Letter 98. From Theophilus.

A translation by Jerome of Theophilus's paschal letter for the year 402 a.d. Like that of the previous year (Letter 96) it deals mainly with the heresies of Apollinarius and Origen.

First, he encourages believers to celebrate Easter to the Lord. Secondly, he refutes and slaughters the errors of Apollinaris, thirdly, those of Origen, finally, he urges heretics to repentance.

The below translation made by ChatGPT 3.5 from this Latin text.

1. First, the divine discourse of August solemnity shines from the regions of the heavens, surpassing the brilliance of the sun with its radiance, and pours the brightest light into the souls longing for it. And when they have withstood the rays of its full gaze, he attracts them to the very innermost chambers of heavenly Jerusalem, and, so to speak, to the Holy of Holies. So, if we wish to be participants in salvation and to be attached to the pursuit of virtues, let us purify the faults of our souls and wash away whatever filth there is within us through constant study of the Scriptures; as if, gazing upon the open knowledge of doctrines, we should hasten to celebrate the festivals of heavenly joy and to join the choirs of angels, where there are crowns and rewards, and certain victory is attained, and the desired palm is set before the triumphant. Nor let us delay, now that we have been freed from the surging waves of the flesh and are caught amid the diverse shipwrecks of pleasures on either side, but let us grasp the rudder of virtues and, after the great dangers of the sea, make for the most secure harbor of heaven.

2. Therefore, both those whom the empty concern of this life disturbs, and those surrounding depths of disturbance like raging waves, as if arousing them from a heavy sleep, let us call to the profit of wisdom: let us show them the true riches of divine perception, and the joys inspired by holy celebration; and let all the labor of the present be assumed, so that both those who are a little careless and ourselves may prepare for eternal glory. Therefore, in the Book of Proverbs, Wisdom, inviting the senseless to her feast, cries out: "Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine I have mixed" (Prov. 9). For not in this way is the heaven which we see illuminated by the choruses of stars, nor do the sun and moon, those two brightest eyes of the world, which by their course make a year revolve and by their changing produce the seasons, pour forth their light so brightly upon the earth that our festival of virtues shines and sparkles. Those who seek its treasures and riches sing with David in harmony: "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?" (Ps. 54). And rejoicing, and being filled with inexplicable joy, and according to what is written, they cry out again: We do not have a lasting city here, but we seek one that is future (Hebrews 13.14), of which God is the craftsman and fabricator. For they (Christians) know that this (hope) is what is stored up for all their labors in this world of struggle and running, and that this (hope) is established for the future, for which they (Christians) without fear of any danger guide the course of their (Christian) lives, avoiding the heretics and especially their snares by which the blind lead the blind into the pit, and like some old and most filthy rot, they defile the hearts of the deceived; nor satisfied with this lime, they drink of the innermost marrow of the Scriptures, condemning as an erroneous doctrine the knowledge of the false name.

3. That understanding patriarch Jacob sees the ladder in his dreams, the top of which reaches to heaven, through which one ascends to the heights with different degrees of virtue, and men are challenged, abandoning earthly lowliness, as the primitive Church celebrates the festivals of the Lord's passion. This is nothing else, he said, but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven (Genesis 28). "Which, David examining more sharply, and inquiring with all the desire of his mind, and dealing with the reasons of this journey in his thoughts, and as if grinding and crushing precious pigments more strongly, so that the fragrances of the sweetest scent might be scattered, he calls forth those hastening to the solemnity, saying: Open to me the gates of justice; I will enter into them, and give praise to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the just shall enter into it." (Psalm 117) Therefore, there is no celebration among the heretics; nor can those deceived by error rejoice in its communion. For it is written, ‘If the beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned' (Heb. 12:20). Neither can those who contradict the divine dogmas of the Church receive the sacraments of the heavenly words. Therefore, purifying our souls with all our strength from every contamination, let us prepare them worthy for the approaching celebration, so that we may sing with the saints: ‘God is the Lord, and He appeared to us’ (Ps. 117). About which another Prophet, conscious of the future, witnesses with mystical voice: 'The Lord will appear in them, and will destroy all the gods of the Gentiles' (Zeph. 2:11). When words have been put into action, and the truth of things, which is often obscured from sight, is demonstrated to doubting eyes, so that by the effectiveness of what has been spoken, the truth of the words may be confirmed, we ourselves, by the grace of God, shall be partakers in His victory, so that we may share fellowship with the holy and celebrate the praises of His glorious advent. For, whereas once the whole earth had been corrupted by the seductive attraction of various vices, reckoning virtues among vices and, conversely, vices among virtues, and deeming custom a law of nature as time went on, wicked and tyrannical pride had become established and lies had gained strength, fathers and teachers came to be regarded as the guardians of truth. This is how it came about that men's errors multiplied and, ignorant of the truths which are of real advantage, they despised the true shepherd, the Lord. And, seized by fury, they worshipped tyrants and rulers as if they were gods, consecrating their own weakness among men of the same nature. Through this, it happened that they escaped present danger of death and won over those whose mercy was more cruel than their cruelty.

4. Therefore, with all being lead astray by error, the living word of God came to our aid to lands that were ignorant of the worship of God and sustained the loneliness of truth. The witness of which thing is he who speaks: "All have sinned, becoming useless together" (Romans 3). And the prophets of Christ praying for aid: "Lord, incline your heavens and descend" (Psalm 143). Not to change the places where all things were, but in order to take on the flesh of human weakness for our salvation, as Paul sings the same: When he was rich, for our sake he became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich (1 Corinthians 8). And he came into the world, and from the virginal womb, which he sanctified, came forth as a man, confirming by his dispensation the interpretation of his name, Emmanuel, that is, God with us, and he began to be marvelously what we are, and he did not cease to be what he was: thus assuming human nature, so that he himself might not lose what he was. Although John writes "The Word was made flesh" (John 1), that is to say, "Man", nevertheless it is not turned into flesh because God never ceased to be. To whom David also speaks: "But You are the same" (Psalms 101). And the Father from heaven testifies, saying: "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Luke 2). So that it may be said that He who was before man was made, remains through our confession having become man, Paul himself preaching with the same voice as ours: "Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, and the same forever (Hebrews 13)." For in that which he says, 'He,' he shows that he did not change his original nature, nor diminish the wealth of his divinity, who, for our sake, became poor, and assumed the full likeness of our condition. He assumed man from among so many and such beings, solely without sin; from what sort and quality of beings we are all created, not in part, but wholly, the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (I. Tim. 2. 5), and he had nothing which is found in our resemblance, except only sin, which has no substance; for he had not lifeless flesh, and in that flesh, as God's Word, he himself was rational soul, just as the drowsy scholars of Apollinaris suspect. And saying that in the Gospel: "Now my soul is troubled" (Matthew 26:38), [he] testifies (some say "it is testified") that his divinity was subject to perturbation, which is a consequent claim of those who argue that divinity was in his body for his soul; nor again by joining only a soul together, [he] filled it up being undertaken by man, lest he be deemed to have completed the act of mediation by [merely] sharing in flesh, and in the dissimilarity of souls. Being like us in flesh, and having the soul of irrational animals - if according to their [the rationalists'] understanding the Savior's soul is irrational and without reason and feeling, [it] is impious to believe this, and far from the ecclesiastical faith, lest it be immediately struck by that praise with which the Prophet rebukes the offender, saying: Ephraim is like a senseless dove without a heart (Hosea 7:11). And if he hears like one who is irrational: he has been compared to foolish beasts, and he has become like them. For it is beyond doubt that an irrational and mindless soul is compared to irrational beasts; hence Moses also writes: you shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain. And Paul in expounding the passage says: Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake?

5. Therefore, for our sake, the man became a Savior, not for brute and irrational animals, so that he might assume the likeness of the souls of animals without sense and reason. But neither does the Church accept (the opinion) which the followers of the same heresy cavil and gossip (about), that the soul of the Savior should be called the prudence of the flesh, since the Apostle plainly calls the prudence of the flesh an enemy to God, and death (Rom. 8.7): which it is sacrilege to say about the Lord, that His soul is death, and is believed to be an enemy to God. For if he commands us: Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul; (Matt. 10. 28), they will be forced to undertake their foolish disputation, that it is better for our souls to have the soul of the Saviour, while that wisdom of the flesh is asserted which is death, and an enemy to God, but our soul cannot die. This must not be understood in any such sense, most beloved brethren, since even the wisdom of the soul cannot be called the soul, and they differ very much from each other: for though the wisdom of the soul be in that, whose wisdom it is; yet one has it, the other is possessed by it; and the former is the soul, the latter is engaged in the soul. If the prudence of the soul is not the soul, how much less can the prudence of the flesh be called soul? Let them spread their nets of syllogisms and their deceiving sophisms as much as they wish, let them entangle themselves in their own snares without even realizing it, those who boast of a vain knowledge: and let them learn from us, whom they force to embark in such arguments for free, that what tastes good is one thing, wisdom is another, and that which is tasted is yet another. And these not only disagree with each other in words, but also in meaning: for that which has wisdom, the rational soul is wise; moreover, that which is from it, and of itself, and not that which it has wisdom, is called wisdom: but that which is understood, is the thing which is referred to, and is produced from the wisdom of the wise, and not from the wise person himself, nor from wisdom itself. And at length let the arts of dialectic cease from perverting the simple decrees of the ecclesiastical faith with their sophistries, as when they call the prudence of the flesh the wisdom of the Saviour, which the Apostle asserts to be death and enmity to God.

6. But it seems to be argued against them in this way as well. It is written about the Word of God: All things were made by him (John 1:3). Is it credible that the wisdom or prudence of the flesh, which they understand to be the soul of the Savior, was created by the Word of God so that the very operator of death and enmity against God might exist and that, what is wicked to say, that he was joined to those things? But if it is wicked to believe this, and the soul of the Savior possesses all virtues, then his prudence of the flesh will not be his soul, lest he be believed to have joined death and enmity against God. Let the disciples of Apollinaris cease to defend those things which he has spoken against the rules of the Church, for although he has written against the Arians and Eunomians, and overturned Origen and other heretics by his argument, nevertheless, whoever remembers that precept: You shall not show partiality in judgment (Leviticus 19:15; and Deuteronomy 1:17): he must always love the truth, not the persons; and he must know that in the dispensation of man, which the only-begotten Son of God has deigned to assume for our salvation, he who understood and wrote perversely upon his soul, may not be free from guilt. For as the Apostle says, 'If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.' (1 Corinthians 13) And so, be it this one, about whom we are speaking now, or Origen and other heretics, even if they wrote some things that do not contradict the ecclesiastical faith, they will nevertheless not be without fault, and on those things which are important and relevant to the salvation of believers, they contradict the ecclesiastical faith. For our Lord and Savior did not assume a soul without intellect and senses nor did he assume the middle or two parts of three, or the third part, to save imperfect humanity incompletely, since neither the middle nor the remaining parts can receive the name of perfection. And just as the perfect thing lacks the defect of the imperfect, so what is imperfect cannot be called perfect. And if he had imperfectly received our likeness, or partly, as it was spoken in the Gospel: No one takes my life from me: I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up? (John 10:18) But what is taken away and put down cannot be said to be irrational or without mind and intelligence, but rather rational and intelligible, having a mind and feeling.

7. And in this way the order of the discussion proved that nothing imperfect had been undertaken by the Lord, but rather that man had been fully and perfectly saved by Him. For there is no doubt that the souls of irrational beasts are not set forth and taken up again, but when they perish with the bodies, they are dissolved into dust. Further, the Savior, taking up his soul and separating it from his body at the time of his passion, received it again in the resurrection. And long before he did this, he spoke in the Psalm: "You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will you let your Holy One see corruption" (Psalm 15). And it is not believable that His flesh descended to hell, or that the prudence of the flesh, which is called the soul, appeared in hell; but rather that His body was placed in a tomb, and Himself did not say anything about either the flesh or wisdom of the flesh, nor about His divinity, "You will not abandon my soul to hell", but truly He showed that the soul of our nature, as perfect and rational, and intelligible and sensible, descended to hell. We urge those who understand such matters, to abandon the errors of heretics and to assent to the truth of the Church, and not to make the feast of the Lord's Passion incomplete, lest they deny the principal and greater part of man in the Savior, asserting that his body exists without a soul and mind. For if it were so, who was speaking when he said: "The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep" (John 10)? And if he had assumed only human flesh, why did he say during the passion, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26)?

Therefore it is to be known that the sacrament of human condition exhibits temperance in every way, having taken on a perfect likeness of our condition; it neither took on only flesh, nor an irrational soul, and without sensation, but uniting its whole body and whole soul, it demonstrated a perfect man in itself, so that it could offer salvation to all men in and of itself; also, having fellowship with us, who were made of earth, it did not bring down flesh from heaven, nor coupled with its body the soul which had existed before and had been created before His flesh, as the disciples of Origen endeavor to teach. For if the soul of the Savior, before He took on human flesh, had dwelt in the heavenly regions, and was not yet the soul of the Lord, it is most impious to say that it was there before the Lord's body, doing something and meriting praise, and later transformed into His soul. Another thing is, if they can teach from the Scriptures that before being born of Mary, the Word of God had this soul, and before the assumption of the flesh, that soul was named. But if they are compelled by the authority of the Scriptures and reason itself to accept it, they are clearly convinced that Christ did not have a soul before being born of Mary (for in the assumption of man, his soul was also taken). But let those who are frenzied by the impiety of new doctrines cease. Following the rule of the Scriptures, we boldly proclaim with all our heart that neither his flesh nor his soul existed before he was born of Mary. Nor was the soul dwelling in heaven before it was united to God after: for nothing of our condition that comes from heaven did the Lord bring away with him. Therefore, cutting off with the Gospel scythe whatever is contrary to the truth, it says: Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted (Matt 15:13). The word by action, completing its threat in its end, and by fulfilling the power of its words with the fulfillment of things, so that the truth of actions might exhibit whatever promise had been made by speech.

9. Origen is attacked. Therefore let those who follow Origen, like someone who tells tales of the legends of the poets, know that they cannot celebrate the Lord's Passion with us. They boast that they have Origen as their master and leader of every heresy and error. Though he wrote countless books and even bequeathed to the world an inheritance of destructive loquacity, we know that the law forbids us to appoint a foreigner over us, for he is not our brother (Deuteronomy 17:15). For whoever has strayed from the regulations of the apostles along a different path, he is thrown out of the solemnity of Christ, as unworthy and profane to the choir of Christ and the fellowship of His mysteries: he is driven far away by the fathers and elders who founded the Church of the Savior because he has tried to sew old and worn out rags of philosophers onto a new and firm garment of the Church, and to mix falsehood with the truth so that his weakness may be made stronger by their presence, and this beauty may be defiled.

10. The principal heresies of Origen. - For what reason led him to lift the truth through the shadows of allegories and the empty images of the Scriptures, and what order of discussions led him? Who taught the Prophet to feel that God was compelled to create bodies because of the ruin and fall of souls from heaven? Who, according to the blessed Luke (chap. 1, v. 2), gave this to teach for negligence and motion and flow from higher rational creatures to provoke God to make the diversity of this world? Although Moses, explaining its creation, did not indicate (alternatively, judge) the sensible things of rational beings, invisible things of visible things, or worse things due to some previous causes, which Origen clearly preaches. For he says that the world began on account of the sins of intelligent creatures; unwilling to celebrate Easter with the saints, nor to say with Paul: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead" (Rom. 1); nor to rave like the Prophet: "I have considered thy works and wondered." For the beauty of the world could not have subsisted otherwise, unless it were filled with the various adornments of creatures. Finally, the sun and the moon, those two great lights, and the other stars, before they existed in what their daily course witnesses them created, were not without bodies, nor did they leave behind their pristine simplicity for any reasons, but were surrounded by bodies, like someone who might dream up doctrines contrary to the faith. Neither did souls sin in the regions of heaven, and therefore they were not relegated to bodies. For if this were so, the Savior should not have taken on his body, and he ought to have freed the souls from the bodies at the time he forgave sins in baptism; he should immediately have freed the baptized from the bonds of the body, which remembers the condemnation of sin caused by sins. But it promises the resurrection of the body to no purpose if the souls fly away lightly to heaven without the weight of the body. He himself also, when he rose again, ought not to have raised his flesh, but only to have united his soul to the divinity, if it is better to live without bodies than with bodies.

11. About bodies. But what does it mean to often preach about souls being bound to bodies, divided from them, and to bring us many deaths? Ignorant that Christ came for this reason: not to release souls from bodies after resurrection, or to once again clothe them in other bodies, and as they descended from the regions of the sky, to clothe them in blood and flesh; but to grant bodies once resurrected with incorruption and eternity. For just as Christ, having died, will never die again, nor will death have dominion over him; so also, the bodies raised up after the resurrection will not die again or perish frequently, nor will death have dominion over them, nor will they be dissolved into nothing; for the coming of Christ has saved (past tense) the whole person.

12. About Angels. - But the fact that Origen does not attribute the Principalities, Powers, Virtues, Thrones, and Dominions to being created from the beginning, but rather that they were made worthy of some honor after their creation, and having fallen to lower things with their brethren due to negligence, they were named by distinguished names: so (according to his error) God did not create them as Principalities and Powers, and the rest: but the sins of others gave them the opportunity for glory. And just as the Apostle Paul writes: "All things were created in Christ, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether Thrones, or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers, all things were created through Him and in Him, and He is before all things (Colossians 1);" if he understood the power of the word by which it is said: "All things were created," he would certainly know that they were created so from the beginning, and not that they fell by the laziness of others, and that their downfall provided God with an occasion for naming those Principalities, and Powers, and other Virtues: especially since the beauty of creatures consists in the order of dignities. For just as it is written of the sun and the moon, and the stars: "God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars; and He placed them in the firmament of the heaven, to shine upon the earth" (Gen. 1), nor do we believe that Principalities and Powers, which are established in the regions of the heavens, have made progress after they were created by good works, but rather they were created that way from the beginning; nor do we imitate the error of Origen and his disciples, who think that the Principalities and Powers, the Virtues and the Thrones, and the Dominions, assumed these names and offices of their own will, after their creation, by doing something good, so that they, who had fallen to lower things, might be raised up to high things, and be distinguished by these names, having afterwards what they had not had before. Those who speak do not understand, Paul is speaking of the opposite, created in Christ are principalities, powers, thrones, and dominions. However, it is not doubted that they were created from the beginning, and did not receive such titles later on.

13. On the Holy Spirit.- But let it suffice to have briefly stated these views. Let us pass on to another impious assertion which he vomits forth out of the deepest gulf of impiety, and which has left upon the world the most infamous of all memories of himself. He says that the Holy Spirit does not work upon inanimate objects or descend to irrational creatures. And yet he does not reflect that by this assertion he denies that the mystical waters of baptism are consecrated by the advent of the Holy Spirit, and that the bread of the Lord, namely, that which shows forth the body of the Savior, and which we break for the sanctification of ourselves, and that also the sacred cup, although they are entirely inanimate and placed upon the table of the Church, are sanctified by the invocation and the advent of the Holy Spirit. If the strength of the Holy Spirit does not reach irrational and soulless things, why does David sing: Where shall I go from your Spirit? (Ps. 1. 38.8)? By saying this, he shows that everything is contained in the Holy Spirit and surrounded by his majesty: if everything is in everything, surely even irrational and soulless things are. And where we read: the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world (Wis. 1. 7). That which Scripture never mentioned, except irrational and inanimate things, and were filled with its divine will. But he is not content with the end of blasphemy, but, like lunatics who demonstrate their madness with the grinding of their teeth and the spitting of their saliva, he again belches forth and says that the Son of God, that is, reason (the Word), and his speech, and power, arrive only at those things which are rational. Upon hearing this, I wonder where he got it from or how he does not know how to read: All things were made through Him (John 1) : from which it is approved, to attain all the strength of the Word of God. Perhaps he forgot the story of Lazarus, raised by the power of Christ, whose body at that time, when it rose from death to life, lacked reason, just as it lacked the soul. He was ignorant also of that (story) in which five loaves fed five thousand men, besides women and children, and there remained 12 baskets of fragments (Matthew 14). This truly was the work of Christ's power. I believe he did not remember that miracle of his, when he, treading with divine foot upon the irrational waves of the sea, restored calm to the sailors. This miracle was wrought by the power of Christ Himself, and by no other's command. Therefore, how does he not tremble with his entire heart and mind and body, saying that the strength of the Word of God cannot reach irrational creatures? And he who boasts of himself in the knowledge of the Scriptures, and thinks that he has read as much as no man has read, let him know that the scripture says that the sick were carried on beds and laid in the streets and alleys, that Peter's shadow might fall on them and heal them (Act 5), which the sacred Acts of the Apostles attest, which show the folly of Origen, by which he is convicted of saying that the Apostles made their shadow do it, which he testifies that the Son of God, the Word of God, could not do.

14. Concerning the Providence of God. - Being deceived by a similar mistake and not knowing what he was talking about, he is of those who do not want to admit that the providence of God extends to all creatures and descends to the lower levels of the world, but only dwells in the regions of the heavens, so that what the strength of the Savior could not accomplish was done by the shade of Peter. But let us also come to this: For the Apostle, clearly proclaiming about the firstborn Son of God, says, "Let each one understand this in us, what is also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Phil. 2): he dared to say that the soul of the Savior emptied itself and took on the form of a servant, so that John may be believed to have lied when he said, "And the Word became flesh" (John 1), attributing our Savior to a condition like ours, when it is not he who emptied himself and took on the form of a servant, but it was his soul; and by his impiety dissolving the faith, which is established by the confession of all. For if the soul of the Savior is what was in the form of God, and equal to God, according to the insanity of Origen, but the Son of God is equal to God, and what is equal to God is shown to be of the same substance, the order of our debate leads us to believe that the soul and God are of one nature. And when he says this, it follows that he contends that our souls are not of a nature separate from God (and it is without doubt that our souls and the soul of the Savior are of the same substance), so that they are now the product and creation of one nature. And how, if the souls of men are of the same substance as the Creator, were all things created in Christ? But it is not so, brethren, neither is the soul of the Savior of the same substance, for the Son of God, when He was in the form of God and equal to God, emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant. But Origen, sunk into the depths of impiety, does not understand that he is a partaker with the Gentiles, who worship idols as God: "For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man" (Rom. 1.); and falling into the same error, he is deceived in like manner; for by affirming that the soul of the Savior is in the form and equality of God, he is equal to the impiety of the heathen, as has been stated above. For just as they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of corruptible man's image, saying that there were gods who were not; so also this one changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of his form and claimed that the Savior's soul, which was created, was of equal status; and he emptied it out and did not come to earthly things as the authority of the Apostles affirms, unlike the Word of God.

15. He is not abashed, being forgetful of himself from much speaking, and he calls the soul of man not so much from the beginning of its condition, but because it has taken on the coldness of neglect and unfaithfulness from what it was before, mind and senses. This etymology is more suitable to the Greek rather than the Latin language. But if the Savior asserts that the soul is equal to God and is in His form, then it has received the name by adoption of love and it has lost the dignity of its previous name. For it is a general discussion that the souls of men are called such because they have lost the heat of their former fervor. Therefore, if all souls, having regained their coolness, are called forth, and if one confesses that one has had a Savior of the soul, it follows that one must say of one's mind and intellect that they have migrated to this type of term. Although it is not spoken of in everyday conversation and the wicked can repress their insanity, the statement itself is compelled by necessity, which ties the following to what has already been said in order. For either he must deny that the Savior had a soul, to come most plainly against the authority of the Gospels, or if he cannot speak contrary to himself, he will also confess that this thing, called a soul, is from the coldness of charity taken in mind and understanding; for all souls who have departed from God and have lost the warmth of divine love are reckoned cold. Who would not believe that he is satisfied with this end of sacrilege?

16. Another time he connects a calumny against the Son of God, and speaks these words. As the Father and the Son are one, so the soul which the Son assumed, and the Son of God Himself, are one. Nor does he understand that the Father and the Son are one in essence and the same divinity, but that the Son of God and his soul are of different and widely-distant natures. For if as the Father and the Son are one, so the soul of the Son and the Son Himself are one, the Father will be one with the soul of the Saviour, and He Himself may say: He that sees me, sees the Father also. (John 14:9) But this is not so: let this be far from the ecclesiastical faith. For the Son and the Father are one, because there is not a different nature between them; however, the soul and the Son of God differ in nature and substance from each other, and because it was also created by the Son, it is of our condition and nature. For if, just as the Father and the Son are one, so is the soul of the Son of God and the Son himself, there will be one, as we have already said, the soul and God the Father; and it will be believed that the soul of the Savior is the splendor of His glory and the form of His substance. But to say this is impious and blasphemous. Therefore, it is an act of impiety to say that the Son and his soul are one, and to deny that the Father and the Son are one. Moreover, speaking against himself, he says: "The soul which is troubled and saddened" (Mark 14:34), was not himself the only-begotten and first-born of every creature, nor the Word of God, which transcends the condition of the soul, and truly speaks of the Son of God in the Gospel: "I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again" (John 10:18). Therefore, if the Son of God is better and more powerful than his soul, which is beyond doubt, how could his soul be in the form of God and equal to God when he says that he emptied himself and took on the form of a servant; he thus surpasses all heretics in the magnitude of his blasphemy. For if the Word of God is in the form of God and equal to God, and if the soul of the Savior is in the form of God and equal to him, how can one be greater and the other lesser among equals? Indeed, those things which belong to a lower nature testify to a higher nature and substance by their own degradation.

17. This blasphemy is not enough for him, but he runs his chariot of foolishness across the rivers of Ethiopia, and again, raging, boasts that God created as many reasonable creatures as he was able to govern, so that he might compare the power of God to the weakness of man and the other things which He created. For in the human body, his strength sustains and rules as many limbs as he is able to infuse with life, and he bestows upon us that moderation which he is able by his presence to rule, and he supports it by so much virtue as the limbs of man are able to bear. But God, who created these things, is greater, since in creation he provided a measure greater than what the order of things demanded, and he is more able than what has been created can contain. But he, the pillar of truth, affirms that the strength of God is limitable, and less than the arts of humans. For builders of stones, and those who excel in the knowledge of constructing buildings, can build greater things than they have built, provided that they are able to support the foundations on which these structures will be built; and the creation of thought is not the end of the arts. And when they have accomplished works as great as the necessity of things demanded, and they have a measure beyond which, if anything had been built, it would be found unbecoming and useless, the art itself contains more in the mind than it has shown in the work: nor is there any end of things imposed upon science; yet, if, as I have said, whatever the mind has conceived and thought on the grandeur of the works has expanded, the things that are subject to it can bear it. And how impious is it not to impose an end on human art, nor to compare the knowledge of artisans to their works; and to say that God has made as great things as rational creatures, as much as he was able? Let the impious, therefore, hear and learn: The power of God is not so great as is said to have made rational creatures, but imposing a measure on the works beyond what they could be, and determining the number of things by his own art of disposition, himself is not held by measure and number. From which it clearly appears that he did not do as much as he could, but rather only as much virtue as the necessity of circumstances required. Let us assume an example to make what we say more manifest. If a wealthy father of the family wishes to invite guests to supper, and to offer them a feast so lavish as to satisfy their appetites, the wealthy host could not have as much food as they might eat or as much as had been prepared for them; but he offered them what was demanded by the dignity of the occasion. Thus also the Almighty God, surpassing the example of comparison, did not create creatures as great as He could, but those as great as it was right to create. But he weaves a germ of verboseness and responds, saying: God has made as much as He could comprehend, and He has subjected it to Himself and governs it by His providence. Does he not hear the Prophet saying, "Behold the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are counted as the dust on the scales; behold He takes up the coastlands like fine dust...To whom then will you liken God?" (Isaiah 40:15, 18); Again: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?" (Isaiah 40:12) If the water is measured with a hand, and the heavens with a span, and all the earth in a measure, by comparison with the strength of God ​​(which, however, are said metaphorically, so that the baseness of what was done is proven by the magnificence of the Maker, for God was not composed of diverse members), how can it be said that He has made as much as He could by His own power?

18. We should strive to complete what we have begun and more fully explain our meaning. 'If all nations were considered as though from a bucket and as though from the balance they were weighed and as saliva they were reckoned:' by means of these words the cheapness and insignificance of all creatures is demonstrated so that the incomparable sublimity of God appears; therefore His power also is reckoned as if from a bucket and as if from the balance and as if from the saliva of a man, if, according to Origen, He made things as great as His own power could comprehend; and necessity demands that the power of God equals the number and measure of the things He created, if God could not make greater things than those He made. But I do not believe anyone, I do not say man but even the demons, would dare to imagine these things about God which Origen both perceived and wrote, that God made as much matter as He could adorn and divide into forms of things. The one who perceives this should learn from us again that God did not make things as great as he was able to; rather, God fashioned things in accordance with the measure that the order of things required, possessing much greater skill and power than what has been made in number and measure. And let him know that this can be confirmed by the testimonies of the prophets, from which one says: 'His strength covered the heavens,' and another cries out: 'But he made the earth as nothing.' They preach that the power of God in what has been made is greater. Furthermore, what he said: "he made the earth as if it were nothing" the Apostle, interpreting from all creatures speaks: Who calls things that are not as though they are (Rom. 4). So that we may learn from these words, the strength of God is greater than those things that were made by him. And he is not ashamed against the strength of God to dispute, saying that God can only do as much as the material he is given to work with! And he does not understand that there is a different nature of the created things, and a different nature of God, the creator; nor that the material from which something is made is not as powerful as the one who shapes it: for the power and condition of diverse substances are diverse.

19. Therefore, if they want to celebrate the Lord's Pascha with the Church, those who prefer the delusions of Origen to the authority of the Scriptures should listen to God crying out: And I did not show that to you so that you would walk after it: And the Prophet tearfully reminding them: O flee from the land of the north, says the Lord, for I will gather you from the four winds, and you will be saved in Zion, you who dwell as the daughter of Babylon (Zech. 2.). Let those leaving the darkness of error and the cold of ignorance, join with the studies of the wise, and turn to the rising sun of justice, and those dwelling in the warmest region of heaven, which is felt in the fervor of the Scriptures, may seek out the pastors of the church, despising the madness of Origen, and say: Where is he who is born king of the Jews (Matth. 2. 2)? When they have found him lying in the manger, with humble language of the Scriptures, let them offer him gold, and frankincense, and myrrh: that is, proven faith and shining with every splendor of truth, the fragrance of good conversation and continence, drying up the indulgence of pleasure and the incentive of fleshly pursuits. For those who, after frequent warnings, contradict the ecclesiastical faith, are held back by a twofold weakness, wickedness and incompetence, and turned entirely to earthly things like serpents, adhering to the ground and preferring evil to good, they do not know the difference between vices and virtues, and they disdain and reject remedies for their correction and healing found in the Holy Scriptures, enduring the aversion to truth like pregnant women who reject their usual food and pursue harmful things, nor are they able to direct the clear light of the soul to the rays of truth, despising ecclesiastical discipline and rolling like pigs in the mire, and they reject precious ointments. But it is just, that at least from the examples which we infer they may receive health. For just as eye-offending speck causes blearyness, and fever depopulates the whole body, so too rust gradually consumes brass and iron, in the same way the noxious contagion of perverse doctrines violates the beauty of souls neglectful of truth, and dyes it with the pallor of lies. I beg you, brothers, to forgive me for causing you pain, by bringing wicked doctrines into the light. Although we have passed through the rivers of Babylon, to persuade the captives residing there to go to the celebration in Jerusalem, we ourselves were not affected by captivity, spreading the sails of the Scriptures with favourable winds. Neither did the swelling whirlpools of heretical doctrines overwhelm us, nor did the storm of lies frighten us, nor did the torrents of wickedness drag us away in the midst of their sea, where, as the Psalmist sings, "there are reptiles without number" (Ps. 103:25) and the devil Dragon lives, an animal most venomous, yielding itself to the sport of saints; nor, to sum up everything briefly, could the blasts of winds rising from every quarter have overthrown the ecclesiastical ship or covered over with a savage whirlwind the oar of our studies. And with the Savior Lord, like his disciples, we sailed across, and entering the port of rest, we embrace the most beautiful shore of divine writings; gathering various flowers of knowledge, and fixing with eager kisses the limbs of wisdom, we cling to her embrace, and if the Lord permits, living with her, and persevering in her love, we will sing: I was a lover of her beauty (Wisdom 8). For as many as diligently read the Holy Scriptures, and roam through the heavenly meadows of painted words, enjoy this blessing. But those who, leaving behind the strength of the Lord's solemnity, cross over to desert places, endure the hostile attacks of demons according to the manner of cities without walls.

20. Therefore, celebrating the upcoming festivals, let us understand ourselves and all that belongs to us; and let us embrace knowledge and our rational soul, as a mother, with all zeal, having the root of speech, and the notion of knowledge and reason, but speech, so to speak, as a vestibule of the work. Furthermore, the work of speech and knowledge is a perfect roofed building, and the firmest pinnacle of the house is placed. For speech, reason, knowledge, and faith without work are empty and unstable. And so that we might seem to take something from that doctrine for the benefit of those who are trained in the arts of dialectic; just as if we connect a word to a name, a perfect sense is made, and if there is only a word, or a name without a word, there is absolutely nothing that is said; and so knowledge without action, and action without faith, are weak and perishable; and, on the contrary, knowledge coupled with action is the indication of perfect virtue. For unspoken thought of the mind is its secret, which, when brought forth by outwardly resonant language, expresses the sentiment of the mind. And when the word has been brought to completion, an end is imposed upon our knowledge and thought. Moreover, we shall give an account of our thought, word, and deed at the judgment, with our thoughts accusing or defending themselves, on the day when God shall judge the hidden things of humanity through Jesus Christ, as Paul the Apostle writes.

21. As it is, with the approaching feast of the Lord, let us say to those whom the error of Origen involves and holds captive by deception: Flee from the midst of Babylon, and save each one his own soul. (Jeremiah 51) For although according to the prophecy of the prophet, Babylon is said to be a golden cup, and it surpasses the beauty of truth in composition and charm of words, and transforms itself into an Angel of light: nevertheless it must be known that whoever drinks of its wine is moved and falls, and is worthy of mourning in contrition. But we, resisting deadly disturbances, hold our soul within the wall of discipline, and we protect its freedom by the daily exercise of virtues. For just as bought slaves who are called both servants and whip-bearers of those who paid the price for them, so those who have sold their souls to diverse desires are called slaves of those to whom they have surrendered, and they obey them as if they were cruel masters. When even the correctors of their error, with rigid brow, disdain and defend folly by their rashness, they are ignorant that audacity is nothing other, as it appears to me, than sentiment without sense and thought, fleeing far from itself the governing mind of disturbances. And when such a soul has been deprived of a safeguard, it is carried headlong into the abyss of impiety, and, as if by some bitter flow, it darkens the light of the mind and surrounds its eye with the impenetrable darkness of night.

22. Those who delight in the errors of Origen should not hope for the shouts of Easter, nor seek ointments, gold, and pearls in the mud, nor tear their mother, the Church, who bore and nourished them, into small pieces in great cities, those who sometimes surpass us with hatred because of him and his disciples among the Gentiles and heap curses on us in their love for them, and besiege the gates of the rich, nor are they afraid to listen with the Jews: I have begotten and exalted children, but they have despised me (Isaiah 1). They who seem to me to be ignorant of every word of truth, not having a foundation, though for a time they may attract a listener, so that he may suppose to be true what is not true, will gradually dissolve and be reduced to nothing; and the entire sentiment, which is brought forth in the manner of a torrent from the worst mind, will overwhelm its author, and the letters and syllables with which it was composed will be lost, without meaning or sound, and left with no image, and will strike the bearer like the most deadly serpent, and will immediately retract its head and, as if decaying and coming to nothing, consume him in the depths of his mind. For the end of lies is destruction. Those who used to boast of themselves as lovers of solitude, at least build a small room to conceal their curses, above the lips of their frenzy, not with the holy stones of Jerusalem, but with the rough stones of Babylon, which, unsupported, and uneven, are going to collapse and support the walls of the house. Although they are commended by their hatred of the Gentiles with effeminate ears, and they criticize us for the discipline of the Church, and they abuse our patience, as if it were a kind of rashness, nevertheless, let them sometimes be silent and rest, and let them hear the Prophet saying: Refrain your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit (Psalm 34:13). And let them desire to understand those things which are worthy of a holy life, and not grieve the leader and ruler of the Church, God.

23. But I beseech you, brethren, that we jointly pray for them, and say with a prophetical voice: Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? And I will weep day and night for the wounds of the daughter of my people (Jeremiah 9): beseeching the mercy of God, that he may free them from the error in which they are bound; and that they may exchange hatred, with which they madly rage against us, for love. Therefore we, forgetting the injuries inflicted on us, desire most indulgently to receive them in our embrace, and we consider their health and conversion to God as our own health and glory. And if they cannot be cured otherwise, unless by our humility, we shall voluntarily satisfy them; we have inflicted no injuries upon them, we have harmed no one, although they are angry and raging against the remedies of the Church, which restore health to the wounded. We speak what we know and what we have learned; praying that those who despise the rules of the Church may receive the pattern of truth, and not lose the benefit of repentance because of the confusion of men, by which they are often difficult to correct. And now we say, and we have said before, and we frequently urge the same, that we do not want them to wander or to stray through foreign provinces, but we shout with the Prophet to those who are outsiders and raving, and we say: Save yourselves from the earth, and return, and do not stand: remember those who are far from the Lord, and let Jerusalem rise up over your heart. (Jeremiah 51:50)

24. Perhaps hearing this, the love of the church congregation may occur and they may remember the communal joy of brotherhood and the hymns, which they sang with others to the Lord, and change the cold of hatred into the warmth of love, and understand that we are doctors, not enemies, the most indulgent fathers, not swelling with hostile pride. For it cannot happen that whom we wish to be saved, we desire to perish, and that the ecclesiastical rod not be turned into a staff for them: if indeed they will want to abandon error and follow the truth, and abandon the recklessness of lewd boys. But if they reject her, and despising ecclesiastical discipline, lift up their horn against her rules, and spurning salutary counsels, throw themselves backward, let them hear the Lord threatening: The man who acts with pride, so as not to listen to the priest who stands to minister in the name of your God, or to the judge, whoever he may be in those days, will die, and you will take away evil from Israel, and all the people hearing will fear, and they will no longer act impiously. (Deuteronomy 17:12) But lest we be preoccupied with the care of the wounded, and forgetful of our own selves, and neglectful of them, and accordingly as it is written, "Preaching to others, we ourselves shall be reprobates" (1 Cor. 9), let us remind those who are standing, to beware lest, while they reach forth a helping hand to the fallen, they themselves fall, and let them be careful to observe the ecclesiastical discipline, lest they should be afraid of the judgment to come.

25. Therefore, celebrating the Lord's Passover, let us purify ourselves with the holy speech of the Scriptures and, looking towards the trophies of the Savior, let us remove all obstacles by which the course of our life is delayed. Avoiding avarice as the worst usurer, let us strangle the desire for vain glory like an insatiable beast, and with a cautious mind let us avoid the flattering and slippery serpent of fornication. If ever a prosperous breeze of circumstances has come to us, let us mitigate the swelling of the soul with humility and meekness. If adverse winds blow, we will raise up our discouraged and fallen spirit with strength, and we will be accusers of our own sins: so that, knowing ourselves, we may correct ourselves, and, by constant meditation, recover the freedom of the soul's virtues, which has been oppressed by vices. Therefore, being placed in the struggle and sweat and labor of the present, preparing for ourselves the future glory of the heavenly celebration, before we stand before the tribunal of Christ, let us correct our past sins with repentance: with present weeping, let us redeem future joys, and let us repel the harmful bees of sins, like stingers of conscience, reserving full hives with wax and honey. Let us cure the wounds of various vices and curb the plundering of the rich, which especially captivates this race of people, with frequent admonitions. And thus we will be able to begin the journey of imminent fasting. The days of Lent begin on the thirtieth day of the month of Mechir. And a holy week of Easter we shall celebrate on the fifth day of the month of Pharmuthi, ending the fast according to Gospel traditions on the evening of the Sabbath of the tenth day of Pharmuthi. And as soon as it dawns to the Lord's day, let us celebrate the feast day on the eleventh day of the same month, joining together the other seven weeks of holy Pentecost. So that we, who confess the one divinity of the Trinity, may receive rewards in heaven with Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom and with whom, to God the Father be glory and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, forever and ever, Amen.

26. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All who are with me greet you. And we write this by necessity so that you may know that those Bishops who have fallen asleep in the Lord, and were ordained in Lemnos for Hero, in Erythrum for Sabbatius, in Omboes for Sylvanus, are counted among the saints and the blessed. Therefore, write to them and receive from them peaceful letters, according to ecclesiastical customs.