Catholic Epistle of the Apostle Jude

through His Son Jesus Christ: but charity, because on account of the charity which He had toward us, His only-begotten Son has been exposed to death for us. These things, therefore, ^A He prays may be given to them in abundance: speaking in conformity with the blessed David, who says: "Extend Thy mercy to them that know Thee." 42

CAPUT I.

Concerning careful observance of the faith in Christ, on account of the insurrection of impious and lascivious men: in which he also treats of their future punishment, after the likeness of the wicked who had sinned of old.

3, 4. "Dearly beloved, I had such zeal to write unto you of the common salvation, that I could not but write unto you: exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints. For there have crept in certain ungodly men, who were of old ordained unto this condemnation: who turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and deny the only sovereign God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."

By these words he hints at the argument of the Epistle, that out of providence for their salvation, lest through simplicity they be caught by the most wicked heretics, he brings forth these present discourses, as if marking them and rendering them manifest to those who are unaware, by the exposure of their lascivious life. Peter spoke of these indeed, 43 but here it is done more broadly and expansively. He says that they were "ordained of old," because both Peter and Paul spoke of them, saying ^B that in the last times such seducers would come. 44 And before them, Christ Himself, saying: "Many shall come in my name, and shall seduce many. Do you not therefore follow them." 45 For by saying they are Christians, they seduce many by this name. He speaks, however, of those from Nicolaus, Valentinus, and Simon, the most wicked and impure. For being gluttons and lewd, they feigned the doctrine, so that by this pretext they might obtain a hidden entry into houses, and lead away captive silly women laden with sins. For, having fashioned nocturnal mysteries, they gave themselves over to beds and lasciviousness.

But as to what he says, "They turn into lasciviousness," this is to say, they deprave, twisting from temperance to lasciviousness: whence it happens that they deny our Lord Jesus Christ. For how do they not deny Him, who by the impurity of their life abjure the teacher of all temperance, as if with a loud and clamorous voice? For what communion hath light with darkness? 47 "Exhorting you that you should contend." He exhorts those who have once received Christ the Savior and have believed in Him, that they should still contend or strive, that is, that they should not be affected with a dissolute mind, ^C but should keep themselves and embrace even greater zeal concerning this. For we who have received the incarnate Word, if we were to say that one is He who before the ages was with the Father, and another is He who in the last times was born from the Mother in his own hypostasis, would we not deny that there is one Lord and Master? For there is one Lord Jesus according

to a certain economy of union. For the Word of God and God before the ages, having assumed flesh unto the glory of the divinity, which He received from the holy Virgin from the beginning of His conception, is one and the same Lord of all. "Transferring the grace": this is, changing, corrupting. ^B

5-10. "I desire to remind you, though you know this once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their own domain, but left their own dwelling place, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!' But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves." ^C

Having spoken of the licentiousness of the impure Nicolaitans, Valentinians, and Marcionites, and having, as it were, branded them with the filthiness that possessed them, he adds this: "The Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt," and so forth. At the same time, he shows through these things that the same God is the author of both the Old and New Testaments, and not, as these villains say, that the God of the Old was one, being vindictive and cruel, and that of the New was another, a mild and humane guardian. And at the same time he shows that those who sin now will not remain unpunished, just as neither did those who were led out of Egypt. For although by the immense power of God, and because of the oath made to their fathers, God had delivered them from Egyptian slavery and tyranny, yet those who acted impiously did not remain unpunished, but paid worthy penalties; nor did it profit them at all that God was benign toward their fathers, or that the immense evidence of signs was exhibited for them; just as neither did it profit the angels who fell, in that they were formed by God and endowed with an intellectual nature, nor the Sodomites that they dwelt together with Lot. But those who had crossed the Red Sea as if it were dry land through faith, afterward, having become unbelieving, perished. And those who had attained the honor of angelic dignity, because through negligence they did not remain in their own domain, but corrupted the heavenly manner of life given to them by goodness, He has reserved and kept unto the judgment, or rather the condemnation, of the great and intolerable day. For this is what "He has reserved" means even now, according to that which Christ says: "which is prepared for the devil and his angels." And indeed the Sodomites ^D

^A And certainly the Sodomites are set forth as a sign of the eternal fire which is to receive them. "Going after strange flesh," and committing fornication—that is, turning aside—signifies that to commit fornication is to turn aside. He calls the male nature "strange flesh," as being one that does not contribute to the intercourse of generation. For the flesh that is fitted for intercourse is that of the female, according to that which was said by the first parent: "Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." The flesh of males, I say, is strange to intercourse. Furthermore, even in the case of the female, there is one flesh that is her own and proper, joined by laws to one man; but that which is poured out and public is strange and alien, and inferior only by a little to the defilement of the masculine crime. ^B Having set forth these examples, he left it to the listener to understand what followed from them. And what is that? To infer: If, therefore, He so destroyed them, in no way appeased by their former prosperity, will He now spare those who act impiously and lasciviously, since the Son of God came into the world for the sake of men, and endured insults and afflictions for them? No one would ever say this. For, although He is benevolent and humane, yet He is also truly just; and because of true justice, He did not spare those who had sinned, yet because of benevolence, He brought harlots and publicans into the kingdom. Since it followed that he should have stated this, he himself omitted it for the reason we have anticipated. Or he is speaking in a similar way to the blessed Peter, when he said: "For if God did not spare the angels who had sinned," etc. And let this be enough said concerning these matters. ^C But as to that which he says, "defiling the flesh in their dreams," it is worth wondering at the modesty with which he delivered his discourse. For he testifies to much lasciviousness and impudicity in them, saying that they are both impure in life and most lascivious in tongue: but he rightly comprehended the violent turpitude of the deed by this word, "insomniis agitati" (that is, dreaming or agitated by dreams), which we will now uncover a little, and as much as is becoming, taking our understanding from the work which the blessed Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, published about them, which he has called the Panarion. For he says here that these wicked Borborites (that is, the fetid and those covered in mud) when they mixed foully with women, ^D did not shed their seed into the womb, but in an imperfect abomination, receiving it with their own hands, they immediately put it into the mouth of the women with whom they were corrupted; and thus the impure ones would part from one another, thinking they had performed some great thing. He calls this impure crime a "dream" on account of its imperfection, since such are the things that are done in dreams. Therefore, they who defile their flesh through this fetid act of theirs, he says, rage still further against the divine nature, rejecting its Lord and the dominion which He has over all things. The blessed Irenæus of Lyons has spoken more broadly about these in his refutation of falsely-named knowledge, from whom he who wishes may take the knowledge; they reject the Lord, the celebration of the mystery in Christ, performing their own lascivious acts in the order of angelic mysteries. He says that they scorn the Old and the New Testament.

^A Or perhaps by "glories" he refers to ecclesiastical dignities, which they defamed, as one may learn from the third Epistle of John the Beloved, in which he says that Diotrephes belittled them with malicious words. Since, however, he mentions calumnies, retraining not only those people, but all men to keep their tongues pure from such evil, and not to use it even against those who are deserving of reproach, he says: “Michael the archangel,” etc. What does he mean by this? That while these men rashly and intemperately use insults against everyone, this ought not to be, since it is not right to speak ill even of those who are deserving of reproach, as is evident from the archangel Michael. For when it was possible for him, in his dispute with the devil concerning the body of Moses, to revile the devil for his impudence, he did not do so, but rather brought against him only: “The Lord rebuke you, O devil.” ^B If the archangel did not endure that a man be reviled, how do these men dare to blaspheme the Lord of all? It is also written otherwise: If the archangel acted thus, we should not, in the case of a brother and fellow man, heap up reproaches and insults. And let these things be said concerning those men.

Now the judgment concerning the body of Moses is as follows. It is said that Michael the archangel ministered at the burial of Moses. For the devil would not allow this, but brought an accusation because of the killing of the Egyptian, as if it were the act of Moses himself, and for this reason he was not permitted to receive an honorable burial. Or perhaps by this the Apostle, wishing to signify the ^C accounting due to all men after their departure from the body, and that the God of the Old and New Testament is the same, brings this forward now. Wishing to show the people of that time, who were more coarsely disposed, the hidden things through the manifest, that after their release from here the devil stands against our souls together with his own wicked demons, wishing to cut off their upward journey (and while he resists, the good angels of God are their allies, as the blessed Antony also saw), he permitted these things to be recounted then. However, Michael at that time did indeed venture to drive off the devil, yet he did not rebuke him with authority, but ^D conceded the judgment to the Lord of all, and said: “The Lord rebuke you, O devil.” “But these men know not.” Michael, he says, did not endure to utter blasphemy even against a man, that is, against Moses. But these men compose blasphemous words about dogmas they do not know, and whatever they pursue by natural impulse without discernment, like irrational animals, they follow, like unbridled horses or swine.

verunt. Michael indeed did this, and did not bring a railing judgment against the man, nor even against Moses: but these men compose slanderous speeches concerning dogmas which they do not know; and those things which they know by natural instinct or judgment, as animals devoid of reason, these they pursue like horses raging after females, or like swine.

CAPUT II. Lamentation over the impious because of their error and impiety, and lasciviousness and blasphemy, and disguised hypocrisy through bribery, by which they the more easily deceive.

11-13. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain: and have been poured out by the deception of the wage for which Balaam was deceived: and have perished in the contradiction of Core. These are in your ^A feasts, as sea reefs feasting together without fear, feeding themselves, clouds without water, which are carried about by winds, autumn trees without fruit, twice dead and plucked up by the roots, wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

^B Viam Cain: That is, through the fratricide. For they themselves also, by teaching such things to their brothers, or to men of the same kin, kill them with wicked doctrines. Or also, by absorbing the seed, they kill the brother in potentiality, whom the fruition of the seed would have brought into life. And the way of Balaam, because they themselves, like him, do these things for the sake of gain. And the way of Core, because they themselves also, like him, snatched the office of teacher, being unworthy. ^C Hi sunt inter charitates vestras: There were still at that time tables prepared in the churches, of which Paul also speaks in the Epistle to the Corinthians: which they even called agapes, that is, charities or loves. To these, he says, they run together: not for the utility which is held in them, but that they might find an opportunity to entice unstable souls; even as Peter also says in the second Epistle. But that which he says, "Feeding themselves without fear," either with the preceding, "As sea reefs feasting together," is to be ordered, so that the sense may be thus: "As sea reefs feasting together," that is, when they suspect nothing to be feared, they take supper together, suddenly, like reefs, bringing upon them the destruction of souls. Or with the following expression, "Feeding": that is, without fear composing themselves, fearing nothing, he says, the judgment which threatens them, because they do not know how to rule, but being blind leading the blind, and falling into the pit, according to the words of the Lord, together with those who are ruled. ^D He compares them to sea reefs, and to clouds lacking water, and to autumn trees, and to wild waves, and to wandering stars. For what things naturally belong to these, these they have by free will. For the sea reefs are destructive to those sailing, occurring unexpectedly: just as they also, to those with whom they feast together, threaten as an unexpected evil. And clouds lacking water, which are driven about by winds, to whatever places they have been brought, do not refresh with rain (which they do not have), but cause darkness for them. Similarly also these, not with a salutary word do they water the souls of those they encounter, but they darken them with their most filthy instructions, driven by the wicked [cont.]

^A ordinances of demons. But the autumn trees also are twice dead, in the casting away of their fruit and in the fall of their leaves (for then they appear dry, deprived of their beauty, of that splendor which followed the fruit, and of the flourishing grace of the leaves), and they suffer something corresponding. For these also are twice dead, being cast away through the sowing of base things, and being stripped of the orderliness from a sober life. Therefore they are also rooted up from the paradise of the Lord, which is the Church. And being cast out from it, they are gathered for the eternal fire. For what standing or root, indeed, will he have who is rejected by all because of the dregs of pleasure? Furthermore, they are called "wandering stars" or planets ^B themselves: not because they adorn the firmament of our faith, having Christ the sun of righteousness proceeding through them, and performing the seasons of the virtues, and quickening the faithful who are arranged according to them, but because they seem to be transformed into an angel of light, just as the evil demon who dominates them: having only this, that they are carried contrary to the dogmas of the Lord, through which they also pour darkness upon those who approach them, and procure for themselves eternal gloom. But being compared also to wild waves, they do not deny the likeness to them. For they too are carried ^C insanely and unrestrainedly by blasts of malice with blasphemies against God, foaming out their own shame, ending in foam after the pride of blasphemy, from their own intolerable and crumbling life and the baseness which is easily dissolved. For such is the foam of the waves, to which they have been compared.

14-19. *Prophetavit autem et hiis septimus ab Adam Enoch, dicens: Ecce venit Dominus cum sanctis millibus suis, ut faciat judicium adversus omnes et redarguat omnes qui inter ipsos sunt impios, de factis omnibus quæ impie patrarunt, et de omnibus duris quæ locuti sunt adversus eum peccatores impii. Hi sunt murmuratores, queruli, juxta concupiscentias suas ambulantes: et os illorum loquitur tumida, mirantes personas utilitatis causa.*

Having said these things, he brings in also Enoch prophesying ^D the punishment stored up for them by God, in the last judgment, clearly, of God. "And to convict all the impious." An impious man differs from a sinner, in that the impious man has his offense toward God, but the sinner errs toward the things practiced in the conduct of life, away from the mark of righteousness. After these things, however, having desisted from the likeness of these impious men, he now proceeds to the matter itself, accusing their vices, and calling them "murmurers" and "complainers." For a murmurer is he who under his teeth and in close quarters is indignant against the one who offends him; but a complainer is he who is always and habitually intending to mock everyone. As for these murmurers and complainers...

are like that, he says, because they cannot freely and openly ^A use their own doctrine on account of its filthiness: for it would not be without danger to publish their lewdness joined with impiety and blasphemy. They are cavillers, as those who slander the things of others, indeed the things of the truth, so that they may establish their own evils and their own lasciviousness. And what he said about Balaam, that they too, like him, have poured themselves out for wages, he now says more clearly, that they admire persons for the sake of profit. By saying "admire," he means to fawn upon those in power; by "utility," he means gain.

CAPUT III

20. "But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21. that they told you that in the end time there would be mockers, walking according to their own impious desires. 22. These are they who set apart, animal ones, not having the Spirit. 23. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 24. And on some have mercy, discerning them; 25. but others save with fear, snatching them from the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. 26. Now to Him who is able to keep them free from sin, and to set them before His glory without blemish in exultation, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for all ages. Amen."

"Remember the words which were spoken beforehand by the apostles." Namely, by Peter in his second Epistle, and by Paul in almost every Epistle. From this it is manifest that he wrote these things at the end time, when the apostles had already finished their course. "These are they who set apart." Behold another crime of these most polluted men. For they do not only perish themselves, he says, but they also despoil the pupils of the Church: for this is what he wishes to signify by "setting apart," that is to say, making them be outside the ecclesiastical boundaries, whether outside the faith, or outside the very sacred tabernacle of the Church. For showing their synagogues to be dens of thieves, they lead them away. They do this because they are animal men, that is, living according to the convolution of the world and common usage. For we have already said that Scripture is accustomed to frequently call life "the soul": just as in Job, "All that a man has, he will give for his soul," that is, for his life; and in those whom Paul says, "When they were animal, they could not receive the things that are of the Spirit of God." For "animal" (that is, belonging to the soul) is derived from "soul." Therefore, since they are animal, and they use an animal teaching—

the soul, and would make use of a doctrine (of which it is said: "This is not that wisdom which descendeth from above from the Father of lights, but is earthly, sensual, devilish"), ^A having not the divine Spirit to speak through them. "But you, beloved." Those men, he says, are such as they are, but you, building yourselves upon your most holy faith, that is, restoring yourselves in the Holy Spirit, which means, according to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, offering your gatherings in your prayers, "Keep yourselves in the love of God," that is, guard yourselves, awaiting the mercy of the Lord, which is awarded to you for the last day, unto life eternal. But those who stand against you—for this is what "disputing" signifies—convict them, that is, manifest their impiety to all. But if they look toward healing, do not reject them, but receive them with the mercy of your love, saving them from the fire with which God has threatened them. But receive them with both mercy and fear, looking carefully lest the reception of these men—if you are negligent regarding what concerns them—becomes a cause of ruin to you, as those already confirmed are stolen away by them into that same outpouring of their impiety. For vice is easily emulated. Let there be, therefore, a reception of them, he says. But approach them with fear, that is, with circumspection, and let hatred follow the mercy shown to them—hatred towards their wicked works—while you hate and abominate even the garment stained, that is, polluted by their flesh, as if by contact with their flesh it also becomes execrable. Or, receiving them with the fear of the future punishment, he says, prepare them to be repentant, ^B so that they may appear worthy of mercy. Having said these things, he thereafter seals the Epistle with a prayer.

The End, with God's help, of the Catholic Epistle of Jude.

WARNING

The following brief work was published by P. Bern. de Montfaucon in the *Bibliotheca Coisliniana*, p. 277. From it, it becomes known what see Œcumenius held, which was previously unknown. "Furthermore," says the most learned man, "it is written in such a complex style that it can barely be understood. It also appears corrupted in several places. Nevertheless, I have endeavored to translate it into Latin to the best of my ability."

SYNOPSIS OF ANONYMOUS FROM ŒCUMENIUS ON THE APOCALYPSE

Of those things which the blessed Œcumenius, bishop of Trikka in Thessaly, piously labored upon in the Apocalypse of John the Theologian, here is a school synopsis, with the necessary sufficiency as far as a synopsis allows. Christ God, assist us. That this work is also an initiation into the mystical teaching of him who reclined upon the breast of the divine Wisdom, ^C

^A it is indisputably apprehended as divinely inspired and useful; not as one of the spurious works, as some, stirred by a spirit of error, have trivially blathered, but on the contrary as genuine and worthy of the Son of Thunder. If we are to believe Athanasius the Great in his *Exposition of the Books of the Old and New Testament having a place in the Canon*, who numbers this among the authentic books of Scripture; and the same seemed good to divine Basil in his *Compendious Question concerning the Son*; and to Gregory, a man of divine eloquence, in the book adorned according to his method of syntax; and to Methodius, the most wise Bishop of Patara, in his *Sermon on the Resurrection*; and to Cyril the Great in his labor on *Adoration and Worship in Spirit*; and besides these, to Hippolytus, Prelate of Rome, in his *Exposition on Daniel*, and to many others, so that we may not be long-winded; to these it did not seem that it should be cast aside as a spurious and rejected work, but rather they determined it to be genuine. Such an opinion would not have been held by such great and momentous men, ^B unless they had known it to be complete in every way. For if it were not so, it would not be true which Solomon says in Ecclesiastes: “A threefold cord is not easily broken, and will not be broken.” How much more, then, a sixfold cord! By this Apocalypse, therefore, the disciple of Christ shows that he was enriched with the prophetic gift; since this book contains as a treasure the knowledge of the present, the past, and the future, with which all prophecy is filled; which is why it is said among those of us who are wise, who have scarcely greeted knowledge from the threshold. But since some have been so bold as to accuse this divine oracle of being spurious—because, forsooth, ^C whereas this divine Father of the Word is accustomed to embellish his divine books from the beginning with theology, he does not do this in this book, but, accommodating himself to the time, composes a preface concerning our assumed nature which he took on in unspeakable love for us—it is necessary to say that he, knowing full well that the subject is indifferent, since it concerns one and the same Person through the ineffable union of the natures coming together, used both methods, so that he might begin either from the divinity of our Savior Christ, or from his human attributes. And whereas in his former writings he began from the more divine things and did not disdain to proceed to the human, when he says, “And ^D the Word was made flesh;” in the present book, too, having started from the human, lest he appear to know Him only from the divine and not from the human, he nevertheless would not stop his discourse at the human, but does not omit to transmit therein the divine things as well, through which he desires that we contemplate those things that are above man from the humanity of the Lord. And this was also the aim of divine Paul in the Epistle to the Colossians, saying of Christ: “In him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth.”

senses: "In Him (he speaks of Christ) all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth. All things were created through Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and all things consist in Him. And He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence." For the flesh assumed by Him, being intellectually animated, is such that Emmanuel should be understood from two natures, ^A inconfusedly—the divinity and the humanity being joined, with each possessing its own essence perfectly, even according to their physical quality, property, and distinction; the concurring natures being neither confused nor altered, nor again divided in the integrity of their natures after the ineffable union; so that both Nestorius may be confounded and Eutyches may perish together. But as regards the doctrine concerning the Savior, that it might be accurate and precise in other divine matters, when he dealt with this point, as it has been said, he used human words. Furthermore, neither are the divine things separated from the human, nor again the human from the divine; but the usage proceeds according to the greater and the lesser. ^B

GRAECO-ROMAN CANON LAW

NOTICE. — As the tenth century draws to a close, it has been decided to collect here various monuments illustrating the Græco-Roman canon law. Regarding those that pertain to past centuries and have already been edited by us, it will suffice to append the title with a cross-reference; but we shall edit in full those that belong to subsequent centuries. Everything has been provided for us by the *Jus Græco-Romanum* of Joannes Leunclavius. The index at the end of the volume will provide a series of contents. EDIT. PATR.

SYNODAL DECISIONS AND PONTIFICAL SANCTIONS

OF THE ARCHBISHOPS AND PATRIARCHS OF CONSTANTINOPLE

OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

On the correction of those who transgress

It is not simply according to the measure of the transgressions that correction must be applied, but consideration must also be given to the disposition of those who transgress; lest, wishing to stitch up ^C what is torn, you make the schism worse; and while you strive to raise up the one who has fallen,