IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 312.
SAINT METHODIUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY NOTICE
(GALLAND, *Vet. Patr. Biblioth.*, III, Proleg., p. LI.)I. Methodius, also called Eubulius; at once of Olympus and of the Patarenses in Lycia, and afterwards Bishop of Tyre in Phoenicia, was removed by martyrdom about the year of Christ 312. The place of his passion is inquired into. The opinion which maintains that he suffered under Decius and Valerian is rejected. II. How great a man Methodius was, according to the testimonies of the ancients. Eusebius alone passed him over; for the reason, no doubt, that the holy Father drew his pen against Origen. III. He consigned many things to literary monuments. Among these, *The Banquet of the Ten Virgins* holds the first place. The excellence and utility of the work. Among the editions of this, the Combefisian stands out, which for that reason has been reviewed and adorned here. IV. The care and study involved in editing the book *On Free Will*. Whence its fragments were taken. V. There follow excerpts *On the Resurrection against Origen*. A work praised above others by Eustathius of Antioch. Compiled in the form of a dialogue, like the former. From Epiphanius in particular, and from Photius, sufficiently full fragments have been deduced and collated with manuscripts. Another noble excerpt is proposed. Cave’s improvident censure is blown away. VI. The remaining Methodian works are strictly set forth. Namely, the Photian excerpts *On Created Things*; scraps of the books *Against Porphyry*; a fragment from the sermon *On the Martyrs*; three homilies: *On Simeon and Anna*, *On Palm Branches*, and *On the Cross of the Lord*: to which are subjoined many other remains of Methodian works.
Methodius, who was also called Eubulius by Epiphanius A, that is to say about the year of Christ 312, held the episcopate first of Olympus and of the Patarenses in Lycia; for in those ancient times one prelate administered two or even more cities, and certainly in Lycia, as the learned Lequien B observed. And that Methodius was indeed bishop of the Patarenses, ancient codices and the Greek writers who mention him testify: but as for Olympus, besides Jerome C, Maximus also provided this information D: whose passage, certainly corrupt, as related to us below among the testimonies of the ancients, the learned Valesius [E] judged should be thus restored: 'Avάγνωθι Μεθοδίου τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος, καὶ Ὀλύμπου Ἀδριανουπόλεως ἐπισκόπου τῆς Λυκίας, τὰ κατ' αὐτοῦ (Ωριγένους) περὶ ἀναστάσεως γραφέντα. That is: "Read what Methodius, most holy martyr and bishop of Olympus, a city of Lycia, which is also called Adrianopolis, wrote against Origen on the resurrection." Then the holy Father undertook the governance of the Church of Tyre in Phoenicia, as the same Jerome testifies; who also relates that he underwent martyrdom in Chalcidene at the very end of the latest persecution. But Fabricius [F], summarizing these matters, writes back: *in Chalcide Syriæ* (in Chalcis of Syria): but from where he drew this, he does not state. And perhaps it is to be read thus in the Hieronymian text, whose common reading is also less approved by Tillemont [G]: so that, therefore, it would seem closer to the truth that the holy bishop of the Tyrians in Phoenicia was removed by martyrdom in a bordering region; and of such a kind was Chalcidene in Coelesyria, of which Chalcis is the capital. And the interpreter Sophronius is clearly understood to have accepted Jerome's words in no other way: for he translated, ἐν Χαλκίδι τῆς Ἀνατολῆς, "in Chalcis, a city of the Orient." Suidas [H] has the same, transcribing Sophronius. Furthermore, one should not listen to those who maintain that Methodius suffered under Decius and Valerian: for he wrote many things, not only against Origen long after Adamantius's death, but also against Porphyry, while that philosopher of Tyre was alive during the reign of Diocletian. And indeed this opinion, after the father of Church annals
A (i), was followed by most learned men, among whom are Holstenius (j), Allatius (k), Vossius (l), and Pearson (m).
II. Since things are as they are, with the third century drawing to a close, A holy Methodius shone forth, "a learned man and one who fought most vehemently for the truth," says Epiphanius (n), a man of excellent learning and a most sharp defender of the truth; indeed, a most eloquent martyr, in the judgment of Jerome (o), a man who certainly composed books of polished and orderly discourse (p). "And that truly," says the learned man (q), "is proclaimed to be Methodius's own glory: that in no one of his contemporaries did those gifts concur more liberally which could B complete a master of sacred doctrine in every respect." For his great and infused riches of wisdom were answered by a copious facility of speech and a rich elegance of writing, by the benefit of which his excellent thoughts have flowed down even to late posterity. In a word: just as no one has thought more profoundly than he, so it will not easily be found who has written more copiously, more eloquently, or more elegantly. Therefore the greatest Doctor rightly counted such an excellent Father and writer of the Church among his illustrious men, even though Eusebius passed him over. But the famous Valesius seems to have judged correctly when he says (r) that Eusebius for that reason made no mention of Methodius in his History, although he mentions many other ecclesiastical writers who were far inferior to Methodius; this was, of course, because that holy bishop of Tyre had sharpened the edge of his style against Origen, of whom that same bishop of Caesarea was a most devoted student. From this it is also, adds Valesius, that he wrote against the books of Porphyry after that same Methodius, as if incited by a certain emulation and hatred against Methodius. For Eusebius, in the sixth book of his Apology for Origen, was answering Methodius's objections: "How," he says, "did Methodius dare to write against Origen now, who has said such and such things about Origen's dogmas?" These words are cited by Jerome writing against Rufinus (s).
III. But Eusebius's silence and his envy detract nothing from Methodius's authority and doctrine. For the things which the holy Father committed to the monuments of literature—composed both against the enemies of the truth and for the expounding of sacred dogmas, and also for fostering religion and piety—are known to have been celebrated with the highest praises by the ancients who read them through. And would that they all survived! For they are small and tenuous, if you except one or two, which, whether by the injury of time or C by the neglect of men, have perished for the rest. But whatever survives, the mandates committed to memory by such a great Doctor and martyr, collected first in large part by Combefis, and now indeed all augmented and reviewed, presenting them here, we shall briefly discuss them singly, according to the order of reason in which we have arranged them.
Therefore, at the threshold of our Methodian collection appears the *Symposium of the Ten Virgins*, the primary and clearly the foremost of Methodius's works, to use the words D of Possinus (t), which is an illustrious monument and, as it were, a trophy of the victory won by Christian philosophy over Greek and pagan philosophy. For to whom, among those versed in the literature of the ancient Athenians, does it not immediately occur that Methodius contested in this work the famous *Symposium* of Plato? He contested it, however, not so much to express its elegance—which he did most beautifully—by imitating it, as to cleanse its depravity by castigating it, which was what he chiefly aimed at. Furthermore, the principal subject of the praises in this Methodian *Symposium* is divine virginity: to which every harmonious chorus appears to have been drawn from the heavenly sanctuary. Besides these, many other things occur which touch primarily upon the highest heads of the Christian faith: where, however, if some things occasionally seem to have been stated somewhat harshly or perhaps less exactly regarding deeper divine matters, let the prudent reader—having diligently examined and clearly explained all those things—look back to the most learned man who, not so long ago, in that excellent work entitled *The Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ manifest in the Scriptures and in Tradition*, examined the doctrine of the ante-Nicene Fathers more accurately and explained and illustrated every more obscure place (u).
This, moreover, is the excellent treatise of Methodius, which alone antiquity has preserved intact for us, and which Leo Allatius first of all published from a Vatican manuscript codex in Rome in the year 1656; he also, with his notes, undertook to prove that nothing is found in it that cannot be explained in a catholic manner to catholic ears: if indeed there occur any things that are slightly harsh, he strove with all effort to soften them. Then in the following year, 1657, the Methodian *Symposium* was published in Paris from the translation of Petrus Possinus: to which were added various readings from a Mazarin codex, with some observations of the illustrious Henricus Valesius. Finally, Franciscus Combefis, from the Greek Vatican and Mazarin codices, as well as Photius's excerpts, and having also compared the versions of Allatius and Possinus, published the same work again in Paris in the year 1672, and wove it into volume I of the *Newest Auctarium of the Library of the Fathers*.
We have taken care to have this Combefisian edition A printed. And indeed, the learned man does not seem to have labored in vain who presented the pamphlet, once and again circulated, repolished with new treatment. His own annotations, which were inconveniently read at the end of the work, we have placed under the text along with more select ones from Valesius; at the end, however, we have added those which Allatius adorned, indicating them in the context with an * appended. Finally, so that the reading and use of the work might be easier, we have divided every Methodian discourse into various sections, a complete conspectus of which we have provided according to our custom.
IV. Now let us proceed to review the remaining Methodian works, repeated from the Combefisian edition issued to the public in Paris in the year 1644. The *Convivium* of the ten virgins is followed by the book *On Free Will*, against the Valentinians in particular and Origen; concerning which the learned editor prefaces these things (v): "We give, he says, this work almost complete, gathered from three parts or excerpts. Joannes Meursius (x) had published the beginning and some part of the body, as if it were the whole book, without even slightly intimating the defect, which the title sufficiently argued. For there was nothing in the whole speech about free will, the treatment of which he indicated. The rest we have borrowed from the Photian [excerpts] (y), except for that excellent excerpt at the end, concerning free will itself, which the Rev. Father Jacobus Sirmond, S.J., most kindly allowed us to use, from which Photius had also transcribed a few things, and with which it seems Methodius closed this book; unless perhaps some things were added for ornament which Photius, studying only the doctrine, did not touch. Some things in the interpreter of Photius were found faulty, so that even they had to be rendered anew; and so that the whole speech might run in the same style of the interpreter." Thus far he. This work is written in the form of a dialogue between a Valentinian and an Orthodox Christian, on the most vexed question concerning the origin of evil; and so, that the context of the discourse may proceed more clearly, in our edition we have distinguished the speaking persons: the observations of Combefis, which at first were far distant from the text, we have restored each to its own place, with some little notes interspersed here and there. That we have also performed this in the remaining works, it suffices to have indicated once here.
V. There follow excerpts from the book *On the Resurrection against Origen*, which St. Jerome calls an egregious work. It is also praised by Eustathius of Antioch in these words (z): "Methodius, worthy of holy memory, wrote sufficiently on this theme, etc." That is, as interpreted by Allatius: "Methodius, of holy memory, wrote quite abundantly on that question," etc. And this book also, according to the fashion of a dialogue B composed by the holy Father, he inscribed to a certain Theophilus, whom he calls "most excellent" (a). In it, Methodius and Auxentius are introduced disputing or conversing with the Origenists Proclus and Aglaophon. That dialogue has been lost for a long time now. Its fragments, however, exist quite amply both in Epiphanius (b), and in Photius (c), who also preserved for us from the same work a compendious exposition of certain apostolic sayings, truly worthy of Methodius. Some things also occur in John of Damascus (d). Allatius (e) observes more about this work learnedly.
In the meantime, however, let us hear the editor whom we follow (f). "Although, he says, I had the intention that I might gather all the Methodian fragments of Epiphanius, together with other things of the same Methodius that might occur, into one, and that I might expend effort in correcting them where I saw they were quite corrupted, nevertheless the lack of better codices broke my attempt, than those which the most learned interpreter of Epiphanius, Petavius, S.J., had used; and for that reason I thought I would sufficiently achieve my goal if, from that book *On the Resurrection*, which Epiphanius himself indicates he had transcribed to about the middle, I were to edit anew only those things which were either new and unpublished, or, as new, could appear through the emendation of the text by means of better codices, and in a way as new through our interpretation. We have used a double codex for this: the one of the most eminent Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, in which grand and very ancient volume are contained the *Elements* of Damascenus; the other of the Rev. Father Sirmond, S.J., also ancient, in which an anonymous collector against the Eutychians was writing with his own hand and most kindly suggesting, for the sake of that keen propensity of his, which existed even in his advanced age, for illuminating antiquity with his own and another's pen in every way." Furthermore, the same editor, as far as the Photian excerpts are concerned, adds this (g): "We may perhaps appear to be doing what has already been done, in that we take care to provide again these Methodian things already given. Nevertheless, it will be that, with more accurate work, such as is usually defined by narrow limits, we may find something new for the illumination of our Methodius, which others, either neglecting or less perceiving it, as they hastened to other and greater works, passed by. Therefore, we will arrange a new version (whether others, after inspecting the matter and comparing all things, may judge it useless) to the Greek, and we will note subsequently if anything from others, especially Methodian works, might bring some light from comparison. We have, besides the printed works of Photius, also those once transcribed by the Rev. Father Sirmond, which might be of use." Thus far Combefis: who subsequently D from the same book *On the Resurrection*, excerpted a noble passage.
A It escaped the notice of the Catena of the most eminent Cardinal Mazarin and that of Corderius; it was published in Latin by him in his *Bibliotheca concionatoria*, Vol. II, page 263 sqq., a matter of which he himself makes mention among the authors reviewed in the first volume of the same *Bibliotheca*, page 30. We know that this gain, above others, emerges from this noble fragment—that it confirms from another source the *authenticity* [ἀθεντία] reported by John of Damascus: for in both instances that holy martyr argues dogmatically from the princes to the holy images, so that in both cases the prototype and standard are held for honor or for insult: I use the words of our editor for the former fragment taken from Damascus. This, indeed, was worth noting, that we might dilute the ill-advised censure of a heterodox man who, lest he be forced to acknowledge the cult of holy images, already confirmed in the third century by the authority and doctrine of Saint Methodius, set out to disparage the faith of John of Damascus. B
VI. There is subjoined from Photius the *Excerpt concerning created things* [ἐκλογὴ περὶ τῶν γεννητῶν], or an excerpt from the book *On Created Things*. But that Methodius committed to writing a work inscribed in this way, the ancients do not confirm. Jerome does indeed mention his *Commentaries on Genesis*, of which some fragments still survive in manuscript *Catenae*: whence it has seemed to some that the Photian excerpt was transcribed from these same commentaries. Be that as it may, in it the holy martyr disputes again against Origen, whom he calls a centaur; and he complains that he [Origen] has interwoven the "pearls of the guesthouse" [μαργαρίτας τοῦ ξενῶνος]—that is, the holier dogmas of the Church of Christ—with pagan notions. The word *xenon* occurs at the beginning of this excerpt, where Combefis offers various conjectures. But the translator of Photius correctly believes, as it seems, that it is to be understood as the common guesthouse of all, or the assembly of the faithful. For Suidas also uses it in that way. Consult also the learned men regarding Pollux and Hesychius. C
Furthermore, Methodius is found to have been the first of all to write in defense of the truth against Porphyry, to be followed later by Eusebius and Apollinaris. His work, highly celebrated by the ancients, had reached ten thousand lines, according to Jerome: but it has perished, except for a few rags which, after Combefis, we have brought forward from the Damascene *Parallela*. To these we have added a truly distinguished fragment on the divinity of Christ, which the diligence of Combefis retrieved from the Catena of the most eminent Cardinal Mazarin and that of Corderius, and published in Latin in his *Bibliotheca concionatoria*, Vol. II, p. 263 sqq., on which matter he himself makes mention in the reviewed authors of the same *Bibliotheca*, Vol. I, p. 30. The gain that emerges from this noble fragment, over and above others, we know to be that from it the authenticity of the other place is confirmed, as reported by John of Damascus: for in both, that holy martyr argues dogmatically from the princes to the sacred images, so that the prototype and exemplar are held in both for honor or for insult: I use the words of our editor for the former fragment taken from Damascus. This indeed was worth observing, that we might dilute the unthinking censure of a heterodox man who, lest he be forced to acknowledge the worship of sacred images, already confirmed by the authority and doctrine of Saint Methodius at the end of the third century, set out to disparage the faith of John of Damascus. D
To these are added two homilies of the same Methodius, of which one is inscribed *On Simeon and Anna, on the day they met the Lord in the temple*; the other, *On the Palm Branches*. And regarding them, Combefis has this to say: "We present the 'Oration on Simeon and Anna on the Day of the Meeting,' first published by Peter Pantinus, and at the same time we indicate some things in the notes by which we have been led to a new version after that of Pantinus. That this very oration is by the same author as the *Symposia on Chastity*—and by that Methodius who was most hostile to the Origenian errors—the author himself has sufficiently expressed, so that there is no place for doubt. It is inscribed 'to the Bishop of Patara,' to whom Damascus also, in his *Elements*, attributes not only the *Symposia* but also the book *On the Resurrection*. Hence Leo Allatius rightly blows away the opinion of Gretser, while he strives by no reasoning to strip that oration from Methodius the martyr and senior, and assign it to the Constantinopolitan, since, besides those characters we have just indicated, the majesty of the work is such that it would befit the very great Methodius." To the other *on the Meeting*, the same Combefis adds: "We annex this Oration 'On the Palm Branches,' which one royal manuscript, number 922, asserts to be by Methodius the martyr, certainly that Great and senior one, whose also are the *Symposia* and other noble monuments of genius and pious mind, even in surviving remnants. The style also favors this, and the affinity of sentiment with the preceding, although another codex, perhaps more effusive toward Chrysostom, assigns it to him, under the title 'On the Blessed One,' by which Savilius edited the Greek. The Greeks easily have it in their power to attribute any anonymous works to so great a man." Thus far Combefis.
To these Methodian orations edited by Combefis, we have added three fragments from the homily *On the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ*, as it seems, excerpted. The two former were brought to light from a manuscript codex of the Augustan library by Jacob Gretser; the third, from the same library by Leo Allatius; who also asserted all these fragments to be our Methodius's. For he meets Gretser, who was in doubt, with these words: "Gretser is in doubt about the author of these fragments, and Aubertus Miraeus seems to doubt with him: 'Who this Methodius was,' he says, 'I cannot affirm for certain. This is established, that he was not that ancient Methodius, famous for holiness and the glory of martyrdom
who obtained the palm of martyrdom under Diocletian, since this one of ours remembers the military standards A changed by Christian emperors into the form of the cross: concerning which change, under Diocletian, not even a thought had begun to be entertained, as all public places were still occupied by idolatry.'
To which Allatius replies: 'And nevertheless, the same Gretser very openly says (y), before Constantine, in the time of Justin, Tertullian, and Minucius Felix, military standards already bore the appearance of a cross: to such a degree that those three writers boldly cast it in the teeth of the heathens, that they themselves are held by the same crime as the Christians, if to honor the cross were a crime, since they themselves honor and adore the cross, by honoring and adoring their military signs. And long before the age of Constantine, there existed minted coins that contained military standards fashioned into the shape of a cross B. Hence he attempts later to respond, how Constantine can be said to have changed the Labarum into a cross, if military signs already displayed the form of a cross before him. But if long before the age of Constantine the military standards of the heathens bore the figure of the cross, the Patarensian Methodius could fittingly have made mention of them; nor for this reason are those fragments to be denied to Methodius, since from his own words it can in no way be elicited that he is speaking of Christian emperors. The passage of Methodius is of this kind (z): 'Hence the kings here, upon perceiving for the dispersion of C every disturbance that form which is called in the Roman tongue *vexilla*, devised, etc.' That is: Hence the emperors who rule in these places, or even if you wish, our own (namely, those who dominate us; which can be understood also of the heathens: for Christians before Constantine were subject to heathen emperors and obeyed them), when they saw the figure of the cross being assumed to dissipate all evils—which things are termed in the Roman tongue *vexilla*—they devised, etc. Although therefore all places under Diocletian were occupied by idolatry, the heathens according to their custom, not knowing what they were doing, made standards fashioned into the form of the cross; by the help of which, that is, by the sign and figure of the cross, as the Christian Fathers interpreted it, they would ward off harmful things and obtain all prosperous things. Thus, there is no reason to seek for another Methodius as the author of these fragments than the Patarensian.' Thus far Allatius. To Allatius, Tillemont (a) and Cave (b) accede. But Fabricius attributes this homily *On the Cross* to Methodius of Constantinople (c); yet he offers no argument by which he might confirm his opinion. And these things concerning the great Methodius, bishop and martyr, are sufficient. For as regards the remaining fragments provided, there is nothing at hand that we might bring forward, besides the places of the ecclesiastical authors from which we copied them, which we have taken care to prefix to everyone.
TESTIMONIES OF THE ANCIENTS CONCERNING ST. METHODIUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR
—
I.
ST. JEROME, *De viris illustribus*, ch. 83, with the ancient Greek interpreter.
Methodius A of Olympus in Lycia, and C afterwards bishop of Tyre, composed books of a polished and well-constructed discourse against Porphyry; and the *Symposium* of ten virgins; a most excellent discourse *On the Resurrection* against Origen; and against the same, *On the Pythoness*, and D *On Free Will*. He also wrote *Commentaries* on Genesis and on the *Canticle of Canticles*; and many other things which are commonly…
(a) Suidas has almost the same and in the same words, he too copying Jerome: he only added to 'of Olympus in Lycia', the words: 'that is, of Patara.' Signifying that the same city is denoted by both names, of which place he, before he was transferred to Tyre, fulfilled the episcopate: and that there is no other Methodius whom Jerome called of Olympus, and whom the Greeks celebrate as the bishop of Patara. Indeed, I have not been able to detect a trace of this new Patarensian Methodius distinct from the Tyrian; as manuscripts everywhere attribute to the Patarensian Methodius those things which Jerome attributes to that Methodius of his of Olympus, and later of Tyre. Thus, among others, Damascenus in an element of the most eminent Cardinal Runifucald is found universally: and it might seem wonderful that the Greeks, while the works of the Patarensian are read among them, have nowhere a solemn memory of the Tyrian among them, if indeed he is someone else. Wherefore I judge that Baronius spoke inconsiderately in his notes to the Martyrology when, from that brief citation of Damascenus (or. 3 *On Images* of Methodius the Patarensian and martyr), he happens upon a new Methodius for himself. Hesychius calls the city of the Patarenes Patara, by which name he also names a mountain; I think it is the same as Olympus, a mountain of Lycia, of which Methodius himself as an intimate friend makes mention in his book *On the Resurrection*, from which also the city of Olympus took its name; nor has anything else appeared on this matter so far in more certain monuments. COMBEFIS.
A And many other things read at random. B Who at the end of the persecution, or as some affirm, under Decius and Valerian, was crowned with martyrdom in Chalcis of the East.
*The same, epistle 48, to Pammachius, no. 13, Works vol. 1, p. 220, Veron. edit.* Origen, Methodius, Eusebius, Apollinaris write many thousands of lines against Celsus and Porphyry.
*The same, epistle 70, to Magnus the orator, no. 3, ibid., p. 425.* Celsus and Porphyry wrote against us: to the former Origen, to the latter Methodius, Eusebius and Apollinaris responded most powerfully. Of these, Origen wrote eight books; Methodius proceeds to ten thousand lines, etc.
*The same in the preface to the Commentary on Daniel, ibid. vol. V, p. 617.* Eusebius of Caesarea, a bishop, responded most skillfully to Porphyry in three volumes, that is, the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth; Apollinaris also in one large book, which is the twenty-sixth; and before them, Methodius in part.
*The same in the Commentary on Daniel, chap. XI, ibid., vol. V, p. 730.* To [Porphyry’s] calumnies, Eusebius of Caesarea, Apollinaris of Laodicea, and in part the most eloquent man, the martyr Methodius, responded more fully.
*The same in the book against Rufinus, no. 33, ibid., vol. II, p. 527.* From that which I asserted, that Porphyry had said many things against this prophet (Daniel), and I called as witnesses to this matter Methodius, Eusebius, and Apollinaris, who responded to his insanity with many thousands of lines, he will be able to accuse me as to why I did not write against Porphyry’s books in my little preface.
II. *S. GREGORY OF NYSSA, From the questions on "What is it, to [the image of God and to the likeness]," Works vol. II, p. 26, Paris edit. 1638.*
Therefore, says Methodius in his *Symposium*, the soul possesses a certain immense and ineffable beauty; and for this reason, the opposing spirits burn with a certain jealousy and love for it,1 inasmuch as it is endowed with a form more excellent than they, even though they are spiritual and intellectual beings.
III. *S. EPIPHANIUS, heresy LXIV, chap. 63.*
And these are partially extracted according to the sequence of those things [written] by the blessed Methodius, who is also called Eubulius... For many other things are said by the aforementioned Methodius—who was a learned man and one who struggled intensely for the truth—in the sequence of the subject matter in the same book (against Origen).
A The great Methodius referred this to the holy Church, thinking that the things narrated here concerning the Lord's nativity did not apply to it; especially because our Lord was born long before the prophecy of this book was revealed. But it is pleasing to bring forth the very words of the blessed Methodius. Here, therefore, in the treatise which he entitled *Symposium*, he writes as follows, from the person of the virgin Procilla: "The woman," etc.
B V. ARETHAS in Apocal. cap. 33, p. 752. Again, others have said that this woman is the Church, which is clothed with the Sun of Justice, Christ, and has placed the moon, that is, the Synagogue, under her feet, as having already become ancient. And they adapted all the following things in a suitable manner, just as Andreas and Methodius.
VI. LEONTIUS BYZANTIUS, lib. De sectis, act. III. There were, from the times of Christ's nativity down to the reign of Constantine, these teachers and Fathers: Ignatius Theophorus, Irenaeus, Justin the philosopher and martyr, Clement, and Hippolytus bishop of Rome, Dionysius the Areopagite, Methodius bishop of Patara, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Peter bishop of Alexandria and martyr.
VII. S. MAXIMUS in schol. ad Dionysii Areopag. cap. 5, De eccles. hierarch. Read the books which the holy martyr Methodius and Olympius, bishop of Adrianopolis in Lycia, and also Antipas, bishop of Bostra, wrote against that Origen concerning the resurrection; and you will learn his fabulous and monstrous raving.
VIII. JOANNES THESSALONICENSIS, apud L. Allatium in diatr. De Methodiorum scriptis, p. 333, edit. Rom. 1656. We find that many of our holy Fathers have held this opinion; among whom is Basil the Great, and Athanasius of holy memory, and the great Methodius, and those who follow them.
IX. PHOTIUS Bibl. cod. CCXXXVII, pp. 950-963. Read was the book of the holy martyr and bishop Methodius, *On Chastity*, composed in the form of a Banquet. C It is to be noted that this dialogue, whose title is...
(a) Read: "Of the holy martyr Methodius, Bishop of Olympus in Lycia." For who is this Olympius, Bishop of Adrianopolis in Lycia? And what Adrianopolis is in Lycia? ALLAT. Diatr. de Method. script., p. 328.
(c) As regards the censure of Photius, it seemed to me a little too harsh, because the Arians do not seem to have made much use of this work of Methodius, nor to have derived arguments from it. Where, however, I have applied slightly more diligent attention to it, and have reviewed it myself, I have discovered it to labor under more serious problems, and I have noted in passing what could either be softened or what, in my own sense, admits of no excuse; which things themselves...
A *Symposium*, or *On Chastity*, is in large part adulterated; for you will find inserted into it even Arian notions, and the vain fables of other heretics.
*Idem ibid.*, cod. LXII, p. 347.
He (Eusebius of Thessalonica) then confirms these criticisms of his from the books of Sacred Scripture, both Old and New Testament; likewise from the opinions of the most select Fathers: Athanasius and the three Gregorios—I mean the Wonderworker, the Theologian, and the divine Nyssen—and similarly Basil, prelate of Caesarea, and John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and Proclus, prelate of Constantinople; and furthermore, the holy martyr Methodius and Quadratus. For Andrew (the Recluse) had torn from their context and perverted certain sayings of some of these, and at the same time, either maliciously or ignorantly interpreting them, he confirmed his own error from them, as he persuaded himself. B
X. GRECI CANONIS in Sympos., ode III, *apud Allatium* l. c., p. 515.
Having learned by experience, O glorious one, the dignity of virginity and the beauty of chastity, you demonstrate all their comeliness by your wisdom and the grace of your words, O God-minded one, and their everlasting radiance... Filled with more solid food from your spiritual banquets, O all-wise one, they are nourished from thence on true delights, which never fail, but always spring up anew and increase together with those who partake of them.
XI. MARTYROLOGIUM ROMANUM, XIV Kal. Oct.
The birthday of Saint Methodius, bishop of Olympus in Lycia and afterwards of Tyre, renowned for splendor of speech and doctrine; who at the end of the final persecution, as Saint Jerome writes, was crowned with martyrdom in Chalcis, Greece. C
XII. MENOLOGIUM GRÆCORUM, *jussu Basilii imperatoris Graece editum*, to the 20th of June, part III, p. 138, *edit. Urbin.* 1727.
Methodius, sacred martyr of Christ, from his infancy consecrated himself to God as an honorable vessel, and became a receptacle of the divine Spirit. Wherefore, deemed worthy of the pontificate by the suffrage of God, and having become bishop of the Church of Patara, he fed his flock most excellently. But seeing the heresy of Origen growing, as an excellent shepherd he kindled it with the divine fire of his own discourses. But since the enemy devil could not bear his freedom and constancy, he armed his satellites for his destruction. And he (Methodius), even before he fulfilled his martyrdom, having put on life-giving mortification and daily accounting himself dead according to the divine apostle—
D ...are dispersed elsewhere, but seem to have been inserted by the author of the *Dialogue* himself, according to the simplicity of his age, and before the doctrine (namely, of the Trinity and the Incarnation) had been sufficiently illustrated by the light of the general councils, in the learned age of the Fathers, upon the occasion of errors and heresies arising. If I have pressed my style any higher, let the reader be indulgent, and not only to me, but let him also have gratitude to those who preceded me in this work, and who spent fine hours adorning and usefully editing this *Banquet* of Methodius; nor let it be wanting, perhaps, where you yourself may discover that I have not sufficiently grasped the mind of Methodius; which mistakes of mine I would have you correct with your candor. COMBEFIS.
A
reckoning himself according to the divine apostle Paul, offered his holy and blessed head to be severed by the sword, and departed to the Lord, rejoicing and exulting.
XIII.
The Author of the Synaxarion in the Menaea, for the 10th of July.
B Of the holy hieromartyr Methodius, bishop of Patara.
This blessed man, having consecrated himself to God from childhood, became a divine vessel and a receptacle of the Holy Spirit. Whence also, having received the priesthood by the vote of God under divine grace, he tended well and godly the flock entrusted to him, enlightening the fullness of the Church with gentle words. Therefore, when he saw the error of Origen emerging, as a good shepherd he burned it with divine fire, having cast down all the mist and darkness by the wisdom of his words and divine grace. And the lightning of his words, and the trumpet of his knowledge, has gone out into all the earth. Whence the enemy, not bearing the boldness and opposition of the great man, arms his own ministers for his destruction. But he, having put on the life-giving mortification before his martyrdom, being beheaded by the sword, was translated to the better life; first serving as priest for the Lamb of God, and afterwards being sacrificed himself, he was offered to Christ as a living sacrifice. Whence he was also adorned with double crowns. C The brave champion of truth, having obtained his end with the blood of martyrdom, rested eternally. This truly divine priest and martyr of God left us writings of his own labor, full of all knowledge and most useful. Moreover, he also prophesied most clearly concerning things to come, and foretold them very distinctly: concerning the changes and alterations and transformations of kings, and the incursions of nations, and the desolations and destructions of lands and places; concerning orthodox and heretical kings; and concerning the end of the world; and concerning the Antichrist and his kingdom, and the destruction and total annihilation of all human flesh. All these things this divine man predicted most clearly. D
(a) Certain works of our Methodius concerning the Antichrist exist, published in Latin in the *Bibliotheca Patrum* of Cologne and very recently in Paris, perhaps the very ones to which the author of the Synaxarion refers, although they seem to Bellarmine less worthy of such a holy man. I would pronounce nothing, as the matter has been less discussed by me; nor did I think they should be rejected by our Methodian texts, lacking a Greek codex to which I might compare them and weigh the whole work. Truly, as excessive credulity in such prophets and prophecies outside the canon does not please me, so neither would I lightly despise them, especially if any seem to be ancient, like those of saints. COMBEFIS.
(*) These are, without doubt, the work of Methodius the Younger, Patriarch of Constantinople, who died in the year 846. See Fabricius, *Bibliotheca Graeca*, ed. Harles, vol. VII, p. 273. Ed. Patr.
OF OUR HOLY FATHER METHODIUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR, THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS, OR CONCERNING CHASTITY.
SAINT METHODIUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR, THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS, OR CONCERNING CHASTITY.
PERSONS DIALOGUING: EUBULIUM. GREGORIUM. ARETE. MARCELLA. THEOPHILA. THALIA. THEOPATRA. THALLUSA. AGATHA. PROCILLA. THECLA. TUSIANA. DOMNINA.
INTRODUCTION. — The purpose of the work. The journey to paradise. A description of virtue and personification. The Lamb, the vitex, a symbol of chastity. Marcella, the senior and first among the virgins of Christ.
A EUBUL. You arrive most opportunely, O Gregorium; for I was just now seeking you, desiring to learn of the gathering of Marcella and Theopatra, and of the rest of the virgins who were present at the banquet then, and concerning those B
A discourses on purity, what they were. For they say that they struggled so magnificently and so forcefully, each in that contest, that they omitted nothing which might seem necessary for a full treatment of such a subject. If, therefore, you have come for some other reason, I beg you to put it off to another time, and do not hesitate now to relate everything for us in order, as we inquire of you.
GREG. I have been frustrated, as it seems, in my expectation, for someone else has already anticipated me with the favor of being the first to report the things about which you are asking. For I, thinking that you had heard nothing of what had happened, was very proud on that account, and I was priding myself as one who was about to be the first to announce it to you. That is why I was hastening to come here to you, fearing this very thing which has happened: that someone else might occupy my arrival.
EUBUL. Take heart; for we have learned nothing exact, O blessed one, about what happened. For the one who brought the report could not explain anything more than that there were dialogues; but as to who they were, and how, he was ignorant when asked.
GREG. Do you wish, therefore, since I have come here for this very reason, to hear everything that was said from the beginning? Or shall I omit some things, and merely mention those that I consider worthy of memory?
EUBUL. By no means; but from the beginning, O Gregory, first inform us of the gathering, where it took place, and the preparations of the food; and about yourself, too, how you poured the wine for them.
B They, with golden goblets, Pledged one another, looking toward the great heaven.
GREG. Always keen in dialogues and C in philosophy, Methodius clearly emulates [his models]; yet he feigns that Gregory, although a woman, is speaking about things she had partly seen and partly learned of, as if she had returned to her own home having gathered the assembly of men. For it is indicated more than once that there were others with Eubulius, as in those words of Eubulius a little later, and those of Gregory herself immediately responding: from which we conjecture that the true name of this first character is Eubulius in the nominative, and so we have rewritten it everywhere. For we do not think any example exists of a man in Greek who is called Eubulios. Therefore, we do not doubt that it was written by Methodius, but because of the similarity of the name, an occasion for error was offered to the scribes. We bring forward in confirmation of this opinion the fact that in Epiphanius (Haer. LXIV) the name Eubulius is attributed to another for Methodius: whether this happened because of the fame of this very book, getting its name from the first word, as often happens, and the added name, being better known than the proper one, winning over the author, just as Clemens and Gregorius are called Dialogus; or whether Methodius, already possessed of two names, had marked himself here with the less common name. EDITOR LUPAR. All the codices have it thus; therefore, it is not to be changed easily and by bare conjecture with Possinus, or with him who presided over his edition. Which, however, he habitually joins to the masculine, as one might suspect it to be a man, to whom the woman herself, Gregory, relates the sayings of the virgins; since that ending indicates a female, as in Gregorius, so in Eubulius. For the sake of preserving propriety, D a woman to a woman... [the text continues, interpreting the character of the discourse and the necessary order of the narrative].
in Eubulius. For the sake of preserving propriety, a woman to a woman A you are unceasingly contentious, scrutinizing and weighing all words without exception, and defeating everyone in argument!
EUBULUS. It is not for this, O Gregory, that you should now stir up controversy; but because we requested it of you, tell us the things that happened from the beginning; and do not do otherwise.
GREGORY. I will certainly try. But first answer me yourself: You surely know Arete, the daughter of Philosophy?
EUBULUS. What then?
GREGORY. We were invited to the garden belonging to her, which is situated towards the east, in order that we might gather the seasonal fruits; and so I went—or rather, so Theopatra told me (for I inquired of her)—along with Procilla and Tysiana, and oh, Gregory, what a rough, difficult, B arduous, and steep path we traveled! When, therefore, (Theopatra continued) we had already come near to the place, a certain great and beautiful matron, walking sedately and gracefully, met us, clothed in a very radiant garment, white as snow; and she was truly and inexplicably aglow with a divine and boundless beauty; for a great sense of modesty, accompanied by dignity, blossomed in her countenance. And her gaze, at once awesome and mixed with a gentle cheerfulness—I do not know that I have ever seen the like, she said. For everything about her was unadorned, and she wore nothing artificial. She, therefore, approaching with great joy, embraced and kissed each of us, as a mother would after seeing her children C after a long absence, saying: "O daughters, for whom I have longed greatly, you have arrived at last, though with difficulty, in your endeavor to enter into the meadow of incorruption, after having been terrified on the road by various creeping things. For, looking out from my watchtower, I saw you turning aside many times, and I feared lest, turning back, you should slip down the precipices. But thanks be to the Bridegroom to whom I have betrothed you, children, who has granted every success according to my prayer, as he has willed it." And as she was saying these things, she said, we reached the D courtyard, while the gates were still open; and having entered, we already found
A Thecla, Agatha, and Marcella, who were about to dine. B Straightway, therefore, Arete said, "Come, you also, to recline in order here alongside those who are of the same mind as yourselves." We were, I believe, all the guests, she said to me, ten in number. C The place was exceedingly beautiful and filled with great peace. For the air was suffused and tempered with pure rays of light, gently and with great order; and in the very center, a spring quietly gushed forth a drink as sweet as oil, from which translucent and pure water flowed, creating fountains. And these, overflowing like rivers, watered the whole place, providing rich streams. For there were various trees, abounding there with young fruits, D hanging cheerfully in a single beauty of produce; and there were ever-blooming meadows, spread with fragrant and various flowers, from which a breeze blew gently, carrying a great fragrance. And nearby there was a "chaste tree" [(9)], a tall tree under which we rested, because it happened to be very leafy and shadowy.
A EUBUL. You seem to me, O blessed one, to be revealing another lodging-place of paradise.
GREG. You consider it truly and sensibly. Since, therefore, we were already enjoying every kind of food and varied delight, and seemed to be in need of none of the pleasant things, she said, "Having entered after these things, propose Virtue as follows: 'O young maidens, glories of my high-mindedness; O fine-virgins, who cultivate the uncorrupted meadows of Christ B with unmarried hands, there is already enough of food and feasting; for all things are full and abundant with us. What then is it that I wish for now, and what do I await? That each of you should speak a laudatory discourse about virginity.' But let Marcella begin, [11'] since she is reclining first and is also the elder. Yet, as for her who has struggled well, I would be ashamed of myself if I did not make her a zealot, having crowned her with the undefiled leaves of wisdom." Marcella, therefore, having begun from that point, as I suppose, immediately began to speak—
ORATION I. MARCELLA.
CAP. I. The difficulty and excellence of virginity. The necessary study of doctrine for virgins.
Magna supra modum atque miranda gloriosaque res est virginitas: ac si palam loquendum ex sacrarum Scripturarum nutu sensuque, incorruptionis uber, ejusque flos ac primitia est. C Virginity is a thing wondrous and glorious beyond measure; and if one must speak openly according to the nod and sense of the holy Scriptures, it is the rich udder of incorruption 12, and its flower and first-fruits. This... D
is the best and most beautiful profession. And for this reason, the Lord promises the kingdom of heaven to those who have made themselves eunuchs, where He provides in the Gospels concerning the differences of eunuchs. For chastity is something truly rare and difficult for men to attain; and in proportion as it is most eminent and magnificent, so much the greater are the dangers by which it is beset.
It requires, therefore, strong and noble natures, which, suddenly B flying over the stream of voluptuousness, direct the vehicle of the soul aloft on high, not flagging in their purpose, until, having lightly leaped over the world with the swiftest speed of mind, and having taken their stand upon the truly heavenly arch, they may behold purity itself, incorruption, springing from the undefiled bosom of the Almighty.
This nectar the earth has no power to generate: it is given to heaven alone to pour it forth from itself. For one must consider that virginity walks indeed upon the earth, but touches the heavens with its summit. Those who are seized C by a desire for this, and who fix their minds upon its end alone, but approach with unwashed feet from the filth of the mind, imperfect in spirit and having barely begun the way, have turned back, having in no wise laid hold of a purpose of mind worthy of the excellence of the undertaking. For it is not only necessary that bodies be kept incorrupt, just as one must not consider temples of more importance than the statues within them; but it is necessary that the souls, which are the statues of the bodies, be tended, adorned with justice. But they are tended and cleansed then most of all, when, tirelessly striving to listen D to the divine words, they do not cease until they have grasped Him who is the Truth, having reached the doors of the wise.
Just as the humors and putrefactions of flesh are consumed by salt, and all things that cause decay are destroyed; in the same way also, all the irrational desires of the body are shriveled up in the virgin by the teachings. For there is a necessity that the soul which is not seasoned, like salt, by the words of Christ, should stink and breed worms, even as, indeed, my wounds stank and were corrupted, as David the king cried out, confessing with tears in the mountains, because he had not shriveled himself by salting [his soul] with chastening, but having been slothful, he was drawn away into a goad of lust, and...
was rotting with the filth of adultery. Hence every offering in Leviticus A, unless it has first been seasoned with salt, is forbidden to be offered up as a whole burnt offering to the Lord God. And the salt for us, which bites to our benefit and binds us to utility, is the spiritual meditation upon all the Scriptures, without which a soul cannot be offered as a pleasing sacrifice to the Author of all things, God, through the Word. For "You are the salt of the earth," said the Lord to the apostles. B
It is fitting, therefore, for a virgin always to be aglow with the study of noble things, and to shine among those who are eminent in the praise of wisdom, and to possess nothing sluggish or soft, but to excel and to nurture thoughts worthy of the purpose of virginity, always cleansing away with the word the corrosive impurities of pleasure, lest by chance a small, hidden putrefaction should give birth to the worm of licentiousness. "For the unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, how she may please the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit," says the blessed Paul. But many, deeming the hearing and care of learning to be a matter of secondary importance, think that much is owed to them if they lend their ears to instruction for even a little while; and such as these should be excluded from sacred disputations. For divine discipline is not to be imparted to souls that are narrow, peevish, and humble, and that boast a certain empty semblance of wisdom. For is it not ridiculous that, among such people, they should discourse at length on things of small moment, exerting all the powers of their intellect so as to attain their desired results most perfectly, yet in necessary matters, through which the love of chastity is most increased within them, they should not deem that the greatest diligence ought to be exercised?
Chapter II. Virginity as a plant from the heavens, known only late. How the perfection of man was instituted.
For with a truly great excellence C the plant of virginity was sent down among men from the heights of the heavens; and for this reason it was not revealed to the first generations of men. For as yet the human race was sparse, and it was necessary that it should first be increased in number and be brought to completion. Wherefore, when the ancients took their own sisters as wives, it was not deemed anything shameful or indecent, until the law came and made a distinction, and, by prohibiting that which at first seemed honorable, declared it to be sin, calling him cursed who uncovers the nakedness of his sister; for God was diligently providing support for our race in good time, as was fitting, just as parents typically do for their children. For they do not appoint tutors for them immediately from the cradle, but, having granted to the early age a space for childish play, and like calves D for a while...
sent them to be instructed in the rudiments and elements, they leave them until, having laid aside the infantile soft down of the mind, they move them to the exercises of higher studies, and thence to things still more sublime than these. A In similar fashion must we believe the God and Father of all to have acted towards our ancestors. For the world, when not yet filled with a multitude of men, was like an infant; and it was necessary that at first it should grow into a multitude, from which it might, so to speak, mature into a man. But when at last it was inhabited from one end to the other, the human race having been poured out toward infinity, God no longer permitted man to persist in the same customs, considering how, by transitioning from these to those, they might progress nearer to the heavens, until, having attained the greatest and highest lesson, which is virginity, they might be perfected; journeying first from the marriage of sisters to taking wives from outside; and thence to no longer having intercourse with many after the fashion of four-footed beasts, as if they were born for nothing but coupling; B and from there to not having become adulterers; and again to temperance, and from temperance to virginity—where, having practiced despising the flesh, they may anchor themselves fearlessly in the unique place of incorruption.
If any one, however, shall dare to cavil at our argument as being destitute of the testimony of the Scriptures, come, let us produce the passages of the prophets, and by these let us demonstrate that what was said by us is more true than anything else. Therefore, Abraham, who first received the covenant of circumcision, seems to shadow forth nothing else in being circumcised in his own C member of the flesh than this: that it is no longer permitted to beget children from those created from the same seed; teaching each one to cut off the pleasure of coition from his own sister, as being his own flesh. Thus, the drawing near and having one’s own sisters for wives has ceased from the times of Abraham; and the being joined to more wives has been abolished from the time of the prophets. "For go not after thy lusts," it says, "and turn away from thy desires." "For wine and women will make even the wise to fall." And in another place: "Let thy fountain of water be for thee... D thenceforth the illicit union of brothers with sisters (who are deemed as one body, from one seed and womb). Nor was it necessary, as the matter was known to all, to express the virile member itself, to the offense of certain pious ears; [alt-version omitted] especially by that term which neither Scripture nor the Fathers ever used when their discourse was about circumcision; which neither among the profane signifies the shame and the privy part, nor the admission, so to speak, of the male mounting in congress; nor the males themselves destined for such congress. Let them output their own terms by their own names, if those great Aristarchuses find authority for them in the world; let them not with such levity compose the monuments of the ancients from their own genius, and foist them upon them. The Vatican reading differs far from the rest, but has the same sense.
A be glad with the wife who has clung to you from your youth,” llbracket11rrbracket clearly rejecting the license of having many wives. Jeremiah, indeed, openly calls those who pour themselves out into the loves of diverse women “well-fed stallions,” llbracket12rrbracket for he says, “A multitude of the impious will not be useful, and adulterous plantings will not give deep roots.” llbracket13rrbracket
But that we may not be tedious by collecting prophetic utterances, come, let us set forth again how voluntary chastity succeeds the legitimate use of a single marriage—for a time, of course, withdrawing the lusts of the flesh, until it has completely restrained the impulse toward intercourse, which is prone by habit, and almost untamable. Immediately, indeed, one is openly introduced who henceforth removes this preoccupation from himself, while he says: “O Lord, Father and Master of my life, do not leave me in their counsel. Remove the pride of eyes from me; let the appetite of the heart and the act of intercourse not take hold of me.” llbracket14rrbracket And in the all-virtuous Book of Wisdom, where all the lessons of virtue are handed down, the Holy Spirit, already drawing the hearers openly and without ambiguity toward continence and chastity, composes such music: “Better is childlessness with virtue,” it proclaims; “for there is immortality in the memory of it, because it is known both before God and before men. When it is present, they revere it, and they long for it when it has departed; and it walks in procession, crowned in the age, having overcome the contest of undefiled struggles.” llbracket15rrbracket
CAP. IV. One Christ taught virginity, openly preaching the kingdom of heaven. The likeness of God, to be perfected by the light of divine virtues.
Concerning the human race, then, how C it progressed gradually through the stages of the ages—from the marriages of sisters to continence—has been discussed; it remains that we also speak about virginity. We must therefore exert ourselves to do this to the best of our ability. And first it is necessary to inquire what the reason is why, although many prophets and righteous men both taught and practiced many great and noble things, no one of them ever either celebrated virginity with praises or adopted its purpose? For it was reserved only for the Lord to ordain this discipline, since He alone, coming into the world, taught men to pass over to God. For it was fitting that He who was the Prince of priests, and Prince of the prophets, and Prince of the angels, should also be called the Prince of virgins. But in antiquity, man was not yet perfect; and for this reason he was not yet able to attain to the perfection of virginity. For he still needed, having been made according to the image of God, to receive also that which is according to the likeness; which the Word, having been sent into the world to bring to fulfillment, first took on our form, which was stained by many sins, so that we, for whose sake He Himself wore it, might be able to attain to the divine D [likeness] again. For then it is possible to arrive at the precise likeness of God, when one puts on His characters...
and lineaments, imitating them in the custom of human life: with the same skill with which expert painters, having an exemplar before their eyes, express its lines and colors to the life upon prepared tablets; which we shall attain, if we learn and follow the path and discipline shown by Him. For it was with this intent that He, being God, was pleased to put on human flesh, so that, as if beholding a divine exemplar of life proposed upon a tablet, we too might be able to imitate the Author. For He did not think one thing and do another; nor, while considering other things to be good, did He teach something else: but those things which were truly useful and honorable, these He both taught and practiced.
Cap. V. Christ, keeping His flesh incorrupt in virginity, invites [us] to cultivate virginity. The small number of virgins, in comparison with the multitude of other saints.
What, then, B did the Lord, who is the Truth and the Light, accomplish by coming into the world? Truly, having become man, He kept His flesh incorrupt in virginity. If we, therefore, strive after the likeness of Christ our God, let us magnanimously endeavor to cultivate virginity. For the likeness of God is the flight from corruption. Now, that the Word, having become man, has set forth [Himself] to the Church as a Prince of virgins—no less than as Prince of shepherds and Prince of prophets—John, inspired by the divinity of Christ, shows us in the book of the Apocalypse, where he says: "And I saw, and behold the Lamb standing upon Mount Sion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and the voice which I heard C [was] as the voice of harpers harping on their harps. And they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn the song except the hundred and forty-four thousand, who had been redeemed from the earth. These are they who were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He may go." Here he shows the Lord as the Prince and Leader of the choir of virgins.
Furthermore, observe how truly great is the dignity of virginity before God. "These have been redeemed from among men D as the first-fruits to God and to the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found; for they are without spot, and they follow the Lamb," he says, "wherever He may go." He clearly desires to teach us from this that the multitude of virgins is defined by so small a number—to wit, one hundred and forty-four thousand—while the multitude of other saints is infinite. For it must also be considered what he insinuates while discoursing of the others: "And I saw from every tribe and tongue and from every nation a great multitude, which no one could number." It is evident, therefore, as I was saying, that as regards the others...
it is impossible to introduce them into that vast multitude, but as regards those in virginity, there is a very small number, if one considers it in comparison with the countless multitude who are joined together in the number of the saints. B This, O Arete, is my discourse on virginity; and if I have omitted anything, let Theophila, who takes over from me, supply it.
ORATION II. THEOPHILA.
Chap. I. That marriage is not abolished by the preaching of virginity.
B Theophila therefore began as follows: "Since Marcella, although she made a good start to her discourse, did not finish it sufficiently, I think it worth the effort to endeavor to bring the discourse to a close. For it seems to me that it has been excellently argued that man has advanced toward virginity by stages, God promoting him at certain times and degrees; but I cannot approve of the conclusion she added, that from then on no effort should be given to procreating children. For I seem to understand clearly from the Scriptures that the Word of God, after He brought virginity into the world, did not at all desire to abolish marriage. For just because the moon is greater than the stars, it does not follow that the light of the other stars is extinguished."
C "Let us begin, however, from Genesis, so that we may assign to the most ancient Scripture its proper primacy of order. For the sentence of God and that command for the propagation of the race are indeed still in force and observed today, for God is even now the Fashioner of man. This is indeed perfectly manifest, that even now, like a painter with a tablet, God is perfecting the world, as even the Lord Himself taught, saying: 'My Father is working until now.' But when the rivers have finished their course and have returned themselves into the vast bed of the sea; when the light has been perfectly separated from the darkness (for we are still laboring in this separation); when the dry land has finally ceased to bring forth its fruits together with the reptiles and quadrupeds, and the predetermined number of men has been filled, then indeed it will be time to abstain from child-bearing. For at present, D while the world still stands and is being built up daily with new masses, it is necessary to cooperate in the production of the image of God. For it was said: 'Increase and multiply.' And it is not right to loathe the command of the Creator, from whom we ourselves have come to be. For the beginning of the generation of men is the sowing of seed into the furrow of the womb, so that bone from bones and flesh from flesh, taken by a secret power, may again be fashioned into another human being through the operation of the same Craftsman. For in this way we must think that that word is fulfilled: 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.'"
'" A This, perhaps, was also hinted at by the ecstasy cast upon the first-formed man after his sleep, prefiguring the delight of the husband in the embrace of a woman, when he who thirsts for children loses himself, softened in sleep by procreative pleasures, so that again, as I said, another human being may be fashioned, torn and taken from his bones and flesh. For when the harmony of the bodies is disturbed by the titillations of intercourse, as those who have experienced the marital rite teach us, all the marrowy and prolific part of the blood—which is a kind of liquid bone—is gathered from all the limbs, churned into foam and coagulated, and is expelled through the generative organs into the living soil of the woman. With good reason, then, it has been said that for this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, since at that moment, as he is united with his wife in fond embraces, he forgets everything at once, possessed by generative desire, offering his rib to be taken by the divine Creator, so that from the son the father himself may appear again.
B Since God is still, even now, forming man daily through such a nuptial union, how is it not rash to loathe child-bearing, which the Almighty Himself does not consider unbecoming to perform with His own immaculate hands? For He says to Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." And to Job He says: "Did you, having taken clay, fashion a living creature and make it a speaking being upon the earth?" Job, however, approaches God in supplication, saying: "Your hands have made me and fashioned me." How, then, is it not absurd to forbid nuptial unions, when martyrs are still expected even after us, and those who are to be restored against the wicked one, for whose sake the divine Word promised that those days would be shortened? For if, as you said, child-bearing has been deemed an evil by God from this time forward, for what reason will those who are born against the dogma and the divine will be able to stand before God as pleasing to Him? Or how is there no necessity that what is born should be counterfeit rather than God-begotten, if it is fashioned in opposition to the judgment and the ordinance, like a forgery of the Power, so that we might even grant to men the ability to create humans?
Cap. III. A vexed passage of Scripture. Illegitimate children, not only of the faithful, but sometimes even of prelates.
D And Marcella, interrupting, said: "Theophila, a grave error appears in your speech, which conflicts with itself and establishes things contrary to what you previously said; and do you think that you lie hidden, veiled by such a cloud? For that argument comes out to meet you, which perhaps someone, approaching you as one most wise, will speak. What do you say about those who are born unlawfully from adultery? For you have let enter into that..."
an impossible and unfeasible state, if that which is fashioned for the will of the Greatness 50—the tabernacle itself fashioned by God—is not led by the hand. And so that you might not flee, as if to a secure fortress, by bringing forth the testimony of Scripture which says, *But the children of adulterers shall not come to maturity* 16, he will gently refute you, saying: But we see that not rarely those conceived in illicit unions reach maturity in vital births and grow into strong youths.
If, however, you argue again, distinguishing, you say: But I, good friend, understand by the name of "maturity" which they do not attain, Christian righteousness, of which those are not partakers, he will immediately answer: But, blessed one, many from an unrighteous seed are, nevertheless, not only joined to the flock of the faithful, but have not rarely obtained the position of leading them. Since it is most commonly known by the sense and experience of all that those born from adultery in any way reach what is perfect, it is not to be thought that that prophetic oracle of the Holy Spirit should be understood concerning conceptions and births; but perhaps rather concerning those who adulterate the truth: those who, by sophistic decrees, corrupting the Scriptures, beget immature wisdom, by mixing error with piety. Therefore, since this excuse of yours is also removed, know indeed, if even those born from adultery—answer me—are generated with God’s good will. For you said that it is impossible for a human fetus to reach maturity and completion unless the Lord has bestowed form and soul upon it.
CAP. IV. Human generation, and the work of God declared therein.
Here Theophila, as if seized by the arms of a robust adversary, was seized with a certain dizziness; then at last, having recovered her breath, she said: You seek, blessed one, a matter needing a certain example for its full clarification, by the benefit of which you might better understand the creative power of God extending through all things, yet predominantly performing the human generation itself from Himself, by increasing those things that are sown into the fruitful earth. For that which is sown is not to be blamed; but all the guilt resides in him who into another’s field, in furtive beds, as if for the price of a brief pleasure, impudently sells his own seed. Form, I pray, in your mind some such image of our coming into life and generation. Think of a house whose entrance lies under very high mountains, and which itself is sunk far down into a deep and capacious pit; and which, finally, from its uppermost head, at the entrance, has many holes in the back, and whose shape is circular in that part. I am forming, says Marcella, the image you ask for. Now imagine a sculptor sitting inside working on many statues; and understand the material of clay to be supplied to him from outside through the holes I mentioned by many who are assiduously—with no one seeing the artisan himself. And let the house be covered with fog and clouds, and nothing be visible to them from the outside except only the openings. Granted, she said, even this. And let each...
of those who labor together in the gathering of the clay be assigned one opening, into which he must deposit only his own material, without touching that of another. But if, through curiosity, he should attempt to open that which is assigned to another, fire and scourges must be threatened against him.
Consider, then, what follows after this. Consider the molder moving about inside between the openings, and taking the clay found at each one, molding it individually; and when he has molded it over the periods of the months, he returns it again B to those outside through the same opening—the molder having such a command: to work indiscriminately all the clay that can be fashioned, even if it is channeled in by someone perversely into another's opening. For the material itself has done no wrong; wherefore, as being guiltless, it must be molded and formed. But he who, contrary to the ordinance and command, deposits it in another’s opening must be punished as a transgressor and a criminal. For the clay is not to be blamed, but rather he who has done this contrary to what is holy; for, for the sake of incontinence, he carried it into another’s opening and deposited it stealthily by force. — You speak most truly.
Cap. V. The same argument is pursued by the Holy Father.
Since these matters have now been set forth, it is time, O most wise one, to apply this whole image to what has already been said. Understand the house to represent the invisible nature of our generation; the entrance adjacent to the mountains, the descent and sending down C of souls from the heavens into bodies, and their being sent into it; the openings, the female and womanly gender; the molder, the creative power of God, which, using our nature as a veil for our generation, invisibly fashions us into human form D within, preparing garments for souls.
You speak the truth.
[alt-version omitted]Ergo bis hactenus ita præparatis, restat ut omnem hanc similitudinem, o sapientissima, his quæ jam superius dicta sunt, adhibeas. Et domum quidem illam, inaspectabilem generationis nostræ naturam esse intelligas: aditum autem adjacentem montibus, descensum e cœlis animarum in corpora, et quod in illa mittuntur: foramina vero, femininum sexum ac muliebrem: plasten quoque, creatricem Dei potentiam, quæ pro generationis velo, nostra utens natura, inaspectabili ratione intus nos humana forma effingit, animarum indumenta con-
A concinnans. Those who finally bring together mud and clay are to be thought of as expressing males and men, since they, in their desire for children, inject seed into the natural passages of the woman, not otherwise than those who place clay into holes. For the burning ardors of impure lust, which are, as it were, sprinkled upon the seed by a certain participation of divine creative power, are not to be imputed to the seed. Furthermore, art acts upon the material subjected to it, doing what is its own. But it is not to be thought that any thing is evil of itself and by itself, but that it becomes such through the operation of those who abuse it. For when it is exhibited honestly and chastely, it turns out honest; but when it is administered basely and indecently, it becomes base. For in what did iron, invented for agriculture and the arts, deserve ill because of those who sharpen it for mutual slaughter? In what did gold or silver, or brass, and, to sum it up in a word, all matter and metals, while they offer themselves soft and tractable, deserve ill because of those who, with minds ungrateful to their author, propose these things to be adored, formed and fashioned into variously distinguished statues B? Certainly, if anyone has provided stolen wools to a weaving mill, the art, looking to this one goal, fabricates what is the subject, so that it may admit the structure, rejecting nothing of those things which are suitable objects for its use. For neither should that which has been taken by theft be called into crime, being inanimate. Therefore, nothing prevents working and preparing the wool; but he who took it away with an unjust hand and by theft, he is the one who should be punished. Thus, the corrupters of marriages, and those who rashly break the strings of a harmonious and chaste life, as if it were a lyre, relaxing the unbridled heats of inflamed desire into adulteries, they themselves are indeed to be tortured and punished: for they harm gravely, stealing C forbidden copulations from others' gardens; but the seed itself, just as the wools there, is to be formed and endowed with a soul.
CHAPTER VI. Even the care of illegitimate offspring is given to God, with angels appointed as their guardians.
And what need is there to prolong the discourse in vain with such a wealth of examples, when it is sufficiently clear that the structure of bodies is indeed the work of God? For when would nature, in so short a time, unless God provided the help, complete such a work? For who compacted the uncompacted substance of the bones? Who indeed bound them together, so that they might be extended and relaxed by nerves to the joints of the limbs, thus bending the members? Who prepared the channels for the blood, and the soft artery for the spirit? Or who else dilated the humor imbued with blood, and the soft pulp from the mud, almost with leaven; if not the sole supreme artist, who fashioned us as a living man, the rational image of himself D? Who is it that looks out lest con-
-Afabricaed, from the most tenuous human seeds, as if from wax, in the womb? To whose care does this belong, lest the imperfect fetus, floating within the womb, be suffocated by the moisture and the narrowness of the vessels? Who, once it is brought forth and received into the light, brings such a weak and meager thing to such bulk, form, and strength, if not that same Being, as I have said, the supreme Artificer, God, who by a creative power, as if drawing figures and painting the species to the life with Christ as the template? Whence we have also learned from the divine scriptures that offspring, even if born of adultery, are committed to guardian angels. For if they existed against the will of that blessed nature—that is, God—and contrary to His counsel and law, how could they have been handed over to angels to be nurtured so gently and indulgently? How could they, about to accuse their own parents, freely summon them to the tribunal of Christ? "You, indeed, Lord," they say, "did not begrudge us this common light; but these people exposed us to death, having despised Your commandment." For he says, "Children born of illicit slumbers are witnesses of iniquity against their parents in the examination of persuasive arguments." B
Cap. VII. The rational soul is from God himself. Chastity is not the only good, although it is better and more honorable.
And yet, some person might still have room to argue with some probability among the unlearned and imprudent that this fleshly tunic of the soul, sown by men, is formed by chance contrary to the judgment of God; however, he who teaches that the immortal substance of the soul is sown alongside the mortal and fragile body will not deserve to be believed. For that which is devoid of death and old age is breathed into us by the Almighty alone, and He alone is the creator of the invisible and incorruptible. For He breathed, it says, into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Indeed, the Scripture, chiding those artificers who, to the destruction of men, construct statues in human form, which are endowed with no perception of their own Creator, says in the book of Wisdom, that workshop of all virtue: "Their heart is ashes, and their hope is more worthless than earth, and their life is lower than clay; because they were ignorant of Him who fashioned them, and who breathed into them an active soul, and who inspired into them a vital spirit." C This is the Creator of all men, God. Therefore also, as the Apostle writes, "He wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." And since we have with difficulty reached the end of this head, we must next speak of what follows. For when someone of those things which are from human D
If anyone carefully learns the contemplation of what happens to man according to nature, he will know not to abhor the procreation of children, but at the same time to crown purity with greater praise and honor. For it does not follow that because honey is sweeter and more pleasant than other foods, the rest of the fruits which have partaken of a pleasant flavor from nature must be considered bitter. A And of this we shall produce Paul as a sufficient witness, saying: *So then he that giveth his own virgin in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better*. For the Word did not intend to abolish the other by proposing what is better and sweeter; rather, it decrees that what is proper and useful should be assigned to each. For to some He has not yet granted the attainment of virginity; but those who are no longer willing to be defiled, being reddened by irritations, He wishes to meditate and from that point on to envision the angelic transformation of the bodies; B where, according to the truthful oracles of the Lord, *they neither marry, nor are given in marriage*. Since that undefiled eunuchism, by which the kingdom of heaven is offered, is not entrusted to all, but clearly only to those who are able to preserve the ever-blooming and undefiled flower of virginity. For the prophetic discourse has it that the Church is likened to a most flourishing and variegated meadow, distinguished and crowned not only by the flowers of purity, but also by those of childbearing and continence. For *the queen stands to the right of the bridegroom, C variegated in golden fringes*. C And I, too, contribute this to you, O Arete, according to my power, for the sake of the discourse undertaken for the truth. When Theophila had said these things, Theopatra related that a soft murmur had gone forth from all the virgins, as they praised the discourse. And when the rustling ceased, after a long silence, Thalia arose; for she had been commissioned to contend in the third place after Theophila. Therefore, following from this point, she too began.
ORATION III. THALIA.
Chapter I. The passage of Genesis II, 23, 24, compared with the Pauline text in Ephesians V, 28-32.
You seem to me, O Theophila, D to excel all others in both action and erudition, nor to yield to anyone in the praise of wisdom. For there is no one who could criticize your speech, not even if he were entirely contentious and argumentative. Yet one thing alone in it, among other things beautifully said, seems to trouble and disturb me, O blessed one, as I reflect that the man most full of the Spirit and wise, I mean Paul, would not in vain have related to Christ and the Church the union (38) of the
first man and woman, if Scripture meant nothing loftier than what can be perceived from the bare words themselves and the history. For if the Scripture must be taken simply as referring to the union of man and woman, why did the Apostle, in mentioning these things, and, I believe, leading us by the hand toward the way of the Spirit, allegorize what is told of Eve and Adam by referring it to Christ and the Church? For the text of Genesis says: "And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh." B But the Apostle, contemplating this very passage, does not wish it to be taken, as I said, according to the literal, sensible meaning of the union of man and woman, as you do. For you, processing the word more naturally, interpreted the Scripture as referring only to conceptions and births. For you supposed that the bone was taken from the bones so that another man might be generated, and that living bodies might come together and swell and grow, like trees, when they are pregnant. But he, referring these things more spiritually to Christ, instructs us in this way: "He that loveth his own wife loveth himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ the Church: for we are members of his body. For this cause shall a man leave C his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall be into one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church."
Chapter II. The digressions of the Apostle Paul. The character of his doctrine, (showing) nothing in it is inconsistent. A supplement on Origen, who improperly drags everything into allegory.
Nor let it disturb you if, while discussing other matters, he jumps to others, so that he appears to confuse and interject things contrary to his subject, departing from the consideration of the matter, as he does even now. For wishing, as is likely, to confirm the doctrine of chastity with care, he first prepares his argument, beginning with a smoother style of expression. For the character of his discourse, D being most varied and wrought by way of expansion, begins more superficially, but flows into what is higher and more magnificent; then again changing into depth, it concludes sometimes into what is simpler and unadorned, and sometimes into what is more powerful and subtle, introducing nothing alien to the main points by its alterations, but circumscribing all things in a certain wonderful affinity to the subject at hand.
Migne’s own method of arrangement produces, therefore, a certain A necessity in the argument of his own considered thesis, which he completes as one whole. I shall appear to have done something worthwhile if I explain the meaning of the apostolic sentiments a little more accurately; yet in such a way that I reject nothing of those things which have already been said in the previous pages.
For you seem to me to have discoursed upon those points also both abundantly and excellently, O Theophila, by explaining the words of Scripture as they lie, more cautiously. For it is by no means free from danger to despise the words of the underlying text, as has been said, especially those of Genesis, B where the unchangeable oracles and decrees of God are brought forth for the constitution of the whole universe, by which the world is still even now most beautifully directed, in accord with perfect measure, until the Legislator himself, who put it in order, wishing to reform his work, shall antiquate the primary laws of nature by another ordinance. But since it is not fitting to leave an investigation unexplored and, as it were, limping in half of its rationale, come, let us also assign to it the anagogical sense along with the literal one—like the other animal in a chariot team—by contemplating this Scripture more deeply. For that Paul whom we just saw is not one who can be despised, he who, having transcended the vulgar sense of the saying, has declared that it extends to that mystery of Christ and the Church.
Chapter III. Comparison of the first Adam and the second instituted.
And here it must first be inquired C whether Adam can be compared to the Son of God: that Adam, I say, caught in the fall of transgression, and who heard: *Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.* How indeed shall he be thought the *Firstborn of every creature*, who was formed of clay after the earth and the firmament? And again, by what reasoning shall he be conceded to be the *tree of life*, he who is cast out for the sake of transgression, lest he reach forth his hand again and eat of it, and live forever? For that which is compared to another must necessarily be similar to it in many things and akin, not behave in a manner manifestly contrary and discordant, and consist of opposites. D For no one who should dare to compare the unequal to the equal, or a harmonic concord to a discordant and inharmonious thing, would obtain the praise of being wise. But given a nature compared to an equal, it is not undeservedly compared, even if it stands equal only in a slight degree; and white is compared to white by nature, even if it be most minute, and moderately reflects the sense of that whiteness, insomuch that it is also called white. Now that which is equal and harmonic and splendid in candor is, to everyone, clearly and undoubtedly that which is sinless and incorrupt—wisdom.
CHAPTER IV. Some things are stated here harshly and too simply, nor do they appear to be brought forth according to the norm of theology.
These, then, are the things which I think are almost universally objected to by many who do not wish the first man to be referred to Christ, despising the prudence of Paul, as is fitting. For come, let us examine how he orthogonally led Adam to Christ, thinking him to be not only a type and image, but that he himself became Christ A by the Word who was before the ages having descended upon him. B For it was fitting that the first-begotten of God and the first sprout of the ages—for he is the most ancient of the ages, and is called the first of the archangels—should be admitted as a comparison. For this line of reasoning is that of those whom he himself refutes: and it is similar to that of the Apostle, "What society hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?" (II Cor. vi, 15), in that, certainly, in which they disagree thus, and what is precisely imported by those names, although otherwise nothing prevents the things themselves from agreeing in some respect.
I think that these are almost all the points commonly raised by those who, having spurned, as it appears, the prudence of Paul, deny that the first of men is referred to Christ. But come, let us also consider with what right and sound sense he has referred Adam to Christ; not only this, that he considered Adam to be a figure and likeness of Christ, but that he also believed this very thing—that the same Christ himself existed, for this reason, namely, that the Word who is before the ages came into him and joined himself to him. It was fitting that he should be C the first and head of his own order. And that he so descended, being himself D innocence (to render word for word), and Wisdom. Yet that he sinned, and became darkness and foolish, etc., is an argument that their union was by will and an accidental gift of grace, just as in the prophets, not by nature and substance according to hypostasis, as our theologians call it, which excludes every power of sinning, because through it the Word himself is the author of operations and the proper agent, in the nature which he made his own by that union. Methodius ought to have touched upon this distinction, and by what he might signify Christ as the first and second Adam, not by a distinction in their descent, but in the nature which he would descend into, lest he incur a stain similar to the former by a peculiar protection within the virginal cloister and its gradual duration; which is nothing else than progress: by which merit Christ came forth as the Son of God, and whatever the faith teaches and Scripture speaks concerning this man, let those teach me who wish themselves to be seen as more conversant in the Methodian works, and in the whole crowd of the ancients, who even mostly count Methodius among those Fathers to whom some things deviant from the faith crept in through simplicity: which Photius particularly notes in his censure of this Dialogue, whether he himself spoke so incautiously, or others sprinkled it upon him: which the context itself and the entire composition of the Dialogue does not easily permit to be admitted. That "most ancient of the ages" smacks somewhat of the fables of the heretics, by which they are celebrated, as can be seen in Irenaeus and others. The first-begotten of God and the first sprout, the most ancient of the ages and the first of the archangels is said to be, with the eternity and consubstantiality with the Father of the same Word left intact. At the same time, it must be recalled to memory that very many Fathers before the Nicene synod spoke sometimes less exactly concerning the divine persons, as Petavius demonstrates piece by piece in lib. 1 De Trin. from cap. 3 to 6, counting Methodius also among them in cap. 4, num. 12. And hence I suspect the occasion was given to Photius of admonishing that this work had been depraved by Arian opinions intermixed: which does not prevent it from being usefully published: if a similar reasoning did not prohibit, why there might be published laudably and for the public good the scripts of Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tatian, the blessed Theophilus, Irenaeus, Clement of both the Roman and Alexandrian, Origen, Dionysius of Alexandria, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Lucian the martyr, Tertullian, Lactantius, and those similar, among whom much harsher things in this genre are read than in our Methodius. When holy Methodius says that Adam was assumed by the Word, this is not to be understood as if the whole body and soul, and the individual nature of the first man were united to Christ assuming flesh: but that
A the Primogenitum of God, and the only-begotten sprout, that is to say, Wisdom, was mingled with the first-formed and first-born man of the human race, and became man. For this is Christ: a man filled with pure and perfect divinity, and God contained within a man. For it was most fitting that he who is the most ancient of ages and the first of the archangels, being about to converse with men, should be housed in the most ancient and the first of men—Adam. For in this way, painting anew what was from the beginning, and fashioning him again from a Virgin and the Spirit, he builds the same man. Just as in the beginning, while the earth was still a virgin and had not yet known the plow, God took dust and fashioned from it the most rational living creature without seed.
Cap. V. Jeremiah’s text examined.
Let there be at hand for me as a reliable and eloquent witness, the prophet Jeremiah: B "And I went down," he says, "into the house of the potter, and behold, he was doing a work on the stones. And the vessel, which he was making, fell in his hands. And he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good in his sight to make it." For while Adam was still being fashioned of clay, so to speak—and being molten and watery, and not yet having attained, like an earthen vessel, to be strengthened by immortality—sin, distilling and flowing down like a drop, dissolved him. Wherefore, God, wetting him again from the beginning and molding him of clay into a vessel of honor, C first strengthening and fixing him in the virginal womb, and at the same time uniting and mingling him with the Word, brought him forth into life solid and unbroken; so that, being washed over from without by the streams of corruption, he might not, by generating decay, fall away again. This is also seen in the parable of the lost sheep, where the Lord teaches, saying to those standing by: "What man is there among you, who has a hundred sheep, and if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing; and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors, saying to them: D 'Congratulate me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'"
Cap. VI. The complete number of the spiritual sheep. Man, a chorus apart from the angels in praise of God. The parable of the lost sheep explained.
For since he truly was and is He who was in the beginning with God, and was God, the commander-in-chief and shepherd of those in heaven, whom all souls obey and whom the rational beings follow, ruling in orderly fashion and numbering the multitudes of the blessed angels—for this is the equal and perfect number of the immortals—
along with this flock, man also is included. For he, too, had been created exempt from corruption, so that he might honor the King and Maker of all, responding in harmonious melody to the voices brought down from heaven by the angels. But since it happened that, having transgressed the commandment, he fell into a deadly and terrible collapse, and was resolved into death; for this reason the Lord says that He came into the world from the heavens, having left behind the ranks and legions of the angels. For the mountains should be understood as the heavens; and the ninety-nine sheep as the Virtues, the Principalities, and the Powers, which He left behind, descending as Emperor and Shepherd to seek the sheep that was lost. For it remained for man also to be registered and counted in this roll, whom the Lord Himself bore and clothed; so that he might not again, as I said, be overwhelmed by the triple waves and deceptions and be drowned. For this reason the Word took up man, B so that through him He might abolish the condemnation that had come to pass for our destruction, having defeated the serpent. For it was fitting that the evil one be defeated not by another, but by that very one whom he boasted to have subjugated to his tyranny after having deceived him. For it was not possible for sin to be loosed and the condemnation abolished in any other way, unless that very man for whom it had been said, *Earth you are, and to earth you shall return* 46, was fashioned anew and annulled the sentence that had spread through his guilt to all: so that just as formerly in Adam all were dying, so again in Christ, who had assumed Adam, all might be made alive 47.
Cap. VII. The works of Christ, proper to God and man, belong to Him who is one.
So far it seems to me that I have sufficiently explained how man, having become the instrument and garment of the Only-Begotten, accomplished that which He who dwelt in him also accomplished. But that there is neither inequality nor lack of harmony and dissonance, must be briefly reconsidered from the beginning. For He who is by nature good, and by nature just and holy—by participation in whom the others become good—he who says that Wisdom is next to God is speaking most correctly; but sin is unholy, unjust, and evil. For there are two things diametrically opposed to one another: life and death, incorruption C and corruption.
A For life is parity, but death is imparity; and harmony is justice and prudence, but their disturbance and dissonance are imprudence and injustice. Man, however, being between these, is neither justice itself nor, indeed, injustice; but, having been placed in the midst of incorruption and corruption, he is said to be transformed into the nature and character of whichever one he has inclined toward—or by which he has been seized [(48)]. For by inclining toward corruption, he becomes corruptible and mortal; but toward incorruption, incorruptible [(49)] and immortal. For, having been placed as a boundary between the tree of life and [the tree] of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruits of which he tasted, he was changed into the form of that to which he was moved; and he exists neither as the tree of life itself nor as that of corruption, but, by participating in and being in the presence of corruption, he appears mortal, yet by the appropriation and the anointing of incorruptible life, he appears again incorruptible and immortal. B Just as Paul also taught, saying: "For corruption shall not inherit incorruption, nor death, life" — rightly defining corruption and death as that which corrupts and kills, not that which is corrupted and dies; and incorruption and life as that which makes one immortal and gives life, not that which is made immortal and is given life. Thus, man is neither discord and imparity, nor, indeed, is he parity and harmony; but when he accepted discord (which is transgression and sin), he became discordant and unseemly; and when he accepted harmony (that is, justice), he became a harmonious and seemly instrument, so that the Lord—that incorruption which is the victor over death—might tunefully sing the resurrection to the flesh, not allowing it to be possessed again by corruption. And let this be enough said concerning these matters.
Chap. VIII. The bones and flesh of Wisdom. The rib from which the spiritual Eve, the Holy Spirit, was formed. The woman as helper to Adam, the virgins betrothed to Christ.
C For we have previously demonstrated, with no insignificant arguments drawn from Scripture, that the first-created man can rightly be referred to Christ, no longer being a type and mere imitation and image of the Only-Begotten, but having become this very thing: Wisdom and the Word. For man, having been mingled with wisdom and life like water, became that which the unmixed light itself was, which came into him. Whence the Apostle rightly directed D
A to Christ the things concerning Adam. For thus most especially does it harmonize that the Church has come to be from His bones and from His flesh; for the sake of which, having left the Father who is in the heavens, the Word descended to be joined to His wife, and He slept the ecstasy of the passion, voluntarily dying for her, that He might present the Church to Himself glorious and spotless, having cleansed her by the laver, for the reception of the intelligible and blessed seed, which He Himself sows, whispering and planting it in the depth of the mind; and the Church, receiving it and shaping it like a woman, conceives it for the begetting and nurturing of virtue. For by this means also is the "Increase and multiply" [Gen. I, 28] duly fulfilled, while the Church herself, through the union and communion of the Word—who lowers Himself to us even now and is in ecstasy in the commemoration of the passion—is increased into magnitude and beauty and multitude daily. For the Church could not otherwise conceive those who believe and regenerate them through the laver of rebirth, unless for their sake also Christ, having emptied Himself B so as to be contained, as I have said, according to the recapitulation of the passion, descended from the heavens and died again, and having been joined to His own wife, the Church, provided that some power should be taken from His side, so that all who are built up in Him might be increased, having been born through the laver from His bones and from His flesh, that is to say, having received from His holiness and from His glory. For he who calls the bones and the flesh of Wisdom "understanding and virtue" speaks most correctly; and "the rib" is the Spirit of truth, the Paraclector, from whom those who have been enlightened, receiving, are duly regenerated unto incorruption. But it is impossible for anyone to become a partaker of the Holy Spirit and to be numbered as a member of Christ, unless first, the Word having descended also upon him, He has fallen into C an ecstasy of sleep, so that he, rising together from the sleep with Him who slept for his sake, might also be able to partake of the Spirit, being fashioned anew. For this would properly be called the rib of the Word, the seven-formed Spirit of truth, according to the prophet; [Isa. XI, 2] from which God, taking it according to the ecstasy of Christ—which is after the incarnation and the passion—fashions for Him a helper; I mean the souls that are fitted and betrothed to Him. For there are times when the Scriptures call the very gathering and throng of the faithful "the Church" in many ways, with the more perfect ones being brought by progress into one person and body, that of the Church. For those who are better and have more clearly grasped the truth—these, through perfect purification and faith, having been rendered barren of the sins of the flesh and of vices, become the Church and a helper for Christ, like a virgin, D according to the Apostle, [II Cor. XI, 2] having been both fitted and betrothed to Him, in order that, having received the pure seed of instruction
A and the fruit-bearing sowing, they might cooperate, assisting in the preaching for the salvation of the rest. But those who are still immature and are beginning their lessons are travailed with and formed for salvation, as if by mothers, by those who are more perfect, until, being brought forth, they are regenerated into the magnitude and beauty of virtue; and again, by progression, these also having become Church, they may minister to the bringing forth and upbringing of other children, acting as a womb, in the vessel of the soul, having brought to fulfillment the inviolate will of the Word.
Chapter IX. Grace and economy in the Apostle Paul.
For it is necessary also to consider the case of the illustrious Paul. B For since he was not yet perfect in Christ, he is first generated and suckled, with Ananias instructing him with evangelical documents and renewing him through baptism, as the history contained in the Acts relates. But when he had become a man and had been built up, having been fashioned anew to spiritual perfection, and had become a helper and bride of the Word, having received and conceived the seeds of life: then he who had previously been an infant is made a Church and a parent, himself also travailing with those who through him had believed in the Lord, until Christ be formed and brought forth in them also. For, *My little children*, he says, *of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.* And again: *For in Christ Jesus through the Gospel I have begotten you.*
From this, therefore, it is apparent that the narrative of Scripture concerning Eve and Adam is referred to Christ and the Church. For this is the great mystery, in truth, and one above the world: which I, on account of the weakness and dullness of my mind, am unable to recount according to its dignity and magnitude; C nevertheless, it must be attempted. For it would be consistent to recount what remains of this passage to you.
Chapter X. The same apostle's doctrine on chastity.
Paul, therefore, calling all to holiness and chastity, directed in this manner the things pertaining to the first-formed man and Eve, and the secondary consideration, in the spirit of Christ and the Church, in order to stop the mouths of the unlearned, depriving them of every pretext and excuse. For unchaste and lustful men, on account of the excessive flow of pleasures in them and the allurements, even attempt to apply force to the Scriptures, that they may interpret them in a perverse sense, and hold them forth as a bulwark for defense of their incontinence; D then [they cite] that which is written: *God said: Increase and multiply*; and that other: *For this cause shall a man leave father and mother.* Nor are they ashamed to run contrary to the Spirit; but as if they were born for this, those who are still nurtured and reside in them, they fan the kindling of concupiscence almost with their breath and rekindle it with titillations. Wherefore, very sharply cutting off these treacherous and malignant counsels of theirs and the pretexts they have sought, when he had come to the point of prescribing how it is fitting for men to treat their wives, he declared that, in the same way as Christ to the Church, delivering himself up for
A it in order that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word; he ran back to Genesis, bringing in a mention of those things which are spoken there concerning the first man, and setting these same things forth according to the meaning of the subject matter, so that he might not provide an opportunity for those who are eager to abuse those sacred words, by the pretext of procreation, to practice the rubbing of bodies.
CHAPTER XI. On the same argument.
Consider, then, O virgins, that wishing with all his might that the faithful should live temperately, he attempts to insinuate to them the excellence of purity through many arguments; as when he says: "Now concerning the things whereof you wrote to me; it is good for a man not to touch a woman;" B showing clearly from that very point that it is good not to approach a wife, since he had set this forth and proposed it absolutely. Then, conscious of human weakness and considering the violent heat by which the more intemperate are carried away into intercourse, he permitted those who are not able to govern the flesh to make use of their own wives, rather than to be poured out unseemly into fornicatory congresses. Indeed, after permitting these things, he straightway added this: "Lest Satan tempt you for your incontinency." Which is: If you are not able, O you people, to live altogether in chastity due to the moistness of the bodies, I permit you rather to associate with your own wives; so that, while you feel you are professing continence, you might not be tempted continually by the evil one to be inflamed C with desire for other women.
Chapter XII. Paul as an example to widows, and to those who do not fear their wives.
Come then, let us examine the text itself more carefully; for the Apostle did not grant these things to all without qualification, but added first the cause for which he was led to this. Having, therefore, stated, "It is good for a man not to touch a woman," he straightway added: "But for fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife." That is to say, on account of the necessity of fornication, if you cannot bear to restrain the pleasure. "And let every woman have her own husband." "Let the husband render the debt to the wife; and D likewise also the wife to the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and in like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud not one another, except, perhaps, by consent, for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer; and return together again, lest Satan tempt you for your incontinency. But I speak this by indulgence, not by commandment." And this, too, is observed with much foresight. For he indicated that he had given counsel now by indulgence, not by commandment; since he takes the commandment to be in matters of temperance and not touching a woman, but the indulgence for those who are not able, as I said, to restrain their desire. Concerning
A those who have already lost their spouses, whether men or women, one must again carefully investigate the voice of the Apostle, and what it is that he prophesies.
"I say," he says, "to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I. But if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn." Even here he persists in preferring self-control. For, taking himself as a great example, he challenged his hearers to emulate this struggle, teaching that it is better for the one who has been joined to one wife to remain to himself, just as he himself was doing. But if this, because of the burning and the maturity of the body, should be difficult for some, he agrees that one who is so disposed may pass over to a second marriage according to indulgence; not that he declares the second marriage itself to be a good and honorable thing, but judging it to be better than being burned. For just as if someone, on the day of Pascha and of the fast, were to offer food to one who is dangerously ill, and were to command, because of their B weakness, that they taste of these things being offered, saying: "As it is true, O…"
(52) *Concerning those who have already lost their spouses.* Methodius accepts the text of Paul, which he explicitly asks about, concerning widowed men and women: in these, he says, Paul proposes himself as the greatest example for the emulation of virtue, and that they should therefore remain as they are, and being freed from matrimony, should thenceforth cultivate chastity. And thus, according to the mind of Methodius, Paul was a widower: or if he was not a widower, he had turned his spouse into a sister, henceforth abstaining from her company, so that she would not be a hindrance to his evangelical ministry: just as the greater priests and bishops, at least, having assumed the priesthood, were not henceforth celibate in the Church even if they had wives they did not wish to leave. This question does not touch upon piety in the least: it is much the same whether Paul had a wife before his vocation, just as Peter did, or whether he lacked one; since before the Gospel there was no cult of virginity among the Hebrews, or it was very slight. However, that a long-probable argument is drawn from this passage by Methodius, and by Chrysostom in his book *On Virginity*, and by others, to construct the case for Paul’s former marriage, can hardly be denied: because in discussing virgins who have not touched husbands, he never provokes them by his own example; but he does so once or twice when dealing with widows, or those who, having once been married, ceased from the embraces of their wives. I am pleased here to add the exposition of a recent, learned author, similar to that of Methodius. The Hebrews say C *ish* and *ishah*. The Greeks call a woman who has lost her spouse *chera*: as analogy allows that a man who has lost his spouse be called *cheros*; common usage does not admit it: for which reason Paul sought another word, and said *agamos* [unmarried], using a genus name for a species. For *agamos*, by the force of the word, is as much one who has never been in marriage as one to whom marriage has perished. But Paul uses it here in the latter sense, as the added mention of widows teaches us, and the word *agamos* repeated below in verse 11. Ignatius also felt this way, if indeed it is Ignatius and not the interpolator of the epistle to the Philadelphians, where, having celebrated the other continence of those who remained as virgins, he teaches that he does not abhor marriage, but prays to be found worthy even among the holy married ones, and to walk in their footsteps in the kingdom of heaven: just as Peter and Paul, and the other apostles who were engaged in marriage. But the ancient English codices, in which the ancient version of the epistles of Ignatius survives—much like the Greek text that recently emerged from the Florentine codex, which itself can be held to be the true and pure Ignatian text, and such as the ancients Eusebius, Jerome, Theodoret, etc., possessed—contain nothing of this; and it is a wonder if the flame, tainted by the poison of Calvin and of one of his disciples, prescribes it after so many centuries. Therefore, D from the true Ignatius, nothing can be had concerning Paul’s marriage: Methodius himself rather insinuates it by the explanation of the Pauline text than asserts it openly. The only author of this marriage, therefore, will be Clement of Alexandria, whose words Eusebius, *Hist.* lib. III, c. 30, and Nicephorus, lib. II, c. 44, recite, from that place in Philippians, which, however, is a text that gives little favor. For first, the gender differs: *syzyge gnesie*, genuinely, truly. Although the Attics sometimes joined masculine with feminine, yet there does not seem to have been such skill or elegance in the Greek language in Paul that he would follow such an Attic way of speaking. Next, how much authority could Paul’s former wife, once a sister, have had at Philippi, that he should commend both women and men to her? I will put forward the words of Grotius: *Syzygos*, which in Hebrew is *chaber*, is said not only of those joined in marriage, but also of colleagues. Whom, however, would Paul rather call a colleague than the one presiding, whose authority was supreme even in the distribution of money? Therefore, the speech turns to Epaphroditus via *syzygos*, as if he were present, as this Epistle would be read in the Church of the Philippians. Nor is there anything here other than what was above *synergos*, helper. This is enough for me. There is one point: no one among the ancients interpreted this passage concerning Paul’s wife; nor, therefore, are we to interpret it, or to agree with Clement, who thus gathers it—as if in passing—from the obvious and more trite usage of the word; which is that Paul does not waver to address his own spouse as *syzygos*. But to one paying closer attention, *syzyge autou* [his yokefellow] would have occurred, [meaning] his colleague, helper, or bishop, or anyone else of chief authority in the Church which was at Philippi, a man, and one who would be able to suffice for the elder widows and other needy ones—which does not fit for Paul’s wife, especially in that Church. For what [place was there for] a Hebrew woman of such authority outside her own country in a city of Greeks? COMBERIS.
A If one were to offer food to a sick man, and command him, afflicted as he is by sickness, to taste what is set before him, saying: "It was indeed good, my friend, and it truly befitted you, as it does us, to persevere strongly and partake of the same; for it is forbidden today to remember food at all. But since you have been seized by sickness and are weakened, and you cannot bear it, for this reason, granting indulgence, we advise you to take food, lest, not being able to resist the desire for nourishment on account of the sickness, you might perish entirely." So too does the Apostle here: having first said that he wished all to remain temperate as he himself was, afterwards, to those burdened by the sickness of the passions, lest they be defiled by fornications B, being goaded by the stimulations of the reproductive members into the mixing of unseemly seeds, he permitted second marriage—judging it rather as better than being set on fire and behaving shamefully.
CHAPTER XIII. Paul's doctrine on virginity is examined.
Concerning continence and marriages, and temperance and the union of men, and in which of these is the usefulness for the construction of righteousness, the matter has by now almost reached an end for me; it remains finally to speak about virginity, if anything is also decreed concerning this. Therefore, we must also discuss these things. For it goes as follows: "Now concerning the virgins I have no command of the Lord: but I give judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I think therefore that this is good for the present distress, because it is good for a man so to be. Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but C I spare you." Most cautiously, having introduced the discourse concerning virginity, and being about to give counsel that each might marry off his own virgin to whom he pleases, so that nothing of the things leading to holiness might happen through necessity and force, but according to the voluntary purpose of the soul (for this is acceptable to God)—he does not want these things to be said by his own authority and judgment of the Lord; that is, the giving of the virgin in marriage. Indeed, having said: "And if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned," almost again fearing, he disturbed the assent, indicating that this counsel was given according to human indulgence, and not D according to divine [indulgence].
Therefore, immediately after having said, "If the virgin marries, she hath not sinned," he added: "But such shall have tribulation of the flesh: but I spare you." Which is to say: I, sparing you, O man, have conceded these things, since you yourselves chose to think of these things in this way, so that I might not appear A to be driving you to this by force, and to be compelling some. However, if it is pleasing to you to turn rather to this, being unable to bear with discomfort the struggle for chastity—and so I judge it to be more profitable for you to master the promptings of the flesh, since you have married, rather than abusing your own vessels for impurity—he therefore adds: "But this I say, brethren: The time is short: it remaineth, that even they that have wives may be as though they had none." Then, again insisting and urging them on the same points, he expanded upon the argument, strongly confirming the proposition of virginity. B Having, therefore, clearly appended the following verses to those things previously stated, he exclaimed: "I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is without a wife, is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife, is solicitous for the things that belong to the wife, how he may please his wife. And the wife and the virgin are divided." C And the unmarried woman is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married is solicitous for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. For it is manifest to all, beyond any doubt, that to be solicitous for the things of the Lord and to please God is far better than being solicitous for the things of the world and to please a wife. For who is so foolish and dull of sight that he does not immediately perceive that the exhortation of Paul leans more toward chastity? "For this," he says, "I speak for your profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is honest."
Cap. XIV. Virginity is a gift of God, and its purpose is not to be undertaken by anyone rashly.
Observe also, beyond what has been said, how Paul establishes and admonishes that the pursuit of virginity is a gift of God. Wherefore, he rejects those who, driven by vainglory, have come to this state while being more intemperate in their desires, and counsels them to marry, so that they may not, in the time of their prime, while the flesh provides them with stirrings and inflammations, fall away.
A For we must examine what he delivers. If, he says, anyone thinks he is acting unseemly toward his virgin, if she is past her prime, and it ought so to be, let him do what he wishes; he does not sin; let them marry. He aptly prefers marriage here to unseemliness for those who have chosen a life of virginity but who subsequently find it difficult to bear and grow weary; and who, while boasting in words—out of regard for human shame—that they are persevering in their purpose, are nonetheless unable in deed to dwell for long in such eunuchism. B However, he delivers a sovereign and voluntary judgment to him who has set his heart on keeping his own flesh virgin and has no necessity (which is a passion inciting the loins to intercourse; for there are, as is natural, differences in bodies) to him who struggles and contends against this, and who earnestly persists in his promise, and performs it in the best way, he encourages him to remain and to keep it, assigning primacy to virginity. For he who is able, he says, and is zealous to keep his own flesh virgin, does better; but he who is not able, provided that he marries lawfully and does not practice secret defilement, does well. And enough on these matters.
Let him who wishes take into his hand the Epistle to the Corinthians, and, having conversed with the written words one by one, then let him examine the things said by us, comparing them to see if they do not possess complete agreement and harmony with the text. These things, C O Arete, I too contribute according to my ability on behalf of chastity.
EUBULUS. It was with great difficulty, O Gregory, that you arrived at the subject matter, having traversed and crossed a vast sea of words!
GREGORY. It seems so, as you say; but come, preserving the order and following the tracks of the speakers as they occurred, let us run through the rest, while the hearing of it still remains vivid to me, before it flies away and escapes; for the memories of old men for new reports are easily erased.
EUBULUS. But speak on; for we have come eagerly to hear these words.
GREGORY. Yes, indeed, as you said, after Thalia had been brought down on untroubled courses to the land, Theopatra, taking it up in succession, said that she spoke as follows. D
BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS
ORATION IV. THEOPATRA.
CHAPTER I. The necessity of praising virtue for those who have the capacity.
If, O virgins, the wisdom of the art of discourse were to dwell always upon the same traces and ever to walk the selfsame path, it would be impossible for my speech not to be tiresome, while I attempt to speak of those matters which others have already occupied by speaking better of them. But since the ways and streams of speech are more numerous, and God breathes upon us in many and various ways, what sort of lot and reason is mine, that it should be fitting to hide and to mutter in degenerate fear? For no one who is endowed with grace is free from blame if he has not adorned those things which are noble with eucharistic discourses, and has not dispelled the evils and vices that cling to them. Wherefore, let us also, according to the measure of our ability, praise chastity, the most purely shining and noble star of Christ. For this is a most wide and liberally spread way of the Spirit. From where, then, shall we make our beginning, so that we may appear to say things suitable and appropriate to the matters at hand? From this point onwards we must observe. A I, for my part, consider that I have clearly grasped that nothing has proved itself to be as efficacious for the restoration of men to paradise, and for the change from mortality to incorruption, and for the reconciliation of mortals with God, and as a salvation (as it were, instructing and strengthening the path to life), as chastity. I shall attempt, therefore, to set forth for the present why I hold this opinion, so that, having clearly heard of the power of the gift of which we are speaking, you may understand that it has become the cause of all B good things for us. For of old, after man had been cast out of paradise because of the guilt of his transgression and condemned to dwell upon the earth, a stream of corruption poured forth far and wide, and rushing with a violent impetus in immense whirlpools, it not only bore away everything it encountered outside, but, breaking in within, it began to overwhelm souls. But those who were continuously struck by this became as it were deaf and dumb and stunned, and were carried along without any sense, with the care of steering their own ships neglected; because they met with nothing firm or fixed C to which they might cling and apply themselves. For the senses of the soul, as those who are experts in such matters have said, once they have been overcome by the passions rushing in from without, and have received the impulse and force of the flood of madness flooding in within, immediately deviate from their straight course, D and, being blinded, impede the entire calm capacity of the soul from proceeding according to nature. Whence God, having compassion on us as we were thus, and being able neither to hold back nor to recover ourselves, sent down...
from heaven the best and most glorious aid, A chastity; so that, having anchored our bodies by its means, we might enjoy peace like ships, moored without corruption, as the Holy Spirit also testifies. For this is found in the one hundred and thirty-sixth Psalm, where souls, glad and offering a hymn of thanksgiving to God—as many as have been taken up and seized—already walk in heaven with Christ, because they have not been dragged down by material and bodily currents. For hence they say that Pharaoh also, in Egypt, bore the type of the devil; since he commanded that the males should be ruthlessly thrown into the river, but that the females should be kept alive. For indeed the devil, ruling from Adam until Moses over this great Egypt, the world, was eager that the male and intelligible offspring of the soul should be carried away and destroyed by the flowing passions, while he desires that the carnal and senseless shoots should increase and multiply. B
Chapter III. Exposition of the Davidic text: "By the rivers of Babylon," etc. What the hanging of the instruments upon the willows signifies. The willow, a symbol of chastity. Willows watered by streams.
But, that we may not wander from our proposed theme, come, let us take the Psalm into our hands and explain it, which pure and inviolate souls sing to God, saying: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Sion. On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments." C Calling their own bodies clearly "instruments," which they hung upon the ropes of chastity, fastening them to the wood, so that they might not be able, if snatched away, to be dragged aside again by the current of incontinence. For Babylon, being interpreted as "disturbance" or "confusion," signifies this life surrounded by waters, in the midst of which we sit and are washed about, so long as we are in the world, with the rivers of wickedness constantly assailing us. Therefore we are fearful and lament, and cry out to God with tears, that our instruments, torn from the tree of chastity by the waves of pleasure, may not fall and perish. For everywhere the sacred Scriptures embrace the willow as a type of virginity; since its flower, if rubbed into water and drunk, quenches whatever secret agitation and itching it stirs up inside, D and is of such power that it renders all motions toward venery sterile and useless for generation; as Homer also indicated, therefore calling the willows "fruit-losing." Also in Isaiah, the righteous are said to sprout like willows beside the flowing waters. For then the branch of virginity grows high, strongly and brilliantly, when the righteous man, who has been entrusted to keep and tend it, is irrigated by the gentlest fountains of Christ, intoxicated with the drops of wisdom. For as the willow, unless by flowing waters...
so too virginity is naturally nurtured and reaches its full bloom when thickened by the Word, so that one may indeed hang one's own instrument upon it. B
CAP. IV. The author continues the interpretation of the same passage.
If, therefore, the rivers of Babylon are the currents of pleasure, as the wise men hold, which confound and trouble the soul, it is necessary that the willows should signify temperance, from which we suspend and restrain the procreative instruments, which otherwise would hang downward and weigh down the mind, lest, being carried down toward the channels of incontinence, they should attach themselves like worms to filth and putrefaction. For God has bestowed virginity as a most useful and effective aid for obtaining incorruption, sending it as a faithful ally to those who eagerly aspire to that beauty; such as the Psalmist indicates by the name of Sion, which word denotes illustrious love and the commandment concerning it. For if you interpret the word Sion, it sounds like "a command of the watchtower." Thus, let us again consider what follows.
What, then, is the reason why the souls confess that they were asked by their captors to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? Is it not surely because they teach that the holy Gospel is a sacred and secret song, which those who sin and commit fornication sing to the devil? C They mock and betray the hidden commandments, fulfilling the will of the spirits of wickedness, and they cast what is holy to the dogs and throw their pearls before swine, just as those people about whom the prophet is indignant, saying: *And they read the law outside* (Amos IV, 5). For it is not, of course, because the Jews read the Law outside the gates of Jerusalem or outside their houses that they are so sharply rebuked by the prophet, who proclaims them guilty of a grave crime; rather, it is because, while transgressing the commandments and acting impiously toward God, they read the precepts with an outward show of piety, as if they were religious men and worshippers of God, but in their souls they did not admit them at all, nor did they hold them through faith, but rejected them, denying them by their works. Hence they sing the song of the Lord in a strange land, [by the] D psalms, which he [the prophet] had indicated to those who had taken them captive, whose voices other ecclesiastical men thereafter easily followed, in which there is need of great diligence, lest we should falter from the sense intended by those great elders through ignorance of their phrasing—something I have sometimes discovered to have happened even to the most eloquent of the Greeks. And it would appear to many that nothing is dissonant to the Hebrew truth if the Hebrew [texts] themselves were extant for us in their purity, such as they had them, and we ourselves fully grasped their language. (64) They go beyond the commandments. Maz. and All. [read], "they go out from the commandments," which holds nothing, nor did Possinus attain our that [is in the] Vatican, while he renders, "for they overleap the commandments"; nay rather, as if insulting them, they rashly divulge them; which is the notable meaning of that word: and Methodius confirms this with the words of the Lord, by which we are forbidden to cast holy things to dogs, or, as it is said, to cast pearls before swine.
those who treat the Law more humbly and interpret it—expecting a sensible kingdom, and placing their hopes upon this strange earth, which the divine word holds is to pass away—where those who lead captive entice them with pleasures, lying in wait to deceive.
Cap. V. The duties of virgins, whereby they are presented adorned to the one man, Christ.
Those who sing the Gospel to the foolish seem to sing the song of the Lord in a strange land, of which Christ is not the cultivator. But those souls who have put on the purest, most joyful, unmixed, reverent, and becoming ornament of virginity, and have shone forth with its beauty, and have been found barren and B unfruitful as regards the fleeting and painful passions, do not sing the song in a strange land; because they do not carry their hopes thither, nor have they withered away in the luxuries of mortal bodies, nor do they look down basely upon the meaning of the commandments; but well and bravely, with a lofty spirit, they gaze upward toward the promises, thirsting for the heavenly and congenial place. Whence God, admiring their dispositions, promises with an oath to give them singular honors, establishing and planting them in the beginning of gladness. For He says: *If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand be forgotten. May my tongue cleave to my throat if I do not remember thee; if I do not set Jerusalem before the beginning of my joy.* Jerusalem—by the naming of which, as I have said, He means those souls that are undefiled and free from harm, which, C having drained with pure lips the draught of virginity—which is harsh to the unholy—are betrothed as a pure virgin to *one man*, that they may be presented to Christ in heaven, having conquered the struggle of the other undefiled ones. For it is by this that the prophet Isaiah also exhorts them, saying: *Be enlightened, be enlightened, Jerusalem; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.* And that these promises shall be fulfilled after the resurrection is clear, and
A that the Holy Spirit does not prophesy concerning that much-fabled little city of the Jews, but concerning that truly heavenly and blessed Jerusalem; which He says is the assembly of souls, whom God explicitly promises to arrange first in the beginning of the joy of the new ages, settling them in a pure habitation of inaccessible lights, adorned with the most brilliant robe of virginity; because they did not remember to cast off the bridal world—that is, to slacken their mind with strange imaginations.
Cap. VI. Virginity to be cultivated and praised in every place and time.
Finally, to not forget the bride of her ornament, and the virgin of her breastband, which is said in Jeremiah, signifies not to relax or loosen the bond of chastity, being seduced by any enticements or distractions. For by the mention of the breast, our mind and thought are B deservedly believed to be designated; but the breastband, the belt that gathers and tightens the purpose of the soul toward purity, is love for God; which may our commander and shepherd, Jesus, and our ruler and bridegroom, O glorious virgins, grant to me and to you to keep unbroken and sealed as a deposit until the end. For no better aid could anyone easily use among men than this pledge, pleasing and dear to God. Wherefore I say that virginity is to be held in honor by all, and in every place and time is both to be cultivated and praised.
These, O Arete, may suffice for you as the first-fruits of our discourses, for the sake of both instruction and study. — I, however, she said, willingly accept what you offer, and order Thallusa to speak after you. For each one of you must contribute a discourse. So Thallusa, having paused C a little, as if to collect herself and briefly contemplate something, spoke thus.
D or intellect seeing God. But a bodily eye is limited in power, as is hearing or smell, or any other sense, having a certain material breadth of spirituality among them; so that if the essence of God could be seen by it, it could also be heard, or smelled, or tasted; and thus God Himself would be a body, and a being finite and visible in a certain place or quality, from which the sense of sight does not abstract by its own limitation.
ORATION V. THALLUSA.
A CAP. I. The great vow is the offering of chastity.I, too, Arete, ask that you may stand by me with your aid now also, so that we may appear to speak things worthy of you and of those present. For I am convinced, having constantly perceived it from the holy scriptures, that the greatest and most manifest offering and gift—than which it is not possible for men to offer anything else of equal value to God—is the prize of virginity. For even though many among the many have performed many good deeds in accordance with vows under the Law, only those who wished to offer themselves by their own free will were said to fulfill the "great vow." For the text runs thus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: A man or a woman, whoever shall make a great vow to separate himself to the Lord with a vow of purity." One person vows to bring and dedicate gold and silver vessels for the use of the temple; another dedicates the tithe of his fruits; B another, of his possessions; another, the choicest of his flocks; another, all his property; yet not even so is he able to have vowed the great vow to the Lord, but only he who has dedicated himself entirely to God.
CAP. II. What does the sacrifice of Abraham—a heifer of three years, a goat of three years, and a ram of three years—signify? Every age must be consecrated to God. A threefold watch and our age.
For I must, with true reasoning, address you, O virgins, to explain the meaning of the Scripture now before us. For he who keeps and guards himself in part, but in another part is distracted and blunders, does not belong wholly to God. For it is necessary that he who wishes to be perfect should dedicate everything, both the things of the soul and the things of the flesh, so that he may be sound and not lacking. Therefore, God also instructs Abraham, saying: "Take me a heifer of three years, C and a goat of three years, and a ram of three years, and a turtledove and a pigeon." That is, figuratively. For observe that He also enjoins this further concerning them: "Offer to me and keep your soul undefiled and innocent, like a heifer, and your flesh and your reason; the one as a goat, because it walks in high and precipitous places; the other as a ram, so that it may by no means leap away D from the symbol, your soul, then your flesh, and lastly the mind.
A For thus you shall be perfect and irreprehensible, O Abraham, having consecrated to me your soul, your sense, and your mind; which symbolically He called a heifer, a goat, and a ram of three years, as if they were bearing the unsullied knowledge of the Trinity.
B Perhaps, however, He also alludes to the first, the middle, and the last stage of2 our life and age, wishing, as much as possible, that those who have lived temperately in the time of childhood, of manhood, and of old age, should offer these to Him; in the same manner as our Lord Jesus Christ commands in the Gospels, thus legislating: "Let your lamps be burning, and your loins be girded. And be you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately." Blessed shall you be, for He will make you recline, and passing by He will serve you; and if in the second watch, and if in the third, you shall be blessed. Consider, therefore, how by designating the three watches of the night—the evening, the second, and the third—and His three comings, O virgins, He signified the triple change of our ages: the puerile, the adolescent, and the senile. Indeed, He is intent on this: that if He should come to take us out of the world while we are leading the first age (that is, the puerile), He may find us prepared and clean, and addicted to no depraved habit; and similarly if we are passing through the second, or the third. For the evening watch is the time of the flower of man’s age and his youth, when the governing soul begins to be troubled by the vicissitudes of life, with the flesh now maturing and gestating toward passion. But the second is when, having finally arrived at a perfect man, the mind begins to acquire stability C and firmness against disturbing movements and vain boasting. Finally, the third is when the greater part of the desires and cogitations vanish, with the flesh now withering and verging toward old age.
Chap. III. To cultivate virtue from childhood is far the best.
Wherefore it is fitting, with the lamp of faith ignited in the heart, which should always burn, and with the loins girded with the belt of chastity, that we keep watch and always await the Lord; so that, whether in the first age He finds some of us
A, or in the second, or in the third, He may come and find us most prepared, and performing what He has commanded, and may recline us into the bosoms of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Jeremiah also says: "It is good for a man when he has borne the yoke from his youth, and his soul shall not depart from the Lord." [Jer. XVII, 3] For it is truly good, from childhood, to have bowed the neck to divine attention 75, and not to shake off until old age the Rider who is mounted upon a pure mind, whereas the wicked one always pulls the reasoning toward worse things. B For who is there who does not admit pleasures and delights through the eyes, or ears, or through taste, smell, and touch, not bearing the charioteer of temperance, which restrains and curbs the horse of wickedness? Some other person, looking to other things, might think otherwise; but we say that anyone who from childhood strives to keep even the flesh undefiled by the practice of virginity, is perfectly offered and consecrated to God. For, being highly desirable, it brings to those who yearn for it great hopes of rewards, withering away the corrupting passions and quenching the kindlings of the soul. Come then, let me explain how we are consecrated to the Lord.
CHAPTER IV. What is perfect consecration and devotion to God?
What, therefore, is decreed in the book of Numbers C as a "great vow," this is what I represent, which, having explained at greater length, I declare that chastity is the great vow above all other vows. For then I am plainly and entirely and wholly consecrated to the Lord, when I strive to keep not only the flesh untouched by intercourse, but also unspotted from the remaining stains of vices and all depravity. For "the unmarried woman," he says, "thinks on the things of the Lord, how she may please the Lord," [1 Cor. VII, 34] not only so that she might not bring back the glory of virtue as lame in some part, but that both, according to the Apostle, may be sanctified in body D and in spirit, having dedicated her members to the Lord. For it must be said what it is to dedicate oneself perfectly to the Lord. If upon these things I open my mouth, but upon those things I close it; for instance, I shall open it concerning the interpretations of the Scriptures, so as to praise God with right faith and magnificently, according to my ability; but I shall close it, having placed a door and guard upon it, so as not to speak vain things: my mouth is chaste and consecrated to God. "My tongue has become a pen," an instrument of Wisdom; for through it He writes in clear letters, illuminating the mind 75 from the depth and sharpness of the Scriptures 76—the Word of the Lord.
A The Scribe of the ages, the swift writer, because He alone swiftly and sharply writes down the counsel of the Father and fulfills it: "Make haste to plunder, and quickly take the spoil" (Isa. VIII, 1). My tongue is the pen of this Scribe. For it has been purified for Him, and the pen lies ready, as one beautiful, writing more beautiful things than the poets and speechwriters who strengthen human doctrines. If I accustom my eyes not to desire the beauty of bodies, nor to be delighted by shameful spectacles, but to gaze upon things above, my eyes also become pure and are dedicated to the Lord. If, having closed my ears against slander and whispering, I open them to the word of God, frequenting the thresholds of the wise (Eccli. VI, 36), I have dedicated my hearing also to the Lord. If I withdraw my hands from trafficking, B from retail trade, from greed, from violence, my hands also become pure for God. If I restrain my ability to walk, so that it might not tread upon perverse paths, I have dedicated my feet also: not going to courts and theaters, where men of corrupt judgment—the *halitodikai* (sinful judges)—frequent; but to perfect myself by fulfilling some of the commandments. What remains then, if I also purify my heart, dedicating all its thoughts to the Lord? I meditate on nothing evil, no pride dwells within me, and no anger; I meditate upon the law of the Lord by day and by night. And this is to practice great purity, having offered up a great vow.
C ...the Word of the Spirit: if, however, this must be thus smoothed out, and not deemed a corrupt error of the scribes, who with wandering eyes read *Spiritus* for *Patris* (as the Greek implies in other readings), through the very slight distinction of these words in manuscripts and the common error—unless one attends to the *τὸν* and *τὸρ*, which are distinctly marked in them with the greatest affinity. And thus I remember to have corrected elsewhere, having inspected ancient codices, the words that laboured in this very place: and would that I had an abundance of them, or that it were granted me to trust my own eyes, since I understand by no uncertain conjecture that others are deceived and do deceive. And certainly it is alien to the simplicity of Methodius that he would wish to use so great an enallage of words here, and thereby obscure the doctrine: even though what is said in John IV, 24, "God is Spirit," could excuse this word of his. It is another matter that the author of the *Imperfect [Work on Matthew]* explains "Spirit" in the conception of the Lord as the Word Himself, in that He Himself overshadowed the Virgin and came upon her, and was the author of the temple and the little body; although the very manufacture and realization is the work of the Deity and the Trinity itself, not proper to either the Word or the Spirit: yet it is deservedly appropriated to the Word, as in Him the Father establishes all things as in the primary Reason; in whom, as the first, so also the second Adam is understood to be created: for it is an extraordinary and singular work of divine wisdom, no less than of goodness, by reason of which it is more commonly accustomed to be appropriated to the Holy Spirit. COMBEFIS. D Here one should read "Word of the Father," as the most learned Maranus decreed in his *Dialogue with Trypho*, § 50, of Justin M. For he says that scribes often erred in these words because, being written briefly, they are very similar in this manner. And he draws examples of this error, in addition to this one of Methodius, from Justin and Tatian. GALL.
(77) *From retail trade:* or rather, reselling; by which things bought more cheaply are sold a little dearer. This kind of trade is sometimes necessary to the republic and the state, and—provided fraud is absent—may be practiced with honest profit and for industry's sake, without any guilt: though it is less fitting for a virgin, who ought to cleave entirely to her Bridegroom and be addicted only to Him to whom she is consecrated. POSSINIUS. Concerning *plagium* (man-stealing): But how much should a virgin and a maiden disavow man-stealing from herself? There are other proclivities, crimes, and vices of men of this type; nor should a learned man look so far for "plagium," which could scarcely apply to a woman, and that woman a virgin of Christ. There are many man-stealers in the republic, if all who are to be branded with this crime are noted. The crime of *plagium* is when someone knowingly, with evil intent, sells, buys, gives, or hides a free man or another person’s slave. The word was also transferred by Martial to thieves of books, because even they treat them as if they were free, those by whose cares the offspring of the intellect have been taken away and published. COMBEFIS.
(78) *Sinful judges (ἁλιτοδίκαι):* As it were, wicked judges—bad censors who bring charges not against vice, but against virtue and piety. So it seems to me, on account of the novelty of the word and its similar composition to *ἁλιτοδίκαι*, and others of this type. And hence perhaps he coupled it with "theaters" (thinking of the ceremonies and gatherings of his age in honour of the gods, which a virgin of Christ ought especially to avoid), and among them the *halitodikai*, the most wicked judges and censors, who persuade men to use the rites of demons in place of the true worship of God. Moreover, the festive gatherings or banquets and dances—scarcely appropriate for virgins—and the judgments of the corrupt men in them; all of which Methodius could have embraced with the breadth of that word. COMBEFIS.
CHAPTER V. The vow of chastity and its rites in the Law. Vines, Christ and the devil.
A I shall also endeavor to explain to you, virgins, the things that follow from the ordinances, since your own good deeds are tied to them, along with the divine laws concerning virginity, and the oracles which teach how one ought to abstain, and that the virgin ought to be “anagogical” (a guide or upward-leader). For it is written thus: *And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, and you shall say unto them: When a man or woman shall make a great vow to be purified unto the Lord, he shall be purified from strong drink and wine, and vinegar of wine, and vinegar of strong drink, and whatever is made of the grape he shall not drink; and he shall not eat a fresh grape or a raisin, all the days of his vow.* Which is to say: He who has betrothed himself to the Lord and has consecrated himself shall not pluck anything from the plant of wickedness, because it is of the nature always to induce drunkenness and alienation from a sound mind.
For we have perceived from the Scriptures two differences of vines, which arose apart from one another and are dissimilar in their nature. B For the one is productive of immortality and justice, while the other is the cause of madness and derangement. For the sober and gladdening vine—which, like the branches, joyfully suspends the clusters of gifts from the teachings, dripping with love—is our Lord Jesus, who says plainly to the apostles: *I am the true vine, you are the branches; and my Father is the husbandman.* But the wild and death-bearing vine is the devil, dripping madness and poison and wrath; just as Moses narrates, describing him: *For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their vine-branch of Gomorrah. Their grape is a grape of gall, their cluster is one of bitterness. Their wine is the fury of dragons, and the fury of asps is incurable.* Having harvested from this vine, the citizens of Sodom were driven by a gadfly into the sterile lust C of males, turned against nature. From there, those who indulged in gluttony in the time of Noah lapsed into unbelief and were submerged and perished in the flood. From there Cain, having drunk the cup, stained his parricidal hands with brotherly blood and polluted the earth with kindred gore. From there the barbarian nations, being intoxicated, sharpen their own rages unto mutual slaughter and wars; for thus does not one depart D from his senses, as he does from envy and anger. Not by wine is a man so moved from the seat of reason and makes his feet stagger, as he is by envy and anger. Not by wine is he—
A intoxicated and made to stagger, as he is by grief, as he is by passion, as he is by intemperance. From this vine the virgin is forbidden to taste, so that, being sober and sleepless from the cares of this life, she may kindle the lamp of the light of righteousness for the Word. For "take heed," says the Lord, "lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you like a snare" (Luke xxi, 34).
Chapter VI. Sicera, [a] fabricated and spurious wine, is likewise intoxicating. It must be shunned by the virgin, as it is close to sin. The altar of incense, the virgins.
For it is not only from those things produced from the vine that the virgin is commanded in no way to taste, but also from those that mimic and are akin to it. For "sicera" is the name given to every artificial and spurious wine, whether it be prepared from palms or from other fruits or produce. For just as cups of wine do, so also do these drinks vehemently obscure and dull the reason. And to tell you how the matter stands: whatever brings about an intoxication equivalent to that of the wine from the vine is designated by the wise by the name of "sicera." Let not the virgin, therefore, while avoiding only those things which by their very nature and in general are sins of wickedness, be defiled by those things which are rivals to these and of nearly equal malice, being a conqueror of some things but conquered by others; that is, let her not be caught and ensnared by the soft textures of showy, parti-colored garments, or by gems and gold, and that avarice which feeds upon these, and similar bodily ornaments (which themselves also intoxicate the soul), and for this reason He prescribes this: that she should not be thrown off her balance and poured out into feminine levities, and into laughter, and deceits, and scurrilities, which like a B vertigo whirl around and disturb the mind; just as He also signaled in other places, commanding: "You shall not eat the hyena," and things similar to it, "and the weasel, and things similar to these." For this is the straight and short way to heaven, that the virgin should not only not drag with her those things that are obstacles to the way (which would cast her into a fall), but should also beware of those things that are rivals of these.
For we have also received by tradition that the assembly of the chaste is an unbloody altar of God; so great and glorious a thing does virginity appear. Wherefore, it must be kept spotless and perfectly pure with all care, having no intercourse with the uncleanness of the flesh; but inwardly before the face of the testimony, to be established, gilded with wisdom, in the Holy of Holies, offering up the fragrance of D love to the Lord. "For you shall make for me," he says,
"after the altar overlaid with bronze for the burnt offerings, where the offerings were carried up, another altar of incorruptible woods; and you shall overlay it with gold, and you shall place it opposite the veil that is upon the ark of the testimony, facing the mercy seat that is over the testimonies, A in which I shall be known to you there. And Aaron shall burn upon it aromatic incense in the morning, when he trims the lamps; he shall burn upon it perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations; there shall not be offered upon it strange incense, nor a whole burnt offering. A sacrifice and a drink offering you shall not pour upon it."
Chapter VII. The Church, midway between the legal shadows and the truths of heaven.
If the law is, according to the Apostle, spiritual, containing the images of things to come, come then, stripping away the veil of the letter cast over it, let us look upon the unadorned precision. The Hebrews were bidden to fashion the tabernacle as an image of the Church, so that through audible things they might have an image to proclaim beforehand the divine realities. B For the pattern shown on the mountain, looking to which Moses fashioned the tabernacle, was a certain exact idea of the heavenly dwelling, which we now serve more clearly than the types, but more obscurely than the truth itself. For the pure truth has not yet come to men as it is by nature, since we are not yet able to bear and behold the unmixed incorruption in this place, just as we cannot bear to see the solar rays. But the Jews indeed announced the shadow of the image, the third from the truth; but we clearly glorify the image of the heavenly administration. For the truth will be exactly manifested after the C resurrection, when face to face we shall see the holy tabernacle—the city in the heavens, of which God is the craftsman and builder—not through puzzles and in part. For the Jews indeed, [the things of] our D resurrection, postpone the perfect vision, and that which is face to face without puzzles and not in part: from which they are immensely distant, which grace bestows upon souls, which shall see certain wonderful, shining, and blessed beauties, and those which it is difficult for men to explain in words. For there, surely, is justice itself, chastity itself, charity, truth, and the remaining likewise manifest flowers and stocks of wisdom, of which we have here only shadows, etc., for these also, as their shadow here, have been created, and [are] the first effects of God, more purely understood there, and as reasons, by which the essence of God itself is not seen in itself, nor truly, by the error of the Palamites, [as] the virtue of God joined to the essence and distinct from it, which might be multiplex, while the essence is one. Surely it is multiplex in its effects, yet itself is one and most simple, as is also the essence, from which by reason of what is alone connoted and virtually it is eminently distinguished. There is need, therefore, of other places so that Methodius may be defended, and drawn to the sentiment which the Church recognized long ages afterward: that souls already see God, for whom there is nothing from the guilt of the former life in the body to be purged.
A And we shall no longer see through a glass, and in part. For the Jews indeed heralded our own things, but we herald the heavenly things; since the tabernacle indeed bore the type of the Church, but the Church represents the heavens. Since, therefore, these things are so, and the tabernacle is taken as a type of the Church, as I said, we must also see that the altars bear some sign of the things in the Church. And I would say that the bronze one is to be likened to the council of elders and the enclosure of widows; for they are a living altar of God, to which are brought the calves and the tithes, and the voluntary offerings which are made as a sacrifice to the Lord; but B the gilded altar, placed within the Holy of Holies before the face of the testimony, on which it is forbidden to offer sacrifice and libation, must be compared to those who are in the state of virgins, their bodies kept secure and uncorrupted from all congress with man by the incorrupt gold. For gold is commonly praised for two endowments: that it does not admit rust, and that by its innate brightness it seems to resemble the appearance of the sun's rays. It is therefore a fitting symbol of purity, which admits no stain or spot, but is always illuminated by the light of the Word. Wherefore it also stands within in the Holy of Holies, closer, and C in front of the veil, with undefiled hands, like incense, sending up prayers to the Lord, acceptable as an odor of sweetness; just as John also indicated, saying that the incense which was in the vials of the twenty-four elders was the prayers of the saints. These things I also, for my part, contribute to you, O Arete, according to my ability regarding purity.
Having said these things, Thallusa said that Theopatra touched Arete with her scepter, and that she, as soon as she sensed it, rose up and answered.
ORATION VI. AGATHA.
CHAPTER I. The excellence of the continent virgin's beauty. The soul toward the image of God, that is, the Son. The devil as a persistent suitor.
With much confidence, both in persuading what I have to say, D and in speaking well and happily, O Arete, I shall undertake to— [The text continues with a scholarly note: (84) "In front of..." Because the scribe had written the sacred text itself, "and you shall place it before the veil," and "in front of the veil," ... but it is an ignorant scribe who has transcribed... Truly, contrary to and near and before the veil which covered the ark of the covenant and the sanctuary, the virgins are set, as a golden altar, as it were in the vestibule of the innermost sanctuaries themselves, and closer to them than the rest; which is the greatest praise of virginity. And is this the reason for my Nazarenes, that is, monks—who, when there were only laity, were nevertheless celibate and devout, the holier part of the faithful people, stationed at the doors of the sanctuary and near the chancel, at the head of the entire gathering of the faithful, and immediately after the station? They were certainly that golden altar, and even now they exist, when for a long time...
contribute something to the discussion of the proposed subject, adapted, however, to the measure of my own weakness rather than responding with due proportion to the things already so variously and splendidly set forth by others. For I could not possibly dispute on an equal footing with those subjects which are so varied and brilliantly elaborated. And I would surely seem to bring upon myself the reproach of folly if I were to strive and leap at the chance to vie with those who excel in wisdom, seeking for myself the glory of eloquence equal to theirs. If, therefore, you will tolerate even those who speak as they happen to be able, I shall attempt to speak, with my zeal not at all diminished. And we must begin from here.
Incomparably, O virgins, and akin and intimate to Wisdom is the noble beauty with which we all come into the world. For our souls were most precisely formed by Him who begot and fashioned them, when, shining forth in the undefiled idea of His likeness, and bearing the luminous characters of that countenance B towards which God looked when He fashioned them into an immortal and imperishable form, they remain such. For that unbegotten and incorporeal beauty, which neither has a beginning nor wanes, but is immutable, ageless, and lacking nothing, abiding in itself and into itself as Light in the ineffable and inaccessible places, contains all things by the abundance of its power, and creating and transforming, fashioned the soul in the image of His own image. Wherefore it is also rational and immortal. * For, being fashioned according to the image of the Only-Begotten, as I have said, it possesses insurmountable beauty.
Hence, even the spiritual forces of wickedness C long for it, and lie in wait, striving to defile its God-like and most desirable idea, just as the prophet Jeremiah also sets forth, reproaching Jerusalem: "You have a harlot’s brow: you refused to feel shame in the sight of your lovers," speaking of that which prostituted itself to the opposing powers for defilement. For the lovers are the devil and his angels, who contrive to stain and pollute our rational and discerning beauty of prudence by their own mingling, and desire to become adulterers to every soul betrothed to the Lord.
Chap. II. The Parable of the Ten Virgins
D If, therefore, one preserves this beauty undefiled and unharmed, and such as He who created—A and painted it, fashioned and formed it, imitating the eternal and intelligible nature 86, of which man is the character and express image, having become as it were a most beautiful and sacred statue; from thence, being translated into the city of the blessed, to the heavens, that is, he shall be placed as it were in a temple. For our beauty is best and most securely preserved when, protected by virginity, it is not darkened from without by the scorching heat of corruption; but, remaining in itself, it is adorned with justice, being betrothed to the Son of God; even as He Himself suggests, warning that, as in lamps, the light of chastity must be kindled in our bodies. Since the number of the ten virgins represents the souls believing in Christ Jesus; the mark of the denarius representing the one straight way which is in the heavens. But five of them were indeed prudent and wise; B and five were foolish and unwise: for they did not have the diligence and care to provide their vessels full of oil, remaining empty of justice. For by these are designated those who strive to reach the ends of virginity, and perform all things honestly and soberly, leading to the fulfillment of this love: and they who profess to look to this, and glory in it, yet act more negligently, and are overcome by the vicissitudes of the world: who, in short, delineate more as it were an empty image of virtue with a rough stroke of shadows, than they effect the living and breathing truth itself.
Chap. III. The same endeavor and onset of virginity, with disparate outcome.
For that which is said 19, C *The kingdom of heaven is likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom*, signifies 87 that they had all chosen the same way of practice, which the very mark of the denarius designates. For they all alike girded themselves for the same thing, having assumed the profession; and for this reason are they called ten, because, as I said, they had taken up the same purpose and institution; yet they did not all likewise go forth to meet the Bridegroom. For some of them had provided abundant nourishment, which would suffice for the future, feeding the flame for their oil-fed lamps; but others were slothful, having cared only for the present. D Therefore, they are divided into equal parts, being five and five, since they kept the five senses pure and undefiled by sins—which many wise men have called the gates of wisdom—while the others, on the contrary,
A ruined themselves with a multitude of transgressions, having stained themselves with wickedness. For they, having abstained from self-control and righteousness, abounded rather in transgressions, and it is for this reason that they were excluded and shut out from the divine enclosures. For whether we do well or do evil, in both these things our noble deeds are strengthened, as are our misdeeds. And just as she said at the blooming, that there should be purity of eyes, and of ears, and of tongue, and of the rest of the senses in order; so here too, she who has kept her faith inviolate through the five ways of virtue—sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing—is called five virgins, because she has restored to Christ the five senses of the mind pure, from each of which, like a lamp, holiness shines out clearly. For our flesh is truly our five-lighted lamp, which the soul, carrying like a torch, stands by the Bridegroom Christ on the day of the resurrection, revealing through all the senses a bright faith gleaming forth, just as He Himself taught, saying: *I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I wish but that it be kindled?* By earth, He meant our bodies, in which He wished that the quickly mobile and fiery operation of His teaching be rapidly kindled. For by the symbol of oil, wisdom and righteousness must be understood. For when the soul abundantly pours these out like rain upon the body, a flame raised high, the inextinguishable light of virtue rises up, to shine before men—the good works—that the Father who is in heaven may be glorified. B
CAP. IV. What is the oil in the lamps?
Such is the oil that they also offered in Leviticus: *Pure, clean, beaten oil to light a lamp outside the veil before the Lord.* But for those it was commanded that they should care for a very short-lived light from evening until morning. For their lamp appears to be a figure of the prophetic word, which showed a confidence in the profession of chastity, having its nourishment from the actions and faith of the people; and the temple, as the allotment of the heritage, since a lamp can only shine in one house. Therefore, it was necessary for this lamp to be burned before the day. *They shall keep it burning,* he says, *until morning;* that is, until the coming of Christ. For when the Sun of purity and righteousness has risen, there is no need of a lamp. C For as long as that people stored up the things that fed the lamp, supplying the oil through their works, the lamp of their self-control was not extinguished, but was always shining and glowing in the allotment of the heritage. But when the oil failed, as they turned from faith to wantonness, the lamp was completely extinguished and ceased to shine for them, so that in turn the virgins might again flash forth with successive relay, lighting up the world from above with radiant lamps,
A to incorruption. We must, therefore, now also abundantly provide the unbruised oil of good works and of prudence, purged of every corruption that makes us heavy and drags us downward, lest, if the Bridegroom delays, our lamps should likewise be extinguished. For the delay refers to the interval before the coming of Christ; the slumber and sleep of the virgins, to the departure from this life; the midnight, to the reign of the Antichrist, during which the exterminating angel will pass through the houses. The cry that was raised, saying, "Behold, the Bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him," is the voice from heaven and the trumpet blast, when, upon the resurrection of all, the saints shall be caught up on the clouds to meet the Lord.
For careful note must be taken that the Scripture says that after the cry all the virgins arose; that is to say, that after the shout brought down from the heavens, the dead shall be raised, just as Paul also exhorts us in a certain place, saying, "The Lord Himself, with a command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead who are in Christ shall rise first"—that is, their tabernacles; for they became dead when they were stripped of their souls. "Then we who are alive shall be caught up together with them," referring to our souls. B For we who truly and properly live are the souls, who, having resumed these bodies, shall meet Him in the clouds, carrying lamps that are adorned—not with some alien and worldly adornment, but with those of prudence and chastity, vibrating their light far and wide like the stars, and filled with the radiance of ethereal splendor.
CAP. V. The Reward of Virginity.
These, O beautiful virgins, are the rites of our mysteries; these are the ceremonies of the sacred things for those initiated into the rite of virginity; these are the rewards for the immaculate struggles of chastity. Betrothed to the Word, I receive the eternal dowry of incorruption, the crown and the riches from the Father; and I celebrate my triumph throughout the ages, crowned with the splendid and unfading flowers of wisdom. I lead the dances on high with Christ, the giver of rewards, around the King who is without beginning and immune to all destruction. C I have become a bearer of the light of the holies, and D I have attained...
to sing with the assembly the new song of the archangels, proclaiming the new grace of the Church; for the Word decrees that the multitude of virgins should always follow the Lord and hold their sacred dances wherever He may be. John also hints at this in the mention of the hundred and forty-four thousand. B Come, therefore, O youth of the new ages. Come, fill your vessels with justice; for it is time now to arise and go to meet the Bridegroom. Come, having passed lightly over the allurements and enticements of this life that swirl around and bewitch the soul; for you shall obtain the promised things. Yes, I swear by Him who has shown me the path of our life. This crown, woven with prophecies from the prophetic meadows, O Arete, I, too, having gathered, bring to you.
When Agatha had thus most excellently finished her speech, and had received the praise of the whole assembly for what she had said, Arete again ordered Procilla to speak. And she, rising and stepping in front of the tent, spoke as follows.
ORATION VII. PROCILLA.
CAP. I. The true and grave manner of praise. The Father is greater than the Son in authority of principle, not in substance. Virginity is a lily. Faithful souls and virgins are the one spouse of the one Christ.C To hesitate and be sluggish in speaking, after so many and such great discourses, O Arete, would be a crime for one who is firmly persuaded of the manifold wisdom of God, which gives richly and in various ways to whomsoever He wills. For those who have experience in nautical matters say that one and the same wind blows upon those who sail; yet, because they manage the details of their voyage differently, they do not all hasten to harbor in the same way. For to some the wind blows fair from the stern, while for others it carries them from the cross-beams, and yet for both, the voyage is completed with ease. So too, the intellectual, holy, and only-begotten Spirit of Wisdom D from the Father above...
the understanding of the holy and unique Spirit of wisdom A, breathing gently from the paternal treasuries above, and whispering softly to us all, will pour out a sweet breeze of knowledge, which in guiding the course of our words without offense or trouble, shall abundantly suffice for those who speak. For the time to speak has now arrived for me.
The true and solemn manner of offering praise
There is, O virgins, one true and solemn manner of offering praise, when he who praises brings forward as a witness for his praise one who is far superior to both the one being praised and to all others who are praised. For from this it is possible to learn accurately that the eulogy of the words arises not for the sake of favor, nor by necessity, nor according to human opinion, but according to truth D and an unflattering judgment. For indeed, those prophets and apostles who spoke more fully and more clearly concerning the Son of God, who existed even before the ages, and who were advocates and heralds of his divinity beyond all other mortals, did not cite angels as authors of the praises they attributed to him, but rather brought forward him who is the source of authority and power for all. For it was fitting that he who is greater than all others, after the Father, should use as a witness only his own superior 93, the Father.
A And so, I too will not offer the praises of chastity to human glory, but to Him to whom we are devoted, and who has been shown to be the cultivator of it in all respects, and who is the lover of its beauty, and a credible witness. This is also something that anyone who wishes may clearly perceive in the Song of Songs, where Christ himself, praising those who have been firmly established in virginity, says: *As a lily among thorns, so is my neighbor among the daughters* (Cant. II, 2); comparing her to a lily because of the purity and fragrant scent and sweetness and cheerfulness of the gift of chastity. For chastity is a vernal thing, and it always blooms vigorously with white calyxes, exhaling incorruption. Hence, He is not ashamed to confess that He loves the beauty of its prime, saying in the following verses: *You have heartened us, my sister, my bride; you have heartened us from your eyes, with one ornament of your neck* (Cant. IV, 9). *For your breasts are made beautiful, and the scent of your garments is above all spices. Your lips drip the honeycomb, O bride: honey and milk are under your tongue; and the scent of your garments is like the scent of frankincense. A garden enclosed, my sister, my bride; a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed* (Cant. IV, 10–12).
D Christ sings these praises to those who have reached the ends of virginity, encompassing them all with the single name of Bride; for it is fitting that the bride be prepared and named for the one who has betrothed her; and that she be still undefiled and unmixed, like a sealed garden, in which all the spices of heavenly fragrance grow, so that Christ alone may come and pluck them, having sprouted from incorporeal seeds. For the Word does not love anything of the flesh, because it is not his nature to accept any of the things that perish, such as hands, or face, or feet; but looking to that which is immaterial and spiritual, he rejoices in it, without touching the body of its beauty.
B The explanation for this, that as virgins stand in relation to Christ, so Christ himself stands in relation to God, who himself being from God and the Father who is greater, ought to have a witness, not from angels to whom he was greater; so let virgins have a witness from Christ, to whom He was greater. Unless it is understood in terms of his humanity, the meaning is entirely Arian; since that superiority, in order for the comparison to hold, does not concern the authority of the principle, but the nature, upon which the authority of the witness depends. And perhaps Methodius referred to that passage in Hebrews (VI, 16): *Men swear by one who is greater than themselves:* accordingly, that God, when He has no one greater than Himself, swore by Himself: not so the Son by the Father, as Methodius twisted it, and as if the Father were greater than the Son for the sake of guaranteeing faith, which would not provide a beginning, and in which He is the author and cause, but a lessening of nature in that sense which is truly Arian. For that greater faith must needs proceed from a more worthy nature: and because there is no one more worthy than God, one and three, it is permitted to him to swear by himself; and hence to create an entirely immovable faith, according to that which makes it impossible for God to lie, not for the Son through the Father, as through one who is greater, and as if the mind did not yet rest in the Son, and something of greater authority had to be sought, so that there might be an end to all contradiction.
D Regarding *with one ornament of your neck*: I do not see that anyone has explained why the translators of the LXX joined the feminine (ornament) to the neuter (one). It is likely a Hebraism, and because *‘anaq* exists in both the masculine and feminine gender, as if they had read it as feminine, they thus retained it. For us, the noun for a necklace, according to Probus the Grammarian, is likewise of ambiguous gender, both masculine and feminine, but more readily feminine. Whence Pagninus: *In one necklace of your neck.* The Vulgate: *in one hair*; others: *in one curl*. Or, perhaps they placed another word corresponding to the Hebrew word, which was thus of the feminine gender, which they explained more clearly, as if by apposition, with the words concerning the neck.
A Consider, then, O virgins, that the phrase, "Thou hast ravished our heart," B spoken by Him unto the bride, "with one of thine eyes," shows the clear-sighted eye of intelligence; for when the inner man has cleansed and polished this, he contemplates the truth much more clearly. For that there is a twofold power of sight is manifest to all: one of the soul, and the other of the body. But the Word does not profess to love the one of the body, but only that of the mind, saying, "Thou hast ravished our heart with one of thine eyes, and with one chain of thy neck." As if He were to say: Thou hast truly stirred our heart to love with the most lovely gaze of thy prudence, and hast made it as if to fly unto thee, flashing forth the most splendid world of chastity from within. For the ornaments of the neck are called collars or necklaces, constructed of varied and precious gems. But those souls who study the adornment of the body place this sensible world B around the outer neck of the flesh to deceive those who look upon them; but those who live chastely put on instead the inner world, composed truly of precious and varied stones—of liberty, of magnanimity, of wisdom, of charity—caring little for those ornaments which soon melt away after the fashion of the world, which, like leaves, bloom for a time and then vanish through the mutations of the body that happen at fixed intervals. For a twofold world is seen in man, of which the Lord accepts the inner one, the incorruptible one, saying that His heart was ravished by one ornament of the neck of the bride; as if, by the radiance of the inner man shining forth from his attire, He signifies that He has been drawn to love, just as the Psalmist also testifies, saying, "All the glory of the king's daughter is from within."
Chapter III. Virgines, ipsae martyres, inter Christi sodales, primae.
D Let no one imagine that the other multitude of believers is disapproved or rejected, thinking that we suggest only virgins will be introduced to possess the promised goods, not understanding that there will be tribes, and kindreds, and orders, and classes according to the reckoning of each one's faith. And this too Paul describes, saying, "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differeth from star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead." And the Lord does not profess that He will give the same honors to all, but numbers some in the kingdom of heaven, promises the possession of the earth to others, and promises others that they shall see the Father. Wherefore, even here, He promises by oracle that He will introduce the first order and holy choir of the consecrated virgins themselves, as if into a bridal chamber, into the rest of the new aeons, to accompany Him in His own retinue. For they have fulfilled their martyrdom, not for a brief moment of time...but by enduring through the whole of their life, and they have not acted cowardly in truly wrestling for the Olympic struggle of purity; for by withstanding the savage torments of pleasures, and fears, and griefs, and the other evils of human wickedness, they carry off the rewards first before others, being assigned to the better place of the promise. Indeed, the Word calls these souls alone His elect bride and [His] true [one]; but the rest, concubines and young women and daughters, saying thus: "There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines; and young women without number. One is my dove, my perfect one; she is the only one to her mother, elect to the one who bore her. The daughters saw her, and they will call her blessed; the queens and the concubines will praise her" B. For, while the Church has many daughters, it is evident that one is the only elect one and most precious in His eyes above the rest: namely, the order of virgins.
CAP. IV. The passage from Cant. VI, 7, 8, evaluated. Queens, the holy souls before the flood. Concubines, the souls of the prophets. Divine seed for spiritual offspring, in the books of the prophets. As if clandestine nuptials of the Word with the prophets.
But if any scruple should remain in someone regarding these points, as if the heads of the argument have not yet been sufficiently worked out, and he should still wish to have them more fully delineated through C a spiritual derivation—[wishing to know] who the queens are, and who the young women—we shall say that these words can be spoken also concerning those who have shone forth in righteousness from the beginning in a succession of times: for example, those before the flood, and those after the flood, and those from Christ onward. For the Church is the bride; but the queens are those royal souls who pleased God before the flood, namely those around Abel, and Seth, and Enoch; the concubines are those after the flood, the souls of the prophets, with whom—before the Church was betrothed to the Lord—the Word associated after the manner of concubines, sowing true words in incorrupt and pure philosophy, so that having conceived faith, they might bear D for Him a spirit of salvation. For such are the sprouts that such souls produce, bearing immortal glory, as many as Christ happens to be united with. For if you wish to look into the books of Moses, or David, or Solomon, or Isaiah, or the prophets who follow, O virgins, you will know what kind of offspring, saving for the life [of the world], they left behind them because of their communion with the Son of God. Whence the Word spoke of the prophetic souls as concubines with spiritual understanding, because He had not taken them openly, as indeed He had brought in the Church, having sacrificed for her the fatted calf.
Cap. V. On the sixty queens; why sixty, and why queens. The excellence of the saints of the first age.
Furthermore, it must be asked, lest anything necessary escape us in our discourse, what is the reason that the queens are numbered at sixty, the concubines at eighty, the maidens at such a number that they cannot even be counted because of their multitude, and finally, but one bride is set forth? Let us begin with the sixty. By the sixty queens, I think, he called those who, in the continuous succession of time from Adam unto Noah, were well-pleasing to God, because these people had no need of commands and laws for salvation, considering that the memory of the creation of the world, made in six days, was still fresh among them. A For they remembered that in the space of six days God had fashioned this whole universe, and they possessed a history fixed in their minds regarding what had happened in paradise: namely, in what manner man, having received a command not to touch the tree of knowledge, had stumbled, having been led astray by the fraud of the author of malice. Hence, he symbolically calls those souls who, immediately from the foundation of the world, chose to love God in continuous succession—being, if I may so say, the offspring of the first age and neighbors of the great six days—the sixty queens, because, as I said, they existed immediately after the six days. For these held great honor, having associated with angels, and having often beheld God openly, not in a dream. Consider, in fact, how great was the familiarity of Seth with God, how great that of Abel, how great that of Enos, how great that of Enoch, how great that of Methuselah, and how great the intimacy of Noah. These are the first lovers of justice, and the first among the firstborn children who are written in the heavens B, having been deemed worthy of the kingdom, as it were a certain first-fruit of the plantings for salvation, and who have grown for God as early fruit. And let this suffice concerning them.
Cap. VI. The eighty concubines, who are they? Ideas of the Incarnation performed for the prophets.
It remains to speak of the concubines. Among those who lived after the flood, the knowledge of God had already become more remote, and had almost perished; and they were in need of another teaching while idolatry was already beginning to creep in, which would again be a remedy and help for mortals. Therefore God, lest the human race be utterly destroyed through forgetfulness of the good things, began to promise His own Son to the prophets...
A His future coming in the flesh into life, through which the joy and knowledge of the spiritual ogdoad would be proclaimed—which is the forgiveness of sins and the giver of the resurrection, since through it the vices and corruption of men would be circumcised. And for this reason, He called the catalogue of the prophets from Abraham—who held the number eight, on which the law itself also depends—eighty concubines; because they were the first, before the Bride, the Church, was betrothed to the Word, to conceive divine seeds and announce the circumcision of the intelligible ogdoad.
CHAPTER VII. Young women, the just of old. The Church, that one bride, superior to the rest.
He calls B the young maidens, who constitute an innumerable company, those multitudes who, under the superiors, have performed righteous deeds, and have struggled youthfully and nobly against sin. But neither the queens, nor the concubines, nor the young maidens of these are to be compared with the Church. For the one deemed perfect and chosen above all these, consisting of and united from all the apostles, is the bride who surpasses all in the beauty of her prime and virginity. Wherefore she is also called blessed and is praised by the others, because she both saw and heard in abundance what those others desired C even for a brief moment to behold, and did not see; and to hear, and did not hear. For "Blessed," He says, speaking to the disciples, "are your eyes, for they see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it." Therefore, for this cause the prophets call her blessed and marvel, because that which they themselves did not happen to become hearers and spectators of, the Church has been deemed worthy to receive and has partaken of. "For there are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and young maidens without number. My dove, my perfect one, is one."
A Someone might also interpret the undefiled flesh of the Lord as the bride in another way; for its sake, He left the Father, descended here, and was joined to it, and took up his abode in it having become man. Wherefore, he also figuratively called it a dove, because that animal is tame, lives under a roof, is almost a companion to us, and takes pleasure in human society. For it alone, so to speak, was found spotless and undefiled, and surpassing all others in the finery and beauty of justice, so that none of those who have highly pleased God could stand near it, if the standard of virtue is taken into account. And that is why it has been deemed worthy to become a partaker of the kingdom of the Only-Begotten, being fitted and united to Him. And in the forty-fourth Psalm, the one B who stands on the right hand of God, the queen adorned with the golden finery of virtue, whose beauty the King desired, is the flesh—as I said—that undefiled and blessed body, which the Word of God Himself, having taken it up to heaven, set at the right hand of the Father, adorned with golden raiment; that is to say, in the works of incorruption, which he symbolically called golden fringes. For this garment is variegated and woven together from various virtues—such as chastity, prudence, faith, love, patience, and the remaining good things—which, by concealing the shame of the flesh, clothe the human being in golden finery and adornment.
Chapter IX. The virgins immediately after the Queen and Bride
It remains for us to consider what the Holy Spirit teaches in the following parts of the psalm, after C the human being whom the Word took up is enthroned at the right hand of the Almighty. "The virgins," he says, "shall be brought to the King after her; her neighbors shall be brought to you. They shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing; they shall be brought into the King's temple." Very manifestly, the Divine Spirit here seems to praise virginity and to promise that virgins, in the second place after the Lord's bride, as we have explained, will approach the Almighty in gladness and rejoicing, with an impressive retinue, accompanied and escorted by angels. For the excellence of virginity is so lovable and in truth desirable beyond measure, that after the queen whom the Lord has exalted and delivered from all sin D and by an honorary union, not by nature and subsistence, as if a man were consecrated into the Son of God from the very moment his soul was created and made God; neither by any merits nor progress was that man advanced so as to be called the Son of God and partner of His kingdom. Therefore, all that justice and holiness of the man of Christ was the companion and, as it were, the effect of that divine union, not the reason why he merited to attain it. Even Gregory in his Homily immediately rejects this comparison of the marriage of the Son of God with His own flesh (or humanity) as less fitting and as something that might favor Nestorius: because marriage contracts are only between those who are distinct persons; hence he prefers it to be said of Christ and the Church, which is Methodius’s primary exposition. Combefis.
A [Christ] has adorned without blemish, and brought forward the choir of the virgins and the order, which is deemed worthy of the second rank immediately after the Bride. Let these exercises of discourse upon virginity be engraved for you, O Virtue, by us, as if upon a monument in everlasting bronze.
When Procilla had finished these things, "The turn is mine," said Thecla, "to contend in order after her; and I rejoice in having Wisdom as my fellow-traveler in my discourse, sensing it, like a lyre, tuning me from within and preparing me to speak in a thoughtful and seemly manner."
ARET. "Most excellently, O Thecla, have I accepted your eagerness, B by which, I believe, you will render back to me discourses worthy of the power [granted to you]; for you will not be found lacking in either general philosophy or education; and as for evangelical and divine [doctrine], what need is there to speak, since you have been instructed by Paul as your master?"
ORATION VIII
THECLA.CHAP. 1. C Let us then speak, beginning first from the very origin of the name, for what reason this most exalted and blessed practice is called *parthenia* [virginity], what kind of thing it is, what power it possesses, and what fruits it hereafter produces. For almost everyone is in danger of being ignorant of it, although it excels countless other gifts of virtue, such as those we labor upon for the purification and adornment of the soul. For *parthenia* is called [virginity] by a single alteration of a letter, as it alone renders the one who possesses it and has been initiated into its incorruptible D rites like unto God, than whom it is impossible to find a greater good, removed from pleasure and pain; and that which is truly watered and increases the soul…
Igitur dicamus primum, ab ipsa ordientes nominis appellatione, cur scilicet principalissimum istud beatumque quo de agimus, institutum, *parthenia* (quod Latinis virginitas dicitur) vocitetur: tum explicabimus quale id sit quamque habeat vim, ac postremo quos ex se fructus edat. Parum enim abest quin plerique hanc ignorent, cum innumeris aliis præcellat virtutis muneribus, quæcunque vel ad animæ purgationem usurpamus, vel ad ejus exornationem. *Parthenia* enim (ac si dicas Deo affinis ac pene divina) dicitur, elementi duntaxat commutatione, ut quæ sola illa præditum ejusque incorruptis sacris initiatum Deo similem reddit, qua nullum majus bonum occurrerit, a vo-
- Aluntate B equal to or rather, distinct from passion and suffering. For the wing of the soul, being truly intoxicated by its irrigation, grows, and becoming lighter, it becomes accustomed to flying away daily from human pursuits.
For since the wise have called our life a festival, and we are putting on the drama of truth—that is, righteousness—appearing as though in a theatre, with the devil and the demons opposing us and struggling against us, we must look upward, and, flying on high, be suspended, and flee the enticements of their fair-sounding voices and their outward forms, which are painted over with the pretense of temperance, or rather, the Homeric Sirens. For those who are charmed by the pleasures of error fall, losing their feathers, and become weighed down when they come into this life of ours, because the tendons—by which the nature of the wings of temperance is held together, lifting up those things that incline downward toward the corruption of the body—have been weakened and slackened for them. Therefore, O Virtue, whether because you are desirable for your own sake, or because you lift up and elevate toward heaven—and this is how you have received your name—always walking in the purest minds: be my guide in the speech which you yourself have commanded me to deliver.
Chapter II. The lofty mind and constancy of the holy virgins. The entrance of virgins into the blessed seats before the others.
For those who have suffered the falling-off of their feathers, as I have said, and have slipped into pleasures, do not cease from grief and toil until, having fulfilled the necessity of intemperance by the desire of the passion, they have remained uninitiated C and incomplete in the drama of truth; and instead of the begetting of children with modesty and temperance, they have been driven mad by the wild pleasures of lusts. But those who are well-winged and light, having looked up to the world above this life, and having seen from afar what no other person has gazed upon—the meadows themselves of incorruption, bearing unimaginable beauties and flowers, and being filled with them—are ever contemplating those sights in their minds. For this reason, they deem the things here [(9)] that are considered good—wealth, and honors, and birth, and marriages—as small, and they value none of those things as being of any great worth. Nay, even if someone should wish to deliver their bodies to wild beasts or to fire, and to torment them with grievous punishments, they are ready to disregard the bitterness of the torments because of their love for those things and the vision I have mentioned; so that they seem, while being in the world, not to be in the world, but by the intent of their mind and the impulse of their desire, to be already D finding themselves in the assembly of those in the heavens [(10)].
A For it is not right for the wing of virginity by its own nature to incline toward the earth, but rather to carry one upward toward heaven, into the pure ether, and the life which is the neighbor of the angels. Whence, too, those who have rightly and faithfully lived as virgins for Christ, being the first among others after the recall and emigration from this place, carry off the prizes of victory for their struggles, having been crowned by Him with the flowers of incorruption. For no sooner have souls left the world than angels hasten to meet the virgins, and with great acclaim escort them to the aforementioned meadows, to which they were eager to come even before, when, still dwelling in their bodies, they faintly imagined divine things from afar.
Chapter III. Virginitatis sors et hereditas.
B When they have arrived there, they see certain wonderful, brilliant, and blessed beauties, and such as it is difficult to express in human speech. For Justice herself is there, and Prudence, and Love, and Truth, and Chastity, and the other flowers and plants of Wisdom that are likewise manifest; of which we here, dreaming only of shadowy phantasms, imagine to be composed of human actions, because we have here no clear eidolon of them, but only invisible likenesses, which we perceive only darkly and often as in a reflection. For no one has ever beheld with their eyes the magnitude, or form, or beauty of justice itself, or of prudence, or of peace; but there, in Him Who Is (11), they are seen as they truly are, complete and clear. For there is a tree of chastity itself, of love, and of prudence; C just as among the fruits of the plants here, such as the vine, the pomegranate, and apples, so too are those fruits plucked and eaten, yet they do not perish or wither, but increase those who pluck them unto immortality and divinity. Just as that man from whom we are all sprung, before he fell and his eyes were blinded, while he was in paradise, used to pluck the fruit, God having ordained that man should be set as a worker and guardian of the plants of wisdom. For the first Adam himself was entrusted to cultivate such fruits. And Jeremiah also, in a certain place, speaks of these things as being far removed from our… D item Baruch does not seem to exhort us to the vision of God Himself, but to such virtues as a wayfarer can obtain by human faculty and the gift of God. Possinius rendered this faithfully and directly, as if the phrase had the force of an adverb alone; which is a very lowly sense. Allatius is better, in the truth itself, by which I believe he meant God the Truth; hence Truth, which is He who is, and gives to all to be and to be truly.
A know that which Jeremiah in a certain place, far from our world, perceived to exist. For thus he says, lamenting those who have fallen away from the goods of that blessed age: "Learn where there is wisdom, where there is strength, where there is understanding, that you may know at the same time where there is length of days and life, where there is light of the eyes and peace. Who has found its place, or who has entered into their treasuries?" Having entered into their treasuries, therefore, let the virgins gather the reasons of the virtues, irrigated by many well-ordered lights, which God pours out for them like a fountain, which shall illuminate that age with lights that are never to be extinguished by any sunset. These virgins, moreover, always lead choirs, praising God with modulated voices. For the air that surrounds them is pure, and into it the orbit of the sun never ventures.
Chap. IV. Exhortation to the cultivation of virginity. The passage from Rev. XII, 1-6 is proposed for examination.
Now therefore, O virgins, daughters of uncorrupted chastity, our zeal and contention is for a life blessed with all goods, and for the kingdom of heaven. Do you also eagerly conspire with those before you in the same praise of undefiled virginity, caring little for this age and world. For incorruption and chastity contribute not a little to B happiness and a life free from cares, inasmuch as they lift the flesh from the dust and make it be carried on high, its excessive moisture being dried up and its muddy weight being pressed out, by a greater power and impulse of attraction. Let no filth of hearing that creeps upon the earth weigh you down. Nor let sorrow, which crushes your hope, interrupt your joy, you who strive for better things; but shake off without weariness the calamities and losses that befall you, not clouding the countenance of your mind with querulous groans. Let faith by all means conquer, and let its light drive away the foul phantasms of the evil enemy that fly about the heart. Just as, when the full moon, having shone forth, fills the heaven with brightness, and the whole air becomes serene, suddenly clouds from somewhere in the west, creeping in like jealous rivals, obscure its light for a time, but do not take it away—since, with the wind blowing, the C clouds are immediately dispersed and it is returned to the world with clear light—so you too, showing the light of virginity to the world, although you are vexed by straits and labors, do not, I beseech you, virgins, waver or cast away your hope. The Spirit will soon be present, who will disperse the clouds of the most wicked one, if you, even as your Mother who in heaven brings forth the male child, do not fear the snares of the hostile serpent; about which woman I have determined to speak to you more distinctly, and I shall do so as the time currently requires.
"A great sign appeared in heaven," says John, explaining the Apocalypse, "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet; and on her head a crown of twelve stars: and being with child, she cried out, travailing and in torment that she might bring forth. And another sign was seen in heaven: and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads, diadems."
and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bring forth, that when she had brought forth, he might devour her child. And she brought forth a male child, who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God, that they might feed her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days. These things, then, concerning the woman and the dragon, as a summary, have an end; but to find out and to express the interpretation of them is a greater matter than is within our power. Nevertheless, we must dare, relying on Him who commanded to search the Scriptures. If you therefore are of the same mind, I shall fear nothing in approaching the subject. For you will surely pardon me if, regarding the exquisite understanding of this passage, I am unable, through the thinness of my own intellect, to attain it sufficiently.
Cap. V. The woman bringing forth, with the dragon being hostile, is the Church: her adornment and grace.
The woman seen clothed with the sun in heaven, and having a crown of twelve stars placed around her, whose seat the moon had at her feet, and who was in travail and tormented to bring forth—she is properly, according to exact reason and understanding, O virgins, our mother, being a certain power in herself, and truly existing as distinct from her children: whom the prophets, according to the prospect and argument of the things current, sometimes call Jerusalem, sometimes the Bride, sometimes Mount Sion, and sometimes the temple and tabernacle of God. For that power which strives and longs to be illuminated by the prophet, with the Spirit crying out to her, "Arise, shine, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the kings shall walk in thy light, and the nations in the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered together, they come to thee. Thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders"—this is the Church, of whom all the children shall come together with one accord after the resurrection, running to her from every side; and she, receiving the light that knows no setting, rejoices, being clothed with the splendor of the Word as with a garment. For with what other more precious or more beautiful adornment was it fitting for the bride to be decked and led to the Lord, than having received light as a garment; for which she was also called by the Father to the marriage of the Son? Come then, ascending with reason as your guide, just as virgins who are to be given in marriage and are awaiting the bridal chambers, behold the great woman, pure in every way and undefiled and stable, and in no way unequal in her beauty, which vibrates with the rays of light: and instead of a garment, clothed with the light itself; and instead of precious stones, she has brilliant stars upon her
A head. For that which is a garment for us, is light for her; and that which is gold or transparent stones for us, is to her the stars. These are not such stars as are placed in this visible region, but are some others, better and more radiant, so that these which we perceive appear to be nothing but painted images and imperfect likenesses of those.
Cap. VI. The action of the Church, the childbirth of sons in baptism. The moon in baptism: the full moon of Christ’s passion.
It is said that the woman stands upon the moon. By the symbol of the moon, I suppose, is signified the faith of those who, if I am not mistaken, are cleansed from corruption by the laver, because its light appears close to tepid water, and all moist substance depends upon the moon. The Church, therefore, stands over our faith and B reception, in accordance with the appearance of the moon, until the fullness of the Gentiles shall enter, travailing and regenerating the psychic into spiritual men; for which reason she is also a mother. For just as a woman, having received the unformed seed of a man, after the periods of time brings forth a complete human being, so one would say that the Church, always conceiving those who flee to the Word and fashioning them according to the idea and form of Christ, works them into citizens of those blessed aeons after passing distinct periods of time. Whence it is necessary that she must stand over the laver, bearing those who are dipped therein. For by this method, she is called the moon, due to the activity she possesses around the laver, since those who are regenerated shine as C new light (a new radiance, that is to say), and are thus called "newly enlightened." By this, she always reveals the spiritual full moon to them anew, according to the period of the passion and its remembrance, until the dawn and the perfect light of the great day arises.
Cap. VII. The woman’s birth in the Apocalypse, not of Christ Himself, but of the faithful in the laver.
But if anyone (for it is not burdensome to speak openly again), being indignant, should object to what has been said: "What is this, and how, O virgins, is this interpretation of yours in accordance with the mind of Scripture, since the Apocalypse defines the Church as giving birth to a male child, yet you interpret this birth of the Church as being fulfilled in those who are regenerated by baptism?" To him we shall answer: "But lest it be too easy for you, you quibbling fellow, to argue D that it is Christ Himself to whom those who are reborn in Christ are born..." — namely, those who are reborn in Christ as the ministers and those fulfilling the hierarchy, or the priestly order, which began in the apostles and is to endure in their successors until the end of the world. That metaphor and etymology of the moon seem sought from afar: what Dionysius has in his *De ecclesiastica hierarchia*, cap. 3, is clearer, and others who explain that baptism is thus called light, and its rite illumination, and those who are dipped in it, "newly enlightened," in Greek *neophōtistoi*, which is the sacrament of faith and the first illumination, by which we are rendered fit for the others; in symbol of which lamp is lit over those who are being baptized, or even handed to them to be carried. But these things belong to another time and another work. Combesis.
A of the Apocalypse, the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word had been fulfilled. Now John speaks of things that were either occurring at that time or would occur in the future. Furthermore, Christ, long since conceived, after He was eventually born, was not snatched up to the throne of God for fear that the serpent might do Him injury by its guile; rather, He was born for this very purpose, and He Himself descended from the thrones of the Father so that He might overcome the dragon, having endured [the dragon] assailing [His] flesh. So it is necessary for you also to confess that it is the Church that is in labour and B bringing forth those who are washed in the bath, as the Spirit also says somewhere in Isaiah: Before she that is in labour travailed, and before the pain of her labour came, she escaped and brought forth a man child. Who has heard such a thing? And who has seen such things? Has the earth travailed in one day, or has she brought forth a nation at once, because Sion has travailed and brought forth a man child? Whom did she escape? She escaped, of course, the dragon, so that the spiritual Sion might bring forth the people, the man child, who has arrived at the unity of the Lord and has been un-feminized by zeal, having escaped from womanly passions and infirmity.
Cap. VIII. The faithful in baptism are males, configured to Christ. The saints are Christ Himself.
Let us then speak again, retracing our steps from the beginning, until we advance in order to the end, explaining what has been said. Consider, then, if it seems to you, too, that this passage may be interpreted according to a correct and probable sense. For I think it is said that the man child is born by the Church for this reason: because those who are enlightened put on the features, the impression, and the virility of Christ, the form of the Word C being impressed upon them according to a likeness, and being born in them according to accurate knowledge and faith; so that in each one Christ is born in a spiritual sense. And for this reason the Church is in travail and labour until Christ is formed and born in us, so that each of the saints, by partaking of Christ, may be born as Christ. According to which sense it is said in a certain Scripture: Touch not my Christs, and do my prophets no harm. As if those who have been baptized into Christ have become "christs" through the participation of the Spirit; the Church here contributing her part for their clear manifestation D in the Word and their transformation. Paul also confirms these things, teaching openly where he says: For this cause I bow my knees to God and the Father, of whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you, according to the riches of his kindness, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.
For it is necessary that in the souls of the regenerated, as if by the manner of a seal, the Word of truth be impressed and formed.
Cap. IX. The Son of God, who is himself eternal, is born today in the minds and perception of the faithful.
It appears most fittingly to agree with what has been said, and to be akin to it, that the oracle from the person of the Father is brought down from heaven to Christ A coming to the Jordan to be cleansed by water: "You are my Son; today I have begotten you." For it must be observed that He declared Him to be His Son indefinitely and timelessly. For "Thou art," He said, and not "Thou hast become," indicating that He neither recently attained to this sonship, nor, having pre-existed, did He subsequently come to an end: but that He who was born before is the same being and to be. But the addition, "I have this day begotten you," signifies this: "You who were before the ages and more ancient than them in the heavens, I willed to be born also to the world": that is, to make known Him who was previously unknown. Indeed, in those B who have not yet felt the manifold wisdom of God, Christ is not yet born; which is to say, He is not yet known, not yet manifested, not yet appeared. But if they themselves should perceive the mystery of grace, then indeed, when they have turned and believed, He is born in them according to knowledge and understanding. Therefore, the Church is fittingly said to be always forming and giving birth to the male word in those who are being cleansed. And thus much has been said, according to our ability, concerning her pangs; but what pertains to the dragon and other matters must be transposed to this place. Therefore, let us attempt in another way, O virgins, to explain this, without being terrified by the magnitude of the enigmas of Scripture; and if any difficulty should arise in our discourse, I will again build you a bridge, C or as if performing the office of a ferryman, I will carry you across the river.
Cap. X. The Dragon, the devil. The star, the dragon's tail shaken from heaven, the heretics. The numbers of the Trinity, that is, the numbered persons: errors concerning them.
That dragon, great, red, subtle, multi-formed, seven-headed, horned, drawing with him the third part of the stars, who lies in wait D as if for the child of the travailing woman, this is the devil who lies in wait...
setting a snare to corrupt the Christ-enlightened mind of those who have been illuminated, and to abolish the form and manifest impression of the Word that has been born within them. But he misses his mark and is frustrated in his prey, because those who are regenerated are snatched up on high toward the throne of God. That is to say, the minds and thoughts of those who have been renewed and instructed to fashion heavenly things in their souls are lifted up high, surrounding the divine seat and the infallible foundation of truth, so that they may not be deceived by the fraud and guile of the dragon who weighs them down and holds them to the earth. For it is not permitted for him to destroy those who, with their minds intent upward, contend toward heavenly things.
The stars, however, which the dragon, touching them with the tip of his tail, casts down to the earth, are the gatherings of heresies. For we must interpret the dark, dim, and lowly-crawling stars as the conventicles of the heterodox; since they, too, claim to be knowledgeable about heavenly things, boast that they have believed in Christ, and hold that their soul has its station in the heavens and moves among the stars as children of light. Yet they are dragged down, shaken off by the coils of the dragon, because they did not remain within the triangular figures of piety, but slipped out and wandered away from the orthodox worship of God. Whence also they are called the third part of the stars, wandering as if around one of the numbers of the Trinity: at times regarding the Father, as Sabellius, who asserted that the Omnipotent Himself had suffered; at times regarding the Son, as Artemas, and those who declared Him to have been born only in phantom or appearance; and at other times regarding the Holy Spirit, as the Ebionites, who contend that the prophets spoke of their own motion. For of Marcion and Valentinus, and those around Elcesaeus and others, it is better not even to make mention.
Chapter XI. The woman with the man-child in the desert, the Church. The desert of the virgins and the saints. The perfection and mysteries of numbers. The equality and perfection of the senary. The senary related to Christ. From this number, likewise, the creation of the world and the whole harmony were fashioned.
The woman who brings forth and has brought forth the man-child within the hearts of believers, and who has departed into the desert inviolate and unharmed by the beast's wrath, is our mother, as we have explained—that is, the Church. But the desert into which she comes and is fed for twelve hundred and sixty days is truly a desert empty of evils, and barren and sterile of corruption, and a land not fertile for noxious growths; it is difficult to enter and not easily trodden by the multitude, but it is fruitful, and generous of gifts, and flourishes well, and is easy of access to the saints, and abounds in wisdom, and makes life sprout forth. This is the very garden of Virtue, the most beautiful and tree-laden and fragrant of places; where "The south wind arose, and the north wind blew, and the spices flow," and all things are filled with ambrosial dews, crowned with the ever-green blossoms of immortal life, in which we are gathering flowers
A and even now are weaving for the Queen a purple and sparkling crown of virginity with untouched fingers. For the bride of the Word is adorned with the fruits of virtue.
The number one thousand two hundred and sixty
The one thousand two hundred and sixty days during which we sojourn here, O virgins, is the exact and most excellent understanding regarding the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit, in which our mother rejoices as she increases, and delights in this present time, until, having come into the assembly in the heavens at the restitution of the new ages, she shall no longer contemplate the Being through apprehension, but shall clearly behold Him, having entered in together with Christ. For the thousand, when multiplied into hundreds by tens, contains a perfect and full number; and this is the symbol of the Father Himself, who created this whole universe from Himself and contains and preserves it in Himself. But the two hundred, a number conjoined from two perfect numbers, is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, insofar as He is the author of the knowledge of the Son and of the Father to us. And the sixty contains the number six in decades, and is therefore the symbol of Christ; forasmuch as the number six, proceeding from unity, is composed of its own parts, B so that nothing is lacking in it, nor is there anything redundant; for when resolved into its own parts, it is completed. For if six be divided into other equal numbers, it is necessary that the same number be restored again from those same joined segments. First, indeed, if it be divided in the middle, it makes three; again, if it be divided into three parts, it makes two; finally, if it be divided into six parts, to each part belongs only unity; and the same is again gathered into itself. For when divided into twice three, and thrice two, and six times one, by joining the three, the two, and the one, it again completes the six. For everything is necessarily perfect which neither needs another for its own completion, nor is ever redundant, being greater than itself. Of other numbers, some are more than perfect, as twelve. For its equal part is six, its third is four, its fourth is three, its sixth is two, and its twelfth is one. C These, into which the twelve can be divided, when joined together again exceed the twelve, which therefore does not keep itself equal to its own parts, as the six does. Others are imperfect, as eight. For its half is four, and its fourth part is two, and its eighth is one. Into which parts it is cut, which when joined together make seven, and it needs a unit for its own completion; not being universally concordant with itself like the six. Wherefore also a reference to D glory; for which the perfect restitution, and the glory itself and possession of God, is to be expected by us at the end; not according to the Origenist delirium, of each one’s own sin, before souls were bound to bodies. Not aptly, therefore, did Possinius say, "until the new ages are instituted"; he should have said "restored," using the language of Methodius without any danger, by which the reparative and healing grace of Christ (not that which was first, and first granted by the liberality of God) and its end is indicated. Nor are we wiser than the Fathers, so that we should reject their theological expressions, worn smooth by common usage and never condemned by the Church, and substitute our own for them.The Son of God has taken to Himself everything, having come into this life from the fullness of the Godhead. For, having emptied Himself and taken the form of a servant, He was again filled up to His own perfection and dignity. For having diminished Himself in Himself, and having resolved Himself into His own parts, He was restored from His own smallness and His own parts into His own fullness again, and was established in His magnitude, never having been diminished so as not to be perfect. A For if the parts, when seen, are again composed from themselves, they yield nothing but the septenary; needing unity in order to reach their own complement: not altogether consonant with itself in every part, as the senary is. Wherefore this here refers to the Son of God, who came into the world from the fullness of the divinity. For, having been emptied and having taken the form of a servant 58, He was most fully restored again to His own perfection and dignity. For He, being diminished in Himself, and resolved into His own parts from His own diminution, was restored in Himself into His own former fullness and magnitude: never so diminished that He was not perfect.
But also the creation and harmony of the world appears to be entirely composed from this number. For in the number of six days God created the heaven and the earth and the things that are in them; containing within itself the senary number by the reason of the creative power, in which the ternary is considered the creator and parent of bodies. For length and breadth and depth make a body. Furthermore, the senary is composed of triangles. B And it is not a suitable time at present to discourse on these things with precision, lest, neglecting that which is the head and chief argument of the matter, we spend our study and labor on those things which are secondary and consequential.
Chapter XII. Virgins are exhorted to imitate the Church dwelling in the wilderness and overcoming the dragon.
Coming, therefore, into this wilderness, barren of evils, the Church is nourished, winged with the heaven-traversing wings of virginity, which the discourse called the wings of the great eagle, having defeated the serpent, and having driven away the wintry clouds of her own full-moon. For the sake of these things all these discourses have been put forward by us, exhorting you, O excellent virgins, to imitate your mother to the utmost of your power, and not to let the troubles and reversals and afflictions of life cloud the serenity of your minds, so that you may enter with her, exultant, into the bridal chamber, holding forth your lamps. C Do not, therefore, be cowardly in the face of the stratagems and calumnies of the beast, but prepare yourselves resolutely for battle, having put on the helmet of salvation and the breastplate and greaves. For you will bring upon him infinite dismay, attacking him with great boldness and stout-heartedness; nor will he by any means stand, seeing from the superior power that the adversaries are drawn up against him; but the many-headed and many-faced beast will allow you, willy-nilly, to take for yourselves the triumphal spoils and rewards of the seven contests. D
Fronte leo, caudaque draco, mediaque chimæra Ore vomens sævis incendia lurida flammis : Et illam quidem Bellerophon sustulit: hanc vero
A Christ, our king, for it brought destruction to many, nor did any B dare Wait, who was it, who from its jaws spewed forth noxious foam; unless Christ had first overthrown and destroyed it, and rendered it entirely weak and contemptible to us.
Chapter XIII. The seven diadems of the beast, and the conquest of vices through chastity.
The ten horns of the dragon, the greatest evil, opposed to the Decalogue.Wherefore, taking up a masculine and sober spirit, set your arms against the beast that rages and swells in vain. Yield nothing to its assaults, nor be disturbed by it, because you see it raging. For you shall carry off infinite glory if, having achieved victory, you take from it the seven crowns and diadems which it wears; for these are what the contest and struggle propose to us, according to our teacher Paul. For she who has first conquered the devil and deadened the seven heads becomes mistress of the seven crowns of virtue, having finished the great contests of chastity. For a head of the dragon is intemperance and luxury; he who crushes this is crowned with the wreath of temperance. There is also a head of cowardice and effeminacy; he who treads upon this takes the crown of martyrdom. There is also a head of unbelief and folly, and the other advantages of wickedness likewise; he who has overcome these and taken away the honors belonging to them carries off the prizes, the strength of the dragon being undone in many ways. For indeed the ten horns and stings which the dragon was said to bear upon its heads are the ten contradictions, O noble virgins, to the Decalogue, with which it is accustomed to gore and strike the souls of most people; by the commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God" (Deut. vi, 5), and the following laws, while it thinks and contrives the opposites. For see its horn, burning and bitter, which is fornication, with which it strikes the incontinent; see adultery, see lying, see avarice, see theft, and the others akin and related to these, as many as prevail around its man-slaying heads; which you, having...
A vanquished, Christ being your guide and helper, shall take, and having wreathed B your divine heads, shall bring back as a reward of that victory, adorned with blooming garlands. For it is our duty to prefer and place before C the better things; since we have received from God a mind that is sovereign and self-determined, and free from every necessity—being above the D earthborn—so that we may, with full right and choice, select what pleases us, and not be subject to fate and fortune. For no one would be master of himself and good, unless, using the human example of Christ, and fashioning himself after Him as an archetype, and studying to imitate Him, he has ordered his life. For of all evils, that which is most inherent in the many is this: to attribute the causes of sins to the motions of the stars, and to say that our life is steered by the necessities of fate, just as those who have studied the stars with much arrogance do. For having trusted in supposition rather than in clear thinking—which is something midway between truth and falsehood—they have been greatly deceived in the vision of things that truly are. Wherefore, if you permit, O Virtue, now that the discourse which you yourself commanded, Lady, has been fulfilled for me, I shall attempt, with you striving alongside and breathing with me, to clarify [matters] for those who are troubled and dispute that we speak what is not true when we affirm that man is self-determined, in that they have B their wickedness creating for itself losses and death, inasmuch as they choose what is pleasant before what is advantageous.
ARET. Come, I permit what you wish, and offer myself as your fellow-combatant. For by this adjunct, which you promise in the disputation, your discourse will come forth more illustrious and perfect in all its parts.
CHAPTER XIV. That the doctrine of the mathematicians is not entirely to be despised, so long as it is concerned with the knowledge of the stars. The twelve signs of the zodiac, and their mythical names.
THECL. Let us, therefore, again speak first concerning these things to the best of our ability, stripping off the sorcery of those who plume themselves as if they alone had grasped the figures with which the heaven is adorned, according to the hypotheses of the Egyptians and Chaldeans. For they say that the circumference of the world is fashioned after the turnings of a well-turned sphere, with the earth occupying the place of the center and point. For since the C sphere is in rotation,
it is necessary, they say, according to the similar distances A of these intervals, that the earth should happen to be in the middle of the whole, being older than that around which the heaven revolves. For if a circumference is composed from a point and center—which is indeed thought to be a circle—yet it is impossible for a circle to be described without a point, and impossible for there to be a circle without a point—how then, he says, did the earth, and the chaos and depth involved in it, not exist before all things? For into depth and chaos have they truly slipped in their error. For “knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God nor give thanks, but they became empty in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened” (Rom. 1, 21), and these things were said even by the wise men among them, as though there were nothing earth-born more honorable or older than the Olympians. Whence those who have known Christ are not always children, as the Greeks are, who by myths and fictions rather than by any art of logic have buried the truth, and by fitting the calamities of men to the heavens, are not ashamed to record the revolution of the world with geometrical theorems and figures, and to suggest that the heaven is adorned with images of birds, and swimming creatures, and land animals, and that the qualities of the stars have had their origin from the disasters and misfortunes of ancient men, so that the motions of the planets are dependent upon such bodies. For they say that the stars revolve around the nature of the twelve signs of the zodiac, pulled by the rapid rotation of the zodiacal circle, and that through their mixture there are seen the things that befall many, according to their conjunctions and effluents towards one another, and their risings and settings. C For the whole heaven, being spherical, and using the earth as center and point according to them, because all the straight lines falling from the circumference onto the earth are equal to one another, is governed by the circles encompassing it; of which the meridian seems to be the greatest. And a second that cuts the universe into equal parts, which they call the horizon (that is, the definer). A third intersecting these is the equinoctial. Furthermore, on either side of these are two tropics, the summer and the winter; the one toward the northern parts, the other toward the southern. To these represents the so-called axis, about which the Bears revolve, D and to the other which follows soon after, having passed over the intervening parts. And the same defect seems to have crept into the Mazarin codex; for the editor Lupareus does not mention this omission. [ID.] Truly the sense demands it, and the Vatican codex had it, and Possinius rendered it, although with a long circumlocution of words, there is nothing in it that is necessary. But as for the reading “earth-born” instead of “born of the earth,” the sense is altogether contrary; but as to what was said by the wise men among them, “that nothing of celestial things is more precious or older than things of the earth,” I do not know if it ever entered the mind of any renowned Greek to think or write thus. Certainly not to Plato, not to Aristotle, nor to any other philosopher; nor does it seem equal, by a slight slip of an antiquary or a scribe, or even by a deceiving eye, that the interpreter should be driven into such a divergence, or attribute to great Fathers things which no person of sound mind would have dreamed. [COMBEFIS.] [ID.]
A And the arctic circle, having the tropic outside of it. And the Bears, revolving around it and burdening the axis that passes through the poles, produce the motion of the entire world, having their heads towards each other’s flanks, and being untouched by the horizon that defines our region.
Now, the zodiac touches all the circles, moving in an oblique path; and there is in it a number of zodiacal signs, which are called the twelve divisions, having their beginning from Aries and ending at Pisces, which they represent as having been placed among the stars for reasons known only to the initiated. For they say that the Ram is the one that carried Helle, the daughter of Athamas, and Phrixus to the Scythians; and the Bull's head [was placed there] in honor of Zeus, who, in that form, transported Europa to Crete. And they also say that the circle called the Milky Way, which begins from the conjunction of the fishes and extends toward Aries, derives its whiteness from the breasts of Hera, when she was constrained by the commands of Zeus to suckle Heracles. B Therefore, according to them, before Europa or Phrixus, and the Dioscuri, and the other zodiacal signs, which were placed among the stars from among men and beasts, there was as yet no natal fate; but our ancestors lived without genesis. For we must endeavor, if we can, to overcome this falsehood, like physicians, by dulling it with the medicinal remedies of discourse, aiming here at the truth.
Cap. XV. Arguments from the novelty of fate and genesis. The golden race, the men of old. Arguments against the mathematicians, indeed solid.
If it was better, O miserable men, for humans to be under genesis than not to be, for what reason was genesis not present from the very beginning, from the moment the race of men first sprouted? But if it existed, what was the need for those recently placed among the stars—Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Virgo, Taurus, Libra, Scorpio, Aries, Sagittarius, Pisces, Capricorn, Aquarius, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Pegasus, Hydra, Corvus, Crater, Lyra, Draco, and the others, from whom you propose that the many, having become learned, have grasped this mathematical, or rather, C catathematic, foreknowledge? Either, then, genesis existed even in the time of those who came before, and the constitution of these [zodiacal signs] is vain; or it did not exist, and God changed human life toward a better condition and conduct, [implying that] those before lived a worse time. But the men of old were better than those of the present; hence they were even called the golden race. Therefore, genesis does not exist.
If the sun, riding over the circles and passing through the signs in annual periods, effects changes and fixed turnings of the seasons, D while those before were not yet placed among the stars— If the sun, riding over the circles and passing through the signs in annual periods, effects changes and fixed turnings—if the sun, riding over the circles as if over paths and zones, and the stars inscribed upon them, were subject to the sun, and the sun were to mount them in the manner of horses, and then one after another...
A brings about the changes and the turnings of the seasons. Those who existed before the signs were placed in the heavens, and the heavens decorated with them, how did they survive, when not yet were summer, autumn, winter, and spring distinguished, by which the nature of the body is increased and sustained? Yet they did survive, and they lived longer and were more robust than those who live now, God having arranged the times in like manner even then. The heaven, therefore, has not been adorned with figures of such a kind.
If the sun and the moon and the other stars, which were brought into being for the defining and keeping of the count of time, and for the ornament of the heaven and the turnings of the seasons, are divine and superior to humans, it is necessary that they also lead a superior, blessed, and peaceful life, and one far excelling our own life in the gifts of justice and virtue, moving with an ordered and auspicious motion. But if they themselves contrive the calamities and foolish ways of mortals, and occupy themselves with acts of licentiousness, and with the changes and turnings of life, they are surely more wretched than humans, if they gaze down upon the earth and upon ephemeral and lawless deeds, and lead a life no better than that of humans, if indeed our life is dependent upon an efflux and motion from them. B
CHAPTER XVI. Many other arguments turned against the same astrologers.
Since no action occurs without a prior affection of desire, and desire does not come from anywhere other than from need, and the Divine is in need of nothing, it is therefore free from wickedness. And if the nature of the stars is placed closer to God, being superior to the virtue of superior humans, the stars are free from wickedness and free from need. C Furthermore, everyone who is persuaded that the sun and the moon and the stars are divine things will surely not deny that they are far removed from malice, and that they are remote from the deeds of earth-born creatures, into which neither the affection of pleasure nor of pain can fall; for such disgusting desires and cursed appetites do not pertain to heavenly beings. If, then, they are outside these things and are in need of nothing, what reason is there why they should be the authors for mortals of things which do not please them, and outside of which they are placed by having a more noble nature?
Those, moreover, who maintain that man is not endowed with the faculty of free will, but who think that human life is carried and swayed by the inescapable necessities of Fate and by unwritten commands, are impious and injurious toward God Himself, since they represent Him as the provider and author of human evils. For if God Himself, with a wisdom which no one is able to speak of or comprehend by force of mind, modulates the entire circular motion of the stars, steering the helm of the universe most rightly, while the stars, in turn, instill the qualities of vice and virtue into human life, drawing men into these things by the bonds of necessity, they are declaring God to be the author and source of evils; yet in the judgment of all, God is the author of no harm. Therefore, let fatal necessity be exploded. D
A Every person who possesses even the smallest particle of good sense will confess at once that the Divine Being is good, just, wise, truthful, beneficial, the cause of no evil, untainted by passion, and has all other qualities of this kind. And if the just are better than the unjust, and to them injustice is abominable; and since God, being just, rejoices in justice, while injustice is hateful to Him, being opposite and inimical to justice, then God is not the author of injustice.
If that which provides utility is altogether good, and since self-restraint is beneficial to the house, to life, and to friends, then self-restraint is good. And if self-restraint is by nature good, and debauchery is the opposite of self-restraint, and since that which is the opposite of the good is evil, then debauchery is evil. And if debauchery is by nature evil, and through debauchery adulteries, thefts, rages, and murders occur, then a life of debauchery and intemperance is by nature evil. But the Divine Being is untainted by evils. Therefore, it is not by birth [fate]. B
If the self-restrained are better than the unrestrained, and to them unrestraint is abominable, and God rejoices in self-restraint—being beyond the reach of passions—then unrestraint is hateful also to God. That the action according to self-restraint, being a virtue, is better than that according to unrestraint, which is a vice, can be learned from kings, from rulers, from generals, from women, from children, from citizens, from masters, from servants, from tutors, and from teachers; for each of these becomes useful both to himself and to the common good when he is self-restrained, but when he is debauched, he is harmful both to himself and to the common good. And if there is some difference between the effeminate and the brave, between the unchaste and the self-restrained; and if the race of the brave and self-restrained is better, while that of their opposites is worse; and those who belong to the better are near to God and are friends of God, while those who belong to the worse are far away and are His enemies; those who say that justice and injustice are the same by birth [fate] C do not distinguish effeminacy from bravery, or unrestraint from self-restraint—which is impossible. For if the good is the opposite of evil, and the unjust is evil, then this is the opposite of the just; and the just is good; and the good is the enemy of the evil; and the evil is dissimilar to the good; therefore the just is other than the unjust. Therefore God is not the author of evils, nor does He rejoice in evils. The Word, being good, does not constitute them. And if there are some who are wicked, they are wicked due to a lack of mind, and not by birth [fate].
"Creating for themselves damage and death by their own wickedness (33)."
If birth [fate] brings it about that one kills and bloodies one's hands in murder, but the law forbids this, punishing the wicked and deterring by threats those things which birth [fate] enjoins—such as inflicting injury, committing adultery, stealing, or using poison—then the law is the opposite of birth [fate]. For whatever birth [fate] has decreed, the law forbids, and whatever... D
the law forbids, birth [fate] compels one to do: the law is therefore an adversary to birth [fate]. If it is an adversary, then the lawmakers did not act according to birth [fate]; for by ordaining things contrary to birth [fate], they destroy birth [fate]. Therefore, either birth [fate] exists and there should have been no laws, or laws exist and they are not according to birth [fate]. But A it is impossible for anyone to be born and to perform any action without birth [fate]; for they say that it is not possible for anyone to move even a finger without Fate. Therefore, the lawmakers Minos, Draco, Lycurgus, Solon, and Zaleucus, being born according to birth [fate], ordained laws prohibiting adulteries, murders, acts of violence, robberies, and thefts, as if these things were not existing and happening according to birth [fate]. But if these too are according to birth [fate], then the laws are not according to birth [fate]. For birth [fate] would not abolish itself, nor would it invalidate itself, nor would it fight against itself—on the one hand, ordaining laws prohibiting adulteries and murders, B and punishing and pursuing the wicked, and on the other hand, committing the murders and adulteries. But this is impossible. For nothing is strange to itself, nor hostile to itself, nor does it destroy itself, nor is it inconsistent with itself. Therefore, there is no birth [fate].
If everything that happens at all happens according to birth [fate], and nothing exists apart from birth [fate], then necessity demands that the law also have come into being by birth [fate]. But the law abolishes birth [fate], teaching that virtue is something that can be learned, and that it is acquired through diligence and attention, while vice is something to be avoided, and that it comes from an undisciplined mind. Therefore, there is no birth [fate].
If birth [fate] causes us to injure one another and to be injured by others, C what need is there for laws? But if they exist so that those who commit wrongs may be punished, because God cares for those who are wronged, it would have been better for Him not to make them evil according to fate, rather than, after they have been made so, to correct them by laws. But God is good and wise, and He does what is better. Therefore, there is no birth [fate].
Whether upbringing and customs are the causes of sins, or the passions of the soul and the desires exercised through the body, or desires—whatever of these may be the cause, God is certainly in no way the author or cause. D If it is better to be just than unjust, why is man not created like that from his very birth and beginning? But if he is corrected afterwards by teachings and laws so that he may improve, he is corrected as one possessing the faculty of free will, and not because he is evil in his nature.
If the wicked are born wicked according to birth [fate] by the decree of an ineluctable providence, they are free from all blame and are not worthy of being coerced by the punishments of the law, since they live as they have been fashioned by nature; for they could not change themselves. On the other hand, if the good, by living according to their own nature, are worthy of praise, since birth [fate] is the cause
of goodness, then neither are the wicked, living according to their own nature, to be blamed by a just judge. And if one must speak plainly, he who lives according to the nature present in him does no wrong. For he did not make himself such, but it was fate; and he lives according to its motion, led by inescapable necessities. No one, therefore, is evil. But there are evil men; and wickedness is blameworthy and hostile to God, as the argument has established; but virtue is lovable and praiseworthy, God having ordained a law that punishes the wicked. Therefore, fate does not exist.
Cap. XVII. Concupiscence of the flesh and spirit: vice and virtue.
But why, by dwelling on refutations, do I draw out my argument to such a length, when I have already set forth the things more necessary for persuasion and consent? And it is manifest to all, and I have shown from a few points the contradiction of their art, so that even a child can clearly see and perceive the error of these men, that it lies within our power to practice what is good or what is evil, and not in the stars. For there are two motions in us, which are by nature A desires of the flesh and spirit, differing from one another; whence they have also taken two names: the one of virtue, the other of vice. We must obey the most beautiful and good instruction of virtue, choosing the best things over the base. But let this be enough on these matters, and I will check my speech. For I am ashamed, after the discourses on purity, and I veil myself, having been forced to explain the opinions of the meteorologists or vain-observers of men, who consume the time of their life through conceit, dwelling on nothing but mythical fictions. These gifts, O Lady Virtue, woven from divine words, may these be offered to you by us.
EUBUL. How combatively and gloriously did Thecla dispute, O Gregory?
GREG. What if you had heard her discussing it with such copious and nimble eloquence, joined with the greatest grace and pleasure? So that it was a cause of admiration for those who were listening, with the splendor of every ornament of flourishing diction; for she set forth her discourse from her soul and the storehouse of her mind, and with true images of those things about which she had instituted her narrative, while in the meantime her face was also suffused with a blush out of modesty: for she was altogether by nature pure, both in body and soul.
EUBUL. You speak rightly, Gregory, and there is no falsehood in these things. For I have also known of her wisdom from her other heroic deeds, and [I have known her] to speak of all the things which...
A she accomplished, providing a demonstration of surpassing love toward Christ; and how, as a distinguished [saint], she often appeared, meeting the [challenges of] the great and primary contests, possessing an eagerness in her zeal equal to that of the martyrs, and, in the vigor of her deliberations, [possessing] the strength of her body.
GREG. Very true is what you say; but let us not linger. For about these things, and about other matters, it will be possible for us to discourse often hereafter. But now, it is necessary for me first to proclaim to you the words of the remaining virgins, as I promised; or rather, those of Tysiana and Domnina, for these alone remain. When, therefore, Thecla finished speaking, having recounted so many things, she reported that Arete had commanded Tysiana to take the place of prayer. She, indeed, smiling slightly, stepped forward before her and spoke into these words. B
ORATION IX. TYSIANA.
CHAP. I. Chastity is the chief ornament of the true tabernacle. What is signified by the seven days prescribed to the Jews for celebrating the feast of tabernacles. The uncertain sum of this seven-fold number: nor is it clear to anyone when the future consummation of the world shall be. The fabric of the world is still being completed.
Arete, most lovely object of boast for the lovers of virginity, I also implore you to stand by me, helping me in the matter you command, lest I lack what to say, having exhausted the subject of praise with so many and such copious orations by others. Therefore, I will not waste time and effort on these introductory and preparatory parts of the speech, lest, while delaying to fit appropriate [words] to these things, I fall short of the [actual] things proposed; so glorious, and honorable, and magnificent a thing is virginity. C
God, in teaching the true Israelites the true feast of the Tabernacles, [and] how it is necessary to celebrate and honor [it], indicates in Leviticus that each must adorn his own tabernacle with purity, more than the other [things]. I shall also set forth the words from Scripture, from which it will be shown to all, without any doubt, how fitting and dear to God this achievement of purity is. "And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the earth, you shall celebrate a feast to the Lord for seven days; and on the eighth day there shall be a rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a beautiful tree, and palm branches, and branches of dense trees, and willows, and branches of the brook, to rejoice D before the Lord your God seven days of the year; an everlasting ordinance throughout your generations. In the seventh month you shall celebrate it. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. Everyone who is native-born in Israel shall dwell in booths, so that your generations may know that I caused the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."
A The Jews, for their part, will certainly suppose—clinging as they do to the mere letter of the Scripture, just like those so-called drones among the leaves of vegetables, but not among the flowers and fruits, as the bee does—that these words and the ordinances concerning such a booth, as they themselves fashion, were spoken as if God took pleasure in these perishable decorations with which they adorn themselves, fashioned from late-ripening fruits, not comprehending the wealth of the good things to come. These things are but a breeze and shadowy specters, pre-announcing the resurrection and the fixing of our tabernacle which had fallen into the earth; which, having received it back immortal in the seventh millennium, we shall celebrate the great feast of the true Feast of Tabernacles in the new and indissoluble creation, when the fruits of the earth have been gathered, and men are no longer begetting and being begotten, but God has ceased from the works of the creation of the world.
For since God fashioned the heaven and the earth in six days, and finished the whole world, and rested on the seventh day from his works which he had made, and blessed the seventh day and sanctified it B (Gen. ii, 1; Psal. ciii, 31), from this we are symbolically commanded to keep holiday unto the Lord in the seventh month, when the fruits of the earth have already been gathered; which is to say, when this world shall have been finished in the seventh millennium, when, truly, God, having finished the inhabited world, shall rejoice in us. For now, even still, all things are being created by his sovereign will and unsearchable power, the earth still yielding its fruits, and the waters being gathered into their reservoirs, and the light still being divided, and the number of men still being brought into being, and the sun rising for the beginnings of the day, and the moon for the beginnings of the night, and four-footed beasts and wild animals and creeping things rising from the earth, and winged creatures and swimming creatures from the liquid substance. C Then indeed, when it is finished...
A the seasons will be fulfilled, and God will cease from working in this creation; on the seventh month, on the great day of the resurrection, a festival is appointed unto the Lord for our Feast of Tabernacles, the symbols and types of which are spoken of in Leviticus. In investigating these sedulously, it is worth the effort to contemplate the naked truth itself. For, it says, the wise man hearing will be wiser, and will understand a parable and an obscure saying, the sayings of the wise and their riddles.
Therefore, let the Jews be ashamed, because they do not penetrate the deep senses of the Scriptures, imagining that nothing is contained in the oracles of the Law and the Prophets except what is corporeal; for they themselves pant after earthly things, and hold the riches of the world in a better place than the treasure and wealth of the soul. For since the divine Scriptures B are divided in such a way that some exhibit the type of past things, and others of those things which are to come, those wretched ones, recoiling from this, treat the figures of future things as if they had already passed. Just as also in the immolation of the Lamb, the mystery of which they perceive only in the remembrance of the liberation of their fathers from Egypt—which took place when the firstborn of Egypt were struck down, and they themselves were saved, having reddened the lintels of their houses with blood—they do not understand that this was also pre-signified as the death of Christ, by whose blood souls, brought together and sealed, will be saved from wrath in the conflagration of the world, when the firstborn, the children of Satan 38, are destroyed by slaughter, and the avenging angels reverence the seal of the divine blood imprinted upon them. C
Chapter II. Figure, image; truth: law, grace, glory. Man created immortal: death brought in by the destruction of sin.
And these things were said by way of example, to demonstrate that the Jews have surely fallen from the hope of future good things because they think that the things they treat are only figures of things already done; while they recognize neither that figures are the heralds of images, nor that images are the heralds of truth. For indeed, the figure and shadow of the image is the Law—namely, of the Gospel; D but the image of the truth is the Gospel itself. For those men of old and the Law announced to us the characters of the Church in prophecy; but the Church represents the forms of the new ages. Whence we also, who have received Christ saying, *I am the truth* [Joan. XIV, 6], know that the shadows and figures have ceased: but we hasten to the truth, announcing its illustrious images. *For in part we know,* and as *through a glass* [I Cor. XIII, 12], because that which is perfect has not yet come
A to us, when that which is in part shall be done away. For then the tabernacles of us all shall be set up, when the bones being joined and compacted together with the flesh, the body shall rise again. Then shall we celebrate the festive day of joy to the Lord sincerely, when we shall receive the eternal tabernacles, no longer destined to die or be dissolved into the dust of the tomb. For our tabernacle was also previously 40 unfallen; but because of the transgression it was shaken and inclined, while God dissolved the sin by death, so that man, being an immortal sinner, with sin living within him, might not be eternally subject to condemnation. And for this reason he has also died, not having been born mortal or corruptible, and the soul was separated from the flesh, so that the transgression might be put to death through death, no longer able to live in one who has died. B Hence, the transgression having died and been corrupted, I rise again immortal, and I praise God, who through death saves his children from death; and I celebrate the feast lawfully to Him, having adorned my tabernacle, the flesh, with good things, just as there the virgins with the five-lighted lamps 41.
Cap. III. How each person ought to prepare himself for the future resurrection.
Being examined on the first day of the resurrection, whether I bring the things commanded; whether I have been adorned with the fruits of virtue; whether I am shaded by the branches of chastity. For conceive for me the resurrection to be the Feast of Tabernacles. Conceive for me also that the things taken up for the composition of the tabernacle are the deeds of justice. I take up, therefore, on the first day the things prescribed; as if on the day in which I C am judged, whether I adorned my tabernacle with the things commanded; whether these things are found in it which we are ordered to acquire here in the world, and there to offer to God. Come, then, and let us consider what follows. *And you shall take for yourselves on the first day,* he says, *the fruit of a beautiful tree, and branches of dense trees, and willows, and branches of the agnus castus from the brook, to rejoice before the Lord your God* [Levit. XXIII, 40]. The Jews, who are uncircumcised in heart, because of its size, think the most beautiful fruit of a tree to be the citron; nor are they ashamed to say that God is honored by a citron, to whom not even all the four-footed beasts of the earth are sufficient for a holocaust, or frankincense D for a sacrifice.
A And in general, if the citron, O you intractable ones, is beautiful, why is the grape not more beautiful? Why is the pomegranate not; why is the apple and the other tree-fruits not more excellent than the citron? Indeed, in the Song of Songs, Solomon, having made mention of all these beautiful fruits, passed over the citron alone in silence. But foolish men have been led astray from these things, not B understanding the tree of life, which paradise formerly bore, but which now the Church has caused to sprout for all, producing the beautiful and comely fruit of faith. It is necessary that we, approaching the tribunal of Christ on the first day of the feast, should bring such fruit; if we are lacking in such fruit, we shall not be able to keep the feast with God; we shall not attain, according to John, to the first resurrection. For the tree of life is Wisdom, the first-born of all; "It is a tree of life to those who lay hold of it," says the prophet, "and is a secure support to those who lean C upon it as upon the Lord." "A tree planted by the streams of waters, which shall yield its fruit in its season," is doctrine and understanding, given at the fitting time to those who arrive at the waters of redemption. He who does not believe in Christ, and has not perceived that he is the beginning and the tree of life, not having it in his power to show to God his tabernacle adorned with the most beauteous of beautiful fruits, how shall he feast? How shall he rejoice? Do you wish to know the beautiful fruit of the tree? Consider the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they are beautiful above the sons D of men. A beautiful fruit sprouted through Moses, namely the Law; but it was not so beautiful as the Gospel. For the Law...
[The Latin column provided by Migne for this page consists of the commentator's critical notes on the preceding text and is not a translation of the Greek section above.]
[alt-version omitted]
for it was a type and shadow of the things to come; but the Gospel is the truth and the grace of life. The fruit of the prophets was beautiful; but not so beautiful as that which is cultivated from it, the fruit of incorruption.
Cap. IV. The mind made more perspicacious once vices are purged. The adornment of the soul and the series of virtues. Charity, dense and compact. Chastity, the last of all adornment. The use of marriage itself is to be chastised.
A "And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a beautiful tree, and palm branches" (Levit. xxiii, 40), meaning the exercise of divine teachings, by which the soul, conquering the passions, is cleansed and adorned, having sins swept out 44 and cast forth from itself. For it is necessary that those who are pure and adorned should come to the feast, having labored as if with an adornment of exercises and meditations of virtue; because the mind, being cleansed by laborious meditations and exercises of the thoughts that are alien and cover it, sees sharply toward the truth. Just as the widow in the Gospels found the mite after she had swept the house and cast out the refuse—the passions which survey and cover the soul, which multiply because of our crumbling and negligence.
And therefore, he who is eager to reach that feast of Tabernacles and to be numbered with the saints, first let him acquire the "beautiful fruit," which is faith; then the "palm branches," which are the exercise and meditation of the Scriptures; then the "foliage-laden branches" in succession, which are of charity, and "dense," which he bids us take even after the palm branches—"dense branches" most aptly describing charity. For that which is dense and green is entirely and copiously fruitful, having nothing scanty or empty, but everything filled, both the shoots and the trunks. Such indeed is charity, being nowhere hollow or unfruitful. For, "If I sell all my possessions and give to the poor, and if I deliver my body to the fire, and if I have such faith that I can move mountains, but do not have charity, I am nothing" (I Cor. xiii, 2, 3). Charity, therefore, is the most fruitful and the densest tree of all, the one that is teeming and filled with graces.
B Then what else does he wish us to take? The willow branches, he says, calling the branches of justice "willow" branches, because the righteous, according to the prophet, "spring up as grass among the waters, and as a willow by the flowing water," flourishing in the word (Isa. xliv, 4). And above all, he commands that the branches which adorn the tabernacle in purity should be offered;
due to the tree of chastity being named after it, with which the aforementioned things are adorned. Let the profligate A now be gone, and those who because of their own self-indulgence banish chastity. For how shall they enter into the feast with Christ, if they have not adorned their own tabernacle with the branches of chastity, with the deifying, blessed plant? It is by this that those who hasten to that gathering must bind themselves, and it is by this that their loins must be overshadowed. For go, you beautiful virgins, examine the Scripture itself and the commandments, and see how, as a completion of the aforementioned virtues, the Word has embraced chastity, teaching how glorious and much-desired it will be at the resurrection, and that without it B no one shall obtain the promises, which we who profess virginity labor to cultivate and offer to the Lord. Those also who live chastely with their own wives make use of it, and just as around the trunk they bear branches of it that have blossomed with self-control—not being able to reach the high and great branches of it, as we do—yet, even if they are small, they nonetheless offer branches of chastity. But those who are driven by the goad, even if they do not commit fornication, but are unrestrained in their union with their lawful wife—how shall they feast? How shall they rejoice, not having adorned their tabernacle—their own flesh—with the branches of the chaste plant, nor having hearkened to the one who says, "That even those who have wives may be as though they had none"? (1 Cor. 7:29)
CAP. V. The Mystery of the Tabernacles.
Therefore, I say that chastity must be cultivated without hesitation by all who are especially eager for the contests and who exercise great prudence, as it is most beneficial and glorious. For in the new and indissoluble world, C whoever is not found adorned with the branches of chastity shall not obtain rest, as one who has not fulfilled the commandment of God according to the law; nor shall he enter into the promised land, inasmuch as he has not first celebrated the feast of Tabernacles. For only those who have celebrated the feast of Scenopegia arrive at the holy land, being released from what are called tabernacles until they arrive to reach the temple.
A of God, having advanced to a greater and more glorious joy, just as the types which came to pass among the Jews signify. For just as they, having exited those borders of Egypt, journeyed first and came to the tabernacles, and having departed thence again, arrived at the land of promise; so also do we. For I too, having journeyed from hence and departed from this Egypt of current life, come first to the resurrection, the true Scenopegia; and there, having pitched my tabernacle, adorned with the fruits of virtue, on the first day of the feast of the resurrection, in the judgment, I celebrate with Christ the millennium of rest, the seven days so called, the true Sabbaths. Then again, following Jesus who has passed through the heavens, I come again, just as they did, after the rest of Scenopegia, to the land of promise, the heavens, not remaining in tabernacles—that is, my tent not remaining such as it was—but after the millennium, changed from the form of man and from corruption B into angelic stature and beauty; where, therefore, from the place of the wondrous tent, we virgins, after the completion of the feast of the resurrection, pass on to greater and better things, ascending into the house of God itself which is above the heavens, in a voice of exultation and confession, with the sounds of one keeping holiday, as the Psalmist says. To this, O Virtue, according to my own ability, O mistress, I dedicate the mantle to you.
A EUBUL. I am much concerned within myself, O Gregory, as I reflect upon the mental anxiety with which Domnina must have been occupied, her heart being tossed about, and fearing lest she should be at a loss for words, or speak something more deficient than the other virgins, since so many and so varied things had already been spoken on the subject proposed. If, therefore, it was evident that she was agitated, come, finish the account of this too. For I marvel if she had anything to say, having been allotted the final place for speaking. GREG. She was indeed troubled to a great degree, O Eubulius, Theopatra told me, but nevertheless she was not at a loss for words. After Tysiana had ceased, Arete, casting her eye upon her, said, "Come now, daughter, render your speech, that we may complete the feast in every part." Domnina, blushing deeply, and only with difficulty raising her eyes and face after a long delay, arose and turned herself to prayer, imploring the present aid of Wisdom. Having performed this prayer, she said that she suddenly saw a new boldness created, and a certain divine confidence had come upon her; and, trusting in that, she spoke.
ORATION X. DOMNINA.
Chapter I. Chastity alone causes and ensures that the soul be governed in the most praiseworthy manner.B ARETE, I too, omitting the complexities of introductions, will try to address the matter itself to the best of my ability, so that, by not lingering on those things that are outside the subject, I may not draw out my speech longer than the reason for them requires, or almost needlessly. For I consider it a great part of prudence not to indulge in words that idly caress the ears, and to be diffuse in speaking before one arrives at the very head of the inquiry; but rather to begin immediately from the very point of the question. Therefore, I begin from this point: for it is time. C Nothing will be able to profit a person for honesty and the good of virtue, O illustrious virgins, as much as chastity. For that the soul be governed with the highest honesty and in the most praiseworthy manner, and that it be released and separated from the world, pure from evils and pollutions, chastity alone effects and ensures this. For since Christ taught us to cultivate it, and revealed to us its most excellent beauty, the kingdom of the devil has been destroyed, which formerly was always dragging the whole race of men captive and enslaved; so that D we, who are under the law of grace, might not be as those of old, who have been injured—for it to the ancient saints is an injury, and in no way fitting. In no respect, whether for them or for us, were they failing, for we are not perfect in every part as long as we live a mortal life: and thus even the beloved disciple would not have pleased, who acknowledges himself and the rest of the faithful as not just in every part, but as having sin; and who says that he who denies this, however much an apostle, and beloved among the apostles, deceives himself, and the truth is not in him (I John 1:8). Therefore, let Methodius have said that no one had pleased. It is the phrasing of Scripture, that few have pleased, and that those very ones who did please, did not please by the merit of the law, but by the grace of Christ, already then from faith working, to which Paul ascribes such great virtues and deeds of the saints when referred to the Hebrews, and
A that it has been pleasing to the Lord regarding any of the ancients, but that all were overcome by offenses, the law of corruption not sufficing to liberate humanity until virginity, succeeding the law, reigned over men by the commands of Christ. For they would not have been so often driven into battles, murders, loves, and idolatries, if the righteousness from the laws had been sufficient for them unto salvation. But now, though formerly they were often involved in great and many calamities, ever since Christ became man, and has adorned and armed the flesh with virginity, the cruel tyrant, the prince of intemperance, has been removed, and peace and faith prevail, with mankind no longer turning to idolatry as they did in the past.
Cap. II. The allegory of the trees seeking a king.
B But lest I seem to some to proceed by sophistical art, and to conjecture these things from probabilities, and to boast of vanities as if they were solid facts, I too, O virgins, will bring forward for you from the Old Testament a written prophecy as an undoubted testimony of the truth that I establish—from the book of Judges, where the kingdom of chastity was long ago clearly foretold. For it is written C thus: "The trees went forth to anoint a king over them; and they said to the Olive tree: 'Reign over us.' And the Olive tree said to them: 'Shall I abandon my fatness, which God and men have glorified, and go to rule over the trees?' And all the trees said to the Fig tree: 'Come, reign over us.' And the Fig tree said to them: 'Shall I abandon my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to rule over the trees?' And the trees said to the Vine: 'Reign over us.' And the Vine said to them: 'Shall I abandon my wine, which is the gladness of men, and go to rule over the trees?' And the trees said to the Bramble: 'Come, reign over us.' And the Bramble said to the trees: 'If in truth you anoint me as king over you, come, put your trust in my shadow; but if not, let fire come out of the Bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'"
That these things were not spoken about trees growing from the earth is clear. For soulless trees, deeply fixed in the earth with their roots, could not be gathered into a council to deliberate about electing a king. Rather, this narrative is entirely instituted concerning souls, which, before the Incarnation of Christ, having run wild with faults, approach as suppliants to God and ask for pity, and demand to be ruled by the empire of mercy and compassion—which Scripture expressed under the figure of the olive, because oil is beneficial to bodies, and is a reliever D of labors and pains, and is productive of light. For every lamp-flame, being watered with oil, is increased; any [relieving-]?
and the mercies of God are entirely so, being both helpers of humanity and productive of the light of the heart. Consider whether perhaps Scripture signifies the series of divine laws from the first-created man down to Christ, whose counterfeits the devil used to deceive the human race. The Fig tree, it compares to the commandment given to man in the garden, since, being deceived, he covered his nakedness with the leaves of a fig tree. The Vine, it refers to that which was given in the time of the flood, because, while sleeping from the wine, [Noah] was mocked. And the Olive, to that given to Moses in the desert; for the prophetic gift, the holy oil, when they acted lawlessly, had failed from the inheritance. And the Rhamnus (buckthorn), to [the law] given to the apostles for the salvation of the world; because, indeed, through them we were taught virginity, of which the devil was unable to construct a deceptive imitation. For this reason also four Gospels are handed down, because God has four times evangelized humanity, and has instructed it with four laws, whose times are clearly shown by the diversity of their fruits. For the fig, because of its sweetness and beauty, represents the delight that existed in paradise for man before the transgression. For there are times when the Holy Spirit takes the fruit of the fig to represent that which is better, as we shall prove later. The vine, on account of the cheerfulness from wine, and the joy of those who, through the indulgence of God, had escaped the wrath of the flood, signifies the transformation of their minds from fear and anxious care into joy. The olive, because of the nature of the oil which it produces, signifies the mercy of God, who again, after the flood, when men had turned to impiety, patiently bore to give a law and reveal Himself to certain ones, and, as if to feed with the richness of oil the light of virtue that was already being extinguished B among men.
Chapter III. Rhamnus and agnus, symbol of chastity. The four Gospels, that is, preachings or laws establishing salvation.
The Rhamnus, which is the same as the Agnus (chaste tree), is called by both names promiscuously by different people. Perhaps also because this plant is akin to virginity, it gained the name of both Rhamnus and Agnus: Rhamnus, on account of its solidity and firmness against pleasures; but Agnus, from its always being chaste. Hence also Scripture records that Elijah, fleeing from the face of Jezebel the woman, C first went under the Rhamnus, and having been heard, received strength and took food: for truly, for him who flees the sting of lust, and separates himself from a woman—that is, from pleasure—it becomes a shelter and a covering, when the tree of chastity has blossomed from the presence of Christ the arch-virgin King. D
A For when the first ordinances—those at the time of Adam, of Noah, and of Moses—were unable to save mankind, the law according to the Gospel alone saved all. For this reason, the fig tree is said not to have reigned over the trees—with the trees being understood as men, and the fig as the commandment—because after his fall, man desired again to be governed by virtue and not be cast out of the incorruption of the paradise of delight. But he was repelled having transgressed, and was cast far away, as one no longer capable of being governed by incorruption, nor even having room for it. And the first proclamation sent to him after the transgression was that through Noah; so that if he would pay heed, he might be able even by this to be saved from the power of sin, bringing tidings of rest from evils and of gladness, if they would exercise it with strength. Just as the vine promises to produce wine for those who tend it and work it. B But not even this ordinance reigned over humanity, because they did not permit themselves to be persuaded by it, though it was preached earnestly by Noah. And even after they were already being held fast and suffocated by the waters, they began to repent and to promise to provide themselves compliant to the commandments. Whence also they "disdained to be governed" (52), that is, they disdained to be helped by the commandment of the proclamation, while the Spirit answered them and reproached them, just as they had abandoned what God had commanded to men: "O stubborn ones, to help and to save these and to gladden them, as Noah and those with him, did I come to help, yet to you who are fruitless in understanding and in no way different from dry wood, who earlier did not believe me when I preached the flight from present things?" And indeed, these having thus been deemed unworthy of divine providence, and humanity having again been poured out into error, God again sent a law to reign and to remind of justice under Moses. But they, having bidden even this a long farewell, turned to idolatry. Whence God
CHAPTER IV. The law useless for salvation. The final law of chastity under the species of the bramble.
C to these also... D (52) They disdain to be governed. They are rejected with contempt so that they might not be ruled by the kingdom, and that they might not reap the fruit from the preaching; which, having long ago spurned it while Noah was building the ark, they promised they would embrace with late repentance when now pressed by the waters of the flood. This is certainly the mind of Methodius, which what follows further clarifies, the reproach of the Holy Spirit, common to that which is held in Prov. 1: "Because I have called, and you refused," etc., "I also will laugh at your destruction." These threats also await those who do not desire to be helped by the law of grace while it is permitted. Wherefore it is not well by Allatius, who renders the term actively, "they crave the kingdom over themselves," etc.; rather, they are certainly rejected and despised, and deemed unworthy to be governed by that kingdom. Not well also by Possinus, who interprets what is said about Noah as spurned: "They are nevertheless rejected and despised, and not deemed worthy to be governed by that kingdom," that is, they were not deemed worthy to be helped by the law promulgated to them: while the Spirit answered them and reproached them, because they had neglected the warnings of those who had come to them by God's command and mission; and saying: "Those indeed, O stubborn ones, whom you rejected and mocked while they were persuading you of what was salutary—Noah, that is, and his sons—I will save in this crisis and console, coming to their aid; but you, evil trees, commended by no fruit of prudence, and differing in nothing from dry wood, I will suffer to perish, as you have begun and as you are worthy, since you were unwilling to believe me when I was previously preaching the flight from present evils." Combefis.A God handed over these also to mutual slaughter, flights, and captivities—the law itself, as it were, sensing and confessing that it could not provide them salvation. For indeed, worn down and afflicted by evils, and with mournful gesture and lamentation, they promised again that they would obey the commandments; until God, having for the fourth time felt compassion for man, sent Chastity to rule the kingdom, which Scripture subsequently named the *rhamnus*. This, having severely and rigidly consumed pleasures, threatens also that unless everyone obeys it without doubt and approaches it in truth, it will consume all by fire. For after this, there was to be no other law or doctrine, but judgment and fire. And for this reason, man began from then on to act righteously, to believe firmly in God, and to separate himself from the devil. Thus, a most useful and helpful aid was sent down to men, namely, Chastity. For it is the only thing whose imitation the devil could not manage to fashion with evil artifice for the sake of deception, as he had happened to do in the case of the other laws.
Cap. V. The devil's emulation of all goodness. Two kinds of figs and vines.
For since the fig, as I was saying, because of the sweetness of its fruit and its beauty, is assumed as a type of the delights of Paradise, the devil took as prey the man who had been seduced by things emulating it, while he persuaded him to cover the nakedness of his body with the leaves of the plant: bringing this about, indeed, so that the soft yet scratchy leaves of the fig might be for the stirring up of lust. B Those again who had been saved from the flood, he mocked once more by making them drunk with a drink not unlike the vine of spiritual joy, stripping man of his garment of virtue. And what I am saying will be clearer from this. C The opposing power always imitates the forms of virtue and justice, not for the sake of practicing them in truth, but for the sake of deception and hypocrisy. For in order to lure toward death those who are fleeing from death, it adorns itself outwardly with the colors of immortality. And hence it is that it wishes to be thought a fig and a vine, and to beget sweetness and joy, transforming itself into an angel of light, and ensnaring many under the guise of piety.
For we find two differences of figs and vines in the Sacred Scriptures. D Good figs, very good figs; and bitter figs, very bitter figs. Bread that gladdens the heart of man, and wine that is the fury of dragons and the incurable fury of asps. But from the time that Chastity began its rule over men, the deception was detected and defeated, as Christ, the Prince of virgins, overturned it. And thus, the true fig and the true vine bear fruit, after Chastity has prevailed over all, just as the prophet Joel also announces in prophetic tones, saying: "Be confident, O earth; rejoice and be glad, because the Lord has magnified what He does. Be confident, O beasts of the field, because the fields of the wilderness have sprouted, because the tree has brought forth its fruit; the vine and the fig tree have given their strength." And, "Ye sons of Sion, rejoice and be glad..."
in the Lord your God, for He has given you food unto righteousness." He calls the vine and the fig tree, which have sprouted forth fruit A unto righteousness for the children of the spiritual Sion, the former laws; which, after the Word was made man, brought forth fruit, having attained dominion over us in chastity, whereas before, they had collapsed and withered in their shoots due to sin and great error. For the true vine and the true fig tree could not provide for us food conducive to life while the fig tree that was not true, but adorned for deception, was still flourishing. But when the Lord dried up the false shoots and the counterfeits of the true, pronouncing judgment upon the bitter fig tree, "Let no fruit henceforth grow from thee for ever," then the trees that were truly fruit-bearing flourished, and brought forth food unto righteousness. B There are also times when the vine is referred to the Lord Himself in many ways, but the fig tree to the Holy Spirit; as indeed the Lord gladdens the hearts of men, and the Spirit heals them. And for this reason, Ezechias is commanded first to be treated with a cake of figs, which is the fruit of the Spirit, so that he might be healed, as it were, through love, according to the Apostle. For the fruit of the Spirit, he says, is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, C faith, meekness, temperance; which, on account of their great sweetness, the prophet called figs. And Michæas also says, "And every one shall rest under his vine, and every one under his fig tree, and there shall be none to make them afraid." For it is clear that those who have taken refuge and rest under the protection of the Spirit and the Word will not fear, nor be terrified by him who disturbs the hearts.
Chapter VI. The mystery of the vision of Zechariah.
Moreover, that the olive likewise signifies the law of Moses, Zacharias demonstrates, saying thus: "And the angel who spoke within me returned and awakened me, as a man is awakened from his sleep, and said to me: What seest thou? And I said: I have seen, and behold a golden lampstand, all of it, and a lamp upon it, and two olive trees, one on the right of its lamp, and one on the left." D And after a few words, to the prophet asking what the two olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on the left are, and what the two branches of the olive trees are which are in the hands of the two burners, the angel answered and said: "These are the two sons of fatness, which stand by the Lord of the whole earth," meaning thereby the two primordial powers that stand before God, which in the house regarding the spiritual line through the branches of the olive,
provide the spiritual oil of God, so that it may have the light of divine knowledge. For the two branches of the two olive trees are the Law and the prophets, who were called for the line of inheritance, which Christ and the Holy Spirit caused to sprout, when we were not yet able to contain the whole fruit and the magnitude of these plants, before the world began and chastity began to reign. But we cultivated beforehand only their branches, that is, the Law and the prophecy, and even these only moderately, having often slipped. For who was ever able to contain Christ or the perfect Spirit, without having first become pure? For the exercise B which works in the soul from childhood a desire for the glorious and the lovable, and which carries this, this world, over to Him without trial, and gathers great hopes from small labors, is this very chastity of which we speak, bestowing immortality upon our bodies: which all men ought gladly to prefer to all things and to praise; some, because through it they were brought as a bride to the Word by practicing virginity; C others, because through it they were freed from the condemnation, "You are earth, and to earth you shall return" (Gen. III, 19).
This, O Arete, is the discourse concerning chastity that you have required from me, according to the meager extent of my powers; which I beg, O mistress, although it be mediocre and slight, you may nonetheless receive from me with a kind mind, since you have assigned to me the final place of speaking.
ORATION XI
ARETE CAP. 1. True virgins and the chaste are few. Chastity, a struggle. Thecla, the prince of virgins.I accept, truly (Theopatra related that Arete answered), and I approve and praise it entirely. For you have done excellently, even if not so clearly, yet with the strength of your intellect and diligent effort you have taken up and pursued the things that were said, not framing empty D delight to tickle the ears, but for the sake of Correction.
but as a brilliant monument to the amendment of morals and to sobriety. For whoever teaches that chastity is to be preferred to my other studies and duties, and that it is to be embraced above all others, advises rightly; yet many think that they honor and observe it, but few, to speak truly, do so in deed. For it is not the case that whenever a man strives to keep his own flesh untainted by the pleasure of carnal intercourse, while not mastering his other affections, he is truly observing chastity. On the contrary, he drags it into ignominy when, while having made the profession, he nonetheless indulges in sordid desires, exchanging one pleasure and lust for another. A Nor, even if one should stoutly resist the desires of the senses, yet be carried away by vainglory and pride, can he be rightly considered to honor chastity merely by the fact that he is able to curb the heat of lust boiling up within him while making nothing of all others—as he is simply defiling it, rather, by the contagion of pride; specifically, cleansing the outside of the cup and the dish, namely the flesh and the body, while the heart within is ravaged by conceit and a lust for power. Nor is he honoring chastity who vanity-struts because of money, preferring small profit to it, when nothing in life is worth B as much as what is held in such esteem; for all wealth and gold in its sight are but a little sand. Nor does he who is found to love himself excessively, and who zealously busies himself with caring only for what benefits himself—careless of his neighbor—honor chastity; for this man also disparages it, falling far short of those who treat it according to its worth, having wounded its love and its humanity. For one ought not to be chaste and a virgin in one respect, while being defiled and dissolute in another; nor should one profess to be pure and temperate, while in other things being defiled and sinning; C nor, again, profess to have no care for worldly things, while being deeply engaged in acquiring them and being involved in them. But all members must be guarded from all corruption and admixture, not only those that are prurient and involve intercourse, but also those that are more effective for these very acts. For it is ridiculous to keep the instruments of procreation intact and unstained, but not the tongue; or to keep the tongue pure, but not the eye, or the ear, or the hands; or, finally, to have those kept intact, but not the soul—allowing that to follow pride and anger. D
A For it is absolutely necessary that he who intends not to sin in the exercise of chastity should keep all his members and his senses pure and restrained, even as is the custom with the planks of ships, the joints of which shipmasters carefully fasten and tighten, so that there may be no way or entrance left for sin to slip in. For great failings necessarily attend upon great undertakings; and evil is more opposed to the good than to that which is not good. Many, therefore, believing that chastity consists only in curbing the headlong, lustful impulses and desires, and neglecting the rest of their course of life, have fallen even from this; and they have cast a part of their own disgrace upon those who strive to attain it by the right path, as you, who are a rule in all things, demonstrate—for you have fulfilled chastity both in deed and in word, and have brought forth its glories. We have indeed described what a virgin ought to be. But you, having celebrated the contest with greatness of speech, I pronounce all of you victors, and I grant you the crown; yet I grant to Thecla a greater and more flourishing one, as she who is the leader among you and has shone forth more magnificently than all B the rest.
Cap. II. Thecla singing the hymn in an orderly manner, the other virgins sing in response to her. John the Baptist, martyr of chastity. The Church, the bride of God, untouched, a virgin.
Theopatra said that Arete, having spoken thus, ordered all to rise, and standing under the Lamb, and having formed a circle, to render thanks and praises to the Lord with due veneration. She ordered Thecla to begin and to lead the choir. As soon as they had risen, she said that Thecla, the virgin, standing in the middle at the right hand of Arete, began to sing C in an orderly manner; and that the others, standing in a circle, as if in the formation of a choir, sang in response and answered her.
Hypacoe. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Psalm. From heaven, O virgins, a sound of a cry that awakes the dead has come, commanding all at once to go to meet the Bridegroom in white robes and with lamps, towards the east. Awaken, before the King arrives to enter within the gates.
I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Having cast off the overly sorrowful happiness of mortals, and having spurned the delights and love of a luxurious life, I desire to be sheltered under your saving arms, and to behold your beauty D always, O Blessed One.
I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Having left behind the mortal nuptial beds and the house, O King, for your sake, I have come in unstained garments, full of gold, so that I too may be admitted within the most blessed bridal chambers together with you.
I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Having escaped the ten thousand guiles of the B fawning dragon, O Blessed One, and having overcome the flame of fire and the man-slaying assaults of wild beasts born for the destruction of mortals, I await you from the heavens. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
I forgot my fatherland, desiring your grace, O Word; I forgot the choirs of the virgins of my age, and the pride of mother and kin; for you yourself are everything to me; you, O Christ, are that to me. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
You are the Bestower of life, O Christ. Hail, o unsetting light; accept this cry. A chorus of virgins calls upon you, perfect Flower, Charity, Joy, Prudence, Wisdom, O Word. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
With doors opened, O Queen most beautifully adorned, admit us also within the bridal chambers, you of undefiled body, O bride most excellently victorious, breathing beauty; in similar attire of vestments we stand before Christ, celebrating your nuptials, O fortunate youth, with a song. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
The maidens stand outside the gates now, groaning heavily and wailing bitterly, and they cry out mournfully, because, having extinguished the light of their lamps, they did not reach the treasure-chamber of joy in time. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
For, having turned away from the sacred path, the wretched ones neglected to procure oil for the ways of life; but bearing lamps of flaming fire extinguished, they groan within from their minds and hearts. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Cups full of sweet nectar are set before us; let us drink; for it is a heavenly drink, O virgins, which the Bridegroom offers to those who have been worthily invited to the wedding. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Splendidly prefiguring your death, D Abel, O Blessed One, said, dripping with blood, while gazing into heaven: "Cruelly smitten by a brother's hand, I pray, O Word, receive me." I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Your courageous boy, O Word, Joseph, carried off the greatest prize of chastity. For when a woman, inflamed with lust, was dragging him violently into lawless beds, he, fearing nothing, fled away naked, crying out: I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
A Jephthah offered his daughter as a new sacrifice to God, not having known a man, brought to the altar like a lamb; but she, with a noble purpose of mind, bearing the figure of your flesh, O Blessed One, bravely cried out: I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Judith, with a noble endeavor, having cut off the head of the foreign leader of the crowds by ingenious ruses, after having first enticed him with the form of her beauty, without receiving any stain upon the members of her body, exulting for the victory, cried out: I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
When Susanna was seen for the comely appearance and form of her face, two judges, captured by unbridled love for her, said: "O woman, we have come desiring the secret beds of your marriage." But she began to cry out with trembling voice: I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
"It is much better for me to die than by betraying the marriage bed to you, who burn with shameful lust, to be handed over to the everlasting punishment of God's fires. Save me, O Christ, from the straits of these evils." I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Your Forerunner, washing multitudes of mortals with lustral streams, was lawlessly led to slaughter by a wicked man on account of his chastity; and sprinkling the earth with his murderous blood, he cried out to you, O Blessed One: I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Your Mother of Life, also, Grace untouched and unblemished, carrying your immaculate conception in a womb that knew no man, came under the suspicion of betraying the marriage bed: but she who was pregnant said, O Blessed One: I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Wishing to see your nuptial day, O Blessed One, as many as you yourself, the King of angels, have called from on high, have come, offering, O Word, most great gifts to you, rendered conspicuous by their immaculate clothing. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
With hymns, O blessed Spouse of God, adorning the bridal chamber, we now celebrate you, O untouched Virgin, O Church, white of body, fair with dark tresses, chaste, irreproachable, lovely. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Corruption has fled, and the tearful pains of diseases; death has been taken away; all madness has perished; grief, the wasting of the mind, has died; but the joy of Christ God has suddenly shone upon mortals again. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
The paradise of mortals is widowed. For no longer
does man inhabit it by the command of God, as before: having been cast out from the various snares of the dragon, being immune from corruption and fear, O Blessed One. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
Now the chorus of virgins leads you toward the heavens, singing a new song, O entirely manifest Queen, crowned with the white follicles of lilies, and carrying in your hands flames that glow with the brightness of light. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
O You who dwell in the immaculate seats of heaven, O Blessed One, without beginning, holding all things with eternal power, receive us also, Father, together with Your Son; for we are present, within the gates of life. I keep myself chaste for you, and holding a light-bearing lamp, O Bridegroom, I go to meet you.
CAP. III. Who are better: the continent, or those who rejoice in the very tranquility of mind? The danger of the struggle of chastity: the happiness of tranquility. Purified and tranquil minds, O gods, are to see God. Virtue exercised by temptations is more approved.
EUBULUS. Deservedly did Thecla carry off the first prizes, O Gregory. GREGORY. Plainly deservedly. EUBULUS. But tell me, what of the Telmisiacan stranger; did she at least place her ear at the door outside, so as to snatch something? For it is a wonder if she could rest after the fame of this banquet was heard, and not fly immediately like a bird to food, to hear the discourses that were being held. For they say she was present with Methodius, asking these very things from Arete. But it is good and blessed to use such a teacher and guide, namely, Arete, that is, Virtue. But, O Gregory, which should we call better: those who do not desire, but master desire, or those who desire, yet persevere in virginity?
GREGORY. The former, clearly; since they possess both their mind and sense unsullied, and are entirely incorrupt, having committed no fault in any way. EUBULUS. Well said, I swear by Chastity, O Gregory, and wisely. But do not object, if I take up the arguments, so that I may learn more robustly, and no one may refute me further.
A
GREGORY. Well, as you please; for as far as I am concerned, O Eubulius, I believe I have enough to teach you that he who does not covet is superior to him who does covet, and no one shall refute you.
EUBULUS. Papa! I rejoice that you answer me with such magnificence, and show how much you abound in wisdom.
GREGORY. You seem, O Eubulius, to be a bit of a mocker.
EUBULUS. For what reason?
GREGORY. Because you say these things more to scoff at me than to speak the truth.
EUBULUS. Speak auspiciously, O blessed one; for I admire your prudence and the force of your exquisite wisdom B greatly. I said this because you claim not only to know things about which many wise men often dispute among themselves, but you even boast that you can teach them to another.
GREGORY. Tell me, I pray you, in all truth, are you annoyed if those who do not covet differ at all from those who covet but restrain themselves? Or are you simply mocking me with this?
EUBULUS. What reason would I have to speak so as to pretend I do not know? But come, speak now, O wisest one: in what do they differ, those who are chaste and do not covet, more than those who struggle against covetousness and keep their virginity?
GREGORY. First, in this: that they possess their very soul pure, and the Holy Spirit always dwells within it, C and it is not dragged about or clouded by the phantasms and reasonings of incontinence, so that it might ever be forgotten in meditation; but they are entirely immune, both in flesh and in heart, from covetousness, leading a life of calm in their passions. But those who are lured from without by the sights of the senses, and receive the incoming covetousness into their heart like a stream, are none the less defiled often, and they think they are struggling and fighting against pleasures, though they are defeated in their mind.
EUBULUS. Therefore, shall we call those pure who enjoy calm, and are not disturbed by covetousness?
GREGORY. Indeed. For God, who makes such men gods through the beatitudes, declares that those who believe in Him without doubt D shall see God with boldness: because there is nothing that darkens or disturbs the eye of the mind.
They, having cast aside all worldly desires, keep the flesh pure, as I said, not only from the disgrace of licentious intercourse, but they earnestly strive so that the inner sanctuary of the heart (in which, most of all, as in a temple, the Holy Spirit rests and dwells) may be open to no obscene thoughts. A
EUBULUS. Stop a moment. For I think it is more correct for us to proceed further in our investigation of what is truly better. Tell me, I pray, do you call anyone a good pilot?
GREGORY. I certainly do.
EUBULUS. Is it the one who has saved his ship in great and impossible storms, or the one who has done so in a calm of stillness? B
GREGORY. The one in great and impossible storms.
EUBULUS. Therefore, shall we not say that a soul that is tossed about by the tempests of the passions, and does not grow weary or give way, but bravely steers the ship—that is, the flesh—to the harbor of self-control, is better and more proven than one that sails in a calm sea?
GREGORY. We shall say so.
EUBULUS. For to resist the gusts of the winds of the evil spirit, and not to be cast away or conquered, but always looking up to Christ, to fight strenuously against pleasures, brings greater praise than that of one who spends their virginity easily and without a storm. C
GREGORY. It seems so.
EUBULUS. And what of the Lord? Does He not seem to show that he who is tossed by the sting of concupiscence and yet maintains self-control is far superior to one who, secure from this conflict and having a quiet or non-existent concupiscence, shines in virginity?
GREGORY. Where, indeed, does the Lord say this?
EUBULUS. Where surely He compares the wise man to a house well-founded and declares that it is of an unshakable firmness, such that the rain and the rivers and the force of the winds could not cast it down. D For He seems to intend by the storms, winds, and rains, the agitation of concupiscence; and by the rock, the immovable stability of soul and the unshaken tenor concerning purity.
GREGORY. You seem to speak the truth.
EUBULUS. What of a physician? Do you not call him the best and consider him such who has already been tested in great diseases and has healed many?
GREGORY. Indeed.
EUBULUS. But is not he who has not yet given any proof of his skill, and has not at all had sick persons in his hands, altogether less commendable?
GREG. Indeed.
EUBUL. Therefore, must we not say that the soul which supports a softer body, and which soothes and calms its diseases concerning pleasures with the medicines of temperance, is more worthy of the praise of medical skill than one who has been allotted a body that is healthy and not subject to vices? A
GREG. It must be admitted.
EUBUL. What, then, of the wrestling match? Which combatant is better: the one who encounters large and strong rivals, and who wrestles constantly without ever falling, or the one who has no opponents?
GREG. Clearly the one who encounters them.
EUBUL. And in the wrestling school is that athlete not considered more commendable who sustains the opposing adversaries?
GREG. It must be said so.
EUBUL. It is therefore absolutely necessary B that a soul, which exerts itself against the assaults of desire—not being dragged down, but pulling back and resisting—should appear stronger than one which does not experience desire at all.
GREG. You say the truth.
EUBUL. Tell me, then, O Gregory: does the state of resisting firmly the impulses of evil desires seem to you to belong more to the praise of fortitude?
GREG. Certainly.
EUBUL. And is this fortitude a power of virtue?
GREG. It is clear.
EUBUL. If, then, patience is a power of virtue, does not the soul that is troubled and yet perseveres against desires appear stronger than one that is not troubled? C
GREG. Indeed.
EUBUL. And if it is stronger, it is also better.
GREG. Indeed.
EUBUL. By what we have previously admitted, therefore, the one who possesses continence amidst the heat of desire is better and more excellent than the one who, struck by no desire, serves in the camps of chastity in security.
GREG. You speak pure truth. But I desire to confer with you more fully on these matters another time. If, therefore, it is not burdensome to you, I shall come tomorrow D to hear more of these things. For now, as you see, it is time for us to turn our care also to the outer man.
NOTES OF LEO ALLATIUS ON THE SYMPOSIUM OF THE TEN VIRGINS BY S. METHODIUS
Col. 27. B. *Gregorium et Eubulium.* These are diminutive names for Gregoria and Eubule, fashioned with much grace, just as we use them when we seek to win the goodwill of those with whom we converse. This was the custom of the ancients, both Greeks and Latins, among whom we read of Glycerium, Philænium, Erotium, Adelphasium, Philocomasium, Philomatium, and the like. Eubulius is Methodius A himself, the author of the Symposium; Gregoria is she who was present at the symposium, and she narrates to Methodius what she had seen and heard when she desired to know those things.
Col. 32. B. *difficilem viam* (a difficult way). He refers to these lines of Hesiod in the *Works*: The gods have placed sweat before virtue, The immortals; and long and steep is the path to it, And rough at the first; but when one has reached the summit, Then it is easy, however difficult it may have been.
Ibid. *Ingens et decora facie* (huge and comely in appearance). Aristotle expressed the likeness and beauty of virtue quite elegantly in his hymn to Hermias, *Ἀρετὰ πολύμοχθε* (Virtue, much-toiled for). Our own more extensive Commentary on this truly golden hymn of Aristotle concerning virtue exists, though not yet published.
Ibid. *Nam verecundia in facie* (For modesty in the face). For not every beauty is praiseworthy, but that which modesty and gravity, and other masculine virtues, follow. And to sum it up in a word, just as there is one Venus that is common and another that is celestial, so too is there a form that is common and one that is celestial.
Ibid. C. *Licet inter eundum* (Although while going). You have the distinction between the paths to virtue and to sloth from Prodicus in Xenophon’s *Memorabilia*, book II, and from Xenophon in Philostratus’ *Life of Apollonius*, book VI, and from others; the *Tabula* of Cebes contributes much to these.
Col. 43. D. *Prius formam nostram multis peccatorum notis compunctam assumpsit* (He first assumed our form, punctured with many marks of sins). S. Jerome, explaining that passage of Paul to the Romans ch. VIII, *in the likeness of sinful flesh*, writes that it is so said because the flesh of Christ was prone to sin. Whatever others may say, the sounder view, by which Jerome, Methodius, and others are explained, is not that the Son of God assumed flesh liable to sins or prone to sin, but that He took that flesh—which was immune from all inclination to sin and in no way liable to sin—from the mass of flesh which was prone to sin and stained by original sin, and therefore destitute of original justice.
Col. 54. C. *Adjacentem montibus aditum e cœlo in corpora descensui* (The approach adjacent to the mountains for the descent from heaven into bodies). Gregory of Nyssa, in *On the Making of Man*, ch. 28, reports a twofold opinion of the ancients concerning the creation of souls. One is the opinion of Origen from his commentary *On First Principles*, who asserted that human souls, like some nation existing apart from some republic, were created long before bodies, and that, having been turned to vices, they then slipped into this life and were thrust into bodies. He reports another opinion of those saying that the soul is posterior to the birth of the bodies, since Moses records that God first fashioned man from dust taken from the earth, and then breathed a soul into him through inspiration. Neither of these opinions, however, lacks fault, since the former bears the appearance of Greek fables, and the latter wavers with various difficulties. Read the following chapter B of the same author, in which he proves at length that the principle of existence is the same for the soul and the body, although what is brought forward to insinuate this is not equally approved by everyone, a matter on which there is clearly not one opinion held by all. Hilary, expounding those words of Psalm CXXIX, *Let thine ears be attentive*, says: "He first established that soul by that divine and incomprehensible work of His power. For when He made man to the image of God, He did not then also make the body." Nor does Augustine intend otherwise in *De Genesi ad litteram*, book VII, ch. 24: "To the human opinion, it seems more tolerable to me that God, in those first works when He created all things at once, also created the soul of man, rather than that He fashioned the body from the slime and then breathed the soul into the limbs." Rufinus attributes this same opinion to Jerome, citing his words from his *Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians*. Philastrius, in ch. 99, clearly condemns the heretics who deny that souls were created before bodies. And Nyssen adds that not only Adam’s soul, but the souls of all were created at the same time as the body of Adam; and he maintains that this is proved by the authority of the Sacred Scriptures. C And Methodius seems to embrace this opinion in his *Symposium*, oration VI, ch. 1, when Agatha says: "For souls are then most perfectly perfected by Him who begat and fashioned them, when they shine forth in an uncorrupted image according to likeness, and when they have worked out those features of that appearance, looking toward which God fashioned them as an immortal and indestructible form, and such they remain," etc. This, Peter, Bishop of Paris, in his *Sentences*, book II, distinction 17, and others, think can be defended without the danger of heresy, provided it is not thought that souls sinned before they were cast into bodies, and were thrust into bodies as into a prison because of their sins. However, the authority of Leo I contradicts this, writing in his letter to the bishop of Astorga: "The Catholic faith constantly and truly declares that the souls of men did not exist before they were breathed into their bodies." But St. Thomas, in Part I, quest. 90, judges that the aforementioned opinions concerning the creation of souls before bodies can be reconciled with Catholics if we say that the souls of men preceded their bodies not in act, but according to a certain similarity of genus, by which souls agree with angels in intellectual nature. Augustine was not always of the same opinion. For in book I of *De Genesi ad litteram*, ch. 10, he taught that the body of man was not fashioned before the creation of the soul, but together with the soul itself, and at the same time; and most clearly in book I *Retractations*,
A chapter 10, Epiphanius and others, and most accurately Cyril in book I of his *Commentary on John*, refute Origen. Nevertheless, it must be asserted with St. Thomas and others simultaneously, that the soul is created with the body. For although God has desisted from the specific creation of all species, He has not desisted from the individual creation of souls, which are poured daily into human bodies. Anastasius Sinaita, in his oration *On the creation of man in His own image and likeness*, expressed similar sentiments concerning the procreation of souls, briefly and distinctly. See also Nemesius the bishop, in his *On the nature of man*, chapters 2 and 3, who recounts many of the ancients' opinions on the soul and robustly refutes them. B Furthermore, that Methodius does not follow Origen, even though he posits the descent and mission of souls from heaven, anyone who compares the words of both shall admit. Origen places them created before bodies in heaven, and of their own jurisdiction for good and for evil; if they have followed good and virtue, they are not to be coupled to bodies; but if they have turned to vices, they are cast into bodies. Whoever rejects and refutes such things will be said absurdly to follow Origen. Yet Methodius does this. But why do I endeavor to recount more things here? Let it be enough to transcribe those things which a certain learned man most learnedly noted in the margin of the codex from which I drew these things for Methodius: «Do not think that, in accordance with the heretics who speak of pre-existence, he asserts the descent and transmission of souls from the heavens. For clearly this man fights against such a doctrine, as you have known in the discourse before this one; but also in that *On the resurrection*. But either some interpolators have forged this passage, just as many have been convicted by the saints of having corrupted the divine Scriptures; or understand him to have said the descent from the heavens because the soul is heavenly in nature, that is, in its essence; and for this reason it is called a partaker of the powers above. For these are, C as they are also incorporeal, immortal, and invisible. Whence man is called by the Master a heavenly and earthly animal, and a little world; for through him God fashioned one harmony and communion of the visible and invisible creation. And most of all does Gregory Nazianzen declare these things in his own discourse, and more particularly in those discourses which he held at Easter and at the Lights. Furthermore, the objective of the speaker is shown from this, that he does not think such things. For those men say that souls are sent from the heavens as if for condemnation, [whereas] this man speaks of the very constitution itself of man and the beginning of generation from the casting of the seed into the womb. And observe how, two pages before, he says that the bone from bones and flesh from flesh, formed by the invisible power taken by the same master craftsman, is fashioned. For what else is man than both [taken] from soul and body? For this whole is man, as Dionysius the Areopagite writes in chapter 7 of the *Ecclesiastical Hierarchy*, and Gregory Nazianzen in his letter to Cledonius. Nature itself also teaches this, that man is called soul and body simultaneously. D For when divided, the one is called soul, the other body. The Lord also clearly showed this in the Gospels, when He said: *Fear not those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul*; so that the one is soul, the other body, and both together are man. And for this reason He said: *But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.* And he himself says in the book which was written before this one [in] chapter 3. Therefore, let no one think that the Master has said the things said here according to that [doctrine] of pre-existence; but as we have said, so must the passage be understood. If we do not understand it so, he is found to be contradicting himself; which is foolish to say: for no one ever fights against his own [words].» Do not suspect this author as if [he were] the heretics asserting the pre-existence of souls, their descent from heaven, and their misery. A For he openly combats such a sentiment here, as you have clearly seen in the previous book, and indeed even in the one which the same man published, *On the resurrection*. But either forgers have erased this passage, just as many have been detected by the saints to have depraved the divine Scriptures: or understand him to have said "descent from heaven" because the mind is heavenly in nature or substance; and for that reason it is said to be a consort of the higher virtues. For these, indeed, as they are, are incorporeal, immortal, invisible. Whence also man is called by the Master a heavenly and earthly animal, and a little world. For through him God has wrought one harmony and communion of the visible and invisible creature. And above all others, Gregory Nazianzen declares these things in his oration, and especially in those which he held at Pascha and at the Lights. By another reason also it is shown that the purpose of the writer is not to prove these things. For they deliver that souls are sent from heaven as if unto condemnation, namely, the body; B but here he pronounces that man's very constitution and the principle of generation [comes] from the circulation of seed into the womb. And observe how, two pages before, that [verse], *bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh*, is molded, fashioned by the same craftsman, assumed by an invisible faculty. For what else is man than both from soul and body? For this whole is man, as Dionysius the Areopagite writes in chapter 7 of the *Ecclesiastical Hierarchy*, and Gregory Nazianzen in his letter to Cledonius. Moreover, nature itself teaches this, that man is called body and soul simultaneously. For if it be divided, this indeed is called soul, that body. Which clearly the Lord also shows in the Gospels, when He says: *Fear not those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.* Wherefore this is truly the soul, that the body, and both together man. And therefore He said: *But rather fear Him who can kill[sic] soul and body in hell.* He says the same in the book which was written before this, ch. 5. Wherefore let no one suspect that this Master has arranged the words in this place so as to prove the pre-existence of souls, C but as we have explained, so the passage is to be taken. But if it is not so understood, the same man will be found to speak things contrary to himself; which it is foolish to say: for no one ever opposes his own [words]. But whether the soul is caused from seed, and how it is united to the body, see in St. Thomas, part I, question 118. Ibid. For it indeed fashions man in secret, providing the induments of the soul. Methodius seems to speak according to the opinion of Plato in the *Cratylus* and *Gorgias*. For Plato indeed said that bodies serve souls in the place of sepulchers, and are called *sōma* as if [it were] *sēma*. For some say that it is a sign of the soul as [of something] buried in the present here; and because it signifies in this whatever the soul may signify, and in this way it is rightly called. D Yet they seem to me to have proposed this name best who are about Orpheus, as if the soul were paying a penalty, for which reasons it gives [it]. And that it has this enclosure, so that it may be saved, the image of a prison. This therefore is the soul itself, just as it is named, until the body shall have paid what is owed. For some say that the body is the *sēma* of the soul, just as if for this time the soul were buried in the body; or it is rightly *sēma*, since the soul uses the ministry of the body for those things which it has sealed to be signified and explained. Although to me indeed it seems most correct that Orpheus and the students of this vocabulary himself have noted the origin, namely, that the soul is signified to be paying penalties, and indeed to be explained for what cause it pays those penalties. Therefore, that the soul carries about the body as a fortress and enclosure, of a prison namely an image, so that it might be saved and preserved, and therefore that the body itself is the soul's, which it bears before itself as a name, until it [renders] what it owes...
And in the *Gorgias*: We in truth may have died; which indeed I have heard before from the wise, that even now we are dead, and that the body is a tomb. And we truly die. For I have heard from the wise that we are dying now, and that our body is a *sēma*, a sepulcher. From which Origen took his own thought, who also called the body a prison of the soul, in which, once enclosed, it might pay the penalties of deeds done ill in heaven: and in books five and seven against Celsus, he often calls it a tabernacle and a garment. Yet the words of Methodius must be taken in a broad sense. For since the soul itself is not seen, but its actions are expressed through the body, it seems to be covered by the body as by an envelope: and below he calls it *sarkinon tēs psychēs chitōna*, the fleshy tunic of the soul, the body; and in oration 3, § 7, [he calls] man the garment of Christ. In which way also the apostle Paul is to be understood in II Corinthians, chap. 1, who called the *oikian skēnous*, the house of the tabernacle, the body, an external man, pointing to a difference from the inner [man]; and in order to explain the exit of the soul from this body, and the acquisition of incorruptibility, he used the words "to be unclothed" and "to be clothed upon."
A Hence also [it is committed] to the guardian angels. Note that as soon as men are born, they are committed to the guardianship of angels.
Ibid. B For he is immortal, and that which does not grow old. His error is refuted by those who assert that when souls are begotten, no new substance, neither one other than that which is, is imported, but that which is, is multiplied by providence. Hence Eunomius understood that saying, "My Father worketh," not of creation, but of Providence. Hence Apollinarius thought that souls were begotten from souls, as bodies from bodies. For he thought that as the propagation of bodies proceeds, [so] the soul [proceeds] through the propagation of the first man into all who are generated from him: for neither were souls set aside and created, nor are they now being begotten. For those who say this make God a participant in the work of adulterers, so that boys may be born from them; and [this is] refuted by the falsehood that God ceased from all his works which he began to do, whereas he now also makes souls. Nemesius refutes this error in *De natura hominis*, cap. 2, and notes the difference between Providence and creation: "For it is the work of Providence to preserve the essence of corruptible animals through mutual generation; that is, of those not born from putrefaction; since another corruption preserves the succession of these; but the most excellent work of creation is to make something from nothing." For it is the work of Providence, through the birth of one from another, to preserve the substance of perishable animals: I speak of those which are not born from putrefaction. For another putrefaction in turn preserves the propagation of these. But the most excellent office of creation is to produce something from nothing. As to what was said about those born from putrefaction, do not think it was said so that Nemesius might subtract them from Providence, but only to note the work of Providence concerning those things which need an external agent for their generation. And that the soul is produced by God in disposed matter through the action of an agent, is insinuated by St. Thomas, part 1, quest. 118, art. 1, ad 3.
C For indeed when his character. Note concerning the character and depth of Paul’s sentiments.
Col. 79. A. "It is good for them if they remain even as I." From these words of Paul arises a very difficult question: whether St. Paul was celibate, or had taken a wife? Ignatius the martyr, in his epistle to the Philadelphians (2), records that he took a wife, when he enumerates him among the married apostles: "For I pray that I may be found worthy, at their footsteps in the kingdom, as Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, as Joseph, and Paul and the other apostles who were given to marriage." For I pray that I may be found worthy in the kingdom of heaven to have a place given to me at their feet, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, as Joseph, Isaiah and the other prophets: as Peter and Paul, and the other apostles who applied themselves to nuptials. Ignatius, contemporary with the apostles, most conjunct through association, illustrious in sanctity, a lover of truth, whose praise among the most holy and most excellent men is greatest, could search out similar things, as they were, and know even in doubtful matters from those same apostles. In a similar argument, when he prefers virgins to the married, he would not have placed the chief among the apostles, if they were not, in the number of the married. Therefore they were. Therefore Paul must be reckoned among the married. Clement of Alexandria, by a false interpretation of Paul’s epistle, makes Paul married. The words of Clement are recited by Eusebius, *Hist.* lib. 3, cap. 24, and Nicephorus Callistus lib. 2, cap. 44. Yet the celibacy of the man is most bitterly defended by Ambrose, Jerome, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Œcumenius and others; and they prove most constantly from the words of Paul himself: "Concerning the unmarried and widows it is good for them, if they so remain, even as I." They say that what was brought from Ignatius is corrupt, and that the name of Paul was added. In the margin of the Antwerp edition by Christopher Plantin, 1572, in 8º, it is annotated: that the name of Paul does not exist in the most ancient Anglican and other codices, and that the most learned men for the most part believe it to be the carelessness of the unlearned or an addition by copyists. Baronius, in the year of Christ 57, num. 58, concludes with many and excellent arguments both that the celibacy of Paul and the name of Paul were added by the adversaries of the epistle. There is available a resolution of the question concerning St. Paul the apostle, whether he was married or not, by the author Kilian Leib, prior of Rebdorf, in the year 1645, in-4°, not unlearned. Others also among the Catholics have treated this argument excellently, to whom our Methodius adds his own weight in this, his *Symposium*.
D And these promises after the resurrection. And he speaks even more clearly in oration 5, § 7: "But the Jews proclaimed [concerning] the shadow from the image, [which is] third from the truth; but we clearly glorify the image of the administration according to heaven. For the truth will be defined exactly after the resurrection, when we shall see face to face the holy tabernacle, the city in the heavens, whose maker and creator is God, but not through enigmas and in part. For the Jews indeed announced things ahead of us; but we proclaim the heavenly things; since the tabernacle was a symbol of the Church, but the Church [a symbol] of the heavens." And the Jews indeed announced the shadow from the image, from the truth namely third: but we, openly admiring the image of the celestial disposition, extol it with divine praises. For what is true will be manifested exactly after the resurrection, when we shall perceive face to face the holy tabernacle, the celestial city indeed, of which God is the maker and founder, not through a glass in an enigma, nor in part, but by sight itself. For the Jews predicted ours; we foretell the celestial; since the tabernacle was a type of the Church, the Church indeed of the heavens. Methodius writes that the tabernacle among the Hebrews was an image of the Church: so that through those things which were cast before the senses, they predicted the species of divine things, since the tabernacle was a species of divine administration. And these things indeed the Hebrews [held] in figures and types: but Christians more clearly [worship] in figures, but more obscurely in truth and in the thing itself what is pure and sincere [which] has not yet reached men, and [say] that they are not able to behold what is purely pure, except after the resurrection.
A He deduces from this three states of men: that of the Jews before Christ, who proclaimed the shadow instead of the truth; that of Christians, who praise and honor the image of the heavenly dispensation; and that of the blessed, who will behold God after the resurrection, not through a glass and in a dark saying and in part, but face to face. Wherefore he asserts that the vision of God is to be granted to the blessed after the resurrection. And thus the most excellent martyr seems to favor those who say that the beatific vision will be present after the judgment and the resurrection of bodies. For if the Jews denote the shadow of the truth, we honor the image before the resurrection, and we profess the heavenly truth, and the truth itself is to follow after the resurrection. Therefore, we shall attain the truth itself after the resurrection, which consists in the beatific vision, when we shall perceive it face to face, as he himself says, not through a glass in a dark saying, nor in part, but by the very sight. In this place, however, he determines that the promises of good things made to virgins and attendance with Christ in heaven, after they have won the conflict of incorruptible rewards, are to be brought to their outcome after the resurrection. And what will be the enjoyment of the blessed before the resurrection? What vision of God? What joy? What reward for good deeds? And meanwhile, in what place do those blessed souls lie hidden? With what confidence do they pray to God for us? By what hope do we pray to be aided by their intercessions at every hour? This is the delirium of trifling men, which we covered extensively elsewhere, as well as in the letter to Mr. Boineburg, having produced the testimonies of the Greeks to whom it is attributed. B Nevertheless, the words of the martyr, if examined correctly, sound otherwise. For since in the first two states he treats of man, not as he is merely a soul, but as he consists of soul and body; in the third state also, man must be understood in the same manner, namely, as a whole, fashioned from soul and body; and then he says what is true. For before the resurrection, although the soul of man may perfectly possess blessedness, yet man is not said to possess it, since a part of him, namely the dead and lying body, has not yet attained that which it will attain when rising and united to the soul, when truly then man will obtain it, consisting of soul and body. As he himself indicated most openly when he writes that then we shall perceive not in part, but by the very sight. Therefore, before the resurrection it is perceived in part, namely by man not whole, since the soul alone, separated from the body, enjoys it. Nor should it be said that he understood blessedness to be perceived in part, namely, imperfectly and not whole and entire. For nothing in God is imperfect and not whole: which cannot be said of man, since, destitute of his part, namely the body, he cannot be said to be whole or perfect. And although in his first statement he speaks only of souls, making no mention of the body, and says that those promises are to be paid after the resurrection; in that place he understands man to be composed of body and soul from the better and more potent part; and when he insinuates the conflicts and victories in this life, whose rewards are those promises; it is necessary according to the same, since those conflicts were not of souls alone but of bodies also, that those rewards be awarded to both the contestants and the victors, who are none other than souls and bodies: which will not happen except after the resurrection. This he also expressed more clearly below in oration VI, § 3, when, inculcating a discourse about those who keep their chastity, he speaks not only of souls, but of the whole man who struggles, and who is to be rewarded for his struggles: "For the five-lighted lamp of ours is truly the flesh, which the soul, carrying like a torch, stands by the bridegroom Christ on the day of the resurrection, revealing through all the senses the bright faith that shines through." C But if you contend that this is said only of souls, I shall contend that it is said no less in this place of the body and flesh without the soul, and more verisimilarly. Or will you deny entirely that it is spoken of the body alone, when after the resurrection body and soul will together most perfectly enjoy the vision? And I now deny that he is to be understood as being only about the souls, which most absolutely possess God: but that he speaks about the body and soul, which will enjoy beatitude only after the resurrection. Nor did Methodius think otherwise, unless we wish to say that he pronounced contradictory things in a few words. For here he openly declares that the blessed enjoy the blessed vision in oration IV, § 2: "For this is shown in the one hundred and thirty-sixth psalm, where the souls, as many as have been taken up and seized, roam already with Christ in heaven, send up a hymn of thanksgiving joyfully to God, because they were not dragged down by material and bodily fluxes." And quite openly he sang in the hundred and thirty-sixth psalm, in which for the sake of thanksgiving, the souls, which have been apprehended and detained and now roam heaven with Christ, because they have not been snatched away by material and bodily fluxes, transmit praise to God. In which the particles *dē* and *ēdē* are to be noted, which signify *sane*, *jam*, *certe*, *nunc*, *nempe*, and the like. Wherefore, since he says assertively that souls already established in hilarity sing a hymn to God, and that, having been taken and apprehended, they roam heaven with Christ, he determines plainly that they are now placed in beatitude, and enjoy the beatific vision. D No one who anxiously awaits is hilarious if he does not possess; rather, by that expectation and desire for the good which he hopes will be sometime in the future, he feels pain and pines away. And who gives thanks if he has not received a benefit, nor the reward of his labors? And what greater beatitude could be imagined than to be with Christ and to roam heaven with him? Paul asked for no other crown of his struggles, no other reward: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." And in the saying of Methodius, the souls already dissolved from the body and apprehended and detained, namely, in the security of their state which they will never lose, are with Christ, exulting in joy and praising God. And oration VIII, § 2: "Whence also the first of others after the recall and the departure from here, those who have rightly and faithfully lived in virginity for Christ, carry away the prizes of the struggles, having been crowned by him with the flowers of incorruptibility. For as soon as the souls have left the world, it is said that angels meet the virgins, and with much praise escort them into the afore-mentioned meadows, into which they even before longed to come, having imagined them from afar, at the time when, still dwelling in their bodies, they caught glimpses of divine things. There, therefore, having arrived, they see some wondrous, and shining, and blessed beauties, and such as it is difficult to express to men. For there is justice itself, and temperance itself, there love itself, and truth, and prudence, and the other flowers and plants of wisdom, shining in the same way, of which we here think, by imagining only phantom-like shadows, consist of human actions, because there is no clear image of them here, but only dim representations, which we ourselves, often portraying darkly, perceive." Hence also, before others after the vocation and the exit from this life, those who are righteous and faithful keepers of virginity for Christ, crowned with the flowers of incorruptibility from the same, bring back the rewards of victory. For as soon as the souls have left the world, it is said that angels meet the virgins, and, not without a great proclamation of praises, lead them into the aforesaid meadows,
A into which they previously longed to arrive, having embraced them in their imagination while they were yet living in their bodies and representing divine things to themselves. When therefore they have arrived there, they behold wondrous, splendid, and blessed beauties, such as it is exceedingly difficult for men to express in words. For there is existing in that place justice itself, and prudence itself, and love itself, and truth, and chastity, and all other things; likewise the most brilliant flowers and plants of wisdom: of which we, dreaming here only of shadows fashioned by imagination, think that they consist of human actions; because there is no clear image of them here, but only an obscure figure and species, which we also, manifesting them but dimly, understand. And we seek in Methodius for clearer things concerning the beatific vision of souls before the resurrection, after this life.
Col. 98 D. *For made according to the likeness of the Only-Begotten.* See a sufficiently ample exposition of this matter in Anastasius the Sinaite, in his oration *On the fact that man was made to the image and likeness of God.*
Col. 103 C. *For they who sail on the deep relate that they do not reach the same places with the same wind.* We have expressed this thus in our Greek Anachronism:
The sea knows not one breath, nor equal wind, The blast of varying winds stirs up the salt. But the Spirit was counter-blowing to some, auspicious to others, Need arises to run with the wind that is present; For by it the ship sailed through the opposing gale, By it another ship runs over the dark swell.
B The supersubstantial fountain is crowned with the beauty of the sons, who flowed forth from the center and flowed around the center. For the procession in the divine, as blessed Thomas says (part., q. 17, art. 4 ad 3), has no proper or special name except generation. Whence the procession that is not generation remained without a special name, but can be named "spiration," because it is the procession of the Spirit. And these things are indeed plain. That which seems to increase the difficulty is how the Spirit is "unigenitus" (only-begotten), since that pertains only to the Son. Basil in the *Antirrhetica*: "The Son is Only-Begotten because He alone is begotten from the Alone." Gregory the Theologian, oration 2, *On the Son*: "Only-Begotten, not because He is the only one from the Alone and solely, but because he is so in a singular way." Maximus in the *Colloquy against the Anomoeans*: "Since He is alone from the Alone." Gregory Thaumaturgus: "One God, Father of the Word, and one Lord, alone from the Alone." Damascenus, oration *On the Triad*: "The Son is alone begotten from the alone Father." Thus Gregory Nyssenus to Ablabius, having expressed the difference between cause and caused, and not from the caused to the caused, concludes: C "So that the 'only-begotten' remains beyond doubt as applied to the Son, and that the Spirit is from the Father is not to be doubted; the mediation of the Son keeping the 'only-begotten' for Himself, and not excluding the Spirit from a natural relation to the Father." Just as the Only-Begotten remains in the Son without any hesitation, and it is not in the least doubted that the Spirit is from the Father, the mediation of the Son both preserves the Only-Begotten for Himself and does not prevent the Spirit from a natural relation towards the Father. Anastasius the Sinaite has similar things, as do most other Greek Fathers. Chrysostom: "For when I say 'property,' understand the Father as Father, the Son as Son, and the Holy Spirit as Holy Spirit; for these properties are not interchangeable. For the Father cannot be the Son, or the Son the Father, or the Holy Spirit be the Father or the Son." And Theodore Raithenus: "These three do not differ from one another except only in the properties, and in that one is the Father, another the Son, and the other the Spirit." These three do not discord among themselves, except only by property, and in that this is the Father, this the Son, this the Holy Spirit. Notwithstanding these things, what the blessed Thomas taught later, Methodius expressed before, when he says that this Spirit is spirated D by the paternal treasures: *And the Only-Begotten, which is placidly breathed or spirated from the paternal treasures from above.* See how he explained the procession and emanation, which is not generation, that was inculcated under the name of generation, by the name of spiration. Therefore, as he is to be understood above regarding the begotten, so also regarding the only-begotten: for since the procession of love has no proper name, he explained it by a more common term, and one by which it recognizes its principle from another and its origin, namely generation; which, however, he indicated was not truly generation by adding the other name of spiration. Thus also he meant to signify that this spiration and this Spirit are one, just as he signified that the begotten is one.
A Let us be more prolix, and interpret the words of Methodius—unlike those of Arius and others who expounded them in a different sense—according to the Catholic sense, just as we interpret other Fathers. As we saw above, this same formula is used in divine matters in Athanasius, namely that the Son is greater and equal to the Spirit, which destroys the Arians themselves and the Sabellians, if you look to the origin and cause, as the Greeks say. George of Trebizond, in his work *On the Procession of the Holy Spirit* to John Cuboclesius: "The Son is not only greater than the Spirit, but also equal. It remains, therefore, to understand the hypostasis of the Spirit. In this way, the Son is equal in divinity, and greater in cause. For since 'greater' cannot be said of essence in the Trinity, it must necessarily be attributed to the distinguishing marks. And it is only in cause and that which is caused that the divine persons are distinguished. The Son is therefore greater than the Spirit only in cause." [28.] Filius vero non tantum Spiritu major est, sed et æqualis. Reliquum est igitur, ut hypostasis Spiritus intelligatur: illi enim æqualis est Filius divinitate, et major causa. Nam cum majus in Trinitate essentia nihil dici possit, necesse est illud discernentibus attribui. Sola vero causa et effectu divinæ personæ discernuntur. Major ergo Filius Spiritu, causa tantummodo. John Plusiadenus, in his *Dialogue on the Council of Florence*: "You have understood, then, what it intends to signify by his being greater than and equal to the Spirit: equal indeed according to the consubstantiality—for none of the three persons is greater or lesser in essence and divinity, but there is absolute equality; but greater, because he has his being from him." B Cognovisti itaque quid innuere vult majorem et æqualem esse ipsum Spiritu; æqualem quidem secundum substantiam: ex tribus enim personis nulla major aut minor aut essentia aut divinitate est, sed summa in illis æqualitas: majorem quod ab eo habeat, quod sit. Simon of Byzantium, in his work *On the Procession of the Holy Spirit* to Sophonius Athrescus, explaining the words of Basil from the third *Antirrheticus*: "But one might say, it is evident that as regards the super-essential Trinity, the 'rank' (ἀξίωμα), if it indeed exists among the essential properties, is equally common to the three hypostases of the Godhead. What, then, is this that the great Basil says here, that the Spirit, just as in order, is also in rank second to the Son? For he seems by this to introduce into the Trinity degrees of rank, and consequently of natures. For if the Spirit is second to the Son in rank, then conversely the Son will be greater than the Spirit by the preeminence of rank, and the Father consequently [greater] than his own Son; which he himself in no wise admits in his *Antirrhetics against Eunomius*. What then is it that he says? For he seems to contradict himself in this part. C But for the resolution of such a question, we must note that Eunomius, in his spurious writings, having spoken about the Holy Spirit, as he himself and those of his same mind—guarding the teaching of the holy ones in all things, from whom, having learned that it is third in rank and order, they concluded it to be third also in nature—the great Basil in his aforementioned third discourse on the Spirit, answering him, does two things. First, he refutes Eunomius as having lied in saying these things, and for this reason he says: 'Who are the holy ones, and in what writings have they made this teaching? He cannot say. Has such a bold man thus arisen, introducing innovations concerning the divine dogmas!' The second thing, the great Basil, knowing that 'rank' in the super-essential Trinity is understood in two ways, essential and personal, gives way to Eunomius—as appears from what is said above—concerning the word 'rank'; and for this reason, D against him he says: 'For what necessity is there, if the Spirit is third in rank and order, that he should be third also in nature? For it is in rank, not in essence—far be it! For according to the same [essence], no one of the three divine hypostases is perceived as after or before another; for they are identical in the same; but by [their] peculiar personal—"
A dignity he is second to the Son; although, as they say, "person" is a name of dignity. But perhaps someone might say: it is evident that in the supersubstantial Triad dignity, if indeed it is among the essential properties, is in the same way common to the three divine hypostases. What, therefore, is this that the great Basil here asserts, that the Spirit, as to order, so too in dignity, is second after the Son? For he seems by these things to insinuate gradations of dignities in the Trinity, and consequently of natures. For if the Spirit is second in dignity after the Son, then the Son will also be greater in excellence of dignity than the Spirit, and the Father consequently than the Son, which he himself in his *Antirrhetics against Eunomius* in no way admits. What then is it that he says? For he himself in this place seems to insinuate the contrary. However, for the resolution of such a question, it must be noted that Eunomius, in his deceitful commentaries, when he had spoken concerning the Holy Spirit, claimed that he himself and the others who felt as he did preserved the doctrine of the saints in all things; and since we have learned from them that he is third in dignity and order, he believed him to be third also by nature; the great Basil, responding in his already-praised third book *On the Holy Spirit*, does two things: first, he refutes Eunomius as a liar when he asserts such things, wherefore he also adds: "But who these saints are, and in what words they taught this, he cannot say. Or has anyone ever rendered himself so bold as to introduce new divine dogmas?" Second, since the great Basil knew that dignity in the supersubstantial Triad is taken in two ways, essentially and personally; he concedes to Eunomius, as is manifest from those things already brought forward above, the term "dignity"; and therefore he says against him: "What necessity is there, therefore, that the Holy Spirit be third by nature, even if he is third in order and dignity?" For as to dignity—not essential, far from it! for according to that reasoning, none of the divine persons is thought or pre-thought to be [before another]: for they are one; but by the dignity proper to himself he is second after the Son, granted that, as they say, person is a name of dignity. But these are more recent. I confess. Let us summon more ancient ones. Constantine Meliteniotes, in his second oration C *On the Procession of the Holy Spirit*: "For just as, that I may speak again at length concerning divine things according to him, the Son is second to the Father in order and dignity, because he possesses from him, along with the other things in which he abounds, both the cause and the principle of his existence, and not according to any other understanding of dignity and order (by no means! for all the other understandings are rejected apart from this one, as containing much that is blasphemous); so also the Holy Spirit is second in order and dignity to the God-speaking Father, not according to any of their understandings, but as he has attained from the Only-Begotten, except that he has his existence from him, and receives from him, and announces to us, and is altogether attached to that cause." D "For just as," to construct the discourse again according to this most divine man, "in order and dignity the Son is from the Father according to the [fact that he] is, and [that he] depends upon him, along with all other things in which he abounds; and [has] the cause and beginning of his existence—not according to any other understanding of dignity or order, since all other [understandings] besides this one alone contain much blasphemy in themselves:—so according to that which is order; which belongs to the God-speaking Father himself, the Holy Spirit is [third], according to no other understanding, except that he is from him, and has from him that he exists, and receives from him, and announces to us, and altogether depends upon that cause." Nicetas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, in his second oration on the procession of the Holy Spirit, when he had objected to the Greeks: "If the Spirit proceeded from the Son, the Father and the Son would have something greater than the Spirit himself, since nothing proceeds from the Spirit; and they would have something—"
A to be from Him, and should receive and announce from Him, and should in all respects depend upon that cause, the principle of piety delivers; but that it is third in nature, we are neither taught by the Holy Scriptures, nor can we demonstrate it by direct and necessary consequence from what has been said. For just as the Son is indeed second in order from the Father, because He is from Him; and second in dignity, because the Father is His principle and cause, and because through Him is the access and bringing to God and the Father; but is by no means second in nature, because the Godhead is one in both: so too, clearly, the Holy Spirit, although He is inferior to the Son in order and dignity, we shall never rightly say that He is of a different nature. B Isidorus Pelusiota, lib. III, epist. 333: "If, therefore, you do not attain to this true meaning, but have chosen to abstain from the impiety of the Anomoeans, you may say what someone once said while debating against them, that 'greater' stands in place of 'begetter,' and 'equal' in so far as He is God and consubstantial." Wherefore, if you do not attain to this true sentiment, and yet have meanwhile determined to desist from the impiety of the Anomoeans, you may say that which was brought forward by a certain person while he was discussing against them: namely, that 'greater' exists in the sense that He is the Begetter, and 'equal' in so far as He is God and of the same substance. Nor does the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nicephorus, appear to have looked to anything else in his treatise *On the Immaculate and Pure Faith of Christians*, cap. 19: "Rejecting C what is supereminent or diminished in these things; for 'greater' or 'less,' just as it cannot be considered in the essence, so neither in the Trinity according to essence or deity, so that we may extinguish the Arian madness, from which and against which our present battle is fought." Hence, Theophylact’s argument for the Greeks against the Latins regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit is eluded: "If the Father is the cause of the Son, and if the Son is the cause of the Spirit, then He would also be greater than the Spirit," with which, as with a battering ram, he attacks the Italian, crying out: "Where did you ever find it said that the Son is greater than the Spirit?" Has Theophylact not carelessly handled the sayings of the saints, who demands such things and seeks the sun at midday? He clearly observed neither Athanasius, nor Nazianzen, nor Basil, nor the others. For if he had observed them, he would have properly found that the Son is said to be greater than the Spirit because the Spirit is from Him, and acknowledges His origin and principle from Him, not because He is inferior in nature. Since, therefore, the doctors explain similar sayings of theirs in a catholic sense, lest we say that Methodius either sowed the seeds of the Arian heresy in his Commentaries, or that the passage was subsequently corrupted by Arians, we do not hesitate to say that he spoke such things in no other sense and with no other mind: "For it was fitting that He who is preeminent over the rest, after the Father, should use only his own superior as a witness." For it was fitting that He who is more excellent than the other remaining ones, even than the Holy Spirit, by reason of origin and cause, should use only the Father, the reason of his own cause and origin, as a witness. For he never doubted about the divinity of the Son and the Spirit, whom he always confessed to be equal in essence, nature, and substance; for in the Trinity, just as he confessed one essence, so also three persons and the production of one from another, and the origin of the Son and Spirit from the Father; and when he proclaims the Son to be greater than the Spirit, he also acknowledges the origin of the Spirit from the Son, by this very same treatise *On Chastity*. Many other expositions could be adduced: but these from the saints D.
although they might seem new to some, are sufficient for the cited Methodius.
A Ideoque nove illuminati nuncupantur. [And therefore they are called newly enlightened.] Among other names for baptism, this was also a principal one. Hence it is that *photismos* and *phōtisma* occur among the ancient Fathers, and in Paul: "who were once enlightened," and, "those by whom, being enlightened, you endured a great conflict." They are called *neophōtistoi*, that is, recent and newly enlightened. There are five catecheses of Cyril of Jerusalem directed to the newly enlightened. Augustine called them "new shoots." Dionysius the Areopagite gave a different reason for the name than Methodius, in *On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy*, ch. 3: "Thus also the sacred initiation of divine regeneration, since it imparts the first light, and is the beginning of all divine illuminations, we celebrate from its result by the name of illumination. For although it is common to other hierarchical functions to make those who are initiated partakers of the sacred light; nevertheless, this is that which first imparted to me the sight, and by the light of this first principle I am guided to the contemplation of other sacred things." B So too, we celebrate the sacramental initiation of divine regeneration, because it confers the first light and stands as the principle of all divine illuminations, by the name of that illumination in its effect. Although indeed it is common also to other hierarchical functions to make those who are initiated partakers of the sacred light, yet this one is that which first granted me sight, and through its more principal light I receive a lamp for contemplating other sacred things. Maximus and Pachymeres follow Dionysius in their *Exposition*. Another one is from Proclus of Constantinople, in his oration *On the Holy Pentecost*: "For this Spirit is mingled with the water, and consumes sins as fire, and brightens the newly enlightened as light, and has mercy on us as God." C For this Spirit is mingled with water, and our sins, no otherwise than in a furnace of fire, He consumes and smelts; and as light He illuminates those recently baptized, and has mercy on us as God. Another from Michael Glycas, *Epistle* 18: "But also a lamp is customarily lit externally for those being baptized, signifying that very illumination by which, according to the evangelical voice and parable, we shall meet Christ as the bridegroom. Indeed, of such mysteries the lamp is a token; for he who is being baptized necessarily receives a certain divine shining from the priest himself, just as the powers above are immediately illuminated by the first High Priest." A candle also is accustomed to be lit above those who are baptized, indicating the illumination itself, with which, according to the evangelical voice and parable, we shall go forth to meet Christ as the bridegroom. The candle is a token of these mysteries: for he who is baptized necessarily receives a certain divine illumination from the priest, by which same reasoning the superior virtues are immediately illuminated by the first chief of priests. Vasquez, *Tom. I in part.*, *disputat.* 140, ch. 1, lists and explains many other names for baptism.
D Secundum Aegyptiorum et Chaldaeorum principia et hypotheses. [According to the principles and hypotheses of the Egyptians and Chaldeans.] Concerning these principles and hypotheses of the Chaldeans and Egyptians, one must recall what Sextus Empiricus delivers in *Against the Mathematicians*, book V, and the excerpts of Photius from the books *On Fate* by Theodore, or Diodorus, of Tarsus, *tmem.* 223. For they contribute much to those things which Thecla had said here.
[E] Hinc qui vere Christum cognoverunt, non semper pueri. [Hence those who have truly known Christ are not always children.] He looked to those things of Plato which the Egyptian priest said to Solon in the *Timaeus*: "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children; there is no old man among the Greeks."
A Prænuntiantes resurrectionem. [Fore-announcing the resurrection.] Many of the older Fathers, both Greek and Latin, held the opinion that the duration of the present age, from the creation of the world to the day of judgment, was to be concluded within a span of six thousand years. See what we noted in our *Notes on the Hexaemeron of Eustathius of Antioch*, p. 248. If you follow the computation of the Latins, who refer the birth of Christ to about the year four thousand—since that millennial term of years has not yet passed, but is still far distant from the prescribed limit—it is still in doubt whether it will come to pass as those Fathers asserted. But according to the judgment of the Greeks, this term of years seems to have passed. Whether indeed Christ was born, according to Eusebius, in the year 5190, or according to Theophilus of Antioch *To Autolycus* in the year 5476, or according to Eustathius of Antioch in 5531, or according to Nicetas in 5503, or according to Cedrenus in 5506, or according to the common calculation of the Greeks in 5508, that sixth millennium of years has exceeded the term of the world's duration decreed by the prophet Elias and the rest, as will be clear to anyone if he computes and deducts those years. Wherefore the prophecy of the prophet Elias, which nowhere exists in the Bible—"Six thousand years of the world, and then destruction; two thousand empty, two thousand law, two thousand Christ"—is to be reckoned as nothing; and one ought to pardon those who, because of the fierce tyranny of those dominating the Church of God, and the most cruel slaughters of pious men, as well as the continuous and ever-arising new opinions of heretics, and blasphemies against the true God, and indeed the frequent and pernicious dissensions of Catholics, gave assent to Elias and opined that the end of the world would not be long in coming. Unless we wish to speak more cautiously with our Methodius here—that it is not to be concluded within this millennium of years, but that when it is completed, in the seventh millennium there will be a consummation, and the state of human affairs will be reformed for the better, as he writes: "Fore-announcing the resurrection, and the re-creation of our tabernacle that has fallen into the earth, which, in the seventh millennium, we shall again assume immortal, and celebrate a great feast," etc. And below, *Orat.* IX, § 5: "Not remaining in the tabernacles, not my tabernacle as it was before, but after the millennium, transformed from human habit and corruption into angelic magnitude and beauty," etc. Whether it will be so, still lies in the most hidden providence of God. And perhaps it will happen even before this seventh [millennium] has reached its end. But who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? (Rom. XI, 34).
D Erat quippe nostrum tabernaculum, et antea casus ignarum. [For our tabernacle was, even before, ignorant of the fall.] And above he had said, *orat.* III, § 8: "For he too was created outside of corruption," etc. There exists an epistle of Michael Glycas to Maximus Smeniotas, quite long and learned, which is among my collection of other epistles of his, not yet (so far as I know) published, in which he proves by many reasons and testimonies from the commentaries of the ancient Fathers—John of Damascus, the Council of Carthage, John Chrysostom, Andrew of Crete, Anastasius of Sinai, Gregory Nazianzen, Cyril, Basil of Caesarea, Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, Theodore the Studite, Maximus the Confessor, Barsanuphius, Macarius the Egyptian, and others—that Adam before the sin was immortal both in soul and body, and after the sin his body was delivered to corruption. To the cited Fathers, this our Methodius can also be added.
B Et absque illa neminem futurum, qui promissionum illarum compos evadit. [And without that, no one will be who attains to those promises.] And below he repeats: "Without that, namely chastity, no one will be who attains to those promises." As if, indeed, no one enters the kingdom of heaven unless he is chaste and a virgin. Nevertheless, he himself explains himself; for when he had spoken above, and below will inculcate virtue, by the name of chastity and virginity he understands not only abstinence from venereal pleasures, but from all other vices, and an integrated life.
pure, and separated from all sin; it is consequently understood that when he speaks only of the chaste and virgins possessing the promises, under that name are understood all others who, although they may not be virgins, nor have cultivated chastity, have nevertheless been structured and adorned with holiness of life, piety toward God, and other virtues. For of the righteous, whichever way they are righteous, is the kingdom of heaven. Col 194. A. Since the law was not able, in such a convenient manner, to free the human race from corruption. By these words of Methodius is refuted the opinion of those affirming that before the coming of Christ, many did not attain eternal salvation either from Christ or through Christ. Concerning which opinion we have discussed at length elsewhere, and how it is to be understood, lest we be compelled to condemn the sayings of the Fathers asserting it. See also what Franciscus Collius has discussed most copiously in five books regarding the souls of pagans.
OF THE HOLY HIEROMARTYR METHODIUS: EXCERPTS AND CERTAIN ORATIONS. ON FREE WILL. BOOK ON FREE WILL.
This first Methodian excerpt on free will was first published in Greek by Joannes Meursius in his *Book of Various Divine Things*; Joannes Lamius, man of distinction, translated it into Latin and oversaw its printing in his brilliant collection of Meursian works, Vol. VIII, pp. 723–738. We, however, exhibit the first interpreter, Combefis, and his notes. (GALLAND.)
B The old man of Ithaca indeed, as the Greeks fable, being incontinent regarding the pleasure of hearing, wishing to hear the song of the Sirens, sailed bound to Sicily, and blocked the ears of his companions: not as though he begrudged them the hearing, or bound himself willingly, but because death at length threatened those who heard a melody of that kind. Such, indeed, are the pleasures of the Sirens among the Greeks. But truly, I am by no means such a hearer of such a song; nor do I desire to hear the Sirens singing a funeral dirge for men, whose silence is more beneficial to men than their voice: but I desire to enjoy a certain divine voice, whose repeated hearing accumulates desire; not as though seduced by the pleasure of an unchaste voice, but as one who wishes to learn the divine mysteries, and awaits, in the end, not death, but eternal salvation. For they sing the song, not the death-dealing Sirens of the Greeks, but a certain divine choir of prophets, upon whom
A there is no need for any of our companions to stop their ears, nor for fear of the punishment of hearing, to cast themselves into chains. There, indeed, the listener ceases to live as soon as he hears; but here, he who listens at length shall attain the happiness of a better life, guided by the Holy Spirit. Let everyone, therefore, come and listen to the divine song, fearing nothing. We have no Sirens here like those near Sicily, nor the bonds of Odysseus, nor wax melted into the ears of men; but rather, there is a complete release from bonds, and a free liberty of hearing for everyone who approaches. For it is worthy to listen to such a song, and I think it is to be prayed for that we might have such singers. And if anyone should wish to hear the choir of the apostles, he will find the same harmony of song. For they sang beforehand, in a mystical way, of the divine dispensation; but these now interpret and explain in song what was mystically announced by them. B O consonant harmony, composed by the Holy Spirit! O beauty of those who sing the sacraments of God! My soul desires to join in the singing. Let us, therefore, also sing the same song, and offer up a hymn to the holy Father, glorifying Jesus, who is in his bosom, in the Spirit. Do not flee, O man, from a spiritual hymn, nor be adversely disposed toward listening. It contains no death; the song we have is a narrative of salvation. I myself, indeed, already seem to enjoy better things, discussing such subjects; and especially when such a meadow of flowers is present before me—that is, our assembly, who are both listeners and fellow-singers of the divine mysteries. Because of which I am bold to say that you offer me ears cleansed of all envy, not imitating the zeal of Cain; C nor, like Esau, persecuting your brother, nor like the brothers of Joseph, hating a brother because of his words; but, remaining far removed from all these things, each of you thinks that the other is speaking. And for this reason, there is no wicked zeal among you, as you have accepted the task of fulfilling what is lacking in your brother. O beautiful audience, and dignified banquet, and spiritual feast! May I always desire to be with such righteous ones.
VAL. D Yesterday in the evening, my friend, when I was walking by the seashore, and gazing intently at it, I immediately perceived the excellence of divine power and the craft of wise knowledge—if it is right to call such a thing craft. For just as that Homeric verse declares:
As two winds rouse the fish-swarming sea, Boreas and Zephyrus, that blow from Thrace, Coming suddenly: and together the dark wave Is gathered; and they cast much seaweed beyond the sea;
Just so, it seemed to me, things happened yesterday. For I was seeing
waves A close to the mountain peaks and, so to speak, reaching to the very heaven; and I looked for nothing else from them than that the whole earth would be submerged. The thought of a place of escape came to my mind, and I fashioned in my soul the ark of Noah. But it was not as I thought. For no sooner had the sea swelled up than it dissolved back into itself, not overstepping its proper place, fearing, so to speak, a divine commandment. And just as often some servant, forced by his master to do something against his will, obeys the command through fear; yet he does not dare to speak anything of what he feels in his reluctant soul, but murmurs within himself, filled with a certain anger: so it seemed to me, both that the sea was angry and, as it were, shutting its wrath within itself and restraining it, fearing to reveal its anger to the Master. B While these things were happening, I began to gaze in silence, and I wished to measure in my mind both the heaven and its cycle; I sought to know where it begins and where it ends; what kind of movement it has—whether transitive, that is, from one place to another, or revolving in a circle; and how it maintains its fixed foundation. And I seemed to have to inquire also about the sun: what its mode of position in heaven might be, what the boundary of its course might be, whither shortly it would be going, and that it too does not transgress its own course; but that it also, if one may speak the truth, keeps some command of a higher power; and it shines to us when it is permitted, but departs when it is called. And then, while I was examining these things, I saw the sun’s radiance setting, and the light of the day failing; and immediately darkness was present, and the moon succeeding the sun; and at first, rising tiny, but afterwards advancing in its course, presenting the appearance of greatness. Nor did I cease C to inquire also about this, and to search out the cause of its diminution and accretion, for it also maintains the cycle of the days; and from this it seemed to me that I could gather that there is a divine providence and a power of higher beings holding all things together, which we rightly call God. And henceforth I began to praise the Creator, seeing the earth fixed, and the differences of animals, and the various blossoms of plants. Yet my mind did not rest on these alone; but for the rest, I began to seek whence these things have their constitution: whether from something that always coexists with God, or from Him alone, with nothing coexisting with Him; for to think that He made nothing from nothing did not seem to me to be altogether without probability. For things that are made are naturally D constituted from something. And similarly it seemed to me that one must truly say that nothing coexists with God except Himself; and that things exist because He creates them: for the ordered arrangement of the elements and the concinnity of nature in them had persuaded me of this. Thus, indeed, believing that I had decided well, I returned home. But when, on the following day, namely today, I had gone out, two men of the same kind, in
I mean human beings—were struggling and abusing one another; and then another again, wishing to plunder his neighbor; and some were already beginning to dare even worse things. For one stripped a dead body, and the corpse that had just been hidden in the earth he exposed again to the sun, and thus he insulted the image A of the same kind, leaving the dead man as food for the dogs; but the other brandished his sword and rushed upon a man of the same nature. And the one wished to provide for his safety by flight; the other did not cease from pursuing, nor did he wish to restrain his anger. And why must I say more? Just that, having reached him, he immediately struck him with the sword. And he became a suppliant B to his neighbor, and stretched out his hands in supplication, and was willing to give his clothing, only begging to have his life. But he did not soften his anger, nor did he pity one of his own kind, nor did he wish to see himself in the other through the image, but as a savage beast, he set upon him with his sword for food. And now he even brought his mouth to a body like his own; for such was the fury in his anger. And it C was possible to see the one wronged, and the other stripping him, and not even covering with earth the body which he had stripped of its clothing. In addition to these things, another was present who wished to toy with the wife of his neighbor, plundering another’s marriage, and inciting her to turn to an unlawful bed, wishing the man who had married her to become a father to a spurious child. From this, I began to believe in the tragedies, and the Thyestean banquet seemed to me truly to have occurred; and I did not disbelieve in the unlawful lust of Oenomaus, nor in the contention of brothers by the sword D. Having become, therefore, a spectator of so many and such things, I began to inquire whence these originated; what indeed was their first principle; and who could have contrived such things against men, whence also was their discovery, and who was the teacher thereof. And to dare to say that God was the creator of these was not possible, nor indeed that they had their existence from Him, nor the constitution of their being. For how was it possible to think such things about God—Who is good, and the creator of the better things, while nothing of evil pertains to Him; but not even is it His nature to rejoice in such things; rather, He forbids their generation, and He rejects those who rejoice in them, and
A how would it not be absurd to speak of God as the creator of those things which He refuses? For He would not have wished them not to exist, if He Himself were their primary maker. For He desires those who approach Him to become His imitators. Wherefore it seemed irrational to me to attribute these things to God, or that they exist as having come from Him; for if one must by all means grant that it is possible for something to come to be out of nothing, [then it must be conceded] that He also made evils; for He who made them from not-being into being, would not [change them] from being into no longer being. Again, it is necessary somewhere to say that there was once a time when God rejoiced in evils; but now He does not. For which reason it seems impossible to me to say this concerning God. For it is alien to His nature to attribute this to Him. Wherefore B it appeared to me that there coexists with Him something which is called matter, out of which He fashioned created things, having separated them with wise skill, and having adorned them well, out of which also evils seem to have arisen. For when it [matter] existed both qualityless and unformed; and in addition to these, was also borne about in disorder, and was in need of God’s skill, He did not begrudge it, nor did He permit it to be borne about in this way forever, but He began to fashion it, and wished to separate the best from its worst; and thus He brought into being whatever it was appropriate for God to create out of it; but whatever, to use a word, contained dregs, as being unfit for a work, such as they were, of no use to Himself, those He left behind; from which I think that evils now well up among men. Thus it has seemed good to me to think. But you, friend, if anything seems to have been said less correctly, speak out by way of suggestion; for I truly desire to hear those things.
ORTH. I accept your alacrity, C friend, and I praise your zeal regarding the doctrine; but as for your having been disposed regarding existing things in such a way as to suppose that God created these things from some pre-existing substance, I do not altogether blame you. For, in truth, the origin of evils causes many to be so disposed. For even before you and me, many men sufficient in doctrine have raised the greatest inquiry regarding this. And some indeed have been disposed similarly to you; but others again have declared God to be the creator of these things, fearing to attribute to Him a co-eternal substance; and those others, from the fear of calling God the maker of evils, thought that co-eternal matter should be granted. And it happened to both, from D not fearing God according to the knowledge of the truth, that they spoke not well. Others, however, from the very beginning, have refused to inquire about such a matter, as if such an inquiry had no end. But the debt of our common friendship does not allow me to shift [this task] away, especially when you yourself announce what is on your mind: because this presumption surely does not hold [you]
A you, but rather you say that you stand in a desire for the knowledge of the truth. Therefore, I too will gladly and eagerly turn to the discourse of the inquiry. I also wish for this friend to become a listener to our words. For he also seems, in a certain way, to hold the same opinion on these matters as you; therefore, I wish to direct our speech to both of you together. For whatever I might say to you, being in such a state, I will likewise say to him. If, therefore, I seem to you truly and sincerely to speak for the better, answer each of the things I ask; for from these it will come about that both you learn the truth and I do not spend my words in vain toward you.
VAL. I am ready to do what you say. And for this reason, inquire with all eagerness about those things from which you think I can learn what is better. For I do not have as my purpose that I should win unworthily, but that I should be taught the truth. So proceed with the discourse.
ORTH. That indeed it is impossible B that two unbegotten beings should exist at the same time, I do not suppose you are ignorant of, even if you seem to have previously posited this in your speech. For it is absolutely necessary to say one of two things: either that God is separated from matter, or, on the other hand, that he happens to be inseparable from it. If, therefore, one should wish to say they are united, he will speak of one unbegotten; (for each of these will be a part of its neighbor). But being parts of one another, they will not be two unbegotten beings, but one consisting of different things. For we do not break man down, who has different limbs, into many created beings. But as reason demands, we say that man is one created being, consisting of many parts, made by God. Thus, it is necessary, if God is not separated from matter, to say that there is one unbegotten; but if someone should say they are separated, it is necessary that there be something between both, which also demonstrates their separation. For it is impossible for something to be examined as in a state of distance from something, if a third thing does not exist according to which the distance of each is made. This does not stop at this one point only, but extends to countless things of this sort. For the same argument we spoke of regarding two unbegotten beings, it must proceed in the same way if it were granted that those were three. For I would ask about these things, whether they are separated from one another, or if each one is united to its neighbor. For if one should wish to say they are united, he will hear the same argument as the first; but if, on the other hand, they are separated, he will not escape the distance C that necessarily does the separating. And if someone should say that there is also a third argument that is fitting to be said concerning unbegotten beings, that is, that God is neither separated from matter, nor again D that he is separated, it is impossible. For each part of these will be similar to the other, etc. By which he neither renders Methodius, nor does he himself substitute another probable argument for his reasoning: for the similarity of some things does not prove that one is a part of another. What follows there should be punctuated thus: Where the interpreter [says] the parts are equal to one another, etc., which however will have been a mistake of the printer for: the parts are parts to one another, etc. [This] appears, because the very thing that separates must needs be something.
C But let anyone who wishes to say that the parts are united—or, as it were, in a place—that the God is in the matter and the matter in the God—the one who holds them—listen to this: if we call matter the place of God, it must by necessity follow that He is also circumscribed and bounded by the matter. But, furthermore, in the same way, it would follow that He is borne along with the matter in an unordered fashion. And it is necessary that He should not stand still, nor remain in Himself, since the thing in which He is exists by being borne along now in one way, now in another. A Besides this, one would also have to say that God has come into a state of misfortune. For if the matter was at some time unordered, and He adorned it, intending to turn it toward the better, there was a time when God was in the midst of things without order. And I would rightly ask this as well: did God fill the matter, or did He exist in some part of it? For if one wishes to say that God is in some part of the matter, he calls Him much smaller than the matter, if indeed a part of it contained the whole God. But if he says that He is in the whole, and has pervaded all the matter, let him explain how He created it. For it is necessary to speak of a certain contraction of God, by which having occurred, He created that from which He withdrew, or else that He Himself co-created along with the matter, having no place to withdraw to. B If one were to say that the matter is in God, one must examine it in the same way: whether as if He were divided from Himself—just as genera exist in the air—being divided and partitioned for the reception of the things occurring within Him, or as if in a place, that is to say, just as water is in the earth. For if we say it is as in the air, it is necessary to call God divisible; but if as in the earth—and the matter was unordered and unadorned, and in addition to this contained evils—it is necessary to say that God is a place for things unordered and for evils. Which does not seem to me to be of good repute, but rather perilous. For you wish there to be matter, so that you might not call God the creator of evils; and in choosing to avoid this, you say He is a vessel for evils. If, therefore, you were assuming the matter exists as one of the generated things, you were saying it is ungenerated, [and] you would have much [to say] regarding this.
C ...as parts to be united, which also shows their separation: but this, being either the same thing, is united to the other of the two; and it is necessary again to seek either a union or a separation in relation to the other. For it is impossible to see a union, if it is granted that it is the same as the other and is united to it; for it would thus have been united even from the beginning, to which it was granted to be the same. But if the argument requires that they be separated, the thing separating must again be sought, until an infinite swarm of ungenerated beings appears to us. D ...or again, as parts to be united, nor yet again... created, [as if] the creating were either as in a place, or in a vessel... [alt-version omitted]
The Argument of Photius
C ...which is also for man [an argument] that proceeds... [This] is a second proof from another mode of union, through the mode of the contiguous: of the contained and the place: which itself also proceeds against the man. ...at the extremities, and for this reason the same to them, by the identity, that is, of the parts in the whole. This argument is formulated somewhat differently in Photius; after the words not long before placed above, he thus argues: I would render it thus: But this (the one separating) as if it were the same as the other of the two, is united to that one: and again it will be necessary to seek either a conjunction or a separation from the other. For to see a union would be impossible, if indeed it is conceded that it is the same as the other and united to it. For so would also be united that first thing with which this was conceded to be the same. But if the reason teaches that it is separated: it must again be sought by what it is separated, until a supply of infinite ungenerated things meets us. This argument is sufficiently easy and consequent: except that it seems everywhere to suppose less probably that some things are necessarily distinguished, not by themselves, but by other things. Nevertheless, it is valid against the man, and against that crude estimate of God in which the Valentinians were. D [There is] the likeness of craftsmen, whom it behooves to be somewhat removed in place from the matter which they compose and perfect; thus Archimedes sought some place outside the universe, to move and displace that whole of it. The interpreter everywhere renders it "to create," which does not fit in this place, where it is a matter of the formation of matter, against those who said it was of itself and ungenerated. Therefore, just as ears would not tolerate that a smith be called "the creator" of iron, so neither [would they tolerate] that God, in that sense, be called the creator of matter. ...[in] a common and proper [place], so that in any way there might follow something absurd or a division of God; or [the state of] one unworthy and base, as in a vessel and a proper place, a containment, with the disgrace of the thing containing: whence what follows seems to need filling in by adding "if" [or] "unless one must read" ... whose containment he puts as an example immediately in the earth, that is, in an earthen and clay vessel containing water: by which containment, it is called a vessel, either for honor, or for dishonor, II Tim. [II, 20].A
I made a statement in proof of the fact that it is impossible for it [matter] to exist as ungenerated. But since you say that the generation of evils is the cause of such an assumption, for this reason it seems good to me to come to the examination of these things. For when the argument, regarding the way in which [we arrive] at evils, becomes manifest—and that it is not possible to call God the cause of evils by positing matter for Him—such an assumption, it seems to me, must be refuted; because, if God created qualities that were not, He also created substances in the same way. Do you say, then, that matter, devoid of quality and form, coexists with God, from which He created the generation of the world?
VAL. That is what I think.
ORTH. If, then, matter happened to be without quality, but the world was made by God, and in the world there are qualities, God became the maker of the qualities.
VAL. It is so.
ORTH. And since I also heard you saying previously that it is impossible for anything to come into being out of non-existent things, answer my question: does it seem to you that the qualities of the world were not made out of subject qualities?
VAL. They seem so.
ORTH. And that they exist as something else besides the substances?
VAL. It is so, something else.
ORTH. If, then, God created the qualities neither out of subject qualities, nor do they exist from substances—since they are not even substances themselves—it is necessary to say that they were created by God out of non-existent things. Wherefore it seemed superfluous to me that you said it was impossible to think that anything was created by God out of non-existent things. But let the argument about this stand thus. C For even among us we see men making certain things out of non-existent things, although they may seem most of all to be making them *in* something. For example, let us take the instance of architects; for they too build cities not out of cities, and likewise temples not out of temples. D *Incomplete.*
REMAINING EXCERPTS FROM PHOTIUS
(Biblioth. cod. CCXXXVI.)But if, because substances are subject to these, you think that they [architects] do not make these things out of non-existent things, you are mistaken in your argument. For it is not the substance that builds the city or the temples, but the art which is conversant about the substance; and that [art] is produced not out of any subject art which might be in the substances, but out of an art which was not in them. But you seem to me to be able to counter the argument thus: that, namely, the craftsman makes [it] by the art that is in the substance.
A I reply to this: Art is not born in man from a pre-existing art; for it cannot be conceded that substance itself, in itself, is art. For art is reckoned among accidents, and is of those whose existence is only at the time when they have been brought forth in some substance. For instance, man will exist even without the art of carpentry, but that art will not exist unless man first exists. Whence it is necessary to say that the arts are naturally disposed to come into being in men from non-existence. If, therefore, we have shown that this is how it is in men, how is it not reasonable to say that God is able to produce not only qualities, but also substances, from non-existence? For if it appears possible that something can come to be from non-existence, it is shown that substances can also come to be from non-existence.
Again, the disputation concerning evils is resumed. Are evils, in your view, substances or qualities of substances? VAL. Qualities. ORTH. But was matter originally without qualities and formless? VAL. Certainly. ORTH. These names, then, are joined to substance from the things that happen to it. For neither is murder a substance, nor any of the other evils; but it is named from operations. For a man is not murder, but because he has perpetrated that deed, he is named a murderer by a derivative title, since he himself is by no means murder; and, to put it briefly, no other evil is a substance. But a thing may be called "evil" because it has committed some evil. In a similar way, reason that if you have conceived in your mind something else that is a cause of evils, that thing too is evil, because it cooperates with men and suggests that they do evil. For that one is also evil on account of the things he does. For this reason he is said to be B evil, because he is a producer of evils; but the things which someone does are not himself, but an operation of his, from which he receives the designation of "evil." For if we were to say that he is the very things he does—but he does murders and adulteries and things of that kind—then he himself would be these things. But if he himself were these things, when they come to be, he would have his consistency; and when they do not come to be, he would cease to be. But these things are committed by men; therefore men would be the authors of these things, and the causes of their coming to be and ceasing to be. But if each one is evil from the things he operates, and the one who operates receives a beginning of being, then that one also began to be evil; and those evils also had a beginning. If this is so, there is no one who is evil without a beginning, nor are evils uncreated. C D
VAL. A Indeed, my friend, you seem to me to have arranged the present discussion more opportunely against someone else. For from the points which were previously conceded to the discourse, you have seemed to draw your conclusion well. For it is true that, once it has been granted that matter is without quality and formless, and that God is the author of qualities, and that qualities are evils, then God would be the author of evils. But it seems false to me to call matter without quality and formless. For you cannot state of any substance that it is devoid of quality. Moreover, by the very fact that you say it is without quality, you declare its quality, describing what sort of thing the matter is; which is a certain species of quality. Wherefore, if it pleases you, begin the discussion from a higher point. For to me, matter seems to possess qualities from eternity. In this way, surely, my friend, I declare that evils also flow from its existence.
ORTHOD. If matter was affected by its qualities from eternity, of what will God be the creator? B For whether we speak of substances, we affirm them to have existed already; or if we speak of qualities, we assert that they too have existed. Since, therefore, both substances and qualities exist without God, it seems superfluous that God should be called creator. But answer your questioner: by what reasoning do you say that God is Creator? Whether it is because He reduced the substances which once were to nothing; or because He preserved the substances, but changed their qualities?
VAL. It does not seem to me that a change of substances has occurred, but only of qualities, for the cause of which we say God is the creator. And just as if someone should say a house has been made from stones—for which it cannot be denied C that the stones still remain in substance, though they are called a house; for I say the house is made by the quality of its composition—so I think that God, while the substance remained, made a certain change of its qualities, by reason of which I affirm that the world was created by God.
ORTHOD. Does it seem to you also that evils are qualities of substances? VAL. It seems so. ORTHOD. Were these qualities in matter from eternity, or did they have a beginning of existence? VAL. I say that these very qualities existed unbegottenly with matter. D ORTH. And do you not say that God made some change in the qualities? VAL. I say this. ORTH. For the better? VAL. It seems so to me. ORTH. If, therefore, evils are qualities of matter, and God changed its qualities for the better, it is necessary to ask whence evils [come]. For either all are, evil
Were they already evil, or were they not? But if they were not evil, they were not changed for the better; while the remainder, which happened to be of different sorts, were changed by God for the sake of their adornment. VAL. That is just what I have thought for a long time.
ORTH. How then do you say that the qualities of the base were left as they were? Was it because God could have removed them, but did not wish to; or because He wished to, but could not? If you say He could have, but did not wish to, He must be called the author of these things, because, having the power to cause them not to be evil, He allowed them to remain as they were, especially when He began to shape matter. For if He had paid no regard at all to matter, He would not be the author of what He allowed to remain. But since He shapes one part of it and neglects another, when He could have changed that part also for the better, B He seems to me the cause of evils, having left a part of matter wicked. He fashioned the one part, then, for its destruction; or rather, and in this way most especially, He treated with injury this part of matter which He arranged, and which now perceives the disadvantages of evil. For before it received its adornment, no sense of evils was present to it; but now each of its parts receives a sense of evils. And take the example of man for me. Before he became a living being, he was without sense of evils. But from the time he is fashioned by God as an image of man, then he also receives the sense of the encroaching evil. And this, which you say happened to matter as a benefit from God, is found to have occurred to its detriment instead.
But if you say that God could not abolish the evils, then such an impossibility argues either that His nature is weak, or that He is enslaved by fear, being overcome by some stronger power. See which of these you would wish to attribute to the omnipotent and good God. But now, answer again concerning matter. C Is matter simple or composite? For if matter were simple and of one form, while the world is composite and consists of diverse substances, it cannot be said to have been made from matter; because the things which are composite cannot be constituted from one single thing that is uniform. For the composite indicates a mixture of certain simple things. But if, on the other hand, you say that matter is composite, it must absolutely have been composed from simples; and the simples were once separate, and by their composition matter was made; yet composites are constituted by simples. Clearly, there was a time when matter did not exist, specifically before the simples had come together. But if there was a time when matter did not exist—and there was never a time when the unbegotten did not exist—then matter is not unbegotten. And from this it would follow that there are many unbegotten things. D For if God was unbegotten, and the simples from which matter was composed were also unbegotten, then it will not be the case that there are only two, or [merely] those...
A which are unbegotten; so that I may pass over the inquiry into what those simples are—whether matter or form? For many absurdities would follow from this. I also ask this: Does it seem to you that nothing among existing things is contrary to itself? VAL. It seems so. ORTH. But water is contrary to fire, and darkness to light, and hot to cold, and wet to dry. VAL. It does not seem so to me. ORTH. Therefore, if nothing among existing things is contrary to itself, but these things are contrary to one another, they will not be one matter, nor indeed will they be from one matter. But I wish to ask again: Does it seem to you that the parts are not destructive of one another? VAL. It seems so. ORTH. And are fire and water, and likewise the rest, parts of matter? VAL. I think so. ORTH. What then? Does it not seem to you that water is destructive to fire, and light to darkness, and other things, as many as are similar to these? VAL. It seems so. ORTH. If, therefore, the parts are by no means destructive to one another, but these things are destructive B to one another, it follows that they will not be parts of one another. And if they are not parts of one another, they will not be of one matter. Nay, they will not even be matter, because there is nothing among existing things that is destructive of itself. Since, therefore, opposites are in this state, it is demonstrated that they are not matter. And let this suffice regarding matter. We must now come to the examination of evils, and necessarily investigate those among men. Are the evils among men species of evil, or parts? For if they are species, there will not be any other evil existing apart from these, because genera are found and subsist in their species. And if this is the case, then evil will be begotten. For those things which are species are shown to be begotten; for example, murder, adultery, and things similar to these. But if you would prefer for these to be parts of some evil, and these are begotten, it is necessary that that [whole] also be begotten. For if the parts are begotten, these [parts] likewise are of necessity begotten. For the whole is composed of parts. And the whole will not exist if the parts do not exist; but some of the parts will exist, even if the whole is not present. But of nothing that exists is one part begotten and another unbegotten. But even if I were to grant this to the argument, there C was a time when evil was not complete; that is, before God fashioned matter. But it becomes complete when man was made by God; for man is the creator of the parts of evil. And consequently, God, having created [him], will be the author of the completeness of evil; which is impious. But if you define evil as neither of these, but say that it is the action of some evil; it D will therefore be the cause of the act...
For the action of anyone begins to have the initiation of its being. Besides these, you have no other evil to assign. For what other action, besides that which men commit, could you assign? For that he who acts is not himself evil according to the definition of substance, but according to the operation of evil itself, has already been shown. For nothing is evil by nature, but things that are evil become so by use. A I say, says (Methodius), that man was created with free will, not as if some evil already existed, the power to choose which he might have had if he wished, but he had it solely on account of the faculty granted him of obeying or not obeying God. For this was what free will meant for him at that time. Furthermore, the created man received a commandment from God; and from this point evil begins. For he does not obey the divine mandate; and this, and this alone, was the evil: disobedience, which began to exist.
METHODIUS FROM THE BOOK ON FREE WILL
(Excerpt by Rev. Fr. Sirmond, S.J.)For man received the power to enslave himself, not being mastered by the necessity of nature, nor having that power taken away which was better; for the sake of which, I say, it was granted: so that, indeed, there might be some accession to prior goods; which comes to him from obedience to the Better, and is required as a debt by the Author. For I do not say that man was created for destruction, but for better things. B For if he had been made like one of the elements, or other things equivalent to them that serve God insensibly, he would no longer receive a reward worthy of his faculty of choice; but he would be like an instrument of the Creator, devoid of reason, liable to blame for things badly done; for the cause of these would be the one using him. Nay, neither would man know what is better, unless he had known the Author of it, but only that for which he was born to be. Wherefore I say, when God wished to honor man and have him know better things, He gave him the power by which he could do what he willed; and He urges that power toward better things, not that He takes away again the free power which He gave, but as if He wished to declare what is better. For he does indeed have the power, and receives the commandment: but God admonishes that man should turn the will, by which he is able, toward the good. C For just as when a father urges a boy, who otherwise has the faculty to learn disciplines and to adhere more firmly to those studies, declaring to him that this is better, he does not deprive the boy of the power which he has—although he may not be willing to study willingly: so also I do not think that God, when He urges man to obey His commands, in any way takes away the power of the will, by which he is also able not
to obey the commands. For he also shows the cause of why He so exhorts, because He did not take away the power. But He instructs, that man might be able to attain to better things. For whoever obeys the divine precept receives a reward of such a kind. Wherefore He does not wish to give a precept so as to take away the power which He gave; but so that He might bestow something better, as to one worthy to obtain better things, because he obeyed God, when he otherwise had the power not to obey. Now I say that man was made free, not as if some evil already existed, the power of choosing which, if he wished, he had received: but on account of the granted faculty by which he might obey or not obey God who commands. For this is that in which the faculty of free choice was placed. Created, however, man receives a precept from God: and from that moment evil begins, for he does not obey the divine precept: and this was the one evil, B the disobedience which then began. For let no one say it is innate, in one who is begotten and created, and in Him who made him. But you will surely ask, whence this disobedience? But it is clearly set down in the divine Scripture. Wherefore I also deny that man was created such by God: I say, rather, that it happened to him by a certain teaching. For man had not received such a nature. For if this were the case, the nature itself being so constituted, it would by no means have been necessary for that to come about through teaching. Moreover, there is one who says by a divine voice, and as if from an oracle, that man learned evils. I say, therefore, that he learned not to obey God. For this is the one evil, that which is done contrary to the divine will: for man does not learn evil in itself. Therefore, he who teaches C evil is the dragon, and so forth.
It is lacking. Of the same Methodius.
(From the Elements of the eminent Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld.) Truly, the principle of evil, I would say, was envy: but evil originated from that, because man had been increased with better honors by God. Furthermore, evil is the disobedience of the divine command.* Jer. XIII, 23.
OF METHODIUS FROM THE BOOK ON THE RESURRECTION
D 1. God did not make evil; nor is He in any way the author of it at all. But whatever was made by Him endowed with the power of its own free choice, so that it might keep the law which He most justly prescribed, if it did not keep it, is called evil. Moreover, this most grave damage is in the command.
A II. But that matter has already been argued and shown before, that the coats of skins are something other than the bodies. Nevertheless, let us repeat it again in this place, for it must be said more than once. The first parent himself, even before those tunics were sewn, confesses that he has both bones and flesh, when indeed, having caught sight of the woman who was brought to him, he exclaimed: This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. And again: She shall be called woman, because she was taken from her man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be two into one flesh. For I certainly cannot endure certain men who deliberately trifle and most impudently twist the Scriptures, so that their dogma of a resurrection without flesh may proceed for them—men who therefore have devised certain intelligible bones and likewise intelligible flesh, and who B turn themselves up and down in other ways with their allegories. Yet that these things are to be accepted just as they are written is confirmed by the authority of Christ, when He answers the Pharisees who were inquiring concerning the divorce of a wife: Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And He said: For this cause shall a man leave his father, etc.
III. But that notion is also clearly absurd, to suppose that the body will not accompany the soul into that eternal life, because it is, as it were, a bond and a shackle; so that we may not, according to what they opine, seem to be addicted to everlasting chains of corruption, being those who are about to inhabit that kingdom of light. For since that view, whereby they defined flesh to be the bond of the soul, has been amply C dissolved and refuted, that point is also resolved—namely, that the flesh does not rise again, lest, if we have resumed it, we should be shackled by reason of it in that kingdom of light.
IV. Therefore, that man might not be some immortal and everlasting evil, as we have already said, in whom sin had grown and gained dominion, as if it had sprouted in an immortal body and flourished like immortal food, God willed for that reason that he should be mortal and condemned him to death. For these leather tunics signified this, that indeed through the dissolution of the body, all that [evil] from the depths D might be rooted out entirely, so that not even
the smallest portion of the root might be left, from which new shoots of sins could sprout up again.
B V. For just as when a wild fig tree is born in the magnificent structures of temples, and has grown to such size and magnitude that it has spread its many-branched roots throughout all the joinery of the stones, it does not stop growing and budding until it is entirely torn out and the stones of the places where it sprouted are loosened and taken apart; for it is possible for the stones to be refitted into their own places once the fig tree has been removed, so that the temple itself may be preserved, no longer bearing within itself any of the evils that were destroying it, while the fig tree is pulled out by the roots and dies: in the same way, God, the craftsman, halted the growth—by the temporary impression C of death—of sin, which had sprouted like a wild fig tree in his temple, man. According to what is written, he "kills and makes alive," so that, the flesh of the same parts being renewed after the sin had dried up and died, the temple might rise again, immortal and unhurt, with sin utterly destroyed from its very foundations. For while the body still lives, before it has died, sin must also live within it, concealing its roots in us, even if it is checked from the outside by the prunings of chastisements and exhortations. Since, therefore, it would not happen that we sin after being enlightened, given that sin would have been entirely and purely removed from us—yet now, even after believing and coming to the water of sanctification, we are often found to be in sins. For no one can boast that he is so free from sin D that he does not even think of wickedness at all. Thus, it has come about that sin is now checked and lulled to sleep by faith, so as not to bear harmful fruits, yet it is not torn out by the roots. For the present, we repress its sprouts, which are evil thoughts, so that no "root of bitterness" springing up may "trouble" us, not permitting it to sprout and to open up the mouths that had been closed toward new growths; the Word, like an axe, cuts toward its roots growing below. Then, even the very thought of wickedness will be extinguished.
VI. Come then, since many examples are needed for such matters, let us consider them from this point, and not depart from this argument until the discourse has led to a clearer explanation and proof. It appears, therefore, as if some master builder,
A having fashioned a beautiful statue out of gold or some other material, and having adorned all its limbs with symmetrical beauty, should suddenly witness it disfigured by some most wicked man, who, not bearing the beauty of the statue out of envy, had brought upon it some blemish, intending to derive a vain pleasure from envy. B Observe then, most wise Aglaophon, that if the craftsman is not at all willing that the statue upon which he has worked with such great zeal and care should remain disfigured, he will again resolve in his mind to melt it down, so as to remake it as it was before. But if he does not choose to melt it down or remodel it, but simply tries to heal and correct it while leaving it as it is, it is necessary that the effigy, heated by fire and reworked by the craftsman’s skill, should no longer be preserved as the same, but appear changed and distorted. Therefore, if he wishes the whole image to be excellent and flawless, it must be broken up and melted down again, so that all the shames and alterations that came to it from the craft and envy of others may perish through the work of remodeling and melting; and that the image itself may be restored in the same form, unblemished and incorrupt, as similar as possible to itself. For to the statue, it does not mean destruction under the same C craftsman, even if it is cast back into material; rather, it means restoration. But for the blemishes and deformities, it is a matter of destruction—for they are melted away—and not of restoration; because in every art, the best craftsman does not look toward what is shameful or what is to be spoiled, but toward the symmetry and straightness of the thing being fashioned. It seems to me that God has managed the same thing in our case. For having seen man, his most excellent handiwork, suffering under the spiteful and envious malice of others, being a lover of mankind, He did not endure leaving him in such a state, lest he should carry around for all eternity that immortal reproach, stained with a blemish; but He dissolved him again into matter, so that through the new molding, all the faults within him might be melted away and caused to disappear. For the melting of the statue there is the dying here and the dissolution of the body; D and the reshaping of the material there is the rising again here (after death), just as the prophet Jeremiah also says. For he himself gives them assurances here on these matters, saying: "And I went down into the house of the potter, and behold, he was working a work upon the stones; and the vessel which he was making with his hands fell, and he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good in his sight to make it."
The word of the Lord came to me, saying: As this A potter, shall I not be able to do this to you, house of Israel? Behold, as the clay of the potter, you are in my hands.
VII. For, as I said, I would have you mark how, after the transgression of man, that great Hand did not consent to abandon Its own work—as if it were something spurious—to the evil one who had unjustly marred it with envious accusations. Instead, having melted it down, It fashioned it anew into clay, as a potter breaks a vessel, so that, through the reshaping, all the stains and fractures within it might be abolished, and the whole work might become once again, from the beginning, blameless and acceptable.
VIII. But I do not highly approve of saying that this universe will perish entirely, and that the earth, the air, and the heaven will cease to be. For while the whole world will indeed be burned with fire from heaven—inundated, as it were, by a deluge B of fire—to the end of purification and renewal, it will not, however, descend into complete destruction and corruption. For if it were better for the world not to be than to be, why would God, in creating the world, have chosen the worse condition? Yet neither did God create in vain, nor would He ever fabricate what is inferior. Therefore, God established the things He created to be and to remain, just as Wisdom also maintains, saying: *For God created all things to be; and the generations of the world are healthful, and there is no poison of destruction in them.*
Paul also explicitly bears witness, saying: *For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope: because the creature C itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.* For *vanity*, he says, *to which the creature was subject*—for by the name "creature," he intended to signify this world, which he expects to be delivered from such bondage. For it is not things invisible that serve corruption, but these things that are visible. Therefore, the creature remains, having been renewed unto a better state, exulting in greater beauty, and rejoicing over the children of God; it groans and travails in labor even now, itself also expecting our redemption from the corruption of the body, so that when we have been raised from the dead D and have shaken off the mortality of the flesh—according to what is written: *Shake off the dust and arise: sit down, O Jerusalem*—and have been liberated from sin, it too shall be liberated from corruption;
A no longer serving vanity, but righteousness. And Isaiah also says: *For as the new heaven and the new earth which I make, remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name be.* And again: *Thus saith the Lord who made the heaven, he who established the earth and made it; he himself divided it. He did not make it in vain, but he fashioned it to be inhabited.* For in truth, God did not create this universe in vain, nor emptyly for destruction—as those who think vain thoughts and inept men suppose—but for it to exist, to be inhabited, and to remain. Therefore, it is necessary that both the earth and the heaven exist again, after the conflagration and the heat of all things.
IX. But if the adversaries should object: B "How then, if the whole is not to perish?"—since the Lord said that heaven and earth C shall pass away, while the prophet says that the heaven shall perish like smoke, and the earth shall grow old like a garment—we shall reply that it is the custom of Scripture to call the transformation of the world from its present state into something better and more glorious an "interitus" (perishing); just as, for instance, when the prior form perishes, it is converted into a most delightful state. For there is nothing contrary or absurd in the holy Scriptures. Indeed, it is said: *The fashion of this world passeth away*, but not the world itself. Thus, it is customary for the Scriptures to call the change of a previous fashion into that which D is better and more beautiful an "interitus." Just as if someone were to call the transition and changing of a baby's form into that of a perfect man an "interitus," when the infant's age has been transformed into magnitude and beauty. And truly, we must think that the creation, as if about to die in that conflagration, shall pass away to be renewed; yet not so that it should perish and be extinguished, but that we ourselves, being renewed and restored, may inhabit a restored and renewed world, free from pain; according to what is said: *Thou shalt send forth Thy spirit, and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth*; for God shall henceforth provide that the environment be most temperate. For since the earth is to persist even after the end of this age, it is absolutely necessary that there be those who inhabit it; and those who
are not to die any more, nor to engage in marriage or beget offspring, but are to live in the manner of angels, without any change, in an immortal state most happily. Accordingly, it is foolish to inquire what manner of life bodies will then experience, seeing that neither air, nor earth, nor anything else will exist further.
B X. To these things, however, this must also be worthily considered, that it surely contains much ruin and leads the incautious away from the truth; if it is necessary to speak boldly about such great matters, O Aglaophon. For you have spoken as if asserting what the Lord answered the Sadducees when they were tempting Him, that those who become partakers of the resurrection will be *as the angels*. C You inferred, therefore: "But the angels, because they are devoid of flesh, dwell in the pinnacle of happiness and glory; wherefore it is necessary that we, who are destined to be made equal to the angels, be in the same manner stripped of flesh and become angels." You did not observe, O best of men, that He who created and ordered the universe out of nothing, having ordered the nature of immortal beings, distributed it not only into angels and ministers, D but also into principalities, and thrones, and powers. For the race of angels is one thing, and that of principalities and powers another; because there is not one order, and one constitution, and tribe, and family of the immortals, but rather families, and tribes, and differences. And neither do the cherubim, departing from their own nature, pass over into the form of angels; nor, on the other hand, are the angels changed into another nature. Indeed, it is necessary that they be what they are, and of the kind they were produced. Therefore, also B man, who was appointed to inhabit the world and to rule over all things in it, from the primary disposition, being immortal, will never be transformed into the form of angels or of any other; since not even the angels, being rearranged from the primary form, are transformed into another. For Christ did not come to preach that human nature should be reshaped or transformed into another...
rather, he preached that it should return to that state in which it was in the beginning, before it fell, when it was immortal. For it is necessary that each of the things created should persist in the place A appropriate to its own constitution and nature, so that all things may be filled with their own proper contents: the heavens with angels, the thrones with powers 94, the ministries with lights; and the more divine places, and the pure and immaculate lights of the seraphim, which stand before the great counsel, sustaining 97 the whole; and the world with men. B But if we grant that men are changed into angels, we are forced to say that the angels are changed into powers, and these into something else again, until our argument, in its progression, falls into danger.
XI. Neither did God create man as something base, nor, having failed in his formation 98, did he later conceive of making angels, repenting like the silliest of craftsmen; nor, having intended from the beginning to create angels, did he fail and create man instead; for that is a sign of weakness. Why, then, did he make man and not an angel, if he wished for man to become an angel and not man? Was it because he could not? C This is blasphemy. Or was he occupied with something inferior, and therefore postponed the better? This also is absurd. For God is neither mistaken in doing what is good, nor does he postpone it, nor is he lacking in power; but as he wills, and when he wills, he possesses the ability to act, being Power itself. Wherefore, desiring man to be man, he brought him forth at the beginning. But if he did this willingly—and he wills what is good, and man is good, and he consists of soul and body—it follows that man will by no means be without a body, but in a body, so that another man, different from the man we know, may D not be born. For it is necessary that all immortal races be preserved by God; and man is immortal. For Scripture says, "God created man for incorruption, and made him the image of his own eternity." Therefore, the body does not perish; for man consists of soul and body. The Body does not, therefore, utterly perish and die; with its wonderful temperance and grace, which God, as a most loving Father, maintains and cares for. For it is better for me to be with Christ, and that I should, like a member, at some time follow my most divine Head, exalted above all the heavens, in the body.
A XII. And see, I beseech you, how the Lord willed to hand down that same resurrection to those Sadducees who denied it. For this is a dogma of the Sadducees. Whence they composed that parable about the woman and the seven brothers, which they proposed against the dogma of the resurrection of the body: "There came to him," it says, "Sadducees, saying that there is no resurrection." Therefore, Christ, if there were no resurrection of the flesh, but only the soul obtained salvation, would certainly have agreed with them, as though they were thinking correctly and well. But now he answers, saying: "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven": not because they do not have flesh, but because they do not contract mutual marriages, but henceforth are free from corruption. He adds, indeed, that we are by this part close to the angels; so that, just as the angels in heaven, we too in paradise may no longer indulge in marriages or banquets, but be occupied in contemplating God and in cultivating life, with Christ as guide and moderator. For he did not say, "they shall be angels," but "as angels," as if indeed crowned with glory and honor, according as it is written, "and lacking a little of the angels," and close to their nature. Just as if he were to say: in a tranquil and serene air during the night, when all things are illuminated by the celestial light of the moon, the moon shines like the sun. For then, we would not conclude from that testimony that the moon is entirely the sun, but that it draws near to the sun. Just as also that which is not gold, yet by its nature is near to being gold, is called "as gold," but not gold: for if it were gold, it should not be called "as gold," but gold. Because, however, it is not gold, but is close to gold, and so that it might feign the appearance of gold, it is called "as gold": in exactly the same way, in that he proclaimed that the saints would be in the resurrection "as angels," it is not to be understood that he intended them to be angels, but only that they would be close to their condition. Wherefore it is most foolish to conclude thus: Since Christ proclaimed that the saints would be seen as angels in the resurrection, B therefore these bodies will not rise again; especially when the word itself, as by a comparison, clearly shows the reason of that which occurs. For resurrection is not spoken of that which has never fallen; but of that which has fallen, and rises again. As when the prophet also says: "And I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen." For that desired tabernacle truly fell, collapsed into the earth of the mound. For that which does not die is not said to incline, but that which dies. But the flesh dies; for the soul is immortal. And therefore, if the soul is immortal, but the body is a corpse; those who say that there is a resurrection, but not of the flesh, deny the resurrection; because it is not that which stands, but that which has fallen and been inclined that is raised C
A according to what is written: "Shall he who falls not rise again, or he who turns away not turn back?"
XIII. Since the flesh was between the borders of corruption and incorruption, and was created neither corruption nor incorruption, but was overcome by corruption on account of pleasure—although it was the work and possession of incorruption, and for that reason it had been made subject to corruption, and had bowed down to the earth of the mound—after it had been overcome by corruption, and handed over to death on account of transgression, God did not wish to leave it as an inheritance to the victory of corruption; but having again overcome death through the resurrection, He restored it to incorruption, so that corruption might not inherit incorruption, but rather incorruption might inherit that which is corruptible. To these things, therefore, the Apostle replies: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." But what else could it be for this corruptible and mortal to put on immortality and incorruption, other than that which is sown in corruption should rise in incorruption (for the soul is not corruptible or mortal; but that which is corruptible and is corrupted is this flesh)? B "In order that," as we have borne the image of the earthly, we may also bear the image of the heavenly. For the image of the earthly which we have borne is this: "You are earth, and to earth you shall return." But the image of the heavenly is the resurrection from the dead and incorruption: "So that just as Christ was raised through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."
But if anyone should think that by "earthly image" the flesh itself is meant, and by "heavenly image" another spiritual body apart from the flesh, let him first consider that Christ, the heavenly man, appeared bearing the same form of limbs, and the same image and flesh similar to ours; for which reason, although He was not man, He became man: so that, "just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." For He did not bear and put on flesh for the reason that He would not deliver and resurrect the flesh. For why did He wear flesh in vain, which He had not intended to save or to resurrect? C But the Son of God does nothing in vain. He did not, therefore, assume the form of a servant to no purpose and with no utility, but so that He might grant it resurrection and save it. For indeed, He truly became man and died, not in appearance and empty pretense, but that He might truly reveal Himself as the firstborn of the dead, having changed the earthly into the heavenly, and the mortal into the immortal.
When, therefore, Paul says that "flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God," he does not proclaim this as if he were denying the regeneration of the flesh, but as teaching that the kingdom of God, which is eternal life, cannot be possessed by the body, but the body [is possessed] by life. For if the kingdom of God, being life, were possessed by the body, it would happen that life was swallowed up by corruption. But now the
A dead are possessed by life, so that death may be swallowed up in victory by life, and the corruptible may appear as the possession of incorruption and immortality, having become free and rid of death and sin, yet a servant and subject to immortality; so that the body might be the possession of incorruption, and not incorruption the possession of the body.
XIV. Since from such a small drop, which is not yet in existence, nor even in such moisture, confinement, and smallness, a man is made out of nothing, how should a man not much more become a man again through resurrection from the man who already existed? For it seems much less difficult that what has lived and been dissolved should be reconstituted and repaired again, than that what has not yet been should come forth from nothing. Therefore, if it pleases us, let us produce the fetus separated from the male; let us produce it by itself, and the corpse of the deceased, in the midst. Then I ask, when both are openly set forth and proposed, which one would spectators believe is going to be a man? Would it be that little drop, which is as yet absolutely nothing at all? Or the dead man, already endowed with the shape, bulk, and substance of a man? For if that which appears to be absolutely nothing becomes a man again, God alone willing it, how much more shall that which already exists and has been perfected, the divine will concurring, become the same man again? For otherwise, what was that theologian Moses desiring when he spiritually introduced and decreed the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus? B Can it be that we should worship God in the feast in the same way as the Jews—who understand the Scriptures more basely and vulgarly—explain it? As though God were truly pleased by such tabernacles adorned with fruits, branches, and leaves, which immediately fade when stripped of their greenness. That certainly cannot be said. I ask you, then, what is the meaning of the Scenopegia? It was instituted as a sign of our true tabernacle, which, having collapsed into corruption through transgression and been dissolved by sin, God promised He would raise up again, reformed and recomposed, unharmed. In order that we might celebrate to Him in truth that great and much-proclaimed solemnity of the Scenopegia in the resurrection; when our tabernacles, joined together C for the adornment of immortality and harmony, shall rise from the dust free from corruption; when they shall hear, as the prophet most truly says, the dry bones restored to their joints again, with the life-giving Molder, God, the best of craftsmen, drawing near, renewing the flesh once more, and mixing and binding it together—not now with the bonds by which it was held fast in the beginning, but henceforth altogether immortal and indissoluble. For I myself saw on Olympus (this is a mountain in Lycia) fire spontaneously D issuing from the earth at the summit of the mountain, and about the fire was a bush of agnus-castus, and so...
A thriving and green, and so shaded, that one might suspect it to have sprouted forth water rather than being scorched by B fire. For what reason then, if the natures of mortal things are such, and bodies are consumed by fire, and it is impossible for things that are by nature combustible to remain unburnt—this plant is not only not consumed, but it actually appears more vigorous and green, though by nature it is combustible, and this while fire is smoldering about its very roots? I myself plucked branches of trees from the surrounding woods and threw them into the fire breaking out there, and they were suddenly caught by the flames and reduced to ashes. I ask, therefore, for what reason does that which cannot even bear the heat of the sun, but withers if it is not watered and moistened, not get consumed while being held in such a great conflagration of fire, but lives and flourishes? What then does this miracle mean? God has set this as a proof and a beginning of that future day, so that we may know more clearly that, when all things are rained upon by fire from heaven, and all else is overwhelmed and consumed, those bodies which have shone in chastity and justice shall, through that fire, just as through cold water, pass through it without any pain or distress. For truly, O most beneficent and magnificent Lord, the creation, serving thee who made it, becomes rigid to inflict punishment upon the wicked, but is relaxed for the benefit of those who trust in thee; and at thy will, the fire indeed brings refreshment, harming nothing of those whose salvation thou hast ordained, while, on the contrary, water burns more vehemently and sharply than fire, and nothing resists thy immortal command and power. For thou didst create all things from nothing; wherefore thou also changest all things, since they are thine, and remoldest and transformest them as thou willest, thou who alone existest as God. C
XV. The Apostle, therefore, when he had attributed the planting and the watering to human art, to the earth, and to the water, conceded the increase to God alone, when he says: "Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." For he knew that that divine Wisdom of God, begotten before all things, the generator of all things and the artificer of all, brings all things into the world; which also the ancients called Nature and Providence, because she is always providing and caring, granting to all things that they be born and grow. For, he says, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Wherefore D also Solomon called her the artificer of all things; since there is no lack in God, but He is able in abundance both to create and to make and to vary and to increase all things.
A XVI. God, who created all things and cares for and provides for all things, taking dust from the earth, fashioned our external man.
Of St. Methodius, Bishop of Patara, On the Resurrection, Oration II
(From St. John Damascene, Oration II on Images, Vol. I, p. 389, Paris ed. 1712.)
Protinus ergo terrenorum imperatorum imagines, quanquam minime ex pretiosa admodum auri vel argenti materia consistant, ab omnibus tamen honorantur. Neque enim, si quæ ex pretiosiori materia conflatæ sunt, homines duntaxat colunt; si quæ vero ex vili, contemnunt et aspernantur: sed universim omnem in terra imaginem colunt, tametsi ex gypso vel ære confectam. Quisquis vero in earum aliquam, qualiscunque illa sit, maledicta conjecerit, is, neque velut in lutum injurius fuerit, absolutus dimittitur, neque tanquam aurum spreverit condemnatur; sed velut qui in ipsum imperatorem et dominum impie egerit. Quas quidem angelorum Dei principatuumque et potestatum imagines ex auro conflamus, eas ad ipsius honorem gloriamque conficimus. B
Of St. Methodius from the Book on the Resurrection
(In Photius, Bibliotheca, cod. CCXXXIV, p. 907.)
C I. It has been read from the book *On the Resurrection* of St. Methodius, bishop and martyr; the argument of which compendium is this: That the body is not, as Origen thought, a bond of the soul; neither D
A are souls said by the prophet Jeremiah to be bonds because they exist in bodies. For he does not propose that the operations of the soul are hindered by the body; rather, the body is carried about and cooperates in those things to which the soul invites it. But how is it to be understood in the words of Gregory the Theologian and many others?
B II. That Origen said the body was given to the soul as a bond after the transgression, although it lived before without a body. But he also added this, that the body which we wear is the cause of sins: for which reason he also called it a bond, as being able to hinder the soul from good works.
III. But if the body was given to the soul as a bond after the transgression, it was given to it either as a bond of evil or of good. Now it is impossible that it be a bond of good; for neither does a physician nor any other artisan provide a remedy to one who has sinned, in order that he may sin more, much less does God. It remains, therefore, that it was given as a bond of evil. But we see that Cain, at the very beginning when clothed in this body, committed murder; and it is manifest to what crimes his posterity lapsed. Therefore, the body is not a bond of evil; therefore, it is not a bond in any way; nor did the soul first put it on after the transgression.
C IV. Man, he says, if you look at his nature, is most truly said to be neither a soul without a body, nor, on the contrary, a body without a soul; but that which, from the coalescence of soul and body, is fashioned into one form of the beautiful and the good. Origen, however, like Plato, said that the soul alone constitutes the man.
V. He says there is a difference between man and other animals: and that to them were given diverse species of nature and forms, as many as the solid and visible nature produced when God commanded: but to man it was given to be similar to God and deiform, and that he should have all things looking toward that exact, exemplary image of the Father and the Only-Begotten. It will be worth considering in what sense the holy man says this.
D VI. He says that Phidias the sculptor, when he had formed the Pisan statue out of ivory, commanded before the statue
so that it might secure for it an immortal power.
VII. The devil, he says, is a spirit made by God in relation to matter, as also pleased Athenagoras, just as the rest of the angels were made by the same, to whom also matter and the administration and management of the forms in matter were committed. For this was the rule of the angels' constitution, that in those things which were fashioned by God, they might perform vicarious service for God in managing them through providence; that is to say, that while God, who bears general and universal care for all things, might retain B the lordship and empire of all things himself, with the power and stability of all things hanging upon him, [the angels appointed for this purpose might in the meantime sustain their particular function and care.] But while the rest remained in that station for the sake of which they were created by God and to which they were appointed, the devil acted insolently, and in the administration of those things that had been committed to him, he showed himself most wicked, having conceived envy against us; just as those who, later burning with the lust of bodies, had the practice of intercourse with the daughters of men. For God appointed that even to them there should be self-determining will in both directions, just as in the case of men. But how is this to be understood?
VIII. By skin garments he understands death. For he relates concerning Adam that, when God almighty saw the eternal evil C that had been brought about from the deceits of the devil, and what kind of impostor the devil was, he made for this reason skin garments, as though clothing him with mortality: so that by the dissolution of the body, whatever evil had been produced in him might die.
IX. He says that two revelations happened to the holy D
A X. He teaches also that doing evil or not doing it is in our power, for otherwise we would not pay penalties for evil deeds, nor would we receive rewards for merit: but that to think, or not to think of, evil [things] is not in our power. Therefore he says that the divine Paul says: *For that which I work, I know not: for not what I would, that do I: but what I hate, that I do.* This means: it is not what I desire to think, that I think, but what I do not desire. Furthermore, he says that the vice of evil thought is eradicated on the arrival of natural death: for indeed, death was inflicted by God upon the sinner for this reason, lest evil should remain eternal. B But how is this to be understood? It must be known that this has also been handed down by other of our Fathers. Death, certainly, at the time when one departs from it, shall be neither an addition to sins nor a subtraction.
Compendious Exposition of Certain Apostolic Sayings, from the same book of St. Methodius.
(Apud Photium ibid., pag. 909.)1. There was read, from the same book of his, an explanation of certain apostolic sayings in summary. Let us see what it was that we were first brought to say about the Apostle. For that phrase, *but I was alive*, having been said to him, D signifies that the first thing he was brought to say concerning the Apostle was something else.
EX LIBRO DE RESURRECTIONE.
A "I was alive without the law once": this means that, as we previously supposed, before the commandment, we were not without bodies, but lived with our bodies in paradise, in our first parents, as we have explained above. Moreover, we lived free from concupiscence, not knowing its assaults or its power in any way at all. For not to have any definition according to which one ought to live, nor to have absolute authority in the form of a command as to what discipline one must use so that one might justly be honored or punished, is said to be free from all blame. For one cannot desire those things from which one is not restricted; and even if one were to desire them, one would not be blamed. For desiring does not fall upon things present and subject to our power, but rather upon things that are present, yet not in our power. For how would someone desire that from which he is not restricted and of which he is not in need? Therefore, for this reason, I would not have known concupiscence if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." For when they heard, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die," then they conceived concupiscence, and they longed for it. B Therefore it is well said: "I would not have known concupiscence if the law had not said: You shall not covet." Nor would I have wanted to eat if it had not been said: "You shall not eat of it." For from that point, sin received an opportunity to mock me. For when the commandment was given, the devil had a means to work concupiscence in me; for "without the law, sin was dead." That is, when the command was not given, sin was ineffective. And I lived blamelessly before the commandment, having no instruction according to which I ought to have lived. But when the command came, sin revived; and I died; and the commandment which was for life, this was found to be for death. For after God had legislated and distinguished for me what should be done and what should not be done, the devil worked concupiscence in me. For the promise of God that was given to me was for life and incorruption—so that, by obeying it, I might have a life flourishing toward immortality, and joy—but when I broke it, it turned into death. Since the devil, whom he now calls sin because of the Creator of... C ...it? What is inactive, he says, is "dead sin."
Methodius, like Chrysostom and others, I believe, did not contend that the apostolic words must be restricted to his own sense. Paul might have spoken generally about being without law, such as the first parent was before that forbidden command not to eat of the tree of knowledge, which indeed refers to positive law. And there were men before the Law of Moses, which also refers to many things of the natural law that were less known. In all these, in matters regarding such non-commandments, sin was dead. Whether we understand the devil as that external instigator in the Methodian sense, or concupiscence and the itch of the flesh as the domestic instigator, Methodius says: it was ineffective, so that it could do nothing; and thus it was formally unknown, and could not be known except by the occasion of the law. For thus we have truly known the devil, and the first parent knew him most of all, so that Methodius has nothing inconsistent in these matters, and D there is nothing of Justinian's that he values more than the refutation from that chapter. I only see that Achilles—in whom Estius and others who think differently trust—is not yet prostrate; namely, the dissonance of another place from the same Apostle, where he says that Adam was not seduced. Therefore, he does not say here that he was seduced; therefore, he is not speaking of himself as in Adam before the sin, when he was without law. Indeed, it can easily be answered that Paul is speaking absolutely in this place, but in the other place he is speaking in comparison with Eve; and thus, most truly, he says he was seduced, and not seduced. He was certainly, as it were, mediately seduced, as he judged by practical error that he ought to acquiesce to the serpentine and diabolical suggestion proposed through Eve, although speculatively he did not fail to know that false things were being suggested—in which he can be seen as not seduced, and is so called by Paul, who prefers the man as by nature greater, and in wisdom over the woman; whom, in Eve, the serpent so easily deceived, and persuaded that the false suggestion was a divinity.
A I had received the commandment, so that by obeying it I might always possess a life flourishing in immortality and joy; but to me who disdained it, it resulted in death. Indeed, the devil, whom Paul here calls "sin," as he himself is the architect and author of sin, taking occasion from sin to deceive me through disobedience, killed the one he had deceived, and brought to pass the fulfillment of that sentence of judgment: *On the day you eat of it, you shall die the death.*
Therefore, the law is indeed holy, and the commandment of God holy, and just, and good; for it was given not to harm, but to save. For let us not think that God does anything useless or harmful. What then? Has that which is good become death to me? Has that which was given as a law intended to be the cause of the greatest good for me, become my death? God forbid! For the commandment of God did not become the cause of my being enslaved to corruption, but the devil did: so that by working evil through what is good, he might be revealed, and he, the inventor of sin, might be shown and convicted of being a sinner B to an extreme degree. For we know that the law is spiritual; therefore, it is in no way the cause of harm to anyone. For spiritual things are far removed from irrational desire and sin, and have their dwelling apart from them.
"But I am carnal, sold under sin." As if he were saying: I, who am carnal, and have been placed in the middle between the good and the evil, having the power of self-determination, so that it lies with me to choose what I will. For he says: *I have set before your face life and death.* Since, therefore, I have consented, so as not to obey the spiritual law—that is, the commandment—but have obeyed the carnal law—that is, the advice of the serpent—by reason of such an election I have fallen into sin and have been sold to the devil. C Henceforth, evil, as if besieging me, clings to me and dwells in my flesh as in a house; for after the penalty was imposed upon me for having violated the commandment, I was sold into evil.
Whence also that which is said: *For I do not know what I am doing,* and, *What I hate, I do,* must not be understood as referring to an evil act, but only to a thought. For it is not in our power whether to have or not to have irrational thoughts, but it is in our power to use or not to use them. For we cannot prevent these thoughts from falling upon us, since we receive those that are breathed into us from without; but we can choose not to be persuaded by them, or not to act upon them. D Therefore, the desire not to have such thoughts is within our power; but to destroy them utterly so that they do not arise again regarding our reflection—this is not in our power, as I have said. So that the mind of the saying is this: "For I do not do the good that I will; for I will not to have thoughts that harm me." Since this good is entirely spotless. And that indeed: *What I will, I do not do; but what I do not will, I do as an evil;* not willing the [consequence...]
that I should think, and yet I do think, things I do not will. And consider, 44 if it were not for these very things, would David also have entreated God, vexed that he too thought things he did not will: *Cleanse me from my hidden faults, and spare your servant from the faults of others.* If they do not master me, then I shall be blameless, and I shall be cleansed from a great sin. And the Apostle himself says in another place: 42 *Destroying reasonings, and every height raising itself against the knowledge of God; and taking captive every thought into obedience to Christ.*
B But if anyone, daring to challenge this argument, were to object that the Apostle teaches that we hate evil, and do what we do not will, not only in thinking, but also in the very act, because it is said: *For the good which I will, I do not do; but the evil which I do not will, that I do;* let us ask him—if he is speaking the truth 45—to explain what this evil was, which the Apostle hated and did not want to do, yet did nonetheless, or what that good was, to the contrary, which he wanted to perform but could not; or rather, how it is that as often as he wanted to do good, he did not do the good he wanted, but did the evil he did not want? And with what logic, exhorting us to shake off sin entirely, does he proclaim: *Be imitators of me, just as I am of Christ?* Thus, he did not mean what was said regarding performing what he did not will, but only regarding thinking it. For how else could he be an accurate imitator of Christ?
It would be good, then—and most joyous—if we had no one opposing us and fighting against us; but since this is impossible, and we will [to do so] yet are not able—for we will not to have those who drag us into passions, as it would be to be saved without an effort C—what we will does not happen, but rather what we do not will. For it is necessary for us to be tested, as it ought to be. 44 Let us not give way, then, O soul; let us not give way to the evil one; but, *Taking up the armor of God,* which protects us, let us *put on the breastplate of righteousness,* and *shoe our feet in the preparation of the Gospel.*
D This is a solid explanation of that Pauline sentiment; that he, already a just man, acts out the role of the just, and in it laments and mourns that force which, from the evil suggestion of a demon, or even from the sedition and stubbornness of the lower powers, introduces wicked thoughts, of which he cannot help but have perception. But if, with others, we were to speak in the person of a man who is not just and in grace, then even in works some such power must be granted—though not entirely absolute—such as is in thoughts, which yet he himself, thus a captive of the devil and driven to his will into every crime, has ascribed to himself; who has both forsaken God, and, even when He is willing to conciliate, refuses to acquiesce. Excellent are those things which our Amphilochius pursues in his homily on repentance regarding such thoughts, being of both great learning and consolation.
Of the Apostle’s Teaching on the Internal War between the Spirit and the Flesh
In all things let us take up the shield of faith, wherewith we shall be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the wicked one; and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. To the end that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, and to cast down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. B For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood. For that which I perform I know not: for not what I will, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do. But if what I do not will, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good (49). Now then it is no longer I that work it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Properly said. For you remember, as we determined above, from the time when the man, having been led astray, happened to transgress the commandment, from thence, sin, having taken its origin from the disobedience, came to dwell in him. For thus a sedition began to be stirred up (46), and we were filled with agitations and incongruous reasonings; being emptied of the divine inspiration of God, and filled with material desire, which C the many-witted (50) serpent breathed into us. Wherefore God also devised death for our sake for the destruction of sin, so that if it sprouted up in us who are immortal, as I said, it might not be immortal. Whence the Apostle: "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing," wishing to signify the sin which, through the desire following upon the transgression, was introduced into us; of which, just as new shoots, the pleasure-loving reasonings always gather around us and beset us. For there are two kinds of reasonings in us: the one generated from the desire lurking in the body, which, as I said, consists of the device of the material spirit; the other from the law according to the commandment, which we received as an innate and natural law rousing our reasoning D toward the good. Whence with the law of God we delight according to the mind; for this is the inner man; but with the law of the devil according to the desire dwelling in the flesh. For that which wars against and opposes the law of God, that is, the impulse of the mind toward the good, is the one that always causes the passionate and material stirrings toward lawlessness to grow up.
III. For Paul seems to me here to have openly distinguished three laws in all. One, indeed, according to the good innate in us, which he also clearly termed a law;
A a second, a law of the wicked one, formed from suggestion, which frequently draws the soul into passionate phantasies, which he said wars against the law of the mind. And a third, which has hardened 51 in the flesh through sin arising from lust, which he called the law of sin dwelling in our members 54; upon which that wicked enemy, sitting 53, often gives orders against us, driving us on toward injustice and wicked deeds. For it appears that, to us ourselves, one thing is better and another is worse. And when the better is about to become more powerful by nature than the worse, the mind is carried entirely toward the good; but when the worse gains the upper hand and abounds, man is led again, conversely, toward worse thoughts. B And for this reason, the Apostle wishes to be delivered, considering it to be death and destruction, just as the Prophet also says: "Cleanse me from my hidden faults" (Ps. xviii, 13). These words, therefore, establish this fact: "For I delight," he says, "in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. vii, 22-24). He is not declaring the body [itself] to be death, but the law of sin which is in the members, which, through the transgression, lies hidden in us, and is always displaying to the soul the injustice that leads to death. He therefore immediately adds—surely resolving C what kind of death he was eager to be delivered from, and who it was that delivered him—"Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ" (ibid. 25). But one must observe, Aglaophon 52, if he had said that this body was death, as you have assumed, he would not have invoked Christ as the one who later delivered him from such an evil. For what, then, would have been the extraordinary benefit we obtained from the coming of Christ? Or why, indeed, would the Apostle have uttered this at all, as though he were strengthened by the presence of Christ to be liberated by God from death, since it happened that all men died even before Christ came into the world? So that it is not this body, Aglaophon, that he calls death, but the
A sin that has made its dwelling in the body through desire; from which God delivered him through the coming of Christ. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death, so that he who raised Jesus from the dead, because of his Spirit dwelling in you, might also give life to our mortal bodies, with the sin that is in the body having been condemned for its destruction; B so that the requirement of the natural law, which draws us toward good according to the commandment, might be revealed and kindled. For God restored that which was impossible for the natural good within us (60)—in which it was weak, being overcome by the desire that lies in the body—by sending his own Son, who took upon himself flesh similar to the flesh of sin, so that with sin condemned for its destruction, to the end that it might no longer bring forth fruit in the flesh, the requirement of the natural law might be fulfilled, abounding in merit through obedience for those who walk not according to the desire of the flesh, but according to the desire and guidance of the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life, which is the Gospel—being different from the aforementioned laws—having been established through preaching for obedience and the remission of sins, has set us free from the law of sin and death, having completely conquered sin that reigned, [and] the flesh.
IV. He says [Methodius] that plants are neither nourished by nor grow from the earth. For he says: One might raise the question, how can the earth, transformed, be taken up into such a great size of trees? For if it were true, the place where the tree has grown should have been hollowed out, with the surrounding earth being drawn up through the rising roots into the very nature of wood. C Wherefore, such a consideration of theirs regarding the flux of bodies is vain. For how, I ask, does the earth, insinuating itself through the roots into the trunks of plants, and distributed through passage-ways into all their branches, change into leaves and fruit? There are indeed tall trees, a cedar, or pines, or firs, and they bear many leaves and fruits every year; yet it is perfectly clear that they do not take anything from the underlying earth into the mass of their woody substance (59). For it would have been necessary, if it were truly D the case, that the bulk of the oak be consumed. For it was necessary, inasmuch as the underlying earth was always being snatched away through the roots, for there to be a hollowing out of the entire texture of the wood, in the way in which the wood has sprouted. Consequently, their such reasoning regarding the growth of bodies is vain. For how on earth does the earth, entering into the trunks of plants through the roots and being fragmented through the pores into all their branches, change into leaves and fruit? Trees are indeed long-lived, like a cedar, or pines, or firs, and they bring forth much foliage and fruit every year. For it is possible (61) to see that nothing of the underlying earth [is taken] into the bulk of the oak.
For it would have been necessary, if it were true, that the earth, by ascending through the roots, should become woody, and that the whole place around them should be hollowed out, because dry matter is not of such a nature as to flow like liquid matter, always [moving] toward that which is moved. And indeed, we see fig trees and other such plants often growing up in the masonry of monuments, [and] it is recorded that they have not consumed any of the building into themselves at all. If, then, anyone wished to gather the fruit and leaves of several years, he would see their mass to have become many times greater than the earth upon the monuments. Whence it is most absurd to think that the earth is consumed by changing into the abundance of fruits and leaves; even though all things come to pass through it, it merely provides a seat and a place. For bread is not made without a mill, and a place, and time, and fire; yet none of these is bread, nor is bread made of these. And the same is true in ten thousand other cases.
V. V. Hoc Pauli: Scimus enim, quoniam si terrestris domus nostra tabernaculi dissolvatur, etc. B The Origenists, in order to do away with the resurrection of the bodies, bring forward [this verse], saying that the "tabernacle" is the body, and the "house not made with hands in the heavens" is what they imagine to be spiritual garments. Hence, St. Methodius says that by the "earthly house" we must understand, in a transferred sense, this short-lived life, and not this "tabernacle" itself. For he says, if you suppose that by the "earthly house being dissolved" our body is meant, then teach us what the "tabernacle" is, whose house is to be dissolved? For the tabernacle is one thing, and the house of the tabernacle is another; and we, to whom the tabernacle belongs, are something else. For if [it says], "If our earthly house of C the tabernacle be dissolved," [it is] as if it indicated that we are the souls; the tabernacle, the body; and the house of the tabernacle, the enjoyment of the flesh during the present life, in a metaphorical sense. If, therefore, this life of the body, being like a house, be dissolved, we shall have that one in the heavens which is not made with hands. It is called "not made with hands," he says, because this [present] life is called "made with hands," by way of contrast, because all our adornments and pursuits in life are fashioned by the hands of men. For the body, being the workmanship D of God, is not called "made with hands," because it was not fashioned by the arts of men. But if they say it is "made with hands" because it was fashioned by God, it follows that the souls also, and the angels, and the garments that are in the heavens, would be called "made with hands." For these too are the direct workmanship of God. What, then, is the "house made with hands"? It is this short-lived...
life, as I was saying, affected and sustained, as it were, by human hands. For it says, "In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread" (Gen. iii, 19). When this is dissolved, we possess that life not made by hands, as the Lord Himself declared when He said, "Make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles" (Luc. xvi, 9). For what the Lord called "tabernacles" there, the Apostle here calls "garments"; and what He called "friends from unrighteousness" there, the Apostle here calls "houses being dissolved." Therefore, when the days of this our present life have failed, the good deeds A which we have acquired for our souls in this life of unrighteousness (for the world lies in the evil one) (I Joan. v, 19) will receive our souls; so that, when this fleeting life is dissolved, we souls may have an abode with God (67) before the resurrection, until we receive that house, restored for us, which shall never fall. Hence, too, we groan, not wishing to be stripped [of the body], but, having retained it, to be supervested by the remaining life (II Cor. v, 2, 3). For the domicile from heaven, which we desire to be supervested with, is immortality; and when we have been supervested with it, whatever in us is weak and mortal will be completely swallowed up, consumed by the timeless life. "For we walk by faith, and not by sight" (ibid. 7). That is: For we still proceed by faith, contemplating the things there with a very obscure reasoning, and not clearly, so that we might see, enjoy, and be in them. But I say this, brethren, that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption" (I Cor. xv, 50). By the name of "flesh," He did not signify the flesh itself, but the irrational impulse of the soul toward lascivious pleasures. Having said, therefore, "That flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," He added, "Nor does corruption inherit incorruption." Now, corruption is not the thing itself which is corrupted, but that which corrupts. B For when death has prevailed, the body declines into corruption; but when life remains within it, it stands unharmed. Therefore, since the flesh was created as a boundary between incorruption and corruption—being neither corruption nor incorruption in itself, but, having been mastered by reason of pleasure by corruption, though it was the work and possession of incorruption—it has therefore been brought to corruption. And since it was joined together (68) by corruption, and by death through C D
castigation it was handed over, God did not desire to leave it to corruption as an inheritance; but by resurrection, having again conquered death, He restored it to incorruption, so that corruption might not inherit incorruption, but rather incorruption might inherit the corruptible. A To this the Apostle responds: *For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal, immortality.* What else can "this corruptible and mortal putting on immortality and incorruption" be, but that which is sown in corruption rising in incorruption? *As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.* For the image of the earthly which we have borne is this: *You are dust, and to dust you shall return.* But the image of the heavenly is the resurrection from the dead and incorruption.
B VI. Justin the Neapolitan, a man neither far removed in time from the apostles nor in virtue, says that what is mortal is possessed, but that it possesses life. And he says that flesh dies, but the kingdom of heaven lives. When, therefore, Paul says that *flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God*, he does not mean, as he says, to deny the regeneration of the flesh; but he is teaching that the kingdom of God, which is eternal life, is not possessed by the body, but the body by life. For if the kingdom of God, being life, were possessed by the body, it would follow that life would be swallowed up by corruption. But now, conversely, that which has died is possessed by life, so that death might be swallowed up in victory by life, and that which is corruptible might be shown to be the possession of incorruption; C having been made free from death and sin, but having become a servant and subject to immortality; so that the body might be of incorruption, and not incorruption of the body.
VII. That text: *And the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive*, is thus explained by St. Methodius. That is to say: these very bodies of ours! For we who are alive are the souls, who take up again the bodies raised from the earth, so that, having been caught up together with them to meet the Lord, we may joyfully D
A celebrate with Him the glorious feast of the resurrection, in return for which we have received our eternal tabernacles, no longer to die or be dissolved.
VIII. I saw, he says, on Mount Olympus in Lycia, a fire spontaneously arising on the summit of the mountain; near it exists a plant, by name the *pyragnus*, so flourishing, green, and shady, that it appears to have been born from a spring rather than the earth. For what reason then, if the natures of mortal beings are such that bodies are consumed by fire, does not only this plant not burn up, but even flourish all the more, even though by nature it could easily be consumed, especially when the fire is erupting at its very roots? Therefore, I threw branches of trees from the surrounding woods into the fire erupting there; they were suddenly B caught by the flames and reduced to ashes. What, then, does this miracle mean? God set this forth as a sign and indication of that future day, so that we might know that, when all things are being deluged and consumed by fire, those bodies which have spent their time in chastity and justice shall walk through the fire no differently than through cold water.
IX. See, he says, whether the blessed John, when he says: *The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and hell gave up the dead who were in them*, 85 did not point to the parts returned by the elements for the restoration of each? For by the sea, the moist substance is understood; by hell, the air, on account of its being invisible, because it is not seen, just as Origen himself explains: and finally, by death, the earth, because a dead man is laid to rest in it: whence C it is also called the dust of death in the Psalms, 86 with Christ saying that He was brought down into the dust of death.
X. For whatever, he says, is composed of pure air and pure fire, and is of the same substance as the angelic concretions 74 and bodies, is not in any way endowed with the quality of earth and water; because it would necessarily be earthly. Such a body, and consisting of such things, Origen imagined the body to be that will rise again, which he even called spiritual.
XI. But, he says, what will be the appearance of the one rising again, if this human form, as useless in his opinion, is to be abolished; that form which is by far the most lovable of all that grow into living things: the form which the Divinity itself uses as an image, 75 just as also D [the rest].
85 Apoc. XX, 13. 86 Ps. XXI, 16.
A The most wise Paul declares: "For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God" (1 Cor. XI, 7); to which also the rational bodies of the angels have been adorned and arranged? Will, therefore, a figure of that kind be rounder, or many-angled, or cubic, or pyramidal? For there are manifold variations of figures; but this is impossible. How, then, is this allotment to be understood: that the God-like figure—since he himself admits that the soul is of likes-form with the body—is rejected as if it were of lesser glory, and that man should rise again without feet and hands?
XII. Transformation, he says, is a restoration into a state immune to passion and into glory. For now, indeed, the body is one of desire and humiliation; hence also Daniel was called a "man of desires" (Dan. IX, 23). B But then it will be transfigured into an impassible body; not by a change in the arrangement of the members, but by the extinction of the desire for material pleasures.
He then says, refuting Origen: Origen therefore wishes that the same flesh is not restored to the soul, but that the kind of form of each one, according to the species which even now distinguishes and marks out the flesh, should rise again imprinted upon another spiritual body; so that each one may again appear the same according to the form; and that this is the promised resurrection. For since, he says, the material body is flowing, and never remains in itself, but passes away and comes near to the species identifying the form, by which also the figure is contained; C it is concluded as strictly necessary that the resurrection occurs in the species and form alone.
XIII. Then after a little he says: If therefore, O Origen, you contend that the resurrection is to be expected in the species and form alone, changed into a spiritual body, and you offer us the vision of Elias and Moses as the most certain demonstration—arguing that just as those men appeared after their departure from this life, not preserving any other form than that which they had from the beginning, so also will the resurrection of all be—how then is it still sung by the prophets and apostles that Christ is the "Firstborn of the dead"? For if Christ is believed to be the Firstborn of the dead, D and he is truly the firstborn of the dead who rose before all; yet Moses, even before Christ suffered, appeared to the apostles having this form in which you say the resurrection is to be fulfilled; it follows, therefore, that the resurrection does not consist of the form without the flesh.
A For if it is the resurrection, either it is of the form alone, as you suggest, and Christ can no longer be the "Firstborn from the dead," because souls possessing this form have been seen to exist after death before him; or he is truly the Firstborn as he is, and it is impossible that any whatsoever should have been deemed worthy of the resurrection that leads to the state of not dying again before him. But if no one has risen before him, and those with Moses and Elias appeared to the apostles not having put on flesh but having only the form, the resurrection is clearly shown to be in the flesh. For it is most absurd for the resurrection to be defined as being of the form alone, when it is plain that souls, even after they have departed from the flesh, never put off that shape and form which you claim rises again. But if that presence is inseparable for them, just as it is in the case of the soul of Moses and Elias—and it is neither destroyed nor perishes, according to you, but adheres indivisibly to them everywhere—it follows plainly that a form of such a kind, which never fell, does not rise again.
B XIV. But if anyone, being annoyed, should ask, "How is it, if no one rose before Christ descended into Hades, that some are recorded as having risen before him, among whom are the son of the widow of Sarepta, the son of the Shunammite, and Lazarus?" We must reply: They rose so as to be destined to die again; but we are speaking of those who, after the resurrection, are never again to die. If, moreover, one is perplexed about the soul of Elias and says that, although the Scriptures affirm he was taken up in the flesh, we claim he appeared to the apostles without the flesh, we must reply: Indeed, the claim that he appeared to the apostles in the flesh favors our position all the more. For it is shown thereby that our body is also capable of incorruption, just as was demonstrated in the case of Enoch who was translated. For if it were not capable of receiving incorruption, it would not have remained for such a long time immune C from the stain of corruption.
*
Scholion. Note.
This is of minor moment. For although it may contend not concerning the species and form, but the composite body, nevertheless the same result follows or the one or the other. For the one has a solution, that it will die again, so that it is not properly the resurrection of the man; but the other cannot be solved, if indeed the form will not die again, because it never dies at all.D [alt-version omitted]
(84) *Since it is manifest*, etc. He speaks crudely about souls, as if he wished them never to put off that spiritual body of his, in which the Origenists wished them to rise again, and thus the resurrection in it is fictitious, or has already occurred; as they once taught, whom Paul delivered to Satan (II Tim. 1:15), that he might teach them not to blaspheme. These things could nevertheless be explained as said *ad hominem*, were it not that the subsequent passages in which he is more explicit stood in the way: although it may not seem a great thing that one who attributes ethereal and spiritual bodies to angels, should also attribute them to souls, which are less spiritual: how even many others, and those extremely alien to the condemned errors of Origen concerning the nature of souls, seem to have thought so. Whether this opinion, whether concerning angels or human souls, is now an error in faith, theologians debate (Part I, q. 50). I myself have embraced the milder view, denying it with our Caranza, Sixtus, Cajetan, and with others of Methodius's reckoning, etc., with no case yet occurring where it is sufficiently explicit, or condemned by positive intention; the Lateran Fathers were looking elsewhere entirely, and to the previously condemned heresies of Origen, not to the opinions of the Fathers hitherto prevailing: regarding which matter see the *Angelical Teacher* on the first query concerning the creation of the angel of peace.
(85) *As you suggest* (παρεγγυᾷς). (86) *Is present* (συμπαρέσται).
(συμπαρέσται). A dead, and not yet risen from the dead. And this, so that we may grant to Origen, who says that the form B itself is separated from the body after death and given to the soul, that which is impossible for all things, because the form of the flesh is destroyed beforehand in the alterations, just as the shape of a statue being melted is destroyed before the dissolution of the whole. That quality cannot be separated in subsistence from matter; for the shape concerning the bronze is indeed separated from the melted statue, being effaced, but it does not continue to exist in substance.
XV. Since it is said that in death the form is separated from the flesh, come, let us examine in how many ways it is said that what is separated is separated. It is said, then, that something is separated from something either by act and subsistence, or by thought: by act, but not also by subsistence. As if someone were to separate wheat and barley mixed together: in that they are separated by motion, it is called separation in act and in reality; but in that the separated things exist separately, it is called separation in subsistence. But by thought, when we separate matter from qualities, and qualities from matter; and by act, but not also by subsistence, when something separated from something no longer exists, having no subsistence of substance. One might know how it is even in man-made things by looking at a statue or a bronze horse. For by calculating these things, he will see the innate form changing; being shifted into another appearance by which the derived form is effaced. For if someone were to melt the works shaped into the form of a man or a horse, he will find the form of the shape being effaced, but the matter itself remaining. So it is insupportable to say that the form rises again, having been in no way dimmed, while the body in which the form was imprinted is corrupted.
XVI. But yes, he says, for it will be transferred into a spiritual body. Therefore it is necessary to confess that the same primary form does not arise again, because it has been changed and corrupted, along with the flesh. For even if it were transferred into a spiritual body, it itself will not be the same primary, proper subject, but a certain likeness of that form transformed into a subtle body. But if neither the form is the same, nor does the body rise, but another one instead of the former—for that which is similar, being other than that which it is similar to, cannot be that same primary thing to which it was made and which it mimics.
A XVII. He says that "type" and "form" are that which reveals the identity of the members in the character of the figure of each one.
XVIII. Expounding in an allegorical sense what was said by the prophet Ezekiel concerning the resurrection of the dead, and twisting it to refer to the return of the Israelites who had been taken captive to Babylon, the Saint, after many things, refuting him, adds this: "For neither did they themselves attain a full and sincere liberty, nor did they inhabit Jerusalem B with greater power after having conquered their enemies; and when they had frequently purposed to build the temple, they were prevented by other nations. Hence also they were barely able to build it in forty-six years, whereas Solomon had completed it from the foundations in seven years. And what need is there to say more? For from Nebuchadnezzar and those among the Babylonians who reigned after him, until the coming of the Persians against the Assyrians, and the empire of Alexander, and the war waged by the Romans against the Jews, Jerusalem was six times captured by enemies." And Josephus records this, saying: "In the second year C of the reign of Vespasian." Having been captured also five times before, it was this second time laid waste. For Asochaeus, king of the Egyptians, and after him Antiochus, then Pompeius, and after them Sosius with Herod, having captured the city, burned it. But before these, the king of the Babylonians, having prevailed, laid it waste.
XIX. That Origen says the following: "But concerning Lazarus and the rich man, a difficulty can be raised; for the simpler sort C think these things were spoken as though both, with their bodies, received the things worthy of what was done in life; but the more accurate thinkers, since after the resurrection no one is left in this life, do not think these things happened in the resurrection." For the rich man says: "I have five brothers, and so that they may not come into the...
place of torment, send Lazarus to announce to them the things here." A And because of this, [the fact that they] seek the tongue, and the finger, and the bosom of Abraham, and the recall, and perhaps the form of the soul, which is of a similar kind to the dense and earthly body immediately upon its departure, may be understood in this way. If, therefore, it is ever recorded that someone of the departed has appeared, appearing in a form similar to the one he had while he lived in the flesh—furthermore, even Samuel appeared, and as is clear, he was visible—it shows that he was clothed in a body, especially if we are compelled by proofs to affirm that the essence of the soul is incorporeal. And furthermore, the rich man being punished, and the pauper resting in the bosom of Abraham before the coming of the Savior and before the consummation of the age, and therefore being spoken of as being punished in Hades or resting in Abraham’s bosom before the resurrection, teach B that even now, at the time of departure, the soul uses a body. To these things, the saint says: In setting forth that the soul possesses another form, similar in kind to this sensible one after its departure from here, if he declares it to be incorporeal in a Platonic manner, why is it so? For if he says that even after its departure from the world it needs a vehicle and a covering, as though it could not be held if bare, how then would it not be incorporeal by itself? But being incorporeal, how will it not also be incapable of suffering? For it follows from its being incorporeal that it should also be impassible and undistracted. If, therefore, it was not drawn away by irrational desire, nor was it changed along with the suffering and afflicted body. For an incorporeal [part] would never suffer together with a body, nor a body with an incorporeal one, so that C *Schol. It was a demon that was brought up by the ventriloquist, and not Samuel. D that it should be thought to be incorporeal.
th a body, nor a body with an incorporeal one, so that it should be thought to be incorporeal. A If, however, it suffers together with the body, as is also demonstrated by the evidence of what is observed, it cannot be incorporeal. That is to say, only God is celebrated as an unbegotten and needy and indefatigable nature; such as He is, He is also invisible, because He is incorporeal. For no one has seen God. But souls, brought forth by the Creator and Father of all as intellectual bodies, have been arranged into limbs perceptible to the eye of reason, having received this formation. Hence, even in Hades, as is the case with Lazarus and the rich man, they are said to have a tongue, a finger, and other limbs; not because a strange and shapeless body subsists together with them, but because these souls themselves, when completely stripped of their covering, are such in their nature and substance.
XX. The holy man adds at the end: B That which is said, "Christ died for this, that He might have dominion over the dead and the living," is to be understood regarding souls and bodies alike: regarding the souls as the living, inasmuch as they are immortal; but regarding the bodies as the dead.
XXI. Since, he says, the human body is more noble than the bodies of other animals, as it is said to be fashioned by the hands of God, and has it as its vehicle, being the more noble rational soul: how is it that this [body], indeed, is so short-lived, while the bodies of certain irrational creatures are of much longer life? Is it not plain that, after the resurrection, its substance shall be long-lived?
FRAGMENT OF METHODIUS ON THE HISTORY OF JONAH
From the book On the Resurrection
C Methodius, Bishop of Patara.
I. The history of Jonah also contains a great mystery. For the whale seems to be understood as time, since it never stands still, but is always moving, and consumes the things that are born in long and shorter intervals. Moreover, the Jonah who flees from the face of God is that very first man who, having transgressed the commandment, and having lost through sin his confidence before God, fled naked, because he feared to appear before Him who is immortal. The ship into which he embarked and was tossed by the storm is this short and morose life of the present time; as if, truly, our affairs having changed their state, and we having moved and migrated from that beatitude and life safe from dangers, to this most tempestuous one, as if from land into a boat.
we have migrated. For what the earth is to a ship, this present life is to that immortal one. The tempest and whirlwinds A that shake the ship on every side are the temptations which, in this world, like a stormy and turbulent sea, do not allow us to keep a straight course of life easily, nor to enjoy a calm and quiet from evils in both sea and sky. Jonah's casting into the sea signifies the fall of the first-created man from life into death: who, because he swerved from justice by sinning, received that sentence: "Earth you are, and to earth you shall return." Moreover, his being swallowed by the whale signifies that inevitable destruction and ruin of ours which is caused by time; for the belly in which Jonah was hidden is the bosom of the earth, which receives all things, and in which everything that devouring time consumes is stored.
B II. Just as Jonah, therefore, having spent three days and as many nights in the belly of the whale, returned from there safe and whole, so also shall all of us rise again, when we have passed the three intervals of the present age within the earth—I mean the beginning, the middle, and the end, of which this whole present time is composed. For there are three universal intervals of time: the past, the future, and the present. On account of this, the Lord also, by staying for as many days in the earth, taught us clearly that, when the aforementioned intervals of time have been fulfilled, our resurrection will take place, which is the beginning of the future age and the end of this one. For in that age nothing has passed away, nor is anything yet to come, but only the present exists. Furthermore, Jonah, having spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, was not corrupted, nor were his C fleshly parts consumed, as the greater natural heat within the entrails of the sea-beast consumes and digests other foods cast into its belly; this was set forth to show that it is possible for these bodies of ours to become superior to corruption, so that they may never perish. For imagine, I pray, that God has diverse images of Himself: some indeed fashioned as if of gold, which consist of a spiritual and purer substance, such as the angels; others, however, of gypsum or bronze, such as us men. For He joined the soul, which was created in the image of God, to a terrestrial substance. Just as, therefore, all the images of a king here, on account of the likeness of him with which they are marked, are held in value and honor, so also must we not think that we, who are the image of God, are to be so dishonored that we are to be utterly abolished. Wherefore the Word also D descended into this world of ours and assumed human flesh, so that He might restore the image, as if dissolved by time, and raise it up incorruptible and beyond all danger of destruction. And indeed, whatever has been done mystically in the prophet's dispensation, if we wish to expound it, we shall find that it clearly aims at this.
EXCERPTS FROM THE SAME AUTHOR ON CREATED THINGS, BY WAY OF SUMMARY
(From Photius, *Bibliotheca*, cod. CCXXXV)
A 1. Excerpts have been read from the holy bishop and martyr Methodius, *On Created Things*, by way of summary. That saying of Christ, "Do not cast what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine," is expounded by Origen in such a way that he interprets "pearls" as the more holy doctrines of the divinely-given religion, and "swine" as men who are still, by reason of impiety and all manner of pleasures, wallowing like swine in the mire. For he said that it was forbidden by Christ to cast forth divine mysteries, inasmuch as they could not bear them, while impiety and the wild passions of old held sway. The great Methodius says: If one must understand "pearls" as the noble and divine teachings, and "swine" as those living in impiety and pleasures, to whom the doctrine of the apostolic preaching, which excites and leads to piety and faith in Christ, ought not to be proposed but concealed, see then that you do not say that any of the Christians has been turned from his former mode of life by the apostolic preachings. B For neither would C they, in any way, have cast the mysteries concerning Christ to those who, because of their unbelief, are like swine. If, then, these things were proposed and preached by the disciples of Christ to all the Greeks and other unbelievers, and did turn them from impiety to faith in Christ (as we ourselves, being believers, confess), then that saying, "Do not cast your pearls before swine," can no longer be understood in that way.
[Scholion] It does not prohibit the doctrine of the faith from being proposed to them, which could even be received as sacred, but rather the more sacred and hidden things; for these are suited to those who are already perfect in the faith. Those who do not dispense the measure of the wheat of the evangelical preaching in such a way, even if they should be faithful dispensers, would not be pronounced prudent by the just Judge. For this reason, the parable has been interpreted according to its proper sense in the first explanation. But also the investigation which follows it is excellent and worthy of the author’s intelligence.
A For if it is accepted as has been said, or if it is understood as has been stated, we are forced to say that by the apostolic teachings—which illuminate souls like pearls—faith in Christ and freedom from impiety have not been bestowed upon any of the infidels, whom we liken to swine. But this is blasphemous. Therefore, pearls in this passage are not to be taken as the holier disciplines, nor the swine as the impious; nor is that saying, "Do not cast your pearls before swine," to be explained in such a way as to forbid the setting forth of those sacred and perfecting teachings of the faith in Christ to the impious and the faithless. Rather, pearls should be understood as the virtues, by which, as if by precious pearls, the soul is adorned. One is not to cast them before swine; that is, one must not cast these very virtues—such as chastity, temperance, justice, truth—these, I say, must not be cast before B lascivious pleasures (for these are like swine), lest, after devouring the virtues, they force the soul to live a swinish and suffering life.
§ II. That Origen, whom he calls a centaur, said that the universe is coeternal with the only wise and self-sufficient God. For he stated: If there is no craftsman without a craft, nor a creator without a creature, nor a Lord of All without that which is ruled; for it is necessary that the craftsman be identified through his crafts, the creator through his creations, and the Lord of All through those things which are ruled; then it is necessary that these things have been made by God from the beginning, and that there was not a time when these things were not. For if there was a time when the creations were not, then since the creations did not exist, neither would the creator exist; see what kind of impiety follows. But it would also follow that the immutable and C unchangeable God would undergo alteration and change. For if he created the universe later in time, it is clear that he changed from not creating to creating. But this is absurd, in addition to what has already been said; therefore it is impossible, they say, for the universe not to have been without beginning and coeternal with God. To whom, speaking through another person, the Saint asks: "Do you consider God to be the principle and fountain of wisdom and glory, and in summary of all virtue, substantially and not by acquisition?" The other says: "Yes." "What then besides this? Is he not entirely perfect of himself and self-sufficient?" "It is true; for it is impossible that that which is self-sufficient should be self-sufficient through another." For it must be said that everything which is full through another is necessarily imperfect. D For only that which is itself the fulfillment of itself, and is this only in itself, is to be considered perfect. You speak most truly. But that which is neither itself through itself, nor
the fulfillment of itself, would you say that it is in need of nothing? By no means. Is God therefore not to be thought of as perfect because of something? For whatever is perfect because of something else must necessarily be imperfect in itself. Consequently, will not God also be considered perfect by Himself, and not by another? Most correctly. Is God something other than the world, and the world something other than God? Entirely so. Is God therefore not to be called perfect and creator and Lord of all because of the world? No; [lest] He be found perfect not through Himself but because of the world, and that, too, a mutable one. B Appropriately so. What then? Should one who is rich be called rich because of his riches? Rightly. And should one who is wise by participation in substantial wisdom, not being wisdom itself, be designated as wise? Yes. What then? And should God, being other than the world, be called rich and benefactor and creator in this way because of the world? By no means; perish the thought! Therefore, He is His own riches, and He exists as rich and powerful through Himself. So it seems. Was He therefore even before the creation of the world in every way in need of nothing, being both Father and Lord of all and creator, so that He might be these things through Himself and not because of another? It is necessary. For if He were known as Lord of all because of the world, and not being other than the world through Himself ([I crave] God’s pardon, for I am forced to say this), He would be in Himself imperfect and in need of those things on account of which He is supernaturally Lord of all and creator. Therefore, one must reject that destructive error of those who say that God is the Lord of all and creator not through Himself, but because of subject and created things, which are liable to change.
III.
Reason also in this way. If, you say, the world was at some time created when it was not previously, it is necessary that the impassible and immutable God be changed. For he who proceeds from idleness to work must necessarily be subject to change and alteration. I used to say: Did God rest from the creation of the world, or not? Certainly He rested; otherwise, He would not yet be perfect. It is so. If, therefore, creation from non-creation brings about an alteration in God, does not non-creation [the cessation] from creation [bring about the same]? Exactly so. Would you, however, say that He is changed because He is not creating today, as He was at some time creating? By no means. Therefore, He is not necessarily changed by creating the world, because there was a time when He was not creating. And thus, there is no need D for all things to exist contemporaneously with Him, as they say.A IV. And respond to me also in this way: would you say that what is created does not have a beginning of its genesis? Surely not. For if it does not fall under a beginning of genesis, it is of necessity uncreated. But if it has been generated, you concede that it was generated by some cause. For is it not in every way impossible for there to be a genesis without a cause? It is impossible. Shall we then say that the world, and all things within it, were generated later by some other, or by God creating, when previously they were not? It is evident that it is by God. For is it impossible for that which is limited by a beginning of genesis to be co-terminal with the illimitable? It is impossible. Come now again, O Centaur B (18), let us discuss from the beginning. Do you say that existing things were generated by divine [Latin: knowledge], or not? "O fool," (16) they will say; "by no means. But from the elements, or matter, or supports, or whatever you yourselves wish to call these things (for it makes no difference), these having pre-existed in an ungenerated manner and being carried about in a disorderly way, God, having separated them, fashioned all things, just as a good painter, having fashioned one form from many colors?" Not even this. For they will entirely avoid admitting it against themselves, so that, lest they should be forced by reasoning to say that God altogether began to govern and adorn the matter that was previously formless, they—having C had a beginning of separation—will have to admit that God began to digest and polish matter that was previously inform and indigest.
V. For come, since by the grace of God we have reached this point in the discourse, let there be a statue standing on a base, beautiful; the spectators viewing its well-measured beauty disagree with one another, attempting to call it in some respects generated, and in others ungenerated. For I would ask them: For what reason do you say it is ungenerated? Whether on account of the craftsman, so that he might in no way be thought to have been idle from creation, or on account of the statue itself? If D on account of the craftsman, how, being ungenerated—so that the craftsman might be said to hold sway over his handiwork without beginning...
A — is it created by the craftsman? For if it exists in any way in need of the technical art, being forged in copper so as to receive whatever character the creator wills, how in what way will it be ungenerated, being both acted upon and made? But if, on the other hand, the statue is said to be perfect and ungenerated by itself, and not to be in need of the art, then according to your ruinous dogma, it is necessary to acknowledge automatism. Or, perhaps, not wishing to accept this argument, they answer more bitterly, saying that the image is not ungenerated, but generated, yet lacking a beginning of generation, so that the craftsman may be said to have mastery over his handiwork without beginning. Therefore, O you people, we shall say to them: if neither time nor age could be found before it, when the statue was not perfect, what, I ask, did the craftsman provide to it, or what did he work into it, tell me? For if it happens to be B itself in need of nothing, and without a beginning of generation, you will find, in this way especially, that the creator has never fashioned it, nor will he be found creating it. And again the argument seems to have run back to the same point, of confessing automatism. For if the creator is said to have moved the statue even in the slightest degree, he will fall subject to a beginning, according to which he began to move it and ornament it, having previously been unadorned and motionless. Therefore, the world itself always was and will be perpetually. For the craftsman is to be compared to God, and the statue to the world. How, then, O most foolish men, do you think the creation, being co-eternal with the creator, is not in need of the creator? For that which is co-eternal, since it has in no way a beginning of creation or origin, must also be C co-ungenerated and of equal power. But that which is ungenerated, having appeared perfect and immutable, and being in need of nothing, will also be indestructible; and if this is so, the world is no longer mutable according to you.
VI.
That the Church is so called from the calling away (ekkeklēkenai) of pleasures.
VII. The Saint says: There are two powers in the...
* Scholion: How do you say this, O holy man of God, if such is your opinion? D
(21) From being called away, and as it were to a contest of pleasures, he says it is called. Vix certe fuerit subtilius etymum, digniusque Methodio ac eo Christi athleta, qui tali olim certamine, ad insignem illam de tyranno victoriam, quam tandem martyr illustris obtinuit, sese strenue compa- rasset; velut apud nostrates Petrus ille martyr, vere Christi et ante martyrium hostia, pauloque anterior ac gradu vicinior Methodio, Thomas ille gentis Anglorum, utinam virtutis æmulæ decus. Mire accinit meus ille Amphilochius hom. De pænit., cum ita de diabolo succentore passionum, loquitur, p. 95 : Præ mortalibus enim omnibus, livore fertur in Christianum genus et nomen, velut quod ex omnibus suæ ipsius dementiæ adversum noverit : atque adeo velut solos babeat adversarios ; quibus proinde velut solis illi militans voluptatum agmen, objectum videri possit, aperta baptismo velut pa- læstra; Ecclesia qua depugnemus; eo etiam tùm cærimoniali, tum sacro, in eo, unctis oleo; quando et sacrum, ejus est velut consummatio. Hoeschelius hocce etymum ita exponit, ut voluerit dictam 'Ecclesiam' quasi 'ex-clisia', a fuga voluptatum, eoque legendum ad quod etiam videtur respexisse Schottus illa parenthesi (hoc est exstirpandis). Enimvero sic non egregium etymum, sed inepta fuerit æquivocatio, dignior rudi linguæ Græcæ, quam facundissimo in ea Methodio, quem plane non fugit, quam dedimus non ita insolentem aptissimamque proposito, illa acceptio.
(22) Duas porro, etc. Duas hypostases, unam re ipsa et natura, eoque una indivisa actione et creatrices materiam, et distinctione ornantes, sola appropriatione altera sibi alterum, altera alterum vindicante : Patre creationem, ut in qua maxime eluceat divina potentia: Filio ornatum et perfectionem, ut proprium maxime artis et rationis divinæ.
divinæ. A We have already demonstrated, and it is admitted, that there are creative powers: the one from nothing, by a bare act of will, without delay, and simultaneously with the willing, accomplishes whatever it wills. This power is the Father. The other, which by imitation of the former completes, distinguishes, and polishes what has already been brought into being, is the Son; He is the omnipotent and firm hand of the Father, by which, after creating the matter from nothing, He subsequently adorns and perfects it.
B VIII. The Saint says that the Book of Job is by Moses. He says furthermore, regarding those words: *In the beginning God created heaven and earth*, that one would not err in calling the Beginning itself Wisdom. For it is said by one of the holy choir, speaking of it in this manner: *The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works; before the age he founded me.* For it was fitting and more suitable that all things which came into generation should be younger than this, since they were created through it. For observe whether this also does not agree with, *In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God*, according to the Evangelist, *and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God*. For the Beginning, from which the most upright Word blossomed forth, must be confessed to be the Father and Creator of all, in whom it was; but that which is added, *This was in the beginning with God*, signifies the authority of the Word, which He possessed with the Father even before the world passed into creation.
B Therefore, the Beginning after His own beginningless Beginning—that is, the Father—becomes the Principle of others Himself, through Whom all things are created. A IX. Origen, he says, after having invented many things regarding the eternity of the universe, adds this as well: "Neither, therefore, did man come forth into the world from Adam—as some affirm, who hold that man did not exist before—then being first formed; nor indeed did the world begin to be created before the six days of the creation of Adam." But if anyone should take it into his head to disagree with these things, let him first say whether, according to the book of Moses, the time from the creation of the world is not easily numbered by those who understand it in such a way, through the prophetic voice which cries out here: *From age to age Thou art: for a thousand years in Thy sight are as yesterday, which is passed, and as a watch in the night.* B For since a thousand years are contained in a single day in the eyes of God, from the origin of the world until the rest, there are six days; and from that [rest] to us another six days have passed, as the best calculators affirm. They say, therefore, that the six-thousandth year extends from Adam to us, for they say that in the seventh—that is, the seventh millennium of the world—the future judgment will arrive. Therefore, from us back to the beginning in which God created heaven and earth, all the days are numbered as thirteen; before which, since God had created and worked absolutely nothing, He lacked the name of Father and universal preserver and Lord. C But truly, if there are thirteen days in the eyes of the Lord since the world was founded, how does the Wisdom in Jesus Sirach say: *The sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of the age, who shall number?* Origen argues these things seriously; see, I pray, how he trifles.
EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK ON CREATED THINGS
[Translator's note: The text preceding this point encompasses the passage under discussion. The following is the remainder of the page translated from the Latin apparatus text included in the scan.]
...days, even in the Origenian sense, and according to those who extend the six days of creation in this way, could easily be reckoned. Cornelius thinks that this opinion was condemned by the Lateran Fathers; but St. Thomas, whose modesty and solidity in judging dogmas I wish many of the younger generation would imitate—not pronouncing on such matters except according to the mind of the councils, to which words ought to be conformed—judges better. That prison of the condemned Origen would therefore be condemned, and that world before Adam, six thousand years long, full of incorporeal or non-carnal men, and hitherto angels; D but that spiritual and truly angelic world, which no one among the Fathers—Basil, Gregory, etc., and our own Methodius—has accused of error in the faith, as we gather from what is said, with St. Thomas and the Angel of the School as defenders, will have stood as probable; although for him and his disciples, whom we are discussing, the simultaneous creation of all things, as of one world, will have been more probable. Escalant does not argue badly about these things in his *Clypeus*. For thus, when they speak of creation, the Greek Fathers love to speak; by whom God is called Creator of all things and maker. Cf. St. Justin, *Cohortatio ad Graecos*, n. 22; *Apology* I, n. 20. Hence the version is to be reformed: "When God had worked and created absolutely nothing, He lacked the name of CREATOR." One might marvel that not only Schott, but also Combefis, missed this passage.
OF SAINT METHODIUS FROM THE BOOKS AGAINST PORPHYRY
A
FRAGMENTS FROM THE BOOKS AGAINST PORPHYRY (31)
I. (From the *Parallels* of Damascenus, Works vol. II, p. 778.)
That which God Himself judges to be good must be called most excellent and laudable, even if all men should despise and mock it. For it is not as men imagine.
II. Ibid., p. 784 B.
Repentance then becomes the destroyer of every sin, when the soul that has sinned admits of no delay, nor postpones the malady for a long time. For thus evil will not be able to leave any trace in us, having been plucked away—just as it began to invade—like a newly-planted shrub.
III. Ibid., p. 785 B.
The true evil of man is his dissimilarity to God and his ignorance; and on the other hand, the great good is his assimilation to Him. It should therefore be seen that his own true good is his conversion and faith in that which is free from corruption, and in God; but the evil is the ignorance and sloth regarding Him. For since these things arise in us and from us, and contain all malice, they must be considered our own.
OF SAINT METHODIUS FROM THE DISCOURSE ON MARTYRS (32)
(Among the Dialogues of Theodoret, Works vol. IV, p. 37.)
For martyrdom is so admirable and so greatly to be desired, that the Lord Himself, the Son of God, honoring it, suffered, "not counting it a prize to be equal to God" (Phil. ii. 6), so that by this gift He might also honor the man to whom He had descended.
METHODIUS, BISHOP OF PATARA AND MARTYR
On Simeon and Anna, on the day of the Meeting; and on the Holy Mother of God.
A I. Since in former times, in the *Symposiacs on Chastity*, we have already sufficiently explained, as briefly as possible, what was to be said concerning virginity, having, as it were, laid the foundations, behold, time has now brought forward for the delight of the children of the Church the glory of virginity itself and its unfading crown from the very root. For today the council of divine oracles is opened, and the symbols and effects of this present glorious day are read to the ecclesiastical assembly by the holy preachers. Today the completion of that ancient and true counsel is gloriously manifested to the world through the very exhibition of the facts. Today, without any veil, we contemplate in a mirror, with unveiled face, the glory of the Lord and the majesty of His divine Ark. B Today, the most holy festival, carrying on its shoulders the heavenly joy longingly awaited by the nations, restores it to the human race. The old things have passed away; new things have blossomed, and things that do not grow old. No longer does the austere decree of the Law preside, but the grace of the Master holds sway, turning all toward Himself with saving patience. No longer is another Ozan secretly scourged for daring to touch untouchable things. For God Himself invites, and who shall still hesitate from fear? He cries out: *Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened*, and who shall not run to Him? And let no Jew contradict the truth by looking toward the prefiguration of the house of Abedara. The Lord has come to His own C manifestly, and...
A as if upon a propitiatory, He processeth upon the earth in the living and animate ark. A tax-gatherer, touching this, is shown forth as righteous. A harlot, approaching this, is fashioned anew into purity. A leper, touching this, is without pain made whole. None does He repulse; none does He abominate. He communicates benefits of health, while not participating in anything harmful; for the Lord of philanthropy rests within her. These are the gifts of the new grace. This has happened recently under the sun, not having occurred of old, nor shall it happen hereafter. Having foreordained it out of compassion for us, He came and, in His philanthropy, fulfilled that which was becoming to Him. Deservedly, therefore, the sacred trumpet cried aloud: *The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.* And what shall I conceive, or what shall I speak, that is worthy of this day, extending myself toward the unattainable? For the memory of the holy Virgin always brings forth the victories beyond all speech. B For this reason, since the magnitude of her praises causes our weakness to shrink, let us take refuge in a hymn that is possible, and by glorying in the immovable defeat, let us dance in joy with the festival-loving flock of Christ. But do you, O most divine and most holy audience, practice silence, so that through the channels of the ears, as a port of understanding, the goods of truth may serenely enter. We are celebrating a feast, not one of the vain myths of the Greeks, which brings in a ridiculous and thunderstruck banquet of gods, but one that instructs in the condescension of the insufferable glory of the God over all.
[II. Age ergo...]
C II. Come then, most grave of heralds and greatest of prophets, Isaiah, philosophize to the Church upon the mysteries of this glorious festival, and urge these excellent guests to be abundantly filled with the inalienable goods, so that by yoking our truth to your mirror, as a truthful prophet, you may clap hand to hand with joy at the fulfillment of your prophecies: *It came to pass,* he says, *in the year that king Ozias died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the house was full of His glory. And the seraphim stood round about Him: six wings for the one, and six wings for the one. And one cried to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth; all the earth is full of His glory. And the lintel was lifted up by the voice which they cried, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: Woe is me, for I am pricked; because, being a man and having unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips, and I have seen the King, the Lord Sabaoth, with my eyes. And there was sent to me one from among the seraphim, and in his hand
A he had a coal, which he took with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said: Behold, this has touched your lips, and shall take away your iniquities, and shall purge your sins. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send? And who shall go to this people? And I said: Behold, I am here, send me. And he said: Go, and say to this people: By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive. These are the things which the prophet foretold through the Spirit. But do you, my beloved, consider the power of what has been said, that you may understand the fulfillment of the mysteries and learn who and of what sort our assembly is. And once the prophet has heralded the miracle, come, go forth and approach most fervently, most cheerfully, and most zealously—with the sharpness of your understanding—to Bethlehem, that most glorious place; and shape for yourself a manifest image, comparing the prophecy with the very event of the things themselves. For there will be no need for you to have many words to obtain the knowledge of the whole matter, provided that you carefully direct the eyes of your mind to the things which are happening there. For all things are obvious to those who understand, and right to those who find knowledge. For behold, there, as a throne high and lifted up because of the glory of Him who fashioned it, the Virgin Mother is set forth most manifestly to the King, Lord Sabaoth. Upon this throne, behold the Lord who now comes to you in the flesh. Upon this—I say, the virginal throne—venerate Him who has adorned this new journey, worthy to be pursued with all praises, for your sake. Look around, then, with the eyes of faith, and you will find around this throne the royal priesthood of the seraphs. B For such a retinue is wont to accompany the presence of a King. Whence they are said to have praised at that time not only the triple-hypostasis of the divine Monad, but also the glory of that One of the holy Trinity, which has now come down upon the earth through the theophany, and is to be worshipped by all, in that they say: The whole earth is full of his glory. For we believe that with the Son, who for our sake became man according to the purpose, the Father is present, inseparably in divinity, together with the Spirit of the same essence. For Paul, that interpreter of sacred things, says: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; showing the Father in the Son on account of their one and same will.
III. The Duty of the Feast-Lover
D You, friend of the feast, who thus perceive the glorious events of Bethlehem, and those things which are being accomplished for your sake, join yourself willingly and cheerfully to the heavenly hosts as they magnificently celebrate your salvation. As once David did before the ark, do you yourself lead dances before the virginal throne. The Lord, everywhere and always present, and who from Theman, as the prophet says, is to appear according to...
the flesh, willed to be pleasing to the human race. Say in the manner of Moses: "He is my God, and I will glorify him, the God of my father, and I will exalt him" A.
Having finished that, let us examine with great utility what the pretext was that raised up the King of Glory in Bethlehem. For though the compassion toward us compelled the Untouched One to be born bodily in Bethlehem and to be at the breast B, being the Timeless One in time, and to be held in swaddling clothes against the natural order, and to become a resident alien and a wanderer—what necessity then can have brought this about? But if you wish to know this, too, O most divine and God-inspired assembly of mine, hear Moses crying out clearly to the people and grafting them into the knowledge of this transcendent birth, saying: "Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord" C. O the wonder! O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! It was fitting that the Lord of the Law and the prophets should perform everything concerning Himself according to the Law, and not be a destroyer of the Law, but a fulfiller; and thus, from that point, to join the beginning of His grace to the fulfillment of the Law.
Therefore, the Mother who is superior to the Law submits herself to the Law, and the holy one observes the definition of the forty days established for the unclean; and He who is the liberator of the Law becomes subject to the Law, and an offering is brought for Him who sanctified us, a pair of innocent birds, as a testimony to those who were approaching blamelessly. But that the birth was undefiled and exempt from the need for purification, Isaiah bears witness to my argument, proclaiming clearly to all under the sun: "Before she who is in labor brings forth, before the pain of labor comes, she has escaped, and brought forth a male. Who has heard such a thing, or who has seen such things?" The all-holy Virgin Mother therefore escaped the conditions D of women, and even before she brought forth, she conceived without sexual intercourse, the Holy Spirit having betrothed and sanctified her. She brought forth the firstborn, and the Only-Begotten Son of the Father, He who from above shines forth only-begotten from the paternal essence without a mother, and who preserved the virginity of the natural unity undivided and inseparable; and below, out of the virginal bridal chamber,
he joined the nature of Adam to himself in an immovable union, acting as a bridegroom; and he preserved the purity of the Mother undivided and incorrupt: for finally he who was begotten in the heavenly realms without any corruption, was born in these lower realms in an ineffable manner. Let us now return our discourse to the proposed subject.
IV. Therefore, the prophet led the Virgin out of Nazareth, so that in Bethlehem she might bring forth that saving fruit; and the same prophet led her back, so that she might manifest to the world the hope of life. Wherefore, the Ark of God, having departed from the inn of Bethlehem (for there she paid to the law the debt of the fortieth day, not as a requirement of justice, but as an obligation of grace), rested in the mountains of Sion: and receiving in her most chaste bosom, as if upon a certain high throne—one that transcends all human nature—the King of all; him, I say, the Son who is enthroned on high with God and the Father, and who does not depart from Him: she presented Him there, together with the undefiled flesh assumed from her own, to the same. The sacred Mother ascended into the Temple to manifest a new miracle to the law, and that long-sought fruit, which indeed opened the virginal womb, yet did not break the seals of virginity: a fruit higher than the law, yet one that fulfilled the law; a fruit prior in origin, yet later in time; a fruit, finally, incarnate from her own self, above the nature of law. For otherwise, every womb, being first opened by the conjunction of a man and sprinkled with seed, receives the principle of childbirth; and by the labor pains that bring the birth to an end, it brings forth into the light—by the wisdom of the Creator God—a fruit possessed of reason and consonant with nature, according to that divine decree: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth" (Gen. 1, 22). But her womb, neither opened before nor sprinkled with seed, germinated that fruit—above nature, yet akin to nature—and did so without any detriment to the undivided unity, for the sake of a more intense and profound miracle, the prerogative of her pristine virginity remaining safe. She therefore ascended into the Temple, she who is higher than the Temple, clothed in a double glory: the glory, I say, of undefiled virginity and of ineffable fecundity; the benediction of the law and the sanctification of grace. Wherefore he who saw says: "And the house was full of his glory; and the seraphim stood round about him; and one cried to the other, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isai. 6, 3). This is precisely what the blessed prophet Habakkuk also gracefully sang, saying: "In the midst of two animals you shall be known: when the years draw near you shall be recognized: when the time is present you shall be shown." Observe for me, clearly, the precision of the Spirit: he says "known" and "recognized," wherefore having departed, etc. A B C D
A
The demonstration of these things, which he signifies: "In the midst of two living creatures you shall be known,"
refers both to the overshadowing, according to the law, in the inner sanctuary above the propitiatory of the Ark between the typical cherubim, of his divine glory—as he says to Moses, "From there I will be known to you"—and also to the angelic concourse that has now arrived because of the incarnation of the Savior himself, which is worthy of all praise, even if it is unseen by us, as Isaiah has previously declared. And the phrase, "When the years draw near, you shall be recognized," signifies the most glorious, as has been said before, recognition according to the flesh of our invisible Savior God, as the great initiate of sacred mysteries, Paul, says somewhere: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." B And what follows, "When the time is present, you shall be shown"—what sort of counter-meaning would this require for one directing his gaze toward the festival being celebrated? For you shall be shown, he says, as upon a royal platter, by the immaculate Mother who bore you in the temple, in the beauty of your incarnation. Recapitulating these things for the sake of greater clarity, the Prophet cries out, saying: "The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." CV. For truly, the mystery concerning you, O Virgin Mother and spiritual throne, glorified and worthy of God, is terrifying.
For you have brought forth a wonder, extraordinary to those in heaven and on earth. And as a proof and indisputable evidence of these things is the fact that, in accordance with the novelty of your supernatural childbirth, the angels sing on earth: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men," introducing by the tripling of the song the tripling of holiness. Blessed are you among women, most blessed by God, because through you the earth was filled with the divine glory of God, as it is also sung in the Psalms: "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, and may all the earth be filled with his glory; so be it, so be it." And it was lifted up, he says, the lintel at the voice with which they cried out; this signifies the veil of the temple, which cast a shadow over the front of the Ark of the Covenant that prefigured you, D so that to me the truth might be revealed, and that through the types and patterns which had gone before, I might be disciplined with awe and trembling to honor and worship the mystery concerning you, and might again be reined in by the legal foreshadowing from the bold and shameless act of looking fixedly and unblinkinglyA at Him who is established in transcendence over all things. For if such great honor was allotted by God to the image and type of your holiness—the ark—that its entrance was accessible or easy to understand for no one except the priestly order alone, with the veil marking the boundary and guarding the vestibule like a queen; what then, and what manner of reverence is owed to you by us, who are the least—to you who are truly the Queen, truly the living ark of the Lawgiver God, and truly became the heaven that contains the uncontainable God? For upon your appearing to the world, O most holy Virgin, like a light-bearing day, and bringing forth that Sun of righteousness, the hateful horror of darkness was banished, and the tyrant was brought to nought; death was destroyed, Hades was swallowed up, and all enmity was dissolved before the face of peace. Harmful diseases stood far off as salvation dawned, and the world beneath heaven became filled with the light of pure truth. Alluding to these things in the Canticle, Solomon began: "My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feeds among the lilies until the day breathes, and the shadows are moved." Since, therefore, "God of gods was seen in Sion," and "the beauty of his excellence appeared in Jerusalem," and "light has sprung up for the righteous, and joy for them that are upright in heart," according to the blessed David, He who is the Sanctifier of those who are being sanctified and the Lord, called the instructor B and minister of the law into the service and testimony of what was being accomplished through the Holy Spirit.
VI. Wherefore the elder Simeon, putting off the weakness of age and putting on the strength of hope, hastened before the face of the law to receive the minister of the law: that teacher endowed with authority; the God of Abraham; the protector of Isaac; the Holy One of Israel; the mystagogue of Moses; he, I say, who had promised to show his divine incarnation to him as if it were his back parts: that rich one in poverty; the one before the ages in infancy; the invisible one in vision; the incomprehensible one in comprehension; the one surpassing all magnitude in smallness; the one present at once in the temple and in the highest places; on the royal throne C and on the cherubic chariot; the one present in the things above and the things below without separation; the one in the form of a servant and in the form of God the Father; the subject and King of all things. He was wholly in desire; he was wholly in hope; he was wholly in joy. He was no longer his own, but His on whom his hope was fixed. The Holy Spirit had announced the auspicious event, and before he had reached
A the temple, he was carried aloft by the eyes of his mind, and rejoiced as if he already possessed the object of his desire. Thus moved, and soaring swiftly in his steps, he occupies the sacred sanctuary long since set apart, and, passing by the temple, he stretches out his holy arms to the Master of the temple, at once speaking and singing words suited to the delightful festival, as was fitting for the revered rite:
"I yearn for you, O Lord God of fathers, and Lord of mercy, who, by your own will and virtue, as One who provides for all, with that condescension by which you incline towards us—like a mediating peace offering—desired to sanction a harmonious friendship between the heavenly and the earthborn. I seek you, the Author of all; I look for you who hold all things together by your Word; I await you, the Lord of life and death; I long for you, the Giver of the law and its successor; I hunger for you, the Life-giver of the dead; B I thirst for you, the refreshment of the weary; I desire you, the Creator and Redeemer of the world. You are our God, and you we worship. You are our holy temple, and in you we pray; you are the Lawgiver of laws, and you we obey. You are the first God; before you [(56)] no other God was born of God the Father, and after you there shall be no other Son consubstantial and co-equal with the Father. And to know you is perfect righteousness; and to know your power is the root of immortality. You are the stone, the corner-stone, for our salvation, precious and honorable, foretold to Zion. For all things are subjected to you as their Cause; for you have brought all things from nothingness into being, and have granted a stable constitution to things that were unstable; you are the stay and guard of all things that have been brought into existence; you are the Creator of diverse natures; you are He C who steers all things with a hand most powerful and most wise; you are the rhythm of all good order; you are the indissoluble bond of harmony and peace. For in you we live and move and have our being. Therefore, O Lord my God, I will glorify you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things; a plan of old is true, having put on confession and majesty. For what is more glorious than a king with a glistening purple robe and a shining diadem? Or what is more magnificent than God, in his love for mankind, through the assumption of man’s nature, illuminating with most radiant beams those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death? And yet, quite rightly, the temporary king and servant D also prophesied of you, the King of the ages, saying: 'Fairer in beauty than the children of men,' the God and man among men. For you have girded yourself through your holy incarnation with righteousness as your belt; you have anointed your sides with truth, being yourself righteousness and truth in substance, and
the exultation of all. Therefore, let heaven rejoice today together with me, because God has had mercy on his people. Let the clouds rain down righteousness upon the world; let the foundations of the earth sound the trumpet for peace for those in Hades; for the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep is present. Let the earth also sprout mercy for those who inhabit it. For I am fulfilled with consolation and superabound with joy, because I have seen you, the Savior of mankind. B
VII. Now, while the elder was leaping and exulting in such divine joy, the holy Mother of God was clearly fulfilling that which had been previously prophesied by Isaiah in a type. Taking the life-giving and ineffable coal that had been incarnate from her pure and most immaculate altar, she stretched it out to the righteous man—as if using tongs, with the union of her holy hands—while at the same time, it seems to me, she spoke to him and urged him thus: "Receive, honorable elder and best of priests, receive the Lord, and enjoy that hope of yours which has not been widowed. Accept, most noble man, an inexhaustible treasure and unfailing wealth. Embrace, most wise man, an indescribable power and an infinite strength that sustains you. Clasp, keeper of the holy things, the infinite magnitude and incomparable might. Embrace the very Life itself, and live, most venerable man. Clasp the incorruption more tightly, and be renewed, most just man. C The deed is not audacious; do not despair, most holy man. Be filled with the one you have desired, and take delight in the one given to you, or rather, who gives himself to you, most divine man. Be illuminated more joyfully by the Sun of righteousness, who shines forth from the most clean mirror of the flesh, most religious man. Let not tranquility strike fear into you, nor let meekness terrify you, most blessed man. Do not recoil from gentleness, nor be afraid of mercy, most modest man. Cleave to him readily, and do not delay in your obedience. There is no audacity in what is said or in what is offered: therefore, do not resist, most urbane man. The fire of the grace of my Lord does not burn, but illuminates, most just man. Let the bush, which prefigured me and which represents the truth of that appearing fire, teach you, most learned in the law. Let the oven that whispered with a breeze of dew persuade you, D instructor of the mystery."
Let the womb, A in which was contained the Uncontainable, from which also the Word without flesh was made flesh, be your lesson. The trumpets no longer terrify those who approach; nor does the smoking mountain once again strike fear into those drawing near, nor does the law punish without mercy him who touches it with daring. For these present things are affairs of philanthropy and signs of condescension. Receive with gratitude God who has come to you; for He Himself shall take away your iniquities and shall cleanse your sins. Let the purification of the whole world be prefigured in you. In you and through you, let the justification which is according to grace be announced to the nations. You are worthy of the life-giving first-fruits. Have you enjoyed the law? Enjoy also grace. Are you wearied by the letter? Be renewed in the spirit. Put off the oldness and put on the newness. For I do not think you are ignorant of these things.
VIII. The Sermon of Simeon and Anna
B Upon all these things, the righteous man having taken confidence, and yielding to the exhortation of the Mother of God, who ministered to God for the sake of men, received in his aged arms that Ancient of days, now an infant, and praised God and said: "Now dismiss your servant, O Lord, according to your word, in peace; because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples; a light to the revelation of the nations, and the glory of your people Israel." I have received from you a joy free from sorrow; receive me rejoicing, and proclaiming your mercies, O Lord. You have given me joy; I gladly return to you the offering of thanksgiving. I have known the power of the love of God. For because of me, C God who is from you, being born ineffably and without flow, became man. I have known the inexpressible greatness of your care for us, that you sent forth your own bowels for our assistance. I have known what I learned from Solomon, saying: "Love is strong as death." For by it the sting of death shall be crushed; by it the dead shall see life; by it death shall learn death, having ceased its dominion over us; by it also the serpent, the author of evils, shall be taken captive and submerged. You have shown us, O Lord, your salvation, having raised up for us a plant of peace; and we shall no longer be wandering. You have shown us, O Lord, that you have not despised your servants to the end, O Good One, nor have you forgotten the works of your hands. For having pitied our wretchedness, D you have lavishly poured out upon us your innate and inexhaustible goodness, having wrought our redemption through your Only-Begotten and unchangeable and consubstantial Son, judging me unworthy
A to be entrusted with the salvation and beneficence of your servants, or to be assigned the task of reconciling those who had offended. Indeed, through that Light of the same substance as yourself, you bestowed light upon those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, that in your light they might see the light of knowledge; and through the Lord and Creator you were pleased to fashion us anew unto immortality, and through him who had driven us from the paradise of delights, you granted a return into paradise.
Moreover, through him who has the power to forgive sins, you blotted out the bond which was against us. Finally, through him who sits exalted on the same throne with you, and who can in no way depart from your divine nature, you gave us firm confidence for reconciliation and approach; so that through the Lord—who acknowledges the authority of none, and is the true and powerful God—you might establish for those who have attained to mercy the rights of grace, like a signed sanction, certain and indubitable, concerning all these great and mighty blessings. This is what the prophet also long ago foretold, saying: "Not an envoy, not an angel, but the Lord himself saved them; because he loved them and spared them, and took them up and exalted them."
And all this was not from works of righteousness that we ourselves had done, nor because we loved you (for our earthborn forefather, though honored with the delights and life of paradise, having despised your divine and saving commandment, was judged unworthy of that vital place, and rendered all his seed weak, commingling it with the bastard shoots of sin), but because of your own self, and that ineffable love of yours for your own formation, you strengthened your mercy toward us, O Lord, and commiserated with our departure, and were yourself moved—on account of our corruption—to grant us mercies, and you were appeased and softened. B Hence, we the descendants of Adam henceforth celebrate festivals with applause, because the first fashioner of Adam has himself willingly become a new Adam, and the splendor of the Lord our God has dwelt among us, that we might see God face to face, and be saved.
Wherefore, O Master, I seek to be released by you. I have seen your Salvation; let me therefore be released from the stooping yoke of the letter. I have seen the everlasting and unsucceeded King; let me be released from this servile and heavy collar. I have seen the Lord by nature and the Liberator; may I therefore obtain from him the decree of my liberation. Loose me, O Lord, from the yoke of condemnation, and subdue me to the yoke of justification. Loose me from the yoke of the curse and of the killing letter; and enroll and insert me into the number of the blessing of those who, by the grace of your true, consubstantial, and co-equal Son, have been accounted as sons. C
IX. Let these things, he says, be briefly commemorated for the present, until the celebration of the divine gifts. What then...
A shall I say to you, O Mother Virgin, and Virgin Mother? For the work of her whose work is not human, its praise also is above man. Therefore, I will brighten the gloom of my desperation with the honors that shine from the Spirit concerning you; and offering to you your own gifts, I will hymn your sacred and God-crowned head from the immortal meadows. I shall address you with patriarchal hymns, O daughter of David, and Mother of the Lord and God of David. For it is shameful and at the same time lacking in praise to adorn with alien ornaments she who surpasses [all others] in her own glory. Receive, therefore, most benign one, precious gifts, and those alone suitable to you, O you who art higher than all generations, and who art manifested as more honorable than all visible and invisible creations. Blessed is the root of Jesse, and thrice-blessed is the house of David, in which you blossomed (64). God is in the midst of you, and you shall not be moved; for the Most High has sanctified His tabernacle. For in you the covenants (65) and oaths of God unto our fathers received a most glorious end; because through you the Lord, the God of hosts, has become with us. The bush B, untouched by fire, prefiguring your God-befitting character, sustained God in a way that burns not, as He Himself appeared to the prophet just as He willed to be seen. But again, the solid and sheer rock, signifying the grace and refreshment that flowed from you into the whole world, brought forth in the wilderness, for the thirsty people, a comforting remedy in great abundance from dry fissures. Nor, indeed, was the rod of the priest anything other than a reliable token (66) of your supernatural childbearing, blooming with fruit without cultivation, an earnest of the perpetual priesthood. What more? And did not the great Moses himself provide, in order to linger over the types concerning you that are difficult to comprehend (67), that he learned the mysteries concerning the pure one on the mountain? For as he was commanded to construct an ark according to a symbol and for the sake of C representation, he did not treat these commands, though tragic events occurred upon his descent, as matters of no consequence; but having finished it to five and a half cubits, he displayed it as the receiver of the Law, covered by the cherubim, most clearly signifying you, the Theotokos, who incorruptibly conceived and ineffably brought forth the constitution of incorruption at the end of the five and a half cycles of the world. Because of you, and that immaculate incarnation of God the Word from you, who remains in Him forever, changelessly and indivisibly, even the golden urn D
A kept manna—which otherwise would have perished in a day—within itself, entirely unchanged, and preserving it for all the ages as the most certain type [of you]. The prophet Elijah, foreseeing and being a zealot for your chastity in the Spirit, donned the crown of that fire-bearing life, having been declared superior to death by divine decree unto this day. And his successor, Elisha, instructed by [him as his] wise master, and prefiguring you as though you were already present while you not yet were, employed the aids for the needy with virtue greater than nature, by certain sure signs of things that were truly to be: at one time purifying the lethal waters by means of a new jar and the salt that brings soundness contained within it, for a demonstration of the world being recreated through the mystery in you; at another time, driving away the bitterness of death from things edible by means of unleavened flour, a type corresponding to your seedless birth-giving; and finally, by things exceeding nature, remarkably surpassing what was natural in the Jordan, and by these means prefiguring the descent of our Lord into Hades, and the paradoxical up-drawing of those held in corruption. For all things yielded and bowed before your divine image, being overcome by it.
B X. But why do I still slacken the reins of my speech with those various descriptions, knotting and entangling it, and protract my discourse to great length—and especially when, like a pillar standing clearly before one’s eyes, the truth is manifest in you, in which it were better and more profitable to luxuriate and take delight? Wherefore, having bid farewell to the spiritual narratives and prodigious deeds of all the saints throughout every generation, I direct the helm of this feast, O you who are to be celebrated for all time, toward you. Blessed are you, all-blessed and desirable to all. Under the blessings of the Lord is your name, most full of divine grace and highly favored by God, Mother of God, and light-bearer C of the faithful. You are the perimeter, if I may so say, of Him who is uncircumscribed; the root of the most beautiful flower; the Mother of the Creator; the nurse of the Nourisher; the containment of Him who contains all things; the one who carries Him who carries all things by His word; the gate of the sunrise of God in the flesh; the tongs of the purifying coal; the small bosom of the immense bosom of all; the fleece of that incomprehensible dew; the life-giving well of Bethlehem of David’s desire, from which the drink of immortality gushed forth; the propitiatory from which God was made known D to men in human form; the stainless garment of Him who casts about Himself light as a garment. She who lent
to the God who is in need of nothing the flesh which He did not possess, so that the Omnipotent might be what He willed! What is more manifest than this? What is higher than this? He who fills heaven and earth, to Whom all things belong, has become in need of you; for you lent to God a divine incarnation, which He did not have. You armored the Powerful One with the fitting panoply of the body, by which He was able to be seen by me, and I was strengthened to look upon Him; and by which all the flaming arrows of the evil one shall be extinguished. Well done, well done, Mother of God and handmaid! Well done, well done, you who hold as a debtor the Lender of all! We all owe a debt to God, but to you, a debt is owed. For He who said, "Honor your father and your mother," B choosing much more to be tested in these things Himself, would guard the grace and His own law for her who ministered to the voluntary birth, and would glorify in a manner worthy of God her whom, though fatherless, He inscribed as a Mother without a husband. These things shall therefore be so; they shall be. For the hymns brought to you by us are not of fruitless elegance, O most holy and most admirable dwelling-place of God; nor, again, is your spirit-filled praise—O you who are praised by God, and who hold God to your breast, He who provides to mortals the beginning of existence through birth—mere throat-rattlings of worldly wordiness and false sycophancy, but an expression of manifest truth. For time will fail us and the generations to come, to render to you, the Mother of the King of the ages, the beatitude worthy of you, as the illustrious prophet says somewhere, C instructing us in the things of your incomprehensibility: "How great is the house of God, and how vast is the place of His possession! It is great, and has no end; high and unmeasurable." D For truly, truly, this is a prophetic oracle and a true word concerning your magnificence; because you alone were deemed worthy to share with God the things of God, having alone given birth in the flesh to God, who was born of God the Father from eternity and consubstantially. These words are held by those who possess an uncorrupted faith.
XI. But as for what remains, let us, O most studious assembly, receive our elder, the receiver of God and pious teacher, who has sailed hither in a salutary manner from the virginal sea, and let us refresh ourselves, he being at once filled with that divine longing and bringing to us that most blessed theology; and let us proceed to the rest of the discourse, directing our path without error toward the intended goal under the guidance of the Better One, so that we may not be altogether fruitless and useless regarding what is required. Since, therefore, the priesthood and prophecy have been summoned to what is being sacredly performed...
A and to the glorious and virginal throne, there stood as a pair of those chosen by God, righteous ones—I mean Simeon and Anna—bearing in themselves most evident images of each of these peoples (the elder, of Israel and the LAW now grown old; the widow, of the Church of the Gentiles, a widow at that time). The elder, therefore, acting the part of the Law, was seeking his release; and the widow, acting the representative of the Church, was offering up her confession, and was speaking of Him to those in Jerusalem who were awaiting redemption; just as what was spoken by each of them—most fittingly and preternaturally—was written down as being in agreement with the sacred rite. For it was necessary, entirely necessary, that the elder, who clearly knew that decree of the Law which says, "Hear him," and "Every soul that does not hear him shall be B destroyed from among his people," should seek a peaceful release from the legal tutelage. For it is both an injury and a rash act, while a king is present and publicly speaking, for any subordinate to speak in opposition, and for the subjects to incline their ears to him in the meantime. It was also proper that the widow, who had been increased by gifts surpassing reason, should offer thanks to God with festal hymns; and thus the events there were in harmony with the Law.
But it will be worth our while to inquire—since the prophetic foreshadowings and figures, as has been shown, possess a certain appropriate relation to these exceptional festivals—how it is said that the house was filled with smoke; and this not incidentally, C but signally, says the teacher and prophet, from the voice of the "thrice-holy" which the mystics of the heavenly ones were crying out. You will indeed find the cause of this matter, O studious listener, provided you grasp the things that the narrative contains in sequence. "For with hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive." Since, therefore, the senseless children of the Jews saw glorious wonders, which God had placed upon the earth according to the psalmist David; and they saw as well a sign from the deep and from the height according to an unconfused and indivisible concurrence, in the way that Isaiah had proclaimed beforehand (What is this? A mother beyond nature, and a birth beyond reason; a mother on earth, and a Son heavenly; a new theandric nature, D I say, and a birth without marriage—of which what could ever be more glorious or more famous throughout creation?); and having seen these things, they were affected as if they had not seen, closing their eyes and being listless toward the praise—for this reason the house of their boasting was filled with smoke.
A Smoke is indeed a sign and proof of wrath, as it is written: *There went up a smoke in his wrath, and fire out of his face shall burn* (Ps. XVII, 9). And in another place: *In an unbelieving nation fire shall be kindled* (Eccli. XXII, 7). Which indeed, the Lord signifying in the venerable Gospels, said to the Jews: *Behold, your house is left to you desolate* (Matth. XXIII, 38). And in another place: *The king sending his armies, destroyed those murderers, and set their city on fire* (Matth. XXII, 7). Such are the most adverse rewards of Jewish unbelief, by which they refuse to render to the Trinity the glory that is due. For since the ends of the earth under heaven were sanctified, and the greatest house of the Church was filled with the glory of the Lord through the preaching of the *thrice-holy* hymn, as B much water covering the seas, there happened to them indeed those things which had been announced beforehand; but the beginning of the prophecy was also confirmed by the end: signifying, as has been said, through the Spirit, as in an example, the future most wretched subversion of them, of which he says: *In the year that king Ozias died, I saw the Lord* (Isa. VI, 1), Ozias the apostate being taken, as it were, as a model for the whole apostate body, in that he acted as its head: who also, paying the penalty due to his rashness, on his forehead—as if on a bronze statue—bore the inscribed power of divine vengeance, exhibiting to all the retribution of most foul impiety in the filth of leprosy. Therefore, with divine wisdom, the One who is foreknowing of all things, in the casting out of the C ungrateful Synagogue, opposed the bringing in of that grateful widow, Anna; whose very name prefigures the Church, justified by the grace of Christ our God in baptism. For Anna is interpreted as "grace."
XIII. But here, as in a harbor, let us bring to rest the cross-bearing vessel of the discourse, on account of
[...where its own measure consists, let us shorten sail; A if, as we have been permitted in a few words shortly before, we have saluted the city of that great King, together with the ecclesiastical people, as if present in spirit and keeping the festival and assembly with the most honorable fathers and brothers who are there, with joyful voices. Hail, city of the great King, in which the mysteries of our salvation have been accomplished. Hail, earthly heaven, Sion, city henceforth faithful to the Lord. Hail, and be illuminated, Jerusalem; for thy Light is come: the Light eternal, the Light that will never cease, the Light supreme, the Light without matter, the Light of the same essence with God and the Father, the Light which is in the Spirit and in which the Father is; the Light that has illuminated the ages, the Light that has illuminated things supercelestial and things terrestrial, Christ our true God. Hail, city holy and chosen by the Lord; keep thy feasts in gladness, which shall not add anymore to grow old. Hail, most happy city; for glorious things have been spoken of thee; for thy priests shall be clothed with justice, and thy saints shall exult with exultation; and thy poor shall be satisfied with bread. Hail, and rejoice, Jerusalem; for the Lord has reigned in the midst of thee. This is the Lord who, with His naked and immaterial Deity, entered into our nature, and from the virginal womb in an ineffable manner put on flesh; this is the Lord who took part in no other lump than that of Adam, who was tripped up by the serpent. For the Lord did not take hold of angels, B I say, of those who had not deserted that noble order and station assigned to them from the beginning, but He inclined Himself even unto us; He who is always the God Word existing in God the Father. But neither, on the other hand, did He come into the world to restore the wicked demons who had fallen from the light; nor will He ever restore them, as it seemed to the most impious patrons of the terrible devil; but when He, the creator and fashioner of all, had taken hold of the seed of Abraham, according to what the most divine Paul says, and thereby of the whole human race, He became man without change: so that by His communion with us, and our approach in turn to Him, the intrusion of sin into us might be stayed, its strength gradually broken, and it consumed like wax by that divine fire which the Lord, coming, cast upon C the earth. Hail, therefore, also thou, Catholic Church, who art in the whole world under heaven; leap for joy with us.
On the Presentation
D [index: entries preserved]
A of the Lord, let not the "little flock" fear the great tempests of the enemy; for it has pleased the Father to give thee the kingdom, and that thou shouldst tread upon the necks of thine enemies. Hail and rejoice, thou who wast once barren and childless in piety, but now hast many children of the faith. Hail thou also, O people of God: accepted people, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for His own possession; proclaim the virtues of Him who called thee out of darkness into His marvelous light; and for His mercy, glorify Him.
B XIV. Hail forever, our ceaseless joy, O Virgin Mother of God: for to thee I run again. Thou art the beginning of our festival; thou the middle, thou the end: most precious pearl of the kingdom; truly the fat of the whole sacrifice; the living altar of the bread of life. Hail, treasure of the love of God: hail, spring of the Son’s kindness toward the human race and of His humanity: hail, O overshadowed mountain of the Holy Spirit. Thou hast shone forth, O sweet Mother of the solar light, with the unbearable fires of a fervent and overflowing love, bringing forth at the end Him who was conceived before the beginning, revealing the hidden and ineffable mystery; for He who is the invisible Son of the Father, the arbiter of peace, according to an admirable manner, showed Himself less than all lowliness. Therefore we pray thee, most excellent of all, who boastest in maternal honors and confidence, that thou wouldst hold a ceaseless memory C of us, O most holy Mother of God: of us, I say, who glory in thee, and celebrate with august songs thy memory, which shall live forever and never fail through any length of time. And thou too, honored elder Simeon, the first receiver of our pious religion, and teacher of the resurrection of the faithful, draw near as a patron for us to the Savior God, whom thou wast deemed worthy to take into thine arms. For we, too, together with thee, sing to Christ, who has authority over life and death: Thou art the true Light from the true Light, very God from very God; the one Lord before the assumption of human nature, and no less one after that assumption, to be proclaimed with all praise: being Thyself God, not by grace, but by nature, yet for our sake perfect man; Thyself by nature D the King of all, subject to no empire, yet for our sake and for our salvation existing even in the form of a servant, yet immaculate and undefiled. For being Thyself incorruption, Thou camest to undo corruption, that Thou mightst render all things incorruptible. For Thine is the glory and the power, and the great renown and the majesty, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
OF OUR HOLY FATHER METHODIUS, SERMON ON THE PALMS.
Blessed be God: let us proceed, brothers, from the Lord’s miracles to His miracles, and as it were from strength to strength. Just as in a golden chain, the links are joined and fastened to one another in such a way that each individual link holds and follows the next, so too do the miracles handed down in the holy Gospels lead the feast-loving Church of God from one to another, and refresh her—not with food which perishes, but with that which remains into eternal life. Come then, beloved, let us too, with prepared heart and attentive ears, hear what the Lord God is about to speak to us in both the prophets and the Gospels concerning this most divine feast. He shall indeed speak peace to His people, and to His saints, and to those who turn their heart to Him A. Today, prophetic trumpets have awakened the world, and have cheered and delighted the Churches of God throughout all nations; and having taken the faithful from the arena of the holy fasts and the wrestling-ground of the passions, they have taught them to sing the song of victory and the new anthem of peace to Christ the Conqueror. Come, therefore, all of you, let us rejoice in the Lord. Come, all nations, let us clap our hands, and let us rejoice B before God our Savior with a voice of exultation. Let no one be devoid of grace; let no one be lacking in the calling, seeing that the seed of the unbelieving has been made for destruction. [Let no one unworthily regard the meeting of the King, C lest he be excluded from the bridal chamber.] Let no one among us be found sorrowful at the reception, lest he incur the same condemnation as the evil citizens. I speak of those citizens who were unwilling to receive their Lord the King over themselves. [Let all joyfully go to meet Him... D]
A Let us all run together joyously; let us all receive Him with eagerness, and celebrate the feast with celestial dignity. Instead of garments, let us pour out our hearts before Him; let us offer Him our thanksgivings in psalms and hymns; and let us unceasingly cry aloud, *Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord*. For they who bless Him are blessed, and they who curse Him are cursed. I will say it again, nor shall I cease from urging you to what is good: Come, beloved, let us bless the Blessed One, that we may be blessed by Him. The Word B has called every age and rank together for the same purpose, toward the praise of the Lord: kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth, young men and virgins; and, what appears suitably new in this miracle, the preeminence has been obtained by the young and innocent age of infants and sucklings, to lead the way to the Lord in confessing the divinely inspired song, by which same method Moses once foretold to the people coming out of Egypt that, surely, *Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord*.
II. Today the blessed David rejoices with joy, having been despoiled of his harp by infants; with whom, dancing in spirit and taking part in the feast, C just as once before the ark of God, he joins in the music and sweetly lisping chirps: *Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord*. Whom shall we ask? Tell us, O Prophet: Who is this who comes in the name of the Lord? But he, "The task of teaching," he says, "is not mine today; for He has consecrated the school to infants, He who perfected praise out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, to destroy the enemy and the avenger, so that also through the miracle of these, the hearts of the fathers may be turned to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." Tell us, O children, whence comes to you this beautiful and graceful competition and song? Who taught you? Who instructed you? Who gathered you? What tables? Which schoolmasters? "You," they say, "join in the pleasure and song of our fellowship, D and you shall learn what was in the desire of Moses and the rest of the prophets." Since therefore we have been invited, and the children have given us their right hands of fellowship, come, beloved, let us also emulate that divinely fitting dance, and with the apostles let us prepare the way for Him who has ascended above the heaven of heavens toward the East, and who, according to His good pleasure, is carried upon a beast of burden on the earth. Let us take up branches with the children, and let us applaud with olive boughs, that the Holy Spirit may also breathe upon us, and we may chant in good order the divinely taught song: *Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest*. But also the patriarch Jacob today celebrates the feast in spirit, seeing his prophecy brought to its work, and Him who binds his foal to the vine, set upon a new foal, and as a companion of the faithful, [the Patriarch]
A the foal is prepared, an irrational model of the nations once irrational 91, to demonstrate the subjection of the people coming from the nations; and infants proclaim their childhood regarding the knowledge of God, and the perfection which follows in the worship of God. Today the King of glory is glorified upon earth in a prophetic manner, and He reveals the earth-born to be partakers of the heavenly feast, so that He may show that He Himself is the Lord of both, being acclaimed in harmony from both sides. For this reason those above 92, proclaiming the salvation on earth, were chanting: Holy, holy, holy Lord Sabaoth. Heavenly B all the earth is full of His glory: and those below, celebrating the festival in common with the heavenly joy, were crying out: Hosanna [in the highest: Hosanna] to the Son of David. And those above were glorifying: Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place. But those below [were theologizing]: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
III. When these things were being performed, and the disciples were rejoicing over all the powers they had seen, and saying, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest 59, the city began to inquire, saying: Who is this? 60, stirring up an inveterate and ancient jealousy against the glory of the Lord. But when you hear "the city," recognize the ancient, disorderly multitude of the Synagogue. The ungrateful and malicious ones ask, "Who is this?" as if they had not yet seen the Benefactor, and him whom they had made most famous by miracles greater than human, [that is, by] divine [miracles]. For the darkness did not grasp the light that had shone for them 61, the light that knows no setting. Wherefore the prophet Isaiah aptly cried out to them, saying: O you deaf, hear, and you blind, look up to see. And who is blind [but my children: and deaf], but those who rule over them? 62 And the servants of God were blinded. You have seen often, and you did not keep it; your ears were opened, and you did not hear. See, beloved, the accuracy of the word, how the divine Spirit, which is the inspection of things to come, proclaimed future events through His saints as if they were present. For the ungrateful ones saw, and touched through the miracles, God the miracle-worker, and yet they remained in their unbelief. They saw the man blind from birth, proclaiming God who brought him to the light. They saw a contemporary and [colleague…].
[alt-version omitted]
held fast by a grievous infirmity, made whole by His command. They beheld Lazarus, who had become a fugitive from death. They heard of the walking on the sea; the wine provided without labor; the bread eaten at a spontaneously prepared feast; the driving out of demons, and the restoration of the sick to health. Their city squares proclaimed His powers; their streets reported the healings for those who traveled them. The whole of Judea was filled with these benefits; and now, hearing the praise of God, they inquire: "Who is this?" O the folly of the falsely-named teachers! O the unbelieving parents! O the senseless elders! O seed of Canaan the shameless, and not of Judah the devout! The children recognized the Creator, while the unbelieving parents were saying: "Who is this?" The new and unlearned age sang praise to God, while those who had grown old in evil days kept asking: "Who is this?" B Sucklings theologize, while elders blaspheme; boys piously perform the priestly office, while unholy priests impiously fume.
IV. You who are unbelieving in the prudence of the righteous, turn your hearts to your children. Learn the mysteries of God; the very thing that is happening bears witness that it is God who is thus hymned by untaught tongues. Search the Scriptures, just as you heard from the Lord, for they are what testify concerning Him, and do not ignore the miracle. Listen, you most ungracious and ungrateful men, to what the prophet Zechariah brings to you as good news. He says: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; behold, thy King cometh unto thee, just and saving; He is meek and riding upon a colt, the foal of an ass." Why do you push away the joy? Why, when the sun is shining, do you love the darkness? Why do you meditate war against the unconquerable peace? If, then, you are children of Zion, lead the dances together with your children. Let the religion of your children be a cause of joy for you. Learn from them who was the teacher? Who gathered them? Whence the doctrine? What is the new theology and the ancient prophecy? But if no man has taught them any of these things, but they sing the praise spontaneously, recognize that it is the work of God; as it is written in the Law: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise." Double your joy, therefore, that you have become fathers of such children, who have celebrated with praises, through God's teaching, things that were unknown to their elders. D Turn your hearts to your children, and do not close your eyes to the truth. But if you remain the same, and hearing you do not hear, and seeing you do not see, and vainly dissent from the infants, they themselves will be your judges, according to the word of the Savior.
A Well then, the prophet Isaiah also proclaimed this beforehand regarding you, saying: *Jacob shall not be ashamed now, nor shall he now change his countenance; but when they see their children doing my works, for my sake they will sanctify my name, and they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will fear the God of Israel. And those who err in spirit shall come to know understanding, and those who murmur shall learn to obey, and the stammering tongues shall learn to speak peace.* Do you see, O foolish Jew, how from the very beginning of his speech the prophet foretells confusion for you because of your disobedience? Learn, at least from him, how he proclaims the hymn-singing of your children to be God-taught; since the blessed David also foretold this, saying: *Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise.* Therefore, either lay claim to the holiness of the children B as is fitting, or concede the children to us with due religion. We shall lead the dance with them, and we shall together chant the divinely inspired song of the new glory.
V. For indeed, whereas once Simeon the elder met the Savior, and in his arms received the Creator of the ages as an infant, and preached Him as Lord and God; now, instead of the foolish elders, the children met the Savior as Simeon did, and instead of arms they spread out branches, and blessed the Lord God, Who sits upon a foal as if upon the cherubim: *Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.* With whom let us also cry out: Blessed is He Who comes, God the King of glory; Who for our sake became poor, though He knowing no poverty in His own nature, that He might enrich us by His goodness. Blessed is He who comes in humility, and is to come again in glory; first, C gentle upon a foal and escorted by the auspicious cries of infants, that what is written might be fulfilled: *Thy goings, O God, have been seen, the goings of my God, my King, who is in the sanctuary;* and afterwards, terrible upon the clouds, escorted by angels and powers. O the honey-flowing tongue of the children! O the sincere teaching of those who are pleasing to God! The prophecy of David, when pronounced, hid the meaning beneath the letter; the children, having opened the treasure, brought forth the wealth upon their tongues, and with a voice full of grace clearly summoned all to enjoy it. Let us, therefore, draw from it along with them the wealth that cannot be taken away. Let us store the divine graces in insatiable bosoms and treasuries. Let us cry out without end: D Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord; true God in the name of the true God; Almighty from the Almighty; Son in the name of the Father; true King from the true King; whose kingdom, like that of Him who begat Him, is coeternal and pre-eternal. For it is common,
A and Scripture does not attribute this honor to the Son as if it arrived from elsewhere, or as if it had begun, or were being added thereto; far be it! but as that which is His by nature and true proprietary possession, of His own right. For the kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is one, just as there is one substance and one lordship. Whence also with one adoration we worship one tri-hypostatic Deity, without beginning, uncreated, limitless, and without successor. For neither shall the Father ever cease to be Father, nor the Son to be Son and King, nor the Holy Spirit to be that which He is in hypostasis. For nothing of the Trinity shall be diminished, whether in eternity, or in communion and kingdom. For it is not because the Son of God became man for our sake B and [overthrew] the tyrant against us in the flesh, thereby negotiating the victory against His cruel enemy, that He was made King; but because He is always Lord and God, for that reason He is also King, just as He who begat Him; and now, even after the assumption of flesh, and unto eternity, He remains King. Do not blaspheme, O heretic, the kingdom of Christ, lest you bring ignominy upon Him who begat Him. If you are a believer, approach in faith to Christ our true God, and do not use your liberty as a cloak for malice. If you are a servant, submit with trembling to the Lord. For he who attacks the Word in war is not a well-disposed servant, but is manifestly an enemy. For it is written: He who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent Him.
VI.
We, however, beloved, let us return to the discourse from whence we set out, crying: Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord C: that honest and good shepherd, to lay down his Soul willingly for his sheep; so that, just as hunters capture the voracious wolves of sheep by means of a sheep, so the Prince of shepherds, offering Himself as man to the spiritual and soul-destroying wolves, might make those who hunted a hunting-prey, in place of the Adam who was long ago hunted by them. Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord: God against the devil, not manifestly through invisible power, but through the weakness of the flesh, to bind the strong one against us. Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord: King against the tyrant, not through omnipotent power and wisdom, but through the supposed foolishness of the cross, which despoiled the spoils of the serpent: that was wise in malice. Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord: the true One against the liar; the Savior against the plague; the Prince of peace against the incendiary of wars; He who is of singular zeal for the human race against the hater of men. Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord: the Lord, about to show mercy to His own creation. Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord: the Lord, about to save theA wandering man; to abolish error; to bring light to those walking in darkness; to abolish the deceit of idols; to introduce in their place the saving knowledge of God; to sanctify the world; to drive away the pollution B and the pain of the worship of vain gods. Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord: one for the many, to rescue the needy race of men from the hand of those stronger than him, and the needy and the poor from those plundering him. [Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord: to pour wine and oil upon him who had fallen among robbers and had been overlooked.] Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord: that He Himself might save us by Himself, as the prophet says: Not an ambassador, nor an angel; but the Lord Himself saved us. Therefore we also bless Thee, O Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit art blessed before the ages and unto the ages of ages: before the ages indeed, and up to this point, without a body; but now, and unto the ages, with Thy divine and immutably and indivisibly assumed humanity.
VII. Let us see also what follows.
What does the divine evangelist say? For when the Lord had entered the temple, the lame and the blind came to Him, and He healed them. But the chief priests and the Pharisees, seeing the C wonders which He did, and the children crying out and saying, "Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord," could not bear the honor shown. And so, approaching, they said: "Do you not hear what these are saying?" As if they were to say: "Are you not offended that you are praised as God? Do you not take it amiss that you hear from an innocent age the things which befit God, and God alone? Has not God long ago declared through the prophet, 'My glory I will not give to another'? And who art thou, being a man, that thou makest thyself God?" But how does the long-suffering One, He who is plenteous in mercy and slow to anger, respond to these things? He bears with those who are raging, He restrains their kindled anger with a defense, He calls to mind the Scriptures from the opposite side, He brings forward the testimonies of the things being done, and He D does not refuse to ask: "Have you never heard me saying through the prophet: 'Then you shall know that I who spoke, am here'? Nor, again: 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise, because of your enemies, to destroy the enemy and the avenger'?" You, forsooth, who attend to the law and read the prophets, and yet spurn me who am proclaimed in the law and the prophets. You seem indeed, under the guise of piety, to be avenging the glory of God, not understanding that he who spurns me, spurns also my Father: I went forth from God and have come into the world; and my glory is also the glory of my Father. Being thus convicted by our Savior God, the foolish men ceased from their contradiction, their mouths obstructed by the truth: but having adopted another demented thought, they devised a plan against Him. Let us, however, sing: Great is the Lord and great is His power;[... having laid hold of] the reasoning of folly, they took counsel against A Him. But let us chant: "Great is our Lord, and great is His power, and there is no number to His understanding." For all these things came to pass, in order that the Lamb and Son of God, who takes away the sin of the world, might come voluntarily for our sake to the saving passion and be recognized at the place of sale, and that they who bought Him who was buying back the world with His life-giving blood might agree for thirty pieces of silver, and that Christ, our Passover, might be sacrificed for us; so that those who are sprinkled with His precious blood, and whose lips are sealed as with a doorpost, might escape the arrows of the destroyer; and thus Christ, having suffered in the flesh and risen on the third day, might be worshipped by all creation equally and with equal glory together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, because to Him every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, B sending up glory to Him, for ever and ever. Amen.
EXCERPTA TRIA
FROM THE HOMILY OF S. METHODIUS ON THE CROSS AND PASSION OF CHRIST
I. (From Gretser, vol. II, On the Holy Cross, p. 401, new ed. Ratisb. 1754.)C Methodius the bishop, to those who say: "What did it profit us that the Son of God was crucified on earth, and became man? And why did He endure to suffer in the figure of the cross, and not by some other punishment? And what is the utility of the cross?"
The Son of God, Christ, dwelt among the visible creation by the command of the Father, so that, by overthrowing the powers of the tyrannizing demons, He might deliver souls from bitter servitude, since the whole of nature, as if fascinated by the iniquity of the draughts [of evil], had become filled with tumult and disorder, and could no longer in any way return to the memory of useful things. Therefore, it was also easily drawn toward idols, seeing that evil had overwhelmed all things and had consumed all generations because of the alteration which flowed into our fleshly tabernacles from disobedience: until the Lord Christ, through the flesh in which He lived and appeared, having repressed the assaults of the pleasures by which the infernal powers, armed against us, were reducing the intellect to slavery, liberated man from all evils. For the sake of this, therefore, the Lord Jesus also wore flesh, and became man, and was affixed to the D cross by divine dispensation: so that, through the same flesh in which the demons had boasted to show themselves to be gods, having ensnared souls by a compendious fraud, they might be cast down and despised through it, so as not to be gods. For, forbidding their pride to be exalted any further, He became man; so that through the body...
A of the Word, who contains all things, which He took on by an ineffable art of wisdom, these destructive enemies might be convicted, and not as benefactors of souls.
For it would not have been a wonder if Christ, by the terror of His divinity and the magnitude of His invincible power, had weakened the hostile natures of the demons. But since that would have brought them greater grief and torment (for they would have preferred to be conquered by a superior), for this reason He brought about the work of universal salvation through man: so that men, when Life itself and Truth had corporally entered into them, might be able to return to the form and light of the Word, having overcome the enticements of sin; and so that the demons, conquered and despised by one who was weaker, might cease their audacity and confidence, their Typhonian flame being repressed. For this reason, most especially, the cross was introduced as a trophy erected against iniquity, and as a terror, so that from thenceforth man should no longer be subject to wrath, after he had compensated for the catastrophe received from disobedience, and had lawfully conquered the infernal powers, and had been liberated from every debt by the gift of God. Thus, indeed, the first-begotten Word of God armed with the weapons of justice the man in whom He dwelt; B and the powers that had reduced us to servitude were conquered by the figure of the cross, as has been said; and man, who had been oppressed by corruption as if by a certain tyranny, He liberated with hands outstretched.
For this cross is, if you wish to define it, the bulwark of victory, the way by which God descends to man, a trophy against impure spirits, the casting off of death, the foundation of the ascent to the true day, and a ladder for those hastening to enjoy the light that is there: a machine by which those who are adapted for the building of the Church are drawn up from below, like a squared stone, to be fitted to the divine Word. Hence our kings, C for the scattering of all evil, judged that the figure of the cross should be assumed, and they made "vexilla," as they are called in the Latin tongue. Whence the sea, yielding to this figure, offers itself as navigable to men. For the whole creation, so to speak, is clothed in this sign for the sake of freedom. For the birds flying on high shadow forth the figure of the cross by the expansion of their wings; and man himself, with hands outstretched, represents the same. Whence the Lord, having fashioned him D into that same figure with which He had adorned him from the beginning, joined him to His divinity, so that he might henceforth be an organ holy to God, free from all dissonance and lack of harmony. For neither can man, after he has been formed unto the worship of God, and has sung the incorrupt chant of truth, and through it has been made capable of divinity, being applied to the wood of life like strings and tendons, return to dissonance and corruption.
HOMILY ON THE DOMINICAL CROSS.
II. From Gretser, ibid., page 403. A By the same Methodius, to those who are ashamed of the Cross of Christ. Some think that God also, measuring Him by the standard of their own disposition, considers the same things praiseworthy or blameworthy as do base and slothful men, as if He used the opinions of men as a rule and measure. They do not understand, owing to the ignorance that is in them, that all creation, of course, is in need of the beauty of God. For He Himself draws all things from the entirety of substance and nature into life by His own Word. For whether He wills the good—He who is the Good itself and remains in Himself—or whether there is something beautiful desirable to Him—He who is the sole beauty itself, He looks to Himself, making nothing of those things which move the admiration of men. For that is to be called most beautiful in truth and praiseworthy, which God Himself has deemed beautiful, even if it be despised and mocked by all, and not that which men think beautiful. Whence, even if He willed through this figure to free souls B from the passions that destroy the spirit, putting to shame the multitudes of demons, we ought to accept it, not disparage it, for it was given as a liberator and a release from the bonds we incurred through disobedience. For the Word suffered, being fixed in the flesh to the cross, that He might stretch out man, who had been numbed by deception, toward that height which is above and divine, making him equal to the divine life from which he had previously been driven away. For by this figure, passions have been blunted; He became the passion of passions by suffering, and death of death by dying; not subdued by death, nor pained by passion. For neither did passion cast Him down at all from the state of His mind, nor did death harm Him; but He remained in the passible as impassible, and in the mortal as immortal; comprehending everything that was in the air, and in the midst, and above, and mingled the mortal with C immortal divinity. Death was perfectly defeated in the image of immortality, having been crucified in the flesh.III. From Allatius, *Diatribe on the Writings of Methodius*, page 549. By the same Methodius. How the Son of God, Christ, was contained in a brief and limited time in a body defined by divisions; and how, being impassible, He became subject to passion. For since this power was in Him—for it belongs to power to be contracted in few things and diminished, but to be expanded in great things and increased. But if it is possible for it to be stretched out and made equal with great things, but impossible to be diminished and contracted in small things, then D virtue was not in the least present. For if you say that this is possible for virtue, but that is impossible, you deny that it is the same virtue, inasmuch as it is weak and feeble concerning things it cannot do. Moreover, it will not possess any excellence of divinity concerning those things from which this fragment was taken.
A For men and other animals work on those things in which they can effect something, but in those in which they cannot, they grow weak and accomplish nothing. For this reason, the Son of God was enclosed within man, because this was not impossible for Him; for by His power He suffered while remaining impassible, and He died, bestowing immortality upon the mortal. For a body, when beaten or cut by a body, is beaten or cut just as much as that which strikes it strikes, and that which cuts it cuts. For the blow occurs according to the recoil of the subject matter upon the striker, since it is necessary that both the agent and the one acted upon suffer equally. Indeed, if that which is cut does not, with a slight disposition, correspond to that which cuts, the one cutting will not be able to cut. For if the subject body does not resist the force of the sword, but rather yields, the action becomes fruitless—as is evident in the more subtle bodies of fire and air. B For in such things, the impetus of more solid bodies is dissolved and remains without effect. But if fire, or air, or stone, or iron, or wood, or anything else—things which men use when they kill one another—cannot wound or divide something of a more subtle nature because it is of a tangible and subtle nature, how much more must Wisdom have remained invulnerable and impassible, harmed by nothing from anyone, even if it was joined and nailed to the body which was being cut, since it existed as more excellent and purer than any nature, if you except God its begetter?
SOME OTHER FRAGMENTS OF THE SAME S. METHODIUS
I.
(From Nicetas’ Catena on Job, ch. xix, p. 429, Londin. edit., 1637.)
Methodius.
C Perhaps, since the friends of Job thought they understood the cause for which he suffered such things, the just man used a longer speech toward them, confessing that the wisdom concerning the judgments of God is incomprehensible, not only to himself but to every man, and declaring that a terrestrial place is not suitable for receiving the knowledge of the divine counsel. Yet someone might say that perfect and absolute piety, a thing clearly divine and bestowed upon men by God alone, is called wisdom in this passage. The sense of the words, however, is this: God, he says, by implanting in the nature of men the power and faculty of discovery, along with prudence and art, has bestowed upon them great gifts; having received which, they mine the earth to extract metals and till it; but wisdom, which is joined with piety, is not to be found in any place. D Nor can man attain it by himself and his own resources, nor impart it to others.
A And those, therefore, who have sought piety for themselves, have missed the mark. For the matter, as we have said, is not attainable by men, but is of the divine gift and grace; for this reason, from the beginning, God instructed men in piety, partly through visions, partly through the visitation of angels, and partly through the words of the holy prophets divinely inspired. Even the contemplative wisdom, by which we are moved toward arts and pursuits, and which we all possess in common—both the unjust and the just—is a gift of God; for we have received it as creatures capable of reason. Wherefore, in what was said above, as speaking of a matter divinely granted, it was said: "Is it not the Lord who teaches man knowledge and understanding?"
II. A *Ibid. cap. xxvi, pag. 538.* B Methodius. Note that the Lord is not accustomed to speak to men from the very beginning; but when the soul has been prepared and exercised through many things, and has ascended into the heights as far as human nature is able, then at last He speaks, and reveals His words to those who have risen to such a height. And since a whirlwind creates a storm, and Job, in the storm of his afflictions, did not suffer shipwreck of his faith, but rather his constancy shone forth, for this reason He who gave him an answer gives the answer through a whirlwind, to signify the storm of calamities that had seized him; but because He changed his tumultuous state into calm serenity, He speaks not only through the whirlwind, but also through the clouds.
III. B *Ibid. pag. 547.* C Methodius. Many have descended into the abyss, not in order to walk in it, but to be held fast in bonds. Jesus alone walked in the abyss where there are no footprints of walkers, as one who was free. For He chose death, to which He was not subject, so that He might liberate those who were enslaved to death; saying to those who were in bonds, "Go forth," and to those who were in darkness, "Be revealed." And the things which follow are in agreement with this.
IV. C *Ibid. cap. xxviii, pag. 570.* Methodius. D You see how, upon the conclusion of the struggles, He proclaims the praises of the athlete with a bright declaration, and reveals what was hidden in the blow, when He says: "Do you think that I have answered you in any other way than that you might appear just?" This is the medicine for wounds; this is the reward for patience. For although he received double what he formerly had, the things that followed, if to some they seem small and given for lighter reasons, could be seen as having been granted in that manner by Divine Providence.
V.
Ibid. Chapter XIX, pag. 418, ex Olympiodoro.
Methodius, however, receives the Divine Spirit, which has been granted to all men by God, and of whom Solomon also spoke—"For thy incorruptible spirit is in all"—as the conscience, which also condemns the sinning soul. A
VI.
From the Damascene Parallels, Works vol. 11, page 331, D.
By the same Methodius.
I consider it a greater good to be reproved than to reprove, by as much as it is a greater thing for oneself to be delivered from evil than to deliver another.
VII.
Ibid. page 438, B.
By the same Methodius.
Human nature cannot behold justice itself purely in the soul, since its thoughts are for the most part blind.
VIII.
By the same Methodius.
Malice will never acknowledge either virtue or itself.
IX.
By the same Methodius.
Justice, as it seems, is square, equal on every side and similar to itself. C The just judgment of God is accommodated to our affections; and whatever our affairs may be, and according to the manner in which they have behaved themselves, in the same way we receive our retribution.