is blinded by this deceit may recover his senses A and cleanse his mind. For when the devil wishes to destroy a man, he blinds his soul and his mind so that he does not know the good. But let us search the Scriptures and the traditions of the holy Fathers, and let us imitate them; and just as we found the Church from the moment of Christ’s descent, so let us preserve her, and so let us hand her on, and let us not separate ourselves from our Fathers, reading one thing and understanding another, lest perhaps some future generation should come and be ready to anathematize us and dig us up as having opinions contrary to the statutes and laws of the Church. And in truth, the ends of the earth will be of no benefit to us. I pray and beseech God, even though I am a sinner and unworthy of heaven and earth, that He may deign to grant me a portion with the Fathers of the seven hundred years, and with the six B holy and ecumenical synods, and not with that headless faction. Let us not hold as far as wealth, and as far as luxury, and as far as vain glory, but as far as the shedding of our own blood, that good and firm, unshakable foundation of our confession, so that we too may deserve to hear: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” May it be granted to us all to attain this, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory, honor, and worship to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen. C
ADMONITION REGARDING THE EPISTLE TO THE EMPEROR THEOPHILUS
The epistle which follows, addressed to the Emperor Theophilus, Combefis has already edited heretofore in his *Manipulum rerum Constantinopolitanarum*, taken from the Royal codex 2503; however, he acknowledged that it should not be attributed to John of Damascus, both because of the style and because of the chronology, and also on account of the authority of the decision, which the beginning and the end demonstrate. Nor did the most learned man later affirm incorrectly that this is exactly the same one which Constantine Porphyrogennetus says was written in the name of the three patriarchs of the East, in his oration concerning the image of Christ at Edessa, the words of which it is relevant to recite here. For after he related what had happened at Edessa during the Persian siege—namely, that when the image of the Lord was displayed above the walls, the Persians were consumed by the pyre of wood which they themselves had prepared around the city in the same way that the Chaldeans formerly who had set fire to the Babylonian furnace (which you will read about below in no. 51)—he adds: “This narrative has not been fabricated by us without witness for the sake of tickling the ears or creating a deception; but the three patriarchs together, Job of Alexandria, Christopher of Antioch, and Basil of Jerusalem, wrote it, and thus made known that these things happened, having sent an epistle to the Emperor Theophilus, who was a violator of the images; when, indeed, in a long dissertation proving that the divine images are to be venerated, they also touched upon this.” And anyone who wishes may read that long epistle. Furthermore, Combefis did not think that the patriarchs of the East had gathered in one place to write this epistle, but that it was first produced in one diocese and by one of the patriarchs, approved by others, and by common reckoning and consensus of all, sent to Theophilus. Although, from the sequence of the oration, it might perhaps seem that each one contributed his own portion to its composition, on account of the various narratives found therein accepted by those three, whether from their Churches or their dioceses, of which, however, [index: entries preserved]
fides sit apud primitivos auctores. Scripserunt porro ii antistites, inquit alibi Combefisius, non per Theodorum et Theophanem, quasi illi primum sub Theophilo in urbem venerint, quod quidam opinati sunt, refellunturque ex ejus Vita et Theodori epistola de suo et fratris certamine : sed longe postea, cum illi annos plures sub tribus quatuorve imperatoribus in Græcia vixissent, aliaque jam certamina desudassent.
SAINT JOHN OF DAMASCUS EPISTLE TO THE EMPEROR THEOPHILUS CONCERNING THE HOLY AND VENERABLE IMAGES
A 1. Since, therefore, according to the divine voice which says: "If two of you shall consent upon earth, concerning any thing whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is in heaven. For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." And again: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." And again: "You shall sit on twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." And again: "Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." And elsewhere: "And not for them only do I pray, says the Lord, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me; that they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be made perfect in one: and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me. And that where I am, they also may be with me, that they may see my glory, which thou hast given me." And the divine Apostle Peter says: "Giving them the Holy Ghost, as well as to us," and God gave the same gift to the Gentiles, even as they spoke with tongues, and prophesied. And again, the great Paul, the preacher of the world and teacher, says: "God hath set some in the church; first apostles, B secondly prophets, thirdly doctors." Therefore, following the definition and rule of the divine apostles and of the holy and blessed Fathers, in the great Church of God, where with one heart and one mind C
A the sound of those feasting is made in the voice of exultation and confession, holding the same symbols of the orthodox faith—that is to say, the keys of religious and sincere doctrine—we subscribe to these things.
2. Believing in the holy, consubstantial, and life-giving Trinity, we confess the incarnation of the Word of God, and the holy universal synods; likewise, we embrace the venerable images, equally with the figure of the life-giving cross and the divine Gospels, with religious cultus. Those who do not think in this way, let them be anathema. Those who do not believe in this way, let them be driven far from the Church. This faith has illuminated the world. Therefore, those who presume to think otherwise, or who attempt to overturn any of the ecclesiastical sanctions or traditions, these we anathematize and reject. For there is nothing crooked or distorted in the catholic Church. B "For all are plain to those who understand, and right to those who find knowledge." For, as the divine oracles have it: "Thou art all fair, and there is no spot in thee."
3. And, in the first place, he who laid the foundation of the most Christian empire, he who is the apostle of Christ among emperors, the great and just Constantine, who, because of the innumerable deeds that were all worthy of praise, has deserved well of the Church of God, and who razed to the ground that labyrinthine and difficult-to-traverse tower of the Arian impiety—like a torch-lighted column, he kindled for the ends of the earth the knowledge of the supersubstantial and life-giving consubstantial Trinity. First and foremost, as an exceptional offering of his piety toward Christ our true God, he marked C the imperial coinage of the state with this sign: namely, both the heaven-appearing sign of the Savior’s cross, and the venerable image of Christ the God-man, he impressed upon it with engraved work, along with his own, by which he declared the power of the heavenly King to be greater than that of the earthly, and likewise treaties of peace and high commercial concord, since there was now one flock and one power, of angels and humans. In like manner also, he erected and raised the venerable and sacred character of his incarnate life, and the characteristic features of his immaculate form, as he was seen on earth as a perfect man, D and conversed with men, born of the holy, immaculate Theotokos Mary; setting forth the features, as the blessed apostles handed them down to the catholic Church; and he adorned it with painted records and mosaic works, the dedicated figure of Christ the God-man, just as the Spirit breathing divinely
A conscripted the Gospels. For the Gospel according to Matthew was written eight years after Christ was taken up into heaven; that according to Mark after ten; that according to Luke after fifteen; and that of John, finally, after thirty-two, under the Emperor Domitian. Wherefore he ordained that these should be painted in the churches—carving out with vivid colors the Nativity in the town of Bethlehem, the shepherds visiting, the Magi offering gifts, the course of the star, the reception by the just Simeon, the baptism by John, the manifestation of unheard-of and divine miracles, the voluntary passions, the supernatural and life-giving resurrection, the divine ascension into heaven, and the subsequent miracles performed by the apostles.
For this is the rule and tradition handed down to the Church: that the Only-Begotten and Word of God and our God, who is without beginning and eternal, and most remote from matter, untouched by any mass or quality, of infinite magnitude, who cannot be touched, who produced all things from nothing, who created the angelic and incorporeal powers of heaven by a word alone, who measures the heaven with a span and holds the earth in his hand, and shuts up the water in his fist; who with immaculate hands fashioned man—that he, being the very man born of the holy Virgin and Theotokos Mary, without change or variation, shared in flesh and blood, having become man, a rational animal capable of intellect and knowledge, of perhaps three cubits in height, circumscribed by the thickness of flesh, seen in a form similar to ours, having accurately brought over the properties of his mother’s likeness B and exhibiting the form of Adam. Therefore he saw to it that he be depicted in the form in which the ancient historians have described him: of noble stature, joined eyebrows, beautiful eyes, a straight nose, curly hair, slightly bowed, of fair complexion, having a black beard, and of wheat-colored face according to his mother’s likeness; long-fingered, resonant in voice, sweet in speech, most gentle, quiet, long-suffering, non-resentful, and bearing about the properties of virtue akin to these, in which properties his God-man nature is characterized, so that no shadow of change, or variation of difference, might be detected in the divine incarnation of the Word, as the Manichaeans in their ravings claimed.
C 4. For indeed the divine apostle and evangelist Luke, while the holy Theotokos Mary was still living in the flesh in Jerusalem and making her dwelling place in holy Sion, impressed her divine and venerable likeness in painted colors upon a tablet, leaving it as if in a mirror for the generations to come to contemplate. And when he showed it to her, she said: “My grace shall accompany this.” But there is another thing more unheard-of and stupendous: when the chiefs of the apostles, Peter and John, who had beheld God, were dwelling in Lydda, which they call Diospolis, eighteen miles from Jerusalem, they D built an oratory house under
A the invocation of the name of the Mother of the Lord and Theotokos, and beseeching her to come to the dedication of the temple, she answered them: "I am also present there with you." And indeed, by a certain divine and invisible power, her image was impressed upon one of the columns; and the Mother of God herself, coming there and beholding her own likeness, was filled with joy and wonder, being amazed and struck with awe at the maternal glory and blessedness that she who had become human through her attributed to her. This image remained unharmed until Julian the Apostate, who fell away from the Christian religion, and to abolish the holy image, sent certain Hebrew sculptors; who, because the image was erected on one of the columns of the temple, and presented to the eyes of those looking at it her entire stature, purple, and apparel, so that they saw it as if living and speaking, they attempted to dig it out with marble-working craft, but they found it even more brilliant and unchanged in the depths of the column. And many other signs and B wondrous miracles are displayed in the image of the most holy Theotokos by that same divine power, through which demons are put to flight, diseases are healed, lepers are cleansed, powers are worked, and every malady and infirmity is restored to vigor and healed.
5. But the Savior and Lord of all himself, while he was still dwelling on earth, sent the image of his holy countenance, expressed on a linen cloth, to Abgar, a certain ruler of the great city of the Edessenes, through Thaddaeus the glorious apostle. For by wiping the divine sweat of his face, he preserved all its lineaments on the linen. C This image the most magnificent and celebrated city of the Edessenes retains to this day, no differently than a royal scepter, and proudly boasts and exults in it, as Christ the true God who endowed it with this gift manifests signs and wonders among the people. In which kind, when at one time Chosroes, king of the Persians, had ignited a pyre of olive wood in a circle around its walls and was about to reduce everything to the ground in dust and ashes, the most holy metropolitan who was presiding at that time, seeing that the whole populace would soon perish in the fire of the burning pyre, lifted up this venerable image of the God-impressed towel and went around the walls: soon a certain divine power, going forth in a whirlwind and a more violent blast of wind, turned the pyre back upon the enemies, and passing through, it consumed those who stood around, just as once it consumed the Chaldeans and Assyrians.
6. Furthermore, once when some person had contemptuously D thrown a stone at the image of the Savior, immediately a dove went forth from its mouth, and in its place a raven entered: clearly the darkened devil took up residence in place of the Holy Spirit, and instead of light—
A wrapped in swarthy and black shadows. Furthermore, another man in the city of Alexandria, shining in the dignity of prefect, as he was passing by the holy image of the Theotokos placed in the vestibule of the Great Church, frequently mocked it with gestures and words; one night, while he was still vigilantly awake, she appeared to him having two eunuchs with her as companions. Then, as she stretched out his hands and feet and traced his members with her holy finger, immediately the joints of his hands and feet, starting from the wrists and ankles, broken as if they were leaves torn from a fig tree, fell off. Regarding this, they also tell of another man in the same city who had dared similar things and was being pursued by soldiers; he fled to the venerable image of the Mother of God, but she, before the eyes of all, turned away from the man and straightway delivered him to slaughter, as an enemy and a treacherous plotter. For indeed, a more severe and unusual punishment often befell many who brazenly offended in such headlong boldness.
7. Time will fail me to recount the stories which have been decreed from of old, and from the holy prophets and apostles, and Fathers and teachers who lived in former ages; for nothing escaped those apostles who were inspired by the Spirit and saw God. But what the Holy Spirit spoke in the Law and the Prophets and the Gospels, these things they taught, these they delivered, and with these they adorned the holy Church from the ends of the inhabited world, from the glorious coming of Christ even to the end of the age. But the enemy and ancient plotter of our race, the devil, pining away with envy and malice regarding good things, does not cease stirring up a turbulent storm of heresies, just like wild billows. And indeed Constantius, B successor and heir to the empire and scepters of great Constantine, a rotten branch of an excellent root, seduced by the error of the Arians, attempting with no light shaking and motion what had been the foundation poured by his father, inflicted on the Church a war worse than the superstition of idols, shaking and casting down the bulwarks and columns of the churches. For he condemned to exile and flight Liberius, Pope of the City of Rome, Athanasius, the greatest man of Alexandria, Paul, another confessor and bishop of Constantinople, Eustathius of the most famous name, C of Antioch, and others of the most esteemed and holy Fathers; and he entrusted the holy of holies to impious and wicked men. Then their followers and allies and assistants were Julian, the first-born son of Satan, the apostate and transgressor, and in like manner Valens, who although he did not defect from Christ, was nevertheless His persecutor and impugner. But immediately there arose from the parts of the shining West a spiritual star, the great Theodosius, who, against Macedonius the adversary of the Holy Spirit—who had been cast out D from the patriarchal throne—by the synods and the meetings of the holy Fathers, fixed and confirmed for the Church the greatest ornament of Christian piety, the holy symbol, that it might remain inviolable.
8. The successors to his empire were Arcadius and
A his offspring, Theodosius: then again the gangrene spread, through Nestorius, that worshipper of man, and through Eutyches and Dioscorus, who held the truth in injustice; but "iniquity has lied to itself." For Marcian, that most excellent guardian of royal piety and law, having convened a council of the holy Fathers, cast the impious down into the earth. Thereafter, by certain others, the salt-spray of that heresy which ascribes passion to God was B again sprinkled about: Severus, Jacob, Peter the Fuller, and other offscourings of impiety and malice, with whom the most tyrannical hand of Zeno warred; these, a council gathered by the will of God under those most religious emperors, Justinian the Great and the holy Fathers, drove out from the gathering of the Church like starving dogs. Again, later, those who were the engines of war against the fortified towers of the Church—Honorius of Rome, Sergius of the royal city, Pyrrhus and Paul, Cyrus of Alexandria, Macarius of Antioch, and Theodore of Pharan—by the art of that most versatile C author of evils, were dashed to the ground of heresy, receiving by the votes of the council gathered by the religious and great Justin D under the inspiration of God—of the holy Fathers—an anathema of condemnation.
9. Since these and many more heresies have been winnowed like chaff from the summer threshing-floor and dissolved like the wild waves of the sea, what does that creeping, crooked serpent, the devil, the adversary of our race, the sower of tares, now do? He summons another whirlwind of impiety and heresy, and for about 130 years has been gnawing at the immutable and undefiled incarnation of God the Word—a plague resisting all remedy and healing—by the following pretext: while Theodosius, of the line of Adramyttium, was ruling the imperial scepter, and Jeza was leading the authority of the Arab principality, two certain God-hating men, Hebrews (as that race always and everywhere rears its neck against the Lord and rages against His Christ), men given over to illusions, sorcery, witchcraft, and demonic omens, as though pursuing some sort of astrological science, being joined by kinship to the Isaurian Jews, wandered here and there until they reached the Arab court. It was announced to the aforementioned Jeza that these men had arrived. They prophesied for him many years of happy life and a long reign, if only he would resolve to overturn the ornament of the Christians, by expelling from the precincts of the churches the image of Jesus the God-man, our Savior, and of His parent. Then he, being a man who loved life and was of swinish habits, yielding to the counsel of the impostors, threw all the churches of the East into turmoil. Yet hope D (miserable man that he was) deceived him.
A For no long time passed before divine vengeance took hold of him. His son, having succeeded to the rule, intending to kill these men as false prophets, they fled, returning again to the borders of Isauria.
10. Then, while they were refreshing themselves at a certain spring from the burning heat, behold, a certain youth named Leo, fair in appearance, handsome of face, and tall of stature, a man of base trade who earned his living by that art, arrived. Having removed the burden from his pack animal, he too sat down by the spring to cool himself. The hour was about the sixth. Then the disciples of the ventriloquists prophesied to him that he would one day hold the scepter of the Roman empire. He hesitated and doubted, considering the extreme lowliness of his own condition. But the haters of Christ affirmed again and again with an oath that these things must necessarily come to pass. They then requested that he give them a sworn promise that, if this should indeed come to pass, he would grant them whatever they might ask of him without delay. Now, a church of the holy martyr Theodore was situated nearby; and the base Leo, having entered quite readily and having taken hold of the holy railings of the altar, made the martyr of Christ his guarantor, while the Jews waited at the threshold of the church. Thus they receive the oath from him, and once it was given, each immediately departed to his own place.
11. C There was at that time a patrician who held the command of the Eastern forces by the name of Masisinnius, who was traveling through the region for the purpose of recruiting soldiers. Among them, Leo, the base craftsman, was enrolled, and in a short time he was promoted to a position of great advancement, having been appointed to the office of D spatharios by the emperor Theodosius. Being subsequently sent by him to the western regions—namely, to Campania, Amalfi, and Naples, which had at that time fallen away to the barbarians—with a fleet of one hundred and twenty ships, he obtained peace, adorned with the trophies of victory, and returned to the court. And immediately he was acclaimed Caesar and supreme emperor by the desires of the soldiers. And indeed, Theodosius, the most mild of emperors, coming to meet him with a joyful countenance, removed the crown from his own head and placed it upon his, and in this way Leo entered upon the empire without noise or tumult. But with the fame of Leo flying everywhere, it was proclaimed: not, "Behold, the Magi from the East came with gifts to worship Christ," but: "Behold, the Magi..."
certain sorcerers and Gazarene enchanters A, arrived at the palace with rapid strides, bringing with them joy regarding the outcome and result of their auguries and prophecies. Then, when the new emperor gave them his hand, they signify that a debt must be paid without delay. As he promised most readily to perform it, provided they would only declare what kind of debt he was liable for, they answered him: "This is the reason for the debt, and this we demand, most excellent emperor: that you abolish the image of Christ the Nazarene and of Mary, his parent, from every painting in the churches; for if you perform this, your empire will endure for a hundred years in your lineage, but if you delay this, you are destined soon to be killed, like Artemius, Apsimarus, and Anastasius." This foolish man B, unstable in faith, like one being choked by a serpent pressing on both nostrils, hardly able even to breathe, most readily promises to perform what they had ordered.
12. Thus, having been shown as a manifest heretic, and having taken on the skin of a fox, at first acting cunningly, he decided to cultivate piety. After ten years had passed, however, he breathed heresy C into the Church; and having gathered the people subject to him, howling like a lion in the midst of them all—that savage beast and truly a lion in name—he spoke in this manner: "Since the representation of images is a work of the art of idolatry, I decree that they are not to be pursued with any worship." Truly, his throat was an open sepulcher [*], and his heart was a whitewashed sepulcher [*]. Nor was it long after an interval of time that Leo himself, because he was a man, yielded to fate, and fell like one of the princes [*]. Having thus been cut off from life, and having already become food for hell, his impure offspring (I mean Constantine) arose in his place. This wretched shoot of an evil root, having gathered together all kinds of deadly poisons into the treasury of his soul, devastates, destroys, ruins, and burns everything that was set before the eyes as holy images. When Germanus, the herald of piety, realized this, he gave him this warning: "O Emperor, ever since Christ the Lord and our Savior and God took flesh from the undefiled blood of the holy Theotokos, and became perfectly like us and circumscribed, all idolatrous worship has been removed from our midst. But seven hundred and thirty-six years have now passed since he himself lived among us, and the apostles imbued the world with salutary doctrine, nor in the meantime did it enter the minds of the holy Fathers who lived during those intervening times to think anything of the kind regarding sacred images. Moreover, the six holy and ecumenical synods themselves embraced them and decreed that they should be venerated, not destroyed. But do not let it escape you, Emperor, that if you persist in this opinion, I am ready to die for the sake of the venerable images. For the image of Christ bears his very name D, insofar as he was seen in the flesh and walked among men [*]."
[*] Ps. v, 11; Matth. xxiii, 18; Ps. xli, 7; Baruch iii, 38.
A 13. Having heard this, the emperor, roaring like a lion, sent sword-bearing satraps to the patriarchal dwelling and ordered them to drag the holy man out with blows and insults. Once he had departed and had become a participant in the monastic life, he [the emperor] forcibly created the impious Anastasius as supreme pontiff, not by the reckonings of divine religion, for he had delivered all things belonging to the church to the imperial palace and the treasury. He removed every character of His divine incarnation, and likewise that of the all-holy Theotokos, denying her motherly intercession and boldness toward the Word of God who was incarnated from her; this champion of the proud devil also rejected the intercessions of the saints. He committed the God-breathed books of the holy Fathers to the flame. B Hating the God-loving order of monks, this enemy of Christ betrothed the order of sacred virgins to marriage contracts, burned the vestments of piety, and scorched with crackling fire the venerable beards of the holy monks, their reverend gray hair, and their divine eyes. Calling this a habit of darkness—he who is darkened in his soul—he called those who were under this habit unmentionable and idolaters, on account of their veneration toward the venerable images. He gathered all the people under his rule and bound them all by oath, set forth before them the life-giving body and blood of Christ, the immaculate wood on which Christ stretched out his hands for our sake, and the holy Gospels, through which Christ commands us not to swear at all, not to venerate holy images but to call them idols, C and not to commune with any monk or even say "Hail" to one at all. Oh, the audacity! Having found an instrument equal in manner and like-minded, and not only that, but one who was his namesake and of the same mind from the priestly order, he raised him up to the Church—not by the vote of God and the priests, but by his own craftiness—and when both had ascended the ambo, by the hands of the emperor Constantine, the profane Constantine donned the holy tunic and the omophorion upon sacred Constantine. O what ignominy! The shield-bearer [is now] the institutor of holy things; he who had spent his time in wars and murders [now] ministers the sacred rites; and he who had lived unlawfully with three wives became an ordainer of priests. D 14. From this, then, the impure pair having been entangled like a lawless chain, edicts were sent throughout every province to the local arch-satraps and bishops to reach the imperial city, in order to hold a synod against the venerable images. The tyrant having excavated the venerable image of the all-immaculate Theotokos which was in Blachernae, this same most wicked man, presiding together with his namesake, the traitor of Christ's flock, [convened] the sycophants of the false priests in that most holy temple.
and A they dared to name the venerable images of Christ and His saints "idolatrous statues." Then, delivering the divine Germanos, that upright teacher of the Church, to anathema, they branded him a "worshipper of wood." O the blindness of the enemy! O the blasphemy! O the perversion! And when they had vomited forth many such blasphemies from their mouths, at the last, and worst of all, those impure and profane men raised a wretched cry, howling and saying: "Today salvation has dawned for the world, because you, O Emperor, have delivered us from idols." O bitter cry! Its crashing sound covered the heaven with darkness, shook the earth, and defiled the ether; and all who shouted it made themselves strangers to God. Truly, "the fool will speak foolish things, and his heart will meditate on vanity." B For, because of such blasphemies of that godless tyrant, unworthy of the most Christian purple, heavenly thunderbolts struck down upon the earth, the stars, unable to bear the insult to the Lord, fell to the earth, the elements were moved and agitated, the earth was troubled and shaken, and there were continuous earthquakes, and terrors, and signs from heaven. He himself, the wretch, fearing the wrath he expected, became a fugitive and wanderer, and fled to the city of Nicomedia. For what Diocletian, or Maximian, or Trajan committed such insulting crimes against Christians as this man who is unworthy of the Christian name? Thus the day of judgment arrived, and divine vengeance finally overtook him. For as he was drawing his final breath, he cried out with a great lamentation, saying: "These are the forecourts and preludes of hell for me." C What, therefore, could be brought forward as more trustworthy evidence than his own voice, since he did not know the time of his visitation? For he blasphemed against the Church of Christ with a charge of such boundless excess when he called Christians "idolaters."
15. But the offspring of this man, the second Leo, succeeding to the sovereignty of the empire, administered the state with the greatest tranquility and peace, calming that immense storm of the Church, reviving her, as it were, from the tempest and the giant waves. His life and his tomb, as well as those of his wife Irene, were passed in peace, bearing the name of Peace. D Once again, a new Helena and a new Constantine, the son of Irene, springing up like a rose and a lily in the midst of thorns, recalled the Roman government, as it were, from the rite of Hellenic or Judaic superstition. To them the new Sylvester joined himself, that great and renowned patriarch Tarasius, who, having convened a universal holy synod, dissipated all heretical madness, because the Holy Spirit was in him. Shining as luminaries in the world, just as it was handed down to the Church by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word—namely, the divine and blessed apostles, and the God-bearing holy Fathers, and the God-inspired and ecumenical orthodox synods—they [decreed] all that is salvific and life-
vivifying of Christ’s monuments to be retained and held in veneration, according to that which the divine utterance brings forth: "Show me thy face, and let me hear thy voice; for thy face is fair, and thy voice is sweet." There is no new God among Christians, nor is any alien God worshiped by them; for who is God besides our Lord Jesus Christ, or who is God except Him? Where are those detractors of the Christians, those detractors of the priesthood; those who have alienated themselves from the title of the Christian name; who have cast away from themselves the future hope of Christians, who have wandered from the womb of the divine font; wicked men, lips speaking iniquity against the Catholic Church in pride and contempt, who twist all divine and useful Scripture according to their own desires, who have trampled B underfoot the Son of God, and have considered common the blood of the covenant, in which they were sanctified, and have insulted the Spirit of grace in which they were ordained; false Christians, who called the holy and pure Church of Christ a defiled table, who do not know the difference between the holy and the profane? I ought to have written much, but we have no power through ink and parchment; rather, let us return to the matter at hand.
16. Again, the man of famous name, Nicephorus, C the most pious and orthodox servant of Christ among emperors; likewise also the sons of piety and heirs of the empire, having maintained the faith in Christ firm and unshaken, handed over the Church to the great chief priest and patriarch Nicephorus, pure and undefiled, not having spot or wrinkle. But again, as his name indeed implies, the beast of impiety invaded us like a lion raging and roaring. Now, the cause for the way in which the cruel plague of such soul-destroying heresy fell upon our minds was as follows: While Michael and Theophylact, those most God-beloved and pious men, held the helm of the empire, and while the Church of God was in the deepest calm, and all the hierarchs with the priests and God-fearing D monks were leading a quiet and peaceful life in all piety and decorum, I know not how to express it, a strange and remarkable monster entered into the all-fortunate city. For a certain woman of the local inhabitants gave birth to an infant, whose upper members of the body as far as the navel had entirely the form of a human child, but the lower parts resembled wild beasts—lions, leopards, and wolves. And the forms of these were moving, so that one could distinguish the configuration of each; but that ventriloquist [woman] herself...
by the power of the aerial spirit speaking within her, prodigiously predicts a rapid succession of emperors. Meanwhile, the emperor, most religious toward Christ, entrusts this abominable little woman to one of his domestic and secret servants to be kept in safe custody. But a certain obscure man from the base populace, John by name, a reader in the venerable monastery of the holy Mother of God, which they call the Hodegon, living in private, trusting well in the pythoness, learns from her what is to come: one emperor after another to be changed, and the inauguration of him who was to succeed to the empire; that he would obtain a great and excellent principate, and would live for thirty years in prosperity and trophy-bearing victory, provided only that, once the holy images had been totally abolished, he should extinguish their memory altogether. She says he is to be called Leo, originating from the Armenian lineage. Nay, more, she prophesies to this fellow initiate, John the reader, that he would be advanced to the greatest honor by this same Leo, and would be exalted and raised up very high above every principality and power, such as no one among his peers had reached before in glory.
17. And indeed, when Leo was patrician and general of the eastern province, being then in the blessed city, a certain Nicephorus, called by the derivative name Cynarius (or Catellarius), reports to him the prophesies of the pythoness. But also another wanderer, a false hermit, who was mocking the simple-minded people with lying words and divinations, is brought to Leo the patrician by the agency of Nicephorus; and he instructs him in portents akin to and equal to those of the ventriloquist. And he, because he was a lover of the world and eager for glory, with a burning desire of mind and from his heart, affirms with an inviolable oath that he would do these things, as he already had the spark of impiety hidden in his breast.
18. And when Leo had obtained the imperial scepter, he strove the more abundantly to emulate and imitate the impious emperors who had preceded him, Leo and Constantine, who had been of the Isaurian lineage, and who had lasted for many years in the empire, and had broken the audacity of the barbarian enemies by brilliant deeds in war, and had lived in plenty and prosperity. And so he began to conduct searches, namely, asking for prophecies and mathematical astrologers who, as if from a tripod, would deliver such oracles to him. Therefore, having summoned a certain Basil, a chartulary of that house which is called the Exartesis [(9)], he entrusts the whole matter to the man. He, furthermore, in the straits of his domestic affairs, like a surrendered slave, promises to do what was commanded; and
A having found a certain man from among the inhabitants of Salambria, wandering here and there in taverns and marketplaces, addicted to divinations and auguries—one named Sabbatius—he suggests to him that he should speak everything to the favor of the emperor. And so Sabbatius, having cast a very heavy chain about his neck, and having bound his own feet with iron fetters, shuts himself inside the hollows of the furnaces of the great bath of Dagisteus. And Basil, quickly fulfilling the desires of the emperor, brought him to the pythoness-diviner. It was deep night, with darkness that could be felt; and lo, the emperor, accustomed to being surrounded by a retinue of soldiers, arrives alone, naked, and unarmed, with only Basil as a companion, into the underground and B nether, dark places, just as once did Julian the apostate, when he was making a covenant with the devil through the Jewish mathematician. Oh, how the wisdom of the wise has perished! Oh, how the understanding of the prudent has been set aside! Oh, how those who wished to be wise have been made foolish! What then does this great, and glorious, and terrible emperor do? He grovels at the feet of the python [pythona]; he seeks out oracles, just as Alexander once did when, having entered with Candaules, his most intimate companion, into the shrine of Serapis to learn what was to come to pass, he sees some sitting there with flashing eyes; one of whom says to him: "Hail, Alexander; do you know who I am?" And he: "How, sir?" C The magician replied: "I am Sesoch, the earthquake-ruling king. But you have been more fortunate than I, for you have obtained an immortal name." And he: "How, sir?" The other said: "Go inside, that you may see who is your patron and defender." Alexander therefore goes inside; he sees a fire-flashing mist, and one sitting upon a throne whom he had once seen in Rhacotis being worshipped by mortals as Serapis. And Alexander said: "Sir, how many years shall I live?" And Serapis said: "It is good for one who is a mortal not to know when he is to die; for one who awaits that day, from the day he learned of it, is already dead. But that it is ignored, this gives rise to oblivion, because it is not present to the mind; yet, one must yield to death entirely."
19. D The curious emperor therefore says to the foreknower and diviner: "What shall I do, and what shall I perform, so that I may pass my whole time in a good life and prosperity and victorious triumph?" And Sabbatius says to him: "You indeed, O emperor, have been fortunate, and you shall be renowned among the kings of the earth. But if you desire life, and love to see good days, and to rule over nations and barbarians, blot out completely all memory of the icons. And behold, you are about to rule and reign for thirty-two full years together with your son, the lord Constantine, and to [subjugate the Bulgarians...]]
and you shall fix your sword in the midst of Bulgaria, into the bronze threshing floor of their courtyard. But whatever you do, do it quickly, and do not leave behind any icon, either above or below.
20. The emperor, therefore, becoming overjoyed, was eager to fulfill what had been commanded without hesitation, lest the thirty-year limit of the truce should slip from his hands just like a bird that has flown away. He summons, therefore, the aforementioned reader, John, and entrusts to him the business of the denunciation. He, fearing the emperor’s command, most readily promises to do what was ordered. And indeed, having collected together all the books of the monasteries with imperial authority and having searched out the places where the veneration of idols was forbidden, they attached these [prohibitory texts] to the venerable icon of Christ; for just as if they regarded Christ in the place of Bel and Dagon, they burned His venerable icons with flames. And the zealous emperor did not rest, but having called for the most holy Patriarch Nicephorus, he shows him the scrolls and the sheets filled with fables that had been collected by John, which were clearly the trifles of children. But that most holy and wise teacher of the Church, just like a spider’s web, overturned and destroyed all these things with ease. For this reason, the emperor, for fear of the man, up to that point made a truce with what he was attempting. But John, fearing excommunication from the patriarch, and having been worn down by a malady that had befallen him, seeks the repentance he had formerly neglected from the patriarch, asking for pardon for his rashness, and that he might be free to C undergo the labors of monastic discipline; which indeed came to pass. But the emperor, anxious in spirit and seeing that his efforts had been in vain, began to consider within himself whom he might finally find as a helper in this work. Therefore, it was pointed out to him that Metropolitan Antony was in Sylaeum, and he immediately commands him to arrive at the court.
21. The emperor addresses him thus: "Strive with us, O Metropolitan, in that which we are planning, and I shall install you as president of the patriarchal throne." And he most readily promises to do what was commanded. But the most holy Patriarch Nicephorus, having learned of this, summoned him and asked if these things were so. But he said, "Far be this from us, O Lord, or the performance of any such thing! Nay, rather, to provide greater assurance, I shall append my own crosses, written by my hand, to the document of the orthodox faith." This he also quickly performed in the presence of the most holy metropolitans who were assembled there, just as he had subscribed to these things when he was ordained: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, I, Antony, by the mercy of God, Metropolitan of Sileum, have subscribed with my own hand. We who believe in the holy, consubstantial, and life-giving Trinity, embrace and accept the venerable icons. Those who do not think so, let them be anathema. Those who do not believe so, let them be driven far from the Church. This is the faith of the holy Fathers. This is the faith that has enlightened the world. Whoever, therefore, may dare hereafter to overturn anything of those things that have been lawfully D assigned to the Church...
whether representing images or the depiction of the cross: if they are priests, let them be altogether deposed; but if they are monks or laymen, let them be anathematized." A Having sealed this, he departed from the venerable patriarchal residence. When the emperor inquired of these matters, Antonius said: "We have mocked them, O Emperor, that you might be freer of concerns regarding the things you are planning. O new Manichaean and man of Persian mind! O madness! O stupidity! Among Christians he acts the Christian, among Jews the Jew." And so, those two, John and Antonius, presided and mixed a cup for the heretics with wine drugged with poison; and they indeed pervert the divinely inspired and useful Scriptures according to their own desires, bringing forth fictitious teachings prepared for the ruin of souls, and barking against the venerable B images as if they were idols.
22. Therefore the great high priest Nicephorus, having gathered a synod of two hundred and seventy holy Fathers, and all being vested in priestly stoles in the great temple of Sophia, with the multitude of monks of the imperial city also assembled, the most holy patriarch ascended the ambo and anathematized the heresiarch, crying out these words: "Antonius, the new Arius, kinsman of the Paulicians, anathema." The people: "Anathema." The most holy patriarch said: "Antonius, the new Arius, is bound in this age and in the future, and upon the earth, from the holy, consubstantial, and life-giving Trinity, from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; from the holy and chief of the apostles, Peter; from the college of the twelve C apostles; from the three hundred and eighteen Fathers; from the holy, great, and ecumenical synods and the apostolic sees; and from me who ordained him; and all who are in communion with him: as one who is an enemy of Christ, as one who has trampled underfoot crosses fixed by his own hand, as one who has apostatized from the orthodox faith, as an iconoclast, as an idolater, as a slanderer of Christians, as a persecutor of Christians, as a slayer of priests; he is the curse of priests and patriarchs, the most wicked one, the abomination of desolation, the first apostasy and secession, the forerunner of Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition who has been revealed in the present time." These are the praises and proclamations of the miserable Antonius. D
23. What then of his colleague and participant, the one who bears the name of the forerunner of Antichrist, from whose mouth an igneous furnace of blasphemy proceeds; the false prophet Balaam, the disciple of the pythoness; both of them tribunes of the opposite side, the new sorcerers of Pharaoh and the enchanters Jannes and Mambres, the mathematicians? What then of him who bears the appearance of a lion, and roars like a lion against the Church? He imitates the author of this heresy, Leo, and just as he cast out the divine Germanus, so this one too drove the renowned and most holy Nicephorus from the patriarchal throne, and all the most holy bishops and monks of his party to tortures and
A exiles. What then? Jacob the beloved is driven out, and Esau, hated even before his birth, is introduced in his stead. Thieves and robbers climb up into the fold of the Church from elsewhere. The holy altar has been defiled. The Jews rejoice again, and once more jubilate, clapping their hands; once again, seeing these things come to pass, they grow proud and insolent against Christ, the Son of God and the Nazarene, whom they once fastened to the cross. Once again, the Montanists have occupied the place.
24. What then of Leo, raging and roaring like a beast from the forest against the Church and against Christ, B filling the blessed city with tumults and scandals? Sighs, lamentations, tears, and groans ran everywhere. For the destruction of souls and bodies was twofold. Indeed, he had rejected the guardian and protector of his own empire, saying: "Depart from me, Jesus, King and Emperor; we do not wish to know your ways." Then, falling upon his venerable image which was in the Chalce (or Bronze Gate), with stones, dung, and thick mud, and having spat in his face, they tore it down to the ground. The Jews once attacked him with stones, calling him a Samaritan and one who has a demon, yet he walked through the midst of them; but these men have done things worse than they. Truly, "The enemy has reproached the Lord, and a foolish people has provoked his name." For when the Lord himself held in his hands the image C of Tiberius Caesar, and said, "Whose is this image and inscription?", he did not insult it, but even rendered what was due as to Caesar, and paid the tax. O wicked, foolish, and senseless people! At whom have you opened your mouth and upon whom have you loosed your tongue? But what the Word suffers now as well—blasphemed by the impious—he endures such insults, because he is patient and kind. While the pious celebrate him with praises, he extends his patience, perhaps to grant the former time for repentance, and to test our own longing, to see if we fail in the tribulations and struggles we endure for the cause of piety. But there are matters far greater than these and worthy of lamentation, "for which the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience," as has been declared above, and they have become manifest and plain to us all: famines, D plagues, earthquakes, cities swallowed up, unusual deaths, civil wars, incursions of nations, burnings of churches, devastations of provinces and cities, captivities of peoples led like sheep to the slaughter, up to the Ethiopians and Indians and to the furthest parts of the East, led away as servants and captives, youths and virgins, old men with the young; and every age has been utterly consumed. "For the fathers," Scripture says, "have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth have been set on edge." And again, "I, says the Lord, shall recompense the sins of the fathers upon the children, even to the third and fourth generation."
repaying the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” A
25. Now when the divine sword of the Almighty’s right hand had dealt with him—and cast him, like a great beast, into his own trap, just as the prophet says: “Behold, I will bring upon thee strangers, pestilences [(11)] from the nations; and they shall unsheathe their swords against thee, and against the beauty of thy knowledge; and they shall strew thy beauty to destruction, and they shall bring thee down, and thou shalt die the death of the slain in the heart of the sea. Wilt thou say, when speaking before those who slay thee: ‘I am God’? But thou art man, and not God.” [(10)] Underneath thee they shall strew rot, and thy covering shall be worms. They that see thee shall wonder at thee, and shall say: “This is the man that provoked the earth, that shook kings, that made the whole world a desert.” And he destroyed his own cities, and those who were carried away into captivity [(12)] he released not; all the kings of the earth slept in honor, every man in his own house. But thou shalt be cast out on the mountains, as B a loathsome corpse, with many wounded and slain with the sword, who go down to Hades. [(11)] That all may know that the Lord is a mighty and strong King, changing the kings of the earth; with Him is wisdom and power; with Him is strength and might; making the humble stand on high, and raising up those who have perished, setting kings upon thrones, and changing the hearts of the rulers of the earth. Where are the false prophets and the impostors? Where are those thirty years of glorious trophies of that man of earthly mind, who had no society or common way of life with the heavenly King?
26. What of him, then, “who killeth and maketh alive; who bringeth down to Hades, and bringeth up; who humbleth and exalteth”? [(6)] He raised up in his empire the one who bears the name of his C power as supreme commander [(13)], Michael, the most meek and most serene emperor, saying in imitation of Christ: “To those who are in bonds, Go forth; and to those who are in darkness, Be revealed.” “Leading forth the bound in strength, likewise those who provoke, who dwell in graves.” [(8)] Shattering every bond of iniquity, he brought up from the pit of misery those who were held fast in straits and afflictions and bitter servitude; he filled the Roman empire with all joy and gladness. For the Lord gave kindness, and our earth, flowering, brings forth good things. D
A His fruit, the Lord’s right hand has wrought power; the Lord’s right hand has exalted him; in the multitude of his glory he has crushed his adversaries. What then of the most peaceful and most gentle emperor? He has fallen asleep in peace in one and the same place; and his burial shall be in peace. For he is going to have as those who meet him those who show mercy in judgment, for mercy triumphs over judgment.
27. Since He who raises the horn of salvation for His people in His arm has raised from his root a plant of empire for the preparation of His throne—you, the great king who bear the name of piety—by the power of the salvation of His right hand, the Lord and Master of all has delivered into your hand a mighty, strong, and noble empire, you who are supported by God. Look, I pray you, to the ancient generations of the most pious and faithful emperors, how their brightness and magnificence remains immortal. They were buried in peace, and their tombs, and their bones, put forth shoots from their place, and the Lord reigns over them, because their souls are in His hand. Imitate the pious and God-loving emperor Constantine, the son of the blessed B Helena, who for thirty-four whole years shone with every piety and integrity of character, and subjected all the barbarian nations under his feet. So great, indeed, was this man’s love for priests and monks—and above all his preeminent love—that they say that when some people once presented to him written accusations against them, he immediately burned them, and that renowned emperor spoke these words: "If I ever find a priest or a monk committing some offence, I myself would spread my own chlamys and cover him." Who, therefore, among emperors has been more religious, or more kind-hearted and compassionate than this holy prince?
28. Trace the footsteps of the great lamp of piety, the religious emperor Theodosius, adorned with the crown of the orthodox faith. C Was he, too, not a lover of Christ and a lover of monks? When he was being held in great distress in the Western parts, as the tyrant Maximus was stirring up a war, because of thirty thousand hostile enemies pressing upon him, he sent to a certain most holy monk who lived on the mountain, asking him to become his helper before God through his prayers. Donatus was his name. But that most holy and God-bearing monk, having foreseen the future through God, sent to the emperor his own hair shirt, his scapular, his cowl, and his staff. The great-souled and hopeful prince, having received these with joy and faith, and having conceived good hope, kissed them and put them on; and holding the staff in his hand in place of a spear, he mounted his horse. And lo, a certain divine army of angels, riding on fiery horses, was D suddenly at hand, and as things turned to the contrary, as the enemies were utterly cast into the pits which
they had dug, like hunters, they were in turn cast down there; and the tyrant himself, as if he were a great spoil, was captured alive by the satraps and brought to the feet of the emperor. What could men of sound mind conceive of as more sublime than that expedition? He who was counted worthy to have the angelic hosts as his allies in war—was he not also pious, a worshipper of the holy Trinity and a venerator of the image of Christ? Search and see his holy votive offerings, his holy vestments, his holy vessels. Handle and look upon his great platter on which the mystical supper of Christ with the twelve apostles was engraved with elegant encaustic art. This holy platter was taken by Theodore, B the steward of the holy apostles, who had been ordained archbishop of the city of Syracuse by the archbishop of the imperial city; and indeed, this Theodore, having composed his godless document by his own hand, placed it upon the platter. And Anthony said: "If you give us your pledge, and desire to be of one mind with us, trample it with your feet." And he, being intoxicated by the desire for the episcopate, impudently and shamelessly forthwith trampled it. O the patience and longsuffering of Jesus Christ! What then? Will not God require these things? Truly, he will. For the vengeance for Cain was taken sevenfold, but for Lamech seventy-sevenfold. Thus, indeed, it behooves the high priests of the Christian empire. What then, of the wretched Theodore? He was frustrated of his desire, deprived of his dignity, and snatched from the living by an untimely and bitter death.
29. Imitate, C most godly master, also the emperors who followed—Arcadius, Honorius, and Theodosius, Leo also and Marcian, and the godly emperors of their time; for all were of one mind and godly in heart. Let the emperors who died in impiety bury and mourn their own dead souls; for the groans of those who suffer injustice become the punishment of those by whom they have been evilly vexed. Think upon and see the passing of the emperors and princes of previous ages, and how they passed away like a dream taking flight. When their affairs seemed to be on a firm foundation, then they perished utterly. For when the impious fall, the just tremble with fear. What then? Even you, O excellent prince, even if you should survive among the living for a full hundred years and hold dominion, will you not hereafter die as your fathers did? There is no servant who is small or great who does not fear his lord. For one is the entrance into life, and the exit is the same; for none of the emperors D has had a different beginning of birth. Look upon the prayer of the humble, and do not despise their petition. Have mercy upon your Churches, and console those who mourn; comfort those who are in tribulation. Stop the schisms of the Churches; extinguish the arrogance of the godless iconoclasts; quickly abolish the uprisings of the heresies by the power of your righteous empire and by the arm of your piety. Call back the captives, gather together the dispersed, and join together the holy catholic and apostolic Church
A into one bond of love, into the deep peace of the orthodox and most pure faith. How long shall the sons of the Romans be reviled by all Christians as image-breakers and heretics? Awaken the power of your piety, and have mercy on your people, who have been scattered and dispersed like the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What a miserable spectacle this is! An unrestrained fury with which the enemy rages against the holy image of the Savior. Implacable is the war of the adversary against the image of the holy Mother of God. Irreconcilable is the hatred of those who persecute the saints of Christ. How many emperors have attacked the Church! How many tyrants have oppressed her! Although for a short while license was allowed them, yet the gates of hell have not prevailed against her.
30. Although we might be able to bring forward many proofs from the holy Fathers in the Scriptures by which pious dogmas are established, we have not deemed it our affair to force the God-taught wisdom of your royal skill; but, as the divine Word admonishes, we fulfill the duties of our office most placidly as suppliants, so that by withholding the word we might not be condemned as those who make no attempt. For never, even under former emperors, have we kept silence, advising and entreating as lords, as masters, as fathers, and as brothers, lest by our silence we should suffer the loss of God. B Yet, in order to further and more securely establish the orthodox faith—just as from the beginning and of old, and until now, the pure and undefiled most Christian piety flourishes in all churches according to the apostolic and God-proclaimed traditions, honestly as befits God, and in nothing dissenting from the Lord, with the ornament of the venerable and to-be-honored images, which we embrace and kiss in paintings and mosaic works, on walls and tablets and sacred vessels, with the same honor and veneration as the form of the life-giving cross and the divine Gospels: to wit, that we apply this worship and honor to the archetypes themselves; as Basil the Great says, "The honor of the image passes to the archetype." C How much worse a punishment will he deserve who scorns and rejects the Lord’s image of Christ, by whom the cross itself was also sanctified? For as a perfect deserter, and one alien to the name of Christian, he will be liable to eternal condemnation. Wherefore, for the proof and confirmation of that divine doctrine which we have defined, we have furthermore imprinted upon the head of our confession of faith—that most pure tome of orthodoxy which has been God-confirmed—the venerable image of the most holy Mother of God, Mary, and of the Word of God who was incarnate from her and was an infant, as a glory of the faith and a crown of beauty and a royal scepter, showing D to your God-bearing, God-taught majesty the divine and heavenly sense of the orthodox faith of the entire Eastern diocese, according to the divine Word: "Give an opportunity to a wise man, and he will become wiser."
instruct a righteous man, and he will increase in learning." A 31. Following the definition and rule of the divine Fathers, who have promulgated and ordained such things according to the apostolic traditions and the customs of the Churches, thus believing in the holy, consubstantial, and life-giving Trinity, we embrace the venerable images. Let those who think otherwise be anathema; let those who do not confess them in this way be driven far from the Churches. This is the faith of the apostles; this is the faith that enlightened the Church. Therefore, those who dare to think otherwise, or to overthrow any of those things B lawfully handed down in the Church, whether the depiction of the cross, or the painting of icons, or anything else handed down in the holy Church according to the ancient customs of the Fathers and of the pious and faithful emperors, if they are priests, let them be subject to total deposition and be anathematized; but if they are monks or laymen, let them be condemned to the same anathema and be cut off from divine communion. These things we decree by the command and authority of our Savior Jesus Christ, who set forth a commandment, and it shall not pass away; who shut the abyss and sealed it with His terrible and glorious name. Let all the earth fear before His face, because He is terrible, and who shall resist Him? And, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," since His hand encompasses every spirit and creature, and His kingdom is a kingdom of all ages, and His dominion remains in every generation. Glory be to the most holy Trinity, our God, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ADMONITION
Two short works on unleavened bread inscribed with the name of Saint John of Damascus are found in handwritten codices. The first, which is shorter and is a compendium of the other, was provided to me by the most learned and dear friend, the Very Reverend Father Dom Bernard de Montfaucon, from codex no. 521 of the monastery of Saint Remigius at Reims. The other is contained in the Royal codex 2982, with the name of John of Damascus prefixed to it, from which our Combefis excerpted and recited a few passages in the annotation to the second Invective of Isaac, Catholicos of the Armenians (t. II of the *Auctarium Bibliothecae PP. Graec.*). However, from another Royal codex, no. 2935, I learned that the genuine author of this second short work is a certain Meletius, about whom I have thus far discovered nothing else. The prologue, which for that reason I did not think should be omitted, and whose author is not indicated, clearly signifies this. Furthermore, in a separate dissertation on unleavened bread, I show with more careful study that neither work should be attributed to John of Damascus, and that this holy doctor held to the common tradition of the Fathers, that the Lord Christ ate the Jewish Passover with His disciples on the day before He suffered: a position which is nevertheless obstinately denied in both short works.