Severian of Gabala

NOTICE

Severianus, Bishop of Gabala in Syria, was at first a friend of John Chrysostom, but soon became his rival and enemy [a], by which he cast no slight stain upon his own name and lost no small amount of praise, although, because of his eloquence, he himself was termed by some a Chrysostom [b]. He died in the time of Theodosius the Younger, whom he had baptized into the sacred mysteries [c], and thus after 408 A.D. FABRICIUS. Cf. G. Cave, *Hist. litt. SS. eccles.*, vol. I, p. 375; L. Ell. du Pin, *Nouv. Bibl.*, vol. III, p. 75; Ceillier, *Hist. gén. des aut. eccl.*, vol. IX, pp. 7, 217, 380 sqq.; Hamberger, *Zuverl. Nachricht.*, vol. III, p. 29 sqq.; Saxius, *Onom. lit.*, part 1, ad A. 402. HARLES.

Alexander Brassicanus, in his preface to Salvianus, testified that he possessed 14 of this Severianus’s homilies on Genesis. From these, six sermons, *Eis kosmopoian* ("On the Creation of the World"), were edited in Greek by Henry Savile among the writings of St. Chrysostom, vol. VII, pp. 587 sqq.; and in Greek and Latin by Francis Combefis in the *Auctarium novissimum Bibl. Patrum*, vol. I, p. 211, Paris, 1672. [The same sermons and the homily *On the Serpent*, in Greek with a Latin version, were published by Bernard de Montfaucon in his edition of the works of Chrysostom, vol. VI, p. 459 sqq. HARLES.] Cave observes fragments taken from these, which are cited in the *Catena Patrum on the Pentateuch*, published in Latin by Francis Zinus, in relation to the history of creation. For the rest of the contents for the most part belong to other books of Moses by Severus rather than Severianus. FABRICIUS. Cf. Lambecius, IV, pp. 62 sqq., regarding cod. CVII, no. 4, who notes that the first oration in the ms. cod. CX (in Lambecius IV, p. 127), and in the Savilian edition, is somewhat longer at the beginning: add the note of Kollarius, which you should compare, against Cave regarding the Brassicanus codex. Ibid, p. 262, in cod. CXLVI, no. 21, there are miscellaneous excerpts from the expositions of Eusebius Pamphili, St. Cyril of Alexandria, and our Severianus on the Old Testament. — Ibid. p. 364, in cod. CLXIV, no. 6, there is an interpretation of various questions of the Old and New Testaments from Theodoret of Cyrus, our Severianus, and various other Fathers. Ibid. in vol. VI, part II, p. 269, in cod. XXV, no. 7, among the Græco-barbarian medical collections, there is a fragment of our Severianus on the name of the first man, Adam. And on the naming of man, in the Escorial codex, as witnessed by Pluerus in *Itin. per Hisp.*, p. 189. Paris, in the Public Library, cod. DCCLVI, no. 2, Severianus’s homily *On the Creation of the World*. Ibid. in cod. DCCLVIII and DCCLXXVII, 1 (in the appendix to the *Catalogus*, II, p. 613), six homilies (but the former is incomplete) on the same subject. In cod. CCCXLIII, no. 4, a fragment, in which the passage of Genesis is explained: *And God made two great lights*. — In Florence, in cod. Laurent. XXVII, no. 3, plut. 4, there are Basil’s nine homilies *On the Hexaemeron*, into which work some marginal scholia have been sprinkled, among which are those of our Severianus. See Bandini, *Cat. codd. Gr. Laur.* I, p. 550 sqq., who brings forward not only a certain scholion to the beginning of the fourth homily on Moses; but in note 2 also suspects that those scholia are excerpts from his homilies on...

[a] Socrates VI, 11 and 24; Sozomen VIII, 40; Nicephorus X, 9; Palladius in *Vita Chrysost.* Among more recent writers, Tillemont, vol. XI, *Memor.*, pp. 171 sqq.; Godfrey Hermant in the *Life of John Chrysostom*, etc. [b] Rich. Montacutius, vol. I, *Orig. ecclesiast.*, p. 112. [c] Gennadius c. 21 *De script. eccles.* In the most ancient Corbie codex: *Severianus, Bishop of the Church of Gabala — dies under Theodosius the Younger, son of Arcadius, in whose baptism he stood as sponsor*. FABRICIUS. Severianus is called by Gennadius, *loc. cit.*, a man learned in the divine Scriptures, and an admirable declaimer in his homilies, and it is added that he was frequently called to Constantinople by Arcadius and St. John Chrysostom to deliver sermons. But Cave (I, p. 375) notes that his style was rather unsuccessful, dry and flaccid, and that he did not attain the elegance of Greek speech. HARLES.

^A Genesin, which Alex. Brassicanus in his preface to Salvianus testifies that he possesses. — Ibid., in cod. I, no. 14, plut. 57, an excerpt from Severianus concerning the creation of the world and other theological matters: furthermore, concerning the XXII letters of the Hebrews handed down by God to Moses on Mount Sinai; concerning the XII great mountains; concerning the months among the Jews, Macedonians, and Egyptians; concerning the as, namely, the coins, and the thirty pieces of silver for which Jesus Christ was sold: see Bandini, loc. cit., vol. II, p. 433. — See Montfaucon, Bibl. biblioth. msst. in the Vatican Library (p. 133 and p. 139), in seven codices. In the Casanatensian Library (p. 222, and p. 225, no. 305), homilies. In Milan in the Ambrosian Library (p. 523), sermons. HARL.

Mabillon testifies in his *Museum Italicum*, vol. I, p. 13, that 88 homilies of Severianus exist in a certain manuscript homiliary of the Ambrosian Library; they appear also in a codex of the Casanatensian Library, concerning which he says the same on p. 124. In Oecumenius on 1 Corinthians vi, p. 416 of the Verona edition, there is cited ^B *in holy Severianus, in book 3, chapter 19, he treats of...* The same, in chapter vii, p. 423: *Severianus has marked it thus.*

*On the Brazen Serpent*, a homily which begins: *The Word of God, brothers,* and was published in Greek among those attributed to Chrysostom in Savile, vol. VII, p. 448. It is the second oration of the ten which Cardinal Sirlet had brought to light under the name of Chrysostom. But John Damascene, Pope Hadrian, and the Synod of Paris, as noted by Sirmond in his commentary on Ennodius of Pavia, p. 88, attribute it to Severianus. [See above, vol. VIII, p. 506.]

*On the Seals of the Books*, a homily which begins: *A great provision for the soul,* and it is read in Ducæus, vol. VI, p. 158, with the translation of Joannes Jacobus Beurerus, and in Greek in Savile, vol. V, p. 689. It is claimed for Severianus on the authority of Theodoret and Pope Hadrian. FABR. Greek with the Latin translation of Bernard de Montfaucon, in his edition of the Works of Chrysostom, vol. XII, p. 402.

A sermon *On Peace*, delivered in the church of Constantinople in the year 401, when he was received by John Chrysostom; it exists only in Latin in Savile, vol. VII, p. 948. It begins: *On the arrival of our Lord and Saviour.*

*On the Incarnation of Christ*, a homily which begins: *I have remembered God,* published in Greek in vol. VII, p. 307; it seems to have Severianus as its author and is presented in Latin under his name by Combefis in his *Bibliotheca Concionatoria*. Learned men also attribute to Severianus the homily *On the Nativity of Christ*, which occurs in Greek in the Savile edition, vol. V, p. 846, and begins: *A strange and paradoxical mystery.* Neither of these contains the passage which Theodoret cites in his second dialogue from the homily of Severianus on the Nativity.

He published a homily *On the Cross* and on the text: *You are he who is to come,* in Greek, among the doubtful works of Chrysostom, vol. V, p. 898. It begins: *Kindly and wisely for us.* Using the Mazarin manuscript, the same Combefis reclaimed it for Severianus on the authority of Damascene and published it, translated by himself into Latin, in his *Bibliotheca Concionatoria*, vol. I, p. 36; he also published both languages together, Paris, 1656, 4to, along with certain other works of Chrysostom ^C (a). The same man testified that the homily on the dedication of the cross, from which Gretser produced a fragment, existed complete in the Escorial Library. Damascene cites a fourth discourse of Severianus, *On the Cross*, in *De imaginibus* 3, vol. I, p. 385, and *On the Dedication of the Cross*, pp. 327, 345, 365. FABR. On the dedication of the cross. A fragment in cod. Vindobon. CCXLVIII, no. 10: Lambecius IV, p. 291. Paris, in cod. DCCLI, 9, public library. Ibid., in cod. CMLXXIX, no. 15, a homily of Severianus on the man born blind. Ibid., in cod. MCVII, 4, and in cod. August. Vindel. (witness Reiser, *In Ind. mss. August.*, p. 12, no. 32), and in cod. Mosquensis X, in 4to (see Matthaei, *Notit. mss. Mosquens.*, p. 307, no. 45, edited in 8vo); a homily on the apostolic text: *In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.* Collectanea from this and other sources, in cod. August. Vind., p. 39. See Reiser, loc. cit., p. 39. HARL.

[*On the Theophany*, in cod. Mosquensis synod. CCLXXI, and this homily was edited by the learned Matthaei in his *Lectiones Mosquenses*, vol. II, Leipzig, 1779, 8vo, p. 1 seqq.] - [Begins: *Let every mouth be opened today toward theology.* It was repeated in the Appendix to Gallandi’s *Bibliotheca Patrum*, vol. XIV, p. 145 seqq., where the Latin translation was added for the first time. Cf. Prolegomena to the App., p. 8. BECK. In cod. Mosquens. CCXLVII, *nature and substance differ in nothing.* See the cited note of Matthaei, p. 193. HARL.]

Learned men attribute far more homilies to Severianus because of the similarity of style, though by a conjecture not sufficiently certain, as can be seen in Elias du Pin, vol. III of *Bibliotheca ecclesiastica*, and Tillemont, vol. XI of *Mémoires*, p. 587 seqq. Indeed, the homily *On the death of the Innocents*, which begins: *Whither zeal tends, whither envy leaps,* and is read in the sermons of Peter Chrysologus as CLII, and among the homilies of the Fathers collected by Alcuin, Combefis argues from the very thread of the speech that it is by no means by Severianus, but by a Latin writer ^D (b), who nevertheless...

contends that the homily *On the Holy Trinity*, which begins: *Those who according to the holy...* and exists among those attributed to Chrysostom in volume I of the new edition, p. 832 (Savil. vol. VI, p. 955, and Ducaeus VI, p. 160), as well as many others found in the sixth volume of Ducaeus, should be attributed to Severianus rather than to John of Jerusalem. Definitiones Severiani, Florent. in cod. Laurent. XI, 6, plut. 74. But to which Severianus these are to be ascribed, Bandini in *Cat. codd. Gr. Laur.* III, p. 99, admits he does not know. Harl.

Severianus ^A is cited *Against the Heretics* by Damascenus in *Parallelis sacris* vol. II, p. 385 seqq. 789. Gelasius, in his book *On the Two Natures of Christ*, cites him against Novatus. But Gennadius, c. 21, *De script. eccles.*, says: I read, he says, his exposition *On the Epistle to the Galatians*, and a most pleasing little book *On Baptism and the Solemnity of the Epiphany*. Severianus is also cited by Oecumenius in ch. I of the *Epistle to the Galatians*. And in Anastasius Sinaita’s *Hodegeos*, ch. 16, p. 502, a passage of Severianus is brought forward on Colossians 11, 2 (b). Combefis published other fragments of his from the Catenae on the books of the Old Testament in Greek and Latin in his *Auctar. noviss.*, pp. 291-297; and he could have brought forward many more had he not rightly feared that most of what exists in the Catenae under the name of [Severianus of Antioch] is actually by Severus rather than Severianus.

— Other Severiani. —

Severianus, Bishop of Africa and confessor under Gaiseric. See Prosper's *Chronicle* p. 746, in the consulship of Aetius II and Sigisvultus (A.D. 437). — Another Severianus, a Bishop in Africa, who was present at the Council of Sardica in A.D. 317. Also a Ceramussensian, likewise an African, who was present at the Conference of Carthage in A.D. 411. Fabr. A *Martyrdom of Severianus*, written by Symeon Metaphrastes, in cod. XVI Vindob. nr. 12. See Lambec. VIII, p. 506, seqq. and *Acta sanctorum* for Sept. 9, vol. III, pp. 555 and 360. And regarding cod. Vindob. XIX, nr. 6, see Lamb. ibid. p. 567, and the note of Kollar there. In the Bodleian Library nr. 285, in cod. CVI, 40, Cromwell. Florentine in cod. Laurent. XX, 8, plut. 11, for Sept. 9, different from that published in the *Acta SS.* for the said day. See Bandini, *Cat. codd. Gr. Laur.* I, p. 514. — In the Mazarine codex. — A *Life* in the Ambrosian codex at Milan; in the Sforza codex, concerning which see Montfaucon, *Bibl. biblioth. manuscriptorum*, pp. 504, 702 and 1515. Harl. ^B

Severianus, proconsul of Africa, whose virtues Apuleius praises highly in his *Florida*. Severianus, Bishop of Aphrodisias in Caria, who was present at the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 555. Severianus, Bishop of Arethusa in Syria, who subscribed to the epistle sent to the Council of Constantinople under Menas in A.D. 536. Severianus Damascius, noted for his learning and critical judgment, whom Suidas mentions from Damascius, in *Nόμοι* and *Σεβηριανός*. Photius, cod. CCXLI; the Emperor Zeno promised him the highest dignities if he would abandon the superstition of the pagans and become a Christian: which he refused.

Severianus, Bishop of Caralis, to whom in the Oxford codex (as we noted a little earlier) the sermon *On the Innocents* is attributed. HARL. ^C

Severianus of Gabala, a Bishop in Gaul, who they say lived before the middle of the III century, and is celebrated in certain Martyrologies on January 25th. Some attribute to him the sermon *On the Paralytic*, which is the fiftieth among the sermons of Peter Chrysologus. It begins: *Christ in human works*. Another Severianus in Gaul subscribed to the Council of Riez, A.D. 459.

Jacobus Severianus on various disciplines, in Rome, in a codex of the monastery of Crypta-Ferrata, according to Montfaucon in *Bibl. bibliothec. manuscriptorum* I, p. 200. HARL.

Julius Severianus, rhetor, of whom I spoke in *Bibl. Latina med. et inf. aet.* FABR. In the edition of Mansi, vol. IV, p. 205. Add *Julii Severiani Syntomata rhetorices*, by Lucas Fruterius, Antwerp 1589, 8, in the Leiden library catalog, p. 270. A manuscript of Julius Severus, *Book on the 7 Disciplines*, in Perizon. Leidens. See the cited library catalog, p. 494, no. 11, and the Oxford manuscript in the codex of Corpus Christi College, or no. 1567, *Catalogus mss. Angliae*, etc. I, 2, p. 51. Harl. ^D

(a) The Severians, named from Severus the monk, are numbered among the heretics of the VI century. According to Montfaucon, *Bibl. biblioth. msstar.* p. 645. In the Bodleian Library, excerpts from Philoponus's book *On the Severian Dogma*, and ibid. p. 647, the various minor works of Leontius the monk against the Acephali, Severians, etc., and p. 777. In the codex of Cardinal Radulphus, the *Syntagma of Inscriptions* of Anastasius Sinaita, and against the Severians and other heretics. — Vienna, in cod. LXXVII, Abucara's *Refutation of the Heresy of the Acephali, the Severians*, that is, the Jacobites. See Kollar ad Lambec. VII, p. 292. — Concerning the Jacobite sect, see Assemani, *B. O.* vol. I, p. 424; II, p. 67, and vol. III, pp. 503 seqq., 555, 579, 585 seqq. etc., and vol. IV in many places. Also Schroeckh, *christl. Kirchengesch.* vol. XVIII, p. 631 seq. Concerning the Severians, add Assemani, *Bibl. Orient.* vol. III, pp. 579, 584, 437, 545. They are refuted by Nathanael and Gabriel Taura- tha, ibid. p. 224, 457. Harl.

(b) Added a little earlier to the unpublished homilies. In Theodoret's dialogues, fragments of Severianus. See above, Vol. VIII, p. 291. — Fragments remain in very many Catenae of the Fathers and other collections: thus in cod. CXII of Cromwell, Vindel. See Reiseri *Indic. mss.* pp. 9 and 59. In the Coislin codices. See Montfaucon, *Bibl. Coisl.* pp. 41, 42, 67, 76, 82, 83, 84, 263, 264, and often. In the Venetian Marcian codex. See *Catal. codd. Gr. Marc.* p. 17, twice, and p. 22, and the *editio* of Morelli in *Bibl. msta. Gr. et Lat.* I, pp. 30 and 32. In the Florentine codex of Laurentius. See Bandini, *Cat. codd. Gr. Laur.* I, pp. 102, 254, 363, 545, no. 1.— In the Mazarine codex. See Montf., *Bibl. biblioth. mss.* p. 1309. Harl.

Severianus, a Pelagian bishop, whose son Agricola introduced that heresy into England, as Prosper narrates in the year 429, in the consulship of Florentius and Dionysius. I omit Severianus (or Servianus, as some have it), whom, when he was ninety years old, Hadrian ordered to be killed shortly before he himself died, according to Dio; as also Severianus the Gaul, killed in the time of Marcus Antoninus along with all his troops by Othryades, the leader of the Persians, concerning whom Lucian writes in his *Alexander the False Prophet*, vol. 1, p. 764 and following.

SEVERIANI GABALITANI IN MUNDI CREATIONEM ORATIONES SEX

SERMON OF THE SAME ON PEACE.

ORATION OF THE SAME ON THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

MONITUM IN HOMILIAM SEQUENTEM.

ΣΕΒΕΡΙΑΝΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΓΑΒΑΛΩΝ ΛΟΓΟΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΑ ΘΕΟΦΑΝΙΑ.

SEVERIANI GABALORUM EPISCOPI ORATION ON THE THEOPHANY.

1. ^A Let every mouth be opened today for theology, and let every word praise the God-Word who has shone forth from the heavens; let every mouth speak, let every tongue utter, let every soul dance, let all the earth sing psalms. Today, words of light in the day of light illuminate the sons of light. Let earthly things sound in harmony with the heavenly; let things visible in the world sing a hymn with the powers above the world. For the truth having appeared, that is, the heavenly King, it is fitting that all should join in the common confession of the Lord of all. Christ

s advent is the presence of the true light. Christ’s advent is the benefit of the whole world. Christ’s advent is the liberation of the entire cosmos. Christ is praised, and the world is sanctified. Christ is proclaimed, and the world is illuminated. Christ is heralded, and every soul dons a heavenly desire. The experience of reality guarantees my statement. ^B

II. Attend, for I speak to you of this constitution of the Church, worthy of God; observe the inextinguishable lamp of heavenly desire; observe the nature of the body shining forth together with the angelic ministry. Men who are from the earth, and who dwell on the earth, and who are [otherwise] morose, now vie with the institutions of the heavenly ones. They have denied the nature of the body, and have received the ministry of the angels; for such is the Church of God. It has its citizenship on earth, but guards the order of heavenly affairs. What is the work of the angels in heaven? To minister to God. What is the work of the saints on earth? To sing the praises of God. If, therefore, the ministry is of equal honor, the dignity also must be considered equal. Therefore, the blessed David, striking his spiritual lyre and proclaiming the saving hymn of theology, said, as we have just chanted: *O God of hosts, turn us, and show thy face, and we shall be saved.* ^C

III. The King of glory had not yet appeared, and the forerunners of the kingdom were proclaiming, saying: *You who shepherd Israel, attend.* Tell us, O Prophet, clearly what you say; make plain what you preach. What kind of shepherd do you speak of? For many have shepherded. Moses was a shepherd; Aaron was a shepherd. *For you shepherded your people by the hand of Moses and Aaron.* David was also a shepherd; *for he chose*, it says, *his servant to shepherd Jacob his servant, and Israel his inheritance.* Why then do you hide the dignity of the one being proclaimed by the appellation of shepherd? Define clearly what you say; use a voice of proclamation that is distinct and unconfused. You say: *You who shepherd Israel, attend; you who lead Joseph like a sheep.* Yet the shepherd does not yet declare the dignity of the one who is signified, because of the community of the name with other shepherds. ^D

IV. What then? Has the dignity not yet been understood, he says? I make the truth plain to you. *You who sit upon the cherubim, appear; stir up your power, and come to save us.* Do you see how he stripped bare the whole dignity of him who was prophesied? Do you see how he announced the King of glory to be mounted now upon a throne that is royal and above the world? Wherefore the Savior also, confirming the prophecy of the Prophet, cries out through the evangelical grace: *I am the good shepherd.* For since, he says, as men gifted with reason you did not recognize God, at least recognize the shepherd as irrational sheep.

^A V. But the Prophet, wishing also to show the fruit of this shepherd’s coming, says: *Excite your power, and come to save us.* For the appearing of the Savior is the fountain of all benefit. The Redeemer of the whole world therefore appeared, taking all things upon Himself for the sake of the goodness befitting Him. For when He had seen that all things among men had fallen into decay—both the priesthood which He had given in Israel, and the prophecy, and all these prerogative gifts—He Himself renews His own gifts through Himself. And how? Listen.

VI. He became a prophet, after prophecy had been adulterated by the unworthy, according to what is written: *A prophet will the Lord our God raise up for you from among your brethren, like me.* He became an apostle, according to what is said: *Consider the high priest and apostle of our calling, Jesus.* He became also a priest, as the Hymnographer says: *You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedec.* He became also a deacon, as the noble Paul says: *For I say that Christ has been made a deacon of circumcision for the truth of God, to fulfill the promises of the fathers.* Therefore He passes through every order. He became ^B yet again a reader; for taking up Isaiah He read it, as the Gospel declares, that He might both confirm the voices of the prophet, and honor the ecclesiastical ranks. He became also King, the King of kings; as Nathanael says: *You are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.*

VII. But perhaps some one of the bystanders will say: "What then is it to me, a secular man, if Christ put on prophecy and apostleship and the high priesthood? What is it to me who am settled in a secular state?" But most of all for the sake of all men did that most loving God become man. But if you wish to see Him also undergoing a lay state for your sake, reflect with yourself and consider what must now be said. Without controversy, is not he who baptizes in the priestly order, and is not he who is baptized established in a lay rank? Attend, therefore, to John baptizing in the rank of a priest, and Christ baptized in a lay state. For today, brethren, ^C today He underwent the dispensation of the waters: not being sanctified by the waters, but pouring sanctification into the waters. John was fulfilling the priestly character; the Redeemer of the world approaches the one baptizing—He who illumines by the Spirit, the King Himself to the forerunner, God Himself to the prophet. John, brethren, did not ignore His dignity on account of the state of human dispensation; the habit of the body did not deceive him; the appearing flesh did not mislead him; but rather the hidden virtue, which he preached even to those who were ignorant of it, shone around Him. For that ^D admirable man was a holy lamp: a lamp of whom it had been predicted through the Prophet: *I have prepared a lamp for my Christ.* Now John is named the lamp...

^A not because the Word of God, the Light of truth, had need of the addition of a lamp—for He was the Sun of Justice—but because He was making known the Lord hidden in the flesh, as in the night of the Judaic dispensation, illuminating the lamp of the divine Word. He is called a lamp, therefore, deservedly.

VIII. See further, brothers, an admirable thing. When the Lord, who conversed with us, proceeded to the dispensation of the Incarnation, becoming man out of the most benign humanity, it was a stupendous miracle: God dwelling among men, the Lord among slaves, the Creator among creatures, the Sanctifier among the sanctified. Then John preaches His dignity, and it was possible to see a phenomenon beyond all estimation; it was possible, I say, to see the lamp receiving the Sun of Justice, Jesus. For a man who stood in need of redemption was baptizing the Lord, the Redeemer of all—not embarking upon the matter with rash daring, but serving by command. Then indeed, then two prophetic voices converged: *The voice of one crying in the desert* [Isai. XL, 3], and, *The voice of the Lord is upon the waters* [Ps. XXVIII, 3]. The herald of truth was crying out, and the God of majesty thundered. And there was present the adorable Trinity, making its own glory shine forth. The Father from above proclaiming the Son; the Son below fulfilling the dispensation; the Holy Spirit, as it were, confirming with His seal the institution worthy of God. And the voice became so great, with the Father bearing witness from above to His only-begotten Son, that the heavens were opened from above. For, *When Jesus had ascended from the water,* it says, *the heavens were opened* [Matth. III, 16]. For they could not bear the voice of such a testimony, having a dread of the divine dispensation. ^B

IX. But note the prodigy. This voice cleft the heavens, and yet it did not strike the heretics: *This is my beloved Son, listen to Him* [Matth. XVII, 5]. Because the Law had anticipated it, proclaiming, and the prophets, evangelizing, that no one, following the former institution of Jewish worship, should reject the yoke of evangelical grace, the divine voice distinguished the dignity of the Master from that of the servant. *Listen to Him,* that is to say, to Christ. For *Christ is the fullness of the Law* [Rom. XIII, 10]; *Christ is the fullness of good things.* For although blessings had gone before in the Mosaic Law, they were not complete, awaiting our Lord, of whom Paul says: *Christ is the fullness of the Law.* And do you wish that I should demonstrate to you from a clear fact the truth as a guarantor of these things? Consider carefully. Moses the lawgiver commands that the twelve tribes of Israel be divided, and he leads six tribes to Mount Gebal, and the remaining six to Mount Garizin, and he commands that the one group should bless, and the other should curse. Let those who keep the law bless; let those who transgress it curse. What then? In all the curses there was, as it were, a certain seal imposed: For the Levites shall say, *Cursed is he who shall desert the law,* and all the people shall say, *Amen.* *Cursed is he who worships alien gods,* and all the people shall say, *Amen* [Deut. XXVII, 26, 15]. ^C And so upon every precept hangs the *Amen* for the transgressors. But in the blessings, he says, the Levites shall say: *Blessed...* ^D

is he who keeps the law of the Lord; blessed in the field, blessed in the city*; and nowhere does *Amen* appear in any of the blessings. Why, then, do the curses receive the seal, while the blessings do not receive this seal? What does this signal signify? What does this riddle interpret? The law was the fulfiller of its own sentences, but Christ is the confirmer of the blessings. And because it was necessary that what belongs to the law be assigned to the law, and that what is proper to evangelical grace be reserved for grace, the blessings therefore remained waiting for the *Amen* hereafter.

X. And that our discourse might not appear forced to anyone, but rather that it might have testimony from the truth itself, hear Paul saying: *For our Lord Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us... was not yes and no, but in him was yes. For all the promises of God in him are yes; and through him is the Amen, to the glory of God* [II Cor. I, 19-20]. From this, it is possible to understand again what was said by the Apostle: *And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of the ordinance that was against us* [Col. II, 13-14]. What kind of handwriting? Here you have the demonstration of the matter. For when the law recited the curses, the *Amen* of the people was a certain subscription of those listening. For Jesus was the plenitude of blessings, who appeared at the Jordan, who fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah in himself. For Isaiah said: *The deserts of the Jordan shall rejoice, because the glory of Lebanon has been given to it, and the honor of Carmel* [Isai. XXXV, 1-2]. The saying is indeed obscure, which is nevertheless clarified through grace.

XI. Scripture calls Jerusalem the Lebanon of that time. And do not think this interpretation forced. Ezekiel testifies concerning King Nebuchadnezzar. For he said: *A great eagle with great wings, which has long wings and is full of claws, came to Lebanon, and took the chosen of the cedars of Lebanon, and brought them to Babylon* [Ezech. XVII, 3-4]. But what are the *chosen*? Since he led away bound King Zedekiah, and Jehoiachin, and the high priests: these were the *chosen of Lebanon* which he brought to Babylon. What, then, is that: *And the glory of Lebanon has been given to it*? Because the priesthood of Jerusalem and the entire prophecy migrated to John, and all Jerusalem, having abandoned the altar, was going out to receive the baptism of John, the prophet anticipates speaking about the desert of the Jordan, saying: *The glory of Lebanon has been given to it, and the honor of Carmel*. But what is the *honor*? Hear, as if in passing. Elijah the prophet was the *honor of Carmel*. For Elijah was on Carmel. Since, therefore, John came forth in the spirit and power of Elijah, for that reason he says that the honor of Carmel was given to the desert, of whom the Savior says: *And if you will receive it, this is Elijah, who is to come* [Matt. XI, 14].5 Since, therefore, Elijah sometimes

once inhabited Carmel, and now John the desert, he rightly says: *The glory of Lebanon was given unto it, and the honor of Carmel*. ^B

XII. But now, brothers, that glory has filled not only the desert, but the entire world. For today, throughout the whole earth, hymns and discourses concerning God have stood from evening until this hour, and men have overcome sleep with hymns; grace was appearing, and nature was not being gainsaid. And rightly so. For just as iron, having been for a long time in fire, that which it was is no longer visible, and it has put on what it was not—not putting off its nature, but receiving brightness to its nature—so also we, having been deemed worthy of the Holy ^B Spirit, have denied the weakness of the body and have put on the efficacy of the Spirit. The Church stood shining throughout, and that word is fulfilled in it: *And there was evening, and there was morning, one day* [Gen. I, 5]. The night had no darkness, being illuminated by the theology. The night had no darkness; for it was being illuminated by the divine Word, according to that which was spoken by David: *And the night is light in my pleasure; for darkness shall not be darkened from thee, and the night shall be illuminated as the day* [Ps. CXXXVIII, 11, 12]. Such light, such beauty beams around the Church. May it happen to us, brothers, that by divine grace, being always illuminated, we may send up glory to the all-holy God; to whom belongs glory and honor unto the ages. Amen.

NOTICE CONCERNING THE FOLLOWING HOMILY

In an ancient Sessorian manuscript, as observed by Father Amator, and also in another copy, there exists a homily *On the Calends of January*, to which the name of Saint Severianus is inscribed. By making a collation, I discovered this sermon to be different from the sermons spoken during the same Calends by: 1. St. Augustine, serm. XCVII and XCVIII; 2. St. Peter Chrysologus, serm. CLV; 3. St. Ambrose, serm. VII; 4. St. Asterius of Amaseia in Combefis, *Nov. auct.* t. I, p. 65 (Patrol. Gr. t. XL); 5. St. Maximus of Turin, serm. XVI; 6. Atto of Vercelli, serm. 111, in my *Scrip. vet.* t. VI, part II, p. 13. What was I to do? Should I believe that I had searched sufficiently regarding this writing, or should I still suspect it to be published somewhere, whether under the name of Severianus or under that of someone else? Certainly I thought one could hardly think of Severianus, the bishop of Gabala, for the Latin diction is such that it does not appear to flow from a Greek source. Should I rather judge that the name of Severinus lies hidden under Severianus, a substitution which in fact happens in some manuscripts, where some sermons of St. Peter Chrysologus are inscribed now to Severinus, now to Severianus? Nevertheless, no sermon of Bishop Severinus exists, as far as I know. For those maxims of Severinus published by Sirmond (Opp. t. II) and by Pez (*Thesaur. anecd.* t. IV) as unpublished, and repeated (though he later acknowledged his error), have nothing that could be referred to this sermon. Yet, lest I waste the precious time of fleeting life longer on this meditation, I have decreed to place this learned little sermon here as if in the corner of a book, about which more leisurely and curious men may inquire and judge according to their own diligence.

SEVERIANUS BISHOP HOMILY ON PYTHONISMS AND SORCERY

The evangelical trumpet, as it were, must now be closed for us, and the apostolic sentiments must be kept silent, so that only that song of prophetic lamentation may resound, which says: *I was dumb and was humbled, and kept silence from good things, and my sorrow was renewed* (Ps. XXXVIII, 3). The sorrow of a Christian bishop is renewed when the error of the Gentiles neither grows old with time, nor is dispersed by such great brilliance of the faith. Behold! The days are coming, behold, the Kalends are coming, and the entire pomp of the demons proceeds; the whole workshop of idols is brought forward, and the newness of the year is consecrated with ancient sacrilege. They fashion Saturn; they make Jove; they form Hercules; they display Diana with her hunters (7); they parade Vulcan, panting out his shameful deeds in words, and many more, whose names must be passed over in silence because they are monstrosities. Because nature does not possess their deformities, and the creature knows them not, art labors to paint them. Furthermore, men are dressed as beasts, and into women men are turned; they mock honesty, they violate judicial decisions, they deride public censure; they mock while the world bears witness, and those doing these things say that they are joking. These are not jokes, but crimes. Man is being transfigured into an idol. And if it is a crime to go to the idols, what is it deemed to be an idol? Man was made in the image of God. Whatever you have impiously brought upon yourself in the form of your own deformity, it reaches toward an injury to God. Truly, these are not altogether your own wishes, but in the greatest part they are the judgments of God, so that the foulness of those whose worship perishes through God might be perpetuated and remain through you for ages. ^B For such is the face of these gods that, if one should wish to blacken them, charcoal fails; and that their habit might be heaped up with full horror, chaff, skins, rags, and filth are sought throughout the whole world, and whatever is the confusion of humanity is placed upon their face. And those operate more wickedly who wheel their little beasts about where they light the fire, and in such insanity they trust; they think they are doing a good deed for themselves, and thus they incur a grave offense. For he is believed to be more magnificent among such gods, who is found to be more foul among the foul. And he is held to be the most magnificent, whom even the very monsters themselves could admire for his singular deformity. The prophetic curse is fulfilled in them: *Let them that make them become like unto them; and all such as trust in them* (Ps. CXIII, 8). And the Christians see this, the Christians wait for this, they admit them into their homes, the Christians receive them into their houses, unmindful of that apostolic saying: *That they who do such things are worthy of death* (Rom. I, 32).

But you say: "Let them who do these things die." You are not excused by the discourse, whom your will accuses, nor does that separate you from your office which your assent constrains and joins. Hear what follows: *Not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them* (ibid.). I beseech you, at least among evils let evils cease. Believe me, believe me, they would fail if this hypocrisy of the Christians did not keep them going. Flee these things, O Christians, flee! Shut yourselves in so that you do not see such things being done by the insane; shut yourselves and your houses, because God, who sees in secret, cannot be surrounded in public. Go out, go out, as the prophet said, *from the midst of them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing* (Isa. LII, 11; II Cor. VI, 17): so that at last those who have hitherto been deceived by our collusion may repent through our zeal. Flee, therefore, these demonic things, if you desire to hear divine things.

^C Then it is continued in one of the codices as if it were a part of the aforesaid sermon thus: "Although I do not doubt, most beloved, through paternal solicitude, etc.," which is evidently the sixteenth sermon of St. Maximus in the Roman Bruni edition, falsely joined in the codex with Severianus.

SEVERIAN HOMILY

Vide inter Opera S. Joannis Chrysostomi nostræ editionis, tom. XII, col. 539.