Letters; Against Jovinianus; select works

1. That our friend Sebesius has profited by your advice I have learned less from your letter than from his own penitence. And strange to say the pleasure which he has given me since his rebuke is greater than the pain he caused me from his previous waywardness. There has been indeed a conflict between indulgence in the father, and affection in the son; while the former is anxious to forget the past, the latter is eager to promise dutiful behaviour in the future. Accordingly you and I must equally rejoice, you because you have successfully put a pupil to the test, I because I have received a son again.

2. You ask me at the close of your letter why it is that sometimes in my writings I quote examples from secular literature and thus defile the whiteness of the church with the foulness of heathenism. I will now briefly answer your question. You would never have asked it, had not your mind been wholly taken up with Tully; you would never have asked it had you made it a practice instead of studying Volcatius¹ to read the holy scriptures and the commentators upon them. For who is there who does not know that both in Moses and in the prophets there are passages cited from Gentile books and that Solomon proposed questions to the philosophers of Tyre and answered others put to him by them.² In the commencement of the book of Proverbs he charges us to understand prudent maxims and shrewd adages, parables and obscure discourse, the words of the wise and their dark sayings;³ all of which belong by right to the sphere of the dialectician and the philosopher. The Apostle Paul also, in writing to Titus, has used a line of the poet Epimenides: "The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies."⁴ Half of which line was afterwards adopted by Callimachus. It is not surprising that a literal rendering of the words into Latin should fail to preserve the metre, seeing that Homer when translated into the same language is scarcely intelligible even in prose. In another epistle Paul quotes a line of Menander: "Evil communications corrupt good manners."⁵ And when he is arguing with the Athenians upon the Areopagus he calls Aratus as a witness citing from him the words "For we are also his offspring;"⁶ in Greek tou gar kai genos esmen, the close of a heroic verse. And as if this were not enough, that leader of the Christian army, that unvanquished pleader for the cause of Christ, skilfully turns a chance inscription into a proof of the faith.⁷ For he had learned from the true David to wrench the sword of the enemy out of his hand and with his own blade to cut off the head of the arrogant Goliath.⁸ He had read in Deuteronomy the command given by the voice of the Lord that when a captive woman had had her head shaved, her eyebrows and all her hair cut off, and her nails pared, she might then be taken to wife.⁹ Is it surprising that I too, admiring the fairness of her form and the grace of her eloquence, desire to make that secular wisdom which is my captive and my handmaid, a matron of the true Israel? Or that shaving off and cutting away all in her that is dead whether this be idolatry, pleasure, error, or lust, I take her to myself clean and pure and beget by her servants for the Lord of Sabaoth? My efforts promote the advantage of Christ's family, my so-called defilement with an alien increases the number of my fellow-servants. Hosea took a wife of whoredoms, Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and this harlot bore him a son called Jezreel or the seed of God.¹⁰ Isaiah speaks of a sharp razor which shaves "the head of sinners and the hair of their feet;"¹¹ and Ezekiel shaves his head as a type of that Jerusalem which has been an harlot,¹² in sign that whatever in her is devoid of sense and life must be removed.

3. Cyprian, a man renowned both for his eloquence and for his martyr's death, was assailed—so Firmian tells us¹³ —for having used in his treatise against Demetrius passages from the Prophets and the Apostles which the latter declared to be fabricated and made up, instead of passages from the philosophers and poets whose authority he, as a heathen, could not well gainsay. Celsus¹⁴ and Porphyry¹⁵ have written against us and have been ably answered, the former by Origen, the latter by Methodius, Eusebius, and Apollinaris.¹⁶ Origen wrote a treatise in eight books, the work of Methodius¹⁷ extended to ten thousand lines while Eusebius¹⁸ and Apollinaris¹⁹ composed twenty-five and thirty volumes respectively. Read these and you will find that compared with them I am a mere tyro in learning, and that, as my wits have long lain fallow, I can barely recall as in a dream what I have learned as a boy. The emperor Julian²⁰ found time during his Parthian campaign to vomit forth seven books against Christ and, as so often happens in poetic legends, only wounded himself with his own sword. Were I to try to confute him with the doctrines of philosophers and stoics you would doubtless forbid me to strike a mad dog with the club of Hercules. It is true that he presently felt in battle the hand of our Nazarene or, as he used to call him, the Galilæan,²¹ and that a spear-thrust in the vitals paid him due recompense for his foul calumnies. To prove the antiquity of the Jewish people Josephus²² has written two books against Appio a grammarian of Alexandria; and in these he brings forward so many quotations from secular writers as to make me marvel how a Hebrew brought up from his childhood to read the sacred scriptures could also have perused the whole library of the Greeks. Need I speak of Philo²³ whom critics call the second or the Jewish Plato?

4. Let me now run through the list of our own writers. Did not Quadratus²⁴ a disciple of the apostles and bishop of the Athenian church deliver to the Emperor Hadrian (on the occasion of his visit to the Eleusinian mysteries) a treatise in defence of our religion. And so great was the admiration caused in everyone by his eminent ability that it stilled a most severe persecution. The philosopher Aristides,²⁵ a man of great eloquence, presented to the same Emperor an apology for the Christians composed of extracts from philosophic writers. His example was afterwards followed by Justin²⁶ another philosopher who delivered to Antoninus Pius and his sons²⁷ and to the senate a treatise Against the Gentiles, in which he defended the ignominy of the cross and preached the resurrection of Christ with all freedom. Need I speak of Melito²⁸ bishop of Sardis, of Apollinaris²⁹ chief-priest of the Church of Hierapolis, of Dionysius³⁰ bishop of the Corinthians, of Tatian,³¹ of Bardesanes,³² of Irenæus³³ successor to the martyr Pothinus;³⁴ all of whom have in many volumes explained the uprisings of the several heresies and tracked them back, each to the philosophic source from which it flows. Pantænus,³⁵ a philosopher of the Stoic school, was on account of his great reputation for learning sent by Demetrius bishop of Alexandria to India, to preach Christ to the Brahmans and philosophers there. Clement,³⁶ a presbyter of Alexandria, in my judgment the most learned of men, wrote eight books of Miscellanies³⁷ and as many of Outline Sketches,³⁸ a treatise against the Gentiles, and three volumes called the Pedagogue. Is there any want of learning in these, or are they not rather drawn from the very heart of philosophy? Imitating his example Origen³⁹ wrote ten books of Miscellanies, in which he compares together the opinions held respectively by Christians and by philosophers, and confirms all the dogmas of our religion by quotations from Plato and Aristotle, from Numenius⁴⁰ and Cornutus.⁴¹ Miltiades⁴² also wrote an excellent treatise against the Gentiles. Moreover Hippolytus⁴³ and a Roman senator named Apollonius⁴⁴ have each compiled apologetic works. The books of Julius Africanus⁴⁵ who wrote a history of his own times are still extant, as also are those of Theodore who was afterwards called Gregory,⁴⁶ a man endowed with apostolic miracles as well as with apostolic virtues. We still have the works of Dionysius⁴⁷ bishop of Alexandria, of Anatolius⁴⁸ chief priest of the church of Laodicea, of the presbyters Pamphilus,⁴⁹ Pierius,⁵⁰ Lucian,⁵¹ Malchion;⁵² of Eusebius⁵³ bishop of Cæsarea, Eustathius⁵⁴ of Antioch and Athanasius⁵⁵ of Alexandria; of Eusebius⁵⁶ of Emisa, of Triphyllius⁵⁷ of Cyprus, of Asterius⁵⁸ of Scythopolis, of the confessor Serapion,⁵⁹ of Titus⁶⁰ bishop of Bostra; and of the Cappadocians Basil,⁶¹ Gregory,⁶² and Amphilochius.⁶³ All these writers so frequently interweave in their books the doctrines and maxims of the philosophers that you might easily be at a loss which to admire most, their secular erudition or their knowledge of the scriptures.

5. I will pass on to Latin writers. Can anything be more learned or more pointed than the style of Tertullian?⁶⁴ His Apology and his books Against the Gentiles contain all the wisdom of the world. Minucius Felix⁶⁵ a pleader in the Roman courts has ransacked all heathen literature to adorn the pages of his Octavius and of his treatise Against the astrologers (unless indeed this latter is falsely ascribed to him). Arnobius⁶⁶ has published seven books against the Gentiles, and his pupil Lactantius⁶⁷ as many, besides two volumes, one on Anger and the other on the creative activity of God. If you read any of these you will find in them an epitome of Cicero's dialogues. The Martyr Victorinus⁶⁸ though as a writer deficient in learning is not deficient in the wish to use what learning he has. Then there is Cyprian.⁶⁹ With what terseness, with what knowledge of all history, with what splendid rhetoric and argument has he touched the theme that idols are no Gods! Hilary⁷⁰ too, a confessor and bishop of my own day, has imitated Quintilian's twelve books both in number and in style, and has also shewn his ability as a writer in his short treatise against Dioscorus the physician. In the reign of Constantine the presbyter Juvencus⁷¹ set forth in verse the story of our Lord and Saviour, and did not shrink from forcing into metre the majestic phrases of the Gospel. Of other writers dead and living I say nothing. Their aim and their ability are evident to all who read them.⁷²

6. You must not adopt the mistaken opinion, that while in dealing with the Gentiles one may appeal to their literature in all other discussions one ought to ignore it; for almost all the books of all these writers—except those who like Epicurus⁷³ are no scholars—are extremely full of erudition and philosophy. I incline indeed to fancy—the thought comes into my head as I dictate—that you yourself know quite well what has always been the practice of the learned in this matter. I believe that in putting this question to me you are only the mouthpiece of another who by reason of his love for the histories of Sallust might well be called Calpurnius Lanarius.⁷⁴ Please beg of him not to envy eaters their teeth because he is toothless himself, and not to make light of the eyes of gazelles because he is himself a mole. Here as you see there is abundant material for discussion, but I have already filled the limits at my disposal.

1. Your letter which has suddenly arrived was not expected by me, and coming in an unlooked for way it has helped to rouse me from my torpor by the glad tidings which it conveys. I hasten to embrace with the arms of love one whom my eyes have never seen, and silently say to myself:—"oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I flee away and be at rest."'⁷⁵ Then would I find him "whom my soul loveth."⁷⁶ In you the Lord's words are now truly fulfilled: "many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham."⁷⁷ In those days the faith of my Lucinius was foreshadowed in Cornelius, "centurion of the band called the Italian band."⁷⁸ And when the apostle Paul writes to the Romans: "whensoever I take my journey into Spain I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you;"⁷⁹ he shews by the tale of his previous successes what he looked to gain from that province.⁸⁰ Laying in a short time the foundation of the gospel "from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum,"⁸¹ he enters Rome in bonds, that he may free those who are in the bonds of error and superstition. Two years he dwells in his own hired house⁸² that he may give to us the house eternal which is spoken of in both the testaments.⁸³ The apostle, the fisher of men,⁸⁴ has cast forth his net, and, among countless kinds of fish, has landed you like a magnificent gilt-bream. You have left behind you the bitter waves, the salt tides, the mountain-fissures; you have despised Leviathan who reigns in the waters.⁸⁵ Your aim is to seek the wilderness with Jesus and to sing the prophet's song: "my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary,"⁸⁶ or, as he sings in another place, "lo, then would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest."⁸⁷ Since you have left Sodom and are hastening to the mountains, I beseech you with a father's affection not to look behind you. Your hands have grasped the handle of the plough,⁸⁸ the hem of the Saviour's garment,⁸⁹ and His locks wet with the dew of night;⁹⁰ do not let them go. Do not come down from the housetop of virtue to seek for the clothes which you wore of old, nor return home from the field.⁹¹ Do not like Lot set your heart on the plain or upon the pleasant gardens;⁹² for these are watered not, as the holy land, from heaven but by Jordan's muddy stream made salt by contact with the Dead Sea.

2. Many begin but few persevere to the end. "They which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the crown."⁹³ But of us on the other hand it is said: "So run that ye may obtain."⁹⁴ Our master of the games is not grudging; he does not give the palm to one and disgrace another. His wish is that all his athletes may alike win garlands. My soul rejoices, yet the very greatness of my joy makes me feel sad. Like Ruth⁹⁵ when I try to speak I burst into tears. Zacchæus, the convert of an hour, is accounted worthy to receive the Saviour as his guest.⁹⁶ Martha and Mary make ready a feast and then welcome the Lord to it.⁹⁷ A harlot washes His feet with her tears and against His burial anoints His body with the ointment of good works.⁹⁸ Simon the leper invites the Master with His disciples and is not refused.⁹⁹ To Abraham it is said: "Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee."¹⁰⁰ He leaves Chaldæa, he leaves Mesopotamia; he seeks what he knows not, not to lose Him whom he has found. He does not deem it possible to keep both his country and his Lord; even at that early day he is already fulfilling the prophet David's words: "I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were."¹⁰¹ He is called "a Hebrew," in Greek perates, a passer-over, for not content with present excellence but forgetting those things which are behind he reaches forth to that which is before.¹⁰² He makes his own the words of the psalmist: "they shall go from strength to strength."¹⁰³ Thus his name has a mystic meaning and he has opened for you a way to seek not your own things but those of another. You too must leave your home as he did, and must take for your parents, brothers, and relations only those who are linked to you in Christ. "Whosoever," He says, "shall do the will of my father...the same is my brother and sister and mother."¹⁰⁴

3. You have with you one who was once your partner in the flesh but is now your partner in the spirit; once your wife but now your sister; once a woman but now a man; once an inferior but now an equal.¹⁰⁵ Under the same yoke as you she hastens toward the same heavenly kingdom.

A too careful management of one's income, a too near calculation of one's expenses—these are habits not easily laid aside. Yet to escape the Egyptian woman Joseph had to leave his garment with her.¹⁰⁶ And the young man who followed Jesus having a linen cloth cast about him, when he was assailed by the servants had to throw away his earthly covering and to flee naked.¹⁰⁷ Elijah also when he was carried up in a chariot of fire to heaven left his mantle of sheepskin on earth.¹⁰⁸ Elisha used for sacrifice the oxen and the yokes which hitherto he had employed in his work.¹⁰⁹ We read in Ecclesiasticus: "he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith."¹¹⁰ As long as we are occupied with the things of the world, as long as our soul is fettered with possessions and revenues, we cannot think freely of God. "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?"¹¹¹ "Ye cannot," the Lord says, "serve God and Mammon."¹¹² Now the laying aside of money is for those who are beginners in the way, not for those who are made perfect. Heathens like Antisthenes¹¹³ and Crates¹¹⁴ the Theban have done as much before now. But to offer one's self to God, this is the mark of Christians and apostles. These like the widow out of their penury cast their two mites into the treasury, and giving all that they have to the Lord are counted worthy to hear his words: "ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."¹¹⁵

4. You can see for yourself why I mention these things; without expressly saying it I am inviting you to take up your abode at the holy places. Your abundance has supported the want of many that some day their riches may abound to supply your want;¹¹⁶ you have made to yourself "friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that they may receive you into everlasting habitations."¹¹⁷ Such conduct deserves praise and merits to be compared with the virtue of apostolic times. Then, as you know, believers sold their possessions and brought the prices of them and laid them down at the apostles' feet:¹¹⁸ a symbolic act designed to shew that men must trample on covetousness. But the Lord yearns for believers' souls more than for their riches. We read in the Proverbs: "the ransom of a man's soul are his own riches."¹¹⁹ We may, indeed, take a man's own riches to be those which do not come from some one else, or from plunder; according to the precept: "honour God with thy just labours."¹²⁰ But the sense is better if we understand a man's "own riches" to be those hidden treasures which no thief can steal and no robber wrest from him.¹²¹

5. As for my poor works which from no merits of theirs but simply from your own kindness you say that you desire to have; I have given them to your servants to transcribe, I have seen the paper-copies made by them, and I have repeatedly ordered them to correct them by a diligent comparison with the originals. For so many are the pilgrims passing to and fro that I have been unable to read so many volumes. They have found me also troubled by a long illness from which this Lent I am slowly recovering as they are leaving me. If then you find errors or omissions which interfere with the sense, these you must impute not to me but to your own servants; they are due to the ignorance or carelessness of the copyists, who write down not what they find but what they take to be the meaning, and do but expose their own mistakes when they try to correct those of others. It is a false rumour which has reached you to the effect that I have translated the books of Josephus¹²² and the volumes of the holy men Papias¹²³ and Polycarp.¹²⁴ I have neither the leisure nor the ability to preserve the charm of these masterpieces in another tongue. Of Origen¹²⁵ and Didymus¹²⁶ I have translated a few things, to set before my countrymen some specimens of Greek teaching. The canon of the Hebrew verity¹²⁷ —except the octoteuch¹²⁸ which I have at present in hand—I have placed at the disposal of your slaves and copyists. Doubtless you already possess the version from the septuagint¹²⁹ which many years ago I diligently revised for the use of students. The new testament I have restored to the authoritative form of the Greek original.¹³⁰ For as the true text of the old testament can only be tested by a reference to the Hebrew, so the true text of the new requires for its decision an appeal to the Greek.

6. You ask me whether you ought to fast on the Sabbath¹³¹ and to receive the eucharist daily according to the custom—as currently reported—of the churches of Rome and Spain.¹³² Both these points have been treated by the eloquent Hippolytus,¹³³ and several writers have collected passages from different authors bearing upon them. The best advice that I can give you is this. Church-traditions—especially when they do not run counter to the faith—are to be observed in the form in which previous generations have handed them down; and the use of one church is not to be annulled because it is contrary to that of another.¹³⁴ As regards fasting, I wish that we could practise it without intermission as—according to the Acts of the Apostles¹³⁵ —Paul did and the believers with him even in the season of Pentecost and on the Lord's Day. They are not to be accused of manichæism, for carnal food ought not to be preferred before spiritual. As regards the holy eucharist you may receive it at all times¹³⁶ without qualm of conscience or disapproval from me. You may listen to the psalmist's words:—"O taste and see that the Lord is good;"¹³⁷ you may sing as he does:—"my heart poureth forth a good word."¹³⁸ But do not mistake my meaning. You are not to fast on feast-days, neither are you to abstain on the week days in Pentecost.¹³⁹ In such matters each province may follow its own inclinations, and the traditions which have been handed down should be regarded as apostolic laws.

7. You send me two small cloaks and a sheepskin mantle from your wardrobe and ask me to wear them myself or to give them to the poor. In return I send to you and your sister¹⁴⁰ in the Lord four small haircloths suitable to your religious profession and to your daily needs, for they are the mark of poverty and the outward witness of a continual penitence. To these I have added a manuscript containing Isaiah's ten most obscure visions which I have lately elucidated with a critical commentary. When you look upon these trifles call to mind the friend in whom you delight and hasten the voyage which you have for a time deferred. And because "the way of man is not in himself" but it is the Lord that "directeth his steps;"¹⁴¹ if any hindrance should interfere—I hope none may—to prevent you from coming, I pray that distance may not sever those united in affection and that I may find my Lucinius present in absence through an interchange of letters.