LETTER OF ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS ON CONFESSION AND THE POWER OF BINDING AND LOOSING
A 1. You have asked my insignificance, Father and brother, and have commanded me to explain to you, whether it is permitted to confess sins to some of those who lead a monastic life, yet are not adorned with the priesthood. You also add this: "Because, as we hear, the power of binding and loosing has been given only to priests." These are indeed words of your divine soul and fervent religion. For our part, we have embraced this proposal of yours regarding good things. For you desire to be instructed in things that are divine and holy; yet we are not truly fit to either debate or write anything about these matters: wherefore we would have preferred to remain silent altogether. For to judge spiritual matters spiritually belongs to those who are free from passions and holy, from whom we are separated by a great distance in life, wisdom, and virtues.
B 2. However, since as it is written, "The Lord is near to all who call upon him in truth," I do not respond to you with my own words, but from the divinely inspired Scripture itself, not so much teaching as bringing forth from it the testimonies for the things you have asked of me, so that, by the grace of God, I may preserve myself and my listeners from the precipices on either side; on the one hand, avoiding the example of him who hid the talent; on the other, the boldness of him who explains divine dogmas unworthily, out of vainglory, or rather, with dim reasoning. From whence, then, should we more rightly take the beginning of our discourse C than from the beginning of all things, which lacks a beginning? For this is better, so that what we say may be firm. For we were not created by angels, nor were we taught by men, but we have been mystically taught by that wisdom from above, that is, by the grace of the Spirit, and are instructed daily; and now, calling upon this, let us proceed to speak, first setting forth the manner of confession and what its power is.
ON CONFESSION
A 3. Confession, therefore, is nothing else than a profession of debts, or an acknowledgment of faults, or a condemnation of one’s own folly and poverty. And as the Lord spoke parabolically in the Gospels to a certain lender, he says: "There were two debtors, he says, to a creditor: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty; and since they had nothing to pay, he freely forgave them both." Every faithful person, then, is a debtor to his own Master and God; and what he has received from Him, will be required of him at that fearful and terrible judgment of His, when we shall all stand naked and exposed before Him, kings and paupers alike. Now, there are other things which no man will be able to enumerate; but for the present, the better and more perfect ones: the freedom from condemnation, the sanctification from pollution, the passage from darkness into His ineffable light, the being made His children and sons and heirs through holy baptism, the putting on of God Himself, the being made His member, and the receiving of the Holy Spirit to dwell B within us—which is the royal seal, with which the Lord marks His own sheep. And why say more? The being made like unto Him—all these things and more, are given to those who are baptized immediately by the Holy Spirit, which also are called the divine portion and treasure.
4. Moreover, the commandments of the Master were given as guardians of these ineffable graces and gifts, as they encircle the faithful one on every side, and keep the treasure deposited in his own soul unviolable, and render it unassailable to all enemies and thieves. But we think that the commandments of the man-loving God are being kept by us, and we are grieved at this, not knowing that we are rather kept by them. For he who keeps the commandments of God does not so much keep them as he keeps and preserves himself from visible and invisible enemies, concerning whom, since they are numberless and fearful, Paul declared C when he wrote: "We do not have our struggle against blood and flesh," and what follows—the aerial ones, of course, who are always invisibly warring against us. He, then, who keeps the commandments is kept by them, and does not lose the wealth entrusted to him from God. But he who neglects them is found naked, and is easily captured by his enemies; and having lost all that wealth, he becomes a debtor to the King and Master of all those things which we have spoken of, for which it is not possible for a man to repay or to find equivalents. For they are heavenly, and came from the heavens, and He D comes every day, bringing and distributing them to the faithful. And where can those who have received and lost these things ever find them again? Truly, nowhere; just as neither Adam, nor any of his descendants, could find a recall of himself or of his relatives
except only He who is above nature, God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who came as the Son according to the flesh, that He might raise up both that man and us from the fall by His divine power. A And he who does not guard all the commandments, but thinks to keep some while betraying others, let him know that even if he neglects one, he thus loses the whole treasure. Imagine that the commandments are twelve armed men standing in a circle, guarding you while you are naked in their midst. Consider again other such adversaries who beset you from all sides, and who seek to seize you and put you to death immediately. B If, therefore, one of the twelve should fall of his own will, and leave his place open to the adversary like an open door, what use will there be in the remaining eleven men when that one has entered into their midst and is ruthlessly cutting you down, while they are unable to turn to your aid? For even if they should wish to turn, they too will be consumed by the adversaries. It will not be so, however, when you are keeping the commandments. For when you have been wounded by one enemy and have fallen, they all fly away, having gradually lost their strength. But take another example. Just as a jar filled with wine or oil, even if it is not pierced on all sides, yet if a single hole is made in one part, it gradually pours out everything that is inside; in the same way, he who neglects even one commandment C gradually falls away from all the others, as Christ says: "To him who has, it will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken from him." And again: "Whoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so"—that is, by his own transgression—"he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven." And Paul says: "For by whom anyone is overcome, to him he is also a slave." And again: "The sting of death is sin." And he did not say "this" or "that" sin, but whatever sin it may be, this is the sting of death. He calls it the sting of death because those who are wounded by it die; and therefore, every sin is unto death. For whoever has sinned even once, as Paul says, is already dead, having become liable to a debt and lying prostrate as if cast down by robbers. D What does the man who is dead wish for but to rise again? And what does the debtor who has nothing to pay wish for, but to receive a remission of his debt, lest he be cast into prison until he should pay the debt; which, because he has nothing to pay with, he will never leave to emerge from the darkness? Thus also does he who has been laid low by these spiritual robbers, fully desire that a physician come to him who is both compassionate and merciful. For he has not, as Paul says, one who is living, with the debt of sin.
A a fervent fear of God within himself, so that he might rather hasten to the physician; but, his soul’s powers having been dissolved by the contempt of God’s commandments, he lies a spectacle—terrible and at the same time pitiable to all who rightly, that is, spiritually, contemplate the lapses of souls. He, therefore, who has become a slave to the devil through sin—"Know ye not," he says, "that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Rom. vi, 16)—and who has become a mockery to the Father and God, and a footstool to the enemies who have apostatized from God; such a one, having become thus, stripped of the royal purple, blackened and abandoned, and having become a child of the devil instead of a child of God, what shall he do that he may again come into possession of what he has lost? Certainly he will seek a mediator and a friend of God, who is able both to restore him to his former state and to reconcile him to God the Father. For he who has been joined to Christ through grace, and has become a member of Him, and has been adopted as His son, if he thereafter abandons Him and returns like a dog to his own vomit, and is joined to a harlot, a concubine, or any other body, such a one—as he who has disgraced and insulted Christ—is condemned with the unbelievers. Since, according to the divine Apostle, "We are the body of Christ, and members in particular" (I Cor. vi, 15). He therefore who is joined to a harlot makes the members of Christ the members of a harlot. He who has done these things, and has thus provoked his Master and God to anger, cannot otherwise be restored to favor, except through the mediation of a holy man, a friend and servant of Christ, and through flight from all evil. C
6. Therefore, let us flee from sin in the first place. But if we chance to be wounded by its dart, let us not grant time for its venom, nor, as if baited with honey, let us linger with its poison; nor let us, like a wounded bear, make the wound worse by doing the same things over and over again. Rather, let us run immediately to the spiritual physician, and let us vomit out the venom of sin through confession; and having spat out its poison, let us zealously receive from him, as an antidote, the penances of repentance, and let us strive to perform these with a faith that is always fervent and in the fear of God. For all those who have squandered the entire wealth entrusted to them, and have consumed their paternal substance with harlots and publicans, and whose conscience, bowed down by great shame, is unable even to look up, being destitute of all confidence, D rightly seek a man of God to become a surety for their debt—which, as I believe, is impossible to accomplish without sincere and laborious repentance on the part of him who wishes to be reconciled to God. For it has never been heard, nor have we read in the divine Scriptures, that anyone has taken upon himself the sins of another, and for their sake
A he should reckon it as an apology, unless the person who has sinned has first shown labor worthy of repentance and congruent with it, and produced equal fruits. For the voice of the Forerunner cries out: "Produce fruits worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say within yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father'" [Luc. iii, 8]. Since, indeed, our Lord Himself says thus concerning those who live foolishly: "Even if Daniel or Noah were to stand forth, they shall not deliver their sons or daughters" [Ezech. xiv, 14]. What, therefore, does it behoove us to do; by what manner of means shall we, who contemplate repentance, find the remission of debt and the recovery from our fall? Hearken, God willing, while I discourse to each of you.
7. If you desire a mediator, seek also a physician and a good counselor, that as a good counselor he may suggest to you modes of repentance fitting for the good, and as a physician he may administer to you a medicine suitable for your particular wound, and as a mediator, standing before Him face to face, he may by prayer and intercession to God render the Deity propitious to you. Do not, therefore, labor to find a counselor who is a flatterer or a slave to his belly, B lest, perhaps, gratifying your own soul, he may instruct you not in those things which God loves, but in those which you yourself desire, and thus you remain in the meantime an unreconciled enemy. Do not seek an unskilled physician, lest by excessive severity or untimely excisions and cauterizations, he may cast you into the deep of despair; or, on the other hand, one who, by using excessive leniency, leaves you ailing: but [one] who, while you think that you are doing well, may lead you—which is the most grievous thing of all—to eternal punishments contrary to your expectation. For this disease of the soul, if it departs with us, will certainly bring this result for us. But I do not deem that a mediator between God and men is so easily found. "For not all those who are of Israel are Israel" [Rom. ix, 6], but those finally who clearly understand both that name and the power of the name, and who have become minds that see God. C Nor are all those who call upon the name of Christ the God truly Christians: "For not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,'" says Christ, "will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father" [Matth. vii, 21]. As also elsewhere He says: "Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name?' and I will say to them: 'I do not know you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity'" [ibid. 22, 23].
8. For this reason, therefore, it behooves all of you, brethren, to be careful—both those who act as mediators, and those who have sinned, and those themselves who desire to be reconciled to God—so that D neither those who act as mediators procure for themselves wrath instead of a reward, nor those who have offended and aspire to be reconciled, fall upon an enemy and a murderer and a wicked man instead of a mediator,
A For such men shall hear with terrible threatening: “Who made you rulers and judges over my people?” And again: “Hypocrite, cast out first the beam from your own eye, and then you will see to cast out the speck from your brother’s eye.” A beam is a passion, some desire darkening the eye of the soul. And again: “Physician, heal yourself.” And again: “But to the sinner God said: ‘Why do you declare my statutes, and take my covenant into your mouth? You have hated instruction, and cast my words behind you.’” And from Paul: “Who are you that judges another’s servant? To his own Lord he stands or falls. And God is able to make him stand” B through his faithful servant.
9. Therefore, I shudder and tremble at all this, my brothers and Fathers, and I exhort all of you—strengthening myself also through this exhortation to you—not to hold in contempt these divine and universally venerable mysteries, nor against our own soul, whether through vainglory, OR ambition, OR greed, OR lack of feeling. For it happens that, because of being called “Rabbi” and “Fathers,” we entertain alien thoughts. Do not, I beseech you, do not so shamelessly snatch at the rank of the apostles, being instructed by the example from earth. For if anyone, because of an appearance slightly more august, presumptuously dares to liken himself to an earthly king, and desires to hold and exercise the things entrusted to him, whether secretly or openly discovered doing so, both he C and his fellow-initiates and subjects are subjected to extreme punishments for the terror of others, and are mocked by all as foolish and senseless; what then will become of those who unworthily snatch at the rank of the apostles?
10. But neither should you desire to be mediators for others before you have been filled with the Holy Spirit, and before you have been known and reconciled in the sense of the soul to the King of all; since not even all who know the King are able to mediate for others to Him. For very few indeed are able to do this, those who through virtue and sweats, that is, their slaveries, have acquired boldness toward Him, and who, having no need of a mediator, speak to Him face to face. D Shall we not, therefore, keep this order also toward God, Fathers and brothers? Shall we not honor the heavenly kingdom more than the earthly? Shall we, gratifying ourselves, grant to ourselves the seat at his right hand and his left; and, even before asking and receiving, snatch at the favors…
A of God? O the boldness! What shame ought to cover us! If we are to be called to account for no other fault, for this reason alone we deserve to be removed as contemners of the presidency and to be cast into the unquenchable fire. But these things suffice for the admonition of those who wish to pay heed to themselves, through which we have strayed somewhat further from the proposed subject. But let us now say what you sought to learn.
11. That it is possible for us to confess sins to a monk not adorned with holy orders, since the time that his heritage received from God the garment and habit of repentance and they were named monks, you will find this to have happened everywhere, as it is written in the divinely inspired Scriptures of the Fathers, in which, if you search diligently, you will discover that what I have said is true. But before these, the high priests alone received the power to bind and loose by succession from the divine apostles. But as time went on, and the high priests became useless, this terrible power devolved upon priests of blameless life, and gifted with divine grace. B Afterwards, when these too had become mingled, and the priests as well as the high priests had become like the rest of the people, and many, as happens even now, had fallen into spirits of deception and empty chatter, and were perishing, that power, as I said, was transferred to the elect people of God—the monks, I mean—not in such a way that it was taken away from the priests and prelates, but because they rendered themselves alien to it. For "every priest is appointed as a mediator between God and men in things pertaining to God," as Paul says, "and he is obligated, just as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices." C
12. But let us begin our discourse from a higher point, and consider how, and from whom, and to whom at last this sacred power to offer, to bind, and to loose was given; and thus we will set forth in order what you have asked, not for you alone, but for all men. When our Lord and God and Savior said to him who had the withered hand, "Your sins are forgiven you," the Jews, hearing this, said, "This man speaks blasphemy. Who can forgive sins, but God alone?" Because in this way, forgiveness of D sin was never before given, * neither by prophets, nor by priests, nor by any of the patriarchs of that time.
And this is why the Scribes were indignant, as if a new and paradoxical doctrine were being preached. But the Lord did not blame them for this; rather, He taught those who were ignorant, showing that it was as God that He possessed His own authority, and as God—not as mere man—that He granted the forgiveness of sins. For He says to them: "That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," He says to the man with the withered hand, "Stretch out your hand," and he stretched it out, and his hand was restored sound as the other; and through the visible miracle, He confirmed the greater, invisible one. In the same way, He also healed Zacchaeus, and the harlot, and Matthew at the tax office, and Peter after his threefold denial, and the paralytic; after having healed him, He found him later and said: "See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest something worse happen to you." By saying this, He showed that the man had fallen into illness on account of sin, and upon being delivered from it, he had also received the forgiveness of his own sins. None of these people required much time, nor fasting, nor sleeping on the ground, but only conversion and unwavering faith, the cutting off of evil, true repentance, and many tears, as the harlot and Peter wept bitterly. Henceforth, the beginning of that great gift, which is fitting for God alone—which He alone possessed, and which, being about to ascend to heaven, He then left behind for His disciples—began. But let us consider C how He conferred this dignity and authority, whom and how many He chose, and when, for the principal eleven disciples. For when the doors were shut, and they were all gathered together within, He entered and stood in their midst and breathed on them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." He commands them nothing about imposing penalties, as He knew they would be taught about this matter by the Holy Spirit.
13. How, then, the Holy Apostles transmitted authority by succession
13. As has been said, the holy apostles D transmitted this authority by succession to the bishops, and to them alone—to those who occupied their thrones—in such a way that the others would not even dare to think of such things. For so strictly did the disciples of the Lord guard this. But later, as we have said, as time went on, the worthy were mixed and confused with the unworthy, and they were overwhelmed by the multitude, as one strove to surpass another through ambition, aspiring to presidency by hypocrisy, not by virtue. For since those who occupied the thrones of the
A apostles appeared as carnal, pleasure-loving, and ambitious, and lapsed into heresies, divine grace abandoned them, and this authority was taken away from such men, because they lacked all the other things that priests ought to possess. For as to being "orthodox," in this I have little confidence. For he is not orthodox who merely introduces no new dogma into the Church of God, but rather he who leads a life in accordance with right reason. And such men as these, the patriarchs and metropolitans of the time sought, but did not find; or if they did find them, they honored someone less worthy in their stead, asking only this one thing of him, namely, that he issue the Symbol of Faith in writing; and regarding this as the only requirement, and not being zealous for the good, nor struggling against any evil, they thereby procured peace for the Church, which is worse than any hostility or great disturbance. From this it came about that the priests were rendered worthless and became like the people; for since there were none among them to be salt, as the Lord said, so that by their reproofs they might tighten and restrain, even in the slightest, the life that was flowing away, but rather they forgave one another and concealed one another's vices, they themselves became worse than the people, and the people in turn worse than them. And yet, sometimes from among the people there arose some who were better than the priests themselves, appearing like coals in the darkness cast by those others. For if those B priests had shone in their lives according to the word of the Lord like the sun, the coals would never have been known to shine, but would have been eclipsed and obscured by the greater light. But since only the outward appearance and the vestment of the priesthood remained in men, and the gift of the Spirit had passed to the monks—and was known through signs, as they followed the life of the apostles through their deeds—here again the devil performed his own work. For seeing them, that they had been revealed as new disciples of Christ in the world, and shone both in life and in miracles, he introduced false brothers, his own instruments, and mingled them with these; and as time went on they multiplied, and as you see, they were rendered useless, and became no better than those who were monks in appearance only, or those called to the sacred rank by the laying on of hands, or those who ascended to the honor of the episcopacy; I mean the patriarchs, metropolitans, and bishops C.
14. Is it, then, simply by ordination and its dignity that the power of forgiving sins is granted by God? Far be it! For it is granted to those who perform the sacred rites, and to them alone. And I believe not even to most of them, lest, being stubble, they be burned thereby, but only to those who are among the priests, the high priests, and the monks who are numbered in the choir of Christ's disciples D.
15. Whence, therefore, shall those who are enrolled A in the holy orders understand this, and those who seek them, how shall they know them accurately? The Lord has taught this, saying: "And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." And again: "My sheep hear my voice." "By their fruits ye shall know them." What are these fruits? Those which Paul signifies by numbering them thus: "Charity, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance," to which are added compassion, brotherly love, mercy, and such like. And that also, "the word of wisdom," the "gift of healing," and many other things: "But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." For those who have become partakers of these gifts, whether of all or in part, as is expedient for them, are numbered in the choir of the apostles. Wherefore they are also the light of the world, just as Christ himself said: "No man, when he hath lighted a lamp, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light." B And not only from these are such men known, but also from the institution of their whole life. In the same way, those who seek them will themselves know each one of them most perfectly. Such are they who, after the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, bear poverty and contempt, nay rather, hold them in the place of the greatest honor; who, as he did, have shown their obedience toward their own fathers and guides, and those who impose anything upon them spiritually. Such are they who receive injuries, revilings, and reproaches with all their soul; who accept those who inflict these things upon them as the authors of great benefits, and from their heart pour out prayers and tears for them; who trample upon all the glory of the world, and consider all its desires as loss. And why do I collect many common things and prolong my discourse? I say that if each one of those of whom I speak finds that he has fulfilled all those virtues which they hear and read in the holy Scriptures, and has faithfully accomplished every opportunity for doing good; if, moreover, in individual virtues he feels that he has made progress, increase, and advancement, nay C rather, that he has ascended to the height of divine glory, then he will perceive that he has come into the participation of God and of His divine gifts; which all will easily see and recognize, who are accustomed not only to see clearly, but also those who see obscurely. Such as these can confidently proclaim before all: "We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you" to be reconciled to God. For all who D
A kept the commandments of God even unto death; they sold their possessions and distributed them to the poor; they followed Christ through the patient endurance of temptations. They found their souls, and indeed in the mental light; they found them in life eternal: and thus in this light they saw that inaccessible light, namely God Himself, as it is written: "In thy light we shall see light." How then shall anyone be able to find the soul he possesses? Give heed. The soul of each one of us is that drachma which he himself lost (and not God), when he submerged himself in the deep darkness of sins; but Christ, who is the true light, coming and meeting those who seek Him (as He alone knows how), grants Himself to them. This, therefore, is to find one’s own soul: to see God, and in His light to be exalted above every visible creature. He has God as shepherd and teacher, from whom he will perceive what it is, if it pleases Him, to bind and to loose; and having perceived Him perfectly, he will worship God, who gave the gift, and will impart it to those in need.
16. B And thus, my child, I know that the power of binding and loosing is granted by God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit to those who have become His sons and holy servants. Such a Father I myself became a disciple of, who indeed had received ordination not from men, but by the hand of God—that is, the Holy Spirit leading—admitted me into discipleship; and that ordination which men confer, He commanded me to receive justly according to the fitting form, having long been moved to this by an intense desire from the Holy Spirit.
17. C We must, therefore, first ourselves become such, my brothers and fathers, and thus we shall discourse to others about the uprooting of passions and the acceptance of counsels; and let us seek these spiritual men. Let us, therefore, first investigate these laborious men—I mean the disciples of Christ—and with a diligent heart and many tears let us pray to God for appointed days, that He may deign to reveal the eyes of our D hearts to discern if perhaps any such one may be found in this perverse generation: that having found him, we may receive through him the remission of our sins; that we may obey his precepts and mandates with all our soul, just as he, having heard the words of Christ, became a partaker of His grace and gifts, and received from Him the power of binding and loosing, being inflamed by the Holy Spirit; to whom is due all glory, honor, and adoration together with the Father and the only-begotten Son, unto the ages. Amen.
ADMONITION REGARDING THE ORATION AGAINST CONSTANTINE CABALLINUS
A The oration which follows, Combéfis edited in the second volume of the *Auctarium Bibliothecæ Patrum Græcorum*, and deemed it worthy to be joined to the three others by Damascenus regarding the images, even though it was written in a different style. You might call those books, he says, works written in leisure, in which sound doctrine is defended by a manifold genre of arguments: whereas this is as it were a declamation, by which he challenges all heretics as though face-to-face, and defends the libellus of faith offered [by the Church] against their calumnies. For this is what the title denotes, Λόγος ἀποδεικτικός, a Demonstrative Discourse (by which name it is indeed inscribed in the Royal codex 1829, in the Bodleian 274, and the Caesarean 144 parchment manuscript, very ancient and of excellent quality, as Lambecius testifies). B He then mentions another Royal codex, no. 2428, in which the following different title is held: *Epistola Joannis Hierosolymitani, archiepiscopi ejusdem sanctæ Christi Dei nostri civitatis, missa ad Constantinum Cabalinum, pro sanctis et venerandis imaginibus; sive quomodo Christiani qui fidem rectam profitentur credere debeant.* Because of this inscription, that learned man conjectured that the author of this treatise was a Patriarch John, whom Damascenus mentions in the epistle *On the Trisagion Hymn*, which he wrote after his death. He adds, moreover, that there are many things which persuade [one] that the author is a man of Constantinople, since he names both Germanus his own prelate and shepherd, and cites locations of the city of Constantinople as examples; yet he judges it to have been written before the seventh synod. C But Theophanes in his chronological tables reports that that Patriarch John died in the 19th year of Leo the Isaurian, in Christ 735; and thus he could not have proscribed the adulterous synod of Constantine, son of Leo, which was convened in the 14th year of this emperor, in Christ 754; much less could he have made mention of the deposition of the impious Patriarch Constantine, whom Copronymus later cast out, in the 26th year of his reign, in Christ 766, unless perhaps another John succeeded him immediately before or after, by whom the libellus of faith which the dissertation exhibits and defends, was issued. Moreover, lest he also might have written the whole epistle; because, as Theophanes narrates, already in the 23rd year of Constantine, in Christ 765, Patriarch Theodore was ruling the Church of Jerusalem, and together with the Alexandrian and Antiochene [patriarchs], by conspiracy, on the same day of Pentecost, he struck Cosmas of Apamea, guilty of profane dogma, with anathema, in the 9th year of the Caliph Abdallah, who was called by another name, Abujafar Almansor. D Furthermore, that this same Theodore persisted until the beginnings of the prelacy of Tarasius of Constantinople, or at least until the year 784, is made certain by the Acts of the seventh synod, in which the *Synodica* of Theodore to Tarasius is read. Elias succeeded Theodore, who, in the following year, in which the seventh synod was celebrated, was in exile by the unjust command of the barbarian Caliph, although, as the Acts of Saint Stephen the Sabaiter claim, another Theodore occupied the throne of the holy city by force. We have, therefore, no John of Jerusalem to whom the synodical epistle against Constantine Copronymus and his profane synod could be attributed.
As regards John Damascenus, since the author of his *Vita* testifies that he always fought against the Iconoclasts from afar in Syria and Palestine, and that he did not depart from the Laura of Saint Sabas after the death of Patriarch John, he could certainly not name Saint Germanus as his own prelate and shepherd. For what is read in the *Synaxarion* which bears the name of Emperor Basil, and is praised by the most learned continuators of Bollandus on May 8, [namely] that our John was variously relegated by heretical emperors and handed over to prisons because of the cause of the images, "ὅθεν καὶ διαφόρως ἐξορισθεὶς παρὰ τῶν αἱρετικῶν βασιλέων καὶ φυλακαῖς παραδοθείς" — this I show elsewhere to be false. Furthermore, regarding the question as to why this little work should be attributed to him, not only do the most serious lapses of memory which occur therein stand against it, but also the very dissonance of the diction. For the elocution familiar to Damascenus does not admit those flaws which are detected in this dissertation: nor in his genuine works have I noted this mode of speaking to have been used, which in this [work] is most frequent, [namely] θέλεις εἰπεῖν, θέλεις λέγειν, so that it may denote what you mean in Latin by "you say" (*dicis*): which indeed savors of the corrupted idiom of the Greeks. Wherefore the name of John Damascenus could be prefixed to the oration by no other right than that the *Epistle of the three patriarchs of the East to Emperor Theophilus*, which we shall soon submit, was attributed to him; although even that for a far better reason, because this matter about which the question now stands consists almost entirely of Damascenic arguments. Indeed, this excellent defender of the Church will have obtained, in defending the honor of sacred images, that many works should be inscribed in his name, by which the same cause might be championed: just as, surely, the name of Athanasius, that most noble patron of the deity of the Word, was also inscribed on the books of other authors, in which the struggle was for the sincere faith of Athanasius. The insipid compounds of names which are met here and there, such as ἀνδρόγυνα, by which men with wives are signified, σεπτομόρφων for σεπτῶν μορφῶν, θρυλλολέκται, σαρκομοιομόρφῳ ὄψει, etc., are similar to those which Leo Allatius observed in the orations of John of Eubœa, to some of which the name of John Damascenus was likewise prefixed by librarians. Moreover, in the Colbertine 7, a fairly old codex, after his oration on the Conception of the Mother of God, which is inscribed: *Ἰωάννου μοναχοῦ καὶ πρεσβυτέρου Εὐβοίας εἰς τὴν Σύλληψιν τῆς ἁγίας θεοτόκου* (John monk and presbyter of Eubœa on the Conception of the holy Mother of God); another follows with this title: *Ἰωάννου Δαμασκηνοῦ ἐπισκόπου Εὐβοίας, λόγος ἱστορικὸς εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν μάρτυρα Ἀναστασίαν* (John Damascenus bishop of Eubœa, historical discourse on the holy martyr Anastasia).
A Whether John of Eubœa was of Damascene origin is an obscure matter. He lived, however, in the age of Copronymus in the year 744, as he himself testifies in his oration on the Holy Innocents, so that one might perhaps conjecture the dissertation in question to be his. Be that as it may, in Royal Codex 2428, no preface is prefixed to the profession of faith, and the remainder is treated in a compendious form. In Codex 2951, the same work is found with the preamble also removed, bearing this inscription: *Συνοδικὸν Ἰωάννου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Ἱεροσολύμων στηλιτεύον τοὺς κατὰ τὴν ἄοικον καὶ ἀκέφα-λον ψευδώνυμον ἑβδόμην σύνοδον* (Synodic of John, Archbishop of Jerusalem, denouncing those of the empty and headless pseudo-seventh synod). By this is intended the "Synodic of John, Archbishop of Jerusalem," which calls into question a spurious and headless synod that is falsely termed the seventh. A synopsis of that same dissertation follows the formula of faith which is read in the first place; although the other is fuller, with a few things interspersed here and there, which have been borrowed from the sincere orations of Damascenus. I should have almost believed that this profession of faith, up to the words *τοὺς ἐκχέοντας τὸ αἷμα αὐτῶν ὑπὲρ ἀγάπης τοῦ Χρι-στοῦ* (those who shed their blood for the love of Christ), was the very one which John of Jerusalem published under the beginnings of the nascent Iconomachy heresy, to which other things were later added and prefixed which contributed to its declaration and defense. For B synodicals of this kind were not written by councils of bishops in the manner of debates; rather, they entrusted this business to polemical teachers, satisfied with a bare exposition of the faith by which the faithful might be taught merely what was to be held by certain faith. Thus, Theodore, in the same tenor, though in a more prolix form, sent a similar synodical epistle to Tarasius in the name of the Palestinian synod, without any skirmishing against the heresy.
Furthermore, that Royal Codex 2951 is the one from which the most illustrious and learned Parisian prelate, Dom Petrus de Marca, extracted some things pertaining to the Fifth Synod and made them public; it is said to have been transcribed by Leo Cinnamus in the year of the world 6784, or 1278 of Christ, during the reign of Michael Palæologus and his son Andronicus Comnenus. Moreover, Cinnamus the scribe testifies that that volume was transcribed by him from another which was kept in the old library of the Roman Church, and which had been written in the year of the world 6267, that is, the year of Christ 753; *ὡς ἀριθμεῖσθαι τοὺς χρόνους τοῦ τοιούτου βιβλίου ἄχρι τοῦ παρόντος εβ' πρὸς τοῖς πεντακοσίοις* (so that the years of such a book are numbered up to the present at five hundred and twelve), C and thus the age of that volume (the Roman one) comprised a total of 517 years at the present time. But Cinnamus was deceived, nor did he accurately calculate the numbers. For by what pact could the Roman codex have been written in the year of Christ 753, since the pseudo-synod of Copronymus was held only the following year, namely 754, and the impious Patriarch Constantine was not deposed by Copronymus until fourteen years later? For—as was observed before—that which was described by Cinnamus from the Roman codex with many others, touches upon this Synodic of John of Jerusalem: *Λοιπὸν ποιεῖ σύνοδος πατριάρχην μὴ ἔχουσα· ἀλλὰ καὶ ὃν ἐποίησεν ἀπέκτεινεν·* (Finally, it creates a synod not having a patriarch; but even the one it created, it killed). But what kind of synod is this that had no patriarch; nay, it even killed the one it had created? *τίς οὐ μὴ καταγελάσηται τὴν σύνοδον ταύτην τὴν ἀκέφαλον; κεφαλὴν μὴ ἔχοντα, ἐποίησεν ἑαυτῇ κεφαλὴν, καὶ στραφεῖσα ἔρριψεν αὐτήν, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀπέκτεινεν αὐτήν·* Who would not deride this synod that has no head? Lacking a head, it fashioned a head for itself, and having turned, it cast it off, or rather, it killed it. Constantine’s patriarchate was abrogated on the 3rd of August, indiction 4. Nicetas was intruded into his place on the 17th of November, indiction 5, then on the following day, facing backwards, he was carried on an ass and led through the equestrian games so that he might be pelted with insults by the populace, and shortly after he was beheaded in the Cynegion. See Theophanes and Nicephorus in the *Breviarium*. D
JOHN OF DAMASCUS DEMONSTRATIVE ORATION CONCERNING THE HOLY AND VENERABLE IMAGES. To all Christians, and to the Emperor Constantine Cabalinus, and to all heretics.
A Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth a narrative, as I shall say with the blessed apostle and evangelist Luke, concerning the orthodox faith and the tradition of the Church which Christ Jesus, our true God, acquired for Himself by His own Passion, I have deemed it necessary, beloved, not to conceal these things from your excellence, but to show you the way of truth which the Catholic and Apostolic Church has held firmly from the beginning and from of old, regarding the holy and venerable images, so that you might not be tossed hither and thither like a reed shaken by the wind by that cruel heresy of those who do not venerate the economy of God as seen in the flesh for our sake, as expressed through iconographic recreation, but rather, out of malice and absurd reasoning, treat it with insult; those who, through baptism and the communion of the precious body and immaculate blood, appear to be Christians, but are in truth strangers to Christ; those who, finally, hold the dignity of shepherds but have nonetheless been changed into wolves and wild beasts—not indeed by nature, but by purpose and faith, according to that which is openly proclaimed in the Gospel: B "He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." A grave invention of this kind has emerged in these times from the pursuits of deceitful and shadowy men; men, I say, who have fallen into the abyss of destruction and an insufferable mire because of their own vainglory and pride. But you, O venerable audience, both those who have recently received the unction and those who received it of old; you who have followed the voices of the prophets, the writings of the apostles, and the decrees of the Fathers, you who hold the anchor of faith firm, safeguard it in your souls lest it be snatched away by the malice of the murderous enemy, and by keeping yourselves whole and unshaken, [hold fast to the confession] of the right faith of the consubstantial and undivided Trinity...