many often turn aside of their own free will from a straight path to a perverse one, and from this return again to the straight one; a thing which cannot happen in the worldly elements. For fire is never converted into water, nor water into fire, nor earth into air, nor air into earth, but they are always the same, compounded and preserved by the awesome mandate of the Creator God until the last day; ^C of which elements, if that wicked one had by chance obtained dominion or power, even for the briefest moment, he would have long since overturned and ruined all things. But indeed he did not have power even over swine, as we have heard from the Gospels (Matth. viii. 31), unless by God's permission. But when he did obtain power against them, what he did to them, I do not believe anyone who enters the Church of God is ignorant.

IX. Accept also some similar images for me. Just as if certain flagitious and bloodthirsty men should gather in a place suitable for brigandage, and gradually, having increased in number, create some one of their own as a leader, this is not done by the assent of God, but by the urging of their own zeal for slaughter and the iniquity of their customs. And ^D consider with me here that it is perfectly apparent that this principality was created by them without the nod of God, because we know that many robbers and plunderers have repented, some early, others near the setting of life

and through repentance have propitiated God and attained salvation: for if their movement had been forced, they would not have changed so quickly. ^A Again: Just as if some fugitive slave who was under a kind and good master, later abandoning him, should desert to robbers or heathens, and recognize one of those among them as his prince or king. And so long as he was with the kind master, he both had and called him Lord, which was true; then, having gone away to his opponents, he had as prince the one he had chosen. But often, repenting and returning from the hostile ones, he again had his first kind and good master; so it is here. As long as we observed the commandment and walked according to the will and ^B order of God, we both had and called God the one who created us. But by not remaining in the commandment of God, but following the counsel of the enemy, we still have God—even if we do not wish it—as prince, whom we did not obey while we were voluntarily enslaving ourselves to pleasures and sins; yet not all. For there are among us, both before the law and after the law, countless men who resisted the enemy firmly and cast off from themselves the burden of his slavery, even if they were all subject to the natural judgment of death, paying the debt of their fathers and accepting this punishment from God. And there are others who, after following the enemy and being enslaved by unbelief and pleasures, were again reconciled to our good God through repentance.

X. That God is one, invisible, incomprehensible, unintelligible, without form, without appearance, impalpable, ^C incircumscript, of infinite power, incorporeal, whose appearance no one has ever seen, nor has anyone heard his voice, nor grasped what his nature is like—this, I say, is evident to all who possess a mind. In one and the same only God we believe, we who are truly Christians: thrice-holy and thrice-hypostatic, inconfusedly united in substance and indivisibly distinguished in persons. And one of this same holy Trinity was incarnate for us, seen and touched in the flesh immutably and invertibly, and was crucified, and buried, and rose again, and now sits at the right hand of the Father, as the holy apostle Paul says: ^D "That God and Father raised us up and made us sit in the heavenly places at the right hand of the majesty, in Christ Jesus our Lord." For He did not make all men individually (for this is to be understood not only by mind, but also by sense), but the first-fruits of human nature which He took from us, and which was united to Christ according to hypostasis, He made to sit at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens; in whom, our Lord and God, we have all our hopes, and whom we confess to have authority over every created thing, visible and invisible.

and truly and firmly do we await his lordship and authority over both the present and the future time, and over the world and eternity, reigning with the Father who is without beginning, and with his omnipotent Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

XI. Against the Manichaeans

^B XII. The blessed apostle Paul also says that the Lord, having risen from the dead, appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then to more than five hundred brethren at once, then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles—evidently before his glorious assumption into heaven. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me 81—appearing entirely in an intellectual manner and revealing himself as Lord, and inviting me to the knowledge of himself. For when nearly a year had passed since Christ was assumed into heaven, the Apostle, having believed and been baptized, was appointed by the Holy Spirit as teacher of the world. And the Lord, having been raised from the dead, appeared bodily to the apostles, being both seen and touched by the hand of the inquisitive Thomas, and conversing with them, so that he might not be thought to be some phantom, but rather the true resurrection of the body from the dead. In the same way he dealt with the other worthy ones. Yet he did not appear to the remaining crowd of the Jews; for they were not worthy to see him who had been raised from the dead as God, whom they had crucified as a malefactor. But he also appeared intellectually to those who were worthy, by the mind alone, even if depicted very faintly—as the Lord said to Philip: "He who has seen me has seen my Father" 82—that is, he who understands. For God is not seen with bodily eyes, but with the mind, as far as is possible. And even if God lacks form and circumscription, yet he himself, according to his wisdom, becomes visible in ways he wills, and in various and manifold ways he provides for the salvation of all.

^C XIII. But that the same God, and no other, is the creator of heaven and earth and all things that are in them, and that he is the same and invisible in his divine substance, a heavenly Father, existing everywhere and superior to all true vision, hear accurately in a few words. The Lord said: "I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth" 83. And again: "Be merciful as your heavenly Father is, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust" 84. And again: "But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet" 85. And the Apostle: "Because in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, whether Thrones or Dominions: all things were created through him and in him; and he is before all, and all things consist in him" 86. And read also the speech of the apostle Paul to the Athenians, which is in the Acts of the Apostles 87. And again it is written in the same Acts that when the apostles were released, they came to their own—that is, released from the synedrion of the Jews—and reported to them what the chief priests and elders had said to them. And having heard this, they all raised their voices together, saying: "Master, Lord, who made heaven and earth and sea and all things that are in them; who by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said: Why did the nations rage,

and the peoples meditate vain things? The kings of the earth stood round, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For they were truly gathered together against your child Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the nations and the peoples of Israel, to do all that your hand and your counsel predetermined to be done. And there are ten thousand other such things, which will be shown a little later.

^B XIV. You see, therefore, how your absurd arguments have been dissolved by the thunderings of the evangelists and apostles, like a tower of hail cast down to the ground, when it was demonstrated that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—invisible and endowed with no figure—through his Son, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, created every creature, both visible and invisible. Who, then, is the God worshipped among you? Tell us. Surely you will say it is he whom Manes worshipped. But you have certainly not seen even the image of our God, who sends forth the splendors of the divine words like an image from the sun. For the light, he says, is the image of the sun. Therefore, since the power of vision is weak and feeble to look directly at the solar body without some intermediary, it uses an intermediate image and is thus illuminated without harm. Think of the divine and incorporeal light in the same way, illuminating pure minds like swift lightning, while it inflames its lovers with pleasure towards a greater desire and exhorts them to seek that the one who has been illuminated may always be illuminated by this divine and incorruptible light. But neither do you wish to hear his voice, which commands the observance of the commandments. For the results that follow demonstrate that you do not have his word abiding in you. For you do not believe the very one whom He sent; for you neither think nor wish to search the Scriptures. For you neither think nor hope to have eternal life in them. For they are the ones that testify concerning him; and for this reason you do not search them, so that you might not come to him and have eternal life. For it is sufficiently established that you have not the charity of God at all. For how can it be that you have the charity of God, you who follow the foolish doctrines of wicked and fallacious masters, and do not seek the glory which is with God alone?

XV. We indeed, even if we confess that God is invisible to the eyes of the flesh (for it is impossible for the incorporeal to be seen by bodily sense), do not for that reason deny that the human race participates in divine operations; but we consider that, intellectually, each one according to the degree of his purity sees God as much as is lawful for man, in the way that is known to God alone, who works these things, and to those in whom God works; although it is impossible that [the divine nature] as it is and as great as it is...

radiance is inaccessible even to the holy angels, yet they are illuminated according to the capacity of their vessels; just as it is possible to observe with the sun, whose ray pure or glass-like, subtle, or watery bodies easily receive, while contrary bodies receive only a light and superficial ray that scarcely penetrates within, because the matter is not apt for it. So, too, does God illuminate all things equally, but because of the difference in the material objects, it seems—though not correctly—that He illuminates some more, others less. For God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, yet He compels no one, so that free will may remain. I would even dare to say that the miracles of the Lord were invisible ^B while He sojourned on earth, even if some thought they saw them, because in reality they are ineffable. For He did not use a scalpel, or cautery, or medicine, or any other medical aid for those cures; but by His word He calmed the sea, He drove away demons, He raised the dead, He granted sight to the blind, He strengthened the paralyzed; and to say it in one word, He healed every kind of disease and infirmity by His word, having the Father in Himself, and Himself subsisting in the Father indivisibly with the holy and coeternal and life-giving Spirit. And then, while indeed circumscribed corporally, He was by His divine substance infinite, present to all and filling all things, whatever is in heaven and whatever is on earth, and if there is any other creature beyond the heavens; and showing that He is the same who created ^C the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them by His word. The same God also assumed flesh, and by His word performed such miracles worthy of God. For to whom else do creatures obey except to the Creator? Finally, throughout the infinite ages of ages He shall remain, governing all things and preserving them by His omnipotent and providential will.

^D XVI. What, then, I beseech you, causes your dissension from us, when such accurate holy testimonies are set before you, which you claim to follow? Tell us truly, at long last. If indeed you truly affirm that you follow the words of the holy Gospel and the Apostle, come and let us discuss this, having appointed as judges those of foreign nations and other tongues, so that we may not seem to oppress you and to prejudge the case. Rather, let us be judged by men of an alien sect, placing the sacred oracles in the midst of the tribunal, and after a diligent dispute has been made, to that side which wins, let us all agree, as once Archelaus, the bishop of Carchar in Mesopotamia, did when discussing with Manes. And why do you attribute to us the cause of your separation from us, when it is fitting that we should cherish concord fraternally and from the heart—if indeed you so desired—and act justly rather than contentiously? Our predominant, sincere, irreproachable, and true faith will, without doubt, as is its wont, carry off the palm, and the case will be adjudged to it. Your falsehood, on the contrary, will be driven out, as darkness is conquered by the presence of the sun. Why now do you contend,

and think to ^B overcome the whole earth and heaven with your empty babblings? You are not even clearly seen on the earth, being, perhaps, of such insignificance and smallness compared to those who dwell upon it; always diminishing, and possessing no confidence among all nations; and not even to be compared to the nest of a swallow compared to the orthodox Christians who dwell on the earth. Or, to speak mathematically, you are like a tiny triangle elongated from the earth toward the heavenly regions when compared to the multitude of all peoples; or, just as if one were to compare the present time, including the entire span of both past and future times—the long sequence of which is unknown—with all that has been created; or, one drop compared to the whole nature of waters, or a single blade of grass compared to the whole earth, or whatever is the least among the least, unworthy of any comparison. The Law, ^C says the Lord, shall go forth from Sion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem, not from Tibrica. But if you do not endure to hear this auspicious and excellent counsel from us, it is clearly demonstrated from this very thing that you have no use for the Holy Scriptures, except insofar as they serve as a veil for other heresies. Therefore you do not draw near to the light of truth, because you are greatly ashamed to reveal and make public the works of your night acts—which it is not permitted even to utter—in the light of the day, but, baring your sword smeared with honey only against stupid and simple men, you perform everything in darkness and deep night.

XVII. Having brought the discourse to this point, I shall also attempt to examine another [argument] which is accustomed to be brought forward by them as a powerful one. Death, they say, reigned from Adam until ^D Moses. Also: that through his death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. Observe, they say, how the Apostle says that the power of death is held by the devil. What, then, shall we say to this? The majesty of kings is strengthened by fear and clemency. For the wicked and hostile, blows and terrors follow, while for the good and for friends, joy and praise follow. And the former are restrained by bonds, prisons, and executioners set over them, delivered up by the command of kings; the latter, however, the kings favor with every best benefit; and if some among them occasionally err slightly, they chastise them briefly with fatherly love. What, then, do you think of that adversary and proud one, who has nothing and thinks he possesses everything, and falsely brags and says that these things were delivered to him, when in reality he did not even have power over the swine without the permission of God? He is nothing other than a certain rabid executioner, who held the souls of men bound by the command of God on account of the sin of the progenitor, until the coming of our Lord in the flesh. For our God Himself, as a mighty conqueror, plundered the treasury of hell, and released those bound in prison, He Himself made this way manifest by His own resurrection,

^A reserving the habitation of the unbelievers for His own second, awesome coming; but the Lord did not merely hand them over as captives to the devil in prison, and then by great power call them back from the dead to life, as He did with Lazarus, and the widow’s son, and the archisynagogue’s daughter; but the Apostle also handed the fornicator in Corinth over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, he says, that the spirit might be saved. And afterward, he called him back once he had been improved through repentance, saying: "Confirm your love toward him," that we might not be outwitted by Satan. And Hymenaeus and Alexander, since they remained impenitent, he handed over to Satan to the end, just as he writes to Timothy, "that they might learn not to blaspheme." Moreover, he even restored Eutychus to life after he had been killed by a fall. You see, therefore, how your "strong" argument has lost its strength. ^B But enough of this for now. Now, come, I shall set before you clear and unmistakable testimonies from Holy Scripture, just as they exist in the sacred books, without any paraphrasing; by these, I invite you toward the light of truth. ^C

Divine Scriptural testimonies that support the discourse just recited.

From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, "You shall not swear falsely," etc.

Prosequi ur in codice biblicorum testimoniorum ingens farrago. — I. ex Matthæo f. 124 b. 126 b. — II. Ex Luca f. 126 b. 127 b. — III. Ex Joanne f. 127 b. — III. Ex Pauli Epistolis f. 127 b. 130 b. — IV. Ex Jacobi Epistola f. 130 b — V Ex Judæ Epistola f. 130 b, 131. — VI. Ex Actibus apostolorum f. 131-132. Nos tamen auctoritatum hanc nubem Manichæis olim refutandis fortasse necessarium, sed nobis minime, chartæ parcentes et operæ, omittendam censuimus.

OF THE SAME PETER SICULUS: SECOND SERMON

I. These things having been clearly and plainly explained by us, come now, let us proceed to the questions concerning our most holy, spotless Lady, the Mother of God truly and properly, and ever-virgin Mary—questions which are indeed not doubtful for us, but are called into controversy by the Manichaeans. For we believe her to be second only to God—I do not mean in time, but in glory—among all invisible and visible creatures. ^B But now, be present, as is your wont, O Queen of all, descending from heaven, spotless mirror of virginity, living image of purity, benign helper, always and everywhere ready to assist those who implore your aid, you who gave birth to God the Word incarnate, ineffably conceived within you. Grant to your unworthy servants to bring forth words with eloquent mouth, that we may splendidly reveal your dignity even to your enemies.

II. I will therefore omit the importunate and foolish blasphemies furiously cast against her by these scoundrels, because there would be no profit in dealing with such things. Meanwhile, however, I shall set forth the testimonies which they—these "illustrious" men—draw from the sacred Bible. "And Joseph," they say, "took his wife, and did not know her until she brought forth her firstborn Son" (Matt. 1:24. 25). ^C The word "until," they say, seems to denote a certain time, which in truth is indefinite, as though he knew her afterward; whereas if he did not in fact... ^D

^A know her, they would not be called brothers of the Lord—James, and Judas, and Joses, who were Joseph’s sons. Oh, what folly! Perhaps, using this line of reasoning, you would also suspect that the apostles and the rest of the crowds present in the temple at that time were born of the Theotokos, because the Lord, stretching out his hand toward them, said, "Behold my brothers; for whoever does the will of my Father, this one is my brother and sister and mother." Or, again, that the apostles and the crowds gave birth to the Lord in the manner of a mother, since he has called those who do his will his mother? For then he would have been born not from one, but from many, which is impossible. Moreover, when he said after the resurrection to Mary Magdalene, "Go to my brothers and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God," that he said this regarding the apostles and not Joseph’s sons, who were thought to be his brothers, is shown by what follows. For, it says, Mary Magdalene comes ^B reporting to the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her. Therefore, according to your argument, will you also conclude that the apostles are gods, having been born out of the Father’s substance, which is impossible? For of the Son, the Father is Father in the strict sense, but not God in the strict sense; but according to the flesh, he is God; and according to the identity of the divine substance, he is Father. But of the apostles, he is God in the strict sense, but not Father in the strict sense; he is God as the creating cause, but Father by grace. Hence, also, our Lord and God did not disdain to be called our brother, saying, "This one is my brother," clearly by grace, "whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven." But from the Theotokos’s most holy body, he alone established for himself a temple not made by hands, just as Paul says: "God sent his Son, born of a woman." And Matthew the evangelist says that "from her was born Jesus, who is called Christ."

III. Against the Phantastic

^A has not yet been clearly directed toward the Greek dialect, but speaks in a clipped, and, so to speak, inarticulate manner. They say, therefore: "We, for our part, say that it is nowhere written or believed that the Lord brought His body down from heaven." For if He had come from heaven, why is He called the son of David and Abraham and man, and why is it that He was born of the fathers according to the flesh? And many other such things can be found to be stated below, for greater reliability. ^B hinting at the two natures and the one hypostasis; we say it is indicative, but indefinite.

IV. But this must by all means be noted, that when the most brilliant sun of the world, the vessel of election, the inexhaustible sea of wisdom, was discoursing to the Corinthians—who were still struggling with disbelief because they had been led astray by alien teachers and not by sound doctrine—he said: "The first Adam is of the earth, earthy," leaving behind the inheritance of corruption and death to those born of him, insofar as he was the cause of the transgression. For he did not consist only of a body formed from the earth, but also of the divine breath by which his soul was created. "The second man is the Lord from heaven," inasmuch as He makes those who through water and the Spirit have become His own in baptism, heirs of eternal life and incorruptibility and of heavenly things, He being the master and author of obedience. ^C For He is not simply God, but incarnate; nor, on the other hand, is He a mere man, but hypostatically united. Therefore, as that one was earthy, so also are these earthy, provided they have not yet been changed for the better by baptism. And as that one is heavenly, so also are these heavenly, who have been reborn through regeneration by water and the Spirit. And "as we have borne the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of the heavenly"; just as we were born in the body, let us be reborn in the spirit. Then, concluding, he adds that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor shall corruption inherit incorruption." It is manifest that he who is born only in Adam, and is not reborn by water and the Spirit in Christ after this new commandment of His, cannot inherit the kingdom of God, according to the divine decree. And this is what the expression "the Lord from heaven" signifies, namely, that He has been for us the author of regeneration through water and the Spirit. ^D Perhaps you might rightly estimate that this also was said by divine condescension, since God, descending from heaven to men, conversed in a human manner, yet remained in His own glory and power, so that He might draw us, lying below, to Himself. For this reason He called Himself both man and Lord, implying by this twofold appellation two natures and one hypostasis. As for the word "until," we say that here it is not demonstrative of time, but indefinite.

V. And you, who say you expect only the world to come, while in the present you pertinaciously [give yourselves over] to pleasures and unbelief, will also know this well.

For the present age is the agent of the future, distributing to each one, whether of evil or of good actions, the recompense. But from where will you learn the meaning of the word "until"? Indeed, from the fact that the Lord said to His holy disciples: "And behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." What then? After the end of the world, will He not be with them? And what is the reason? For according to your opinion, He surely intends to be with them from that time, and not now; since you say that He holds authority over the future, and not over the present age and world. But Christ will be with them both up to that time and from then on, and they will be with Him, defined by no limit. And those who consult the other holy Scriptures will also know this, finding many other testimonies there; such as that which is said in Genesis, that the raven did not return to the ark ^B until the water had dried up from the face of the earth; although it did not return even after the waters were dried up; and "How long, O Lord, wilt Thou forget me? unto the end," for the time is not defined by this expression; and you will find ten thousand other such examples.

VI. Now I shall proceed to say what has come to my mind, I who have often spoken with them face to face; since they often trifled and prattled about the Ever-Virgin and Theotokos Mary. I used to say to them: I do not wonder, O you who blaspheme against her, that you also shamelessly and boldly insult with your deeds her Son, the true God—even if you pretend to honor Him with your words—who is infinitely above all glory and honor. For how is it not a manifest injury to deprive the Lord of glory of the power and lordship over His own creatures, through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing of things that exist was produced? For if you were to obey the evangelical and apostolic admonitions, and were to bow your rigid and arrogant neck to the easy yoke, to the end of acknowledging only Him, the truly existing God with the Father and the Spirit, nothing would hinder you from also confessing this woman as she is—glorified and super-blessed—not as God, but only as inferior to God, yet superior to all creatures. ^D But if you do not confess her Son to be the true God, how will you honor the Mother of His incarnation? For those who do not confess or honor God, how could they offer honor to her who is a human? And why, when your own mothers are dishonored by any people, do you stand up for them, and avenge those who insult them, and assert that they are absolutely chaste; but the Mother of God, whose soul and body the most abundant light of the Godhead has purified, and who on that account was unable to be touched by any human hand, the Ever-Virgin and ever-venerable, whom God for His own dwelling...

^A chose, and even in birth left closed, shining with the light of virginity brighter than the rays of the sun, do you shamelessly and boldly insult? Her, whom her Son and the God of all will surely avenge upon you! And from this your wickedness is manifest, since you not only proclaim your most perverse dogmas, but also rashly and most foolishly dishonor her whom even the powers of heaven have not been able to celebrate worthily.

VII. Another thing also must be considered. The kings of the earth, or the princes of the nations, or the rulers, or the free nobles are wont to have certain vessels which they ^B alone use, and which it is by no means permitted for the hands of their subordinates to touch, and which strike a certain fear even by their very sight alone. There are also some of their kinsmen who are to be honored by all the more highly, in as much as they are more nearly related to them by blood. But what is more genuine or closer than a mother? Yet if she is the Mother of God ^C unchangeably incarnate, and a new and wondrous mystery is accomplished through her, and it was something entirely new under the sun that a virgin should bear a son without the agency of a man, how worthy of admiration and reverence is that most holy and sacrosanct enclosure! If, therefore, we deem the inanimate vessels of mortal, corruptible, and sinful men worthy of such honor, and their mothers are inaccessible to all their subjects, and more honorable than all their kinsmen, how then could the most holy habitation of the Creator of all and the King of kings, the ensouled palace, the most holy throne, the mystical and holy royal chamber, have been approachable by the righteous Joseph—a faithful servant, I say, and one just to the God incarnate from her, as you, O triflers, blaspheme?

VIII. Many sterile women, indeed, the old man had heard of, as one versed in the law, who had conceived beyond the age, yet not without the work of a man; but that a virgin had given birth without seed, he had nowhere known. But because he was righteous, he was deemed worthy of a divine vision, by which he was warned not to fear to minister to this awesome prodigy. For if it had not been so, why, believing readily the angel who commanded him, did he immediately obey when he said: "Do not fear to take Mary ^D your wife"? For she was prudently called his wife for the time being, so that a veil might be spread over the mystery, which was to be manifested gradually, just as the sun is revealed to weak eyes little by little and not all at once; but after the divine birth, she was no longer called his wife by the angel, but the mother of the child. Hence it appears that the old man was in fear and anxious doubt, trembling to approach the wonder. For, he says, "That which is in her is of the Holy Spirit"—in her having been generated, not having entered from elsewhere. And again in another place the angel says to the Virgin: "And behold, you shall conceive in your womb and shall bring forth a Son, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father."

if He had not taken flesh from the Virgin, who was a daughter of David, He would surely not have called Him the Son of David. For David was of the lineage of Abraham and a descendant of Adam, not having obtained his body from heaven. And again: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you." Therefore, what will be born is holy, born specifically of her, not already in existence and introduced as an adventitious addition, as the unlearned claim.

^B IX. Furthermore, when would a just man, seeing the one betrothed to him pregnant, unless he had received assurance that what was happening was from the Holy Spirit, have endured to travel and accompany her, and to be registered, and to live with her? And how would he have consecrated and sanctified the Child who was born, according to the prescription of the Law, the One who is the Holy of Holies and the Giver of all hierarchy, existing in heaven and on earth? And how would he have led Him into flight, or rather, been led into flight with Him? And how would he have returned from that flight with Him and His mother from Egypt, and brought Him along with himself to Jerusalem for the feast days, and suffered when He remained behind — not, God forbid, as though He were a wandering child, but because he was deprived, even for a short time, of such joy and glory? And he who had seen such fearful and wondrous things, when could he have even conceived of relations, or dared to think such a thing regarding the Ever-Virgin, being as he was the most obedient and just among the servants of God? Or when would God the Word have tolerated that the one who was His mother according to the flesh should become a nurse to other children? Or when would the all-holy Virgin, who in soul and flesh was purified beyond the heavenly powers, have tolerated — I shudder to even say it — such a thing? For there are many women among us Christians, the servants of Christ and of His holy Mother, who have been instructed by her in the safest preservation of purity and virginity, who, having become mothers of one child, do not admit the union of another man. And there are others who remain entirely untouched by any male union, contact, or company. Although the splendor of the Mother of God exceeds all visible and invisible things, except God alone, being more glorious and extraordinary; and not only women, but also countless men have been and are such virgins. If, therefore, ^C vile and useless servants are deemed worthy of such gifts, how could the very source of gifts and divine graces, existing in the name of her Son, our Lord and God Jesus Christ, who is one of the Holy Trinity, have been devoid

^A of such a very personal and exceptional gift, which befitted her and her alone, and no other, namely, to bring forth from herself without seed the King, the Lord? And for this reason, that which is unapproachable, which inspires fear even when merely contemplated, that holy and terrifying living vessel, might be the highest kinship of his precious and holy incarnation from her, as he alone knows.

X. ^B Observe also this: that before the divine birth, the angel says to Joseph: "Do not fear to take Mary your wife." He calls her his wife, so that he might not suspect that the Virgin had been harmed. But after the saving birth, he no longer called her his wife, since the old man had been sufficiently confirmed by the miracles that happened at that time that the matter was divine and not human—I mean the arrival of the Magi, the hymnody of the angels, the strange and unusual course of the star, the standing of the shepherds, and before these, the painless delivery. But what does he say? "Arise, take the child, and his mother, and flee into Egypt." ^C And again: "Arise," he says, "take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel." In what scripture have you ever found it said that she also gave birth to another child at some time? Unless, perchance, you are pouring out, from your impure mouths and in vain, the trifles of your great depravity and stupidity against the Ever-Virgin and Theotokos Mary, barking like dogs.

XI. Regarding the sons of Joseph the elder, who were born to him before the coming of Christ, who is a more trustworthy witness than those saints themselves, who confess themselves to be his servants and not his brothers? One of them says: "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ," clearly not his brother. And the other: "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ," and he did not say "brother." ^D And he immediately adds: "brother of James," as if correcting the erroneous opinion of many, and publicly announcing to all who are willing to hear: "I am a servant, O men, of the Lord Jesus Christ." Why do you call me his brother, at whose awesome birth even the heavenly powers were astonished, not being able to explain the mystery of the divine dispensation? Even if, in his humanity, he accepted hearing all things, yielding to our weaknesses; for he did not even take offense at being called the son of Joseph, although he was not his son, and he was not angered when he was called a carpenter in mockery by the lying Jews. And he did not become enraged at us who were born to Joseph before his coming—James, I mean, and Joses, and Simon, and I myself, Jude—when we were driven away because of our former unbelief, knowing the fragility of

^A human weakness, we spoke to him, as we were still young in bodily age, and on that account were jealous of him, because, as the evangelist says, our hearts were still hardened. And they said to him, "Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see thy works that thou doest" —disbelieving him because they were in an imperfect state, and not yet having been baptized by the Holy Spirit.

Being, however, counted worthy of the divine manifestation of the Holy Spirit, as the promise of Him who does not lie says, we now write as perfect men to you who are perfect, to all who dwell under heaven, that we are servants of the Lord, not brothers. I, in fact, and James, are brothers to one another. ^B Perhaps, moreover, it was for this very reason that the Lord, not ignorant of the future, did not commit the Ever-Virgin and Theotokos, while hanging on the cross, to any one of these, but to the Theologian and disciple John, the son of Zebedee, so that he might completely turn the deceivers away from their erroneous opinion. For if this were not the case, how could it be permitted that the Ever-Virgin, abandoning her sons, as you say, should dwell with another? But just as this virgin and theologian was called a brother by the Lord, so also those others, by way of the ^C economy, were called brothers—not by the Lord, but by the crowds; for you will nowhere find the Lord calling these his brothers, unless the apostles and the crowds were those who named them so; for this is what the "economy" entails. But so much for these things.

From here I shall begin the sacred testimonies, which demonstrate that the Theotokos was born from the seed of Abraham and David, and that our Lord Jesus Christ was born from her, and did not derive his body from elsewhere.

Testimonies of the Divine Scripture that support the discourse just recited.

From the Gospel according to Matthew. "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ," etc. ^D

Sequuntur in codice a f. 139. b. ad f. 141, testimonia ex Genesi, Evangeliis, Lucæ et Joannis; Pauli apostoli Epistolis ad Romanos, ad Galatas et ad Timotheum.

[Regarding the final marginal note:] ...gentes. Nos autem, sicut in libro, quem contra Helvidium scripsimus, continetur, fratres Domini, non filios Joseph, sed consobrinos Salvatoris, intelligimus, etc. Atque hos vulgo pie jam creditur in tota Ecclesia.

OF THE SAME PETER SICULUS: THIRD DISCOURSE

Against the same Paulicians who say that the Lord at the supper did not truly offer bread and wine to His disciples, but spoke parabolically, "Take, eat," thereby denoting His own words. Nor, they say, is it handed down that He ever did this.

^A I. Behold, to the two aforementioned [discourses] let us add this third, a meditation concerning the tremendous and divine initiation of the holy mysteries, which occurred between the nativity of the Lord and His crucifixion. Now, that this institution is evident, just like the holy baptism of water and the Holy Spirit by which all Christians are baptized, and which cannot be slandered by them on account of its most simple demonstration in the divine Scripture, is known clearly to all. Nevertheless, in this matter also, these wicked men attempt to deceive the simpler ones, saying that such a liturgy ought not to be performed, nor should one participate in the sacred nourishment of the precious Body and Blood of our Lord and God, while providing absolutely no reason, on account of the ^B unambiguous testimony of the evangelical and apostolic evidence; but saying only that it was spoken symbolically by the Lord: "Take, eat, and drink ye all of it," as if implying merely His own words, since in reality there was no bread and wine there. This fiction the envious devil perhaps devised for them, so that they might not be illuminated by the light of the divine communion. Certainly, this is now not permitted to them, since they are not perfected by divine baptism, nor confirmed in the orthodox faith. For the divine communion is partaken of by the perfect and faithful; but to the imperfect, and those not sealed, and the faithless, it is altogether inaccessible and incommunicable, because they choose to be blind to the truth. For everyone who does evil, as the holy oracle says, hates the light; and ^C therefore they do not come to the light, lest their works should be exposed.

II. We, therefore, believe that there is one and the same God

we believe in the omnipotent command, at the creation of the world by Him, saying: ^A *Let the earth sprout with vegetation of grass, yielding seed according to its kind and likeness.* And even now, obeying the divine command, it brings forth all plants annually and without fail. But at the sacred supper, when the Lord gave the holy apostles bread and wine in truth, and said, *Take, eat [this is my body], and drink from it, all of you; this is my blood, that of the new covenant, which is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins; do this in remembrance of me*; even now and still the same commandment is preserved, fulfilled by the sacred ministry of the servants; with the bread placed visibly, but the most holy Spirit coming down invisibly, and sanctifying the things set forth; and not as antitypes, ^B but as the very most holy body and precious blood of our Lord and God being brought into effect, from which we also, the sinners, are sanctified, partaking for the forgiveness of sins.

III. Let us also write down the sacred expressions regarding this matter, as they lie in the sacred volumes, content with the most simple and constant tenor of their words for the authoritative definition of the present controversy. For who is more trustworthy than God? And after Him, who else besides those who were His eyewitnesses and ministers—I mean the evangelists and apostles—demands greater confidence from us? Truly no one. Their word, their life, and their miracles—which are indubitable among all, liable to no reproach, and which demonstrate them to have been true servants of God and witnesses—are witnesses. Therefore, let us now hear them speaking.

Testimonies of the Divine Scripture, which support the stated discourse. From the Gospel according to Matthew. *The disciples did as Jesus had commanded them, and prepared the Passover, etc.*

In this page 142b the third sermon ends abruptly, or rather the testimonies confirming it, which certainly were requested after Matthew from Mark and Luke and Paul where they speak of the most holy Eucharist. In the remaining lost quaternions of the work, three later books have perished, which the author promised in the history p. 15-16, namely on the cult of the holy cross, on the authority of the Old Testament, and on ecclesiastical hierarchy. One might hope for a fuller copy of the work more than expect it. But before I cease speaking about this work, I cannot help but wonder at Johann Christoph Wolf, who in his preface to *Anecdota Graeca* vol. II, makes our Peter Siculus a Constantinopolitan, a holy wonder-worker, and bishop of the Argives, citing Bollandus vol. II of February, p. 610 (whereas he should have cited vol. I of May, p. 428). But in reality, Peter Siculus and Peter of Argos have nothing in common, neither age, nor homeland, nor miracles, nor finally their profession of life.

MONITUM

[This is the first page of the translation.]

PETRI ARGORUM EPISCOPI.

I, a reader of the Greek tongue and keeper of the language of the Pharos at the library of this Great and Royal Monastery of our Most Holy Savior of Messina, with the approval of the Most Reverend Father in Theology, Basilius of Naples, abbot of the same monastery, have transcribed from codex XLII of the said library, and rendered into Latin, the preceding oration of our Holy Father Peter, Bishop of Argos, on the Conception of St. Anne, when she conceived the Holy Mother of God. This codex is whole, vellum, in folio major, marked with the Greek number MB, that is, XLII, covered with boards wrapped in light-colored leather on the back, and inscribed on the exterior thus: MET, namely *Metaphrastes*. As for the one who wrote it, he calls himself Daniel.

This whole work is contained in two volumes of roughly the same size and script; and in them you will find various readings for the year, whether orations or histories of the saints. In the first volume, therefore, which presents the festivals from the Kalends of September to the Nones of April, on the fifth of the Ides of December is the said Oration of our Holy Father Peter, Bishop of Argos, comprising nearly eleven columns: it begins from the last ten lines of the final column of the quaternary up to line 30 of the column of the following quaternary. Each column concludes with mostly [blank] lines. This codex was written in the year 6816 from the Creation of the World (as Greek calligraphers calculate, that is, in the year of our Lord’s Incarnation 1308). For at the end of the codex, this note is read:

« Explicit is this Panegyrical book by the hand of the sinner Daniel, and Scevophylax of the Great Monastery of the Savior of the promontory of Messina, the fourth of the Nones of September, on a Saturday, at the 9th hour, in the year 6816, in the sixth indiction. Pray for me, and do not curse me, for he who writes, errs in writing. »

In witness whereof, etc. The day before the Nones of February, Anno Domini 1744.

BENEDICTUS MONALDINIUS HIEROMONACHUS. *Locus + Sigilli.* It is so, ABBAS BASILIUS OF NAPLES.

ORATION OF PETER, BISHOP OF ARGOS.

^A Oration of our Holy Father Peter, Bishop of Argos, on the Conception of Saint Anne, when she conceived the holy Mother of God. Bless, Father.

1. Seeing great and strange things, and portents running before the greatest of portents, I am seized with great joy of heart and rapture in admiration, and I marvel, struck with astonishment, at the bowels of mercy of the Master toward us and His divine providence, which is greater than any thought. For today the signs of our reconciliation with God are seen to be opened. Today our nature, once rejected, now beholds the first fruits of its restoration and rejoices. Today our first parents, as the decree that had been issued, that man should return to the earth [Gen. III, 19] was about to be undone, hearing this resound in their ears, ^B smooth their brows; and as they become assured that now, in a barren field, that most fragrant rose is being planted, which will perfume everything under the sun with its scent and drive away the stench of transgression, they double their joy and gladness. All creatures, as they see the foundations of the most pure temple of the King of all, Christ, being laid, dance with joy, clap their hands, and praise God, the author of all good things, with thanksgiving. Now the divine paradise is being planted in a dry womb, drawing us who were exiled from the first and condemned to death, toward life, through the life-bearing plant that is to sprout from it; now, in the spiritual spring…

the scents breathe forth and herald his arrival. Now the crocus and lilies bloom along with the nard, and with their most sweet appearance which they present, they raise up and delight us, who are squalid with the shame of sin. The winter, full of sadness, has already passed with the night of sin, and the most graceful spring has approached, bringing with itself the heat of the divine Spirit with the day of piety. ^B

II. Let us all therefore exult and psalmically shout aloud, seeing the first plantation of our nature beginning to be sown in the womb of Anna; let us clap our hands and constitute spiritual dances, celebrating the Conception of her who is about to become the cause of all gladness for us and the conciliatrix of ineffable joy. Let us sing concordantly to our God, let us sing; inasmuch as through Anna and Joachim we are surely gifted with the immaculate Lady and Virgin, who shall liberate us, pressed by the servitude of sin, into freedom. And let us therefore, as if rapt into ecstasy by stupor, cry out with divine David: *How magnified are thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast thou made them all!* For who shall be able to speak of his mighty acts? Or whose breadth of heart shall be able to measure the abyss of his unsearchable judgments? ^C We who have stumbled are released from condemnation; we who yielded to the prince of evil, the demon, who through the serpent suggested wicked counsels, are received back by the Lord who fashioned us and from whom we had been led astray; we who willingly cast his yoke from our neck and, having made a surrender, passed over to the side of the enemy, are again subjected to his sweet yoke through the bowels of his mercy; we who had burdened ourselves with the insupportable loads of sins are now called to refreshment. The origin and cause of all these good things is the present solemnity, which, like some morning star of the sun, rises before all other things and through itself announces all of them.

Ⅲ. For Joachim, one of the foremost men, and having a great name among the Hebrews, tracing his descent from the Davidic tribe, acquired as a wife Anna, who held her name from divine grace and drew her origin from the same lineage (for it was not lawful among them for marriages to be joined from a different tribe). And indeed, both of them practicing virtue with common mind and equal spirit, not less than one another, they easily surpassed all the men of that time in this regard, to an extent that cannot be expressed in words; and the things that followed after the birth will provide clear proof of this. For alone of all others they were deemed worthy to serve such a mystery, such that they became the progenitors of the Mother of God, and ancestors of God himself according to his earthly birth. ^D But yet, although they were such great people even beforehand, childless they were growing old in life, and they bore the sorrow arising from this throughout all, as those among...

whom the main ^A point of those goods promised by God was lacking.

IV. But when the great day had arrived for them—I believe this to be the Feast of Tabernacles, which was celebrated in the month of Gorpiaeus, that is, September—it was fitting that all from every tribe, according to the Law, should gather in Jerusalem. Because the law commanded this three times a year—at this feast, at the fourteenth of the first month, and at Pentecost, which is why these feasts were called "great"—all, as they were able, came to that divine and renowned temple, each offering gifts to God according to his means. For God Himself had legislated for them, "You shall not appear before Me empty 6," thus turning away danger, lest anyone, ^B by offering honor or anything else to the gods of the nations, who are nothing in reality, as if to the true God, instead consecrate them to Himself. For otherwise God, who created all things from non-existence, is not in need of our goods; but as He is the source of all goodness, He provides for this through them, caring for our salvation.

Since all, therefore, as I said, were offering their gifts to God from each tribe, there was present also that divine pair, Joachim, I say, and Anna, the foundation of the legal religion and the glory of the evangelical philosophy, the most noble hallmark ^C of the tribe of Judah, and the most illustrious boast of the generation of Christ, the Lord of all, according to the flesh, as its beginning and root, the most sacred ornament of David, and the most splendid token of the salvation of us all. They were present, not like others holding their necks high, nor insolently lifting their eyebrows, especially after the example of Reuben, who both boasted against the others and arrogantly compared the gifts of these men; but quietly and silently, and offering to God—who does not despise it—a heart that is contrite and humbled, rather than sensible things.

V. But with an impudent face, Reuben runs into them, and he dares to reproach them as childless, and rejects their offered gifts, as if they were unworthy of God. ^D What is this that you are doing, O Reuben? Why do you, who are the cause of many bitter things, boldly dare to write charges against those who are innocent and blameless? Who is held accountable for things for which he is not tasked to perform? Who has ever been able to resist God when He commands, and dares to kick against the goad? Where have you heard that God turns away from the childless? Did He not accept the gifts of Abel, who was childless when he offered them? Did He not bless Abraham and Sarah, even though they were childless? Did He not, in the end, heed Anna, who was praying in opposition to Peninnah, even while she was childless? And the great Elias, and Elisha—when did they bring forth children? Yet He heeded them as they prayed, and He glorified the sacrifices offered by them with infinite miracles. Or will you not even acknowledge that Zechariah is to be accepted as offering, and for this reason becoming high priest, and receiving the gifts of others, and before the Lord...

^A to be accepted as offering, and for this reason becoming high priest, and receiving the gifts of others, and dedicating them to the Lord? It is clear, however, that it is for the priest to judge such matters; it is not for you, who have violated the paternal bed. Moses gave this dignity to Levi, not to you; or rather, through him, God gave it.

VI. How is it that you do not altogether shudder to rise up against the priestly and royal race? For when the patriarch was blessing you, or predicting the things that were to happen to you, did he announce that he would praise you and your brothers, and proclaim that you would defeat all your enemies? He assigned this dignity to Judah, but he bitterly branded your own conduct and declared that you would be inferior to the other tribes. From him, moreover, he foretold that the mystery hidden until the last days would shine forth—namely, the expectation of the nations, our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, he even foretold the time when the great Sun of righteousness would appear to us sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, saying: "There shall not fail a prince from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he comes to whom it is reserved, and he is the expectation of the nations." He also foretold his passion, which has furnished all with impassibility, and his death, which has destroyed death and procured immortality: "He lay down," he says, "and slept as a lion; who shall wake him?" And "He shall wash his robe in wine, and his mantle in the blood of the grape." Then, regarding the most graceful resurrection: "His eyes are joyful beyond wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk." And ^C again, regarding the most effective power of his preaching: "Binding his foal to the vine," preparing the nations to follow the preaching of the apostles, and "his ass to the tendril of the vine." For the divine ministers did not act as dispensers of the saving message only to the nations, but also to the Jews, and indeed to them first.

VII. What, then? Do those God-favored and holy spouses, I mean Anna and Joachim, set their own reasonable arguments against the arrogance of their slanderer, and do they strive to prove themselves better than he, having many reasonable points that contribute to this? By no means. Instead, they are pierced through in their hearts by sharp and most bitter sorrows, not so much because of the rebuke, but because their offered gifts had not been accepted, and thus, as it appeared, they were rejected even by God. Nevertheless, with a tranquil and gentle groan and with tears, they return home. For the will of Christ, their kinsman according to the flesh, was already shining within their minds; He who, "when he was reviled, did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten"—of whom they had heard earlier through the prophet Isaiah crying out: "Upon whom shall I look?"

if not upon the meek and quiet and him who trembles at my words?"

^B VIII. When they had returned home, they turned themselves entirely to God, and putting aside all other wishes, they begged of him this one thing alone, that he might grace them with offspring; bringing to his memory how great were the wonders he had wrought from the beginning; how, having taken away sterility, he had made fathers of children; how many, whom all had despaired of because they had reached extreme old age, he himself had shown to be fruitful, so that he thus transported them from a burdensome and sad condition to a life of full joy and most pleasant delight.

IX. In this manner, night and day, they insisted with prayers, fasting, and every good work before God, who does not despise the vows of the just; and they added that, if they obtained their wish, they would offer to God, who grants the gift, whatever they might receive. God heard them—he who fulfills the will of those who fear him, and is near to those who call upon him in truth. And truly, he does not just make them parents, but shows them to be superior to all other parents. For as this daughter of theirs surpassed all other children incomparably, by so much are these shown to be superior to all other parents. Truly, since we were shown mercy by God taking flesh, condemned to death and corruption on account of sin, and there was need for one who was to minister to such a great work to be superior to all men in purity, as one who was to be—O miracle!—the Mother of God; it was entirely necessary that the parents of this Mother of God should also be superior to all other parents, as the great-grandparents of the God who was to be born of her. For it was not permitted that any others should be her parents, nor that she should be called the daughter of any others than them.

^C X. On this account, the whole of creation rejoices today, and our nature raises its voice of praise and thanksgiving to God, saying: "I give thanks to you, O Master, that you have stirred me, who was sterile and incapable of childbearing, to produce offspring; that you have begun to clear away the thorns of condemnation, for whose growth I had been doomed, and have prepared me for the cultivation of plants through the divine Anna and Joachim. I thank you who chastened me, and who today again receive me. What shall I render to you, who condemned me to bring forth in pain because of the transgression, and then again proclaim to me the glad tidings of joy through a birth? Now, the rose brought forth from me, Mary, I say, within the womb of Anna, takes away the stench of my corruption from the midst, and bestowing her own fragrance, makes me a participant in divine exultation. Through a woman I was miserable until now; through a woman I have just now become blessed. For I see the things foretold by your prophets concerning you beginning to be accomplished, and I expect that I shall soon see their completed end."

^A XI. Now that Virgin who, according to the oracle of Isaiah, will have you, Emmanuel, in her womb and will bear you, is planted in the bosom of the barren earth (Anna); and the light cloud is formed, and the rod takes root, upon which I shall be supported. Now the gate that, according to the oracle of Ezekiel, faces the east, and is kept for you alone for an entry, is being prepared. Now the mountain foreseen by Daniel increases, from which you, the stone cut without hands, having removed from the midst all kingdoms that opposed you, will manifest your eternal kingdom to all. Today that mountain, in which you will be pleased, according to David’s prophecy, to dwell, is lifted up in the womb of Anna, and shows the Davidic tribe increasing before all. Today, according to the great patriarch, the ladder from the earth to heaven is fixed, by which, having descended, you will be united to me, and you will raise me, who had fallen, to the paternal throne.

^B XII. Rejoice with me today, you also, O ancestors of the barren Anna and the great Joachim. Your restoration has now drawn near; your redemption is being put into action; she who by her own birth will snatch you from your long condemnation is being created. Rejoice, all you just ones; rejoice, all you patriarchs and prophets; the flower of our race has sprung up; the outcome of your predictions has drawn near; the appointed times of the promises have been fulfilled. The things promised to you from God in many ways and in many forms have arrived at their end. The things expected are no longer contained in mere hope, but are placed nearby, as if seen with the very eyes. Now the heavenly multitude of the holy angels also rejoices, for they are very philanthropic, imitating their own Master. For if they rejoice over one sinner who repents, how shall they not rejoice seeing the beginnings of our common restoration? How will they not exult, seeing ^C the most pure palace of the Master and King of all, Christ, being prepared? How, seeing the fence now broken down, and the things that were separated coming together into one, and all becoming the one flock of Christ, will they not be filled with gladness and joy beyond what can be said or thought?

^D XIII. Rejoice also, you who are a truly admirable couple, who have been the authors of joy for all today. Rejoice, Anna, whose name carries forth heavenly grace; rejoice, O barren one, who have far surpassed the whole race in fruitfulness. Rejoice, dry land, yet you who have irrigated the very paradise of God. Rejoice, you who, though childless because of your barrenness, have nonetheless now at last brought forth the Mother of God. Rejoice, you who have conceived in your womb her who was to conceive him who holds the universe in his palm. Rejoice, you who have contained in your womb her who is broader than heaven and earth. Rejoice, you who are exalted above all mothers, apart from your daughter; for she alone prevents you from holding the foremost place among them all. Rejoice, you who...

have laid aside the burden of old age and the sorrow of sterility through your childbirth, and have put on a new robe, divinely woven, through your giving birth.

XIV. Rejoice, you also, Joachim, the exultation of all ^A the righteous, and the singular glory of the fathers. Rejoice, begetter of the Mother of God, and most august grandfather of God Himself. Rejoice, you who were deemed worthy to embrace in your arms her who embraced in her own arms Him who is in no way containable by any being, namely God. Rejoice, you who were raised to equality of honor with the angels through your daughter. Rejoice, you who excel all ^B fathers on earth. Rejoice, you who through persistent prayer to God obtained a child who, with the sole exception of her own Son and God, excelled all offspring. Rejoice, you who were most righteous according to the Law, and most holy through grace, as you also provided the beginnings of this grace through your daughter.

You were more excellent than the great Abraham and Sarah in begetting, just as your offspring merited a more excellent honor than Isaac. You were ^C incomparably more eminent than Rebecca and her spouse, not only in the excellence of your offspring but in all other respects; for neither can their son (Jacob)—not to mention him who was notorious for his wickedness (Esau)—come into comparison with the Mother of God. You also surpassed Jacob, who was blessed with many children by Leah and Rachel, to a degree that cannot be spoken. You were far more sublime than Peninnah and Elkanah, and than your own kinsmen Zechariah and Elizabeth, inasmuch as you brought into the light her who gave birth ^D to the Lord of all.

XV. But you, O most holy parents of the Theotokos and progenitors of God, O most sweet consolation of our nature, O most sacred and august first-fruits of the law and of grace, grant to us all a peaceful condition of affairs! Place a bridle upon the ferocity of the nations; cause their neck, raised high, to stoop; humble their haughty countenance, and blunt the sword which they sharpen against us. Entreat Christ ^A to lift His hands against their pride, and suffer us not to be ravaged by their nefarious and bloodstained hand like grass. Let not the raging barbarian rush upon us, aiming his shields and sword and bows and spears; nor let our enemies rejoice over us any longer. Contemplate how many and what kind of men they have miserably pierced with their spears. Contemplate how, having poured out the blood of countless numbers, they have left them unburied as food for the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air, and have cast them out to the sun and the stars, and to the winter and the summer, and have provided for the men who remain a wretched spectacle, worthy of poured-out tears.

But arise, hasten: rouse your daughter and Mother of God to supplicate for us (for she will not despise parents who pray), and together make intercession before her Son and God, and your own descendant according to the flesh. For we know certainly that she will not reject the prayers of her Mother and forefathers, but will hear us and save us from the visible and invisible enemies who, inflamed with a wicked hatred, insult us most bitterly; and she shall preserve the remainder of our life hereafter safe, peaceful, and free from disturbance. For He Himself is the God of mercy and loving-kindness, and to Him is due all glory, honor, and worship, with His beginningless Father, and with His all-holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

NOTICE CONCERNING THE FOLLOWING ORATION

Methone, a most illustrious city of the Messenians in the Peloponnese, had in the ninth Christian century a bishop remarkable for his holiness, Athanasius. He, born in Catania in Sicily—which island was occupied by the Saracens in the reign of the Emperor Michael Balbus, around the year of Christ 827—fled to the Peloponnese as an adolescent with his parents. Regarding him, our Octavius Cajetanus writes as follows in the *Idea operis de SS. Siciliae* (July): "The commemoration of St. Athanasius of Catania, bishop of Methone and confessor, at Catania." Ferrarius follows Cajetanus, and they record him on no other day. Our Francesco Blanditius informed us that his birthday is observed at Catania on the day before the Kalends of February; he also transmitted to us his Life, written by Peter Siculus, Bishop of Argos, translated into Latin by himself from the manuscript codices of the great monastery of the Holy Savior of the Order of Saint Basil at Messina. He noted that this appears to be the same Peter Siculus who, in the year 868 of Christ, in the reign of Basil the Macedonian, was sent as an envoy to the city of Tephrike in Armenia for an exchange of captives, and, having stayed there for nine months, wrote a book on the errors of the Manichaeans, which he learned there—a work translated into Latin by our Matthias Raderus, which stands in vol. IX of the *Bibliotheca Patrum*. Baronius mentions this Peter at the year 870, no. 62. We have distributed this Life into chapters, according to our custom.

THE FUNERAL ORATION OF PETER SICULUS, BISHOP OF ARGOS, ON ST. ATHANASIUS, BISHOP OF METHONE.

CAP. I. — Exordium and Proposition.

for vice will be banished, and, being viewed as utterly despicable when compared with virtue, it will give way, just as nocturnal darkness gives way to the splendors of the day. For this reason, Christ the Lord himself, the restorer of human nature and its most diligent guide, refers those men (as they clearly proclaim the Gospel) to the album of the blessed. Wherefore, we who strive to imitate Christ himself must, as far as a man is able, follow them with praises, as members worthy of such a head, and images worthy of such a prototype; and we must offer our praise, as a small gift, to a mind however needy, and consider our oration as a testimonial.

2. But, moved by these causes, I fear that I may incur the charge of audacity while I desire to praise Athanasius, who bore a name synonymous with immortality. Yet, since such a man is so great, it is by no means proper, with lips pressed shut, to hide in silence his many good qualities and the benefit that could be derived from him, lest I appear very similar to him who, out of vain fears, badly hid the talent entrusted to him in the ground. Moreover, another, polished in the industry of rhetoric, who did not wish to contain himself within the bounds of eulogies, might be able to celebrate this most famous man according to his dignity with these praises that I shall subjoin. Wherefore, he would speak of the light of his life and the splendor of his birth, of his excellent physical constitution, of the flowery and pure sweetness of his speech, and, above all, affecting brevity in the manner of the wise, of the degrees of his stations and similar advantages: so that, by enumerating these things, as if by first scattering such delights, he might win favor for himself among the audience. But for us, who, just as we have deliberately passed over many other illustrious things in his life, also pass over these, since only simple and sincere truth smiles upon us, and great deeds—which lend credibility to our oration—are pleasant to the heart, let there be an excuse in whatever way it may be given; for we know well that even for those who have exercised themselves in speaking of and hearing of the whole course of his life, it is not easy to attain in words the dignity of him who is proposed to us for praise. But truly, fearing the accusation of contumacy and the penalty proportional to it, while also fleeing from the humility of arrogance—which might either creep in or be thought to be nurtured within me—I must be entirely pardoned if I attempt anything beyond my strength: for we are commanded not only to the rich, but also to the needy, to distribute to those who ask, since in turn the rewards of the great dignities and labors are not conferred by the rewarder God from a salary, but for a ready will. Therefore, trusting in His power, who provides eloquence at the first opening of the mouth, I have approached, in compliance with my duty, to embrace in an oration the solid praises of this illustrious and divine man, who also invites me.

Chapter II. The birth, exile, and monastic life of Saint Athanasius.

3. Therefore, the fatherland—which is now to be praised by me—of the blessed Father Athanasius, primarily and truly, is that heavenly one where he had been inscribed from eternity along with the saints, and from his tender youth he did not fall away from that election: but the other fatherland, being as far removed from the first as the darkness of shadows is from the light of truth, and from the vain false images of things, is indeed Catana, a famous city in Sicily, excelling among the first. Therefore, if in the present instance I wished to recount all its excellences—its location, beauty, size, the temperateness of the air, the most wholesome nature of the waters, the forests of huge fruit-bearing and sterile trees, the multitude of men illustrious in wisdom, prudence, fortitude, and justice—I would digress inopportunely from my undertaking: just as the most renowned Virgin Agatha, the martyr, who was both born, raised, and suffered tortures in that city for Christ, and who considered it a welcome and acceptable place for the sacred relics of her body to rest: these, indeed, the fiery torrents flowing down from the overhanging Aetna revered with awe, contrary to all expectation; nay more (just as in ancient times that pious and God-pleasing burden, that is, the parents worn out by old age, were borne on the shoulders of their sons, Amphinomus, I say, and Anapias), they were ordered to retreat with grateful spirits. Concerning Aetna itself, which belches fire and sulfuric smoke and stench, exhaling pitch-black flames and thick darkness from its highest craters, and also producing horrendous and very immoderate thunders and roars (for an admirable examination of these will be permitted), if we wished to hold the oration, we would seem to depart from our design. And indeed, if he—who is now praised by us, Athanasius—inflamed with love for another fatherland, despised this mortal life as an exile, and therefore attained a blessed end, where our first home and the dwelling place of all who rejoice is found...

And how is it possible that a man who judged it best to despise that life should now be pleased by the praises derived from it?

4. Thus, like a rising morning star, he proclaimed his parents, from his earliest childhood, to be truly religious and friends of God, since they piously offered their son to Christ and produced the first fruit, and through the whole course of his life Athanasius was nurtured in the best way for service to God. But what is the point of recounting their individual noble deeds, when, from the fruit, we can properly learn to admire the tree? For indeed, the tall and generous strength of their spirit was declared by the temptations that vehemently arose against them—not as stormy tempests and hailstorms, but as things that could not in the least shake it. For just as a furnace proves gold, while winds, rains, hailstorms, and torrents prove the foundations of a house, so do sudden calamities reveal whether a soul is firm and fortified, or weak and withered. The barbarian race of Ishmaelites and Hagarenes, by whom (so, because of our sins) the island of Sicily was devastated, acting as an executioner demanding penalties from us for our transgressions (insofar as we did not obey God as a Father, nor incline our necks easily to Him as He beckoned), plundered and laid waste to many cities; it slew the citizens along with their neighbors, some with a most bitter type of death—by sword or by famine—and smothered others by submerging them in the sea; it condemned others to most grievous torments and chains, and forced others to flee in a wretched manner far from their nourishing land to wander through foreign nations.

5. Athanasius’s parents, together with their son, having bid farewell to their domestic affairs (for they could not look on with dry eyes as the flock of Christ, the holy nation and royal priesthood, was being badly treated by the impious, and as these impious ones looked down on us with pride and mocked our calamities, in order to wipe out the perfect Christian people by a broken treaty and so that no memory of it would remain), migrated ^A to the ancient city of Patras in the Peloponnese, where, long ago, Andrew, who had been the first to be called to the apostolate (he who called to Christ his brother by blood Peter, already the future prince of that blessed phalanx, who had previously been called), after a long course of evangelical preaching, attained the most blessed end of his life by being put on a cross, having imitated the Lord Himself in death, as he had also in all other things. For Athanasius’s parents had heard that divine oracle of the patriarch Abraham, which commanded those who had left their fatherland, their own house, and their kindred, to migrate to that place. But what of these things? ^B Were there any, because of some hesitation or the vice of an ungrateful spirit, who were stricken or murmured against divine judgments, asking why, when they were not enduring what their previous conduct in their whole life merited, they were suffering unworthy things? By no means; rather, they followed that one thing which they judged to be sole pleasing to God, even from those things that are not in our power.

6. Their son, however, who derived his name from immortality, having a heart burning with the fire of divine love, was almost unmindful of the hardships by which he was besieged, and pressed on to more glorious deeds. For the firm and stable mind of Athanasius, purged of all the filth of perturbations, did not cast its eyes toward the treasure of virtues already gathered, but toward those that remained. He also strove to execute within himself that which he would forget the things behind, according to the mind of the great Apostle Paul, and never ceased to aspire to those things which were set before his eyes; and even though he was still wrapped in earthly dust and wandering through earthly things, he strove to fly up to heaven. Therefore, he subjects his neck to the monastic yoke, which, when it frees one fromworldly noise and the untimely vortices of business, has also been accustomed to lead its candidates into a life freed from all things and tranquil, just like a harbor safe from all sides. And so, having said farewell to all perishable things and to his parents themselves, so that, with no supervisors, he might converse with God alone, and by constantly lingering with Him, become a participant of divine love, he devoted himself to contemplation, and because the Lord Himself is God, he took more than second place among those who devoted themselves to this life, even though he was but a youth in age. For besides his ascetic exercises, he abhorred worldly business and at the same time gave himself to the most pleasant work of God with those who lived in the deserts. For this laborious way of life, to bear the yoke from one’s first youth and to live through the solitudes—it is amazing how much he desired it!

CHAPTER III. Governance of the monastery. — Episcopacy.

7. Therefore, since he was long seeking a way of life and a struggle ^C not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and against spiritual wickedness, he who was the Prelate of the monks there (for he was brave and vigorous, and according to the rule of the monastic law he would descend into the arena, and hastened to attain the prize of the heavenly calling with all speed and merit) appointed Athanasius over the college of monks. Although he refused, so that no anxiety about others might distract his thought from the highest contemplation, he nevertheless conferred the prefecture upon him. For it was not right that a probity ^D long established and well-regarded should languish, idle and in…

munificent fashion towards those who had need, and not be shared. For whoever keeps the supply of perishable riches for himself in restricted greed, and does not distribute it to the needy—just as a fountain refusing to draw forth waters for the thirsty, or the earth hiding treasures in its own secret shrines—is no less blameworthy than he who hides spiritual riches within himself and does not impart them to others; since each one has received the freely given charisms of God not so much for himself as for others. And therefore Christ the Lord said: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." ^A

8. When he perceived that greater accessions of heavenly riches were being made, which were enough and more than enough to enrich many, and that a radiance suitable to illustrate those he was joining to himself [was available], after all the grades of ecclesiastical honors had been duly traversed without any contention, he decided to raise him to the highest summit of archiepiscopal dignity, so that from a higher watchtower, as it were, he might guide the many, show them the path of truth, and, by dispelling the shadows through it, educate those walking as if by a clear light, without stumbling. For it was not right to hide a great torch within the tiny shadows of a corner, nor to irrigate a small orchard or garden with the perennial overflow of immense rivers. Wherefore, having entered the see of the Methonean Church (which is a most illustrious city of the Messenians in the Peloponnese), like a most diligent farmer, he rendered it more fruitful, having planted it with the shoots of Christian piety, and adorned it with the perennial irrigations of his doctrine to produce mature and delightful fruits, as well as for the pleasure and love of the Lord of all things. For he did not complete his assigned task languishing in shameful idleness or sloth, as one hired for a wage; but as a good shepherd, deeming the sheep of his Lord as if they were his own, he feared nothing at all when the situation and time demanded that he expose his life to dangers. For this reason, in adverse circumstances, he would go before the rest, ^B in dangerous crises he would propose himself, and he was found a most skillful physician to the sick, a covering to the naked, nourishment to the famished, consolation to the sorrowful, and pleasure to those exhausted by pain. To sum it up, he was to be seen as a father to orphans, a patron to widows, and, having had no regard for selection, he became all things to all men, that he might gain as many as possible for Christ. But who can recount the long, nocturnal vigils for their sake? The constant labors and anxieties, lest any of his sheep perish as prey for wild beasts, or lest any, by the trumpeting of the evangelical proclamation not sounding, be pierced by a diabolical dart, and at last God might demand from him an account of the blood of the slaughtered sheep, he to whose faith the flock had been entrusted? Nor was our Athanasius to be reckoned among those who would slaughter the fat ones, sell the stronger ones, [and] clothe themselves with the fleeces, as the holy prophet speaks, but rather among those who would strengthen the infirm, wake the prostrate, bind up the weak and the maimed, and stimulate [others] to run, providing them with spirit and strength. ^C

9. Moreover, he did not accept the episcopal dignity for the sake of his own spirit, but for the sake of the greater struggles and toils which he had endured in his former life, just as he had taken upon himself the care and administration of many more: and therefore he instructed those who had need, not by words alone, but drew them to the things he had exhorted them to accomplish, far more by example. And indeed, he used what remained of the illustrious virtues in such a way that he might in no way, whether by excess or defect, fight against them, nor did he ever seem to deviate from the royal and straight path of them, or cross the limits fixed for them—lest anyone be seen to pass them. And first, indeed, he added to his mind, wherein the power of counsel resides, the nerves of prudence, so that he might wish to lift all his movements unto God. Then, that part of the soul which is captured by pleasure, he taught to be moderated by the reins of temperance, so that with little effort it might fly up from earthly to heavenly things: and he transferred all his desire hither, so that he seemed not to be born to perishable things and the love of them—which is considered innate in the unskilled—but rather to be, in this respect, dead. By the strength of his soul, he also so far tamed his anger that he might fight against the cunning of the serpent, whence the poison of death has spread to us; and he would boldly encamp against the evil appetites of the passions and the demons suggesting them, and strenuously engage in hand-to-hand combat. Then, if anything exceeded the measure, or was considered counterfeit in the parts of life, he cut it away through justice, dividing an equitable distribution to all, and providing what was opportune to body and soul, as I say, in due time. He kept the balance, indeed, so firm, the beam poised between the scales of justice, that it would not sway even by the slightest amount: and therefore he brought a just verdict to all, and dissolved the frauds of violent commerce. Thus, for the falling he was a lifting up, for the standing a support, a most abundant liberality to all the wretched, and for those limping in body or soul he was both a foot and a support. ^D To men on the road, according to the divine Job, the doors of his house were open to all; and the garments distributed to the naked by Athanasius to preserve their life cherished them more than can be wondered at.

CAP. IV. — Effective exhortations to his own.

10. For which reasons he was finally deemed worthy of eternal glory by God, already approved by the common testimony of all, one among all, without the complaint of anyone, as just and truthful. And those who would raise their proud neck on high, and would not want to submit themselves to the sweet yoke of Christ, he would, with great prudence,

^A overcome—sometimes with examples, sometimes with exhortations, and sometimes with appropriate reprimands—now outlining with a terrifying oration the tribunal of the horrible judgment, the most severe equity of the Judge sitting upon the throne, and He who exacts the most bitter dissolution of punishments from everyone according to each one’s merits: even looking down with grim and burning eyes upon the angelic minds themselves, and not pitying the lot of men consigned to eternal fires, because the time for penance, but rather for remuneration, had arrived. By these addresses, therefore, he corrected many to a good life, and gathered them into his nets; and thus he passed them on to the table of Christ, to whom the salvation of men is precious and a delight, as a rich repast. Thus, therefore, Athanasius, a man already of proven faithfulness, adding much more to the talent attributed to him, obtained the leadership of many cities: thus he entered into the joy of his Lord, when he had shown the sons committed to his care to be undefiled and innocent.

^B 11. And because he obtained glorious honors from God, all mortals celebrate the abundance of goods provided to him, reaping unusual fruits of utility from his memory alone. For just as the thought and discussion of things, in their own nature, has harmed the audience and the speakers alike—and even those who were thinking of them—so, on the contrary, the commemoration of good things has reaped no mean benefits. Therefore, teaching and doing (as the divine oracle says), he made all men teachable by God, and discerning in distinguishing good from evil, the honorable from the base. Not as Zamolxis and Anacharsis of old, whose wisdom, however barbarian, the Greeks admired and looked up to; nor even as the lawgiver Lycurgus among the Spartans, Mnesion among the Argives, or Nestor among the Pylians—whose speech Homer declared closer than honey—; nor, finally, as the lawgivers Solon and Cleisthenes among the Athenians: who indeed did not persuade those not just in the neighboring peoples of Greece to receive their laws and live by their prescription, but not even those among whom they had carried the laws, to keep them until the end. For now, since they have crowned those same laws of theirs with fleeces, or anointed them like swallows, they by no means allow themselves to hear them. But our Athanasius persuaded his flock to embrace with great joy the laws of Christ the Lord and His sufferings, and to keep them unhurt until the end of life. For he was a man truly blessed, as one who had not prepared for himself a crude fear of God, nor one for those struggling to serve God, but a perfect divine fear; for he pursued Christ with vehement love. The proper mark of this matter—and to us a trustworthy argument—is his most diligent vigilance and providence over his own flocks, which he alone among many men ^C chose, questioning Christ the Lord concerning Peter, and He preferred him, and proposed that he, as the most loving of all the disciples to his Master, now about to take up the empire of the Christian cause, should undertake it.

12. Athanasius also applied himself according to the oracle of the Prophet, so that he might not desire what was sufficient in divine precepts, but truly what was excessive and supreme: and therefore his seed remained in the earth of the heavenly commandments, whether it was the word of the instructor disseminated through admirable works in the field of the heart of the listeners and beholders; or even those who, as if conceived by him, brought to light, and educated, proved themselves in very truth the genuine sons of the sower. Glory and the greatest riches in his house—that is, in the Church—remain indeed in eternity, together with his justice: not, I say, the empty swelling of vainglory, which is like an inflated bubble of water that vanishes most quickly; nor even those riches which struggle against those contending for the heavenly kingdom, which obtain for their lovers countless calamities, which ^D impel them into the snares and traps of the devil, who want to consign themselves insatiably to these through a certain unbridled greed: nor, finally, those ready administrators of crimes, which abundantly suggest matter for their fires: but that, that glory indeed, which excels the blessed minds of the angels in the dignity of honors; which reconciles to us the thrice-holy God, who dwells among the holy, however much we are vexed on earth, while we yet venerate Him holily; which is the present pledge of the heavenly glory of the saints; which fills the heart of us mortals with such joy that a heap of immortal gladness redounds therefrom: riches, finally, not vain, which neither thieves nor robbers dig up.

CHAP. V. — Heroic virtues. — Miracles.

18. Blessed, and indeed truly holy, is Athanasius: for he never walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor sat in the chair of those blathering obscenities or committing shameful acts; but as an immortal tree planted beside the irrigation of Christ the Savior, which He promised would emanate from the belly of those believing in Him. No guile was found in his mouth, but only the words of God, in which he had secluded a most holy lodging for himself. That most blessed one was also seen, like Mount Sion, which dwells in the new Jerusalem, he shall not be moved forever; and lifting his eyes to God, he did not feel the aid from thence to be slow. Wherefore, the joys and the gladness of this present light are proposed, and the multitude of listeners here is refreshed not for a short time, but immortally: since they are infused with a certain pleasure of souls, they lift themselves up toward divinity through the imitation of Athanasius. Because he is also still covered with the dust of mortality, he rises to this pinnacle of virtue, like a tall, spreading tree,

^A living with him, he might enjoy his contemplation and, by walking in his footsteps, pave for himself a way.

14. For who, beholding the hospitality of Athanasius or his inimitable purity of faith, would not see in him the patriarch Abraham? Who, considering his constant endurance and his tractable facility in every situation which God had ordained, would not believe he was looking with his own eyes upon another Isaac? Who, observing in his life the greatness and solidity of his soul, or his integrity, devoid of deception and craft, in the midst of adversity, would not imagine that Jacob was present with him? Who would not think he saw the temperance, modesty, and tolerance of injuries of Joseph, who, even when pursued by the hatred of his brothers, studied to show grace to those who were dividing him, standing before his eyes? Who, weighing his truly generous—not at all abject—spirit in the sudden troubles of afflictions that befell him, would not say that the image of the most invincible Job was standing before him? He also imitated the gentleness of Moses and Aaron, their characters mild beyond reproach, and their divine contemplation, snatching up mortals to the heights. He also emulated the righteous indignation of Phinehas—not by piercing with an iron dagger the violators of the laws, but by soothing on some occasions with harsh and severe language, and on others coercing with soft and gentle speech, the courses of wickedness and the injurious assaults encountered in all things. Yet, in truth, he showed himself to be one who would neither cause the earth to swallow up and create tombs for those who boldly and insolently were lifted up through pride against the holy priesthood, nor be consigned to flames the things which the impious violator of the laws had taken away; for that age demanded such prodigies. But indeed, Athanasius, by the power of his prayers, merely deprived a certain man who was doing similar things of his insensitive hairs—which grow on the body as a superfluity, and neither contribute to the constitution of human essence when present nor harm it when removed—but which, by indicating an expiatory sin in an audacious and rash manner, drove him to repentance, to the flight of nefariuos crime, and to the shaving of the waxing vice.

15. He also undertook to imitate the endurance of evils of David and his singular piety toward God, ^B by which cause he sang not only against the demons but also against those perturbations of the soul which, at their suggestion, are stimulated and become more raging. And there are many witnesses to these deeds, some of whom Athanasius cured and restored to good health while he still lived; others also, who approached his tomb with ardent faith and desire—when he had already passed over to Christ, whom he had desired, and for whose sake he had longed to be released from the bonds of the body, so that he might more freely and holily ^C enjoy the contemplation of Him—built for themselves a way by walking in his footsteps.

He imitated the ascetic and harsh manner of life of Elijah and Elisha, and their zeal, but did not breathe out fire, nor did he call down flames from above to consume the impious with celestial conflagrations; nor did he present those who reviled him with injurious contumelies to wild beasts (for that ancient age demanded even these things, by applying harsher remedies to heal wounds for God), but by grave exhortations, which became such a teacher, seasoned with the salt of divine wisdom and consonant with an innocent life, he corrected many evildoers unto good fruit; for he knew how, in the manner of Christ the Lord, to pacify those who are children of the Spirit. He was also a man who, following the blessed Daniel, was a man of spiritual desires, manfully resisting corporeal allurements and yearning only for divine things, in which he might find God more manifestly. Likewise, by the example of the three youths at Babylon, he despised the flames of corporeal pleasures, as if they were already hushed embers, and suddenly trampled upon the rekindling fire, lest in any way such images should remain in his heart, and Athanasius should seem to venerate their deadly and contagious idols.

16. But if you desire to behold the express image and living effigy of that most holy John (than whom no greater has arisen among those born of women, who was the first to run before Christ, the true precursor, living among the living, then dead among those in the underworld, who announced the coming Savior and Deliverer, and who in the Jordan washed Him who there submerged the stains of our sins), place before your eyes, I beseech you, his contempt for fleeting and earthly things, his sobriety of food, his abundant freedom of speech, and his mind subject to no perturbations; how he inveighed against the primates and dynasts and rebuked them because the holy laws of God were being set aside and even trampled underfoot. Attend also to his exhortations to repentance, and to his pointing with his finger to Christ, by whom he was baptized, who will come again to judge all and will render to each fitting recompense according to his merits. If any one seeks to find any footprint of the disciples of Christ, let him go and observe; and he will see in Athanasius a contempt for his whole life, so that he might find gain in Christ; he will see his intent solicitude in the preaching of the Gospel, his greatness of soul in the turbulent winds of affairs, and his familiarity with Christ, assiduous by the benefit of memory, so that he could in no way be drawn away or distracted from Him. He will also see him carrying the cross of Christ throughout the whole time of his life, serving Christ and following in His footsteps, considering all other things as refuse and dross. Athanasius, therefore, imitating the life of the Apostles, so fashioned a living image in himself from their archetype, ^D that if anyone wished to behold the characters of each, by looking more attentively, he would see almost nothing

dissimilar, but altogether true and most authentic.

CAP. VI. — Final counsels given to his own.

17. But at length the time of his departure arrived; for his end of life should be called by no other name than a return to his fatherland from exile. Indeed, many who were deeply affected were present to plead with him regarding his own condition, lamenting his separation as the loss of everything. But they heard him, as he lay upon his humble bed, determining nothing regarding the gathering of treasures of wealth, nor leaving behind a pile of gold and silver to be managed by guardians—the destitution of which, just as the acquisition of it, he had sought with great effort—nor fields of earth, forests of trees, vineyards, flocks, or herds, from which, so long as he lived upon the earth, he had been entirely removed. Instead, regarding those things of which he had always discoursed, and which he briefly recounted on account of the pains of his illness—for he was a man, even if the greatness of his soul surpassed the humility of his tiny body—it would be worth the effort, he said, for me to turn inward and ponder my departure from this life, and to contemplate the formidable and fearful command to set out, and consider who will be the ones coming to receive my soul, and to what places the journey must be made by me, and how even hostile powers are always stationed in ambush, and how they obstruct our path like robbers and plunderers. ^A But since I vehemently desire now, as I always have, to look to both my own benefit and yours—for the divine laws prescribe that we do whatever the indulgence of time permits, and that I speak also for the remaining time of life—I, for my part, as you see, am entering upon the long path to my fathers; and you will no longer see me in this mortal life. But do not, I beg you, despise through forgetfulness the counsels which I have imparted to you with such ardor of divine love as I feel for you. I will be among you; or rather, Christ Himself will be with you, together with God the Father and the Divine Spirit. Thus you will be a divine dwelling-place and living temples of Him whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is the earth. “For I,” says the Savior, “and the Father will come to him, and will make our dwelling place with him,” [John XIV, 23] provided that he keeps His commandments. But among the divine precepts, the most excellent by far, and the first, is to love God with all one’s soul, resolve, mind, and one’s entire heart, and one’s neighbor as oneself. For all other things follow from this, the one embracing the other; and the same Love that commands us to pursue our enemies commands us to lay down our own life for a friend, if time demands it. Likewise, debts are to be forgiven to our debtors, just as the heavenly Father forgives us our debts. One must also ponder the fearful decree of the master of the house against the servant upon whom he had bestowed many benefits and had already forgiven a great sum of money, but who choked his fellow servant because of a trifling debt. Great pity must be felt for those who are destitute of the inherent and holy sense of the soul’s needs; that we may apply our ears to them in such a way that, as much as earthly and mortal persons can (so far as is possible), we may become like God, who brings such men into His kingdom, and confesses Himself to be in need of alms and mercy, ^B whereas He threatens those who rage like wild beasts and behave inhumanely toward men with being cast into eternal fires together with the most wicked Satan and his angels. Therefore, let us repeatedly call to mind Jesus Christ our Lord, an incorrupt and severe Judge, sitting upon a formidable throne, from whose sight a river of fire shall flow, and at whose appearance everyone, with conscience laid bare, shall stand to give account for what we have done rightly or otherwise. As many as have been washed in the sacred font in Christ, we have put on Christ; let us not, therefore, because of an inclination toward earthly things, cast off such a garment, lest we in turn be rejected from the heavenly bridal chamber, and from the joy and dancing of the saints. “Let no corrupt word,” the divine Apostle says, “proceed out of your mouth,” [Coloss. III, 8] but only that which fashions an example of virtues, or bears the fruit of another’s usefulness; for we shall give an account to God not only for our misdeeds, but even for our idle words, and indeed for our base thoughts. Let each one take care to be pleasing to all and a companion in honorable deeds; for in this way we ought to be collectively animated, so as to endeavor to benefit others through our own gain. Truly, no one among us, even if he offers the veil of ignorance, shall escape the divine judgment: for we hear daily the divine precepts of the Gospels, the admonitions of the Apostles, and the exhortations of the prophets. ^C

18. What is it that should be recounted to me now, if the age-old questions of Socrates are compared with these legitimate disputations of our philosophy? For the sake of which the haughty Greeks lift their eyebrows, because (as they boast) that philosopher showed himself superior to the fear of death. For such disputations as these catch at the breeze of vain glory, are figments of the stage, and put on only the appearance of philosophy, assuming its character in such a way that whatever it labors upon, it turns toward itself, not toward others. And this is what the cock sacrificed to Asclepius by Socrates croaked, and the speeches full of the desire to please men which the others were everywhere repeating (while the disciples were persuading him to avoid the danger that his accusers, Anytus and Melitus, had brought upon him). But our Athanasius, having set aside all things of this time, applied himself to that one thing, namely, to magnifying the glory of Christ, the Inspector and Overseer of all things; just as if nothing were older or more worthy of study for him than to take care of the salvation of the flock entrusted to him, for whose sake God Himself became man in an amazing way, and that same zeal [continued]

as a clear symbol, he bequeathed to those who love God. And so, although he was near the sunset of his life, and just about to await the separation of soul and body, which nature had most excellently joined, nevertheless, conducting himself as a stranger and a pilgrim, he recalled to memory the episcopal life he had lived. Thus, Athanasius bound both his charity toward God and his charity toward men in the tightest bond of virtue; he left us examples of virtues not only by his right actions, but even by his words, even to his last habit. Lifting our eyes to these, as if to stars while we are tossed miserably through a dark night on the sea of this life, we shall, by eluding all its tenth waves, its rising storms, and the tempests stirred up by the snares of our common and hostile enemy, navigate safely and reach the tranquil port of Christ’s kingdom, having Athanasius as our master; who, like a most skilled pilot holding the helm, sits at the stern, excites our confidence, and raises our spirits to those things upon which our salvation depends.

CHAPTER VII. — Death, miracles.

^A 19. Therefore, leaving this as an inheritance to his spiritual children, the most holy Athanasius, with his feet stretched out in a comely manner, his harmless hands composed, and his eyes ^B gravley and religiously lifted to heaven, spoke his final words: "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," and, joyful and very cheerful, he breathed out his soul, to be carried away immediately by the angels. He was truly a man of many days, full of the Holy Spirit, full indeed of the gifts of divine munificence, and since he clearly perceived that the celestial reward for his labors was now at hand, he acted as becomes a wise man, not in the least repenting of his life past, but rather rejoicing. You would have called him ripe grain to be stored in the heavenly barns, free from every stain of the harvested fruits, and incorrupt; and therefore he lives an immortal life in the council of the righteous, and his reward is very great before the Most High God. Therefore he flourishes like a palm, and like a cedar he grows and is amplified, he who brings forth abundant fruit for us who imitate him, and offers most wholesome shade to those sweltering in the heat of temptations. Because of this, having obtained an immortal memory among us, he also enjoys unquenchable glory.

^D 20. Indeed, he left us along with his most blessed body a sepulchre, which, like an ever-flowing fountain, pours out streams of cures abundantly to all who approach with faith. Wherefore let us believe that in it we see Athanasius himself, whom we embrace as we approach it, though with equal sorrow and incomparable longing, venerating him as a Father, and following him with the piety that is due; as we give immortal thanks to one who has deserved so well; as we set before him, as a physician, both the sicknesses of our souls and of our bodies, and hasten to his remedies. In truth, even those who undertake the path of a longer pilgrimage come here to visit the sepulchre of Athanasius, from where they return to their homes having prayed for a prosperous return. Women also, now for their husbands, now for their sons, pray and obtain a present medicine and an extension of death: those who are oppressed by the tyranny of rigid power, invoke Athanasius as a patron: those to whom the crimes of others are imputed through calumny, and who are unjustly dragged to the forum, find in Athanasius a strenuous defender. To sum up, I say that all who come to Athanasius, having become all things, and imploring his aid, return having obtained their petitions and rejoicing. We experience him as if he were another Siloam, extinguishing all the fires of our disturbances, and refreshing all our minds and bodies with the irrigation of fragrant ointments. And we too desire to become participants in these benefits, giving thanks to God, the author of all good things, and glorious in His saints: for to Him is due all glory, honor, and veneration, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now, and always, and unto the eternity of ages. Amen.

UNCERTAIN YEAR. BARTHOLOMAEUS, EDESSENUS MONACHUS. NOTICE

(CAVE, Dissert. prim., page 168.)

Bartholomew, by origin, if I am not mistaken, a Syrian, a citizen, certainly a monk, of Edessa; for not infrequently he calls himself simply an Edessene; a writer of highly uncertain age, of whom not even the slightest mention, so far as I know, is to be found, and of whom in his entire work there is neither trace nor vestige. He was a man of no inelegant mind, of not despicable erudition, and most well-versed in the writings and rites of the Chaldeans, Arabs, and Muhammadans. He wrote an *Elenchus* or confutation of the Hagarene, in which, not without great sharpness of wit and biting salt, he elegantly exposes the absurdities of the Quran and the rise, life, customs, rites, and dogmas of Muhammad. Steph. Le Moyne published this *acephalous* [headless] work in Greek and Latin, and gave it a place among his *Varia Sacra* (Leiden, 1685, p. 302); there is subjoined, ibid. p. 429, another treatise in Greek and Latin *Against Muhammad*, whether by the same author, it is not clear. There are things that seem to suggest it: the affinity of the subject matter, the author’s talent, and the accurate knowledge of Muhammadan affairs. Nor are there wanting points that invite clear dissent, especially a by no means trifling discrepancy between the two. In listing the wives and children of Muhammad, Bartholomew agrees with the anonymous author neither in names nor in number. The Nestorian monk, the primary contributor to Muhammad in the composition of the Quran, is named in Bartholomew as Pachuras, in the anonymous author as Baira, not to mention other things now. Be that as it may, both works commend themselves greatly by their pleasure and utility.

ADMONITION ON THE FOLLOWING WORKS.

(LEMOYNE, Varia sacra, Prolegomena, p. 17.)

When, from the Warnerian bequest, I was proceeding to the Scaligeran [collection], and with a certain impulsive desire I was feeding my eyes now on this, now on that, and wondering at and exploring the resources of both, I happened upon the *Disputation* of Bartholomew of Edessa, a monk, if I am not mistaken, of a later age, against the Saracens. It is a work known to Scaliger, Vulcanius, and Meursius, and long worn and handled by those learned hands, but hitherto unpublished, and not yet rendered into Latin. Since, however, the reading of it moved my mind not a little, and many things occurred therein concerning Muhammad, the Muhammadans, the religion of the Muhammadans, and the various rites among them—things grateful and pleasant, which to readers, as to me, seemed capable of being read with a certain pleasure—I immediately thought of joining it with other works already prepared, and I adorned it with a version. But at the end of that manuscript codex of Bartholomew of Edessa, certain things were read as additions, which pertained to Muhammad himself. Since these had been added to the previous disputation by some design, we did not wish them to be missing from our edition.