Three Treatises on the Divine Images

Judgment after the resurrection and the reward of works. — ^A We shall rise again, therefore, our souls being joined once more to our bodies, which shall have become incorruptible and have put off corruption; and we shall stand before the dread judgment seat of Christ. And the devil and his demons, and his man—that is to say, Antichrist—as well as the impious and wicked men, shall be delivered into eternal fire: a fire, I say, not consisting of matter like ours, but such as God alone knows. But those who have done good shall shine like the sun with the angels into eternal life, together with our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing Him always and being seen by Him, and enjoying from Him an indefectible joy, praising Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

THREE ORATIONS OF ST. JOHN DAMASCENE PRO SACRED IMAGES

^B No one is ignorant of what a remarkable labor my Damascene performed on behalf of the images. He had scarcely known that Leo the Isaurian had resolved by edict to overthrow them when he sang his classic response against him. The author of his *Life* says that he sent epistolary treatises to the pupils of the true faith, with whom he was joined by the bond of friendship and familiarity, so that they too might distribute copies of them, accurately written out, among the faithful. Behold the three dissertations published by him in this cause; from the beginning of the first of which, it may be gathered that he had attempted nothing against Leo before this, since he wrote it to confirm the faithful of the Royal City. That it was published even after the tenth year of Leo the Isaurian, in which the impious edict was promulgated, and before his thirteenth year, in which St. Germanus of Constantinople was cast down from his throne, becomes clear from those words which are read in the continuation of the exordium: "I beseech the whole people of God, together with the good shepherd of the rational flock of Christ, who describes in himself the ^C hierarchy of Christ," etc.

But he sent forth a second treatise when the raging Leo had deposed Patriarch Germanus; and of this crime, as of many others, Damascene complains in the same place (no. XII): "Even now Blessed Germanus, resplendent in both life and doctrine, has been struck by blows and cast into exile, and with him many other bishops and Fathers whose names are unknown to us." However, it suggests nothing regarding the intrusion of Anastasius, whom the Isaurian had substituted on the fifteenth day after Germanus’s abdication, as that was evidently heard of more slowly in the East. Furthermore, these three orations were written at an age when the bishops of the Orient still abstained from pronouncing an anathema against Leo. For, toward the end of both orations, having brought forward the testimonies of the holy Fathers, he adds: "Even if you, says the Apostle Paul, or an angel, should preach to you anything beyond what you have received..."—that which follows, we shall hold our peace for now, sparing those whose conversion we hope for. But if we should see them—which God forbid!—obstinate in their perverse opinion, then we shall pronounce that which follows, namely: "Let him be anathema." Indeed, he also insinuates this in the very series of the second and third treatises, where he so softens that same sentence of the Apostle: "Even if an angel, even if an emperor, should preach to you anything beyond what you have received, stop your ears." ^D I hesitate for the present to say, as the divine Apostle said, "let him be anathema," awaiting their correction.

These things are clearly in conformity with what he pronounces vigorously and boldly in the epilogue of both orations: ^A *We will not suffer a new faith to be taught. For out of Sion shall go forth the law, the Holy Spirit has said prophetically, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.* We will not suffer a new faith to be taught. For *out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem*, as the Holy Spirit has foretold in the manner of the prophets. And we shall not commit ourselves, etc.

At length, punishment followed this warning, when Leo, gnashing his teeth, was struck by the bolt of excommunication, first by the prelate of the holy city and subsequently by the other bishops of the East, as Theophanes testifies at the thirteenth year of the same Leo; at which time, obviously, with Germanus in exile and Anastasius intruded onto his throne, there remained no hope for the Catholics that the fury of Leo would be suppressed.

^B 306 What, moreover, was the reason why he added a second to the first treatise? He explains this at the very opening of the second oration. Naturally, the first dissertation had caused some difficulty for certain people, and so he had the necessity of pursuing the same points again in another order and by an easier method. As for the third, he has constructed this for the most part out of the former ones; not a few things were added, however, by which he might better defend the cause of the sacred images, which he had undertaken, against the accusations of his adversaries, through a more explanatory narrative. Humphrey Hody, an Englishman, in his prolegomena to the *Chronographia* of John Malalas, calls into doubt whether this third oration is to be attributed to our author, at the foot of which, among the testimonies of the ancients, is read an excerpt from the History of the same John Malalas, who he judges to have been more recent than the Damascene. He suspects that it was written by another person of a later age and assigned to John of Damascus, just as various other treatises on the same subject were falsely ascribed to him on account of the great name he had acquired for himself in the defense of images. He adds: *Regarding these various treatises and what arguments we have available, let our dissertation on various Greek writers against the aforementioned book be consulted.* Although he willingly concedes that it was the custom of readers and librarians alike, when they found in books the testimonies of others gathered together, to add and insert their own thoughts if anything occurred to them.

Regarding the age of John Malalas, whom Hody contends did not write before the end of the eighth century, nothing can be defined with certainty, since the later part of his *Chronographia* is missing and has utterly perished. But no other scruple of any moment remained by which this learned man could be deterred from assigning this treatise to our Damascene as its genuine author; a fact which is otherwise vindicated by the very words and arguments sewn together from both of the earlier ones: where the same threat of anathema is repeated in as many words as it is in the second treatise; from which it likewise becomes plain and obvious that this work, just as the other two, was composed at the time when the bishops of the East had as yet decreed nothing against Leo the Isaurian and the Iconoclasts. To these, add that throughout the series of this oration a Syrian man is indicated as the author, who would have frequently visited the holy places of Palestine; for he brings these forth as an example to show that the Church has not abhorred the veneration of images in ages past.

Nor, indeed, did the Damascene labor on these three dissertations alone for the defense of the sacred images. For we read in the *Life of St. Stephen the Younger*, who died a martyr while Constantine Copronymus was emperor, that the holy John of Damascus attacked this man—the heir of his father's error and cruelty, just as he was of his throne—with other letters in which he called him "a new Muhammad," "a Christ-fighter," "a hater of the holy," and "a hater of the saints"; and he called his sycophant bishops "shadowy" (*teneccricos*), that is to say, "dark" rather than bishops, and also "belly-servers" (*koiliodoulous*), that is to say, "serving their belly," acting and saying everything for the sake of their stomach, as people who would not hesitate to say or do anything for the sake of their gut. In the third oration, nothing of the sort occurs; yet it was written under Leo the Isaurian, just as the other earlier ones were, as has just been demonstrated. Closer to this are the things read in another treatise against Constantine Copronymus and his synod, which are inscribed under the name of the Damascene. But it is not certain that this dissertation was edited by our John, as will be shown in its proper place. Other small works of the holy Doctor must therefore have perished, with which he attacked the Iconoclasts again and again.

^C Furthermore, in these three orations, Catholic reader, you have a pure and sincere exposition of the ecclesiastical discipline concerning the venerable images of Christ and the saints, and a very firm defense against their impugners, by which you may easily crush the entire web of the heretics. The author does indeed bring forward some testimonies drawn from those works which are falsely inscribed with the names of ancient authors and Fathers, and which are today exploded by the learned as supposititious: but this must be forgiven the great man, for he flourished in an age in which theologians were not students of the critical arts; rather, they admitted and embraced everything by which a sincere faith might be cultivated and the morals of Christians might be informed. To this, our author does not only allege spurious books, but 307 far more others that proceeded from approved authors, by which the sound opinion concerning the images is asserted and inculcated clearly enough.

These three dissertations were first edited in Greek at Rome by Nicolaus Majoranus, and he dedicated them to Cardinal Giovanni Pietro Carafa in the year 1553, in octavo. For revising them, we have had a few manuscripts. The Royal Library holds only two, written in a very recent hand, described from the exact same copy, with which a third codex, which came into my hands not long ago, agrees in everything. But from these, I obtained little or almost no help. For they present only the first oration, and even that is reduced to a compendium by intentionally omitting many things and changing others here and there; and with the testimonies of the holy Fathers and other authors dismissed, in their place have been stitched together the things which occur in the third oration concerning various kinds of images and adoration.

It is entirely obscure by what author that synopsis was produced. It was long a custom among the Greeks to weave together such compendia, not without grave loss to the Church and to literature. I found some leaves of the third oration in the Colbertine codex no. 1539, which is of the best quality and bears the age of seven hundred years; and I reviewed that same oration by it. Moreover, those three treatises in the Roman edition are sufficiently accurate and suffer from few errors.

Godfrey Tilman, a Carthusian monk of Paris, first prepared a Latin translation and published it at Paris in quarto in the year 1555, which appeared again at Antwerp in 1556 in 16mo. Shortly after, Peter Francis Zinus, a canon of Verona, worked out another version. The former indeed abounds in prolixity, and even in extraneous additions; the latter is deficient in brevity in many places. However, James Billius thought it best to refrain from having a new one struck, and he approved Zinus’s interpretation above the others—with only a few exceptions, which he emended in his own annotations. But since, as Combefis has noted elsewhere, while Billius was correcting the lesser matters, he passed over more serious ones, I have thought it worth the labor to fashion a new third version from both translations, yet without disregarding the corrections of that most learned man.

ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS — FIRST APOLOGETIC ORATION AGAINST THOSE WHO REJECT SACRED IMAGES

^A 1. It indeed behooved us, conscious of our own unworthiness, to keep silence eternally, and rather to offer to God a confession of our sins. But since all things that are done at the opportune time are praiseworthy, and I see the Church—which God built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ His Son being the chief cornerstone 1 — being tossed and agitated like a storm at sea by waves rising up one upon another, and by the violent onsets of wicked spirits, and I see the tunic of Christ, woven from above, being divided, which the children of the impious have dared to rend with the utmost audacity; and finally, the fact that His body, which is the Word of God and the tradition received and established of old, is being torn into various sections, I did not deem it reasonable to keep silence, nor to bind my tongue with the chain of silence, fearing that threatening sentence of God which says: "If you draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in you 2." And: "If you see the sword coming, and do not warn your brother, I will require his blood from your hand 3." Struck, therefore, by this grave fear, I have arrived at speaking, and have not preferred the majesty of the emperor to the truth. For the parent of God, David, says: "I spoke of Your testimonies in the presence of kings 4, and I was not ashamed."

1. Ephes. ii, 19. 2. Hebr. x, 38. 3. Ezech. xxxiii, 8. 4. Ps. cxviii, 46.

^A being more pricked by this to speak. For the king's word is powerful for the drawing of subjects; for few are they who, from of old, have disregarded royal decrees, and who know that the king on earth is himself ruled from above, and that the laws have power over kings.

^B 2. Therefore, first of all, having fixed, as it were, a keel or foundation for my reasoning—the preservation of the ecclesiastical rule, through which salvation is wont to come—I have opened the starting-gate of my discourse, and I have urged it forward like a well-bridled horse let loose from the starting line. For I deemed it truly a terrible thing, and beyond all that is terrible, for the Church, shining with so many prerogatives and adorned from of old by the traditions of most holy men, to return to the weak and beggarly elements, fearing a fear where there is no fear 5; and as if not knowing the true God, to suspect a slip into idolatry, even if it were to fall short in the minutest point of perfection, just as if one were to carry a lingering spot in the middle of a most beautiful face, and by the tiny blemish, were to ruin the whole of its beauty. For it is no small matter when the small leads to the great, where not even the little disfigurement is small, in that the tradition which has prevailed above in the Church is overturned, as if those who have gone before us—whose manner of life we ought to contemplate and whose faith we ought to imitate—were condemned.

^C 3. I implore, therefore, first of all, the almighty Lord, to whom all things are naked and laid bare 6; my discourse is addressed to you, knowing the sincerity of my humble intention in this, and the purity of my purpose, that He may give me utterance in the opening of my mouth, and take the reins of my mind into His own hands, and draw it to Himself, so that it may proceed on a straight path in His sight, and not decline to what seem to be right, or what are known to be left-hand things. Furthermore, I pray the whole people of God, the holy nation, the royal priesthood, together with the good pastor of Christ’s rational flock, who expresses the high priesthood of Christ in himself, to receive my discourse with a benevolent mind; not looking to the dignity, which in me is very small, or seeking the artifice of words—for I, poor as I am, am not entirely skilled in such things—but rather attending to the power of the thoughts. For the kingdom of heaven is not in word, but in power 7. My purpose is not to conquer, but to lend a hand to the truth being warred against, with good will supplying the hand of virtue. ^D Having therefore invoked the aid of the unsubstantial truth, I shall henceforth take the beginning of my discourse.

4. I know what was said without falsehood: "The Lord your God, the Lord is one 8." And: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve 9." And...

"You shall not make for you a graven image, nor any ^A likeness of those things which are in heaven above, and which are in the earth beneath 10." And: "Let all be confounded who worship graven images 11." Also: "Let the gods perish who have not made heaven and earth 12." And other things of that nature, which, though God spoke long ago to the fathers by the prophets, in these last days He has spoken to us by His only-begotten Son, through whom He also made the ages 13. I know Him who says: "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent 14." I believe in one God, one principle of all things, without beginning and principle, uncreated, knowing no end and immortal, eternal and perpetual, incomprehensible, invisible, uncircumscribed, without form; one super-essential substance, a super-divine divinity, in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Him alone I serve, to Him alone I offer the worship of latria. I adore one God, one Divinity, but I also serve the Trinity of persons, namely, God the Father, and God the Son incarnate, and God the Holy Spirit; yet one God. I do not serve the creature rather than the Creator; but the Creator Himself, who for my sake became a created being, and descended to the creature without lowering or degradation of Himself, that He might ennoble my nature and make it a partaker of the divine nature. Together with the King and God, I adore the purple of His body, so to speak—not as a garment, nor as a fourth person, far be it, but as having been made equivalent to God, and having become what He who anointed it is, without change. For the nature of the flesh did not turn into the Godhead; but just as the Word, remaining what He was, became flesh without conversion, so too the flesh became the Word, not losing what it is, but rather being identified with the Word according to hypostasis. Wherefore I do not hesitate to form the image of the invisible God, not as He is invisible, but as He for our sake, by participating in flesh and blood 15, became visible. It is not the Godhead that I portray by an image, but the visible flesh of God. For if it is impossible to portray the soul, how much more so God, who endows the soul with incorporeity! ^C

5. But, he says, God spoke through Moses the lawgiver: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve 9." Item: "You shall not make any likeness of those things which are in heaven, and which are in the earth 10." Brethren, truly they are led astray who do not know the Scriptures, how the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life 16; who do not search out the Spirit hidden beneath the letter. To whom I would worthily say: Let Him who taught you this also teach you what follows. Learn how the lawgiver interprets it, here, in Deuteronomy...

^A saying: "And the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire: you heard the sound of words, but you saw no likeness, only a voice." And after a few words: "And keep your souls diligently, because you saw no likeness on the day the Lord spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire, lest you act wickedly and make for yourselves a graven likeness, any image, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird," and so forth. And after a little: "And lest, having looked up to heaven and having seen the sun and the moon and the stars and all the host of heaven, you be led astray and worship them and serve them."

§ 6. Do you see how the purpose is one, namely, that we should not serve the creature instead of the Creator, nor offer the worship of *latria* to any but the Creator? For this reason he everywhere joins *latria* to worship. For again he says: "You shall have no other gods besides me. You shall not make for yourself a graven thing, nor any likeness, nor shall you worship them, nor shall you serve them, because I am the Lord your God." And again: "You shall tear down their altars, and break their pillars, and cut down their groves, and burn with fire the graven things of their gods. For you shall not worship another god." And after a little: "And you shall not make molten gods for yourself."

^B § 7. Do you see how he forbids the making of images on account of idolatry, and because it is impossible to depict God, who is uncircumscribed, and uncircumscribable, and invisible? "For," he says, "you saw no form of Him." Just as Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, says: "Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine is like gold or silver or stone, the fashioning of art and human deliberation."

§ 8. For the Jews, because they were prone to idolatry, these things were legislated; but for us, to speak theologically, to whom it has been granted, having avoided the error of superstition and acknowledged the truth, to live with God, and to serve Him alone, and to be enriched with the perfection of the knowledge of God, and to arrive at the perfect man, having passed beyond infancy, we are no longer under a pedagogue, having received from God the discerning faculty, ^D and knowing what partakes of an image, and what cannot be circumscribed by an image. "For," he says, "you saw no form of Him." Oh, the wisdom of the lawgiver! How shall the invisible be depicted? How shall the unimaginable be imagined? How shall that which is unextended, and without magnitude, and undefined be written? How shall that which has no form be characterized? How shall that which is incorporeal be painted with colors? What, therefore, is the

mystery indicated in these matters? It is, without a doubt, that when you have seen Him who is incorporeal become man for your sake, then you may express the image of His human form; when the invisible becomes visible in the flesh, then you depict the likeness of the One who has been seen. When He who is incorporeal and formless, and uncircumscribed and not limited by size, and devoid of magnitude through the excellence of His own nature—He who exists in the form of God—takes the form of a servant, and by this is reduced to quantity and size, and puts on the features of a body, then you may draw on tablets and set up for contemplation the One who deigned to be seen. Draw His ineffable condescension, His birth from the Virgin, His baptism in the Jordan, His transfiguration on Mount Tabor, His sufferings which were the cause of our freedom from suffering, His death, His miracles, the symbols of His divine nature, performed by the ministry of the flesh but by divine power, the life-giving cross, the burial, the resurrection, the ascension into heaven; describe all these things both in words and in colors. Do not fear, do not be afraid; I know the difference in worship. Abraham once bowed down to the sons of ^B Emmor when he bought the double cave for a burial plot—wicked men, and suffering from the disease of ignorance of God. Jacob bowed down to his brother Esau, and to Pharaoh, a man of Egypt; indeed, he also bowed down to the top of his staff. He bowed down, but he did not offer divine worship (latria). Joshua the son of Nun and Daniel bowed down to the angel of God, but they did not offer divine worship. For the bowing down of divine worship is one thing, and that which is offered out of honor to those who excel in some dignity is another.

9. But since the discussion is about the image and worship, come, let us examine more carefully what each is.

10. There are also in God images and paradigms of the things to be produced by Him, ^D that is to say, His eternal counsel, which always remains the same. For God is entirely immutable, in whom there is no change, nor shadow of variation. These images and paradigms the holy Dionysius, great in divine things, and after God in things pertaining to God, calls "predestinations."

For in His counsel all things were characterized which were predestined by Him, and were to come to pass immutably before their generation; just as if someone wished to build a house, he would model and depict the form first in his mind. ^A

11. Then again, images are those visible things which express invisible objects and those lacking shape by being shaped corporeally, in order that they might be perceived, at least obscurely. For even the divine Scripture invests God and the angels with figures; and the same divine man teaches the reason for this. For that the types of the shapeless and the figures of the formless are figuratively set forth, one might say the cause is not only our own analogy—which is too weak to be raised directly to intellectual contemplations and is in need of kindred and connatural means of elevation—but also that if the divine Word, providing for our analogy, and for our sake supplying that which elevates us from every side, invests even simple and shapeless things with certain types, how should He not depict those things which possess a form according to their own nature, and which are longed for, but cannot be seen because they are not present? For through the sense, a certain phantasm is formed in the anterior ventricle of the brain, and thus is transmitted to the faculty of judgment, and is stored in the treasury of memory. ^B The theologian Gregory wisely remarks that the mind, although it labors much to step beyond corporeal things, is entirely unable to do so; but "the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." For we see images in created things, obscurely indicating to us the divine manifestations, as when we speak of the holy Trinity, the supra-essential, being imaged by the sun, light, and ray; or by the spring, the flowing current, and the outflow; or by the mind, word, and spirit within us; or by the rose plant, the flower, and the fragrance.

12. Again, an image is called that which enigmatically outlines for us things to come, as the ark [typified] the holy Virgin and Theotokos, and [so did] the rod and the jar; and as the serpent [of bronze] typified Him who by the cross healed the bite of the serpent, the author of all evils; and as the sea, the water, and the cloud represented the spirit of baptism. ^C

13. Again, an image is called that of things that have happened, whether for the memorial of some miracle, or for honor, or for shame, or for virtue, or for vice, for the benefit of those who see them later, so that we may shun evil things and emulate virtues. This is twofold: that which is inscribed by word in books, as God engraved the law upon the tablets and commanded that the lives of God-loving men be recorded, and [that which is] through contemplation... ^D

recalls the past, as when He commanded the urn and the rod to be placed in the ark as a memorial. Thus, now also, we depict both the images and the virtues of those who existed of old. Therefore, either abolish every kind of image and enact laws against Him who commanded them to be made, or accept each one according to the reason and manner appropriate to it. Having, therefore, spoken of the modes of the image, let us also speak concerning adoration.

14. Adoration ^B is a sign of submission and honor; and we have known various modes of it. The first is that of *latria*, which we offer to God alone, who is by nature to be adored. Following this is another, which we offer to His friends and servants on account of God Himself, who alone is by nature to be adored; as when Joshua the son of Nun and Daniel adored the angel; or to places holy by God’s presence, as David says: “Let us adore at the place where His feet stood” (Ps. CXXXI, 7); or to things consecrated to Him, as all Israel would prostrate themselves before the tabernacle, and as they stand around the temple in Jerusalem and, with faces turned toward it, adore to this day; or to princes created by Him, as Jacob adored Esau, his brother—as the elder brother made by God—and Pharaoh, the prince appointed by God, and as Joseph’s own brothers adored [him]. I know also that adoration is offered for the sake of mutual honor, such as Abraham showed to the sons of Emmor (Gen. XXIII, 7). Therefore, either abolish all adoration, or admit it all, provided it is with the due reason and manner.

15. But you would like to say to me, while I am questioning: Is God one? Yes, you will say, as it seems to me, there is one Lawgiver. Why then does He ordain contrary things? For the Cherubim are not outside the number of created things. Why then does He command Cherubim fashioned by human hands to overshadow the propitiatory? Is it not because, since God is in no way capable of being circumscribed or represented, it is impossible to make an image of Him, or of anything as if it were God, lest the created thing be adorned as though it were God? But concerning the Cherubim, because they are circumscribed and stand by the divine throne after the manner of servants, He commands that their image be made, shadowing the propitiatory in the manner of servants. For it was fitting that the image of the heavenly ministers should be the image that shadowed the divine mysteries. And what do you say the ark, the urn, and the propitiatory were? Were they not made by hands? Were they not the works of human hands? Were they not constructed from *vile* matter, as you like to say? And what indeed was the whole tabernacle? Was it not an image? Was it not a shadow and a pattern? Wherefore the divine Apostle says, discoursing concerning the priests of the ancient law: “Who serve unto the pattern and shadow of heavenly things, as it was answered to Moses when he was to finish the tabernacle: For see, he says, that you make all things according to the pattern shown to you on the mount” (Hebr. VIII, 5). Although not even the law was the image, but the shadow of the image; for the same Apostle says: “For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things” (Hebr. X, 1). If therefore the law had images...

but is itself a foreshadowing of the image, what shall we say? If the tabernacle was a shadow, and a type of a type, why does the law not command us to represent it in images? But these things are not so; for there is a time for every thing. ^B

16. Formerly God, who is without body or form, was not depicted at all. But now that God has been seen in the flesh and has lived among men, I depict that which is visible of God. I do not worship the matter, but I worship the Creator of matter, who for my sake became matter, and deemed it worthy to dwell in matter, and through matter brought about my salvation; and I will not cease to honor the matter through which my salvation has been wrought. I do not honor it as God—far be it! For how could that which has its origin from nothing be God? Even if the body of God is God because of the union according to hypostasis, having become what the anointing was without change, and having remained what it was in its nature, flesh animated by a rational and intellectual soul, taken from the Virgin, it is not uncreated. But I honor and hold in reverence ^C the rest of the matter, through which my salvation has come, as being full of divine power and grace. Or is the wood of the Cross, that thrice-blessed and thrice-happy wood, not matter? Is the holy and revered mountain, the place of Calvary, not matter? Is the life-giving stone, the holy tomb, the fountain of our resurrection, not matter? Is the ink, and the most holy book of the Gospels, not matter? Is the life-giving table, which provides us with the bread of life, not matter? Is gold and silver, from which crosses, plates, and chalices are made, not matter? Is the body and blood of our Lord not, before all these, matter? Either remove the honor and adoration from all these things, or submit to the ecclesiastical tradition and allow the adoration of images, which are hallowed in the name of God and the friends of God, and are therefore overshadowed by the grace of the divine Spirit. Do not disparage matter; for it is not contemptible. For nothing that has been created by God is contemptible. This is the opinion of the Manichaeans; only that is contemptible which has not its cause from God, but is our own invention, resulting from the choice and inclination of the will from that which is according to nature to that which is against nature, which is sin. If, because of the law, you bring contempt upon images and forbid them because they are made of matter, see what the Scripture says: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Behold, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the divine spirit of wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge in every work, to devise, and to be an architect, and to work in gold, and silver, and bronze, and in purple, and scarlet, and linen, and fine linen, and in the cutting of stones for their works, and in the carving of wood, to work according to...”

all that I have commanded thee. And again: “Moses spake to all the congregation of the children of Israel: Hear this word, which the Lord hath commanded, saying: Take from among you an offering unto the Lord. Let every one that is of a willing heart bring first-fruits to the Lord: gold, and silver, and bronze, and hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet doubled-dyed, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, and rams’ skins dyed red, and violet skins, and incorruptible wood, and oil for the anointing, and incense for the composition, and sardius stones, and stones for the carving, and for the ephod, and for the breastplate. And every man among you that is wise of heart shall come and make all that the Lord hath commanded, the tabernacle,” etc. ^B Behold, the material is precious, even if it is held by you to be vile. For what is more contemptible than goats’ hair or colors? Is not scarlet, and purple, and hyacinth simply color? Behold finally, both the works of the hands of men, and the images of the Cherubim. How then, under the pretext of the law, do you forbid those things which the law itself commanded to be made? If you forbid images because of the law, then take care that the Sabbath and circumcision are also observed. But know this: if you observe the law, Christ will profit you nothing. You who are justified by the law, you have fallen from grace. Israel of old did not see God: but we with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord.

17. ^C Furthermore, we set up his character in every place in a sensible manner, and through it we sanctify the first of the senses (for sight holds the primary place among the senses), just as we do hearing through words. For the image is a certain memorial; and whatever a book is to those who have learned letters, the image is to the illiterate and the unlearned; and what speech provides for the hearing, the image provides for the sight; yet we are united to it intellectually. For this reason, God commanded that an ark be made of incorruptible wood, and that it be covered with gold within and without, and that the tablets be placed in it, and the rod, and the golden jar, in which, for a memorial of things past and a foreshadowing of things to come, the manna was stored. ^D Now who would deny that these were images and resonant heralds? And these were not placed on the sides of the tabernacle, but in the sight of all the people, so that by looking upon them, they might offer adoration and the worship of latria to God, who worked through them. That they did not, however, offer the worship of latria to these things themselves is manifest; but through them, mindful of the marvels, they adored God, the author of them. For the images were proposed for the sake of admonition, not as gods, but as reminders of divine works.

^D 18. God also commanded that twelve stones be taken from the Jordan, and He adds the reason, saying: “When your son asks you, what do these stones mean, tell him how, by divine command, the water of the Jordan failed, and the ark of the Lord passed over, and all the people.” How, then, shall we not depict the saving passions and miracles of Christ our God, so that when my son asks me, what is this, I may say that God the Word became man, and through Him, not Israel alone crossed the Jordan, but all of nature returned to its original blessedness? Through Him, our nature ascended from the lowest parts of the earth above every principality, and sits upon the paternal throne itself.

19. But, they say, it is well for you to make an image of Christ, or of His Mother, the Theotokos. O absurdity! You have openly confessed yourself an enemy of the saints. For if you make an image of Christ, but by no means of the saints, it is clear that you do not prohibit images entirely, but rather deny the saints their proper honor. For you allow images of Christ, since He is adorned with glory, but you reject the likeness of the saints as if they were alien to glory, and you call the Truth a liar. For “As I live, says the Lord, I will honor those who honor me.” And the divine Apostle says: “So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” And: “If we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him.” You are not waging a war against images, but against the saints. For John the Theologian, who rested upon the breast of the Lord, says: “that we shall be like Him.” Just as that which is united to fire does not become fire by nature, but by connection, and burning, and participation, so I say of the flesh of the incarnate Son of God. For that flesh, by the hypostatic participation of the divine nature, became immutably God—not anointed by a divine efficacy, as was each of the prophets, but by the presence of the Anointing One Himself. That the saints are also gods, Scripture teaches: “God,” it says, “stood in the assembly of gods.” And that God stands in the midst of gods, distributing to each according to their merits, is how ^C the divine Gregory explains this passage. For the saints, while they lived, were filled with the Holy Spirit, and after they departed, the grace of the Holy Spirit remains inseparably with their souls, and with their bodies in the tombs, and with their features, and with their holy images, not by essence, but by grace and energy.

20. Now, the temple which God promised David should be built for Him by his own son, and that a place of rest should be prepared for Him, ^D Solomon, in building it, made...

^A Cherubim, as the book of Kings says. And he overlaid the Cherubim with gold, and all the walls round about: and he carved and engraved upon them Cherubim, and palm trees within and without (he did not say on the sides, but round about), and besides these, oxen, and lions, and pomegranates. Would it not, then, be much more honorable to adorn all the walls of God’s house with the figures and images of the saints, than with those of animals and trees? Where then is the law that commands: “Thou shalt not make any likeness”? Yet Solomon, having received the effluence of wisdom, while he was establishing an image of heaven, made the likenesses of Cherubim, and ions, and oxen, though the law forbids this. But if we are picturing Christ, and also making the images of the saints, is this not altogether more pious, since they are filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit? For just as then the people and the temple were cleansed by the blood and ashes of a heifer, so now they are cleansed by the blood of Christ, who bore witness before Pontius Pilate and offered Himself as the first-fruits of the martyrs, and furthermore by the blood of the saints, upon whom the Church is built. And then indeed, the temple of God was adorned with the forms and figures of irrational things; but now, with the images of the saints, who have made themselves animate and rational temples of God.

21. Wherefore, we set forth Christ the King and Lord in such a way that we do not strip Him of His army. For the saints are the army of the Lord. ^B Let the earthly emperor first strip himself of his own army, before he dares to strip his King and Lord. Let him lay aside the purple, and then let him take away the veneration of those who have struggled bravely against the tyrant and have ruled over their own passions. For if they are heirs of God, and fellow-heirs of Christ, and are destined to be partakers of the divine glory and kingdom, in that they have shared the sufferings of Christ, what forbids that the friends of Christ should also be partakers of His glory on earth? “I will not call you servants,” says God, “but friends. You are my friends.” Shall we then deny them the honor which the Church has granted them? O audacious hand! O temerarious mind, which contends against God and opposes His commands! You who refuse to adore an image, do not even worship the Son of God, who is the living image of the invisible God, and an unchanging character. I adore the image of Christ, as He is God incarnate: [I adore the image] of the Mistress of all, the Theotokos, as she is the Mother of the Son of God: [I adore the images] of the saints, as friends of God, who have resisted sin unto the shedding of blood, and in pouring forth their blood for Christ have imitated Him, who had previously poured out His own blood for their sake; and [I adore the images] of those who, pressing in His footsteps, have ordered their lives according to them. These glorious deeds and torments, expressed in pictures, I set before my eyes, by which I am sanctified, and am enkindled with the desire for imitation. For he who ^D pays honor to the image, passes it on to the prototype, says the divine Basil.

^A If you erect temples to the saints of God, erect also their trophies. Formerly, no temple was erected in the name of men, nor was the death of the just celebrated with any feast, but was rather lamented. Whoever touched a dead body was considered unclean, even if it were Moses himself. But now, the memorial days of the saints are celebrated. The death of Jacob was mourned, but the death of Stephen is celebrated with a festival. ^B Either, therefore, do away with the festive memorials of the saints, conducted as they are contrary to the old law, or allow also the images, which—as you say—exist contrary to the law. But it is impossible not to celebrate the memorials of the saints; for the choir of the holy apostles and God-bearing Fathers commands these things to be done. For from the time that God the Word became flesh, having been made like us in all things apart from sin, and was joined to our nature without confusion, and divinized the flesh immutably, through the interpenetration [circumincessio] of His divinity and His flesh in one another, we have truly been sanctified. And from the time that the Son of God and God, who is impassible by His divinity, suffered in the assumed flesh and paid our debt, pouring out as a ransom for us a price sufficient and worthy of being admired—for the blood of the Son was acceptable to the Father and worthy of reverence—we have truly been set free. ^C And from the time that, having descended into Hades, He announced liberty to the souls bound since the ages as if they were captives, and sight to the blind, and having bound the Strong One, rose again through the power that surpasses all strength, having rendered incorrupt the flesh assumed by Him from us, we have truly been made incorrupt. From the time that we were generated through water and spirit, we have truly been adopted as sons and have become heirs of God. Hence, Paul calls the faithful "saints." From this, we do not mourn the death of the saints, but celebrate it. Hence, we are not under the law, but under grace, justified through faith, and knowing only God the true One; for the law is not laid down for the just. We are not under the elements of the law, enslaved like infants, but having been fashioned into a perfect man, we are fed with solid food, not that which leads to idolatry. ^D The law is good, like a lamp shining in a dark place, but only until the day dawns. And already the daystar has risen in our hearts, and the living water of the knowledge of God has covered the sea of the nations, and we all have known the Lord. "The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." The divine apostle Paul, therefore, says to Peter, the chief pinnacle of the apostles: "If you, being a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how do you compel the Gentiles to judaize?" And he writes to the Galatians: "I declare to every man who gets circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law."

^B Therefore, "formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods; but now that you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements?" I have seen the human form of God, and my soul has been saved. I behold the image of God, just as Jacob saw it, though in a different way and manner. For he, with the eyes of his mind, saw an image free from matter, which foretold the future; I, however, behold that which refreshes the memory of Him who was seen in the flesh. The shadow of the apostles, as well as their handkerchiefs and aprons, drove away diseases and put demons to flight; and shall the shadow and image of the saints not be honored? Either forbid the veneration of everything that consists of matter, or do not introduce anything new, nor move the ancient boundaries which your fathers have set.

23. For not only have they laid down the laws of the Church in writing, but also certain things without writing. Whence Basil, in the twenty-seventh of those thirty chapters which he wrote to Amphilochius concerning the Holy Spirit, ^C says in express words: "Of the dogmas and proclamations which are kept in the Church, some we have from written instruction, others we have received transmitted to us in a mystery from the tradition of the apostles; both of which have the same strength for piety. And no one will gainsay these, at least no one who has even the slightest experience of the laws of the Church. For if we were to attempt to reject unwritten customs, as having no great power, we would unwittingly damage the Gospel in its vital parts." These are the words of the great Basil. For whence do we know the holy place of Calvary, the sepulcher of Life? Is it not because children received it from their parents without any Scripture teaching it? For indeed Scripture records that the Lord was crucified and buried in the tomb which Joseph had hewn in the rock. But that these are the very places before which we now fall down in worship, we know from unwritten tradition, and many things similar to these. Whence do we have it that baptism is performed with a triple immersion? Whence that we pray facing the East? Whence the institution of the sacraments? Therefore the divine apostle Paul says: ^D "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by our word or by our letter." Since, then, so many and such great things have been transmitted to us without writing, which have been observed to this very day, why do you cavil at the images?

24. Indeed, the usages you bring forward do not teach that the veneration of our images is to be abhorred, but rather that of those which the Gentiles set up for themselves. It is not right, therefore

that the religious worship of our own people should be abolished ^A because the Gentiles abuse images in a way that is contrary to all law. Exorcists and tricksters use adjurations; but the Church also adjures the catechumens. Yet they invoke demons, while the Church invokes God against the demons. The Gentiles consecrate images to demons, and these they name as gods; we, however, consecrate them to the true God who took on flesh, and likewise to the servants and friends of God, by whom the swarms and ranks of demons are put to flight.

25. But if you say that divine and admirable Epiphanius openly forbade images, ^B first I would respond that this little book is supposititious and faked, because although it was produced by another, it was inscribed with the name of someone else: a thing which many were accustomed to do. Secondly, just as we know that the blessed Athanasius forbade the bodies of the saints to be hidden in caskets, and instead commanded that they be covered with earth, because he wished to abolish the inconsistent custom of the Egyptians, who did not bury their own dead in the ground but laid them out on beds and couches; so4 perhaps the great Epiphanius (if indeed he is the genuine author of this little book) may have decided that images should not be made ^C in order to correct such a thing. That Epiphanius was not of this opinion, such that he wished them to be entirely removed, is testified to by the very Church of Epiphanius itself, which to this day of ours is decorated everywhere with images. Thirdly and finally, that which is done by a few and rarely does not have the force of law in the Church. For, as it pleases Gregory the Theologian, "one swallow does not make spring"; nor can the opinion of one man carry such weight that it could overturn the tradition of the whole Church, ^D which is spread from one end of the earth to the other.

26. Accept, then, this swarm of testimonies from the Scriptures and the Fathers, so that even if the Scripture says: "The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold, the work of human hands," it by no means forbids that adoration be offered to inanimate things, or to those crafted by the labor of hands, but only to the idols of demons.

27. Indeed, that prophets have adored angels, and men, and kings, and even if they be impious, and even a staff, this has already been proven. David furthermore says: "Adore his footstool." And Isaiah says in the person of God: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool of my feet." Moreover, that heaven and earth are created things is a matter of doubt to no one.

it is. Indeed, even Moses himself and Aaron worshipped things fashioned by hands. For Paul, the golden cicada of the Church, writing to the Hebrews, says: "Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building" ^A. And again: "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself" 94. The former holy things, therefore, both the tabernacle and all that was contained therein, were made by hands. And that those things were worshipped, no one will deny.

Testimonies of the ancient and approved Holy Fathers regarding icons.

Of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, from the Epistle to Titus.

"It will therefore be worthwhile for us ourselves, setting aside the vulgar opinion regarding these things, to penetrate with holiness and religion into the symbols themselves, and to offer no reproach to them ^B, inasmuch as they draw their origin from divine forms, and are express and manifest images of arcanum and more sublime spectacles."

Commentary.

Of the Same, from the book De Divinis Nominibus (ch. 1).

"We have been taught this: that while now, according to our capacity, the humanity of the divine oracles and of the teachings handed down by the sacred prelates wraps the intelligible in sacred veils, and covers the superessential with the sensible, and clothes those things which lack species and form with forms and figures, and renders the simplicity which is above nature and devoid of all figure ^C, by the variety of divisible symbols, manifold and shaped."

Commentary.

Of the Same, from the book De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia (ch. 1).

"Moreover, those substances and orders above us, of which I have already made sacred mention ^D, are incorporeal: and indeed their sacred spiritual instruction exists as more brilliant and pure. Our own, however, according to our capacity...

are led by the variety of sensible signs—by means of which, as sacred hierarchy ^A befits, we are raised up toward the uniform grace of divinity granted to us in accordance with our measure, and toward God and divine virtue. They, indeed, as minds, understand as much as is permitted to them; we, however, are advanced by sensible images toward divine contemplations, as far as is possible.

Commentary

An ancient narrative has reached even us; it is said that Abgar, king of Edessa, having heard the reports concerning the Lord, and being kindled with divine fire, sent emissaries ^B to invite Him to visit him. But if He should refuse to do so, he ordered them to express His likeness through the work of a painter. When He, to whom nothing is hidden and who can do all things, knew this, He took a cloth, applied it to His own face, and impressed upon it His very own likeness, which is preserved unharmed to this very day.

From Saint Basil, from the discourse on the holy martyr Barlaam, the beginning of which is: *Primum quidem sanctorum mors.*

Rise now, most excellent painters of athletic deeds, and with the ornaments of your craft complete the imperfect image of the leader, and illustrate with the colors of your skill the victor I have but obscurely depicted. I shall depart defeated by your painting of the martyr’s noble exploits; may I rejoice today in being surpassed by the victory won for you by your own dexterity. Let me see the hand fighting against the fire more accurately delineated by you; in your panel, let me behold the prize-fighter more elegantly described. Let demons mourn, struck with terror by the martyr’s strenuously performed deeds represented by you; let the burning, victorious hand be displayed to them once again. Moreover, let Christ, the judge of the contests, be painted upon the same tablet, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. ^C

From the same, from the thirty chapters addressed to Amphilochius concerning the Holy Spirit, from chapter 18.

"That the image of the king is also called king, and yet there are not two kings. For neither is the empire divided, nor is the glory partitioned. For just as the ruling power and authority over us is one, so also the doxology from us is one and not multiple, because the honor of the image passes over to the prototype. Therefore, what here is an image by imitation, that there is the Son by nature; and just as in the case of man-made things, according to the form ^D

^A in which the likeness consists, so in the divine and uncompounded nature, the union is situated in the communion of the Godhead. ≫

Commentary.

From the sermon of Saint Basil on Saint Gordius the Martyr.

produces something like a light for those who are being saved so that they may walk toward life. ^A And again: "Wherefore, when we narrate the lives of those who have been distinguished in piety, we first honor the Master in his servants; then we honor the righteous by testifying to those things which we have learned; finally, we gladden the peoples while they hear these excellent things."

Comment. See how the commemoration of the saints procures both glory for God, and praise for them, and finally joy and salvation for the people. Why then do you strive to take it away? But that the memory of the saints is celebrated through speech and through images, the same divine Basil affirms.

From the same holy man, on the martyr Gordius. "For just as light follows fire of its own accord, and a sweet odor follows perfume, so also does utility necessarily follow right actions. Although even this is no small thing, to attain diligently to the truth of those things that happened then. For a dim memory comes down to us, by which the noble deeds of the men in the struggles are preserved; and to us there seems to happen in a certain way what happens to painters. For ^B since they draw images from images, it is very likely that they fall short of the archetypes. And we, too, being left behind from the sight of the events, incur no small danger of diminishing the truth."

At the end of the same discourse. "For just as, though we see the sun always, we always admire it, so for us the memory of that man is always fresh."

Comment. It is evident that we see him always, both through speech and through images.

And in the discourse on the most precious Forty Martyrs, he says these things: "Of the memory of the martyrs, what satiety could there be for one who loves the martyrs? For the honor which we show to our fellow-servants is proof of the benevolence which they show toward the common Master." And again: "Bless those who have witnessed sincerely, ^C that you also may become a martyr by choice, and come forth without persecution, without fire, without scourges, deemed worthy of the same praises as they."

Comment. Why then do you deter me from honoring the saints, and why do you begrudge me salvation? Now, that he considers the form expressed in colors to be akin to that which is depicted in speech, hear him affirming it after a few words.

Basil. "Come then, bringing them into our midst through some commemoration, and displaying the strenuous deeds of the men to the eyes of all, as in a painting, let us procure common utility for those present."

Comment. Do you see that both sermon and image confer the same thing? For he says: ^D "As if in a painting, let us display them in our discourses." And he adds shortly after:

^A "For deeds done bravely in war are frequently explained by orators and signified by painters; the former adorn them with words, while the latter engrave them on tablets, and both have stirred many to bravery. For what the speech of history sets forth through the hearing, this the art of painting silently displays through imitation."

Comment. By what words, I ask, could it be more clearly demonstrated that for the illiterate, images act as books, and as by no means silent heralds of the glory of the saints; for they teach those who look upon them with a certain silent voice, and reconcile their vision to holiness? When books are not available to me, and I cannot find leisure for reading, being pricked by the stings of my thoughts just as if by thorns, I go to the Church, the common dispensary of souls: the flowers of the paintings stir my gaze, delighting my vision like a meadow, and stealthily instill the glory of God into my spirit. I contemplate the constancy of the martyr and the rewards of his crowns; and falling to the ground, I adore God through the martyr and become a partaker of salvation. Do you not hear that same God-bearing Father, when saying in the discourse he wrote for the beginning of the Psalms, that "the Holy Spirit, because the human race is intractable and sluggish toward virtue, infused the charm of melody into the modulation of the Psalms"? What are you saying? Shall I in no way depict, neither in words nor in colors, the martyrdom of the saints? ^B Shall I not embrace with my lips and eyes that which the angels and the whole of creation admire; which, as that same star of the Church says, is bitter to the devil and strikes terror into his demons? Yet similar to these, absolutely, are the things he utters toward the end of his oration, in which he discourses upon the forty martyrs: "O holy choir! O sacred cohort! O inexpugnable phalanx! O common guardians of the human race, best companions of our cares, helpers of our prayers, most eloquent intercessors, stars of the world, flowers of the Churches—flowers, I say, equally delightful to the mind and the senses. The earth did not bury you, but heaven received you. The gates of paradise opened for you; you have become a spectacle worthy of the host of angels, worthy of patriarchs, prophets, and the just."

Comment. By what reasoning should I not desire to behold that which the angels long to see? In harmony with these things, his brother and like-minded associate, Gregory, the bishop of the Nyssaeans, also speaks. ^C

Of Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, from the Supplement, that is to say, from the book On the Structure of Man (Chap. 4).

"Just as it is established in human custom that those who fashion the images of emperors, in the first place, express the likeness of their form, and clothe ^D them in the royal purple..."

and attribute to them the royal dignity, so that the image is also accustomed to be called "king"; so too human nature, since it was fashioned with the intent that it should rule over other things, was erected as a kind of animate image, and, having been made a sharer in the primal archetype, also obtained the name of its dignity. ^A

From the same, from the fifth chapter of the same book.

"Divine beauty is not illuminated by any shape or by the grace of form through any elegance of color; rather, it is contemplated in an ineffable blessedness in a most excellent way. Just as, therefore, painters transcribe the forms of men onto tablets by means of certain colors, applying the proper and appropriate tints with the art of imitation, so that through the assimilation of the exemplar, the likeness of the archetype may be accurately represented." ^B

Commentary. Observe that divine beauty is not illuminated by any shape or by the grace of color, and for this reason it is not depicted; but the human form is transferred onto tablets by means of colors. Therefore, if the Son of God has come in the form of a man, taking the form of a servant, and having been made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man, how will he not be depicted? And if, according to custom, it is said that "the image of the emperor is the emperor," and the honor of the image passes to the archetype, as the divine Basil says, how will the image not be honored and venerated? Not as God, but as the image of God who has assumed flesh. ^C

From the same, from an oration delivered in Constantinople concerning the divinity of the Son and of the Spirit, and concerning Abraham.

"Then the father first takes the son, bound with fetters. I have often seen the image of this bitter event depicted, and I could never refrain from tears, as the art clearly unfolded the deed before my eyes. Isaac is represented lying near the altar itself, on bended knee, and with his hands bound behind him. The father, standing behind the son’s knees, and having grasped his hair with his left hand, pulling it toward himself, casts his eyes down upon the face of the son, who is looking back at him in a manner truly worthy of pity, and directs his right hand, armed with the sword, for the slaughter. And already the edge of the sword touches the body, when a voice from God is heard, forbidding the deed." ^D

From Saint John Chrysostom, from the commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews.

"And how the first is an image of the second—Melchizedek, that is, of Christ—just as one might say a shadow of the

^A sketch in colors. For this reason the Law is called a shadow, and grace the truth; but the things to come [belong to] the sketch in colors. Therefore, the Law and Melchizedek are a foreshadowing of the sketch in colors, while grace and truth are the sketch in bodies; but the things themselves are [of] the future age. So that the Old Testament is a figure of a figure, but the New is a figure of the things themselves."

From Leontius, Bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus, from the book Against the Jews; that it is permitted to adore the Cross of Christ, and the images of the saints, and one another; and concerning the relics of the saints.

"But if you again reproach me, O Jew, by saying that I adore the wood of the Cross as God, why do you not reproach Jacob, who adored the top [of his] staff? But it is clear that he did not adore the wood in honor [of it], but through the wood he adored Joseph; just as we also, through the Cross, adore Christ, but do not honor the wood."

Commentary.

Again from the same Leontius: "Since even Abraham ^B adored those from whom he bought the sepulcher, however impious men they might be, with his knees placed upon the earth; and likewise Jacob blessed Pharaoh, although he was impious and an idolater—yet he did not bless him as God. And again, he bowed down and adored Esau, but he did not adore him as God. And again, how does God command you to adore both the earth and the mountains? For He says: 'Exalt the Lord our God, and adore at his holy mountain.' And 'Adore the footstool of his feet, for it is holy,' that is to say, the earth. 'For heaven is my throne,' He says, 'but the earth is the footstool of my feet,' says the Lord. And how did Moses adore Jethro, although he was an idolater, and Daniel [adore] Nebuchadnezzar? How do you reproach me because I honor and adore those who have honored ^C God? Is it not better, tell me, to adore the saints, and not, as you are accustomed, to pelt them with stones? Is it not better to adore them and not to saw them with saws, and to cast those who have showered you with their benefits into a pit of mire? Truly, if you had loved God, you would certainly have honored His servants. And if the bones of the just are impure, why were the bones of Jacob and Joseph carried with all reverence out of Egypt? By what manner was a dead man, having touched the bones of Elisha, ^D immediately raised to life? But if He works miracles through bones—"

^A it is evident that He can do so also through images, and stones, and many other things, just as happened in the case of Elisha, who gave his own staff to his servant, and said that by it he should go and raise up the son of the Shunamite. And Moses, with a rod, punished Pharaoh, and divided the sea, and sweetened the water, and broke the rock, and brought forth water. And Solomon says: "Blessed is the wood whereby justice cometh." Elisha, by casting wood into the Jordan, brought up the iron; and there is the wood of life, and the plant of Sabec, that is to say, of remission. And Moses, by wood, lifted up the serpent, and gave life to the people; and by wood budding in the tabernacle, he confirmed the priesthood to Aaron. But perhaps you will say to me, O Jew, that all things which were in the tabernacle of testimony, God commanded Moses to make. And I say to you, that Solomon made many and various things in the temple, carved and cast, which even God did not command him to make, nor were they in the tabernacle of testimony, nor in that temple which God showed to Ezekiel, and yet Solomon was not condemned for this; for he made such forms to the glory of God, just as we do also. You too used to have many and various images and signs as reminders of God, before you were deprived of them on account of the vice of your ungrateful mind: namely, the rod of Moses, the God-inscribed ^B tablets, the dew-burning bush, the dry rock that gave forth water, the manna-bearing ark, the fire-receiving altar, the God-named plate, the God-manifesting Ephod, the God-overshadowing tabernacle. And if you used to overshadow all these by night and by day, saying: "Glory be to Thee, O only almighty God, who through all these things hast wrought wonders in Israel," if indeed, through all these things of the Law which you once kept, as you fell down you worshipped God, you see that through images, adoration is directed to God. And after a few words: "For if a man loves with sincere affection a friend or an emperor, and especially one who is a benefactor, even if he sees his son, or his staff, or his throne, or his crown, or his house, or his servant, he holds them fast, and embraces, and honors the benefactor, the emperor; how much more so God? Would that, I say again, you had also made Mosaic and prophetic images, ^C and every day worshipped the Lord God of them. When, therefore, you see the children of the Christians worshipping the cross, know that it is to the crucified Christ that they offer their worship." ^D

not to the wood. For if they were to worship the material of wood, they ought to worship groves and trees just as you, O Israel, once worshipped them, when you addressed the tree and the stone with these words: "You are my God, and you have given birth to me." ^A We, however, do not address the cross or the images of the saints with such words. For they are not our gods, but rather open books which are displayed and venerated in the churches, that by the sight of them we may be mindful of God and venerate Him. For he who honors the martyr honors God, to whom the martyr has borne witness; he who venerates the apostle of Christ venerates Him who sent him. And he who falls down in veneration before the Mother of Christ, it is manifest that he is offering honor to her Son. For there is no God but one, who is known and worshipped in the Trinity. ^B

Commentary.

From the sermon of Severianus, bishop of Gabala, on the dedication of the Cross.

"How did the image of the accursed thing bring life to our forefathers?" And after a few words: "How then did the image of the accursed thing bring salvation to the people laboring in distress? Would it not have been more plausible to say: 'If any of you is bitten, let him look to heaven, up to God, and he shall be saved,' or to the tabernacle of God? But he, passing these by, set up only the image of the cross. ^C Why, then, did Moses do these things, he who had said a little before to the people: 'You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor a molten one, nor any likeness of those things which are in heaven above, or those which are in the earth below, or those which are in the waters, underneath the earth'? But why do I say these things to an ungrateful people? Explain, I pray, O most faithful minister of God: what you forbid, do you perform? What you tear down, do you set up? You who command, 'You shall not make for yourself a graven image,' you who ground the molten calf to powder, do you yourself fashion a serpent of bronze? And this not secretly, but openly and manifest to all? But those things, he says, I legislated in order that I might cut off the materials of impiety, and recall the people from all apostasy and idolatry; but now, I fashion the serpent profitably, for the prefiguring of the truth. ^D And just as I constructed the tabernacle, and all things that are therein, and stretched out the Cherubim, referring to the likeness of invisible things, to cast a shadow of holy things as a type and shadow of things to come, so also I set up the serpent for the salvation of the people, that by the experience of these things…

they might be made more apt to receive the image of the Cross, and the crucified Savior and Redeemer. But that you may perceive this to be most true, dearly beloved, hearken to Christ asserting this and speaking in these words: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but have life everlasting" (John 3:14). ^B

Commentary. Observe what he has said: that the commandment was given so that there might be no resemblance, in order that the people might be called away from the worship of idols, to which they were most prone, and that the lifted-up serpent has existed as an image of the Lord's passion!

That the invention of images is not something new, but ancient, and known and customary to the holy and eminent Fathers, I would have you hear. It is written in the Life of blessed Basil, written by Helladius, his disciple and successor in the episcopal see, that the holy man once stood before the image of our Lady, in which also the figure of the most praiseworthy martyr Mercurius was depicted. He stood there praying that Julian the impious apostate tyrant might be removed from the midst. And from that image he learned what was to happen. For he saw the martyr vanish from his eyes for a short time, and not long after, holding a bloody spear.

Excerpts from the Life of Saint John Chrysostom, where these things are written word for word: ^C

"Blessed John read the Epistles of the most wise Paul with the greatest zeal." And a little later: "He also had the effigy of the same apostle Paul depicted in an image, in that place where he used to rest for a little while on account of his bodily infirmity. For he used to prolong his vigils beyond what nature allows. Gazing upon this image while he read the Epistles of Paul, he would fix his eyes upon it so intent, that, praising the blessed one and representing him to himself, he would direct his whole thought to him, and converse with him through contemplation." And after a few words: "But when Proclus had finished speaking, having fixed his eyes upon the image of Paul, and having seen a figure similar to him whom he had seen, showing his salutation to John, pointing out the image with his finger, he said: 'Forgive me, Father; he whom I saw speaking with you is entirely similar to this one, and, as I believe, it is he himself.'"

In the Life of Saint Eupraxia, it is written that she who was in charge of the flock showed her the image of our Lord.

^A In the Life of Saint Mary of Egypt, it is read that she prayed before the image of our Lady, and asked her to be her surety, and thus obtained entry into the temple.

From the Pratum (ch. 45) of our holy Father Sophronius, Archbishop of Jerusalem

• Abba Theodore the Aeliote related that there was a certain recluse on the Mount of Olives, a man greatly practiced in spiritual warfare, whom the demon of fornication was attacking. One day, when the demon was pressing him very hard, the old man began to lament, and he spoke to the demon: "How long will you not cease vexing me? Depart from me now; you have grown old with me." The demon, revealing himself to him visibly, said: "Swear to me that you will tell no one what I am about to say to you, and I will no longer war against you." The old man swore to him, on Him who inhabits the highest places: "I will tell no one at all what you say to me." Immediately the demon said, "Do not adore this image, and I will no longer war against you." Now that image displayed the likeness of our Lady, the holy Mary, the Theotokos, carrying our Lord Jesus Christ. The recluse said to the demon, "Leave me, I will consider it." ^B The next day, therefore, he informed Abba Theodore the Aeliote, who was living at that time in the Laura of Pharan, and he came and described everything to him. ^C The old man said to the recluse, who was truly an abba: "You have been deceived, in that you swore to the demon; yet you did well to speak out. For it is better for you not to leave a single brothel in the city unvisited, than to deny the adoration of our Lord and God Jesus Christ with His own Mother." Having thus strengthened him and encouraged him with many words, he departed to his own place. The demon appeared again to the recluse and said to him: "What is this, you wicked old man? Did you not swear to me that you would tell no one? And how did you tell everything to the one who came to you? I tell you, you wicked one, that you are to be judged as a perjurer on the day of judgment." The recluse answered him, saying: "That I swore, I did swear; and that I have perjured myself, I know; but I will not listen to you."

Commentary

have been granted by God to Christians, who have shone forth in wisdom, religion, doctrine, and holiness, and since many councils have been celebrated by holy and God-inspired Fathers, what reason is there that no one of them dared to do such a thing? We will not suffer a new faith to be taught. "For out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," ^A as the Holy Spirit said through the prophet. We will not suffer ourselves to think other things at other times, and to be changed according to the times, and for the faith to become a mockery and a subject of derision to those outside. We will not suffer ourselves to bow to an imperial decree that attempts to overthrow the custom of the Fathers. For it is not the part of pious emperors to overthrow ecclesiastical institutions. These things do not savor of ancestral piety; for those things which are done by force and not by free persuasion are predatory. The council held for the second time at Ephesus, which to this day retains the name of "Robber Synod," ^B bears witness to this, in that the emperor's hand exerted force upon it, when the blessed martyr Flavian was killed. To decide anything about these matters does not belong to emperors, but to councils; as the Lord said: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." ^C Christ did not give the power of binding and loosing to kings, but to apostles, and their successors, and to pastors, and teachers. "Even if an angel," says the apostle Paul, "preaches to you anything other than what you have received"—and we will remain silent on what follows, out of mercy, awaiting their conversion. But if we see the perversion to be incorrigible, which may the Lord forbid, then we will pronounce the rest; but we pray that this may not happen.

If anyone enters a house in which a painter has depicted on the walls the history of Moses and Pharaoh, and someone should happen to ask about those who walked through the sea as if on dry land, "Who are these?" what will you answer when asked? "Are they not the sons of Israel?" "Who is he who strikes the sea with his staff?" "Is it not Moses?" In the same way, if anyone depicts Christ crucified and it is asked of him, "Who is this?" he will answer, "Christ, our God, who was incarnate for our sake." Yes, O Master, we adore all that is thine, and with longing we embrace thy Divinity, thy power, thy goodness, thy mercy toward us, thy condescension, and thy incarnation. And just as we fear to touch white-hot iron, not because of the nature of the iron, but because of the fire united to it, so I adore thy flesh, not because of the nature of the flesh, but because of the divinity united to it according to hypostasis ^D. We adore thy sufferings. Who has ever seen death adored? Who has considered sufferings worthy of worship? Nevertheless, in truth, we adore the bodily death of my God, and the saving sufferings; we adore thine image, and all that is thine: thy servants, thy friends, and before all others, thy Mother, the Theotokos.

^A We also beseech the people of God, that holy nation, to hold fast to ecclesiastical traditions. For the gradual removal of that which has been handed down is like pulling stones from a building; it quickly brings the whole structure toppling down. May God grant that we remain firm, stable, and immovable, founded upon the solid rock which is Christ, to whom belongs glory, honor, and adoration, with the Father and the Spirit, now and always, unto the endless ages of ages. Amen.

OF SAINT JOHN OF DAMASCUS

SECOND ORATION

AGAINST THOSE WHO REJECT THE HOLY IMAGES

1. Grant pardon to one who asks it, my masters, and receive this word of explanation from me, the useless and least of the servants of the Church of God. For I have not set forth to speak out of a desire for glory or vanity—God is my witness—but from zeal for the truth. For I possess Him alone as the hope of my salvation, and I desire and pray to meet Christ the Master alongside Him, offering Him this as an expiation for the sins I have wrongly committed. For he who had received five talents from the Master brought back another five which he had gained; and he who had received two brought back as many. But he who had received one, having buried it in the ground and having brought it forth without profit, was called a wicked servant and was cast into the outer darkness. Fearing lest this might befall me, I obey the Master’s command, and I entrust to you, the prudent bankers, the talent of discourse which has been committed to me by Him, so that when my Lord comes, He may find it multiplied, bearing the interest of souls, and, finding me a faithful servant, may bring me into His longed-for and most sweet joy. Therefore, lend me your attentive ears, and opening wide the tables of your hearts, receive my discourse and sincerely weigh the power of what is said. I have composed this second discourse concerning the images. For some of the children and alumni of the Church suggested to me that I do this, because many had not sufficiently grasped the meaning of the first; and for this, I ask your pardon, as I am merely fulfilling the duties of obedience. ^{B C}

ORATIO II

^A 2. It is the custom, beloved, of the envious and archetypal-evil serpent—I mean the devil—to attack in many ways man, who was fashioned in the image of God, and to work his death through contrary arts. For in the very beginning, he sowed in him the hope and desire of becoming like God, and through this, he drew him down into the death of brute beasts; nay more, he frequently lured him with shameful and irrational pleasures. And how great is the difference between divinization and irrational desire! At times he led him into atheism, as the God-inspired David says: "The fool has said in his heart: There is no God." At other times he led him into polytheism; and sometimes he persuaded him not to worship even the God who is God by nature, but at other times to worship demons—and furthermore, the heaven and the earth, the sun and the moon, the stars, and the rest of creation, even down to beasts and creeping things. ^B For it is equally grievous, both not to offer the honor due to those worthy of honor, and to offer to the unworthy the honor that is not appropriate, and to attribute to them excessive glory. Again, he taught some to say that evil is co-eternal with God. And he deceived others into confessing that the God who is good by nature is the author of evil. And some he led into error by foolishly saying there is one nature and one hypostasis of the Godhead; while others he corrupted to worship three natures and three hypostases unlawfully; and to some he suggested that they glorify one hypostasis and one nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one of the holy Trinity, while to others he suggested two natures and two hypostases of the same.

3. But the truth, walking the middle path, rejects all these absurdities and teaches us to confess one God, one nature in three hypostases—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and it says that evil is not a substance, but an accident, or a certain thought, word, and action departing from the law of God, having its existence in its being thought, spoken, and practiced, and vanishing as soon as it ceases. Moreover, it proclaims that Christ, one of the holy Trinity, consists of two natures and is one hypostasis. ^C

4. But the enemy of the truth, the demon who is the foe of human salvation, and who, having frequently deceived not only the Gentiles but also the children of Israel into making images of corruptible men, birds, quadrupeds, and creeping things, and worshipping them as gods, now strives to disturb the Church of Christ which is enjoying tranquil peace, by means of unrighteous lips and a deceitful tongue, seasoning wickedness with divine words, and attempting to cover over its ugly and dark form, ^D and to shake the hearts of the unstable from the true and traditionally-received custom. For some have arisen saying that the saving miracles of Christ, and the heroic deeds of the saints, should not be depicted or set forth for contemplation, glory, wonder, and emulation, which we might look upon and venerate.

^A And who that is imbued with divine knowledge and spiritual understanding does not recognize that this is a suggestion of the devil? For he does not wish his own defeat and disgrace to be publicly displayed, nor the glory of God and His saints to be recorded in writing.

5. If, indeed, we were making an image of the invisible God, we would truly be sinning. For it is impossible for the incorporeal, invisible, uncircumscribed, and shapeless to be depicted. And again, if we were making images of men and considering them to be gods, and worshipping them as gods, we would indeed be acting impiously. But we do nothing of the sort. For since God was made flesh, and appeared on earth in the flesh, and lived among men because of His ineffable goodness, and took on our nature, and the density of the flesh, and its form, and its color, we do not err when we make His image. For we desire to see His figure. For as the divine Apostle says: ^B "For now we see through a glass in a dark manner." And the image is also a glass and a dark manner, fitting for the slowness of our body. For the mind, laboring much, is unable to pass beyond corporeal things.

6. Away with you, envious devil! You envy us the sight of the likeness of our Lord, through which we may attain holiness; that we may look upon His saving sufferings, wonder at His condescension, contemplate His miracles, and praise the power of His divinity. You envy the saints the honor given to them by God. You do not wish us to see their glory recorded, and to become emulators of their courage and faith. We will not obey you, ^C envious demon and hater of mankind. Hear, O peoples, tribes, tongues, men, women, children, elders, youths, and infants, the holy nation of the Christians: if anyone preaches to you anything other than what the Catholic Church has received from the holy Apostles, Fathers, and councils, and has guarded until this day, do not listen to him, nor accept the persuasion of the serpent, as Eve once accepted it, from which she incurred death. Even if an angel, even if an emperor, preaches to you anything other than what you have received, close your ears. For as for the time being, I hesitate to say what the divine Apostle said, "Let him be anathema," ^D awaiting his correction.

7. But those who do not search the meaning of the Scripture object that God commanded through Moses the lawgiver: "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath." And through the prophet David: "Let all them be confounded that adore graven things, and that glory in their idols," and many other things similar to these. For whatever they bring forward from the divine Scripture or from the holy Fathers is to be understood in the same way.

8. What then do we say to these things? What else, but what was said by the Lord to the Jews: "Search the Scriptures"?

"? ^A For the searching of the Scriptures is commendable. But here, beloved, pay careful attention. It is impossible for God to lie. For there is one God, one Lawgiver of the Old and New Testaments, who long ago spoke in many ways and in many forms to the fathers through the prophets, and in these last days in His only-begotten Son. Apply your mind with precision; these are not my words, but what the Holy Spirit pronounced through the holy Apostle: "God who long ago spoke in many ways and in many forms to the fathers in the prophets." See that God spoke in many ways and in many forms. For just as a skilled physician does not give the same kind of remedy to all, nor always, but provides medicine to each according to their constitution, while distinguishing also the region, and the disease, and the time, and the age; and to the infant he gives one thing, to the man advanced in age another; a different thing to the sick and another to the healthy; and to each of the sick, not the same thing, but according to their constitution and the disease; and another thing in summer, ^B and another in winter, in autumn and in spring, and in each place according to the suitability of the place; so also the best physician of souls, to those who were still infants and suffering from the disease of idolatry, and who considered idols as gods, and worshipped them as gods themselves, and neglected the worship of God, and transferred His glory to the creation, forbade them to do this. For of God, who is incorporeal, and invisible, and immaterial, and possesses neither form, nor limitation, nor comprehensibility, it is impossible to make an image. For how can that which does not fall under sight be iconized? "No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." And, "No one shall see My face, and live," said God. ^C

8. That they worshipped the idols as gods, hear what the Scripture says in Exodus, when Moses went up to mount Sinai and lingered in attendance upon God to receive the law, when the ungrateful people rose up against Aaron, the servant of God, saying: "Make us gods, who will go before us. For as for this man Moses, we do not know what has happened to him." Then, when they took away the finery of their women, and cast it, and they ate, and drank, and became drunk from both wine and error, ^D and began to play, saying in their folly: "These are your gods, O Israel." Do you see that they had as gods the idols, which were the dwelling places of demons? And that they served the creature rather than the Creator? Just as the divine Apostle also says: "Who exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds and four-footed animals and reptiles, and worshipped the***

servient created things rather than the Creator. For this reason, God forbade the making of any likeness, as Moses says in Deuteronomy: "And the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of the words, but you saw no likeness, only a voice." ^A And a little later: "And keep your souls very carefully, for you saw no likeness on the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb, in the mountain from the midst of the fire; lest you act against the law, and make for yourselves a carved likeness, every image, a likeness of male or female, a likeness of any beast that is on the earth, a likeness of any winged bird," etc. And with a few words interposed: "And lest perhaps, lifting up your eyes to heaven, and seeing the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and all the host of heaven, you be deceived by error and adore them, and serve them." ^B You see how his one intent was this, namely, that the creature might not be served rather than the Creator, and that the worship of latria might be rendered to no one but God, the creator of all things. Therefore, he joins latria with adoration. And again he says: "There shall be no other gods for you besides me. You shall not make for yourself a graven thing, nor any likeness." And again: "You shall not make for yourself molten gods." Do you not see that it is for the sake of avoiding idolatry that he forbids the fashioning of images, and because it is impossible for the image of God to be expressed, who is neither corporeal, nor visible, nor circumscribed? "For you did not see His form," he says. Just as Paul also, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: ^C "Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to imagine the divine to be like unto gold, or silver, or stone, by the sculpture of art and the imagination of man."

9. But that these things are so, listen: "You shall not make for your self a graven thing," he says, "nor any likeness." Although God had commanded this, yet afterwards it is read: "They made the curtain of the tabernacle of the testimony of hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twisted, and fine linen twisted, the woven work of Cherubim." And: "They made the propitiatory above the ark of pure gold, and the two Cherubim." What are you doing, Moses? You say: "You shall not make for yourself a graven thing, nor any likeness"; ^D why then do you nevertheless make a curtain, the woven work of the figures of Cherubim, and two Cherubim of pure gold? But listen to what God’s minister Moses answers you. O blind and foolish ones, perceive the power of the words, and guard your souls with diligent care. I said that you saw no likeness on the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, lest you should act against the law and make for yourselves a carved likeness: every image, and you shall not make for yourself molten gods. I did not say, "You shall not make images of Cherubim, as servants attending the propitiatory," but, "You shall not make for yourself molten gods," and

^A you shall not serve the creation rather than the Creator. Therefore, I have not made an image of God, nor indeed of anything else as God, nor have I served the creation rather than the Creator. So you also do the same.

10. Do you see how the purpose of Scripture is revealed to those who investigate with understanding? For one must know, beloved, that in every matter truth is sought, as well as falsehood, and the purpose of the one who does the thing, whether it is good or evil. For in the Gospel, both God, and angel, and man, and heaven, and earth, and water, and fire, and air, and sun, and moon, and stars, and light, and darkness, and Satan, and demons, and serpents, and scorpions, and death, and Hades, and virtues, and vices, and all things good and ^B evil are written down. But yet, since all that is said about them is true, and the purpose is for the glory of God and of the saints who are glorified by Him, and for our salvation, and for the overthrow and shame of the devil and his demons, we worship them, and we embrace them, and we kiss them, and we salute them with our eyes, and lips, and heart. In the same way, we treat both the whole Old and New Testament, and even the words of the holy and approved Fathers. But that shameful, and abominable, and unclean writing of the accursed Manichaeans and Greeks, and of the other heresies, containing as it does false and vain things, and devised for the glory ^C of the devil and his demons and for their joy, we spit upon and cast away, even though it may contain the name of God. Thus also in the matter of images, one must investigate the truth and the purpose of those who make them. And if it is true and right, and conducive to the glory of God and His saints, and to the zeal for virtue, and the avoidance of vice, and the salvation of souls, it is to be accepted and honored as images, and likenesses, and representations, and books for the illiterate, and we are to worship them, and kiss them, and salute them with eyes, and lips, and heart, as the likeness of God incarnate, or of His Mother, or of the saints who are partakers of the sufferings and of the glory ^D of Christ, and who are victors and overcomers of the devil and his demons and of their deceit.

11. But if anyone dares to make an image of the Godhead, which is immaterial, and incorporeal, and invisible, and formless, and colorless, we reject it as false. And if anyone makes one for the glory, and worship, and honor of the devil, or of demons, we spit upon it and consume it with fire. And if any of men, or birds, or reptiles, or of any other creation, should deify an image, we condemn him with anathema. For just as the holy Fathers pulled down the temples [col. 1294 ends here]

^A of the demons, and in their places built temples to the name of the saints, whom we worship, so also they pulled down the images of the demons, and in their place raised up images of Christ, and of the Theotokos, and of the saints. And in the Old Testament, Israel neither raised temples in the name of men, nor was the memorial of man celebrated. For human nature was still under a curse, and death was a condemnation and punishment, wherefore it was mourned; and the corpse of the deceased was considered unclean, as was he who touched it. But now, since the Godhead has been mixed with our nature, as a certain life-giving and saving medicine, our nature has been glorified and transmuted towards incorruption. Wherefore the death of the saints is celebrated, and temples are built to them, and images are painted. Let every man know, therefore, that he who attempts to pull down the image—which was formed out of divine zeal and passion to the glory and remembrance of Christ, or of His Mother the holy Theotokos, or of any of the saints, and for the shame and defeat of the devil and his demons—and does not rather honor, venerate, and kiss it as a precious image, and not as God, is an enemy of Christ and of the holy Theotokos and of the saints, and an advocate and patron of the devil and his demons; by his action showing his grief that God and His saints are honored and glorified, while the devil is put to shame. For the image is a certain triumph, and a manifestation, and a written monument to the memory of the victory of those who have excelled and shone forth, and of the shame of those ^B who were defeated and cast down.

12. It is not for emperors to legislate for the Church. What does the divine Apostle say? "And God has set some in the Church: first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the Church." He did not add, emperors. And again: "Obey those who have the rule over you, and submit yourselves. For they watch for your souls, as those that must give an account." And again: "Remember those who have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation." Emperors did not speak the word to us, but apostles and prophets, and pastors and teachers. When God commanded David to build Him a house, He said to him: "Thou shalt not build me a house, because thou art a man of blood." "Render to all their dues," the Apostle Paul cried out, "to whom tribute, tribute; to whom custom, custom; to whom fear, fear; to whom honor, honor." To emperors belongs the successful administration of public affairs; but the regulation of the Church belongs to pastors and teachers. Such an intrusion is a robbery, brethren. When Saul tore the mantle of Samuel, what happened to him? God tore his kingdom from him, and gave it to

the most mild David. Jezebel persecuted Elijah, and the sows and dogs licked her blood, ^A and the harlots washed themselves in it. Herod slew John, and being eaten of worms, gave up the ghost. And now the blessed Germanus, ^B resplendent in life and discourse, was buffeted and became an exile; and there are many other bishops and Fathers whose names we know not. Is this not a robbery? When the Scribes and Pharisees came to the Lord to tempt Him, to ensnare Him in His speech, and asked Him: "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" He answered them: "Show me the tribute money." And when they had shown it, He asked: "Whose image has it?" And upon their saying, "Caesar's," He replied: "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." We obey you, O Emperor, in the matters that pertain to the life of this world—in paying tributes, taxes, and duties, in those things where the administration of our affairs has been entrusted to you; but for ordering the things of the Church, we have pastors who speak the word to us and who have set down ecclesiastical legislation. We do not remove the ancient boundaries which our fathers have set; rather, we hold fast to the traditions, just as we have received them. For if we begin to tear down the building of the Church even in a small matter, the whole will little by little be dissolved.

^C 13. You vilify matter and call it ignoble; the Manichaeans do the same; but the divine Scripture proclaims it good. It says: "And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good." I, for my part, confess matter to be a work of God and good; but if you say it is evil, you must either acknowledge that it is not from God, or make God the author of evils. Consider, therefore, what the divine Scripture says concerning the matter you call ignoble: "And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying, Take from among you an offering unto the Lord; whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the Lord; gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet doubled, and fine...

twined linen, and goats' hair, and skins of rams dyed red, and hyacinthine skins, and incorruptible wood, and the oil for anointing, and the incense of the composition, and sardius stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastplate; and whosoever among you is wise in heart, let him come and make all that the Lord hath commanded, the tabernacle ^A, » etc.

14. Indeed, and matter is honored, which is despised by you. For what is more cheap than goats' hair or colors? Or are not scarlet, purple, and hyacinth colors? Lo, also the works of human hands and the likeness of Cherubim: and the whole tabernacle itself was an image. « For see, saith God to Moses, thou shalt make all things according to the pattern which was shown to thee in the mountain ^B. » And yet, it was worshipped round about by all Israel. And furthermore, were not the Cherubim before the eyes of the people? And the ark, and the lampstand, and the table, and the golden urn, and the rod, to which the people looking, worshipped? I do not worship matter, but I worship the Creator of matter, who for my sake became matter, and deigned to dwell in matter, and through matter brought about my salvation. « For the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us ^C. » It escapes no one that flesh is matter and a creature. I worship, therefore, matter, and I cherish it with reverence, and I worship that through which my salvation has come to pass. And I worship it, not as God, but as being full of divine energy and grace. Or is not the wood of the cross matter, the thrice-blessed and thrice-happy? Or is not matter the venerable and holy mountain, the place of Calvary? Or is not matter the life-bearing rock, the holy tomb, the fountain of our resurrection? Or is not matter the ink and the parchment of the Gospels? Or is not matter the life-giving table which provides us with the bread of life? Or is not matter the gold and the silver, from which crosses and holy plates and chalices are fashioned? Or is not matter, before all these, the body and blood of my Lord? Either remove the cult and adoration of all these, or concede to the tradition of the Church the worship of images, consecrated in the name of God and the friends of God, and for this reason overshadowed by the grace of the divine Spirit. But if you think that images are to be abolished on account of the commandment of the Law, then you must also observe the Sabbath and circumcision, which were commanded to you by the Law very strictly, and indeed keep the whole Law, and not celebrate the Lord's Pascha outside Jerusalem. But know this, that if you keep the Law, Christ will profit you nothing ^D. Now it also falls to you that you must take your brother's wife to raise up seed to your brother; and you must also abstain from singing the Lord's song in a strange land. But away with all these: « For whoever of you are justified by the Law, you have fallen from grace [Galat. v, 4]. »

^A 15. We paint Christ the King and Lord in such a way that we do not deprive Him of His army. For the saints are the army of the Lord. Let the earthly emperor first strip himself of his own army, before he dares to strip his own King and Lord. Let him lay aside his purple and his diadem, and then let him take away the honor from those who have fought strenuously against the tyrant—those who have, as it were, ruled over their own passions and disturbances. For if they are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, and partakers of the divine glory and the kingdom to come, why should not the friends of Christ be also partakers of His glory on earth? « I do not call you servants, » says God, « you are my friends. » Shall we then deprive them of the honor given to them by the Church? O audacious hand! O temerarious mind, which contradicts God and opposes His commands! If you refuse to venerate an image, then do not venerate the Son of God either, for He is the living image of the invisible God, and the unchangeable likeness of His substance. The temple which Solomon built was consecrated with the blood of beasts, and was adorned with figures of beasts, of lions, of oxen, and of palm trees and pomegranates. But now the Church is dedicated by the blood of Christ and His saints, and is adorned with the images of Christ and His saints. Either abolish the veneration of all images, or do not innovate, « nor remove the ancient landmarks which your fathers have set; » I do not mean those that were set before the coming in the flesh of Christ our God, but those that were established after His coming. For concerning the sanctions of the Old Testament, God complains, saying: « I gave them statutes that were not good, » because of the hardness of their heart. Wherefore, the priesthood being changed, it was necessary that a change of the law should take place ^B.

16. Moreover, the eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word handed down the ecclesiastical discipline not only by writing, but also by certain unwritten traditions. For whence do we know the holy place of Calvary? Whence do we know the tomb of life? Do we not receive it from fathers to children without writing? It is indeed written that the Lord was crucified in the place of Calvary, and that He was buried in a monument which Joseph hewed out of the rock. But that these are the very things which are now venerated, we know from unwritten tradition, and very many things similar to these. Whence comes the practice of baptizing to the third degree, that is, by three immersions? Whence the practice of praying toward the east? Whence the veneration of the cross? Is it not from unwritten tradition? Therefore the divine apostle Paul also says: « Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word ^C or by our epistle. » Since, therefore, many things are handed down to the Church without writing, and are observed to this very day, why do you quibble about the images? The Manichaeans wrote the Gospel according to Thomas; you also, write a Gospel according to Leo. I do not accept a king who tyrannically seizes the priesthood ^D.

^A I know the emperor Valens, who was called a Christian and persecuted the orthodox faith; I know Zeno, and Anastasius, and Heraclius, and that Constantine who died in Sicily, and Bardanisces, who is also called Philippicus. I do not allow the Church to be ordered by imperial decrees, but it is governed by the traditions of the Fathers, whether written or unwritten. For just as the Gospel was preached in the whole world in writing, so too was it delivered in the whole world without being written that the incarnate God, Christ, and the saints should be represented by images, ^B just as it was delivered that the Cross should be adored, and that, turning toward the East, we should pour forth our prayers.

17. Furthermore, the authorities you bring forward do not cast blame on the veneration of images as it is held by us, but they condemn the customs of the Greeks who worship these as gods. Therefore, one ought not, because of the perverse usage of the Greeks, abolish the pious institution of the Church. Conjurers and sorcerers use incantations, but the Church likewise exorcizes the catechumens; yet those invoke demons, whereas this one invokes God against demons. The Greeks sacrificed to demons, but Israel also offered blood and the savor of offerings to God. Even now, the Church offers an unbloody sacrifice to God. The nations consecrated statues to demons, but Israel also set up images for itself as gods for they said: "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." ^C But we dedicate images to the true God made flesh, and to the servants and friends of God, by whom the armies of demons are put to flight.

18. But if you mention the blessed Epiphanius [(14)], ^D and how it is that one can say that He who is incomprehensible, and beyond description, and beyond understanding, and uncircumscribed—whom even Moses was not able to gaze upon—ought to be depicted

^A openly to have condemned those of us here; know that that book is supposititious, and that it was falsely ascribed to Epiphanius by someone, as often happens in other cases. For that Father did not depart from the view of his colleagues: all, indeed, were partakers of one Holy Spirit. Let the church itself, adorned with images down to this present age, be a testimony—up to the time when some rose up against her, who set out to infest the flock of Christ and to peddle foul disturbance to the people of God.

19. If I adore and worship as causes of salvation the cross, and the lance, and the reed, and the sponge, by which the God-killing Jews insulted my Lord and delivered Him to death, why should I not worship the images that have been fashioned with sound intent by Christians for the glory of Christ and the memory of His passion? If I venerate the likeness of the cross, fashioned out of any material whatsoever, shall I not worship the image of Him who was affixed to it, and who showed the cross to be a saving power? ^B O what inhumanity! That I do not adore the material itself is clear. For when the form of the cross is dissolved—if it were made of wood, for example—I commit the wood to the fire: the same applies to the material of the images.

20. But that the invention of images is not new, and that their veneration is not recent, but an ancient tradition of the Church, accept a numerous examination gathered from the places of the Scriptures and the Fathers. The Lord says these things in the holy Gospel according to Matthew, to His own disciples…

VARIAE LECTIONES

NOTAE

blessing ^A them, and with them all who follow their rule and walk in their footsteps, he proclaimed them blessed: "But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. Amen I say to you, that many prophets and just men have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it; and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it." We also, therefore, desire to see, as far as it is possible to see. For we see as in a mirror and in an enigma, and in an image, and we are called blessed. God Himself first made an image, and He showed images. For He made man according to the image of God, and Abraham, and Moses, and Isaiah, and all the prophets saw images of God, and not the essence itself of God. The bush was an image of the Mother of God, and as Moses was about to approach it, God said: "Put off your shoes from your feet; for the place whereon you stand is holy ground." If then the ground where the image of the Theotokos was seen by Moses is holy ground, how much more is this image—not only holy, but, I dare to say, the holy of holies? The Lord, when the Pharisees asked him: "Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put away a wife?" answered: "Because Moses, by reason of the hardness of your heart, permitted you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so." I likewise say to you that Moses, because of the hardness of the heart of the children of Israel, knowing their readiness to fall into idolatry, commanded them not to make images. But now it is not so; for we stand firmly upon the rock of faith, having become enriched with the light of the knowledge of God.

^B 21. Hear what the Lord says: "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.' You fools and blind; for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?" And: "He that sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it and by him that dwelleth in it; and he that sweareth by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God and by him that sitteth thereon." By similar reasoning, he who swears by an image, swears by that which is represented by it.

22. That indeed the tabernacle, and the veil, and the ark, and the table, and all things that were in the tabernacle, were images, and types, and works of men's hands, which were worshipped by all Israel; and furthermore that the carved cherubim, made by the command of God, were such, has been sufficiently and more than sufficiently demonstrated by us. For God says to Moses: ^D "See, that you do all things according to the pattern shown you in the mount." I would have you hear also the Apostle Paul bearing witness that God commanded Israel to worship things made by hand and images. "For if He were on earth," he says, "He would not be a priest, seeing there are priests that offer gifts according to the law, who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as it was…

^A divinely commanded of Moses, when he was to perform the tabernacle. 'For see,' He says, 'that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.' Now, however, He has obtained a more excellent ministry, to the extent that He is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been established on better promises. For if that first one had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says: 'Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.' And after a few words: 'By saying "new," He has made the first old. Now that which is decaying and growing old is near to vanishing.' For ^B the first tabernacle was prepared, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the holy place. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden censer and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was the golden pot containing the manna, and the rod of Aaron that had budded, and the tablets of the covenant; and above it, the Cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. And again: 'For Christ has not entered into hand-made holy places, which are anti-types of the true, but into heaven itself.' And after other things: 'For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things.'

23. Consider that both the law and all things pertaining to it, and all our worship, are hand-made holy places, which through matter lead us to the immaterial God. ^C The law, and all things according to the law, were a certain shadow-sketch of the image to come, that is, of our worship; but our worship is an image of the good things to come. The things themselves are the Jerusalem above, immaterial and not made by hands, as the same divine Apostle says: 'For we do not have here a continuing city, but we seek the one that is to come,' which is the Jerusalem above, 'of which God is the architect and maker.' For all things, both those according to the law and those according to our worship, came to be for the sake of that one. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen. ^D

Testimonies of the ancient and approved holy Fathers concerning images.

^A Of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, from the letter to Titus. "It is worth our while, therefore," etc. Commentary: See how he spoke, etc.

Of the same, from the book *On the Divine Names*. "By this we have been taught," etc., with Commentary.

From the same's book *On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy*. "But the preceding ones," etc. Commentary: If, therefore, etc.

Of St. Basil, from the sermon on the holy martyr Barlaam, the beginning of which is: "First, indeed, the death of the saints." "Arise now for me," etc. ^B

Of the same, from the thirty chapters to Amphilochius on the Holy Spirit (chap. 18). "That he is called king," etc. Commentary: If the image, etc.

Of St. Basil, from the sermon on the holy martyr Gordius. "The peoples rejoice with gladness," etc. Commentary: See how.

Of the same, from the same sermon on the martyr Gordius. "For just as by fire automatically," etc. At the end of the same oration. "For just as the sun," etc. Commentary: It is clear, as.

And in the oration on the most excellent forty martyrs, he says these things. "Of the martyrs," etc. Commentary: Why, then, etc. ^C

Of Basil. "Come then, therefore," etc. Commentary: You see, as. "Again," he soon adds, remaining with the discourse: "For since of wars," etc. Commentary: What of these, etc. Commentary: By what reasoning, I pray.

Of St. Gregory of Nyssa, from the supplement, or from the book on the structure of man (chap. 4). "Just as is the custom among men," etc. ^D

From the fifth chapter of the same book. "But divine beauty," etc. Commentary: Observe, as.

Of the same, from an oration delivered at Constantinople, on the divinity of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; where also [he speaks] of Abraham, oration 41, the beginning of which is: "A similar thing happens to those," etc. "Thence with bonds," etc.

Of St. John Chrysostom, from the exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews. "And indeed first," etc.

VARIOUS READINGS.

^A From the book of Leontius, Bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus, *Against the Jews*, concerning the fact that it is permitted to adore the cross of Christ and the images of the saints, and one another; and concerning the relics of the saints. "If you accuse me," etc. Comment: "If you [accuse] from," etc. Again from the same Leontius. "Since also," etc. Comment: "Is it not," etc.

From the sermon of Severianus, Bishop of Gabala, on the dedication of the cross. "In what manner," etc. Comment: "Do you notice what," etc. "That it is not a new invention," etc.

From the life of Saint John Chrysostom, in which these things are written word for word: "The blessed John [wrote] letters," etc.

In the life of Saint Eupraxias it is written, etc.

In the life of Saint Mary of Egypt, etc.

From the sermon of Saint John Chrysostom: *That there is one author of the Old and New Testaments; and on the priest’s vestment.*

"I, indeed, have also been delighted by a painting, provided that it is fashioned from moulded wax and presents piety to view. For in an image I have seen an angel putting to flight the hosts of the barbarians. I have seen the nations of the barbarians trampled underfoot, and David saying: 'O Lord, in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing.' [Ps. LXXII, 20]" ^B

From the same, from the exposition of the parable of the seed:

"If you treat an imperial robe with contempt, do you not thereby inflict an injury upon the emperor? Do you not know that if you are contumelious toward the image of the emperor, you become injurious to the very one whom it represents? Do you not know that a man is condemned who has cast down an image made of wood or bronze, not because he was insolent toward a soulless material, but because he has cast ignominy upon the image? Since it bears the likeness of the emperor, it transfers the affront offered to it unto the emperor himself."

From the same Saint John Chrysostom, from the sermon on Saint Meletius, Bishop of Antioch and martyr, and on the zeal of those who had assembled, the beginning of which is: "Everywhere casting my eyes around this sacred flock," and after a few lines:

"And the event itself was a lesson in piety; for, being constantly compelled to remember that name, and to have that holy man in their souls, they had that name as a sort of amulet against every irrational passion and thought; and the matter progressed to such a point that everywhere, in the crossroads, in the marketplace, and in the fields, everything was resounding with this name on all sides. And indeed you displayed your zeal and reverence not only toward his most excellent name, but also toward the very likeness of his person. Therefore, what you did in regard to his name,

you did likewise to his image, and in vessels, in cups, in phials, and on the walls of bedchambers, and everywhere, many have carved that image; so that not only might they hear that holy name, but also behold the figure of his body everywhere, and possess a certain dual consolation for his absence.

Of the same, on the betrayal by Judas, on the Pascha, on the tradition of the Mysteries, and that one ought not to remember injuries.

«Just as painters on a panel track the lines, and outline figures, and apply the reality of colors, so also did Christ.»

Of Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, from his epistle to all Italy.^A

«On the third night, my body already exhausted and wasting away from fasting, not while I was sleeping, but while I was in an ecstasy, there appeared to me a certain person who seemed exactly like the blessed Apostle Paul, just as his face, appearing in images, clearly manifests him.»

Of Saint Maximus the Philosopher and Confessor, from the accounts of what transpired between him and Bishop Theodosius.

«And upon these things, all rose up with joy and tears, and knelt in prayer; and each of them kissed the holy Gospels, the precious cross, and the image of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, and of our Mistress, the holy Theotokos who bore Him, having ^C laid their own hands upon them, for the confirmation of the things that had been spoken.»

From a sermon of the most holy and blessed Anastasius, Archbishop of Theopolis, on the Sabbath, to Simon, Bishop of Bostra.

«For just as when the emperor is absent, his image is worshipped in his stead; but when he is present, it is superfluous to leave the original prototype and worship the image; yet it is not the case that because it is not worshipped, since He for whose sake it was venerable is present, it should therefore be treated with disrespect.» And after a few words: «For just as he who rages ^D against the image of the emperor undergoes avenging punishments, just as if he had truly insulted the emperor himself, even though the image is nothing other than wood and colors mixed and compounded with wax; in the same way, whoever inflicts an insult upon anyone’s image, he brings this injury upon him whose effigy it is.»

S. JOHN OF DAMASCUS ORATION III AGAINST THOSE WHO REJECT SACRED IMAGES

^A Such is the custom of the wicked and primeval serpent—the devil, I mean—to wage war in many ways against man, who was fashioned after the image of God, and by means of opposites to bring about his death. For immediately, at the very beginning, he sowed in him the hope and desire for deification, and through this led him down to the death of the irrational. ^B Yet he did not stop there, but often even enticed him with shameful and irrational pleasures; but what a vast distance there is between deification and irrational desire! Sometimes he led him into atheism, as the God-inspired David says: "The fool has said in his heart, There is no God." [Ps. XIII, 1] But at other times he persuaded him to serve many gods; and sometimes he persuaded him not even to worship Him who is by nature God, and at other times to worship demons. ^C Furthermore, he caused him to worship the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon and the stars, and the rest of creation, even down to beasts and reptiles. For it is equally grave both not to render the honor due to things honorable, and to attribute honor not befitting them to things dishonorable. But the truth, walking on a middle path, rejects all absurdities; ^D [and it teaches us to confess one God, one essence in three persons, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and it says that evil is not an essence or a substance, but a mere accident—a certain thought, word, or action contrary to the law of God, having existence only in its being thought, spoken, or performed, and vanishing as soon as it ceases. Furthermore, regarding the one Christ of the holy Trinity, it proclaims two natures and one person.] But the enemy of the truth and the foe of the salvation of men, who once—

deceived not only the nations, but also the very children of Israel many times, so that they fabricated images of demons and of wicked men, and of birds, and of ^A beasts, and of reptiles, and worshipped them as gods, now strives to disturb the Church of Christ which is enjoying tranquil peace; trying, however, to season his malice with divine utterances by means of unjust lips and a deceitful tongue, and seeking to cover over its ugly and dark form, and to shake the hearts of the unstable from the true custom handed down by the Fathers.

2. For some have arisen saying that the saving miracles and passions of Christ, and the heroic deeds of the saints against the devil, which were miraculously performed for our salvation, should not be set forth in images, in which we might contemplate, ^B venerate, admire, and imitate them. But who, having been imbued with divine thought and spiritual understanding, does not recognize this as a suggestion of the devil? For he does not suffer his own defeat and shame to be made public, nor the glory of God and of His saints to be inscribed. For if we were making an image of the invisible God, we would truly be sinning; for it is impossible for that which is incorporeal, and without form, and invisible, and uncircumscribed, to be depicted. And again, if we considered those things which we made to be gods, and worshipped them as gods, we would truly be impious; but we do nothing of the sort. ^C For when God was made flesh and appeared on earth in the flesh, and lived among men because of His ineffable goodness, and took upon Himself the nature, and density, and form, and color of flesh, we do not err in making His image. For we yearn to see His character; for as the divine Apostle says, "We see now in a mirror and in an enigma." And an image is a mirror and an enigma, fitting for the density of our body; for even though the mind struggles, it can in no way pass over that which is corporeal, as the divine Gregory says.

3. Away with you, envious devil! You begrudge us the sight of the form ^D of our Master, through which we are made partakers of holiness. You begrudge us the sight of His saving passion, you begrudge us the wonder at His descent to us, the contemplation of His miracles, and the recognition and praise of the power of His divinity. You begrudge the saints the honor bestowed upon them by God. You do not allow us to see their glory inscribed, nor to emulate their virtue and faith. You cannot bear that our faith toward them should benefit us, both in body and in soul. But we will not obey you, O envious demon and hater of men. Hear, O peoples, tribes, tongues, men, women, children, adolescents, infants, O holy nation of Christians: If anyone preaches to you anything other than what the holy catholic Church has received from the holy apostles,

from the Fathers, and from the councils, and has kept until now, do not listen to him; do not accept the counsel of the serpent, as Eve accepted it, and by it reaped death. Even if an angel, even if an emperor should evangelize you contrary to what you have received, close your ears: for I refrain for the present moment from saying, as the divine Apostle said, "Let him be anathema," awaiting his amendment.

^B 4. But they who do not search into the meaning of Scripture say that God said through Moses the lawgiver: "You shall not make any likeness of those things that are in heaven and those that are in the earth." And through David the prophet: "Let all who worship graven things be ashamed, who glory in their idols"; and many other things similar to these. For whatever they bring forward from divine Scripture and from the holy Fathers is to be understood in the same sense.

What, then, shall we say to these things? What else, I say, than what was said by the Lord to the Jews: "Search the Scriptures." For the search of the Scriptures is praiseworthy. But here, beloved, attend with great caution. It is impossible for God to lie. For there is one God, one Lawgiver, I say, by whom the Old and New Testaments were ordained; who once spoke in many parts and in many ways to the fathers through the prophets, and in these last days, through his only-begotten Son. ^C Attend, therefore, with accuracy; these words are not mine: the Holy Spirit proclaimed through the holy Apostle: "In many parts and in many ways, God once spoke to the fathers through the prophets." Observe that God spoke in many parts and in many ways. For just as a skillful physician does not always give the same medicine to everyone, but provides to each the remedy that is suitable and appropriate, distinguishing both the place and the disease and the hour—that is, the time and the condition and the age; and to the infant he gives one thing, to the mature man another, one thing to the sick, and another to the healthy; and to each of the sick, not the same, but according to their condition and disease; and one thing in summer, ^D and another in winter, in autumn and in spring, and in every place, according to the suitability of the place—so, too, the best physician of souls, to those who were still infants and suffering from the disease of idolatry, and who thought statues were gods and worshiped them as gods, and denied the worship due to God, and transferred his glory to the creature, forbade the making of images. For it is impossible to make an image of God, who is incorporeal, invisible, immaterial, and who has neither shape, nor circumscription, nor comprehension. For how shall that which has not been seen be represented in an image? "But no one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom…"

imagine effingatur? "For God, no one has seen at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him," and God says: "No man shall see my face, and live."

5. But that they worshipped idols as gods, hear what Scripture relates in Exodus concerning the children of Israel, when Moses ascended Mount Sinai and remained there sitting with God to receive the Law: when, I say, the most ungrateful people, rising up against Aaron, said: "Make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him." Then, when they had taken the jewelry and ornaments of their wives and fashioned a molten image, they ate and drank, and, as if intoxicated by their own error and by wine, they began to play, and in their madness to say: "These are thy gods, O Israel." Do you not see that they set up ^B images as gods for themselves? For they did not make an image of Jove, or of this or that [god], but as chance offered, they brought gold from which to cast an idol, whatever it might happen to be, and there came forth the figure of a calf’s head. Thus they held such molten things to be gods, and worshipped them as gods—which were indeed the dwelling-places of demons. And that they worshipped the creature rather than the Creator, the divine Apostle testifies: "Who changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things; and they served the creature rather than the Creator." For this reason, God forbade the making of any likeness.

6. I know the One who spoke without falsehood: "The Lord thy God is one Lord." And: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." And: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." And: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath." And again: "Let all those be confounded that serve graven images." And: "The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, let them perish." And all other things of this kind which God, having spoken of old to the fathers in the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us in his only-begotten Son, by whom he made the ages. I know the One who said: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." I believe also in one God, one beginning of all things, without beginning, uncreated, indestructible and immortal, eternal and everlasting, incomprehensible, incorporeal, invisible, uncircumscribed, without shape; one super-essential essence, a super-divine Godhead, in three persons, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit; and to Him alone I serve, and to Him alone I offer the worship of latria. I worship one God, one Godhead, but also I worship a Trinity of persons: God the Father, and God the Son incarnate, and God the Holy Spirit; not by three

gods, but by one; not by divided hypostases, but by united ones. I do not offer three acts of worship, but one only. I do not offer one act of worship to each of the hypostases separately, but one to the three hypostases together, as to the one God. I do not worship the creature instead of the Creator, but I worship the Creator, who for my sake became what I am, and descended to the creature without humiliation or destruction, that He might glorify my nature and make it a partaker of the divine nature. Together with the King and God, I worship the purple of His body—not as a garment, nor as a ^B fourth person; far be it! But as something that has become co-divine, and remains inseparably what the One who anointed it is. For the divine nature did not become the nature of the flesh, but just as the Word became flesh without change, remaining what He was, so also the flesh became Word without losing what it is, but rather being identified with the Word according to hypostasis. Therefore, I boldly make an image of the invisible God, not as He is invisible, but because He became visible for our sake through participation in flesh and blood. I do not depict the invisible Godhead, but I depict the flesh of God that was seen. For if it is impossible to depict a soul, how much more so the One who gave to the soul its incorporeal nature?

7. But, they say, God said through Moses the lawgiver: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.” And, “You shall not make any likeness ^C of things in heaven or on earth.” Brothers, those who do not know that the letter kills but the Spirit gives life are truly led astray—those who do not search for the Spirit hidden under the letter. To them I would rightly say: let Him who taught you this also teach you what follows. Learn how the lawgiver himself interprets this, saying to this effect in Deuteronomy: “And the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire: you heard a voice of words, and you saw no likeness, but only a voice.” And after a little: “And guard your souls carefully, because you saw no likeness on the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb on the mountain from the midst of the fire, lest you transgress and make for yourselves a graven image, any icon, a likeness of male or female, a likeness of any beast ^D that is on the earth, a likeness of any winged bird,” and so forth. And a little later: “Lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and all the host of heaven, you be led astray and worship them.”

^A Do you see that the purpose is that we should not worship the creature instead of the Creator, nor offer the worship of latria to anyone but the Creator alone? For this reason, he everywhere joins latria with worship. Again, he says, “There shall be no other gods for you besides me. You shall not make for yourself any carved image or any likeness; you shall not worship them, nor shall you serve them, for I am the Lord your God.” And again, “You shall tear down their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their carved images with fire; for you shall not worship any other god.” And after a few words, “And you shall not make for yourself gods made of molten metal.” Do you see how he forbids the making of images on account of idolatry? Because it is impossible to represent God, who is without quantity, without circumscription, and invisible. “For you saw no form of him,” he says. Just as Paul also, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, says, “Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.” ^B

8. These things, then, were commanded to the Jews because they were very prone to idolatry. But we, to whom it has been given—to use the words of the Theologian—to have abandoned the error of superstition and acknowledged the truth, to live purely and holily with God, to serve him alone, and to be enriched with the riches of the knowledge of God, and to attain to the perfect man, having passed beyond infancy, we are no longer under a pedagogue. For we have acquired from God the faculty and habit of discernment, and we know what can be depicted in an image and what may not be depicted by it. For the Law was our pedagogue toward Christ, that we might be justified by faith; and when we were infants, we were enslaved under the elements. But when faith has come, we are no longer under a pedagogue. ^C — “For you saw no form of him,” he says. O the wisdom of the Lawgiver! How shall the invisible be depicted? How shall that which is without quantity, without magnitude, without limit, and without form be described? How shall that which is incorporeal be painted with colors? How shall that which has no shape be fashioned into shape? What, then, is the mystery indicated in these passages? It is clearly this: at present, do not depict God, the invisible; but when you see the One who is incorporeal become man for your sake, then you shall make an image of his human form. Whenever the invisible becomes visible in the flesh, then you shall depict the likeness of the One who has been seen. When the One who is without quantity and without age and without magnitude by the excellence of his own nature—the One who exists in the form of God—takes the form of a servant, and is contracted ^D to this...

quantity and quality, and assumes the figure of a body, then depict him on panels and set him forth for the contemplation of him who deigned to be seen. Depict his ineffable condescension, his birth from the Virgin, his baptism in the Jordan, his transfiguration on Tabor, his sufferings that are the causes of impassibility, his miracles—the symbols of his divine nature and energy—effected through the ministry of flesh, the Savior’s saving burial, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven; describe all these things, both with words and with colors, in both books and on panels. ^A

^B "You shall not make for yourself," he says, "a graven image, nor any likeness." When God had commanded these things, "He made," he says, "the curtain of the tabernacle of testimony of blue, and purple, and scarlet twisted, and fine twined linen, a work of woven cherubim." And, "They made the mercy-seat above the ark of pure gold, and the two cherubim." What are you doing, O Moses? You command: "You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor any likeness," and you construct a curtain—a work of woven cherubim—and two cherubim of pure gold? But listen to what Moses, the minister of God, replies to you regarding these matters. O blind and foolish ones, perceive the power of the words and guard your souls most diligently. I said: "You saw no likeness in the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb on the mountain from the midst of the fire, lest you should sin, and make for yourselves a graven likeness, any image; and you shall not make for yourselves molten gods." I did not say, "You shall not make an image of cherubim," as of servants standing by the mercy-seat, but, "You shall not make for yourselves molten gods," and, "You shall not make any likeness" as gods, and "You shall not serve the creature rather than the Creator." ^C Therefore, I did not make a likeness of God, nor indeed of any other thing as God, nor of man—for the nature of humanity had been enslaved to sin—nor did I serve the creature rather than the Creator, but I constructed the tabernacle as a likeness of the whole creation, "according to the pattern shown to me on the mountain," and the cherubim overshadowing the mercy-seat, as standing by God. Do you see how the intention of Scripture is revealed to those who investigate intelligently? For it is necessary to know, beloved, that in every matter one seeks the truth, and the falsehood, and the purpose of the one acting—whether it is good or evil. For in the Gospel, both God, and angel, and man, and earth, and water, and fire, and air, and sun, and moon, and light, and darkness, and Satan, and demons, and serpents, and scorpions, and life, and death, and ^D

^A virtues, and vices, and everything good and evil, are written. But yet, since the things that are said concerning them are true, and the purpose is for the glory of God and our salvation, and the glory of the saints who are glorified by Him, and the shame of the devil and his demons, we worship, and embrace, and kiss, and greet them with our eyes, and lips, and heart. Likewise also all the Old and New Testament, and the words of the holy and elect Fathers; but the shameful and vile and unclean writing of the cursed Manichaeans, containing the same words, and contrived for the glory of the devil and his demons, and to the destruction of souls, we spit upon and cast away. Thus also in the matter of images, one must investigate the truth and the intention of those who make them; and if it is true and right and for the glory of God and His saints, and for the zeal of virtue, and the avoidance of vice, and for the salvation of ^B souls, we ought to accept and honor them as images, and imitations, and likenesses, and books for the illiterate, and as reminders, and to worship, and kiss, and greet them with our eyes, and lips, and heart, as a likeness of the incarnate God, or of His Mother, or of the saints who are partners in His sufferings and glory, and have been victors and overcomers of the devil and his demons and their delusions. But if someone dares to make an image of the Godhead, which is far removed from matter and bodiless, we reject it as false; and if anyone does so for the glory and honor and worship of the devil or of demons, we spit upon it and consume it with fire. And if any of men, or beasts, or birds, or reptiles, or of any other creation should deify an image, we doom him to anathema. For just as the holy Fathers tore down the sacred shrines and temples of the demons, and in their places built temples in the name of God and the saints, and these we worship, so also they took away the images of the demons, and in their stead raised up images of Christ, and of His Mother, and of the saints, and these we worship. And in the Old Testament, Israel neither built temples in the name of men, nor was their commemoration celebrated; for the race of men was still under a curse, and death was a punishment; wherefore it was mourned, and he who touched the corpse of the dead was considered unclean. But now, since the Godhead has been inseparably united to our nature, like some life-giving and saving medicine, our nature has been glorified, and transformed unto incorruption; wherefore temples are raised to them, and images are painted. ^{C D}

^A For if anyone, out of divine longing and zeal for the glory and remembrance of Christ, or of His Mother, the holy Theotokos, or of any of the saints, and furthermore for the shame of the devil and his defeat, and the memory of the victory over him and his demons, should attempt to destroy an image fashioned with divine zeal and fervor—and does not rather, as one worthy of veneration—though not indeed as God—adore, honor, and embrace it with longing—he is an enemy of Christ, of the holy Theotokos, and of the saints, and an advocate for the devil and his demons, demonstrating by his action his distress that God and His saints are honored and glorified, while the devil is put to shame. For an image is a kind of triumph, a manifestation, and a monument, erected in memory of the victory of those who have acted with nobility and excellence, and for the everlasting disgrace of those who have been defeated and cast down. ^B I have often seen those who, when held by a longing for a friend, if they catch sight of his garment, will treat that garment with their eyes and lips exactly as if it were the friend himself. To everyone, according to the opinion of the holy Apostle Paul, we must render what is due: "To whom honor [is due], honor; to the king indeed as supreme, and to governors as sent through him," to each according to the measure of his dignity.

11. Where, I ask, in the Old Testament, or in the Gospel, wilt thou find the name of Trinity, or "consubstantial," or one nature of the Godhead clearly written, or the three hypostases in so many words, or one person of Christ, or two natures in so many words? ^C But, because the holy Fathers have defined all these things from words in Scripture having the same force, we accept them, and we anathematize those who do not accept them; and I demonstrate to thee that God in the Old Testament commanded that images be made. For first of all He commanded that the tabernacle, and all that was in it, be constructed. And in the Gospels the Lord Himself, to those who asked Him tempting Him: "Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?" said, "Bring me the coin." And when they showed Him a denarius, He asked them, "Whose image hath it?" And they said, "Caesar's." And He said, "Render therefore the things that are Caesar's to Caesar; and the things that are God's, to God." Since it has the image of Caesar, it is Caesar's, and therefore render it to Caesar; and the image of Christ, ^D render to Christ; for it is Christ's.

12. The Lord, blessing His disciples, said: "Many kings and prophets have desired to see what you see, and have not seen, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard. But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear." The Apostles therefore saw Christ with their bodily eyes, and His sufferings, and His miracles, and heard His words; we too desire to see and to hear, and to be blessed. They saw face to face, because He was present bodily; but we, because He is not present bodily, just as we hear His words through books, we sanctify our hearing, and by

^A writing and images we behold the impression of His bodily character, and of His miracles and sufferings; and we are sanctified, and we are assured, and we rejoice, and we are blessed, and we revere, and we honor, and we worship His bodily character. And beholding His bodily character, we conceive as far as possible of the glory of His divinity. For since we are dual, fashioned of soul and body, and our soul is not naked, but is covered as if by a veil, it is impossible for us to reach the intelligible world apart from bodily things. Just as, therefore, we hear through sensible words with bodily ears and understand spiritual things, so through bodily contemplation we advance to spiritual contemplation. For this reason Christ assumed both body and soul, because man consists of body and soul. For this reason also baptism is dual, consisting of water and Spirit, as is the communion, and prayer, and the singing of psalms—all things are dual, ^B bodily and spiritual; and likewise lights and incense.

13. But the devil, leaving all other things aside, has set upon images alone; and so great is his envy against images that it is even written thus in the *Spiritual Meadow* of the holy Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem: "Abba Theodore the Aeliote related that there was a certain recluse on the Mount of Olives, a man distinguished in spiritual warfare, whom the demon of lust was attacking in every way. When on one particular day he was pressing him more fiercely than usual, the old man began to lament and to say to the demon: 'How long until you cease troubling me? Depart from me at last; you have grown old with me.' The demon manifested himself to him visibly, saying: 'Swear to me that you will tell no one what I am about to say to you, and I will trouble you no more.' The old man swore to him, saying: 'By Him who dwells in the highest, I will tell no one that which you shall say to me.' Then the demon said to him: 'Do not worship this image, and I will trouble you no more.' Now the image had ^C an engraving of our Lady, the holy Mary, the Theotokos, carrying our Lord Jesus Christ. See whom those who forbid the worship of images imitate, and whose instruments they are; for the demon of lust preferred that the old man should cease from worshipping the image of our Lady, rather than that he should fall into the uncleanness of lust, knowing this sin to be far graver than fornication."

14. But since the discussion is about an image and worship, come, let us examine these matters more broadly and carefully. And let us say first, what an image is; second, for what reason an image is made; third, ^D how many are the kinds of images;

^A fourth, what can and what cannot be expressed by images; fifth, who was the first author of images.

15. Likewise concerning adoration: first, what adoration is; second, how many are the modes of adoration; third, how many are those things to which we read in Scripture that adoration was exhibited; fourth, that all adoration is referred to God, who by His own nature is to be adored; fifth, that the adoration applied to an image is reduced to Him whom it represents.

1° What an image is. 16. An image is therefore a likeness, an exemplar, and an effigy of something, showing in itself that which is imaged. Yet an image is not in all respects like the exemplar—that is, the thing it represents—because an image is one thing, and that which is imaged is another; and there is necessarily some difference observed between the two, since if there were none, the one would not be a different thing from the other. ^B For example, the image of a man, even if it expresses the figure of the body, yet does not encompass the faculties of the soul. For it does not live, nor does it speak, nor does it feel, nor does it move a limb. Furthermore, even the Son, being the natural image of the Father, nonetheless differs somewhat from Him. For He is the Son, and not the Father.

2° For what reason an image is instituted. 17. Every image is an unfolding and a manifestation of what is hidden. For example: because man, ^C since his soul is covered by the body, does not possess knowledge of the invisible thing, nor of those things that are to come after him, nor of those things that are distant and far off in place—inasmuch as he is circumscribed by place and time—for this reason, in order that he might be directed in the knowledge of things, and so that hidden things might be declared and made manifest, the image was devised. And this was surely for the sake of utility, beneficence, and salvation, so that from the things shown and revealed we might discern those things which lie hidden, and might then pursue and emulate the good things, and avoid and flee from the contrary things, that is, the evil ones.

3° How many are the kinds of images. 18. Furthermore, these are the differences of images. The first, then, is the natural image. ^D For in every thing it is necessary in the first place that it exist according to its own nature, and then afterwards by institution and imitation. Thus it is necessary that a man exist first according to his nature, and then afterward 7

^A a natural and unvarying image of the invisible God, the Son of the Father, showing the Father within Himself. "For no one has ever seen God." And again: "Not that anyone has seen the Father." But that the Son is the image of the Father, the Apostle says: "Who is the image of the invisible God." And to the Hebrews: "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his substance." And that He shows the Father in Himself, the Gospel according to John testifies, where to Philip, who says, "Show us the Father, and it is enough for us," the Lord replies: "Have I been so long with you, and you have not known me, Philip? He who sees me has seen the Father." ^B Therefore the Son is a natural, unvarying image of the Father, in all things like unto the Father, except for unbegottenness and fatherhood. For the Father is an unbegotten begetter; the Son is begotten and not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is the image of the Son: "For no one can say that Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit." Through the Holy Spirit, therefore, we know Christ, the Son of God and God, and in the Son we behold the Father; for the Word is naturally the announcer of the thought, and the Spirit is the manifestation of the Word. And the Holy Spirit is also a like and unvarying image of the Son, having the difference only in that He proceeds. For the Son is begotten, but not proceeding. And for every father, the son is a natural image; and this is the first mode of the image, the natural one.

^C 19. The second mode of image is the concept in God of the things that are to be by His hand; that is, His pre-eternal will, which always exists in the same way; for the Divine is immutable, and His will is without beginning, by which, according to what He willed pre-eternally, the things determined by Him come to pass at the time foreordained by Him; for the images and patterns of the things to be by Him are nothing else than the notion of each one of them, which are also called "predefinitions" by Saint Dionysius. For in His counsel those things which were foreordained by Him, and were immutably to be, were characterized and imaged before they came into being.

20. The third mode of image is that which is made by God according to imitation, that is, man. For how could that which is created be of the same nature as the Uncreated, ^D except by imitation? For just as the Father is mind, and the Son is the Word, and the Holy Spirit is one God, so too mind, and word, and spirit are one man. And also on account of the faculty of free will and the authority to command, he imitates God. For God says: "Let us make man according to our image and likeness." And He immediately added: "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds

of the heaven, and over all the earth, and have dominion over it."

21. The fourth type of image is that of Scripture, which fashions and forms figures, shapes, and types of invisible and incorporeal things in a corporeal manner, so that we may at least attain a dim understanding of God and the angels; for we are unable to contemplate incorporeal things without shapes that correspond to us, as the great master of divine things, Dionysius the Areopagite, teaches us. For if one were to ask why types and shapes of things that have no type or shape have been rightly set before us, he would say that the sole reason is our own nature, which is unable to rise directly to intelligible contemplations and stands in need of proper and related analogies. If, therefore, the divine Word, in caring for our nature, provides for us from all sides that which leads us upward, and clothes with types those things that are simple and formless, why should it not depict by image things that are shaped by their own nature, which we desire indeed, but because they are absent, are unable to see? For ^B the divinely eloquent Gregory says that however much the mind labors to leave behind corporeal things, it is utterly unable to do so: "But the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." We also see in created things images which dimly indicate to us the divine manifestations; as when we say that the holy and pre-eternal Trinity is depicted by the sun, the light, and the ray; or by a fountain, the stream flowing from the fountain, and the flow; or by our own mind, word, and spirit; or by the rose plant, the flower, and the fragrance.

22. The fifth type of image is said to be that which prefigures and foreshows things to come, as the bush and the rain upon the fleece signified the Virgin and Theotokos, and the rod and the jar; and as the serpent of bronze prefigured the one who destroyed for us through the cross the bite of the original evil serpent; ^C and as the sea, the water, and the cloud prefigured the Spirit of baptism.

23. The sixth type of image is that which is for the remembrance of things that have happened, whether of a miracle or of a virtue, for the glory, honor, and commemoration of those who have excelled and distinguished themselves in virtue, or of wickedness, for the triumph and shame of the most wicked men, for the benefit of those who see them in the future; so that we may flee from evils and emulate virtues. This type is twofold: it is done through the word written in books—for the writing depicts the word, just as God engraved the law upon the tablets and commanded that the lives of God-loving men be written down—and through sensible contemplation, as the jar and the rod ^D

were commanded to be placed in the ark, as a memorial. Moreover, He commanded that the names of the tribes be inscribed upon the stones of the ephod, and also that twelve stones be taken up from the Jordan to serve as a type for the priests (O the mystery! How great this is for the faithful in truth!), those who carry the ark and who signify the drying up of the waters. Thus, even now, we record the images of the deeds of virtuous men for the sake of zeal, memory, and love. Either, therefore, do away with every image, and enact laws against the One who commanded these things to be done, or accept each one according to its own reason and manner. ^B

Fourthly, what is represented, what cannot be represented, and how each thing is represented.

24. Bodies, possessing as they do shape and bodily outline and color, are not inconsistently depicted by images. But an angel, a soul, and a demon, although they possess nothing corporeal or dense, are nevertheless by their own nature formed and circumscribed. For, being intellectual, they are believed to exist and act intellectually in intelligible places. Thus, they are fashioned after the manner of bodies, just as Moses depicted the Cherubim, and as they showed themselves to those worthy to behold them, so that the bodily image might set forth a certain incorporeal and intelligible contemplation. But the divine nature alone is uncircumscribed, entirely without form, shapeless, and incomprehensible; even if divine Scripture assigns certain bodily forms to God, it does so in appearance, so that shapes are seen, and these are incorporeal. For they were not seen by bodily eyes, but by the intellectual eyes of the prophets and of those to whom they were revealed; for they were not visible to all. To speak briefly, we are able to make images of all the forms we have seen; but we understand these as they have been seen. For even if we sometimes comprehend shapes by means of words, yet we arrive at the understanding of them from what we have seen. Thus, it is the same with every sense: from what we have smelled, tasted, or touched, we arrive by way of reason at the contemplation of these things. ^C

25. We know, therefore, that it is impossible to behold the nature of God, the soul, or the demon; however, we contemplate them through a certain transformation, since divine Providence assigns types and shapes to incorporeal things—things that have no bodily shape—in order that we may be guided and arrive at an understanding of them that is gross and partial, so that we may not be in total ^D

ignorance of God and of created incorporeal beings. ^A For God is by nature and absolutely incorporeal; but angel, soul, and demon, when compared with God, who alone is incomparable, are bodies; yet when compared with material bodies, they are incorporeal. Since, therefore, God did not wish us to be entirely ignorant of incorporeal things, He clothed them in types, shapes, and images, in accordance with the proportion of our own nature—that is, bodily shapes seen in an immaterial vision of the mind; and these we shape and depict. For how were the Cherubim shaped and depicted? Furthermore, Holy Scripture possesses shapes and images of God.

Who first made an image.

26. ^B God Himself first begot His only-begotten Son and Word, a living image of Himself, natural, an unchanging seal of His own eternity; and He made man according to His own image and likeness. And Adam saw God, and heard the sound of His footsteps as He walked in the afternoon, and hid himself in paradise; and Jacob saw and wrestled with God. It is evident that God appeared to him as a man. And Moses saw Him as the back parts of a man; and Isaiah saw Him as a man sitting upon a throne; and Daniel saw a likeness of a man, and one coming as the Son of ^C Man to the Ancient of Days; and no one has seen the nature of God, but the type and the image of Him who was to come. For the Son and Word of God, who is invisible, was about to become man in truth, so that He might be united to our nature and be seen upon earth. Therefore, all those who saw the type and image of the One who was to come worshipped Him, just as Paul the apostle says in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "In faith all these died, not having received the promises, but seeing them from afar, and having greeted them." [Heb. XI, 13] Shall I, then, not make an image of Him who for my sake was seen in the nature of flesh? Shall I not worship and honor Him through the honor and worship rendered to His image? ^D Abraham saw, not the nature of God—for "no man has seen God at any time"—but an image of God, and falling down, he worshipped. Jesus, the son of Nave, saw, not the nature of an angel, but an image; for the nature of an angel is not visible to bodily eyes; and falling down, he worshipped. Likewise also Daniel. But the angel is not God, but a creature and a servant of God and an attendant; yet he worshipped, not as God, but as God's attendant and minister. And shall I not make images of the friends of Christ? And shall I not worship them, not as gods, but as images of the friends of God? For neither did Jesus nor Daniel worship the angels who appeared to them as gods; nor do I worship the image as God, but through the image and the saints, I worship God.

I offer worship and honor, on account of whom I also venerate His friends and treat them with reverence. God was not united by nature to angels, but He was united to the nature of men. God did not become an angel, but God became man by nature and in truth. "For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham" (Heb. II, 16). The nature of angels did not become [His]. [He is] the Son of God by hypostasis, but the nature of man became [His]. [He is] the Son of God by hypostasis. Angels did not partake of, nor did they become partakers of, the divine nature, but only of its operation and grace. Men, however, partake and become partakers of the divine nature, all those who partake of the holy body of Christ and drink His blood. For it is united to the Godhead by hypostasis, and the two natures are united in the body of Christ which we partake of, inseparably by hypostasis. And we partake of both natures: of the body corporeally, [and] of the Godhead spiritually—or rather both in both ways. Not that we are identified by hypostasis (for we exist first, and then are joined), but by the ^B tempering of blood and body. And how are they not greater than the angels, who through the keeping of the commandments preserve this pure and inviolate union? Our nature, whether because it is mortal or because of the dense constitution of the body, is inferior to the angels; but by the kindness and union of God, it has become greater than the angels. For angels stand by it with fear and trembling, as it sits upon the throne of glory in Christ, and they will be present, struck with terror, in the judgment; they were not [described by Scripture] as sitting with ^C it, nor were they called partakers of the divine glory. "For are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" (Hebr. I, 14). Nor that they will reign together, nor that they will be glorified together, nor finally that they will sit at the table of the Father. But the holy are sons of God, sons of the kingdom, and heirs of God, and co-heirs of Christ (Rom. VIII, 17). Therefore I venerate the holy, and I praise with like honors the servants, and friends, and co-heirs of Christ: servants, I say, by nature; friends, by the purpose of free will; and sons and heirs, by divine grace, as the Lord said when speaking to the Father (Joan. XVII, 22).

Having spoken, therefore, about the image, we must now speak ^D of adoration; and first, what adoration is.

On adoration. What adoration is.

27. Adoration is thus a sign of subjection, that is to say, of submission and humiliation. But there are many modes of adoration.

How many modes of adoration there are.

28. The first mode of adoration is that which is by

^A way of service; for all created things adore Him ^B as servants adore their Master; for the Scripture says, "For all things are Thy servants" (Ps. CXVIII, 91); and some adore Him willingly, others unwillingly; some, indeed, who are religious, adore Him willingly with knowledge, while others, though they recognize Him, adore Him unwillingly and against their will, like the demons; others, again, not knowing Him who is by nature God, adore Him unwillingly, Him whom they do not know.

29. The second mode is that which we offer through admiration and affection, in which way we adore God on account of His natural glory. For He alone possesses glory, which He has from no one, but He Himself is the cause of all glory and of every good; as being incomprehensible light, ineffable sweetness, incomparable beauty, an abyss of goodness, unsearchable wisdom, infinite power; being, therefore, the only one who of Himself is worthy to be admired, adored, praised, and desired. ^B

30. The third mode is that of thanksgiving for the good things that have come to us. For all things that exist owe thanks to God, and owe Him perpetual adoration, because all things have their being from Him and subsist in Him (Colos. I, 17), and He imparts His gifts abundantly to all, even without being asked, and wills that all should be saved (1 Tim. II, 4) and partake of His goodness; and He is long-suffering towards us when we sin; and He makes His sun to rise on the just and the unjust, and rains upon the good and the evil (Matth. V, 45). And furthermore, because the Son of God became like us for our sake, and made us partakers of the divine nature (II Petr. I, 4), so that "we shall be like Him," as John the Theologian says in his Catholic Epistle (I Joan. III, 2). ^C

31. The fourth mode is that which is by way of need and the hope of benefits; whereby, recognizing that we can do nothing without Him, nor possess any good, we adore Him, each of us asking from Him that which he feels he is in need of, and what he desires, whether it be to be delivered from evils, or to obtain good things.

32. The fifth mode is that of repentance and confession; for when we sin, we adore and fall down before God, begging for the forgiveness of our trespasses, as good and grateful servants. And this mode is also threefold. For it is either because of love... ^D

and desire for God Himself, and an affection of the soul; the second is mercenary; and the third is servile ^A. How many things we find in Scripture to which adoration is offered, and in how many ways we offer adoration to creatures.

33. First, indeed, are those in whom God, who alone is holy, finds rest, and rests in the saints, as in the blessed Theotokos and all the saints. These are they who have made every effort to become like unto God, both by their own deliberate choice and by the indwelling and cooperation of God; who are truly called gods, not by nature, but by institution; just as ignited iron is called fire, not by nature but by institution, and by participation in fire. For He says: "Be ^B holy, for I am holy." This comes first from the choice of the will; then, to everyone who chooses the good, God cooperates for the perfecting of the good; then, "I will dwell in them, and walk among them," and, "We are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us." Furthermore: "He gave them power against unclean spirits, so as to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity." And, "What I do, you also will do, and greater than these you will do." Furthermore: "As I live, says the Lord, those who glorify me I will glorify." And, "If we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him." And, "God stood in the congregation of the gods; in the midst, He judges ^C the gods." Just as, therefore, they are truly gods, not by nature, but as participants of Him who is God by nature, so they are likewise to be adored: not because they are to be adored by their own nature, but because they have within themselves Him who is to be adored by His own nature. Ignited iron, by its own nature, is not such that it cannot be touched, but because it has become a participant of fire, whose nature it is to burn. They are adored, therefore, in so far as they have obtained glory from God, and because they have received from Him that they should be terrible to adversaries and beneficial ^D to those who fly to them for refuge: indeed, as God's servants and ministers, who because of their love for Him have free access to Him. Wherefore we adore them, because the King Himself is honored when his servant, whom He loves, is seen to be adored, not as a king, but as an obedient minister and a benevolent friend; and they who approach with faith receive their petitions, whether the servant asks this from the King, or whether the King accepts the honor and the faith of one who asks from His servant; for he has asked in His name. Thus, through the apostles, those who approached Jesus were healed. Thus the shadow, and the handkerchiefs, and the aprons of the apostles brought forth healings. But as many as wish to be adored as gods in a rebellious and apostate manner, these are not to be adored, and are worthy of eternal fire. And as many as

^A with a disdainful and proud spirit do not adore the servants of God, they are condemned as arrogant and proud, and indeed as impious toward God Himself. I call as witnesses those children who, shouting in contempt against Elisha, were torn apart by bears 15.

34. The second mode is that by which we adore created things, through which and in which God has wrought our salvation, whether before the coming of the Lord or after His incarnate dispensation; such as Mount Sinai, and Nazareth, the manger in Bethlehem, and the cave, the holy Golgotha, the wood of the Cross, the nails, the sponge, the reed, the holy and saving lance, the garment, the tunic, the linens, the swaddling clothes, the holy tomb, the source of our resurrection, the stone of the tomb, Sion the holy mountain, again the Mount of Olives, the Sheep Pool, and the sacred garden of Gethsemane. These and such things I revere and adore, and every holy temple of God, and everything by which God is named—not because of their own nature, but because they are vessels of divine energy, and through them and in them God has saw fit to work out our salvation. ^B For also angels, and men, and all matter participant in divine energy, and having ministered to my salvation, I revere and adore because of the divine energy. I do not adore the Jews; for they are not participants in divine energy, nor with the intention of my salvation did they crucify the Lord of glory, my God, but rather out of envy and hatred toward the God who had merited well of them, they were moved. "Lord, I have loved the beauty of thy house, and the place of the habitation of thy glory," says David 16. And: "Adore at the place where his feet have stood 17." And: "Adore at his holy mountain 18." The holy and animate mountain of God is the holy Theotokos; the mountains of God endowed with reason are the apostles: "The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like lambs of the flock 19."

35. The third mode is that by which we adore things consecrated to God, I mean the holy Gospels and the other books: "For they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come 20." Likewise, patens and chalices, censers, lamps, and tables, for it is clear that ^C all these are worthy of reverence; for see how, when Baltassar caused the people to be served with the sacred vessels, ^D God destroyed his kingdom 21.

36. The fourth mode is that by which those images which were seen by the prophets are adored (for in an imagistic manner...

naria visione Deum cernebant), and the images of things to come, such as Aaron’s rod ^A signifying the mystery of the Virgin, and the jar, and the table. And Jacob worshipped at the top of the rod, which was a figure of the Saviour. And images of things that have taken place exist as a memorial; but the tabernacle itself was an image of the whole world. For God said to Moses: "See the exemplar that was shown to you on the mountain." In like manner, the golden Cherubim, a molten work, and the Cherubim on the veil were a woven work. Thus also we worship the precious sign of the Cross, and the likeness of the bodily character of my God, and of her who gave birth to him according to the flesh, and of all his servants.

37. The fifth mode is that by which we worship one another, as we are partakers ^B of God and have been created in the image of God, and, humble towards one another, we fulfill the law of charity.

38. The sixth mode is that which we show to those set in principalities and powers. For he says: "Render to all their dues: honor to whom honor is due." Thus Jacob worshipped his brother Esau, who was older by birth, and Pharaoh, a ruler appointed by God.

39. The seventh mode is that by which servants worship their masters, and those who benefit from benefactors, and those in need from those who can help them, as Abraham worshipped the sons of Hemor, when he bought the double cave from them.

40. Finally, to speak briefly, worship ^C is a symbol of fear, and love, and honor, and also of submission and humility. But one must not worship anyone as God, except the one who is by nature God, but one must render to all their due honor for the sake of the Lord.

41. Consider how much strength, and what kind of divine energy, is given to those who approach the images of the saints with faith and a pure conscience. Wherefore, brothers, let us stand upon the rock of the faith and the traditions of the Church, not moving the boundaries which our holy Fathers have set; not giving place to those who are desirous of new things, and who ^D strive to demolish the building of the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of God. For if license of such a kind is given to anyone who wishes it, the whole body of the Church will gradually be destroyed. By no means, brothers, by no means, beloved children of the Church; spare the modesty of your mother. Do not despoil her of her adornment. Receive her, for she speaks to you through me. Learn what God says concerning her: "Thou art all fair, my beloved, and there is no blemish in thee."

^A Let us adore and worship the Creator and Maker alone, as God to be worshiped by nature. Let us also adore the holy Theotokos, not as God, but as Mother of God according to the flesh; further, let us adore the saints as chosen friends of God, and as those who possess boldness of access to Him. For if men adore kings—often corruptible, impious, and sinful—as well as the magistrates appointed by them, and their images, in accordance with the divine apostolic maxim: "Be subject to principalities and powers," ^B and "Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor," and as the Lord saith, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s"—how much more ought we to adore the King of Kings, who alone is Lord by nature, and His servants and friends, who have reigned over the passions and have been established as rulers of all the earth? "For Thou shalt make them princes over all the earth," says David. They have received authority against demons and diseases, and shall reign with Christ in an incorruptible and indissoluble kingdom; for their very shadow once drove away diseases and demons. Let us not, therefore, deem the image weaker or more dishonorable than a shadow; for it truly portrays the prototype. Brothers, the Christian is defined by faith. Therefore, he who approaches with faith shall gain much, but he who wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed; he shall receive nothing. For all the saints through faith pleased God. Let us, then, receive the tradition of the ^C Church in uprightness of heart, and not in many reasonings. "For God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes." Let us not accept to learn a new faith, as if the tradition of the holy Fathers were condemned. For the divine Apostle says: "If any man preach to you a gospel other than that which you have received, let him be anathema." We adore the images, then, not offering adoration to the material, but through them to those who are depicted in them. "For the honor of the image passes to the prototype," as the divine Basil says.

42. ^D As for you, O most holy flock of Christ, O people distinguished by the name of Christ, O holy nation, O body of the Church, may Christ Himself fill you with the joy of His resurrection, and may He make you worthy, as you tread in the footsteps of the holy pastors and teachers of the Church, to attain to His glory in the splendors of the saints.

May it be granted to us to attain to this by His grace, praising Him forever with the Father who is without beginning, to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Having spoken concerning the distinction between idols and images, and having taught the definition of images, it is time that we present the testimonies, as we promised.

Testimonies of ancient and approved holy Fathers in favor of images.

^A From St. Dionysius, Bishop of Athens, from the letter to John the Apostle and Theologian. « Visible things are truly manifest images of invisible things. »

From the same, from the book on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. « But the substances and orders that are above us, which I have already mentioned as sacred, are incorporeal; and their sacred teaching is spiritual, and superior to the world. But our own, because of the variety of sensible signs, we see multiplied in a manner consonant with us; by these, however, as is fitting for a sacred teaching, we are raised up, according to our measure, to the uniform grace of the granted divinity, and even to God and divine virtue. They, indeed, as being minds, understand as far as it is permitted them; but we, through sensible images, are led forward, as far as is possible, to divine contemplations. »

^B

Commentary.

From St. Basil, from the sermon on the blessed martyr Barlaam, the beginning of which is: « Primum quidem sanctorum mors, » and towards the end of the sermon.

« Arise now, O excellent painters of brave deeds! Magnify with your arts the image of the general which has been cut short. Make brilliant with the colors of your wisdom the crowned victor whom I have depicted more obscurely. May I depart vanquished by you through your painting of the martyr's noble deeds. May I rejoice today to be overcome by such a victory through your dexterity. Let me behold the hand that fought against the fire depicted more accurately. Let me behold the athlete described more elegantly on your tablet. Let the demons also mourn now, struck by your painting of the martyr's noble deeds. Let the burning, victorious hand be shown to them again. Indeed, let Christ, the judge of the contests, be painted on your tablet. » ^D

VARIOUS READINGS

From the same, from his discourse on the forty holy martyrs.

From the same, from his Thirty Chapters on the Holy Spirit to Amphilochius, eighteen responses.

Commentary.

From Saint Gregory of Nyssa, from a discourse delivered at Constantinople, concerning the divinity of the Son and the Spirit, and on Abraham, discourse 44, which begins: “What happens to those who are fond of viewing the blooming meadows,” and a little further on.

From Saint John Chrysostom, from the commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews.

colors itself. The things themselves finally point to the future age. Therefore, the Old Testament is the figure of a figure; but the New Testament is the figure of the realities themselves.

From Severianus, Bishop of Gabala, from a sermon on the dedication of the precious and life-giving Cross.

^B “How, then, did the image of the cursed thing bring salvation to the people who were tossed about by disasters? Would it not have been more credible to say: ‘If any of you is bitten, let him look up to heaven toward God, and he shall be saved,’ or ‘to the tabernacle of God’? But, overlooking these, he set up only the image of the Cross. Why, then, did Moses do these things, he who had previously said to the people: *You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor a molten image, nor any likeness of those things which are in heaven above, or which are in the earth beneath, or which are in the waters under the earth?* But why do I say these things to an ungrateful people? Tell me, O most faithful minister of God, what you forbid to others, do you yourself do? What you tear down, do you set up? You who command, ‘You shall not make a graven image,’ you who smashed the molten calf, do you yourself fashion a serpent of bronze? And that not secretly, but openly and visible to all? But those things, he says, I commanded in the law, that I might cut off the roots of impiety and lead the people away from all apostasy and idolatry. But now I cast the serpent for a useful purpose, to prefigure the truth. And just as I erected the tabernacle, and all things that are in it, and also the Cherubim, a likeness of the invisible things, I spread out in the Holy of Holies, that they might be a type and shadow of things to come, so also I set up the serpent for the salvation of the people, that by the experience of these things they might be better trained to receive the image of the sign of the Cross, and to receive the crucified Savior and Redeemer. That this is most true you will perceive, dearest one, if you listen to Christ confirming it and saying in these words: *And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have everlasting life.*”

Comment.

From the Life of Saint John Chrysostom.

weakness of his body, for a short time; for he was keeping more vigils than nature allows. And when he was going through his Epistles, he would gaze intently at it, and would attend to it as if he were alive; praising him, he kept his whole mind directed toward it, imagining him and conversing with him through contemplation.” And after a few words: “When Proclus had ceased speaking, having gazed at the icon of the Apostle and having seen his likeness, similar to the one he had seen, he offered reverence to John, and pointing with his finger to the icon, he said: ‘Forgive me, Father; he whom I saw speaking with you is like this one; so I suppose that it is he himself.’”

From the Religious History of Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus, in the Life of Saint Simeon the Stylite.

“For it is superfluous to speak about Italy. For they say that in the most ample city of Rome this man was so celebrated, that in the vestibules and above the doorways of all the workshops they set up small icons of him, from which they procured for themselves a certain protection and security.” ^B

Of Saint Basil, from his commentary on Isaiah.

“As soon as he saw man, who was fashioned unto the image and likeness of God, since he could not turn his strength against God, he poured out his own malice against the image of God. Just as if someone, being overcome by anger, were to stone an icon, since he cannot reach the emperor, he strikes the wood that bears the likeness.”

Comment: In a similar way, whoever honors an icon, he is clearly honoring the archetype.

Of the same, from the same commentary.

“For just as he who has treated an imperial icon with indignity is judged as having sinned against the emperor himself, so clearly he is guilty of sin who treats with indignity one who has been fashioned in the image [of God].” ^C

Of Saint Athanasius, from the one hundred chapters written to Antiochus the prefect, by way of question and answer, chapter 38.

Answer: “We faithful do not worship the icons as gods ^D […].”

God forbid!—but we manifest only the relationship and the longing of our love toward the character of the person depicted in the icon. Hence, when the character is worn away, we burn the wood as useless material, as we would any other. Therefore, just as Jacob, when he was about to die, worshipped at the tip of Joseph’s staff, ^A not honoring the staff itself but Him who held it, so we Christians honor the icons in no other way, just as we often kiss our children and parents, in order that we might manifest the longing of our soul. For just as the Jew worshipped the tablets of the Law and the two golden, carved Cherubim, not by honoring the nature of the stone and gold, but the Lord Himself who had commanded them to be made.”

Saint Chrysostom, on the Third Psalm, on David and Absalom.

“Imperators erect triumphal statues for their generals by whose aid victory has been obtained; and leaders erect for charioteers and athletes certain pillars adorned with the insignia of victory, and by an inscription, as if with a crown, they make the material a herald of the victory. Others again describe the praises of the victors in books and writings, desiring that their own force in speaking be shown to be superior to the courage of those whom they praise. And scribes, painters, sculptors, peoples, leaders, cities, and regions hold their victors worthy of admiration. But no one has ever painted the icons of one who flees or declines battle.” ^B

Saint Cyril of Alexandria, from the Allocution to the Emperor Theodosius.

“Moreover, icons are similar to their archetypal patterns; for it is right that they should be thus, and not otherwise.”

Of the same, from the Treasures.

“For icons always keep a relationship of likeness to their archetypes.”

Of the same, from the work, ‘That in all the volumes of Moses the mystery of Christ is indicated; on Abraham and Melchizedek, chapter 6.’

“It is altogether necessary that icons be painted according to their archetypes.”

Saint Gregory Nazianzen, from the second oration on the Son.

“For such is the nature of an icon, to be an imitation of the archetype of which it is said to be the icon.” ^C

Chrysostom, from the third homily on the Epistle to the Colossians.

“The icon of an invisible thing is itself also invisible, otherwise it would not be an icon. For the icon, inasmuch as it is an icon, must—even among us—be without variation, being that which is the expressed figure of the likeness.” ^D

^A From the same, from the commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. xvii. “Just as in icons the icon bears the figure of the human, but not his strength; so the truth and the figure share in one another, for the figure is equal.”

Eusebius of Pamphilus, from the fifth book of the Evangelical Demonstrations, on the text: “God appeared to Abraham by the oak of Mambre.” ^B

“Whence, even now, among those dwelling thereabouts, as if it were a divine place, it is venerated in honor of those who appeared there to Abraham, and the terebinth that remains to this day is still looked upon, and those who were received as guests by Abraham are set forth in a painting: two on either side, and in the middle the superior one, excelling in honor. This should be taken to be the Lord Himself, our Savior, whom even the ignorant worship, being confirmed by the divine oracles. For this very One, Himself, sowing from that time the seeds of piety among men, putting on human appearance and form, revealed Himself to the God-loving forefather Abraham, whoever he might have been, and delivered to him the knowledge of the Father.”

From the Chronography of John ^C of Antioch, also called Malalas, concerning the woman with the issue of blood, and the statue which she erected to Christ the Savior.

“From that time also John the Baptist became manifest to men, and Herod beheaded him.”

^D NOTE (28) Zinus: who believe in divine oracles. But I hold it for certain that these were neither Jews nor Christians, but pagans or Idumeans, who held to ancient tradition rather than believing the sayings of Scripture.

(29) From the Chronography of John. Concerning the statue at Paneas, the uncertain author of the Chronographic Demonstration of the origins of Constantinople, which Combefis published in his *Manipulus*, reports it as received from Eusebius and John, whom he calls the Hesitant, or of the sect of the Acephali; whom he subsequently claims to have revealed that that woman with the issue of blood was named Berenice. Whence it is necessary either that John the Hesitant wrote similar things, or that this anonymous author did not differ from John Malalas, a writer of a later age. For the history of the Hesitant, as Photius witnesses, cod. 41, began from the reign of Theodosius the elder, and did not extend beyond the times of Justin I; whence it appears he was none other than John the Rhetor, whom Evagrius and others cite. But the history of Malalas extended from the beginning of the world until the death of Justinian the elder. Indeed, many things are cited here and there by authors as having been accepted from the Hesitant, which Malalas does not have. As far as I understand, what John Malalas recounts of Berenice, he received from Clement the historiographer, whom he cites a little later. Of this Clement, Suidas has this: he says, Clement the historian wrote of the Roman emperors and empires, and likewise to Jerome concerning the Isocratic figures, and other things. The most learned Hody argues that Clement wrote after the seventh century, because Combefis, in his annotations on the Anonymous just mentioned, in that place of the Origins of Constantinople where it is said that Clement handed down that the statues of the son of Constantius were similar to those of the Theodosians, conjectured that it was a discourse about Constantine Pogonatus, son of Constans. But it would have been more natural to attribute them to Constantine the Great, who is commonly called by the Byzantines *Constantine son of Constantius*, that is, Chlorus, as Codinus, page 7, [says]. Nowhere would you find Constans, the parent of Pogonatus, called Constantius without error; but well [would you find] Constantine, as we have said elsewhere. Moreover, I am advised by the most learned and friendly R. P. D. Anselmo Banduri that it should be read: *Clement says that the marble statues of various forms were of Constans son of Constantine*. The same Clement was cited by a certain Hesychius in a fragment which the celebrated Ducange gave in Greek and Latin after the *Chronicon Paschale*, in which almost the same words are read as those which Malalas had at the beginning of book X, *Of the nativity of the Lord*. Furthermore, that Hesychius did not copy Malalas, but is earlier than him, I would conclude from the fact that he affirms it to be the common opinion of authors that Christ was born six thousand years after the creation of the world, with very few assigning this to the year circa [the birth]. For at least from the end of the sixth century and thereafter, the common opinion in the East was that the Lord was born in the year of the world 5500, or 5504, or 5508, as is evident from Anastasius II of Antioch, hom. on the *Hexaemeron*, from the Quinisext Council, can. 5, from Saint Maximus, George Syncellus, Theophanes, and a certain unknown Eusebius, whose fragment

^A in the royal province of Trachonitis, in the city called Sebaste, he cut off on the 25th of May, in the consulship of Flaccus and Ruffinus. King Herod, the son of Philip, taking this ill, returned from Judea. And immediately a certain wealthy woman approached him, named Berenice, who dwelt in that same city of Paneas. For because she had been healed by Jesus, she desired to erect a statue to Him, but not daring to do so without royal permission, she gave a petition to King Herod, asking to erect a golden statue to Christ the Savior in her own city. Which petition was as follows: ^B “To Augustus Herod, toparch and lawgiver of both Jews and Greeks, King of Trachonitis, the petition and entreaty of Berenice, a distinguished woman of the city of Paneas. Justice and humanity, and the other virtues, crown your head like a wreath; wherefore, knowing this, I write to you, having conceived good hope of obtaining everything. What the reason for this introduction is, the course of the discourse will explain. ^C From my earliest youth I suffered from an issue of blood, and having exhausted my living and my wealth on physicians, I found no cure. But having heard of the miraculous healings of the wondrous Christ—how He raises the dead, calling them back to the light, and drives demons out of the bodies of mortals, and heals all who are wasted with disease by a word—I ran to Him as to God. And having considered the multitude that surrounded Him, fearing that, loathing the impurity of my ailment, He might be angry with me and the plague of my disease might become worse, I reasoned with myself that if I could but touch the fringe of His garment, I should be saved. And having touched it, the fountain of my blood was stanched, and I was made whole immediately. But He, as one who had foreseen the deliberations of my heart, cried out, ‘Who touched me? Power has gone out from me.’ Then I, turning pale and groaning, thinking that the disease would return upon me, more brazen, fell at His feet, and flooding the ground with tears, confessed my boldness. But He, as good and compassionate, pitying my plight, confirmed my healing with these words: ‘Take courage, daughter; your faith has saved you. Go in peace.’ ^D So you, too, O Augustus, grant a just request to me, a suppliant.” King Herod, having heard this through the petition, was struck by the greatness of the miracle, and reverencing the mystery of the healing, said, “Your healing, O woman, is worthy of a more excellent monument.”

NOTE. Curterius and Ducange received this from Anastasian sources, from the Alexandrian Chronicle, from John Malalas himself, and others, besides Julius Africanus, Clement, Theophilus, and Timothy, whom Hesychius himself and Malalas praise. Nor should the testimony of Abulfaraji be made much of, who says that Theophilus the astronomer of Roha, or Edessa, flourished around the year of Christ 785 and Hegira 169, and is held to be the author of this noble history. For the carelessness of Abulfaraji is too great for us, on his testimony alone, to believe that this Theophilus the astronomer was the parent of this noble history, or at least nothing presses us to concede that he is the very same one whom Hesychius and Malalas cited. As to what concerns Hesychius, why should he not be the same as Hesychius the Illustrious, who produced a history from Belus, king of the Assyrians, down to the times of the Emperor Anastasius? You may read more about Malalas in Cave, in his *Historia litteraria*, part II.

^A said: “The healing which has been wrought upon you, O woman, is worthy of a greater monument. Go, therefore, and erect to Him who healed you whatever statue you wish, so that you may celebrate His glory.” Immediately, therefore, Bernice, who had previously suffered from a flux of blood, erected in the middle of her own city of Paneas a bronze statue to the Lord God, made of cast bronze, mixed with gold and silver. This statue remains to this day in the city of Paneas, having been moved not long ago from the place where it stood in the middle of the city to a holy place, that is, to an oratory. This record was found in the city of Paneas, with a certain Bassus, who from a Jew had become a Christian; in which book the history of all the kings who ruled in the Judean land was written.

^B *From the seventh book of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphili, concerning the woman of Paneas who suffered from a flux of blood.*

“Since we have made mention of this city, I do not consider it fitting to omit an account which is truly worthy to be commended to the memory of posterity. For they say that that woman suffering from a flux of blood, whom we have learned from the holy Gospels was healed by our Savior, set out from there, and that her house is pointed out in that city, in which the miraculous trophies of the Savior’s beneficence toward her remain. For upon a high stone, before the doors of her house, a bronze figure of a woman is seen, inclined upon her knees, and with her hands stretched out in front of her, like one ^C supplicating; opposite her, of the same material, is an upright figure of a man, modestly clothed in a double garment, stretching out his hand to the woman. At the feet of this statue, on this same pedestal, grows a strange kind of herb, which, when it reaches to the hem of the bronze garment, proves to be a remedy for all diseases. They say that this statue represents the image of Jesus the Lord; and it has remained even to our times, as we were able to see for ourselves when we visited the city. And it is no wonder that those of old who had been benefited by our Savior from among the Gentiles should have done such things, since we have known that the images of the Apostles themselves, Peter and Paul, and of the Savior Himself, were depicted and preserved. As is likely, the ancients, being accustomed to the customs of the Gentiles without any scruples, were accustomed to honor Him in this fashion.”

*From the same author, from the ninth book of the same History, concerning the Emperor Constantine.*

^D “When he had fully perceived that he had been assisted by the help of God, he immediately commanded that the trophy of the saving passion should be placed in the hand of his own statue. And when they had erected it in the most public place of the city of Rome, holding the saving sign of the cross in its right hand, he caused this inscription to be added to it in the Latin tongue: ‘By this saving sign, which is the true proof of valor, I have rescued your city from the yoke of the tyrannical slavery, and restored it to its former freedom,’”

^A along with the Senate and the people of Rome, I rescued and restored them to their ancient dignity and splendor.”

From the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates, Book 1, Chapter 18, Concerning the Same Emperor.

“After this, the Emperor Constantine, having become more devoted to the Christian religion, turned away completely from the worship of the pagans, prohibited their singular contests, and placed his own images in the temples (30).”

Of Stephen of Bostra, Against the Jews, Chapter 4.

“We indeed set up the images of the saints for their remembrance, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Elijah, Zechariah, and the other prophets, and the holy martyrs of God who suffered death for His sake; that whoever looks upon their images may remember them, and with praises extol Him who rendered them worthy of glory.”

By the same.

“But as far as concerns images, we are confident that all things which are done in the name of God are good and holy: but as for idols and statues, away with them. For these are evil and spurious, just as those who make them. For it is one thing to have the image of a holy prophet, and ^B another to have a statue or effigy of Saturn, Venus, the Sun, and the Moon. Furthermore, since man was made in the image of God, he is therefore venerated. The serpent, however, because it is an image of the devil, is unclean and detestable. But if you reject things that are fashioned by human hands, tell me, I pray, O Jew: what thing is adored on earth that is not fashioned by human hand? The altar, the propitiatory, the Cherubim, the golden urn containing the manna, the table, the innermost tabernacle, and in short, all things which are called the Holy of Holies by God himself? Were not the hand-made Cherubim images of angels? What do you answer to these things? But if you call those things idols, what do you think should be said of Moses and Israel, who worshipped these things? Yet, adoration is a token of honor. Wherefore we also, though sinners, worship God with ^C divine adoration and the worship of *latria* which is due to Him alone, and we reverence Him as our Creator and Benefactor; but the angels and servants of God we reverence to the glory of God himself, as things created by God and subject to Him. For an image is the name and likeness of the one who is depicted in it. Wherefore, we always recall to memory the sufferings of the Lord and of the holy prophets, which are described in the Law and in the Gospels, both by letters and by the expressions of images.” ^D

NOTE.

(30) Of gods, indeed, or of idols; as Christopherson and Valesius have not incorrectly interpreted.

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, from his Oration against Julian the Apostate.

Saint John Chrysostom, from his Enarration on the Just Job.

From the Life of Saint Constantine, Book IV (ch. 15).

From the same, from the third book.

From the same, fourth book, ch. 69.

^A worthy of the empire. And they did not proclaim these things with shouts alone, but by proceeding to deeds, by the dedication of images, they honored him as one who was dead and yet living, as if he were still among the living. For they depicted the shape of heaven in the painting of colors, and they handed down to drawing him resting in the ethereal region above the vault of heaven.”

Of the same, chapter 73

Of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, and of Polychronius, from the exposition on Ezekiel

Of the same: “And you, son of man, take for yourself a brick, and set it before your face, and you shall trace upon it Jerusalem; and you shall place a surrounding wall around it, and you shall build bulwarks against it, and you shall cast a trench around it, and you shall place ^C camps around it, and you shall set up battering rams in a circle.”

Interpretation: If you are afraid to speak against the multitude, and to announce to them the plunder of the city, the destruction of the temple, and the calamities that are to follow from these things, indicate this to them by another method, that they might eventually come to their senses, and your own moderation become manifest. And taking, he says, a brick, describe the city. Let the name be inscribed upon it, so that it may be clear that it is Jerusalem. And in the circuit of the city that you have described, express the delineation of the wall; in which indeed is the multitude of the army. Then let the forces proceed in military order (for this is what the word ‘camps’ signifies), that is, prepared legions of soldiers: which are not only to be provided with weapons, ^D but also might bring forward the machines, by which these walls might be torn down—for these walls, I say—these ballistae and rams indicate. Furthermore, he indicates the multitude surrounding the city in an admirable manner, so that, by having struck terror into them before the calamities occur, he might persuade them to abstain from their sins.

^A *From the Martyrdom of Saint Eustathius, who was [also called] Placidas.*

Once, when he had gone out by custom on a certain day with his army and the entire gathering of his servants to hunt, he caught sight of a herd of deer grazing. And having divided the army, as was his custom, he began the hunt against them. While the entire army was occupied with the capture of the deer, the one that was by far the largest and most handsome of the whole herd, separating itself from the herd, rushed into the forest into the denser places of the woods and into impassable regions. When Placidas saw this and desired to capture it, he left everyone else behind and pursued it with only a few soldiers. When his companions grew weary, he alone persisted in the pursuit, and by the providence of God, neither his horse nor he himself grew exhausted by the roughness of the place, and pursuing it for a long time, he found himself far from his camp. While the deer was fleeing, upon his reaching the peak of a rock, with none of his companions with him, he stood looking around on all sides, considering in what way he might take the deer. But the all-wise and merciful God, who devises every way for the salvation of men, hunts him in this very hunt—not through the agency of Peter, as formerly with Cornelius, but rather like Saul the persecutor, by the manifestation of His own form. While Placidas stood for a long time, gazing intently at the deer and marveling at its size, yet being at a loss as to how to capture it, the Lord showed a miracle of such a kind—not implausible, nor exceeding the magnitude of His power; but just as He had put speech into the donkey in the case of Balaam ^B to rebuke his mindset, so too He reveals Himself here to him. Upon the horns of the deer [He showed] the form of the holy cross, shining more brightly than the sun, and between the horns the image of the God-bearing body, which He deigned to assume for our salvation; and having put a human voice into the deer, He calls to Placidas, saying: "O Placidas, why do you persecute Me? Behold, I have appeared here for your sake, and in this animal I have shown Myself to you. I am Jesus Christ, whom you worship in ignorance. For your good deeds, which you perform for those in need, have stood before Me, and I have come to reveal Myself to you through this deer, and to hunt you in return, and to take you in the nets of My philanthropy. For it is not just that one dear to Me on account of his good works should serve impure demons and dead and deaf idols. For this reason I have come to earth in this form, which you now see, wishing to save the human race." ^C

*From the [Work] of Saint Leontius of Neapolis in the island of Cyprus, from the fifth book Against the Jews.*

Come now, therefore, come eagerly, and let us make a defense for the depiction of the venerable icons, so that the mouths of the lawless, speaking unrighteous things, may be stopped; for this tradition is of the Law, and not... ^D

^A ours. For hear God himself saying to Moses to construct two Cherubim, images both sculptured and cast, which would overshadow the propitiatory. Again, God showed the temple to Ezekiel; it had, he says, sculptured faces of lions, and of palm trees, and of men, and of Cherubim, from its floor up to the ceiling of the roof. Truly, this is a fearful matter. God, who enjoined Israel not to make for themselves any sculptured thing, nor an image, nor any likeness of whatsoever is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, He himself commands Moses to make sculptured living creatures—Cherubim, I say—and to Ezekiel He shows the temple full of images and known sculptured forms: lions, and palm trees, and men. And Solomon, having taken the design from the Law, built the temple full of brazen sculptured oxen, palm trees, and men, and he was not reproached by God for this. If, therefore, you wish to condemn me regarding images, condemn first God, who ordered these things to be made so that there might be a reminder of Him among us. ^B

The same, from the fifth book

Again, they mock us regarding the precious cross and the sign and adoration of the divinely-imprinted icons, calling us, the most ungodly, idolaters and worshipers of wood. But if I am a "wood-worshipper," as you say, O godless one, then I am certainly also a polytheist. And if I am a polytheist, I would surely have to swear by saying: "By the gods," just as you, once beholding a single calf, were saying: "These are your gods, O Israel." But you would not be able to assert that such an oath has ever been heard from the mouths of Christians. But it is the custom of the adulterous and faithless Synagogue to defame the most chaste Church of Christ as a harlot. ^C

The same.

For neither do we adore the shapes, images, and figures of the saints as gods. For if we adored a wooden image as God, we would certainly show the same worship to other pieces of wood, and we would not, as often happens, burn an image if its form were obliterated. And again, as long as the timbers of the cross remain joined together, I adore that form on account of Him who was crucified upon it; but when they have been separated from one another, I cast them away and burn them. And ^D just as he who receives the signed edict of an emperor, and kisses the seal, does not venerate the clay, or the paper, or the lead, but rather renders honor and adoration to the emperor, so also we Christians, in adoring the form of the cross, do not look to the material of the wood, but rather to the seal, the ring, and the character of Christ Himself, and through them we salute and adore Him who was affixed to the cross.

^A Likewise, for this reason I depict and delineate Christ and the sufferings of Christ in churches, in houses, in public squares, in icons, on linens, in inner chambers, on garments, and in every place, so that by seeing them continually we may be reminded and may not forget, as you have always forgotten the Lord your God. And as you, in worshiping the book of the Law, do not worship the nature of the parchment and the ink, but the words of God inscribed within it, so too do I worship the icon of Christ, not the nature of the wood and the pigments—far be it!—but by worshiping the inanimate character of Christ, through it I think I am grasping and worshiping Christ Himself. And as Jacob, having received from the brothers of Joseph the many-colored tunic soaked in blood, when they sold Joseph, ^B kissed the tunic entirely with tears and placed it before his own eyes, not lamenting the garment, but thinking that through it he was kissing Joseph himself and holding him in his hands; so also we, the children of Christians, when we kiss the icon of Christ, or of an apostle, or of a martyr, in the flesh, we think in our soul that we are kissing that very Christ or His martyr... And as I have often said, the intent is examined in every salutation and in every act of worship. But if you accuse me, saying that I worship the wood of the cross, why do you not accuse Jacob, who worshiped at the top of Joseph’s staff? But it is manifest that he did not worship because he honored the wood, but through the wood he worshiped Joseph, ^C just as we do through the cross to Christ. For Abraham also worshiped the impious men from whom he bought the tomb, and bowed his knee to the ground, but he did not worship them as gods. And again, Jacob blessed Pharaoh, who was impious and an idolater, and Esau seven times, but not as God. See how many salutations and how many acts of worship I have shown you, both scriptural and natural, which contain no cause for blame? Yet when you see me worshiping an icon of Christ, or of his all-pure Mother, or of a saint, you are immediately indignant and blaspheme, and shrink away, and call me an idolater; and are you not ashamed? And do you not tremble and blush when you see me ^D day after day in all the world demolishing the temples of idols and raising up temples to the martyrs? If I worship idols, why do I honor the martyrs who demolished the idols? And if I glorify wood, as you claim, how do I honor the saints who burned the wooden statues of the demons? And if I glorify stones, how do I glorify the apostles who smashed the stone idols? If I revere the images of the falsely-named gods, how do I glorify, and praise, and celebrate the festivals of the children who contended in Babylon and did not worship the golden image, that idolatrous one? But truly great is the blindness and great the darkness of the lawless. O Jew, great is the imp-

impudence of your wickedness; truly the truth is unfairly suppressed by you. ^A *Arise, O God, judge your own cause; judge and decide our case against a nation that is not holy, but unholy and alien, and that provokes you at every turn.*

From the same. «If therefore, as I have often said, I were to worship wood and stone, I would certainly say to the wood and stone: *You have brought me forth.* But if I venerate the images of the saints, or rather, if I venerate and honor the saints themselves and the struggles of the saints, how, you senseless man, do you call these idols? For idols are likenesses of those who were falsely named, the adulterers, the murderers, the sacrificers of children, and the effeminate, not of the prophets and apostles. And in order that I might provide for you a brief and most certain example by which to understand what parity exists between Christian and Greek images, listen. In Babylon, the Chaldeans had instruments of every kind of music by which they worshiped the images of demons. ^B The children of Israel, taken from Jerusalem, also had instruments, which they hung upon the willows; both were instruments—harps, and citharas, and pipes—but these were for the glory of God, whereas those were emulations of likenesses belonging to the worship of demons. Think, then, that there is the same distinction between the images of Christians and the idols of the Gentiles: these were fashioned for the glory and memory of the devil, while those were fashioned for the glory of Christ, and his apostles, and martyrs, and saints.»

From the same. «When, therefore, you see a Christian worshiping the cross, know that he does so for the sake of Christ, who was crucified, and not that he worships the nature of the wood. Otherwise we would worship all the wood of the field, just as Israel used to worship the groves and trees, saying: *You are my God, and you have brought me forth.* ^C We, however, do not do so, but we keep in the churches and houses the remembrance and depiction of the Lord’s passion, and of those who have contended for him, doing everything for the sake of our Lord. And again, tell me, O Jew, what Scripture permitted Moses to show reverence to Jethro, his father-in-law, who was an idolater; or Jacob to Pharaoh; or Abraham to the sons of Emmor? And were they not righteous men and prophets? And what permitted Daniel to show reverence to the impious Nebuchadnezzar? And if they did these things for the sake of a worldly and temporary life, why do you reproach me because I reverence the sacred memorials of the saints, expressed either by writing or by painting—their sufferings and struggles, by which I am daily benefited and await an everlasting and eternal life?» ^D

From the Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret, volume four.

«Under this consulship, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of December, a terrible and great miracle took place, which...»

- ^A awe which strikes the ears of all men. For a certain man named Olympius, who was accustomed to walk with a skip beside the pack-horse of Euthymius, the leader of the Arian faction, was in the bathing-hall of the Helenian palace. In the tepidarium, seeing some of those who were bathing glorifying the faith of the consubstantial Trinity, he spoke to them in these words: "What, indeed, is the Trinity? And on what wall is it not inscribed?" And taking hold of his private parts with his hand, he said, "Behold, I also have a Trinity." For this reason, those who were present were so roused in their minds that they would have immediately done away with him, had they not been restrained by a certain Magnus, a presbyter of the Church of the Holy Apostles within the precinct of the wall—a man of wondrous character and a servant of God—who said to them that this could not escape the eye of the judge who sees all things and who carefully records every single deed. ^B Therefore, when the crowd had quieted down out of reverence for the man, Olympius rose, and after using the hot baths as was the custom, he went out to the basin of cold water, which receives the water from a spring flowing from the middle of the sacred altar of the holy house of the first martyr Stephen, which in days of old was built by Aurelian, who was illustrious in high official dignities; hence I believe that water is worthy to be regarded by God himself. When he had descended into it, he immediately returned, crying out with a wail: "Have mercy on me, have mercy on me!" And scratching his own flesh with his nails, he tore it from his bones. Everyone gathered around him, and having seized him, they wrapped him in a linen sheet and laid him down as he was breathing his last. ^C When they asked him what could have happened, Olympius said: "I saw a man clothed in white garments, who stood by the basin and poured three buckets of hot water over me, saying, 'Do not be a blasphemer.'" Then those who were connected with him by necessity took him up on a litter and carried him to another bath adjacent to the Arian church. But when they wanted to unwrap the sheet from him, they tore away all his flesh with it, and in this way, having been killed, he gave up his spirit. This event became known throughout almost the whole of the Queen of Cities. Some spread the report about the one who had suffered this, that some time ago he had changed from the religion that glorifies the consubstantial Trinity and had been rebaptized into the worship of the Arians. Now, when this matter reached the ears of the Emperor (who was, moreover, Anastasius), he ordered that the miracle be depicted in colors on a tablet and fixed in the upper part of the basin. Furthermore, a certain John, a deacon and advocate of the aforementioned holy house of Stephen, the first of the martyrs—a man who, if any other, showed zeal at all times for defending the dogma of the consubstantial Trinity—he himself also had it recorded in an image, but not simply; for he recorded the names of those who were bathing there at the time and who saw it, and where each one lived, and moreover, those who served at the waters.

- ^A etas and folly of those who accuse our divine images. But the image continues to bear witness to this day, fixed in the porch of the tetrastyle, the oratory often mentioned. And since one miracle followed another, it is not right to overlook notice of it, as it belongs to the same subject; which, even though it occurred in a later time, I shall not hesitate to relate.

For when those who stood on the side of Arius saw that the triumph was enduring, they plied him to whom the care of the Helenian palace was entrusted with constant entreaties, that he, as prefect of the bath’s administration, should remove and hide the image. He, finding an easy pretext—that the image was being spoiled by the moisture of the water—claimed that he had removed and hidden it for its preservation and restoration. But when the emperor was inspecting all the royal places, ^B he came to this place also, inquired for the image, and ordered it to be fixed to the wall again.

Then, immediately, a certain divine indignation seized Eutychianus—for such was the name of that household overseer—so that his right eye flowed out, and his other limbs were shaken by a grievous affliction. This was the cause of his coming to the sacred oratory, where a portion of the holy relics of the blessed Pantaleon and Marinus is preserved. This oratory is called Homonoia, that is to say, Concord, because the hundred and fifty bishops, under the Emperor Theodosius the Great, ^C gathered there and, with a unanimous and concordant sentence, asserted the consubstantiality of the divine Trinity and declared the Lord’s assumption of humanity from the Virgin.

He remained there for about seven days, and as he received no relief, but on the contrary, both testicles were being consumed, in the middle of a certain night, the subdeacon whose turn it was to keep watch there saw in a dream a certain king standing by, who, pointing with his hand at the sick man, said: "Why did you receive this man? Who brought him here? This is he who conspired with those who speak evil of me. This is he who hid the image of the miracle." The cleric, rising, recounted what he had seen in his sleep, saying that it was impossible ^D for this man to be healed of this plague.

But Eutychianus, as if forced into sleep by the intensity of the pains, saw a certain young eunuch, clothed in a shining garment, saying these words to him: "What is the matter with you?" When he had replied that he was perishing with wasting, and could find no remedy, he heard him saying: "No one can help you, because the king is very angry with you." Then the sick man said: "Whom then shall I entreat, or what shall I do?" He, in turn, replied: "If you wish to obtain relief, go as quickly as possible to the baths of the Helenians, and rest near the image of the burned Arian." Immediately awakening, he called one of his attendants. They were astonished, for three days had already passed, and he was held by a loss of speech. And he said to them to take him there, as he had been ordered. Having arrived at the place and toward the

^A imaginem positus exspiravit. Nam qui visus fuerat, animæ a corpore sejunctionem per morbi relaxationem citra mendacium significarat.

Of Saint Anastasius from the holy Mount Sinai.

From the Life of Saint Symeon the Wonderworker, a narrative by Arcadius, Archbishop of Cyprus; miracle one hundred and thirty-second.

^A It came to pass, by the providence of God, that the man was not inside his house at that time. For they were eagerly seeking to lay hands on him, while some cried out one thing and some another. Their wickedness in the sight of God was indeed great and heavy, and their spite was measureless; driven by this, they had gathered there, thinking it a fitting time to rise up against the holy man and heap abuse upon him, as he had frequently exposed the unhealthy faith and error of the pagans among them. Since, therefore, they could not endure such frenzy, they commissioned one of the soldiers to climb the steps and cast down the image. But he, having ascended and stretched out his hands to carry out the order, immediately fell from that height to the ground and was broken; wherefore a great tumult arose in the crowd. Nevertheless, with inflamed spirits, they proceeded to send up another; and as he likewise stretched out his hands to pull down the image, he was in the same way dashed to the ground. When ^B this happened, everyone was struck with fear, and they began to sign themselves with the sign of the cross. But those faithless men, still raging, sent up a third for this same purpose, and as he also reached out his hands to cast down the image, he too fell to the ground in the same manner. Then a great fear came upon all the faithful who were standing by; and, astonished at the blindness and audacity of those faithless and impious men, they worshiped the image and, pouring out prayers, departed.

Of Saint John Chrysostom, from his sermon on the passage: "Know that you walk in the midst of snares."

^C Let us not, therefore, dearly beloved, be consumed by sorrow, nor let us faint in spirit at the present calamity; rather, let us admire the wise plan of God’s clemency. For the very things by which the devil hoped to destroy our city from its foundations, God used to raise it up and restore it. For the devil inspired certain lawless men to treat the statues of the emperors with dishonor, so that he might thereby destroy the very soil of the city.

The same. "But after these things were done with rash daring, and certain vile and most wicked men, having trampled upon the laws, cast down the statues and exposed all the rest to extreme and imminent danger; and now that we fear for our very lives because of the emperor’s wrath, the loss of our property no longer ^D troubles us; but, setting those things aside, I hear everyone saying on all sides: 'Let the emperor take our wealth, we will willingly yield our market-places and our houses, if only someone will promise to preserve our bodies unharmed.' Just as, therefore, when the fear of death did not yet loom over us, the loss of money used to bite us; so when these lawless acts were committed, the fear of death arrived and drove away the pain of the loss of our wealth."

The same. "For if someone is caught in a bandit’s den, even if he himself does not commit robbery, he shares in the same...

^A punishment; or are you unaware that he undergoes the same penalty as the robbers? But why do I mention the affairs of robbers? You yourselves surely all know and remember when certain wicked men and impostors among us threw down the statues; not only they themselves, but also those who had been dragged and brought to the tribunals merely because they were present at what occurred, paid the ultimate penalty."

Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, from the *Religious History*, concerning Macedonius the Asian. "It happened once that the city was driven into a frenzy by some evil demon, so that, as if a disease needed to be driven away, they foolishly vented their rage upon the imperial statues."

From the *Ecclesiastical History* of Theodore Lector of Constantinople, concerning a certain heretic, Palladius. ^B "But the bishop of Antioch, Palladius, courting the emperor’s favor, detested those who adhered to the holy dogmas of the Synod of Chalcedon; indeed, he even removed the images of the holy Fathers."

From the *Life of Saint Constantine*, book III, chapter 4. "Thus, for him, matters were proceeding in accordance with his wishes; but from another quarter, the malice of envy was disturbing the Churches of God in Alexandria, and stirring up schisms among the Thebans and the Egyptians, along with other no small evils, as they clashed with one another in every city, bishops against bishops and peoples against peoples, and all but coming to blows and raging to the point of mutual destruction. You might have seen men, bereft of their senses, attempting unspeakable deeds and insolently insulting the images of the emperors." ^C

From the *Ecclesiastical History*, concerning those who held the views of Dioscorus. "For he had reached such a degree of audacity that he even erased the names of the blessed pastors who had been there from the sacred diptychs, and tore down their images, burning them tyrannically."

From the same history, concerning the heretic who succeeded Macedonius in the see of Constantinople. "This unholy man, when going to the sacred assemblies, would order the holy houses to be searched, and if he found Macedonius depicted anywhere in an image, he would not perform the sacred rites before he had thrown it down." ^D

From the same history regarding Julian and Timothy ^A (also called Ailurus).

Some of those who delight in inciting disturbances report that this Julian had entered into an agreement with Bishop Timothy through the agency of the aforementioned Macedonius, and they relate the reason for this concord. Seizing him through his ministers, and while those in charge of civil affairs were also present in the episcopal house, he compelled him to subject the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon to anathema. But the old man, imploring the images of the deceased prelates who had been painted in Constantinople, Flavian and Anatolius, through whom the Council of Chalcedon had received its strength, cried out: "If you refuse to leave the decrees of the aforementioned holy synod alone, then take down the images of the bishops with anathema and wipe them out from the sacred diptychs."

From Saint Chrysostom, on Saint Flavian of Antioch.

"So the mob demonstrated what it is. For, following the impulses of an irrational leader, they surged against the imperial images and statues, and having cast them to the ground, they dragged them through the marketplace. For frenzy had turned their minds to rabidity, and anger had blinded their modest reflections."

From the same oration, where the words of Patriarch Flavian to the Emperor Theodosius the Great are recounted.

"We have sinned, O Emperor; we do not hide our crime, which even the created thing itself accuses. We do not deny the madness with which we raged against your images—or rather, more against ourselves—but as those already condemned, we await your humanity."

Again from the same oration, from the address of Saint Flavian.

"Do not destroy so many images for the sake of one bronze image. Do not shatter so many divine artifacts on account of one bronze work which could easily be melted down."

By the same, Chrysostom, that there is one author of the Old and New Testament; and ^A concerning the priest's raiment.

"I, too, am greatly delighted by a painting and an effigy which is crafted with molten wax, provided it displays piety. For in a painting I saw an angel pursuing ^B the ranks of the Barbarians, and the Barbarian cohorts being trampled; and I saw that this utterance of David is true: 'O Lord, in thy city thou shalt bring their likeness to nothing.'" ^C

VARIAE LECTIONES.

ON IMAGES ORATION III.

^A From the Saint Basil, in Praise of the Forty Martyrs. "Come then, bringing them into our midst through this recollection of ours, let us procure the common benefit from them for those who are here present, setting forth before all, as if in a painting, the courageous deeds of these men. For both orators and painters demonstrate valiant deeds in war; the former ornamenting them with speech, the latter engraving them upon panels, and both have stirred many to bravery. For what the historical narrative represents through the hearing, this the art of painting silently shows through imitation."

From Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, from his Poems. "Either do not teach at all, or teach by your conduct; Lest you entice with words, but drive away with your deeds; Less will you have need of speech, if you do what is necessary. A painter teaches more through printed forms."

Exposition of the same sentiment. "Unless you teach by conduct, he says, do not teach by word, so that you do not repel those whom you have enticed with words by your own depraved conduct. For if you do what is right, these very good works will hold the place of doctrine; just as painters for the most part teach through rendered images."

From the same. "Nor shall Polemon himself be kept in silence for me, For the wonder of things spoken of greatly Is spread everywhere through many discourses. He was at the first not of modest conduct, And a slave to base pleasures. But after ^B he was caught By the love of the good (I know not if his own, Or by the persuasion of some honest man), Immediately he so quenched all the flames Of his passions; this I shall place among his miracles, So that I should not be loath to recount it in words. A certain lustful young man had called a harlot. When, therefore, the harlot reached the threshold of the house, She saw Polemon depicted and prominent (For he was of distinct and very grave countenance), Overcome by the mere sight, she withdrew her foot, Having feared the painted man just as one endowed with life."

From Saint John Chrysostom, from his homily on the eighth chapter of the Epistle to Timothy. "But be an example of the faithful, in all things showing yourself a pattern of good works; that is, as an example of life, be as an image set forth in public."

From the acclamatory sermon of the holy sixth synod. "Again Nestorius, and again Coelestinus and Cyril. For the one divided and condemned Christ, but the others, taking the side of the Master, cast down the divider. Ephesus is these things, and the tablets of what was done there, through an unspoken voice, silently speak of the facts."

From the seventh book of the Stromata of the most ancient Clement, to Alexander.

^A "Therefore, he does not only praise what is good, but he himself strives to be good, passing from a good and faithful servant into a friend through love, by reason of the perfection of habit which he truthfully obtains through true discipline and frequent exercise; so that he moves toward nothing which does not lead to the pinnacle of knowledge. Then he applies himself to the adorning of his morals, composes the expression of his face, and provides himself with all those ornaments and gifts which befit the true Gnostic; and this he does through the constant contemplation of most beautiful images, consider, for instance, those many who were perfect before him. He contemplates the patriarchs, and likewise very many prophets, and countless angels, as many as one could calculate by number, and the Lord above all things, who taught and made it clear that it is by no means impossible for us to attain the same standard of living as those heights."

Of Saint Theodore, Bishop of Pentapolis.

"Again, there was a certain man of the first rank in that region, named Dion, who had adorned the temple of the holy martyr with many gifts, and had covered his altar with silver. One of his servants, however, having stolen a large sum of money from him, fled. Dion, indeed, did not pursue him, but going to the image of the martyr, he modeled the figure of that image in wax, and, with the confidence he had in the holy martyr, he fixed it at the threshold of his house. Immediately the servant, as if driven by someone, coming to his senses, returned to his master; nor was anything missing of what he had stolen. When this became known to everyone, even to this day, the inhabitants of that region observe the same custom against runaway slaves."

Of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, from the third book Against the Arians.

^C "But in truth, because the Son is the true offspring of the substance of the Father, He fittingly says that the things of the Father are His own. Wherefore, quite properly and consistently, having said, *I and the Father are one* [John X, 30], He added: *That you may know that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me* [John XIV, 11]. Likewise, He had said before: *He that sees me sees the Father* [Ibid. 9]. And there is one and the same meaning in these three statements. For he who has thus known that the Son and the Father are one, knows that He is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son; for the divinity of the Son is the Father’s, and it is in the Son. And he who has distinctly perceived this, understands that he who has seen the Son has seen the Father; for in the Son the divinity of the Father is contemplated. And this a person can understand more accurately from the example of the image ^D of the king. For in the image of the king, the form and the A appearance are [there]; and also in the king...

there is the appearance of the image. The likeness in the image of the king is identical, so that he who sees the image, sees the king in it, and he who, in turn, sees the king, recognizes that this is the one who is expressed in the image. Since the likeness does not differ, to one who wishes to behold the king after the image, the image might say to him: "I and the king are one thing. For I am in him, and he is in me; and what you see in me, this you see in him, and what you behold in him, you see in me; for he who worships the image, worships the king in it." For the image is his form and appearance. »

Of the same, to Antiochus the prefect.

• What do those who turn away and refuse to worship the characters of the saints—which are fashioned among us for the sake of remembrance—say to these things? »

Of Ambrose, bishop of Milan, to the Emperor Gratian, concerning the incarnate economy of the Word of God.

• "God before the flesh, and God in the flesh... But it is to be feared, you say, lest if we attribute two principal senses or a twofold wisdom to Christ, we seem to divide Christ. Does it follow then, that when we worship both his divinity and his flesh, we divide Christ? Or when, in him, we worship both the image of God and the cross, do we divide him? God forbid!" »

Of Cyril, Patriarch of Jerusalem, from the twelfth catechesis.

• If, therefore, you seek the cause of Christ's advent, recur to the first book of the Scriptures. In six days, God created the world, but the world was made for man. For the sun, very splendid and shining with rays, was made, as we were just saying, for the sake of man. And all animals were established so that they might serve us; the grasses and trees, for our own enjoyment. All of God's works were created good, but none of them—with the exception of man—is the image of God. The sun was produced by a command alone, but man was fashioned by divine hands. For it says: "Let us make man in our image and likeness." If a wooden image of an earthly king is honored, how much more so the rational image of God? »

Of Saint Basil to Saint Flavian, concerning the Samaritan woman.

• Our Lord corrects her, as she was deceived by the error of her gentile custom into believing that worship ought to take place in a certain place: "It is necessary," He says, "to worship in spirit and in truth," meaning, by that, Himself, who is the truth. Just as we say that we worship the Father in the Son, as in ^{B C D}

the image of God the Father, so also in the Spirit, inasmuch as He shows forth in Himself the divinity of the Lord.

Saint Gregory Nazianzen, on Baptism

Saint John Chrysostom on the Maccabees

Of the same, from the First Book Against Julian the Impious

Of the same, On the Basin

From the Fourth Oration of Severian of Gabala on the Holy Cross

^A venerate the symbol of the cross. For if, in the absence of an emperor, the image of the emperor occupies his place, and the nobles adore it, and festive months are observed, and magistrates go forth to meet it, and the common people adore it—not by looking at the board, but at the likeness of the emperor, whom one beholds not in his nature but as he is depicted in a painting—by how much more is the image of the immortal King able to shatter not only rock, but heaven and earth and the whole world.

From the Chronography of Isidore the deacon.

Theophilus sinned when he slandered John Chrysostom to Empress Eudoxia, saying that he held to the heresy of Origen; for the Augusta was angry with the aforementioned John on account of the widow’s vineyard. On account of this sin, Theophilus could not give up his soul until the image of Chrysostom was brought; and having adored it, he gave up the spirit (39).

Of Hieronymus the Priest of Jerusalem (40).

Since your scripture nowhere permits us to adore the cross, why then do you adore it? Answer us Gentiles and Greeks, and all who ask this of you. Response. For this reason, O foolish and senseless at heart, perhaps God permitted every nation that worships God to adore something on earth that is the work of human hands, so that they might no longer be able to reproach Christians regarding the cross and the adoration of images. For just as the Jew adored the Ark of the Covenant, and the two golden and molten Cherubim, and the two tablets which Moses carved, although he was nowhere ^C permitted by God to adore or kiss these things, so also we Christians do not adore the cross as God, but as showing the sincere disposition of our soul toward Him who was crucified.

Of the Great Symeon of the Wondrous Mountain (41), On Images.

Perhaps some contentious unbeliever will dispute, saying that we, too, in the churches... ^D and for us Christians, he granted both the cross, and to paint and adore the images of good works, and to show our work; even as God permitted every nation to adore things made by hand—to the Jews, those certain tablets which Moses carved out, and the two golden Cherubim. Thus, he has gifted us Christians with the cross, and with the images of good actions to be painted and adored, so that we might demonstrate our own work.

^A We do not worship images as if they were inanimate idols. Far be it from us to do such a thing. For the faith of Christians rests upon truth, and our God, who is not a liar, works miracles. We do not linger upon some colors, but, just as it happens in the representation of a letter, whereby something else is signified, so do we look upon the invisible in a painting, and praise Him as if He were present. We do not believe in that which is not God, but in Him who truly exists as God: nor do we believe that the saints are not saints, but that they truly are, and that they live with God, and that their spirits, being holy, ^B by the power of God, aid those who are worthy, as those who are in need of their assistance.

Anastasius, Archbishop of Antioch, to Symeon, Bishop of Bostra, On the Sabbath.

As when an emperor is absent, his image is worshipped, but when he is present, it is henceforth superfluous to leave him aside and worship the image instead of the original; and yet, because he is present, it is not fitting to dishonor the image for whose sake the original receives worship. I think something similar happened regarding the shadow or letter of the Law (for the Apostle calls it a shadow). For as long as the grace of truth was concealed, the saints set forth the types, seeing the truth as if in a mirror. But when the truth appeared, they judged it to be not right to live according to the types, or to follow them any longer. For the things themselves being present, the type of the thing henceforth becomes superfluous. ^C Yet, even so, they did not dishonor them, nor did they cast them aside; but rather, they honored the type, and they judged those who sought to dishonor them to be impious, and worthy of the punishment of bitter death.

Of the same, from the third oration.

Just as if someone, on account of the honor that is due to an emperor, should worship his image, even though it consists of nothing but wax and colors.

The twelfth anathema of the holy and ecumenical fifth council.

If anyone defends the impious Theodore of Mopsuestia, who says that God the Word is one, and Christ is another, being subject to the passions of the soul and the desires of the flesh, and progressing little by little from worse things, so that by the improvement of his actions he became better, and for his blameless life was confirmed, ^D and as a mere man was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and through baptism received the grace of the Holy Spirit and was deemed worthy of adoption; and that, like a royal image, he is to be worshipped as one bearing the person of God the Word: let him be anathema.

From the Ecclesiastical History of Theodorus, Historian of Constantinople, concerning Gennadius, Archbishop of Constantinople.

^A “I shall append other astounding things of the same nature concerning him. Both hands of a certain painter, who had painted an image of Christ the Lord, withered away. It was reported that, by the command of some pagan man, he had painted this work under the guise of the name of the Savior, in such a way that, with the hair parted on both sides of the face, the countenance was not at all covered (it was the very form in which the pagans paint Jove), so that by those who saw it, it might be thought that veneration was offered to the Savior.” ^B

Of the Abbot Maximus, and Theodosius the Bishop, and the dignitaries who had been sent by the Emperor.

“Saint Maximus said: ‘Since it has been decided that these things should come to pass, may God grant that the outcome of what has been seen may follow, and I will follow wherever you command.’ After this, they all rose up, and with tears they prostrated themselves, and a prayer was said; and each one of them kissed the holy Gospels, and the precious cross, and the image of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the holy Theotokos who bore Him, having placed their hands upon them for the confirmation of what had been spoken.” ^C

Of Saint Sophronius, from the Miracles of the holy martyrs Cyrus and John, concerning Theodorus the subdeacon, who was suffering from gout.

“Furthermore, we shall speak in a few words as to how health was granted to his body. A few days after this, while he was asleep, he saw the martyrs standing by again, who ordered him to follow them. And he followed them of his own accord, for he knew how much benefit he would gain from accompanying the saints. Having therefore come to a temple of the pagans—a structure indeed most majestic and splendid in appearance, for its size reaching even to the heavens—we entered and beheld a very large and wonderful image, ^D which displayed Christ in the midst, rendered in colors; to the left, the Lady Theotokos; and to the right, John the Baptist, who had indicated Him by leaping in his mother’s womb, since his voice, speaking from within, could not be heard; as well as some of the glorious choir of the apostles and prophets, and of the company of martyrs, among whom were the martyrs Cyrus and John. These, standing before the image, fell down before the Lord, bending their knees and striking their heads against the floor, and interceding for the healing of the young man. And these were the words of their intercession: ‘Most merciful Lord, do You grant that we may bestow healing upon this man also?’ But when...”

they had worshipped, prostrate on the ground for a long time, pouring forth suppliant voices, and the Lord Christ did not grant their request, they desisted from their intercession; and sad and with downcast countenance, they returned to me, I who had stood not far from the image. And when they had approached me closer: ‘Do you see,’ they said, ‘how the Lord does not wish to grant you healing? But do not lose heart. For He will surely show Himself as kind towards you as He does toward all.’ And so, when about half an hour had passed, they arose and returned once more to pray. But again, they say, they returned unsuccessful, sad and downcast, as before, with the Lord Christ not having commanded it. And when they came to me, they told me this again. But setting out for the third time: ‘Take heart,’ they say; ‘for now we shall surely obtain the grace; but you also, even as you see us entreating, fall down and call upon the Lord as a suppliant with us.’ And for the third time, approaching the image, they prayed in the same manner and with the same words. And when they had long entreated, and lying on the ground cried out only this: ‘Command it, O Lord,’ then Christ, moved by compassion as the Merciful One, said from the image: ‘Do you also grant it to him.’ Then the martyrs, rising from the earth, first of all gave thanks to Christ our God, in that He had hearkened to their prayer. ^A

From St. Anastasius of holy Mount Sinai, on the New Sunday, and on the Apostle Thomas.

^C ‘Those who beheld Christ in the flesh regarded Him as a prophet: but we who do not see Him, straightway from tender years, as children and youths, confess Him to be God, Lord, Almighty, and the Creator of the ages, the brightness of the Father. For we listen to His Gospels with faith just as if we were beholding Christ Himself speaking. And receiving the immaculate pearl of His own body, we believe that we are bearing Christ Himself. And if we see even the mere figure of His divine image depicted, we think that He is looking down upon us from heaven, and we worship and fall before it. Great now is the faith of Christ.’ ^D

From the Life of abbot Daniel, concerning Eulogius the stonemason.

‘Then he departed in sorrow, and casting himself down before the image of the Mother of God, he said with laments: “Lord, grant that I may fulfill what I have pledged to this man.”’

From the Life of St. Mary of Egypt.

‘Weeping, therefore, I behold above the place where I had stood the image of the holy Mother of God placed there, and I address her with these words: “Virgin Mother of God, Lady, who in the flesh gavest birth to God the Word, I know, I know that it is not fitting, nor is it reasonable, for me, so impure and defiled with every filth of lust, to gaze upon thy image, seeing that thou hast remained ever-virgin: but it is right that I, beneath thy purity, should be spurned and loathed. Yet, forasmuch as for this cause the...

^A God born of thee became man, that He might call sinners to repentance, help me, I beseech thee, who am alone and have no other refuge than thee. Command that the entrance be opened to me; do not deprive me of seeing the wood upon which the God-Word, whom thou didst bear, was fixed according to the flesh, who gave His own blood as a ransom for me. Command, O Lady, that for me too the door of the adoration of the divine cross be opened. And I give thee as a sufficient surety to the God born of thee, that I will no longer defile this flesh by any foul union whatsoever. But when I have gazed upon the wood of the cross of thy Son, I will immediately renounce the world and all that is in the world, and without delay I will depart whithersoever thou thyself, whom I take as my surety, shalt command and guide me." Having said these things, and having as it were received a certain assurance, the fire of faith, trusting in the compassion of the Theotokos, I move myself from that place in which I was standing and making my prayer, and I come back again, and I mingled myself with those who were entering. ^B And no longer was there anyone pushing me, nor being pushed back, and no one preventing me from drawing near to the door through which they were entering into the house. Terror then and ecstasy seized me, and I was shaken through and through, and I trembled. Having therefore cast myself upon the ground, and having adored that holy floor, I ran out, and hastened toward her who had taken upon herself to be my surety. I come, therefore, to that place in which the written surety had been inscribed, and having bent the knee before the Ever-Virgin and Theotokos, I used these words: "Thou, indeed, O good-loving Lady, didst show thy kindness toward me; thou didst not despise the prayer of the unworthy. I saw the glory, which we the profligate are not justly worthy to see; glory to God, who through thee receives the repentance of sinners," and so forth.

From the Life of Saint Eupraxia

The deaconess says to the young girl: "Go, my mistress, to thy house, for thou canst not remain here. For it is not lawful for anyone to remain here, unless he be joined to Christ." The young girl says to her: "Where ^C is Christ?" The deaconess pointed out to her the image of the Master, and, turning, she says to the deaconess: "Truly, I too am joined to Christ, and I will no longer depart with my mistress." And again Eupraxia, rising up and taking her daughter, brought her to the image of the Master, and stretching forth her hands to heaven, she cried out with tears: "Lord Jesus Christ, take thought for this child, because she has desired Thee, and has committed herself to Thee."

Of the holy sixth synod under Justinian, concerning the holy fifth synod

In some of the paintings of the venerable images, the Lamb, being shown by the finger of the Forerunner, is depicted, ^D

which was received as a type of grace, foreshadowing for us that true Lamb who was demonstrated through the law, Christ our God. Therefore, embracing those ancient types and shadows as tokens and prefigurations of the truth handed down to the Church, we set grace and truth before them, which we have received as the fullness of the Law. And so, that we may present before the eyes of all, even in paintings, that which is perfect, we decree that from henceforth the Lamb, Christ our God, who takes away the sin of the world, should be depicted in images in His human form instead of the old lamb, ^A so that through His humility we may contemplate the loftiness of the Word of God, and be led as if by the hand to the memory of His life in the flesh, His passion, and His saving death, and the redemption which was wrought for the world thereby. ^B

From the Oration of the Holy Methodius, Bishop of Patara, on the Resurrection, Oration II

^C As soon as the images of the emperors who are among us are fashioned, even if they consist not of very precious material, such as gold or silver, they are nevertheless honored by all. For men do not honor those made of more precious material in such a way that they despise those made of baser material, but they honor all equally, even if they be of gypsum or bronze. And whoever casts insults upon any one of them is not absolved on the grounds that he has treated clay or even gold with contempt; but he is condemned as if he had heaped insults upon the emperor and lord himself. Indeed, we fashion images cast in gold, by which angelic Principalities and Powers are designated, for the honor and glory of God. ^C

NOTES

...but of that which is called the Quinisext, and Trullan, and which they say was convened by Justinian the Younger. Pope Adrian I had regard to that very canon when he wrote these things in his letter to Tarasius and the Seventh Synod: "Therefore, that the perfection might be depicted to the eyes of all through the operation of colors, we define that the Lamb, Christ our God, who took away the sin of the world, be depicted in human form through the image of a man in place of the old lamb, considering through Him the loftiness of the humility of the Word of God, and recalling to memory His conversation in the flesh." For which reason, in his letter to Charlemagne for the Seventh Synod, he defends this canon with deliberate effort.