Compendium of Heretical Fables 1 part 4/10

what was said; and when the all-wise teacher called the Son consubstantial (ὁμοούσιος) with the Father, this man contradicted it, calling a creature the one whom he had called the true Son;

and when that man called God the Word co-eternal with God the Father, as existing in the beginning, and being God the Word, and the radiance of glory;

this man said that he who is came into being out of things that are not, and affirmed that he had a mutable nature.

And moreover he also mutilated the doctrine of the incarnation.

For he said that he had taken a soulless body, and that the Godhead had performed the functions of the soul, so that the affection arising from the body was attached to the Godhead itself.

This man, also forsaking the rules of doxology which the eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word had handed down from the beginning, introduced another form, teaching those he had deceived to glorify the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

And he did not dare to alter the invocation made at holy baptism, on account of the manifest nature of the transgression it would involve;

but he forbade glorifying according to the rule of baptism, even though our God and Savior commanded not simply to baptize, but first to make disciples.

"Go," he said, "and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." And according to this rule the divine apostles, and the teachers of the Church after them, make those who come to them disciples, to believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and baptize those who have been made disciples into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

For this reason, those who have enjoyed the gift, just as they were made disciples and baptized, glorify the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For it would be monstrous that those who have received the gift of baptism from the Holy Trinity should offer doxology to the Father alone, and leave the Son and the all-holy Spirit without honor.

But these things we have said at length in the works we wrote against them;

but the purpose of the present treatise is to display the character of each heresy

and the doctrines that introduce teachings alien to the divine oracles.

But later in time, feigning repentance, he persuaded those who held power alongside the great emperor Constantine that an opportunity for repentance be granted to him.

But the divine Alexander (for he held the helm of that Church) first tried to persuade the emperor not to be led astray in any way by the fabricated words of Arius.

But when he saw him displeased, he fell silent and withdrew.

It had been decided that Arius should be received back the next morning;

for it was the Sabbath when these things were said.

They say that he also added this word to his prayer:

"But if, on account of your ineffable dispensation, you allow him to enter though he has devised such things (for your judgments are unsearchable), then free me your servant from the present life."

Having thus made his prayer, he went up weeping into the upper chamber.

But Arius, thinking that the emperor's promises would be confirmed, went forth about the break of dawn.

Then, since his bowels urged him toward evacuation, he entered the public latrines, leaving the servant who was following him outside.

But suddenly, his bowels having given way and been discharged, he died sitting there inside.

And when those sitting nearby saw what had happened and cried out, the servant ran in, and seeing him dead, reported the event to his household.

And when the report of this god-driven stroke had spread through the whole most populous city, all ran together to the divine temple.

And when they learned both the emperor's promise and the priest's prayer, they hymned the protector of the churches, and abhorred the impiety of the heresy.

But nevertheless, even though these things had happened thus, and the divine verdict had been shown very plainly, those who had received the disease persisted, sharpening their tongues against the Only-Begotten and the all-holy Spirit.

But having written these things at length in the Ecclesiastical History, I consider it superfluous to say the same things again.

Leaving aside, then, Eusebius, and Theognis, and Theodotus of Perinthus, and Menophantus of Ephesus, and Patrophilus of Scythopolis, and the others, I shall mention only Eudoxius.

For the narrative concerning Aetius and Eunomius requires that he be mentioned.

This Eudoxius was bishop of Germanicia, a city neighboring the Taurus;

but scorning that small town, he hastened to Antioch, having learned of the death of Leontius.

Then he seized the throne contrary to the laws of the Church.

But being expelled from there by imperial letters, and being ordered to reach the synod assembling at Seleucia in Isauria, he arrived as he had been commanded, but did not dare to enter the assembly; instead he ran to Constantinople, and by flattering the imperial chamberlains, persuaded them that the synod be gathered there.

And so that I may not lengthen this by telling everything (for I have mentioned all these things in that work), he managed also to seize the throne of that city, and to strip its churches of the heralds of truth.

Then, having driven the all-renowned Eleusius out of Cyzicus, he ordained Eunomius in his place.

Eunomius boasted of Aetius the Syrian as his teacher, whose thrice-wretched life, and the practices he pursued, both Gregory of Nyssa and Theodore of Mopsuestia, in the works they wrote against Eunomius, taught precisely.

This man openly increased the blasphemies of Arius.

For this reason Constantius exiled him to some remote region of Phrygia;

and having in this way somehow turned aside from the straight path, and inclined toward another path—

for after the death of his father, being led by certain persons entrusted with the care of his body, he enacted a law forbidding anyone to dare call the Son of God either consubstantial (ὁμοούσιος) or of a different substance (ἑτεροούσιος);

for he said it was not holy to search into the essence of God;

but he commanded that he be called "like" in all things to the one who begot him.

Knowing these things, Eudoxius persuaded Eunomius not to bare his own opinion, but for the time being to keep it hidden away, and to nurture it in darkness like some secret embryo, until they should receive license from circumstance.

Yielding to these counsels, Eunomius offered a veiled teaching to the many at Cyzicus.

But travailing to give birth to the impiety, he disclosed it as he discoursed, and he wounded the souls of his hearers.

Then certain men, set aflame with divine zeal, concealed their zeal, and assumed the mask of the heresy, and having reached Eunomius's chamber, begged him to teach plainly the truth of the doctrine.

But he, being deceived, and thinking that all present were of one mind with him, vomited forth the venom which he had until then kept hidden.

But they again, more earnestly, besought him to offer this teaching to the whole people, and, since the flock was reaching after learning the truth, to prefer this above his service to the emperor.

Thus Eunomius, again deceived, made the blasphemy public.

But they immediately took with them many of like faith, and ran to the camp, and informed Eudoxius of the impiety that had been dared.

Eudoxius was grieved, indeed, to learn that Eunomius had transgressed the agreements they had made together;

but to the accusers he promised that he would attend to it, yet he wholly neglected to do so, pretending to be occupied with other business.

But the accusers of Eunomius, having perceived Eudoxius's design, reported Eunomius's blasphemies to the emperor.

The emperor at first commanded Eudoxius to bring Eunomius, and to examine thoroughly the accusation that had been made.

But when he perceived that he was delaying (for the accusers kept continually coming forward), he threatened to send both of them to the remote place where Aetius was living.

And first he reminded him of the counsel he himself had given, and then, when he had been openly convicted, deposed him, although he himself was afflicted with the same disease;

for he feared the imperial threats.

But Eunomius immediately proclaimed himself the champion of a heresy, and this even though he was forced to dwell in some remote place of Pamphylia.

From this arose the faction of the Eunomians.

This man made theology into a technical art, and openly belched forth blasphemies against the Only-Begotten and the all-holy Spirit.

And he declared that the Son was the first and most excellent creature of the Father;

and that the all-holy Spirit was fashioned by the Son before the other works of creation.

He himself also overturned the ordinance concerning holy baptism handed down of old by the Lord and the apostles, and legislated directly against it, saying that it is not necessary to immerse the one being baptized three times, nor to make the invocation of the Trinity;

but that one should baptize once into the death of Christ.

And in baptizing, they wet the person with water as far as the chest, but forbid bringing the water to the other parts of the body, as being polluted.

For this reason, whenever they baptized in a basin, they would station the man outside it, and lower his head, as far as the chest, once into the water.

But since it happened that a certain man was injured in the head by striking against the basin, they devised another form of baptism.

For stretching the man face-down upon a certain bench, and letting his head hang out beyond it, they pour water down, touching no other part.

And some of them devised yet another manner of baptism.

For having prepared a very long strip of cloth, and having consecrated it, they wind the man in it, beginning from the chest, down to the fingertips, and then in this manner apply the pouring of water.

These things have been disclosed by those who fled that impiety, and were joined to the flock of our Savior and God.

And they say that another thing also is dared by them, which I would not dare to commit to writing;

for the mere hearing of that abomination is by itself sufficient to defile the mind.

But whether these things are indeed dared by them or not, I myself would not affirm;

yet I have heard them nonetheless from men who know their affairs accurately.

Having thus raged against the truth, Eunomius was eager to increase the malady day by day.

For he dared to say that he was ignorant of nothing divine, but knew the very essence of God accurately, and possessed the same knowledge concerning God which God himself has concerning himself.

Those who shared in his corruption, driven into this madness by him like Bacchic revelers, dare to say outright that they know God just as he knows himself.

And he devised certain other things besides, so that he might appear to have become an inventor of new doctrines.

From this point the Arian faction was divided into two;

and some were called Arians, others Eunomians.

The Arians were also named Eudoxians, after the time of Eudoxius;

for being enslaved to vain glory, he was eager to impose his own name upon those of like mind.

The same are also called Exakionites, having received their name from the place in which they were accustomed to hold their assembly.

The Eunomians were also called Aetians, since Eunomius named Aetius his teacher;

and the same are also called Troglites, or rather Troglodytes, since they hold their assemblies in hidden houses.

For indeed they are very few in number, since all men abhor them because of the shamelessness of their blasphemy.

And the greater part of the inhabited world has been freed from their corruption, but a few, very easily counted, cities have some of them, and these too try to remain hidden.

Concerning the Psathyrians, and the other sects descended from the heresy of Arius

From the blasphemy of Arius yet another fragment broke off again.

‘God is Father, and the Son too has ever been created by God.’

‘For in the case of God, to create and to beget are one and the same thing.’

These the Antiochenes call Psathyrians;

for they say that the founder of the sect had been a maker of such wafer-cakes.

And still others, having in turn separated from them, were called by some Cyrtians, and by others Pithecians, since a certain small manikin, who had a hunched back, went out along with them, and caused this name to be imposed upon them.

In the course of time, yet another assembly was formed, having separated from the Arians;

and they received their name from their impiety.

And employing a syllogism of the following kind, they construct their blasphemy:

‘and the Son is a creature of the Father.’

So many occasions for blasphemy did they derive from the madness of Arius;

into so many fragments was the faction of Arius divided.

And besides those already mentioned, another heresy sprang up from these, one supposed to be less impious.

For when Paul, the all-renowned, who had shepherded the imperial city, was driven out by those who had received the malady of Arius, Macedonius was entrusted in his place with the helm of that Church.

This Macedonius utterly rejected that the Son is consubstantial with the Father;

and he decreed that one should say he is like the Father in all things, and devised ‘of like substance’ in place of ‘consubstantial.’

And concerning the Holy Spirit, he continued to blaspheme in a manner similar to Arius and Eunomius.

Whence those of his faction were named Pneumatomachi, that is, Fighters against the Spirit.

From this point the tare of the Macedonians was also sown.

These, as regards their heresy, agree with the followers of Arius;

but they devised a new kind of madness.

For they call a violent death martyrdom;

and those who long to obtain this title announce it to their fellow believers a long time beforehand.

And these provide them with every care, and bring all manner of food, fattening them up as though they were sacrificial victims.

And having enjoyed this luxury for a very long time, they compel whomever they find on the roads to inflict deadly blows upon them with the sword.

And some of them attain their aim, but others fail.

For who in his right mind would consent to incur the guilt of such murderous pollution? They therefore, raving like Corybants, hurl themselves down from heights over cliffs.

But amid these Arian narratives, I wish to relate a certain amusing incident that happened in connection with these matters.

For many of these, fattened up like pheasants, having come upon a certain noble young man, then held out a bare sword to him, and ordered him to inflict the blows, and threatened to slaughter him if he did not do what was commanded.

But he said that he was afraid lest, after some of them had been killed, the rest should repent and exact from him the penalty for the slaughter;

therefore it was necessary first to bind each of them, and only then to bring the sword upon them.

When they yielded, and accepted the bonds, he beat them all with rods, and went away leaving them bound.

Into such truly frenzied madness has the wicked demon cast these men as well.

Concerning the Meletians in Egypt

In Alexandria in Egypt, at the time when Arius began his blasphemy against the Only-Begotten, a certain Meletius, a bishop, having risen in rebellion against the authority of the great Alexander, ordained bishops, presbyters, and deacons in many cities, presiding not over a new heresy, but holding the same beliefs as the Church, though he had given way to the passion of love of power.

This man the most holy Fathers who had assembled at Nicaea removed from the helm of the Church;

and they stripped those ordained by him of the offices unlawfully conferred upon them.

a rupture arose in Egypt.

But that man himself introduced no innovation in the doctrines of piety;

but these, seeing the heresy of Arius being upheld by those who were then reigning, inclined toward it.

But now, they say, these have been freed from that malady, yet they live apart, unwilling to be governed by others, and refuse conjunction with the Churches.

For this reason indeed, as being a law unto themselves, they further devised those ridiculous practices as well: purifying the body with water every other day, performing their hymn-singing with clapping of hands and a kind of dance, and shaking many bells hung from a rope, and the other things that are similar to these.

For this very reason the great Athanasius continued to war against them.

Apollinarius of Laodicea, in some of his writings, did not corrupt the doctrine concerning the Trinity;

but, like us, he proclaimed both the one essence of the Godhead and the three hypostases;

yet in some writings he established degrees of rank, having appointed himself the distributor of the divine allotment.

For it is his invention: "Great, greater, greatest";

as though the Spirit were great, the Son greater, and the Father greatest.

What could be more ridiculous than this? For if he truly says that the essence of the Trinity is one, how has he supposed the same essence to be both small and great? For in the case of bodies, quantity and magnitude produce such measures;

but a nature that is free from such things does not admit of these measures at all.

But now our purpose is not to refute, but to set forth the various opinions.

In some writings, again, this same man confused the distinctive properties of the hypostases, and did the very thing with regard to the Trinity that he had dared to do with regard to the Dispensation.

Whence he also incurred the charge of Sabellianism, and said that God the Word was made flesh, having assumed a body and a soul — not the rational soul, but the irrational one, which some call the vegetative, or vital, soul;

and saying that the mind is something other than the soul, he denied that it was assumed, but claimed that the divine nature sufficed to fulfill the function of the mind.

And that most wise man did not perceive that, had He not willed it, He would not have needed a body at all;

but He could have appeared even without a body, just as indeed He did of old to the patriarchs.

But we shall reserve the discourse concerning the Dispensation for the book that follows this one.

Concerning the Polemians and other Apollinarists. A certain Polemius, having taken his starting-points from this man's writings, says that a co-substantiation and a mixture of the Godhead and the body came about.

From this the heresy of the Polemians sprouted forth.

And certain others also, from the congregation of Apollinarius, said that the Lord's body had come down from the heavens;

and having found various doctrines in that man's writings, some were pleased with these, others with those.

How this man, having been cut off from the body of the Church, gave birth to the manifold nonsense of these doctrines, I have judged it superfluous to relate.

A certain Audaeus, coming from the Syria beyond the Euphrates, said that God is in human form, and attributed bodily members to Him, having foolishly understood in this literal way what was said by divine Scripture by way of condescension.

For indeed, divine Scripture, in speaking to human beings who do not precisely know the nature even of visible things, has framed its teaching in the way they were capable of hearing it.

…it named [eyes the faculty of sight]; and ears it named the faculty of hearing, and hands the faculty of action, and likewise the other faculties.

Understanding none of this, the foolish man attributed a human form to God.

"Let us make man according to our image and likeness." And, afflicted with unreasoning folly, he did not perceive the invisible and immortal character of the soul, but fastened the attribute of reason to the body alone.

But concerning this too, it will be spoken of, God willing, in the discourse on the formation of man.

This Audaeus, then, they say, also declared darkness, fire, and water to be unbegotten.

But those who bear his name conceal these things.

They pretend that they flee the communion of the Church because of usurers and those who cohabit with women, although far worse things are also ventured among themselves.

And they do not perceive that even for the most exacting of bishops, to cut such persons off is not an easy matter;

but there is need of accusers, and need of witnesses, according to the apostolic law;

For, it says, "Do not accept an accusation against an elder except on the testimony of two or three witnesses." And that the ecclesiastical laws do punish those who are convicted, what occurs everywhere on land and sea bears witness.

For indeed bishops, deacons, and presbyters are removed from the ecclesiastical rolls.

But these men boldly presume to grant forgiveness of sins.

then they bestow forgiveness upon those who have made confession;

not fixing a period for repentance, as the ordinances of the Church prescribe, but granting the pardon by their own authority.

And those who go through this rite, knowing that what takes place is a game, conceal their true offenses, and mention certain trivial things, worthy of laughter, which no one would even bother to mention, unless he shared their derangement of mind.

Concerning the Messalians, that is, the Euchites and Enthusiasts

The Messalians — this name, translated into the Greek language, signifies "the Euchites" — say that baptism is of no benefit at all to those who approach it;

for like a razor it removes past sins, but it does not cut out the root of sin;

whereas unceasing prayer both plucks out the very root of sin, and drives out from the soul the evil demon that was allotted to it together with it from the beginning.

For they say that a demon accompanies every man immediately upon his birth, and incites him to improper actions.

And neither baptism nor anything else can drive this demon out of the soul, but the working of prayer alone.

And they say that the indwelling demon departs through mucus and the excretions of spittle.

Thus deceived, these thrice-wretched men pursue no honest work at all (for they call themselves "spiritual"), and, pretending to devote themselves to prayer, they spend the greater part of the day asleep.

Then, deceived by the demon that has driven them into frenzy, they claim to have seen revelations, and they attempt to foretell future events;

but they are convicted of falsehood by the actual outcome of events.

They also boast that they see the Father, and the Son, and the all-holy Spirit, with the eyes of the body, and that they perceive by sensation the visitation of the Spirit as it occurs.

But they are ready enough to deny it, and if pressed, they readily anathematize those who report any of these things about them.

Thus, indeed, when they were being tried before the all-renowned Flavian, bishop of the Antiochenes, they called the accusations that had been made against them mere slanders.

But that most wise man detected the heresy that was hiding beneath their denials.

he ordered Adelphius to be seated;

for he it was who led the heresy of those under accusation, an old man, indeed a man ripe for the tomb, and already standing at the very gates of death.

To him the thrice-blessed Flavian said that the accusers, being rather coarse of understanding, were ignorant of the spiritual way of life.

"But we," he said, "who have grown old in years, have received this knowledge."

"But tell me," he said, "truthfully, what it is that is said among you."

Thus beguiled, the old man, thinking he had found a sharer in these doctrines, confirmed the accusation by his own confession.

Having thus learned these things, the divine man drove them out of the borders of the East.

And they venture upon many other deeds of madness as well.

For indeed they suddenly leap up, and boast that they have leapt over demons;

and with their fingers they perform the gesture of archery, claiming that they are shooting arrows at demons.

The all-renowned Letoius, bishop of Melitene, having detected this heresy, wrote letters against them.

But Amphilochius, best of all men, who guided the church of Iconium, exposed the heresy still more precisely, having inserted their own statements into the records drawn up by him, which clearly reveal the divergence of their doctrine.

Now since the world, gradually ebbing away and hastening toward the dissolution of this universe, has reached a point where everyone considers himself a competent teacher of piety — no one, on account of the conceit born of ignorance, any longer willing to learn — the man-slaying demon, the father of lies, the sower of tares, no longer armed himself with open, external enemies against the Church;

but, having found an instrument that received his whole craft, so to speak, all at once, under the guise of orthodoxy he smuggles in a denial of both the deity and the loving-kindness toward mankind of the Only-Begotten, throwing the simplicity and artlessness of our faith into confusion with Hellenic sophistries.

You have doubtless heard of Nestorius somewhere;

This man, coming from the small town of Germanicia, reared from the outset in I know not what sort of practices, moving from one region to another, like some Egyptian plague, descended upon the great city of the Antiochenes.

There, having had some modest share in liberal studies, and having cultivated a most excellent and powerful voice, he advanced and insinuated himself into the Church of God, and, having been numbered among the roll of the presbyters, and entrusted with teaching the people of God, he showed at once, in his very beginnings, what sort of man he would prove to be for the whole of his life.

For he did not emulate that noble and fruitful character of discourse, capable of cultivating the souls of men;

but inclining toward what pleases the crowd, and having become, if anyone ever was, a hunter after applause that dissolves into air, he drew the disorderly and unstable multitude to his own desire, wrapped in a grey cloak, walking with a gloomy countenance, avoiding the tumults of the marketplace, hunting to seem self-controlled by the pallor of his body, devoting himself at home for the most part to books, and keeping company with himself in quiet.

By such postures and pretenses enticing the multitude, he advanced far in age, pursuing the appearance of being a Christian before the reality of it, and preferring his own glory to that of Christ.

According to the untraceable abyss of God's judgments, Nestorius too, by the vote of those about the palace and the thrones, and of him who then held the scepters of the world itself, was entrusted with the presidency of the orthodox catholic Church at Constantinople, and no less with that of the whole world as well.

Here now for me begin also the dramas, with which nearly the whole earth and sea were filled.

For as soon as he had taken possession of that greatest throne, having seized the headship of the high priesthood as though it were a kind of tyranny, he was no longer able to contain within himself the birth-pangs of impiety;

but, having gained from his authority an ignorant boldness, he brought into the open and set forth before all the blasphemy which he had long ago conceived against the Only-begotten.

And he openly took up war against the apostolic doctrines and against the holy Fathers who, from the time when the Gospel was first proclaimed, had guided the faith of the orthodox; he attempts to cast out their teachings, throwing into confusion the Church of the imperial city, and throwing into confusion the whole world as well;

paying no heed at all to the divinely-inspired Paul's cry:

'But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.' Yet upon the lampstand of the divine seat of the high priests, he set not the lamp of truth, but the darkness of impiety.