Table of Contents

EUTHYMIUS ZIGABENUS, EXPOSITION OF THE CREED

(From the edition of Christian Friedrich Matthaei in *Lectiones Mosquenses*, reprinted in the *Bibliotheca Gallandiana*, vol. XIV.)

On the Holy Creed

^A What is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb. xi, 1). Or, it is a faith without idle curiosity, or a voluntary consent; or, as the great Basil said: Faith is the unhesitating consent to what has been heard, in the firm persuasion of the truth of those things which have been preached by the grace of God.

It is called a "Creed" (*symbolum*), as a sign of the faith which is in the soul. For since the soul is an incorporeal thing, and its doctrines are invisible and obscure, it had need of a confession of this kind, so that its internal faith might be made manifest through it, and no room for doubt be left.

^B "I believe." That is, I give my assent to the doctrines to be spoken of without idle curiosity. Indeed, our ancestors said "We believe" in the plural number. But both expressions have the same force. For they used the plural to set forth both their common opinion regarding the faith and the individual opinion of each; we, on the contrary, by the confession of the faith of each one individually, include the faith of the whole assembly of the faithful.

"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty." Some punctuate this differently. Some place the mark of distinction after "God," so that the name "God" may be received as common to the three Persons; others, however, connect it. Hippon and the pleasure-loving Epicurus ignored God altogether, introducing confusion through the reckless accident of chance, seeing that the one prattled that water was the principle, the other that infinite atoms were. Plato called idea and matter God, as if God could not create the world without matter or without an exemplar, and thus posited that these were in some way co-eternal with Him and equally without beginning. Valentinus said there were 30 gods; Marcion that there were three principles; Cerdo taught there were two gods; the Manichaeans asserted two principles.

^C "I believe in one God." It is said "in one God," whether we name the Father, or the Son, or the Spirit, or even these three together—the Father and the Son and the Spi-

Spirit—we ascribe this ^A to each of the three persons, or sometimes to the one substance of the three. If, therefore, we read them joined together, "We believe in one God the Father," we accommodate the meaning of the word "One" to the person of the Father. But if we say, "In one God," and pause here, then add "the Father," signifying the one substance of the divinity, we proceed to the Trinity of the persons.

"I believe in one God." The word "God" is not significant of essence, nor is it a name of the divine nature. For just as He stands above all intellect, so He escapes every name. But it is ^B a symbol of the virtue of the divine essence. For it does not represent the existence of God, but the power and efficacy that proceeds from Him toward us, divinizing us.

"I believe in one God Almighty." We conceive the Father as the cause who brings forth the Godhead, from whom, as it were, certain divine offshoots are born—according to the most wise Dionysius the Areopagite—the Son and the Spirit are recognized. For the Fatherhood in God is not derived from the paternal relationship found in created things by God, or from fruitfulness; but it is derived as a, so to speak, natural reflection of the super-essential divinity's fruitfulness, which is beyond all nature, into created things. And this ^C latter copies the former, but not the other way around. Now the divine Symbol has taken the Father first, not because He is first or greater, but because He is the cause of the Son and of the Spirit. These are caused, but not causes. Or if they are causes, they are not of the Father, but with the Father, according to the common causality of the divinity, and of all creatures beneath God, as cooperating and co-creating with the Father—not as if they were in need of each other's cooperation, God forbid; for the divinity is perfect and whole in each of the persons; but as there is one operation, power, and will of the three.

"The Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth."

Euthymius Zigabenus; Exposition of the Symbol

^A Of all things visible and invisible. For the creator of the immaterial and incorporeal substance is not one, and the creator of this material and apparent one another; nor is God the creator of the angels, while the angels themselves are creators of the rest. By the addition of "all things," we believe that none of the things that exist falls outside of the creation of God. ^B And in one Lord Jesus Christ. By this we overthrow the Jewish opinion, which attributes the authority of singular dominion to one person. This word also separates the foolish Arius from the Church, as well as the Libyan Sabellius, Paul of Samosata, Marcellus, and those who share the sentiments of Sabellius. For all these foolishly spouted out that there is one person of the Godhead. And in one Lord Jesus Christ. Because, although the Son of God assumed human nature, yet even so, there is one undivided hypostasis and one person from two natures and in two natures. Let, therefore, the man-worshipper Nestorius and Diodorus be ashamed, who speak of two hypostases just as they do of two natures; and likewise Dioscorus and Severus, and the most unfortunate Eutyches, who just as they taught one hypostasis, so too taught one nature. "Lord" [is used] because of His deity and the sovereignty of the divine essence; "Jesus," because of the assumption of human nature—for "Jesus" is translated in the Greek tongue as "Savior"; and "Christ," because of both together.

The only-begotten Son of God. The addition of the articles demonstrates that the Son is one, born from the essence of the Father. For although there are many sons, they have their sonship by grace; but this Son of God is a Son by nature, and not of another essence, but of the same. And ^C lest anyone say that "there was a time when He was not," and that on this account He is less than the Father, there follows what comes next: Born of the Father before all ages. For how could He who is the creator of the ages and, simply, of all things, exist after the ages? Thus, from this, His co-eternity is demonstrated, and Arius and Eunomius are struck down. Light from light, true God from true God. These things also establish the consubstantiality. Born, not made. For He is an offspring, not a creature nor a work. Consubstantial with the Father, through whom all things came to be. It signifies the equality of honor which He enjoys with the Father. For just as He was called omnipotent and creator of all, so too is the Son. Now, that which is consubstantial is that which is of the same essence and nature without any variation. ^D Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and Mary the Virgin and became man. Do you see how the holy Symbol teaches that the Son of God is not one person and the [son] of the Virgin another, but [that He is] one and the same?

For by this ^A it also removes Paul of Samosata and Nestorius, who blasphemously maintain this: that Christ is something altogether new, beginning from Mary. Indeed, the demented Apollinarius is also cast out from the Church by these words, being a plague different from the former ones. For they claimed that Christ began, so to speak, altogether from Mary; but those of the party of Apollinarius [claimed] that He possesses everything from above, and that He took nothing from the Virgin, but brought His flesh down from the regions above, and that He is not a perfect human. For they say that the mind was lacking in Him, and that in place of the mind, His divinity served Him. See, furthermore, how it first said He descended from heaven, then was incarnate. For it clearly fights against the dogma of Apollinarius. See also how we declare that He was incarnate in truth, not by an illusory appearance. For we do not say that there was a phantom of an incarnation, as Manes ^B, Cerdo, and Marcion claimed.

*From the Holy Spirit and Mary the Virgin.* He did not come through Mary the Virgin, as Apollinarius said, nor did the Son of God enter among us as if through some virginal conduit, namely the womb, bringing down from above the flesh as if it were always essentially joined to Him, as Valentinus raved; but [He was born] of the Holy Spirit and Mary the Virgin.

*From the Holy Spirit.* Because it was God who was formed as an infant in the virginal womb. *From Mary the Virgin,* because what was assumed by Him was from her essence; she who truly was a virgin, being indeed also ever-virgin. For she had not been known by a man before He was born, as Carpocrates and his like-minded Massalians claimed, ^C nor after the birth. By these [words], Apelles also is driven from the true flock of Christ, he who claimed that He was not from Mary the Virgin, but that He had constructed for Himself flesh from the four elements, into which it was also later dissolved when He returned to heaven.

*Who descended.* One must understand the descent not as a transfer of place, but as a condescension toward us.

*Incarnate and made man.* That is, He assumed not only flesh, but also soul and mind and the whole man in every way, not according to [the teaching of] Apollinarius.

*Crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.* Behold, Basilides is also rejected by this, who says that Simon the Magician suffered, ^D who was reputed to be Christ; just as the Ishmaelites also believe that He was a prophet and beloved of God and taken up into heaven, and they say that while He indeed suffered, it was his shadow that was crucified. *Under Pontius Pilate.* And this [is added] so that, by history which diligently teaches the time, those who say that Christ was born of Mary, the sister of Moses, might be confuted.

...... *And suffered and was buried, and rose again on the third*

day according to the Scriptures.* ^A He says he suffered and was buried, not that he appeared to suffer and to be buried, but that he truly underwent passion and death and burial.

*And rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures.* The ancient ones. For the three-day resurrection of the Savior was typified through the old [Scriptures] and ^B pre-signified through the prophecies. And perhaps they mean not only these, but also the Scriptures of the Gospel, in which the resurrection of the Lord is clearly proclaimed.

*And ascended into the heavens.* This casts out of the Church those heretics called Christolytes, who say that he ascended into the heavens with his divinity alone, and not with a body. For just as he rose with a body, so he ascended with a body.

*And is seated at the right hand of the Father.* Just as when we say that he descended, although he did not have his flesh from there, we nevertheless say that he existed in a body and conversed with us through a body—not with his divinity alone—so we also understand that he ascended with a body. What does it mean to "sit at the right hand"? It means that the Son is not inferior to the Father, nor is he diminished because he became man. His sitting indicates his ^C equality and dominion. For it is not proper for a servant to sit.

*And he will come again with glory.* "He will come" signifies his sovereignty and true authority.

*To judge the living and the dead.* To judge is to divide and to render to each according to the merit of his works. By the "living," we understand those who have believed in Christ and have confirmed their faith with good works; but by the "dead," those who have not believed, even if they appear to have good works, and who, though they have faith, are not nonetheless illuminated by the works of faith.

*Of whose kingdom there will be no end.* For since he himself is immortal, his kingdom also will be everlasting.

*And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life.* These things signify the nature of the Spirit and his relation to the Father, and that he is a subsistent person. ^D The Spirit is properly spoken of here as the hypostasis which proceeds. "Giver of life," in fact, because he is also Life. For what he has, he also bestows upon others.

*Who proceeds from the Father.* This is characteristic of the person of the Spirit. It shows his relation to the Father.

*Who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified together.* This demonstrates equality of honor and dignity. For there is one power and one glory of the three.

*Who spoke through the prophets.* This signifies an operation of the Spirit, from which... it is not an operation. For that which speaks is an agent, not an operation.

*In one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.*

church. For the Holy Spirit has not spoken in one way through the prophets and in another through the apostles. ^A And “holy,” as having received holiness by participation from the One who is truly and by nature holy. “Catholic,” because it has gathered all the nations into its bosom, and not one only, as of old the synagogue of the Jews. “Apostolic,” from the apostles who established it.

I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. Faith and baptism are two modes of our salvation.

I look for the resurrection of the dead. By the “looking for,” [we speak] against those who deny that it exists at all; and by “of the dead,” [we speak] against those who say that the resurrection is the succession of those who are born.

And the life of the world to come. Amen. By the “life of the world to come,” [we speak] against those who say that the life there will be such as it is here, and that the bodies will be of such a nature as to be filled and emptied, and to enjoy passionate pleasures. For the life of the world to come is different from the present one. The ^B “Amen” is, as it were, a seal placed at the end, meaning, “With all truth.”

NOTICE REGARDING THE SUBSEQUENT DISPUTATION

When I was asking whether, besides the two victorious Nicetas, some third vanquisher of the Saracen superstition existed in the Vatican codices, the disputation of Euthymius Zigabenus with a Saracen philosopher came conveniently to notice in codex Vat. Ottob. 353; and the same exists, though much more imperfect and varying, in codex Vat. 952: omitting the latter, I have followed the former, which is complete, even if by no means immune from errors. Furthermore, who is ignorant of Euthymius Zigabenus, a learned and famous man in the 12th century under the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, whose *Panoplia*, published long ago in Latin and Greek, is famous above his other writings? Therefore, since we have now provided in this volume almost a certain *Panoplia* against Mohammed with the militant equipment of the Nicetas, we have rightly added now this armoury of Euthymius, not previously placed in the public arsenals of the Church; although this study is also conserved in the Viennese codex (see Lambecius with Kollar, book IV, p. 251, cod. 88), where our Euthymius is not called "the Monk" as in the Vat. Ottob. codex, but "the Great"; which more truthful designation we have deemed preferable; because indeed that other Euthymius, of the surname "the Great," whose Life was written by Cyril of Scythopolis, is distinct and far more ancient. (I also recall that a Greek dialogue of Sisinnius the grammarian, between a Christian and a Saracen, exists in an ancient codex in the Ambrosian library of Milan, q. 2, part. sup.)

OF OUR HOLY FATHER EUTHYMIUS THE MONK: DISPUTATION ON THE FAITH WITH A SARACEN PHILOSOPHER IN THE CITY OF MELITENE

1. Interrogation of the Saracen: How do you confess polytheism, and introduce generation into God, [and why do you say] Father and Son and Holy Spirit? Show these things to us. Euthymius says…

We believe in one God, uncreated, without beginning, uncircumscribed, incomprehensible, unsearchable, whom no one has ever seen. But we say that the Word and the Spirit are God, not indeed as created things, but having the same substance and nature as the Father. We see the heaven and the earth, the sun and the moon, the stars, stones, and wood, which are inanimate and irrational; it was necessary, therefore, that the Creator of these things should be the provider of life; for it is impossible that the Creator should be like the creature: irrational and breathless. We see, however, that among all created things the most beautiful creature is man; and if man partakes of reason and spirit, how should the Creator be void of reason and spirit? And if He were void of them, He would not be the cause of created things; for that which has neither reason nor spirit is nothing other than wood or stone. For indeed, those divinely inspired by prophetic, heavenly knowledge preach one God, who is possessed of reason and spirit. David indeed says this: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were fixed, and by the spirit of his mouth all their power" (Ps. XXXII, 6). And the angels in the all-holy hymn glorify Him thus: "Holy, Holy, Holy; heaven and earth are full of his glory." And do you not see yourself how even the angels glorify the holy Trinity?

2. I shall also offer another analogy. The human mind is the leader, producer, and cause ^B of our word and spirit. And if we say that the mind is spirit, do we render the word empty, or is the word alienated from the nature of the mind? The Saracen says: Not at all. Euthymius says: Is the mind the parent of the word, or not? The Saracen says: Yes. Euthymius says: I have shown you the fatherhood in God. The Saracen says: And how are these conjoined? How do you say that God was incarnate? And if He was incarnate, who remained in heaven, and who was governing the world? Euthymius says: Is the sun self-luminous and of one subsistence, or does it partake of another? The Saracen says: In the sun there are three subsistences: the receptacle, the light, and the rays. Euthymius says: And the rays of the sun, which govern the whole earth, even if a ray of the sun goes down into a very deep well, is the ray alienated from the sun or from the light? The Saracen says: Not at all; but the light that appears on the earth is the same as that which is above. Euthymius says: So if the sun, ^C a created and corruptible thing, illuminates both above and below, how much more the Creator of all things, who, while present in the virginal womb, was Himself also in heaven and over all creation?

3. The Saracen says: And if He was incarnate and born of Mary, how then is it said that Mary was a virgin? The holy Euthymius says: Violation of virginity occurs through the coupling of two bodies, while sin is being committed. But the almighty God acts ^D differently, who, whatever

^A he wills, his power to accomplish something conquers the custom of nature. The Saracen says: And what is the need for such a mystery, that God should become man? Euthymius says: That he might crush the adversary, the devil, and save man. The Saracen says: Could God, remaining in heaven, not have sent an angel, or by a single word have defeated the devil, without needing to become man for that reason? And how was it possible for man to battle the devil? Euthymius says: If God had entered into battle with the devil, the devil would have ascribed this to his own praise and boast; for he was cast down in the hope of attaining divinity. And it is no wonder if he said: I was overcome, but I was deceived by flesh; just as the fisherman puts bait on the hook to deceive the fish: for when the fish sees it, it enters the net and is caught, not knowing ^B that within the flesh there lies the powerful strength of iron. Thus also think of God for me: having clothed himself in flesh, and having set it before the demon, the devil approaching to attack the flesh in his customary manner was overcome by the divinity hidden within the flesh.

4. The Saracen says: You, being of yesterday, how do you know the things before the ages? Euthymius says: Was the creature lesser than the Creator, or otherwise? The Saracen says: Yes. Euthymius says: Were heaven and earth and all things created by someone, or were they self-created? The Saracen says: By someone. Euthymius says: It is evident that the Creator had active power even before the ages; and from visible creatures we know also the things before the ages. The Saracen says: How do you say that the begotten Son was not created, but is co-eternal with the Father? Euthymius says: That which is created in part, is subject to corruption and change; but in the divine and uncircumscribed part, his nature had to be uncreated and co-eternal. The Saracen says: How do you speak of Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit? And since you say three, how are they naturally one substance and power? Do they not each have their own nature and power of acting? Euthymius says: The mind of a king is a mind, is it not? The Saracen says: Indeed. Euthymius says: And his word and his spirit are the king’s, or are they not? The Saracen says: They are indeed the king’s. Euthymius says: Behold, as you say, are there three natures in the king, and three powers of acting? The Saracen says: ^C Indeed, in the king there are three powers of acting, but one king. Euthymius says: So therefore, I also do not divide the one God into three gods, but I speak of one God with the Word and the Spirit.

5. The Saracen says: How do you say that God was united to humanity, and that this human himself was called God? And how was the substance of the divinity joined to the earthly substance? Whence can you show this? From what signs and from what testimonies? Euthymius says: What do you think of the prophet Moses and Isaiah? Are they acceptable witnesses, or not? The Saracen says: Yes.

^A Euthymius says: If we alone witness that our Scripture is true, we appear to be liars. For God himself bears witness through the countless miracles performed in our Churches. Yet, let me also tell you the reason why it is confessed that the devil was originally an angel of God, and fell—yes, or no? The Saracen says: Yes. Euthymius says: And having fallen, whom did the devil envy and overcome? The Saracen says: Man. Euthymius says: God, caring for human nature, did not allow it to be tyrannized by Satan, but by a saving economy He was united to humanity, just as the holy prophets clearly teach us. Hear the most vocal Isaiah saying: *For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and his name shall be called the Angel of the great counsel, the mighty God, the powerful, the Prince of peace, the Father of the future age. Do you see how the prophet called Him both child and God? And what do you think of Moses, who saw the bush burning and not being consumed? Is such a miracle worthy of the Divinity, or not?

^B 6. The Saracen says: And how was it possible for God to be made palpable in a man, and not be changed? Euthymius says: Just as fire is united to iron; and where the nature of fire works its own things, and the iron works its own, so also the soul the divine things, and the body the things that are of the body; so also it happened in Christ: as God He worked the divine things, and as man He worked the human things; and both preserved their own properties. The Saracen says: Since you say three, you will be able to say four and also five. Euthymius says: When you have mentioned word and spirit in man, can you add anything else? The Saracen says: No. Euthymius says: Neither do I make any addition to the Holy Trinity. ^C The Saracen says: And why do you worship carved wood, and why do you worship icons in a godly manner? Euthymius says: He who honors and venerates the appearance of the king's image, does he do so to honor the king, or to dishonor him? The Saracen says: To honor him. Euthymius says: We also venerate the holy icons for the sake of honor, and we do not make them gods, as you say. The Saracen says: Why do you mix the bread and the wine, and distribute them to men, saying that it is the body and blood of Christ? How is it possible for bread to become body, and wine blood? ^D Euthymius says: When bread is consumed by men, what does it become in a man? Body, or something else? The Saracen says: Body. Euthymius says: And how is it possible for a man to eat flesh? For things which are according to nature cannot become contrary to nature. For the bread which we receive with reverence, through the grace infused into it, becomes clothing and light for the soul.

^A

7. The Saracen says: Why have you hidden the Gospel that came down from heaven, and written a new one? Euthymius says: Who testifies to this, and whence do you know it? The Saracen says: Mohammed teaches it, saying: When Christ had ascended into heaven, and his disciples were sleeping, the Gospel descended upon them, and they, upon rising, delivered it to you; but you hid it because the name of Mohammed was written therein. Euthymius says: We do not accept the scriptures of sleepers; for no man of sound mind and master of his own reason would disregard the sense and knowledge of his waking eyes to accept the phantasms of dreams. For God does not seek virtue or judgment from sleeping men, because God is not the God of sleepers, but of those who are awake. ^B

The Saracen says: How do you say that Christ, having been taken up, sent the Holy Spirit to his own disciples? Why, while present, did he not give it to them? But whereas you say that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, yet Christ ascended above, and the Spirit descended, and preached a different doctrine; and if it is so, a division occurred in the Holy Trinity. Euthymius says: A physician is not accustomed to mix salutary medicines for men who are in infirmity, unless he has first purged them; and only after the purging does he offer the medicines to be drunk. Think of Christ in this way with me, so that it may not seem to some that he teaches merely by his own capacity or even by phantasy, or as man only, and not as God; but as God, he first purged them from the material passions of their sins while he was present with them. Then, after his assumption into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit, showing his perfect divinity and that he was present also in the heavenly places. ^C

8. The Saracen says: Since Christ was circumcised, why are you not circumcised, and why do you not wash yourselves in water? Just as Isaiah says: Wash yourselves, become clean. But you enter into your churches unwashed. Euthymius says: Circumcision was given to the Jews because they were living in the midst of nations of unbelievers and idolaters, as a sign of the knowledge of God and of one flock. But as for "Wash yourselves," which Isaiah said, he once prescribed this, foretelling the grace of divine baptism; for he did not say, "Wash yourselves daily," but, "Wash yourselves once." For washing oneself daily is proper to mud-wallowers, not to rational men, but to swine; for God does not demand of men the cleansing of a sewer, but a clean heart. The Saracen says: And you, why do you confess your sins to an earthly man, and plead for forgiveness? Euthymius says: God, desiring the salvation of all, did not allow man to ^D be troubled by the evils springing up in his heart from the wicked one without confessing them to the Lord God; for the man who is dear to God will not be prosperous in his victory against the wicked one.

^A For God, desiring the salvation of all, did not allow man to be mocked by shameful thoughts, actions, and Satanic works, but by means of the present confession, he caused him to acquire strength, to restrain himself, and to abstain from evil. The Saracen says: "Why, when you communicate at the time of death, do you say that you are partakers of paradise?" Euthymius says: "No one can enter the king’s house, sit beside him, and feast with him, unless he wears the king’s garment and is his intimate friend; for the king, and not only he but even his servants, cast out a stranger."

[9.] The Saracen says: "Who is the witness that God was incarnate? And for what reason?" Euthymius says: "Let there be six credible witnesses from us: Abraham, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel." The Saracen says: "These are certainly excellent witnesses and prophets." Euthymius says: "To Abraham, God said: 'I will establish my covenant between me and thy seed' (Gen. xvii, 7). Observe the force of the word; for the covenant was the manifestation of a fearful mystery. And David says: 'God shall come manifestly; He bowed the heavens and came down' (Psal. xlix, 3). Then Jeremiah says: 'This is our God, no other shall be accounted besides Him.' After these things, He appeared on earth and lived among men. And again: 'Then will there be universal salvation, when a virgin shall bring forth, and all nations shall adore the wood' (Baruch iii, 36, 38). And Isaiah says: 'Behold a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which is, God with us' (Isa. vii, 14). And Ezekiel, prophesying the birth of Christ which was to come from Mary, said: 'This gate shall be shut, and no one shall pass through it, except the God of Israel' (Ezech. xliv, 2). What seems to you to be the case? Are the words of the prophets true or otherwise? How was it necessary [unless] for God [to be born] without seed?"

The Saracen says: "Give us a likeness of the divinity and the humanity, so that I may understand this." Euthymius says: "From where does the nature of the pearl originate?" The Saracen says: "From lightning, the sun, and the shell." Euthymius says: "And ^B is the lightning altered by being united with the shell?" The Saracen says: "Not at all." Euthymius says: "Just as the lightning enters into the shell and is 'incarnated' without confusion, and becomes a pearl, and we say the brightness is the nature of the lightning, and the palpable part is the nature of the flesh of the shell, so also the divine nature, having been incarnated, became God and man."

[10.] The Saracen says: "If this is how it is, how do you say that Christ, the Word of God, was crucified and died?" Euthymius says: "God forbid that we should say of the Word of God that He was crucified and died. But let me tell you a likeness: when they pierce a pearl, what nature suffers? Is it that of the lightning or the shell?" The Saracen says: ^D

^A "The shell." Euthymius says: "So it happened also in the case of Christ: the flesh alone was crucified and died." The Saracen says: "And when the flesh died, was the divinity separated from the flesh, or not?" Euthymius says: "Is the nature of the lightning separated when the shell suffers?" The Saracen says: "Not at all." Euthymius says: "And if the nature of the lightning does not suffer, how was the divine nature to suffer with the body?" The Saracen says: "How then, such a mystery having taken place, and God having become man, in order that He might save man, as you say, how is it that the devil does not cease from ceaselessly warring against the human race?" Euthymius says: "Let me tell you a likeness. A certain king had a very faithful friend. An enemy, seeing the immense esteem and love which the king had for him, came and, making a crafty incursion, plundered the king's friend and destroyed his goods. ^B And the enemy, having taken the friend of the king, beat him cruelly, and binding him with heavy chains, cast him into a most deep and dark pit; and he remained there miserably, as if inconsolable. The king, therefore, mindful of the former happiness of his friend, and again of his subsequent misery, coming down through bowels of mercy, economically in royal power against the enemy, did not contend over the goods, but contended to liberate his friend from the bitter and terrible torment. Having overcome and crushed that malignant one, he delivered him to the tormentors; though even so he did not cease from vexing the king's friend. By parity of reasoning, think with me on the divine condescension: for He did not come under any pressing necessity to suppress scandals, but to liberate man. Furthermore, that we act badly or well is a matter of our own will and conscience; since He has imparted to us the knowledge of both." ^C

11. The Saracen says: "Since you say that you were bought with precious blood, tell me from whom you were sold, and for whom Christ shed His blood? And again, you say that you were formerly slaves of the devil, and that Christ coming liberated you; and if you say that He gave His blood to the devil as a price, does this not become a ruinous blasphemy?" Euthymius says: "We call the mercies of God and His ineffable compassion a 'sale' and a 'purchase': a 'sale', because, having inclined to the opposite, we were cast away from God and departed; a 'purchase', we call His immense compassion and condescension. But let me tell you a likeness, since you do not grasp this mystery; but by this recited likeness, you will be able to understand it at last. A certain king possessed a country, fine and large. But there [a disease] ^D creeping in, was utterly devastating it. The king, therefore, being sorrowful, having called his best physicians, asked their opinion; and though he sent many, the disease could not be healed. Now there were in the country of the king malicious men and sorcerers.

^A What then did the king do? Having one only-begotten son, he clothed him in a sheep's skin and sent him into his own country. But those malicious children of that country, seeing him, took him and killed him. And the king, taking with his own hands the blood of his son and giving it to the people to drink, brought his own country back from death to life. Consider, I pray you, in the same way concerning the venerable body and blood of Christ, that neither angel nor prophet was able to deliver man from the tyranny of the devil, except the Author of our life and salvation Himself, God, through His own body and blood.

12. The Saracen says: Why, when Mohamed is proclaimed a prophet by the prophet Isaiah, and is proclaimed a prophet and written of in your Scripture, do you reject him? Euthymius says: Set your mind and your conscience before God to the words of Isaiah. The Saracen says: If it is God, it will not be ambiguous. ^B Euthymius says: What do you think of this prophet Isaiah? Was he a servant of God and a true prophet, or not? The Saracen says: A very great prophet and servant of God. Euthymius says: Such a divine and great prophet as Isaiah says these things about Mohamed: "The Lord took away from Jerusalem the great and the small, the head and the tail, the lawless prophet teaching lawless things; for what is the tail? And let him be deceiving and deceived." These things Isaiah says concerning Mohamed. ^C The Saracen says: Tell us, since Divine Scripture says: "Woe to those who with timbrels and flutes drink their wine," and "Do not be drunk with wine, in which is debauchery," why do we see Christians indulging in drunkenness and diabolical dances? They act in a way totally alien to the Christian institution. Are they then to share in the kingdom of God? Euthymius says: Far be it! Do not be deceived, since Scripture says: "The Lord is righteous, and He loves righteousness." Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor drunkards, nor thieves, nor the effeminate, nor those who lie with males, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, unless one does the will of God. ^D

13. And after other things, Euthymius said to the Agarene: Tell us, O most wise of the Agarenes, you say that Mohamed is called a prophet of God and an apostle. Whence do you have this to show, and by what witnesses? For we see that you do not perform judgment, nor marriages, nor sales, nor purchases, nor dissolutions of marriage, nor any other matter whatsoever, without written testimony. But this Mohamed, whom you say is your prophet, is altogether without testimony and without foundation. For it is known to everyone that he was a mercenary, and that he spent the whole time of his life, fifty-five years, in every kind of luxury and impurity, and indeed for forty years he was an impious idolater. In the last fifteen years he began to practice a false religion, being taught by a certain astronomer monk, who himself was not right in the ortho- (dox faith...

but labored under the perverse doctrine and false dogmas of Nestorius; whom Mohamed, drunk on unmixed wine, also killed with his own sword; for which reason he forbade the drinking of wine. But after he adopted what appeared to him to be a "right" religion, his whole life was nothing else but luxury, obscene acts, adulteries, sodomy, murders, robberies, and injuries. And if the devil has produced any evil in this vain world, this Mohamed has committed it, and even surpassed his own father, Satan. And if you deny this, his doctrine nevertheless bears witness to it, and his deeds themselves cry out. But our true God of the Christians does not reside in such impure and filthy men, but remains far away from them.

14. Hear then about his conduct and the rewards of his life, and the fulfillment of his doctrine, since he says that the number of the prophets of his God was one hundred and twenty-four thousand. Now tell me: did God have a war against someone, so that He needed so many auxiliaries? Or had the angels defected from Him, and did He therefore bring in such a rampart, as it were, to set up as a barrier to the war? And yet our true Christ, the God of the Christians, strikes terror with a single tremor of the earth, and ^B both heaven and earth and all that is in the earth are shaken. It remains for you to demonstrate to me why there was a need for one hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets. Furthermore, recite for us their names, and where they were from, and their homelands and stations. For after they lived religiously, or rather irreligiously, they also instructed your false prophets: the names of which prophets Mohamed found written on a certain herb. He bought that herb, which was useful to him for perverse and unbridled fornication, to such an extent that his lust and lasciviousness could never be satisfied. Why then do you say of an unclean man, a murderer, a tyrant, a plunderer, a robber, a deceiver, that he is a prophet and messenger of God? And that God sent His angel to Mohamed? Who is the witness present to prove that he was sent by God as a prophet and messenger? By what miracles do you show him to be a prophet? Where are his prophecies? ^C What kind of vision of an angel was it, through which he was taught to fornicate, and to act in a sodomitical manner, and to engage in other shameful acts, which I am forbidden to recite lest I defile the minds of my hearers? Truly, your God is vain, and so is his angel who taught you to commit every kind of luxury. ^D Truly, your God is vain and his angel, who commanded you to practice every kind of uncleanness.

15. Then again he says to you that in Paradise there are three rivers; one flows with honey, the second with milk, and the third is full of wine, but with no water at all. But drinking unmixed wine, necessarily becoming drunk and lying senseless with a heaviness of head, you will not enjoy paradise; rather, instead of a rest from labor, and instead of honor you will experience disgrace, and instead of a kingdom, punishment and the wakeful worm. Tell us also about the female camel, which

the undying worm. Tell us also about the camel, which you say feeds in Paradise, and that having been created at the beginning, it received immortality in Paradise—your prophet lying, for our God sent Adam forth into the earth from which he had been taken. From that time on, all things became subject to death, and your camel alone obtained immortality. If, therefore, your camel is immortal, as you say, and is within Paradise, and continues to grow year by year for so many ages, surely Paradise would be burdened by its bulk, and no man would be able to enter there.

16. ^B Likewise you speak also concerning Mecca, that it is the house of God. When we Christians ask you, "From where do you journey to worship for such a stretch of days? And where, then, is that place?" you say to us that it is the house of God, a larder, a kitchen, a storeroom, or a treasury. Explain to us, we pray, what this house is; and how is it that you do not know the tomb of your prophet, yet you honor his relics as those of a prophet and messenger of God? And if God truly dwells in that house and in that alone, then of necessity there would be a fearful mystery in that place, whatever you may say about the wonders that occur there through the magnet, which all proclaim. But there is also the dog itself, emerging from the lake and coming toward you, which you call the "grace of God"—O the depth of such inhumanity and ignorance! Such are the ravings of your prophet; which of those who are in their right mind could recount them? Namely, that a detestable dog is the grace of God! And again, the same Muhammad teaches, saying that inside Paradise before the sight of God, in an imbecilic and insatiable manner, sexual intercourse takes place ^C (8). Time would fail me in narrating such things, and I would pollute the very air if I were to recount the myths full of falsehood and the detestable words of Muhammad.

The Saracen says: "I am bested, I surrender. How great is the faith of the Christians! I therefore give you thanks for this knowledge of God imparted to me, O man of God. For the things that you Christians say are true. God Himself is witness. Come now, O servant of God, and administer baptism to me."

I said above that I had constructed a certain Panoply against the sect of Muhammad in this volume. However, there remains in another Vatican codex a Dialogue of a Christian man with an Ishmaelite, of which script, however, I shall offer only a brief specimen, lest I pile up more chapters which contain almost the same objections and responses, with only the words changed.

DIALOGUE OF A CHRISTIAN WITH AN ISMAELITE BY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS CONCERNING THE IRREPREHENSIBLE FAITH OF THE CHRISTIANS

CHRIST. You confess that Christ is the Word and Spirit of God, whom, however, you say is created? ^D

ISMAELITE. Certainly, I speak of him so. CH. But do you call God Himself created or uncreated? J. I say God is uncreated. CH. Do you call God spiritual and rational, or otherwise? J. I say that He is spiritual and rational. CH. Come then, do you call Christ the Word and the Spirit of this same uncreated, spiritual, and rational God, or of another God? J. Indeed, I say and confess that He is of this same God. CH. It follows, therefore, that God, being uncreated, spiritual, and rational, as you say and as it is right to say, possesses an uncreated Word and Spirit. For since you confess God to be uncreated, spiritual, and rational, but afterwards say that His Word and Spirit are created, it follows that God Himself is irrational and spiritless, etc. J. You say that the Virgin gave birth to Christ without seed, and again, after she had brought him forth, she remained a virgin or not? CH. Truly I say that she was a virgin, and that she gave birth to Christ without seed, and that after the birth she remained a virgin again, etc.

EUTHYMII ZIGABENI CONFUTATIO ET EVERSIO IMPIÆ ET MULTIPLICIS EXSECRABILIUM MASSALIANORUM SECTÆ, QUI ET PHUNDAITÆ ET BOGOMILI, NEC NON EUCHITÆ, ENTHUSIASTÆ, ENCRATITÆ, ET MARCIONITÆ APPELLANTUR

THE REFUTATION AND OVERTHROW OF THE IMPIOUS AND MULTIFORM SECT OF THE ABOMINABLE MASSALIANS, WHO ARE CALLED PHUNDAITÆ AND BOGOMILS, AND ALSO EUCHITES, ENTHUSIASTS, ENCRATITES, AND MARCIONITES

Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ ^C delivered to us, most beloved brothers, through His holy disciples and apostles, the pure and sincere mystery of the faith, and at the same time He warned that in the last days many false prophets and false Christs would arise, against whom we must be exceedingly on our guard. Nor did the Apostle Paul speak otherwise in his Epistle to Timothy, foretelling: "In the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and doctrines of demons, under the guise of those acting as impostors, [l]whose own conscience is seared, obstructing marriage, and abstaining from foods, which God..."

himself provided for the human race, that the faithful and those illuminated by the light of the truth might enjoy them with thanksgiving; for every creature of God is good, provided it is received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God; and thus it is fit for consumption. The same also says elsewhere: "Of these are they who creep into houses and make captives of silly women loaded with various concupiscences, always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Wherefore it is right, brothers, that we should lend attentive ears to these words of our Savior and God warning us, and of the Apostle preaching. For as it was predicted to us, we are now living in those last times, and that confused and multi-named sect of the Massalians, or Bogomils, dominates, spread far and wide through all cities, and all regions and prefectures; and its leaders never cease corrupting the simpler ^B of men and bringing them over to their side. For since these enemies of Christ call themselves Christians, they mingle themselves easily with those who think rightly, being hidden by that specious name, and they are not recognized—that under a sheep’s skin rapacious wolves are hiding—and they open for themselves an opportunity and a way from the holy and venerable Scriptures to bring forth and propagate their vain and mendacious doctrine. But when once they have been admitted under this mask and have won over the minds and ears of their listeners, then at last they vomit forth their venom and, having now become familiar, they spew out the impious dogmas of Satan; which we now, together with them, as false and impious and alien to the sentiment and faith of the catholic Church, subject to anathema.

Anathematisms

Anathematism 1. To Peter, the leader of the Massalian, or ^C Lucopetrian, and Phundagiast, and Bogomil heresy, who called himself Christ and promised that he would rise again after death, and was on that account named Lucopetrus, because, when he had been justly buried under stones for his infinite impostures, his most wicked fellow-mystics, who were sitting by his abominable corpse expecting the resurrection he had promised them after three days, a wicked demon in the likeness of a wolf was seen to emerge from the heap of stones, anathema.

Anathem. 2. To Tychicus, his fellow-mystic and disciple, who corrupted and perverted the other sacred Scriptures, and especially the entire Gospel according to Matthew, and who twisted all the sayings concerning God the Father, and also those concerning the Holy Spirit, to his own spiritual Father, and explained them as such, and in this way transferred the glory of God to the authors of his abominable sect, anathema.

Anathem. 3. To Dadoes, and Sabas, and Adelphius, and Hermas, and Simeon, and the others who have drawn the venom of such a ^D

heresy, and have deceived the simpler sort of men, both men and women, and have dragged them down into the pit of destruction, anathema. ^A

Anathem. 4. To those who say that, besides the holy and life-giving Trinity—that is, the Father God of the Word who was made flesh, and the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ, and the all-holy Spirit—there is some other Trinity, or even a higher power, having its seat in the highest of the seven heavens, according to the abominable vision falsely ascribed by them to Isaiah, anathema.

Anathem. 5. To those who introduce other Scriptures or sacred books than those which the Holy Spirit has proclaimed and the holy Fathers have handed down to us, anathema. ^B

Anathem. 6. To those who say that marriage, which is contracted in the name of the Lord, and the eating of meat, which is permitted by God, are abominable to God, and who therefore reject and condemn both, anathema.

Anathem. 7. To those who reject and blame as empty loquacity of repetitive invocation all the prayers and sacred songs handed down to us—first indeed by the divine Apostles, for it says: *Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs* (Eph. v. 18, 19), ^C and then subsequently those left by the divine and blessed Fathers and doctors of the Church—and who, in the beginning of their falling away from God, teach that only the *Our Father, who art in heaven* should be prayed with adoration, without the signing of the sign of the cross on the face, pretending that our Lord Jesus Christ handed down to us that prayer, but in truth [doing so] in order to invoke their abominable father, Satan (for it is for his sake that they shrink from the sign of the cross, and they cannot even endure to hear the final doxology added by the divine luminaries and leaders of the Church to the Lord’s prayer for the glory of the consubstantial and undivided Trinity: *For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit*). To those, therefore, who think and teach in this way, and who persevere to the end in such perverse initiation, anathema. ^D

Anathem. 8. To those who turn away from the assemblies in the churches and preside in private places, and teach, under the pretext of desiring greater quiet, but in reality so that the dogmas of their profane error may not be refuted, but may remain hidden and unexamined, so that they might the more easily instill the entire poison of their sect into the souls of those led by them into error; to these, if they persevere in this error to the very end of their life, anathema.

^A Anathem. 9. To those who hold that the Churches handed down to us by the holy apostles to the honor of God ought not to be built, and who slander them as works of [human] hands and call them dwellings of demons, and who thus walk in a perverse way, and consequently reject the venerable erection and veneration of the divine and holy icons, as being altogether corrupt and putrid members, anathema.

Anathem. 10. To those who hasten to overturn the doctrine of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, which he commanded his holy disciples, that they should baptize those who believe in him in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and that unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of God; to those, therefore, who are blind to all these things, and who, agitated by the diabolical efficacy working within them, dare to drivel that holy baptism is mere water, as being men alien to our faith, and remote and cut off from the Church and from God himself, anathema.

^B Anathem. 11. To those who, indulging in similar trifles and delusions, call the venerable and life-giving cross a fork, and consider holy baptism to be mere water, possessing no remission of sins, nor [being] of the Spirit, but promise that it is they themselves who confer that which is the benefit of the Holy Spirit, when they clothe their own abominable initiates in the pseudo-monastic habit, and thereupon confer upon them the name of order ^C—or rather, bring the destruction of their souls and bodies—anathema.

Anathem. 12. To those who say that the partaking of the venerable body and blood of our Savior Jesus Christ is a partaking of mere bread and wine (and for this reason, those who have transferred from the laity approach with food and partake, for the sake of pretense and to remain hidden from informers, taking it as a supper of the Spirit; but as for those who have transferred from the presbyters, they have eaten) and [who] overturn the institution of the divine and awesome sacrifice, in such a way that they are clearly enemies of Christ, even if they themselves call themselves Chrystopolites, anathema.

^D Anathem. 13. To those who, for the subversion of all faith in God, observe many other evil things in those miserably initiated by them: who, instead of the divine and holy insufflation which we received from the Lord Christ for the mystical inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spit spittle—of which they themselves are most worthy—upon those initiated by them, doing to them what we do against the demons; and who, moreover, smear them from bottom to top, or from heel to head, with defiled water using sponges, which is done for the subversion of holy baptism and the illuminating presence of the Spirit of God, anathema.

^A Anathem. 14. Anathema to all heretics together. Long may the years of the good emperors be. Long may the years of our orthodox emperor be. Long may the years of our orthodox Porphyrogenitus emperor be. May God protect their power; may God grant peace to their kingdom. O Heavenly King, protect those on earth. Long may the years of the most holy and ecumenical patriarch be. These are the seeds of wicked impiety; these are the offspring of the evil Satan, who turns away from God. But we, the people of Christ, the chosen flock, cling with all our soul to the divine and apostolic teachings and to the traditions transmitted to us by the Fathers; fleeing with our whole mind those foul dogmas of impiety, and keeping far removed from their ruinous religion, we serve God with a pure heart, Him who is known and worshipped as the Trinity of Persons, or Subsistences; to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

OF EUTHYMIUS THE MONK

FROM THE VENERABLE MONASTERY OF THE PERIBLEPTOS

AN INVECTIVE TREATISE

AGAINST THE HERESY OF THE ABOMINABLE AND IMPIOUS HERETICS WHO ARE CALLED PHUNDAGIATAE,

The heresy of the abominable Phundagiatae, who call themselves Christopolitae, but in the West are called Bogomils, is as follows. These people do not worship God the creator of heaven and earth, nor the Mother of God, nor the precious cross, nor the holy mysteries, nor icons, nor divine temples, nor holy baptism, nor anything of those things which Christians venerate and worship; but they execrate and despise all of them. They believe in and worship the prince of this world, who is Satan, and with guile they feign Christianity, and the monastic habit, and the priesthood; and they hold the divine Scriptures in their mouths like bait, not because they desire them, but in order to deceive the