If it is True that You Write a Letter to Me So as to Admonish Me, And, Because You Wish that I Should be Reformed, and that You do not Wish that Men Should have a Stumbling Block Put in their Way, and that Some May be Driven Mad and Others be Put to Silence; Why do You Write Books Addressed to Others against Me, and Scatter them by Your Myrmidons for the Whole World to Read? and what Becomes of Your Dilemma in which You Try to Entangle Me, "Whom, Best of Masters, did You Think to Correct? if those to whom You Wrote, There was no Fault to Find with Them; if Me whom You Accuse, it was not to Me that You Wrote"? and I Will Reply to You in Your Own Words: "Whom did You Wish to Correct, Unlearned Master? those who had done no Wrong? or Me to whom You did not Write? You Think Your Leaders are Brutish and are all Incapable of Understanding Your Subtilty, or Rather Your Ill Will, (For it was in this that the Serpent was More Subtile than all the Beasts in Paradise,) in Asking that My Admonition to You Should be of a Private Character, when You were Pressing an Indictment against Me in Public. You are not Ashamed to Call this Indictment of Yours an Apology: and You Complain that I Oppose a Shield to Your Poniard, and with Much Religiosity and Sanctimoniousness You Assume the Mask of Humility, and Say: "If I had Erred, Why did You Write to Others, and not Try to Confute Me?" I Will Retort on You this Very Point. What You Complain that I did not Do, Why did You not do Yourself? it is as if a Man who is Attacking Another with Kicks and Fisticuffs, and Finds Him Intending to Shew Fight, Should Say to Him: "Do You not Know the Command, if a Man Smites You on the Cheek, Turn to Him the Other'?" it Comes to This, My Good Sir, You are Determined to Beat Me, to Strike Out My Eye; and Then, when I Bestir Myself ever So Little, You Harp Upon the Precept of the Gospel. Would You Like to have all the Windings of Your Cunning Exposed? --Those Tricks of the Foxes who Dwell among the Ruins, of whom Ezekiel Writes, "Like Foxes in the Desert, So are Thy Prophets, O Israel. " Let Me Make You Understand what You have Done. You Praised Me in Your Preface in Such a Way that Your Praises are Made a Ground of Accusation against Me, and if I had not Declared Myself to be Without any Connexion with My Admirer, I Should have Been Judged as a Heretic. After I Repelled Your Charges, that is Your Praises, and Without Shewing Ill Will to You Personally, Answered the Accusations, not the Accuser, and Inveighed against the Heretics, to Shew That, Though Defamed by You, I was a Catholic; You Grew Angry, and Raved and Composed the Most Magnificent Works against Me; and when You had Given them to all Men to Read and Repeat, Letters came to Me from Italy, and Rome and Dalmatia, Shewing Each More Clearly than the Last, what all the Encomiums were Worth with which in Your Former Laudation You had Decorated Me. Ezek. xiii. 4 C8. I Confess, I Immediately Set to Work to Reply to the Insinuations Directed against Me, and Tried with all My Might to Prove that I was no Heretic, and I Sent These Books of My Apology to those whom Your Book had Pained, So that Your Poison Might be Followed by My Antidote. In Reply to This, You Sent Me Your Former Books, and Now Send Me this Last Letter, Full of Injurious Language and Accusations. My Good Friend, what do You Expect Me to Do? to Keep Silence? that Would be to Acknowledge Myself Guilty. To Speak? but You Hold Your Sword Over My Head, and Threaten Me with an Indictment, no Longer Before the Church but Before the Law-Courts. What have I done that Deserves Punishment? Wherein have I Injured You? is it that I have Shewn Myself not to be a Heretic? or that I could not Esteem Myself Worthy of Your Praises? or that I Laid Bare in Plain Words the Tricks and Perjuries of the Heretics? what is all this to You who Boast Yourself a True Man and a Catholic, and who Shew More Zeal in Attacking Me than in Defending Yourself? must I be Thought to be Attacking You Because I Defend Myself? or is it Impossible that You Should be Orthodox Unless You Prove Me to be a Heretic? what Help Can it Give You to be Connected with Me? and what is the Meaning of Your Action? You are Accused by one Set of People and You Answer Only by Attacking Another. You Find an Attack Made on You by one Man, and You Turn Your Back Upon Him and Attack Another who was for Leaving You Alone. C9. I Call Jesus the Mediator to Witness that it is against My Will, and Fighting against Necessity, that I Come Down into the Arena of this War of Words, and That, had You not Challenged Me, I Would have Never Broken Silence. Even Now, Let Your Charges against Me Cease, and My Defence Will Cease. For it is no Edifying Spectacle that is Presented to Our Readers, that of Two Old Men Engaging in a Gladiatorial Conflict on Account of a Heretic; Especially when Both of them Wish to be Thought Catholics. Let us Leave Off all Favouring of Heretics, and There Will be no Dispute Between Us. We once were Zealous in Our Praise of Origen; Let us be Equally Zealous in Condemning Him Now that He is Condemned by the Whole World. Let us Join Hands and Hearts, and March with a Ready Step Behind the Two Trophy-Bearers of the East and West. We Went Wrong in Our Youth, Let us Mend Our Ways in Our Age. If You are My Brother, be Glad that I have Seen My Errors; if I am Your Friend, I must Give You Joy on Your Conversion. So Long as we Maintain Our Strife, we Shall be Thought to Hold the Right Faith not Willingly but of Necessity. Our Enmity Prevents Our Affording the Spectacle of a True Repentance. If Our Faith is One, if we Both of us Accept and Reject the Same Things, (And it is from This, as Even Catiline Testifies, that Firm Friendships Arise), if we are Alike in Our Hatred of Heretics, and Equally Condemn Our Former Mistakes, Why Should we Set Out to Battle against Each Other, when we have the Same Objects Both of Attack and Defence? Pardon Me for Having Praised Origen's Zeal for Scriptural Learning in My Youthful Days Before I Fully Knew his Heresies; and I Will Grant You Forgiveness for Having Written an Apology for his Works when Your Head was Grey. Theophilus of Alexandria --Anastasius of Rome. C10. You State that My Book came into Your Hands Two Days Before You Wrote Your Letter to Me, and that Therefore You had no Sufficient Leisure to Make a Reply. Otherwise, if You had Spoken against Me after Full Thought and Preparation, we Might Think that You were Casting Forth Lightnings Rather than Accusations. But Even So Veracious a Person as You Will Hardly Gain Credence when You Tell us that a Merchant of Eastern Wares Whose Business is to Sell what He Has Brought from These Parts and to Buy Italian Goods to Bring Over Here for Sale, Only Stayed Two Days at Aquileia, So that You were Obliged to Write Your Letter to Me in a Hurried and Extempore Fashion. For Your Books which it Took You Three Years to Put into Complete Shape are Hardly More Carefully Written. Perhaps, However, You had no one at Hand Then to Amend Your Sorry Productions, and this is the Reason Why Your Literary Journey is Destitute of the Aid of Pallas, and is Intersected by Faults of Style, as by Rough Places and Chasms at Every Turn. It is Clear that this Statement About the Two Days is False; You Would not have Been Able in that Time Even to Read what I Wrote, Much Less to Reply to It; So that it is Evident that Either You Took a Good Many Days in Writing Your Letter, which Its Elaborate Style Makes Probable; Or, if this is Your Hasty Style of Composition, and You Can Write So Well Off-Hand, You Would be Very Negligent in Your Composition to Write So Much Worse when You have had Time for Thought. C11. You State, with Some Prevarication, that You have Translated from the Greek what I had Before Translated into Latin; but I do not Clearly Understand to what You are Alluding, Unless You are Still Bringing up against Me the Commentary on the Ephesians, and Hardening Yourself in Your Effrontery, as if You had Received no Answer on this Head. You Stop Your Ears and Will not Hear the Voice of the Charmer. What I have done in that and Other Commentaries is to Develop Both My Own Opinion and that of Others, Stating Clearly which are Catholic and which Heretical. This is the Common Rule and Custom of those who Undertake to Explain Books in Commentaries: They Give at Length in their Exposition the Various Opinions, and Explain what is Thought by Themselves and by Others. This is done not Only by those who Expound the Holy Scriptures but Also by those who Explain Secular Books Whether in Greek or in Latin. You, However, Cannot Screen Yourself in Reference to the Peri 'Archon by this Fact; for You Will be Convicted by Your Own Preface, in which You Undertake that the Evil Parts and those which have Been Added by Heretics have Been Cut Off but that all that is Best Remains; So that all that You have Written, Whether Good or Bad, must be Held to be the Work, not of the Author whom You are Translating, but of Yourself who have Made the Translation. Perhaps, Indeed, You Ought to have Corrected the Errors of the Heretics, and to have Set Forth Publicly what is Wrong in Origen. But on this Point, (Since You Refer Me to the Document Itself,) I have Made You My Answer Before Reading Your Letter. C12. About the Book of Pamphilus, what Happened to Me Was, not Comical as You Call It, but Perhaps Ridiculous; Namely that after I had Asserted it to be by Eusebius not by Pamphilus, I Stated at the End of the Discussion that I had for Many Years Believed that it was by Pamphilus, and that I had Borrowed a Copy of this Book from You. You May Judge How Little I Fear Your Derision from the Fact that Even Now I Make the Same Statement. I Took it from Your Manuscript as Being a Copy of a Work of Pamphilus. I Trusted in You as a Christian and as a Monk: I did not Imagine that You Would be Guilty of Such a Wicked Imposture. But, after that the Question of Origen's Heresy was Stirred Throughout the World on Account of Your Translation of his Work, I was More Careful in Examining Copies of the Book, and in the Library of Cæsarea I Found the Six Volumes of Eusebius' Apology for Origen. As Soon as I had Looked Through Them, I at once Detected the Book on the Son and the Holy Spirit which You Alone have Published Under the Name of the Martyr, Altering Most of Its Blasphemies into Words of a Better Meaning. and this I Saw must have Been done Either by Didymus or by You or Some Other (It is Quite Clear that You did it in Reference to the Peri 'Archon) by this Decisive Proof, that Eusebius Tells us that Pamphilus Published Nothing of his Own. It is for You Therefore to Say from Whence You Obtained Your Copy; and do Not, for the Sake of Avoiding My Accusation, Say that it was from Some one who is Dead, Or, Because You have no one to Point To, Name one who Cannot Answer for Himself. If this Rivulet Has Its Source in Your Desk, the Inference is Plain Enough, Without My Drawing It. But, Suppose that the Title of this Book and the Name of the Author Has Been Changed by Some Other Lover of Origen, what Motive had You for Turning it into Latin? Evidently This, That, Through the Testimony Given to Him by a Martyr, all Should Trust to the Writings of Origen, Since They were Guaranteed Beforehand by a Witness of Such Authority. But the Apology of this Most Learned Man was not Sufficient for You; You must Write a Treatise of Your Own in his Defence, And, when These Two Documents had Been Widely Circulated, You Felt Secure in Proceeding to Translate the Peri 'Archon Itself from the Greek, and Commended it in a Preface, in which You Said that Some Things in it had Been Corrupted by the Heretics, but that You had Corrected them from a Study of Others of Origen's Writings. Then Come in Your Praises of Me for the Purpose of Preventing any of My Friends from Speaking against You. You Put Me Forward as the Trumpeter of Origen, You Praise My Eloquence to the Skies, So that You May Drag Down the Faith into the Mire; You Call Me Colleague and Brother, and Profess Yourself the Imitator of My Works. Then, While on the one Hand You Cry Me up as Having Translated Seventy Homilies of Origen, and Some of his Short Treatises on the Apostle, in which You Say that I So Smoothed Things Down that the Latin Reader Will Find Nothing in them which is Discrepant from the Catholic Faith; Now on the Other Hand You Brand These Very Books as Heretical; And, Obliterating Your Former Praise, You Accuse the Man whom You had Preached up when You Thought He Would Figure as Your Ally, Because You Find that He is the Enemy of Your Perfidy. Which of us Two is the Calumniator of the Martyr? I, who Say that He was no Heretic, and that He did not Write the Book which is Condemned by Every One; or You, who have Published a Book Written by a Man who was an Arian and Changed his Name into that of the Martyr? it is not Enough for You that Greece Has Been Scandalized; You must Press the Book Upon the Ears of the Latins, and Dishonor an Illustrious Martyr as Far as in You Lies by Your Translation. Your Intention no Doubt was not This; it was not to Accuse Me but to Make Me Serve for the Defence of Origen's Writings. But Let Me Tell You that the Faith of Rome which was Praised by the Voice of an Apostle, Does not Recognize Tricks of this Kind. a Faith which Has Been Guaranteed by the Authority of an Apostle Cannot be Changed Though an Angel Should Announce Another Gospel than that which He Preached. Therefore, My Brother, Whether the Falsification of the Book Proceeds from You, as Many Believe, or from Another, as You Will Perhaps Try to Persuade Us, in which Case You have Only Been Guilty of Rashness in Believing the Composition of a Heretic to be that of a Martyr, Change the Title, and Free the Innocence of the Romans from this Great Peril. It is of no Advantage to You to be the Means of a Most Illustrious Martyr Being Condemned as a Heretic: of one who Shed his Blood for Christ Being Proud to be an Enemy of the Christian Faith. Take Another Course: Say, I Found a Book which I Believed to be the Work of a Martyr. Do not Fear to be a Penitent. I Will not Press You Further. I Will not Ask from whom You Obtained It; You Can Name Some Dead Man if You Please, or Say You Bought it from an Unknown Man in the Street: for I do not Wish to See You Condemned, but Converted. It is Better that it Should Appear that You were in Error than that the Martyr was a Heretic. At all Events, by Some Means or Other, Draw Out Your Foot from Its Present Entanglement: Consider what Answer You Will Make in the Judgment to Come to the Complaints which the Martyrs Will Bring against You. Non Ridiculosa Ut Tu Scribis Sed Ridicula. Jerome Seems to Object to Ridiculosus as Bad Latin. C13. Moreover, You Make a Charge against Yourself which Has Been Brought by no one against You, and Make Excuses Where no one Has Accused You. You Say that You have Read These and in My Letter: "I Want to Know who Has Given You Leave when Translating a Book, to Remove Some Things, Change Others, and Again Add Others. " and You Go on to Answer Yourself, and to Speak against Me: "I Say this to You who I Pray, Has Given You Leave, in Your Commentaries, to Put Down Some Things Out of Origen, Some from Apollinarius, Some of Your Own, Instead of all from Origen or from Yourself or from Some Other?" all this While, While You are Aiming at Something Different, You have Been Preferring a Very Strong Charge against Yourself; and You have Forgotten the Old Proverb, that those who Speak Falsehood Should have Good Memories. You Say that I in My Commentaries have Set Down Some Things Out of Origen, Some from Apollinarius, Some of My Own. If Then These Things which I have Set Down Under the Names of Others are the Words of Apollinarius and of Origen; what is the Meaning of the Charge which You Fasten Upon Me, That, when I Say "Another Says This," "The Following is Some One's Conjecture," that "Other" or "Some One" Means Myself? Between Origen and Apollinarius There is a Vast Difference of Interpretation, of Style, and of Doctrine. When I Set Down Discrepant Opinions on the Same Passage, am I to be Supposed to Accept Both the Contradictory Views? but More of this Hereafter. C14. Now I Ask You This: who May have Blamed You for Having Either Added or Changed or Taken Away Certain Things in the Books of Origen, and have Put You to the Question Like a Man on the Horse-Rack; are those Things which You Put Down in Your Translation Bad or Good? it is Useless for You to Simulate Innocence, and by Some Silly Question to Parry the Force of the True Inquiry. I have Never Accused You for Translating Origen for Your Own Satisfaction. I have done the Same, and So have Victorinus, Hilary, and Ambrose; but I have Accused You for Fortifying Your Translation of a Heretical Work by Writing a Preface Approving of It. You Compel Me to Go Over the Same Ground, and to Walk in the Lines I Myself have Traced. For You Say in that Prologue that You have Cut Away what had Been Added by the Heretics; and have Replaced it with what is Good. If You have Taken Out the False Statement of the Heretics, Then what You have Left or have Added must be Either Origen's, or Yours, and You have Set them Down, Presumably, as Good. But that Many of These are Bad You Cannot Deny. "What is That," You Will Say, "To Me?" You must Impute it to Origen; for I have done no More than Alter what had Been Added by the Heretics. Tell us Then for what Reason You Took Out the Bad Things Written by the Heretics and Left those Written by Origen Untouched. Is it not Clear that Parts of the False Doctrines of Origen You Condemned Under the Designation of the Doctrines of Heretics, and Others You Accepted Because You Judged them to be not False but True and Consonant with Your Faith? it was These Last About which I Inquired Whether those Things which You Praised in Your Preface were Good or Bad: it was These which You Confessed You have Left as Perfectly Good when You Cut Out all that was Worst; and I Thus have Placed You, as I Said, on the Horse-Rack, So That, if You Say that They are Good, You Will be Proved to be a Heretic, but if You Say They are Bad, You Will at once be Asked: "Why Then did You Praise These Bad Things in Your Preface?" and I did not Add the Question which You Craftily Pretend that I Asked; "Why did You by Your Translation Bring Evil Doctrines to the Ears of the Latins?" for to Exhibit what is Bad May be done at Times not for the Sake of Teaching them but of Warning Men against Them: So that the Reader May be on his Guard not to Follow the Error, but May Make Light of the Evils which He Knows, Whereas if Unknown They Might Become Objects of Wonder to Him. Yet after This, You Dare to Say that I am the Author of Writings of this Kind, Whereas You, as a Mere Translator Would be Going Beyond the Translator's Province if You had Chosen to Correct Anything, But, if You did not Correct Anything, You Acted as a Translator Alone. You Would be Quite Right in Saying this if Your Translation of the Peri 'Archon had no Preface; Just as Hilary, when He Translated Origen's Homilies Took Care to do it So that Both the Good and Evil of them Should be Imputed not to the Translator but to their Own Author. If You had not Boasted that You had Cut Out the Worst and Left the Best, You Would, in Some Way or Other, have Escaped from the Mire. But it is this that Brings to Nought the Trick of Your Invention, and Keeps You Bound on all Sides, So that You Cannot Get Out. and I must Ask You not to have Too Mean an Opinion of the Intelligence of Your Readers Nor to Think that all who Will Read Your Writings are So Dull as not to Laugh at You when They See You Let Real Wounds Mortify While You Put Plasters on a Healthy Body. Equuleus, the Little Horse, an Instrument of Torture. C15. What Your Opinions are on the Resurrection of the Flesh, we have Already Learned from Your Apology. "No Member Will be Cut Off, Nor any Part of the Body Destroyed. " this is the Clear and Open Profession which You Make in Your Innocence, and which You Say is Accepted by all the Bishops of Italy. I Should Believe Your Statement, but that the Matter of that Book which is not Pamphilus' Makes Me Doubt About You. and I Wonder that Italy Should have Approved what Rome Rejected; that the Bishops Should have Accepted what the Apostolic See Condemned. C16. You Further Write that it was by My Letters that You had Been Informed that the Pope Theophilus Lately Put Forth an Exposition of the Faith which Has not Yet Reached You and You Promise to Accept Whatever He May have Written. I am not Aware that I ever Said This, or that I Sent any Letters of the Sort. But You Consent to Things of which You are Still in Uncertainty, and Things as to which You do not Know what and of what Kind They Will Turn Out to Be, So that You May Avoid Speaking of Things which You Know Quite Well, and May not be Bound by the Consent You have Given to Them. There are Two Letters of Theophilus, a Synodal and a Paschal Letter, against Origen and his Disciples, and Others against Apollinarius and against Origen Also, Which, Within the Last Two Years or Thereabouts, I have Translated and Given to the Men who Speak Our Language for the Edification of the Church. I am not Aware that I have Translated Anything Else of His. But, when You Say that You Assent to the Opinion of the Pope Theophilus in Everything, You must Take Care not to Let Your Masters and Disciples Hear You, and not to Offend These Numerous Persons who Call Me a Robber and You a Martyr, and Also not to Provoke the Wrath of the Man who Wrote Letters to You against the Bishop Epiphanius, and Exhorted You to Stand Fast in the Truth of the Faith, and not to Change Your Opinion for any Terror. This Epistle in Its Complete Form is Held by those to whom it was Brought. After this You Say, after Your Manner: "I Will Satisfy You Even when You Rage against Me, as I have in the Matter You Spoke of Before. " but Again You Say, "What do You Want? have You Anything More at which You May Shoot with the Bow of Your Oratory?" and Yet You are Indignant if I Find Fault with Your Distasteful Way of Speaking, Though You Take up the Lowest Expressions of the Comedians, and in Writing on Church Affairs Adopt Language Fit Only for the Characters of Harlots and their Lovers on the Stage. for the Years 401 and 402. See Jerome Letters 96 and 98.