if we are found worthy and suitable. For God, having said, "Let us make man in our image and likeness," created both at the same time: that is, He fashioned the body, and created the intelligent and rational soul. A For at the same time that God fashioned the body, He also created the soul, manifesting man as a perfect being; for neither is the body a man without the soul, nor the soul without the body. But if the soul pre-existed, as Origen deliriously claims, to what end did the most holy prophet Zacharias say, "Fashioning the spirit of man within him" (Zach. XII)? For if it existed beforehand, it would have been more fitting to say, "pouring it in" as into a vessel, or "sending down" the spirit of man into him. But now, when the prophet says "fashioning," he shows that, just as the body, so also did God create the soul, which did not pre-exist, by His own power and goodness. B Therefore, as it has been said that man was made in the image and likeness of God, and was deemed worthy of the divine in-breathing, it is clear that He created not only an intelligent and rational soul, but one that is also immortal, so that it might rule over all things made upon the earth. For this is what was said by the Theologian Gregory concerning the soul, that it is from God and divine, and a participant in the nobility from above. Not as some imagine, saying that the soul is of the divine essence, but as having come into being through the in-breathing of God, and having received from Him the grace to be intelligent, and rational, and immortal, and not to die together with the body, like the irrational animals, but to participate in the nobility from above—that is, in immortality—by grace. C The holy John, Patriarch of Constantinople, bears witness to these things in his eleventh homily on the creation; for he says thus: "And He breathed," he says, "into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Here, certain ignorant men, moved by their own cogitations, and having no thoughts becoming to God, nor considering the condescension of the words, dare to say that the soul is of the essence of God. O the madness, o the dementedness! And this is what the Father says concerning the matter at hand. But consider that concerning all other things made on earth, God said, "Let there be," and "Let the earth bring forth," and it was done (Gen. 1). But concerning man, He says, "Let us make man," and not only "Let us make," but "in our image and likeness." And taking dust from the earth, He fashioned man with His own hands, and breathed into his face the breath of life, D and man became a living soul. From this, therefore, it is possible to see how God made man more honorable than all other creatures on the earth. For all other things He made by a word: He spoke, and they were made; but man, as it has been said, He created with His own hands, according to the divine Scripture. And all things that were made by Him upon the earth He subjected to the man who was made on the sixth day, so that, all the creatures on earth having already been made and prepared for him, he might rule over them, while he himself is ruled by his Creator. This is what the holy Theologian Gregory teaches us in his oration on the New Sunday, saying: "Thus, something is numbered first in the days, and second, and third, and so on, up to the seventh day, the day of rest from works, in which the created things are distributed, ordered by ineffable reasons, and not..."
A issued haphazardly from the Word who is powerful in all things; for whom even just to think and to speak is to bring the thing itself to pass. But if man was shown to be the last, and yet was honored by the hand of God and by His image, it is nothing surprising; for it was necessary, just as for a king, that the royal palace should first exist, and thus the king be introduced, already escorted by all things as his retinue. If, therefore, according to the teaching of the theologian Gregory, man was shown to be the last, and yet was honored by the hand of God and by His image, and all things were prepared for him by God, and—just as royal palaces are prepared before a king—is thus introduced by God as a king already escorted by all things, how do those who are deluded according to Origen say that souls, having pre-existed, were sent down into bodies on account of sins, being required to pay the penalty for those formerly committed? For if the reverse were true, why does that holy man, Gregory, say that man was brought into being last of all, and was honored by God, and reigns over all things upon the earth? This is certainly no sign of punishment, but rather an indication of every providence and beneficence. B In agreement with the words of the theologian Gregory, holy John, Patriarch of Constantinople, also teaches us in his eleventh homily on the creation, saying thus: “But perhaps someone might say—and for what reason, if the soul is more precious than the body, is the lesser created first, and then the greater and more excellent one? Do you not see, beloved, that this same thing happened in the creation itself? For just as the heaven, and the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and all other things were created, and after all these, man, who was to be entrusted with the rule of all of them—in the same way, in the very formation of man, the body is formed first, and then the soul, which is more precious. For in the way that irrational creatures, which were to be useful for service, were created before man, in order that he who was to enjoy the benefit of them might have the service ready, so also is the body created before the soul, in order that when, according to His ineffable wisdom, the soul is brought forth, it may have its own proper powers ready to be displayed through the movement of the body.” And these things are sufficient to show to the hearers that in all places we feel and say the same things as the holy Fathers, who utterly reject the pre-existence of souls. Furthermore, when the holy Scripture says concerning Adam and Eve: “God blessed them and said, ‘Increase and multiply, and replenish the earth, and have dominion over it’” (Gen. 1): C how, if souls were older than bodies, was it to come about that, according to the divine command, they would increase and multiply—they who, according to their fables, had already existed? And how could God have blessed souls that had already fallen into sin to "increase and multiply"? For souls stained by sins were worthy of a curse rather than a blessing. But if souls pre-existed, and according to the fables of Origen were in another order, why did God fashion only Adam? Or was it that only the soul of Adam had sinned at that time, and therefore God fashioned one body? For if there were other souls before this, it was necessary that other bodies also be fashioned at the same time to receive those souls. And how was the sinful soul—according to their reasoning—cast into a body for the sake of punishment, placed by the Lord in the paradise of delights? For if it was sent into a body by way of punishment, it would not have been placed in that paradise of delights, but rather in a place of punishment;
so greatly, indeed, did God love the man whom He had fashioned after all other creatures, that even after he had transgressed the commandment given to him by God, and had for this reason been cast out of paradise, and although the human race was increasing and sin was spreading—since the thought of man was inclined toward worse things through wicked intent—God, as He is good, did not disregard His own handiwork but admonished it in various ways, as indicated by the holy Scripture. A Since, however, we were in need of greater medicine for more severe ailments, the Only-Begotten Word of God Himself—the One, that is, the one Person of the Holy Trinity—for His own benevolence became man, remaining God; neither changing His divine substance into the human, nor transforming His human substance into the divine. And He is one and the same, recognized in both natures inconfusibly and indivisibly. For remaining what He was, He became what He was not. And taking upon Himself in His own flesh the death we owed due to the condemnation of the transgression, He delivered us from eternal death, becoming the firstfruits of those who sleep, and rising as the firstborn from the dead, He raised us up and made us sit together in the heavenly places (1 Cor. xv; Coloss. i; Ephes. ii), as the apostolic tradition teaches us. For even if human nature was from the beginning deprived of paradise on account of disobedience, nevertheless, as it has been said, the Only-Begotten Son of God, because of the great love with which He loved us (Ephes. ii), uniting our nature to Himself indivisibly according to subsistence in the womb of the holy, glorious Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, deemed us worthy of greater grace, granting us the kingdom of heaven. B And to these things holy John, Patriarch of Constantinople, bears witness in his sermon on the Ascension (Tom. iii of his works), saying thus: "We who appeared unworthy of the earth have today been raised to heaven; we who were not even worthy of the lower rule have ascended to the kingdom above, having passed beyond the heavens and attained to the royal throne. And the nature on account of which the Cherubim guarded paradise (Gen. iii), itself sits today above the Cherubim." It is demonstrated therefore that it is not as Origenes babbles, that souls pre-existed in the heavens and were afterwards sent down into bodies for the sake of punishment; but on the contrary, the entire nature of man, that is, body and soul, was fashioned upon the earth, and through the goodness and condescension of God, was deemed worthy of the kingdom in the heavens. So that men who keep and fulfill the commandment of God are deemed worthy of association with the angels in the heavens—those whom we are commanded on earth to imitate through confession in God. C For since God, because of His ineffable love for mankind, willed that just as He is glorified in the heavens by the holy powers, so too should He be glorified on earth by men, He fashioned man, a second angel upon the earth, so that all things might be filled with the glory of God. Wherefore the Lord, delivering how one ought to pray, says: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as in heaven and on earth." D Consistent with what we have said, the holy Theologian Gregory also teaches in his sermon on the holy Easter
for he says thus: "Wishing to demonstrate this, the Word, the artisan, fashions man, an animal composed of both—that is, of visible and invisible nature. And taking the body from matter that already existed, but breathing life from Himself, which the Word knows to be a rational soul and the image of God, He sets him as a kind of other world, great in the small, upon the earth, another angel, a composite worshiper, an observer of visible creation, a mystic of the intelligible—a king of those upon the earth, but ruled from above." A Observe, therefore, that when the Father says that God made man from both, he adds that the body was taken from matter that was already pre-existing, but he did not say that the soul pre-existed, nor that it was made from some pre-existing substance, but that God breathed into him the life—which the Word knows to be a rational soul and the image of God—from Himself. And the fact that the Father says that God made man a king upon the earth, to be ruled from above, refutes the claim that souls were cast into bodies for the sake of punishment; for to rule upon the earth and to be ruled by God alone is not a matter of punishment, but of a great gift B of God.
Furthermore, we deem it necessary to say this to those who speak of pre-existence: if it were true that souls pre-existed the bodies, they would know and remember what they had done even before entering into the bodies, in the same way that they know and recognize after death what they did while in the bodies. And we shall prove that the soul, after its departure from here, knows what it has done, from the very words of the Gospel; for our Lord and Savior Christ says in the Gospel according to Luke, in the passage concerning Lazarus and the rich man (Luke xvi): "There was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted daily in splendor. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table; moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died, C and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died, and was buried. And in Hades, lifting up his eyes, being in torments, he sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom; and he cried out and said: 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.' And Abraham said to him: 'Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who wish to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass over to us.' And he said: 'I ask you therefore, father, that you send him to my father's house, for D I have five brothers, so that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'" Let those who defend Origen be ashamed, therefore, even by the words of the holy Gospel. For if the souls had existed before the bodies, they would know those things which they did before the body, just as after their migration from this life they remember those things that
were done by them through the body. For this we have been taught from the words of the holy Gospel.
That the holy Fathers, following the divinely inspired Scriptures, condemned such doctrines, together with Origen who invented them, we have already clearly demonstrated from the very things said by the holy Fathers, and we shall demonstrate it no less through the subsequent testimonies of the holy Fathers. And first, we shall set forth holy Peter, who became bishop of Alexandria and martyr, bearing witness to these our words.
B Of holy Peter, bishop and martyr of the great city of Alexandria, from his first discourse, concerning the fact that the soul neither pre-exists, nor was it cast into a body because it had sinned: "We have thought it necessary to set forth certain things concerning the first man made of earth, so that it may be demonstrated that one and the same man was made at one and the same time, although occasionally, in a particular way, he is called the inner and outer man. For although, according to the saving word, He who made the inner things also made the outer things, yet it was once and at one time—that is, on the same day—when God said: *Let us make man according to our image and likeness.* From which it is evident that [the human being] was not made from a gathering, as if some other thing had pre-existed and had come together from another place. For if there was a gathering, for what reason was that which was already made recorded?" And after other things: "Therefore, it is not accepted that souls sinned in heaven before bodies, since they did not exist at all before the bodies. For this teaching is of Greek philosophy, which is foreign and alien to those who wish to live piously in Christ." C
Of the same, from the mystagogy which he made to the Church, when he was about to receive the crown of martyrdom: "Therefore I beseech you, watch, because you are about to enter into affliction again. You know how many dangers my father and bishop Theonas, who reared me, endured from those who were insane after idols; in whose throne I succeeded—would that I had also succeeded to his character! And you know how the great Dionysius conducted himself, hiding from place to place, when Sabellius also was causing affliction. And what further shall I say of Heraclas and Demetrius, the blessed bishops? What D temptations they sustained from the insane Origen, when he himself was sowing schisms in the Church, which to this very day stir up troubles for her!" Can anyone, therefore, who is right-minded oppose those things which were said against Origen by the holy martyr and bishop of Alexandria, Peter? He, who undertook the noble contest for Christ, not only renounced Origen and his abominable doctrines, but also testifies that the holy Fathers who were before him sustained many temptations from his mental derangement.
And holy Athanasius, who also became bishop of Alexandria, said in the discourse on the life of the blessed Antony these things: "How do you dare to ridicule us, who say that Christ was manifested as man, when you, defining the soul as demented, say that it has wandered, and has fallen from the vault of heaven into a body?" Let those who hear pay heed, for holy Athanasius openly opposes…
those who say that the mind pre-exists, and that from this the soul was generated after sinning, and fell from the vault of heaven into a body.
Of the same holy Athanasius, from his second discourse against the Arians: "All visible creation was made in six days; on the first day, the light, which He called day; on the second, the firmament; on the third, having gathered the waters, He showed the dry land, and brought forth upon it various fruits; on the fourth, He made the sun and the moon, and the whole choir of the stars; on the fifth, He created the generation of the living things in the sea, and of the birds in the air; on the sixth, He made the quadrupeds upon the earth, and finally man, who is of a rational soul and body. And His invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made (Rom. 1); and neither is the light as the night, nor the sun as the moon, nor are the angels as the thrones, nor these as the powers; but all are indeed creatures, and each of those things which have come to be, according to its kind, persists and remains in its own substance as it was made." Behold, holy Athanasius also declares that after all creatures God made man, he who is of body and an intelligent, rational soul. For he did not say that the body was made after all things so that a pre-existing soul might enter into it; but he said that man, who is of a rational soul and body, was made after all creatures, showing that God fashioned both, that is, body and soul, at the same time.
Since, however, this also has been stated alongside the other blasphemies of Origen, namely that the soul of the Lord pre-existed, and that to this the Word of God was united before the incarnation from the Virgin; the holy Athanasius himself, refuting such ravings B in his letter to Epictetus, says thus: "Rightly shall all those condemn themselves who think that the flesh which is from Mary existed before Mary, and that before her the Word of God had a human soul, and that He had always been in it before His coming." If, therefore, according to what has been said by holy Athanasius, the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in all things was made like unto us without sin, did not pre-exist His coming in the flesh, what kind of madness is it to say that the souls of other men pre-exist their bodies?
Let us hear, moreover, from holy Basil in his homily on, *In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God*, saying thus: "See that the ambiguity of the word does not deceive you; for how was human reason in the beginning, when man received the beginning of his generation last of all? Before man were the beasts, before man the cattle, the reptiles, the land animals and the water animals, the birds of heaven, the stars, the sun, the moon, the herbs, the earth, the sea, the heaven." Behold, the Father clearly forewarns us not to be led astray by the fables of Origen concerning the pre-existence of souls. For he does not teach us that human reason—that is, the soul—was in the beginning; but he cries out explicitly that the generation of man is later than all the things created by God. If, therefore, all creatures were before man, how did the souls pre-exist? For the Father [speaks] not before the body, but before man, who is soul and body,
he stated that all things were brought into being; and from this it is shown that both were created at the same time.
B Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, says also in his *Disputation on Man* (Chap. 28): “And perhaps it is not alien to the purpose of our inquiry to examine what is debated in the Churches concerning the soul and the body. For to some of those before us, who have produced treatises on first principles, it seems—as if [souls were] a certain population in a distinct city—that they say souls pre-existed; and that there, examples of both virtue and malice were set before them; and that the soul which remained in the good was to remain untried by the union with a body; but if it should slip from the participation in the good, it was to fall down into this life, and thus come to be in a body. Others, attending to the order of the creation of man according to Moses, say that the soul is prior to the body in time. Since God, first taking clay from the earth, fashioned the man, and then animated him by the insufflation.” And after a few words: “Those who maintain the former opinion, and declare the polity of souls to be more ancient than the life in the flesh, do not seem to me to be clear of the pagan myths which are told concerning the migration of souls from other [bodies] into other [bodies]. For if one examines it precisely, he will find that their reasoning necessarily drags them to this. They say that one of the wise men among them stated that he had been a man, and had put on a woman’s body, and had flown with birds, and had frequented bushes, and had obtained the life of a water-creature. By my judgment, he who says these things of himself does not stray far from the truth. For truly, such doctrines are worthy of the garrulous croaking of frogs, or the cawing of crows, or the irrationality of fish, or the insensibility of trees—to say that one soul has passed through so many things. C The cause of such absurdity is this: the opinion that souls pre-exist. For by consequence, the beginning of such a doctrine, advancing to what is akin and adjacent to the argument, will go on to produce such monstrosities as these. For if, through some vice, the soul is drawn away from the higher polity and becomes a man, and the life in the flesh is acknowledged by all to be more prone to passions than that of eternal and incorporeal beings, it is a necessity that the soul, living in such a life—in which there are more opportunities for sinning—should come to be in more vice and be more affected by passions. Moreover, the passion of the human soul is its assimilation to irrational beings; and having been assimilated to this, it would be transmuted into the nature of beasts. But once it has traveled through vice, it will never—even when it has come to be among the irrational—cease from the progression toward evil. For the cessation of evil is the beginning of the impulse toward virtue. And virtue does not exist in irrational beings. Therefore, it will always necessarily be changed for the worse, always advancing toward the worse and more dishonorable, and always discovering something worse than the nature in which it is; and just as the sensible D has been subjected to the rational, so too from this does a fall into the insensible come about. But the argument proceeds for them up to this point, and is carried outside the truth, but yet it takes up absurdity from absurdity through a certain consequence. And from thence their doctrine is fashioned into myths through things that do not cohere for them. The consequence itself exhibits the total corruption of the soul. For once it has slipped away from the high polity, it is in no measure
able to stand against vice; but through the habit of the passions it will shift from the rational to the irrational, and from that it will shift further into the insensibility of plants; and to the insensible there follows in some way the inanimate, and to the inanimate that which does not exist. So that the soul, through the consequence of this, will shift away entirely into that which is not in them. Consequently, for it there will be no return back to the better. But indeed, they lead the soul back from a bush to man. Therefore, they demonstrate from these things that the life in a bush is more preferable than the incorporeal conduct. For it has been demonstrated that the progress of the soul, happening toward the worse, will logically descend to a lower state. That which is inanimate has descended B beneath the insensible nature, to which the *archē* of their doctrine leads the soul by consequence. But since they do not want this, they either shut the soul up in the insensible, or if they lead it back from there to human life, they will demonstrate—as has been said—that the arboreal life is to be preferred to the initial state of the soul; if indeed from that former state there was a falling away into vice, but from the latter there is a return to virtue. Therefore, such an argument is proven to be headless and incomplete, which constructs that souls lived on their own before life in the flesh, and that they have been bound to bodies on account of vice.
Since, therefore, the teaching of the Father is clear, and disavows the statement that souls pre-exist the bodies, let us listen also to the holy Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, from the discourse written to certain monks who held the opinions of Origen, saying thus: C “Wherefore, anathematizing Origen and the other heretics, just as we do, and as does Anastasius, bishop of the holy Church of the Romans—who, having been chosen from the struggles of old as a glorious leader of a most noble people, is followed by the entire synod of the blessed bishops of the West, which received and approved the sentence passed by the Church of the Alexandrians against the impious one.”
From the same, from his letter to the saints who were in Scetis, on account of those who accused the condemnation of the doctrines of Origen: “Some have dared to say that Origen is a teacher of the Church. Are those people, I pray, to be endured? If Origen is a teacher of the Church, then the Arians, and the Eunomians, and the Hellenes take great spirit to themselves: some blaspheming against the Son and against the Spirit; others, impious like them, D and mocking the resurrection of the dead.” It is clear, therefore, from what has been said, that he who follows the holy Fathers does not doubt but that those who hold the opinions of Origen follow the error of the pagans and the madness of the Arians.
The holy Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, also says the following in his letter to the monks who are in Phua, against those who say there is no resurrection of the bodies: “They say, therefore, that there are some among you who deny the resurrection of human bodies, which is a part of our confession, which we made while approaching holy baptism. For when we confess the faith, we add that we believe also in the resurrection of the flesh. But if we do away with this, and do not believe that Christ rose from the dead, that He might raise us up together with Himself, we have a faltering faith, and have turned away from the royal
path, and follow a perverse way. Such is the wicked opinion stemming from the dementia of Origen, whom our fathers also renounced and anathematized as one who perverted the truth. For he did not think as a Christian, but followed the follies and vanities of the pagans, and fell into error. From this, the origin of his malady came about: he asserts that souls exist before bodies, and that, having been led away from holiness into wicked desires, they departed from God; and on account of this cause, He condemned them and embodied them, and they are as in a prison within the flesh. A From the same [author], from the letter written to the monks who were in Phua: "The Church, however, following the God-inspired Scriptures, knows neither that the soul existed before the bodies, nor that it sinned before them. For how could that which did not yet exist be able to sin? But we affirm that the Maker of the universe fashioned the body from the earth, and animated it with an intelligent soul, and this is the structure of man." And after other things: "That the soul of man was not condemned for prior sins, as they say, and sent into this world, the all-wise Paul also gives proof by writing: 'For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive according to what he did through the body, whether good or evil' (II Cor. v). B Why then does he say that we must be manifested only for what we did through the body, and not rather for what preceded the body, if he knew that the soul had existed before, and had sinned before? But if we are judged only for what we did in the body, it is evident that we have no sin prior to the body: for the soul of man did not exist at all before it. Furthermore, the force of the literal letters of the Law makes this clear. For if, as the wandering Origen says, the soul received the body as a place of punishment or retribution for previous transgressions, why did it threaten death to those who sin? For it would have behooved the good and just men rather to die, so that they might be released from their bonds and punishment, C and the wicked to live, so that they might be punished and not released from their bonds."
From the synodical letter issued by the bishops of Egypt and Alexandria against the doctrines of Origen: "This Origen, therefore, who is before us, has appeared like the abomination of desolation in the midst of the true Church. And being ordained presbyter by the canonical and true hand, he held the dignity of the presbyterate bare and alone, just as the thief and traitor Judas held the honor of the apostleship. For when he began to deliver blasphemous homilies, the blessed Heraclas, * D who was bishop at that time, as a lover of truth, and as a ploughman and husbandman of the field of the Church, plucked him from the midst of the good wheat, as he was truly of the evil tares." And after a little: "Falling then to the earth from heaven like lightning, he, like his father the devil, breathing much and terrible rage against the truth, sailed to the region called Palestine; and having settled in the metropolis of the Caesareans, he cast off the mask he had put on himself and revealed himself, like the fish which is called by some a cuttlefish, signifying that which was his own pleasure, and the dark and murky
poison of life which he vomited forth, he inscribed there in writing, and like a Jewish huckster, under the pretext of good A mixed the bitter with the sweet. For what does this devious and mad man say? "The soul," he says, "existed in the heavens before the body; and when it sinned there," he says, "it was cast into prison," that is, he says, it was sent down into the body "for the cleansing and chastisement of the sins committed by it in the heavens." From this point on, the most impious man immediately begins to mythologize, and wishes to fight against the truth. And a little later: "But if the soul existed previously in the heavens and sinned there beforehand, as the mad Origen, who opposes God, asserted, the most holy prophet should not have said, *And forming the spirit of man in him* (Zach. XII, 1), but rather, *Sinking,* as if into a leather bottle, *the spirit of man into him,* or perhaps B *sending him down.* But since he does not say this, but *forming in him,* he shows this to be a most grievous wolf, clothed outwardly with sheep's skin for the sake of the deception of perdition." As if he were one who came from heaven and clearly knew the things established there, he says that the soul not only existed beforehand but also sinned beforehand. It is therefore demonstrated, both by divine Scripture and by the holy Fathers, that the fantasies of the heretics concerning the preexistence of souls are consistent neither with the true faith of Christians nor with right reason.
Furthermore, this also demonstrates the folly of Origen, that he says that the heaven, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the waters which are above C the heavens, are animate and are certain rational powers. These things are clearly refuted by Saint Basil in the third discourse of his commentary *On the Hexaemeron*, disputing against the doctrines of Origen as follows (near the end): "We have a statement to make to those from the Church, who, under the pretext of anagogical interpretation and allegedly higher thoughts, have fled to allegory, saying that certain spiritual and incorporeal powers are symbolically signified by the waters; and that the better ones remained above on the firmament, while the worse ones remained below in earthly and woody places. Therefore they say that the waters which are above the heavens praise the Lord, that is, the good powers, because they are worthy, on account of the purity of their ruling faculty, to render the fitting praise to the Creator; but the waters which are below the heavens are spiritual realities of wickedness, which fell from their natural height to the depth of malice; and that these, being turbulent and seditious, and surging with the tumults of the passions, are called seas, on account of the easy changeableness and instability D of their voluntary movements. But let us reject such arguments as confused dreams and old wives' tales; let us understand water as water, and let us accept the separation which took place by the firmament according to the reason already given. And if the waters that are above the heavens are ever taken up for the glorification of the common Lord of all (Psalm CXLVIII, 4), we do not on that account hypothesize them to be a rational nature. For the heavens are not animate because they *declare the glory of God* (Psalm XVIII, 2); nor is the firmament a living creature endowed with sense because it *proclaims the work of his hands*." This is what Basil says. It must be noted by the hearers that when the Father says, "We have a statement to make to those from the Church," he is discoursing concerning Origen, the grace of God and the holy Church of God...
from which he was expelled, along with his followers: for he did not say, "to those who are in the Church," but, "We have a statement to make to those from the Church." And by the fact that he said, "to us," he indicated the men of the Church, but by the fact that he said, "to those from the Church," he denoted those who had been cast out from it.
B Now the one and only pursuit for the impious Origen was to strengthen pagan error and to sow tares in the minds of the weaker sort. Wherefore we have determined to add this also, which is truly worthy of laughter, though it was nonetheless asserted by him, regarding the resurrection of men from the dead. For he says that in the resurrection the bodies of men are raised in a spherical shape. O the folly and ignorance of this madman, and of this interpreter of pagan doctrines! He, being blinded in his understanding and desiring to mix fables with the faith of Christians, has striven to insult the very hope and salvation of Christians—that is, the resurrection promised to us—not even revering the resurrection of the Lord. For the Lord, having risen from the dead and having become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Cor. xv), appeared to the disciples and showed them the piercings of His hands and feet, and the wound in His side; and He ate after the resurrection, not as being in need of food, but so that in this way He might confirm the nature of the resurrected body. Indeed, when the Lord was being taken up, the angel said to the disciples: "This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven" (Act. i). But if, as Origen raves, the body of the Lord were spherical, how could He have demonstrated the piercings of His hands and feet, or the wound in His side, or how could He have been able to eat, or be recognized at all by the disciples? C And how could the bodies of the saints, having been raised after the Lord’s resurrection and having appeared in the holy city, have been capable of being recognized by others, if they were in a different shape from that in which they existed in life?
Since the impious Origen was in no way established on the rock of faith, but had set forth blasphemies of this kind and others much worse than these, it is no wonder that at the very moment of martyrdom he denied Christ and bowed down to the polytheism introduced by him from the pagans. And this happened by the providence of God, so that he might not be accepted in the Church as a martyr, and thereby some detriment be brought upon the flock of Christ. For if there are those even now who confess his downfall but claim his doctrine is true, would they not have defended his teaching as if it were that of a martyr and a Father, had it happened that he reached the end without offering worship to idols? For no one holding to the truth falls away from God or is abandoned by Him, according to what is said in Holy Scripture: "Look at the ancient generations, and see: who has trusted in the Lord and been abandoned? Or who has hoped in Him and been overlooked?" (Eccli. ii). But the impious Origen did not stop his blasphemies with himself; rather, through his own writings, he transmitted his own error to many others, D so that the voice of the holy apostle Paul is very fittingly applied to him, which says: "Some men's sins are manifest, going before them to judgment; and some"
A follow after." For the succession of his error, creeping into the souls of the more unstable, causes them to follow the sins committed by him from the beginning. Just as if it were not enough for those who favor Origen's doctrines to hold the impiety concerning the pre-existence of souls, and his other vanities, and his blasphemies concerning the holy Trinity, they add this also to their own error, having for their leader and author his perverse discipline, saying that the punishment of all impious men, and furthermore of demons, will have an end, and that both impious men and demons will be restored to their former order. When they say these things, they make men slothful in executing the precepts of God, turning them away from the narrow and straight path, and leading them into the error of the wide and spacious way. Moreover, they stand in total opposition to the words of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; for He Himself teaches in the holy Gospel that the impious will go into eternal punishment, but the just into eternal life (Matt. 25). And again He says to those on the right: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"; and to those on the left: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels" (Ibid.). Since, therefore, the Lord openly foretells in the holy Gospel both an unending punishment and an unending kingdom, it is evident that these men prefer the ravings of Origen to the sentences of the Lord; and from this, too, their madness is refuted. For if anyone, according to his drivel, should suppose that the punishment will cease, it is necessary for him also to set an end to the eternal life promised to the just: for "eternal" is used equally for both. But if B both punishment and the enjoyment of glory have an end, why was there the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ? Why the crucifixion, and death, and burial, and resurrection of the Lord? And what profit is there for those who have fought the good fight and undergone martyrdom for Christ, if demons and impious men are to have the same order as the saints through restoration? But let this recoil upon the heads of those who invent these fables. For the words of Christ remain unshaken in the minds of the faithful, and in the very truth of facts.
Those who defend the wicked opinion of Origen, avoiding these irrefutable arguments and wishing to conceal their own error, take certain sayings of the holy Fathers, improperly interpreting them and explaining them wrongly according to their own mind, and adapt them to their own disease; which they also do with the divine Scriptures. But we shall show, from the holy Fathers themselves, that their arguments are empty and futile. Therefore, holy Gregory the Theologian writes in his Apologetic Oration thus: "But for us, whose concern is the salvation of our blessed and immortal soul, which is to attain either eternal punishment or praise, because of wickedness or virtue, how great a struggle must we reckon this to be, and how great is the knowledge that is needed!" And after a few words: "What false defense, what artful persuasion, what C device opposing the truth will circumvent justice, and deceive the D righteous judgment, which brings all things in all men into the balance, both deed, and word, and thought, and
the evil, so that the inclination may win, and the vote may be cast with the majority, after which there is no remission, no higher judge, no defense through secondary works, no oil from the prudent virgins, the [oil] of those who sell to those whose lamps are failing, no repentance of the rich man who is consumed by flame and seeks amendment from his own [kinsmen], no deadline for transformation; but the tribunal is permanent, and fearful, and final, and just—more so than it is terrible, or rather, it is more fearful precisely because it is just. When thrones are set, and the Ancient of Days sits, and books are opened, and a river of fire is drawn forth, and the light is before him, and the darkness is prepared; and they who have done good go into the resurrection of life, which now is hidden in Christ, and later will be made manifest with him. But they who have done evil go into the resurrection of judgment, for which they who do not believe have *already* been judged by the Word who judged them. And as for the former, the ineffable light receives them, and the grace of the holy and royal Trinity shining more clearly and more purely, and mingling itself wholly with their whole mind; and this indeed I call the kingdom of heaven alone. But for the others, along with other ills, there is torment, or rather, before the other ills, there is the being cast away from God, and the shame in the conscience that has no end. B
From the book of Rules of Basil, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Question: If it says in one place, "He shall be beaten with many [stripes]," and in another, "with few" (Luke xii), how is it that some say there will be no end of punishment for those who are punished? Answer: Things that are ambiguous and seem to be said obscurely in certain places of the divinely inspired Scripture are clarified by other places that are confessed and open. Since, therefore, the Lord has pronounced: "They will go into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matt. xxv); and elsewhere he sends us "into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels"; and at another time he names the "hell of fire," and adds: "Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark ix); and again had predicted through the prophet regarding certain ones: "Their worm will not die, and the fire will not be quenched" (Isa. lxvi): since these and suchlike words are often proposed by the divinely inspired Scripture, this too is one of the crafts and wiles of the devil, that many men, as if forgetful of such and so great sentences of the Lord, dare to imagine for themselves an end to the punishments of sin in the future. For if the eternal punishment is ever to have an end, eternal life will by all means also have an end; if we do not accept the meaning of the evangelical word in this way regarding life, what reason is there to give an end to eternal punishment? For the addition of "eternal" is placed equally upon both. For he says, "They will go into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matt. xxv). C
From the same [author's] hortatory discourse to holy baptism: Because of the brief and temporary pleasure of sin, I am tormented by a penalty that is without end; because of the pleasure of the flesh, I am delivered over to eternal fire.
From the first epistle of Saint John, Bishop of Constantinople, to Theodore the monk: Continually keep these things in mind, and the river of fire: "For a river of fire was drawn forth before his face" (Dan. vii). It is not possible for him who has been delivered to that fire to expect an D
A end. But the perverse pleasures of this life differ in nothing from shadows and dreams; for even before sin has reached its end, pleasure is extinguished; but the punishments which are received for crimes have no end. — From the same, from the commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians: The question proposed to us from this is not trifling, but concerns matters of great necessity. All men inquire whether the fire of hell is to have an end; but that it has none, the Lord has declared by saying, "Their fire shall not be extinguished, and their worm shall not die" (Mark ix). And Paul also, showing it to be eternal, says: "Those who sin shall pay the penalty of eternal destruction" (II Thess. i). Therefore, since the divine Scripture and the holy Fathers clearly teach us that there is no end to the punishment of the impious, and of the demons who are worshipped by them, what kind of restoration do those imagine B who think with Origen, where there is no exit from punishments? For the holy Church of Christ, just as it preaches endless eternal life to the just, so it delivers that punishments remain eternally for the impious. And these things are thus far. We, however, have deemed it right to bring forward a few things out of many from the divine Scripture and from the holy Fathers, in order to refute the impiety of the Origenists.
Wishing to banish every scandal from the most holy Church, so that no stain may be left upon it, and following the divine Scriptures and the holy Fathers who C cast out Origen himself and his wicked and impious dogmas of this kind, and justly subjected them to anathema, we have sent this present letter to your Beatitude, by which we exhort you to gather all the most holy bishops who are dwelling in this royal city, and the God-beloved superiors of the holy monasteries here, and to cause all of them to anathematize in writing the aforementioned impious and God-opposing Origen, who is also Adamantius, who was a presbyter of the most holy Church of Alexandria, and his wicked and impious dogmas, and all the chapters that are set down below, in every way; and to send copies of those things which have been done by your Beatitude for this cause to all the other most holy bishops and superiors of venerable D monasteries, so that they too may, by their own subscription, anathematize Origen and his wicked dogmas, with all those heretics who shall be declared. In the future, moreover, let no one else be ordained bishop or superior of a monastery, unless first, along with all the other heretics who are by custom anathematized in the documents issued, that is to say, Sabellius, Arius, Apollinarius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Dioscorus, Timotheus Aelurus, and Peter Mongus, and Anthimus of Trapezuntis, Theodosius of Alexandria, Peter who was of Antioch, and Peter of Apamea, and Severus of Antioch, they also anathematize the aforementioned Origen, who suffered from the madness of the pagans and the Arians, together with his execrable and impious dogmas. For it must be proclaimed to all, that no one at all should dare to entertain such
A a heretic, or to defend his expositions, but that everyone should hate B and turn away from them with their whole heart and mind, and should anathematize them, as being alien to the Christian tradition and as bringing a grave plague and pestilence upon the souls of the simpler folk.
We have written these same things not only to your holiness, but also to the most holy and blessed pope of elder Rome and patriarch, Vigilius, and to all the other most holy bishops and patriarchs, that is, of Alexandria, of Theopolis, and of Jerusalem, so that they too may provide for this matter, and that these things may reach an end. But since we desire all Christians to know that the writings composed by Origen are altogether alien to the true faith of Christians, we have decided to set forth, word for word, a few from among his many and measureless blasphemies. They are as follows:
That the Son is lesser than the Father, and the Spirit than the Son; from the first book of the *Peri Archon*.
That God and Father, containing all things, reaches to each of the beings, imparting to each from His own that it might exist; for [they say] that it is less; as for the True Father, the Son reaches only to rational beings; for He is second to the Father; and the Holy Spirit is yet lesser, reaching only to the holy ones. Thus, from this, the power of the Father is greater C than the Son and the Holy Spirit; and that of the Son is more ample than the Holy Spirit, and again the power of the Holy Spirit is more excellent than other holy beings.
That the power of God and Father is finite, from the second book of the same volume.
For it must be said that even the power of God is finite, and one must not, under the pretext of praise, remove the circumscription of it. And a little later: For He made as many things as He could grasp and hold under His hand, and contain under His providence; just as He constructed as much matter as He was able to administer and adorn.
From the same, from the fourth book of the same volume.
Let no one be offended by the discourse if we set limits even to the power of God. For it is impossible by nature to comprehend infinite things. But since the things which God Himself comprehends D are finite, it is necessary that there be a limit to how many finite things He suffices for.
That the Son is a creature and made, from the same fourth book.
"This Son, generated from the will of the Father, who is the image of the invisible God, and the splendor of His glory, and the stamp of His substance, the firstborn of all creation, is a creature, wisdom." For Wisdom herself says: "The Lord created me the beginning of His ways for His works" (Prov. viii).
A That the Son is contained along with other creatures by the Father; and that the Father is in all respects greater than the Son, and remains invisible to Him, from the same fourth book *Peri Archon*.
If the Father contains all things, and the Son is of the number of all things, it is clear that He is also contained. Let someone else inquire whether it is true that God is known by Himself in the same way as He is known by the Only-Begotten; and he will declare that the statement, "The Father who sent Me is greater than I" (John xiv, 28), is true in all respects. Thus, even in the act of understanding, the Father is understood more greatly, more clearly, and more perfectly by Himself than by the Son.
From the first volume of the same book.
We, therefore, having been made in the image, have the Son as the archetype, as the truth of the beautiful patterns within us. And what we are toward the Son, that same thing is He toward the Father, who is the Truth.
From the same, from the same book.
I think, therefore, it may also be aptly said of the Savior that He is the image of the goodness of God, but not goodness itself. And perhaps also the Son is good, but not as simply good. And just as He is the image of the invisible God, and in this respect is God, yet not the One of whom Christ Himself speaks: "That they may know Thee the only true God" (John xvii, 3), so He is the image of goodness, but not as the Father is unchangeably good.
C That, having called the Son and the Holy Spirit creatures, he numbered them with other creatures, for which reason he also calls them ministering living beings, from the fourth book of the *Peri Archon*.
That every thing whatsoever that is created outside the Father and God of all is created, we are persuaded by the same sequence. And after some things: "The Hebrew used to say that those two six-winged seraphim in Isaiah, crying one to another and saying, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord of Sabaoth' (Isa. vi), were the Only-Begotten of God and the Holy Spirit. But we think that the passage in the canticle of Habakkuk, 'In the midst of two living beings Thou shalt be known' (Habac. iii), is also to be referred to Christ and the Holy Spirit."
From the second book of the *Peri Archon*, that he calls the Lord a mere man.
For this reason, Christ also became man, having attained this by His own merit, as the prophet testifies, saying: "Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows" (Ps. xliv). It was fitting, indeed, for him who was never separated from the Only-Begotten to coexist with the Only-Begotten and to be glorified together with Him.
That creatures are coeternal with God, from the first book of the *Peri Archon*.
For what is it not absurd, that God should pass from not having something of those things that befit Him, to having it? Since, therefore, it is impossible that He was not Almighty, it is necessary that these things, on account of which He is Almighty, should be eternal. They were, therefore, always subject to His dominion, using Him as their Prince.
"Legendum," that is, Father and Son, because in Latin it will join them together. EDIT.
A *From the same book.* All genera and species always existed; no one would say this concerning individuals differing in number. Nevertheless, it is declared on both sides that God did not make a beginning of creating, having never been at leisure.
*Concerning the pre-existence of souls, from the first book of Peri Archon.* B By their own fault, those who do not watch over themselves vigilantly fall sooner or later; and this happens for longer or shorter times, because divine judgment, for this reason, would measure out to each one’s movements a fitting retribution according to what is better or worse for them. So, in the future arrangement of the world, one will have an angelic order, or the power of a principality, or authority over some, or a throne over those who are subjects, or dominion over slaves. Those who have not fallen very far will have, as we have said, an economy and assistance. And thus, for the most part, the human race will be constituted in the one world from among those who are under the principalities, and powers, and thrones, and dominions, perhaps even sometimes in their place.
*From the same book: That if demons change for the better, they will someday complete humanity.* C I think it possible that from among those who are subject to worse powers, principalities, and authorities, and world-rulers in each world, or minds of some world, some, quickly receiving a benefit and wishing to be changed by them in the future, will someday complete humanity.
*Concerning that which has fallen from above into a body.* Thus, the world consisting of such great variety, and containing such diverse rational beings, what other cause must we say there was for its existence, than the varied modes of the falling of those who do not flow away from the unity in the same way? And sometimes the soul chooses an aquatic life.
*From the second book of the Peri Archon.* The soul, flowing away from the good and inclining toward wickedness, and becoming more involved in this, unless it turns back, is rendered brutish by folly and becomes wild through wickedness. And a little later: And it chooses, so to speak, to become irrational, and to lead an aquatic life, and perhaps, according to the merit of a greater fall into vice, it puts on the bodies D of such an irrational aquatic animal.
*From the same book: That the laying aside of bodies will be complete.* But if things subject [1 Cor. xv] to Christ are subjected in the end to God, all will lay aside their bodies; and I think that then there will be a resolution into non-existence, the nature of bodies having to be constituted a second time, if rational beings should again descend.
*From the third book of the same work, concerning the same.* Since God is said to be all in all (Ibidem).
A Just as we cannot abandon wickedness, so neither does God become all in all, nor that which is brute, lest God become that which is wickedness, and that which is brute; nor yet that which is inanimate, lest, in order that God may become all things, He should also become that which these are: thus, neither that which is bodies, which by their own nature are inanimate.
*From the second book of Peri Archon.* From that which fell and grew cold, having suffered what the Greeks call *psyxin* (cooling) from the spiritual life, there came to be what is now an animal soul, called in Greek *psyche*: which also grants a return to that which it was in the beginning. This I consider to be signified by the prophet when he says, "Return, O my soul, unto thy rest" (Ps. CXVI, 7), so that all this might be mind. Mind, therefore, became soul, and the soul, when corrected, becomes mind. B
*Excerpt from the same book, concerning the same.* Just as the Savior came to save that which was lost (Luc. XIX), and that which was lost, when it is saved, is no longer said to have perished: so the soul which He came to save, that He might save that which was lost, is no longer an animal soul once it has been saved, nor can it be said to have perished what could previously be said to have done so. Further, it must be pondered: if just as that which perished1 was once a thing that had not perished, and will one day be when it is not a thing that has perished; so too, was there a time when the soul was not a soul, and will there be a time when it will not be a soul?
*From the fourth book.* C It is necessary that the nature of bodies should not be pre-existent, but that it should subsist at intervals on account of certain occurrences happening to rational beings who are in need of bodies; and again, when correction has been perfected, that these should be resolved into nothingness, so that this happens always.
*From the first book of the same work: That the sun, the moon, and the stars are animate.* That the soul of the sun is prior to its binding into the body, I think I can demonstrate after having reasoned from the comparison of man to it, and from thence from the Scriptures.
*From the same book.* D "Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ" (Phil. I), for this is far better. The sun, too, I think, would have said: "Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; for this is far better." But Paul indeed says, "Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you" (Ibidem); whereas the sun would say: "But to remain in this celestial body is more needful for the revelation of the sons of God." The same must be said concerning the moon and the rest of the stars.
*From the fourth book of the same work: That Christ must be crucified even for demons, and this often through future ages.* But if anyone should pose a question even about the passion itself, he will surely seem bold in seeking it regarding the celestial places. But if there are "spiritual wickedness in high places," just as surely we are not ashamed to confess here that He was crucified for the destruction of things which, by suffering, He destroyed through the
A same, and likewise granting that a similar thing happens there, and so on until the consummation of the whole age, we shall have no fear.
From the same book
Who with a sound mind would maintain that the first, second, and third day, and evening and morning, existed without sun, and moon, and stars?
These things being so, and all the blasphemies uttered by Origen having become manifest to everyone, it is fitting that the anathema against him should be pronounced as follows.
I. If anyone says or thinks that the souls of men pre-exist, as though they were formerly minds and holy powers, but that they had taken their fill of divine contemplation, and had turned towards what is worse, and for this reason had grown cold from the love of God, and were therefore named souls, and were sent down into bodies for the sake of punishment: let him be anathema.
II. If anyone says or thinks that the soul of the Lord pre-existed, and was united B to the God Word before the incarnation and birth from the Virgin: let him be anathema.
III. If anyone says or thinks that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was first formed in the womb of the holy Virgin, and that afterwards the God Word was united to it, along with the soul as though it had pre-existed: let him be anathema.
IV. If anyone says or thinks that the God Word was made similar to all the heavenly orders, having become a Cherub to the Cherubim, and a Seraph to the Seraphim, and to all the upper powers in general he was made similar: let him be anathema.
V. If anyone says or thinks that in the resurrection the bodies of men are raised up in a spherical shape, and does not confess that we are raised up C upright: let him be anathema.
VI. If anyone says that the heaven and the sun and the moon and the stars and the waters above the heavens are animate and [rational] material powers: let him be anathema.
VII. If anyone says or thinks that the Lord Christ will in the future age be crucified for the demons, just as He was for men: let him be anathema.
VIII. If anyone says or thinks that the power of God is finite, and that He created only as much as He could grasp: let him be anathema.
IX. If anyone says or thinks that the punishment of demons and impious men is temporal, and will at some time have an end, or that there will be a restitution D and reintegration of demons or impious men: let him be anathema.
Anathema also to Origen, who is called Adamantius, who set forth these things along with his nefarious and cursed and wicked teachings, and to any person who holds these things, or defends them, or in any way whatsoever in any time dares to support them.
Letter of the Emperor Justinian to the holy synod concerning Origen and those who hold his views.
Our endeavor has been and is to keep the holy and apostolic Church of God secure from disturbances, just as
A it is right, and to condemn those things which in any way rise up against the orthodox faith. Since, therefore, it has become known to us that there are certain monks in Jerusalem who follow the impious errors and delusions of Pythagoras, Plato, and Origen Adamantius, and who teach them, we have thought it necessary to exercise care and investigation concerning these matters, lest they should destroy many through their Hellenic and Manichæan deceptions. For they say—to mention but a few things out of the many—that minds were altogether without number or name, and that all rational beings were one by identity of substance and operation, and by virtue of their union with and knowledge of God the Word. And that when they had received, according to the capacity of each, their fill of divine love and contemplation, through a change for the worse of each one, they put on either thinner or grosser bodies and received names, and from this arose the heavenly and ministering powers. Indeed, even the sun, and moon, and the B stars, since they too are of the same unity of rational beings, became what they are through this change for the worse. And those rational beings in whom the love of God had grown colder came to be called souls, and were cast into grosser bodies, such as ours. Those, however, who had reached the extremes of wickedness were confined in cold and dark bodies, and came to be called demons. And that from an angelic state there comes a psychic state, and from a psychic state a demonic and human one. But that only one mind from the whole unity of rational beings remained unshaken and unmoved from divine love and contemplation, and that this one became Christ, King, God, and man. And that there is a complete destruction of bodies, the Lord Himself being the first to put aside His own body, and then all the rest likewise; and that all return again C into the same unity, and become minds, just as they were in their pre-existence; that naturally both the devil himself and the rest of the demons are restored into the same unity, and the wicked and godless men, together with divine and God-bearing men, and with the heavenly powers, having the same union with God which Christ has, just as they had beforehand; so that there is no difference at all for Christ with respect to the rest of the rational beings, neither in substance, nor in knowledge, nor in power, nor in operation. For Pythagoras asserted that the monad is the principle of all things. And again, Pythagoras and Plato, while saying that there is a certain number of incorporeal souls, and that those which have fallen into some sin are, for the sake of punishment, sent down into bodies, declare this. Whence Plato called the body D *démas* (bond) and *sêma* (tomb), as if the soul were bound and buried in it. Then, concerning the future judgment and retribution of souls, he says again: "The soul of him who has practiced pederasty and lived badly without philosophy, shall be punished in the third millennium; and thus, having recovered its wings at the three-thousandth year, it is cast forth and departs. As for the others, when they have completed this life, some, having gone to the places of judgment under the earth, shall pay the penalty and give an account, while others, having been lightened to some heavenly place, shall conduct themselves worthily, according to how they have lived." The absurdity of which argument
[The index of entries preserved]
will at the same time render an account of both: some, exalted by judgment to a certain heavenly place, enjoy felicity according to the merits of their life. But it is easy to perceive the absurdity of this opinion; for who taught him those millennial revolutions of years, and that after the lapse of a thousand years each soul arrives at its own place? What he inserts here is not proper to be said even by the shameless themselves, however lustful, much less by such and so great a philosopher: since he joined those who have led a life full of purity even to the end with the intemperate and those who love boys, and said that both enjoy the same goods. Pythagoras, therefore, and Plato, and Plotinus, and others of their sect, who with one consent confess that souls are immortal, affirm that they are prior to bodies, and that there is a certain multitude of souls, and that those which transgress are sent down into bodies, as I said: and that the sluggish souls go into asses, the rapacious into wolves, the deceitful into foxes, and those who are mad with lust for women into horses. B But the Church, following the divine Scriptures, says that the soul was created together with the body, and not one before and the other after, according to the madness of Origen. For this reason, then, we exhort you, most holy Fathers, gathered together, to read carefully the following exposition of these wicked and pernicious opinions—or rather, trifles—and to condemn each of its points, and to anathematize, along with Origen, all who think or shall think these things to the end.
CONFESSION OF THE TRUE FAITH OF JUSTINIAN THE EMPEROR AGAINST THE THREE CHAPTERS
C In the name of God and the Father, and of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and of the Holy Spirit. The Emperor Caesar, Christ-loving Justinian, Alemannicus, Gothicus, Francicus, Germanicus, Anticus, Alanicus, Vandalicus, Africanus, pious, fortunate, renowned, victor, triumpher, ever-venerable, Augustus, to all the fullness of the catholic and apostolic Church. D Knowing that nothing else so propitiates the merciful God as that all Christians should think one and the same thing concerning the right and immaculate faith, and that there should be no schisms in the holy Church of God, we have thought it necessary, removing every occasion for those who are scandalized or who cause scandal, to make manifest by the present edict the confession of the right faith which is preached in the holy Church of God; so that both those who confess the right faith may firmly keep it, and those who contend against it, learning the truth, may hasten to unite themselves to the holy Church of God. We confess, therefore, that we believe in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, a consubstantial Trinity, one Godhead, that is...