FRAGMENT FROM THE ORATION AGAINST THE ASTRONOMERS
(Edited by Chr. Frid. Matthæi, Lectiones Mosquenses, Leipzig, 1779, in-8°, vol. II, p. 38.)
Of holy Gregory the Theologian, from the Oration against the Astronomers.
Just as fish living in the waters are brought to life through the humors and waters that encompass them in the womb, yet after birth every living creature enjoys the life provided by the air—not by expiration, but by inspiration and respiration—and the body is the bond of the soul, while the blood, or rather the substantial warmth of the blood, is the bond of the body, and upon its cooling, the separation of the soul from the body occurs as the blood congeals. A Whence it is that when the bodies of people who have died that very hour are dissected, they may perhaps still contain bile within, and likewise phlegm and humor, but blood by no means. For, as I have already said, the separation of the soul from the body occurs by the deficiency of the hot element. And for this reason, most infants are born at night, as the womb cools and discharges the infant due to the nocturnal chill; in the same way, most bodies die at night, as if the warmth of the blood were being driven away and extinguished by the cold of the night. And this is the reason for the separation of souls. It is necessary, however, that you also understand the separation of the elements of the body, so that you may have a firm argument for the resurrection. For when the soul is separated from the body, the four elements from which they were composed […] and are carried away among them: in the fire, the warmth of the blood as if into its own treasury; in the water, the moisture; in the air, the cold; finally, in the earth—that is, in the grave—remains the dryness, or rather the dust which was taken from it by God from the beginning. C Therefore, at the time of the resurrection, as if from certain storehouses of the mentioned parts of the world, each element renders back its own to the dust, and the body is again constituted from the four, and the soul rushes back to it, and thus man is again reformed. You will wish—since you are fond of reasoning about everything—to have these matters explained in detail as well; I mean the operations of the soul through the body: memory, speech, desire, anger, laughter, and breath; what these are, and through which parts they are operated. B Indeed, all memories and the distinctions thereof are operated by the soul through the brain; for which reason, some people who have often received a fatal blow to the head did not die immediately, but became senseless and foolish; for this reason, the parts behind the head are called *metaphrena*. The rational faculty is operated by the soul through the heart. The respiratory [faculty] through the lungs; the irascible through the blood; hence one can often see in those who are angry, at the moment of their anger, their appearance bloodshot and burning. The concupiscible [faculty] the soul operates through the liver; hence when the liver is chilled, with indigestion immediately following, a person becomes anorexic regarding food. For understand that all gluttonous animals possess a perfect liver; such as swine and ostriches. You will know, moreover, that the smiling [faculty] the soul operates through the spleen, which is difficult to urge toward laughter—and which is often, by many...
[...]; they are drawn along to be spleen-struck, they say. Should you wish at all to understand matters concerning the semen-producing organs and whence they proceed—which the kidneys are—whence also those who are expert in such matters are wont to say that those who are unsparing in their sexual indulgences are liable to be bent by the pain of the kidneys. However, it is necessary for those who have a love of learning to know what is hidden from the multitude: that the soul, having been torn away from the body and the enumerated parts of the body, and being naked by itself in a state of incorporeality and [un-...]ness, neither remembers any longer nor labors, as he bears witness who said: "In that day all his thoughts shall perish." But, O wise one, you will make investigations on the spot regarding the discourse on the soul. Hence, also, that which is for the many at once incomprehensible and indissoluble [...] and how an incorporeal soul is separated from the body, and in the separation of the soul, death does not occur; for there is one and only one separation of the soul from the body. Consider this, furthermore, along with everything: whence and for what reason some men are naturally—and not from any kind of exercise, but from their very fresh infancy—some are sharp, others are gentle, others are pleasure-loving, others are temperate, others are tranquil, while others are turbulent; and some are prudent, others more guileless, and some are treacherous, others foolish, and many other things, [as the] Greeks [say]. B Unlearned philosophers are they who have invented, regarding the stars, the astrology of the fleeting elements of daily and nightly motion. For know, O philosopher, that there are three motions in existence for the elements from the intervals of the three hours; for from the first hour of the day until the third, the bile is in motion, as the eyes of some, being seen [...] in the morning, often bear witness; and from the third until the sixth, with the heat of the sun, [there are...] motions and fermentations of blood, sharper and more C bitter [...] and [sharper] after eating; and from the sixth hour until the ninth, the motion of the [...] is accustomed to occur, and so then that of the humor until evening.
LITURGY OF SAINT GREGORY
TRANSLATED FROM THE COPTIC (RENAUDOT, *Liturgiarum Orientalium collectio*, 2nd ed., Frankfurt an der Oder, 1847, in-4, vol. I)According to the common tradition of the Copts, this Liturgy is ascribed to Gregory the Theologian in all Egyptian codices and also in the Greek [codex] of the Royal Library; and it is listed under that name by theologians and interpreters of rituals, as in the synodal Constitutions of Gabriel, son of Tarik, 70th Patriarch of Alexandria, article 26; Abuseba in *Ecclesiastical Science*, chap. 85; Abulbircat, chap. 29; Ebnassalo in the *Collection of Canons*, chap. 12, and others.