Refutatio et Eversio 1 part 5/21

But let them know well that the objection they devise is frigid and idle;

For if the disciple turns out to be bad, the fault does not lie with the teacher; the charge would lie against him only if the disciple had been badly taught.

Nor is it the incongruity of sound teaching that is at fault, but the prejudgment lies with the depraved will of the student, since the argument here does not concern the subjects taught, but proceeds against those who pursue them.

For here the teachings are befitting God and full of piety, and possess credibility and acceptance among all Christians;

but those who were initiated into these teachings, having repudiated the good that they had received, went over to a monstrous, deceptive, and counterfeit error;

which indeed is most pitiable and worthy of tears.

For they did not stand firm on the foundation of faith on which they had originally been built; rather, those built upon the Rock were shaken, and those built upon the Cornerstone were shamefully cast down, not having their spiritual feet fixed and steadfast there.

So the fault lies neither with the teachers nor with the subjects taught, but with the inclination of free will and the readily-swayed character of depraved habits that easily incline toward base things.

Some of these men, though charged with offenses under the canons and expelled from the priesthood, have nonetheless been honored with presiding seats in their vain assembly.

One will clearly perceive from many sources the certainty of what has been said, starting from the holy Gospel itself;

For the traitor-disciple did not betray his own Master and Teacher because he had become obedient to wicked teachings, but because, having been found an instrument of the wicked demon and having received him wholly into his profane soul, he denied the saving power of the words he had been taught.

Similar things one might also observe as having occurred with respect to the apostolic preaching;

which was not kept by those associated with Nicolaus and Simon, and Demas and Phygelus, and whoever others there were who defected to that vain and godless error;

who all but drove the divine John to write words such as these:

"They went out from us, but they were not of us;"

"For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us;"

and these are the very words that those who have now gone out from us likewise compel us to say and write.

And one could find many things analogous and similar to these, to set alongside them in parallel;

for all of life is full of such examples.

Since, then, having gone out from us and having been cut off from the common body of the Church, and having departed as far as possible from Christ himself, the head of all, appearing naked and unarmed and unaided by the alliance of those who are stronger, they desert to their newly-appeared teachers and are transformed, and being gladly received they are mingled with them both in doctrines and in practices, sharing with them in deeds and words, and have shown themselves to be shield-bearers of vanity — assuredly, as it is reasonable and consistent to suppose, they will also confess outright that they have paid homage to idols just as those others did, so that in no way might they be left behind from the new teaching.

It is therefore necessary that they also fall under the canons customarily applied to those caught in such godlessness.

Wherefore let them be led far away from the divine shrines and the sacred vestibules, and lodge there, and, being rebuked and condemned, let them complete the appointed periods of penance.

How, then, could those who have fallen under so many and such grave accusations assemble in synods for the investigation of ecclesiastical judgments? This is a thing not even bearable to say, nor tolerable to hear spoken.

Thus, then, this most cunning and most crafty assembly — and, as one might poetically phrase it, the very flower of wisdom and erudition — having far surpassed their teachers, being carried away to such a degree of derangement and folly, went to their ruin.

But this one thing has escaped these overly wise and meticulous experts: they do not know that their battle is in fact against their own teachers.

And such, then, are their doings;

but we shall once again take up our purpose and continue.

...having followed most ignorant bishops;

From what is said and admitted by opponents, the truth draws its credibility all the more;

which seems to me to be evident here as well.

For, out of great folly and carelessness, these deranged men, having set out to mock womanly simplicity, instead declare it to be full of manly discretion and sobriety, and unwittingly they end up confirming the very thing they thought they were demolishing; and their undertaking turned out contrary to their intent, and their contrivance has come undone and dissolved.

For through their own words they make it manifest that that simplicity has nothing blameworthy about it anywhere;

For she truly followed priests — not, as it might seem, the most ignorant, most irrational, and most senseless, but wise and rational men, who had cultivated purity as far as attainable given the present state of affairs;

for indeed they were most learned in both divine and human matters, and their own age produced none better than they.

And she preserved reverence for the priesthood, and embraced the inviolability of the divine laws, and clearly demonstrated piety toward divine things, and was seen to be zealous for the honor of the dispensation of our Savior, and, in short, rendered to all ecclesiastical good order the honor that was its due.

She cooperated; she did not compel;

She yielded to divine laws; she was not enslaved to a passionate disposition; she did not impose herself through tyranny and coercive authority, but rather employed persuasion and sound counsel, and followed other dignified ordinances;

To what end will she achieve this? So that she might reunite what was formerly divided, and gather together the scattered things which the Evil One had wickedly cut apart, and subject the members to Christ the Head, being joined together as in one body, and reconcile those at war with one another, and award peace to the Church and to the whole commonwealth, and, to say it all at once, so that the glory of the Lord might be confirmed, and the flock of Christ might live well, possessing freedom from faction;

And indeed, so it came to pass.

And it was for these reasons that the exhortation and the summoning and gathering of the priests took place — not after the manner of those who have now, in our own time, shown themselves to be tyrannical and violent, doing entirely the opposite, forcibly attacking the flock of Christ, imposing tyranny and compulsion, so that they might secure for themselves their own glory and the passionate gratification of their desires;

from which came the turmoil and the utter darkness, and the disturbance that overtook the entire empire of the Romans.

And so womanly simplicity, having followed in this way, thus both ordered and accomplished the affairs of the Church of God;

But you — for it is right to inquire and learn thoroughly — following whom did you come to think and do those things which you judged right to think and do? If, then, you have the courage, declare it;

But if not, then lend your ear, and listen to those who know how to speak.

You, then, though it was in your power to follow the doctrines of the anointed priests — that is to say, the apostolic and patristic teachings — and, exerting every strength, to hold fast to and to risk everything for the right confession and faith, have instead transferred yourselves to a novel contrivance foreign to the Church; and, having cast behind you all priestly tradition and stripped away all good order of the priesthood, you have utterly dissolved it;

and, being ingloriously and impiously swept along by worldly rulers and affairs, and corrupted together with an earthly, groveling, and crawling mindset, you leaders of the Church have shown yourselves to be like those who remove boundary-stones;

"Upon you I will pour out my wrath like water," says the Lord of all through the voice of the holy prophets;

"And you refused to give heed, and you turned a rebellious back, and you made your ears heavy so as not to listen, and you set your heart to disobey, refusing to heed my law and the words which the Lord Almighty sent by his Spirit through the hand of the former prophets" — let another prophet likewise cry out;

and indeed let yet another prophet, bewailing them, join in the lament:

"I planted you as a fruitful vine, wholly true;"

"How is it that you turned into bitterness, O strange vine? Even if you wash yourself with lye and multiply soap for yourself, you are stained before me by your iniquities, says the Lord."

"and they loved to wander with their feet, and did not restrain themselves;"

"and God did not take delight in them."

Then, disobeying, they turned away from the Lord and rejected him, just as their newly-arisen fathers likewise turned themselves into a crooked bow.

But if Paul must marvel at a base defection, he would marvel at you rather than at the Galatians, so quickly have you transferred from him who called you by the grace of Christ to a different gospel — which is no other gospel at all — on account of the inflated pride arising from time and continuous teaching;

beyond which it is not permitted to listen to any other gospel, even should angels preach it, because of the dreadfulness of the anathema it incurs.

And furthermore, the Savior's disciple would rebuke you the more gravely, saying, "You are like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed;"

for indeed, owing to great faintheartedness and a real fickleness toward whatever seems expedient at the moment, being readily swayed, you easily change, showing yourselves more unreliable than the Euripus of Chalcis.

and having recklessly and perilously turned aside onto a path leading to thorns and precipices.

For you have set at naught the Spirit of grace, disregarding the sound words of the faith, and have flowed over to the deceit that leads the people astray — the falsehood that operates in the sons of disobedience — being led by the commandments and designs of those who speak perverse things, men corrupted in both soul and mind.

For what wisdom will be devised, or what good will be conceived, by one who is overcome by Mammon and bows down like a beast to the passions of the flesh, never having given any thought to the things that tend toward the glory of God or bring benefit to the soul? Thus you, having become entangled with a degenerate and barbarous disposition, have chosen to act as barbarians rather than as Christians.

But as for the divinely inspired men of that God-chosen synod — in our reckoning the great and ecumenical council — how much excellence and pre-eminence they exhibited in our generation, in character, in word, and in deeds, adorned as they were with divine grace, piety, and dignity of life, it is easy for those willing to perceive.

For they have shown themselves to be unshakable pillars of the Church, a bulwark of the faith, and indestructible towers of our divine doctrines — especially those among them, both native and foreign holy men, who shone forth in presiding positions;

I think that, with their passing, the finest things of virtue, reason, and knowledge have passed away together with them;

For, like a flower of spring-like eloquence blossoming amid the winter of irrationality and unbelief in our generation, they caused piety to blossom for us together with reason;

But now, with impiety again storming in and the sharp frost of unbelief intensifying, that flower, having withered, has been driven away, leaving the field fallow and barren of virtue and faith, bitterly bearing instead the thorns of wickedness and disobedience.

But those who share nothing in common with the greatness of soul of those men — being ignoble and feeble, like a fragile clay pot struck against the firmness of the noble ones as against a bronze cauldron — will bring shattering upon themselves.

But why dwell on these things? Having rejected Christ himself, they run to the rulers of this world, taken captive to their will, having become easily overcome and easily caught in the snares of their arrogance.

concerning whom someone might fittingly cry out together with Moses, saying: "The beloved Israel has kicked back in rebellion" — and even now he openly leaps away from friendship with God.

For, having adopted a disposition of like nature and equal rank with the transgression of the Jews, they themselves too have all but openly cried out, "We have no king but Caesar."

For being melted onto the glory of the world, and seeking wickedly and foolishly to establish their own supposed righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God;

and having done obeisance to the golden image, they have not chosen to do obeisance to the image of Christ.

Having directed these things against the teachers, in what follows they turn to insult of the economy of the Word of God, having written thus:

It decreed that the incomprehensible Son and Word of God be depicted, according to the incarnation, by means of dishonorable matter.

That they utter these things setting out from Manichaean darkness is evident, I think, to everyone;

For these are the ravings of a certain Epiphanides and his circle, following the error of the Docetists, who suppose that the incarnation of the Word of God came about in appearance only, as will be shown later;

Putting these forward as their own—just as the leaders of their apostasy have also done (for from bad teachers come bad lessons, or rather, from evil seeds evil crops)—they strive to accuse those who know how to speak rightly.

For already, as if nauseated at the solid food of the contemplation of our lofty doctrines, which is fitting for the mature, they turn to the poor elements of the world, like certain infants in need of milk;

and they are not ashamed to become hangers-on to another's vomit, and, defiling their own hearts with the filth of others, to feast upon the bitter and corrupting poisons of the ill-named Arians and Manichaeans,

having loved these things, and turning aside to foolish and untutored inquiries, they have been shown reprobate concerning the faith and have made shipwreck, being carried away by strange and alien voices.

But the matters set before us bring forth for us a twofold meaning.

For the phrase 'according to the incarnation,' inserted in between, if it be attached to what precedes—so that the incomprehensibility of the Word of God should be understood also with respect to the incarnation—then the statement clearly introduces to us the Manichaean phantasm;

for if he was not comprehended in that he existed as flesh, having appeared as man like us, the [saving] economy will be reckoned a phantasm.

But if it be joined to what follows, it presents the doctrine of the Church;

for it supposes one to understand the same thing—that even if Christ be also called man according to the incarnation—and then they accuse in vain those who decree that he be painted, since no reasoning prevents this.

If then he will possess incomprehensibility also with respect to the incarnation, and on this account not even the possibility of being painted, they will by every means grant comprehensibility to his own divinity—since God came forth together with the assumption of flesh, one out of two opposites, flesh and spirit, as our theologians say.

But if it is impossible to attribute comprehensibility to the divinity, then it is surely altogether necessary that it be assigned to his own flesh, so that upon each of the two opposite natures, fittingly and proportionately, the corresponding sequence of the opposite attributes—I mean the incomprehensible and the comprehensible—may be jointly preserved, and neither be improperly turned about toward the other; but rather let the incomprehensible be attributed to the divine nature, and the comprehensible be assigned to the flesh;

so that necessarily, not being depicted follows upon the incomprehensible, while being depicted follows upon the comprehensible.

If then this is so, what absurdity will meet the decree that events from this ineffable and saving incarnation—which came about in truth and not in phantasm—be depicted through this narrative, which relates the same subject-matter as the evangelical proclamation, unto the remembrance of the great and admirable benefactions bestowed upon us here; which it is right to confess, and to glorify the Benefactor for the good we have received?

But they render themselves manifest, that Christ is burdensome to them, even when seen in an image.

Who then is it that decreed these things? Is it not the grace that came down upon that God-summoned assembly, delivering its verdict through the tongue and confession of those who ministered? And what is the thing decreed? Did it bring something new and recent into life, or rather did it renew—through love of God and reverence—that which had long ago been rightly recorded and honored, but had been cast down by the wickedness and unbelief of the impious, and assign to it its fitting establishment and veneration? For who has come to such an extreme of foolishness and insensibility as to profess ignorance of these things, or that they stand otherwise? The doctrine, therefore, is not that of the empress, as it seems to the shield-bearers of falsehood, nor has any passionate and fleshly will prevailed, since she runs together with the synod, and follows it, and votes with it.

For it is not as with your teacher Mamonas, who, exercising his authority in disregard of God, gave the unholy men permission, saying—the Christ-fighter hinting at the taking-down of the image of Christ—'If in this one image we should fully persuade you that we speak rightly, then concerning the other images too we shall again be able to bring forward proposals before you, and as you judge fit.'

Mocking with these things, he deceived by stealth, defrauding the foolish.

For through these things he was signaling the dishonoring of the images of the saints, arraying himself for the overthrow of all our mysteries.

These men, moreover, in many places disparage the matter and the art of the painters, so that here too they might cast some blame upon God.

But the arts are not evil, which God, providing for the benefit of the race, graciously granted;

and if those who pursue them use them badly, the cause lies in the wicked intention, not in the art.

And here the art has not turned out to be for evil to the painter;

it is not dishonorable; since, if it were so, let the figures of the cross also, drawn out of matter, and the Gospel-books that are made, and very many other things accomplished throughout the Church, be dishonored and burned up.

But these things will not be dishonored together with the images on account of the dishonor of the matter—to pass over the matter of the mystical blessing.

Having labored in vain over such things in what was said before, in the very manner in which they were accustomed in fighting against Christ, they immediately add:

It set forth, without safeguard, that the all-holy Theotokos and the saints who are conformed to him should be erected in dead likenesses of features and be venerated, thereby striking against the very pivotal doctrine of the Church, and muddying our worship-veneration, confirming according to its own opinion that the things befitting God should be offered to the lifeless matter of the images.

In these matters they have no argument by which to support their own vanity;

again they turn, shamefully and disorderly, to the abominable utterances of the new teachers (for these too are the miscarriages of that Epiphanides), doing, as it seems to me, the very same thing as certain naked and unarmed warriors who flee for refuge into some rotten and easily-captured fortress, one easily overcome by the enemy.

For from where will their argument, when supported, have any security? For in the case of the incarnation of the Word of God, they put forward uncircumscribability even with respect to the flesh, on account of the union with him, and incomprehensibility, making excuses in sins;

but in the case of the all-holy Theotokos and the saints, what cause will they present for the insult? The incomprehensible and the uncircumscribable will in no way stand as their defense here, unless these thunder-struck men, out of shamelessness and irrationality, should attribute these things to them as well.

Worship-veneration itself refutes their most senseless and raving nonsense;

for how could anyone offer worship-veneration to those whose archetypes are not received unto worship?—which those who have come to know the truth offer to the one living and true God alone.

For where have those alien to Christians ever caught a Christian offering this worship to lifeless matter? What then do we say? That even if we should be silent, yet the God-delivered oracles will not endure to be silent, fittingly applying also to these impious men:

that the fool will speak foolish things, and his heart will devise vain things, to speak error against the Lord.

For, truly, being darkened in mind and muddied by much folly and wickedness, they speak emptily as if beside themselves and revelling in bacchic frenzy, letting loose their God-fighting tongue, unrestrained, both against the saints and against the glory of the Christians.

For who, whether of old or now, has forbidden the painting of men who are of our own kind? Since indeed we see that even those who have distinguished themselves by certain acts of valor in the present life, and who have excelled in wars, and who have otherwise achieved something worthy of remembrance, are honored in this way, when their merits have been handed down to life through such paintings.

How then would it not have been all the more fitting that the memory of the contests, beyond mind and reason, which the saints have striven through, be preserved in images just as also in books—these images bearing for us the same subject-matter as those books—and all the more so, inasmuch as we also reap from thence benefit and profit?

But I well know that they will take refuge in those same objections which the one most hostile to the saints—and their teacher too—put forward, being mad against the saints.

But why is it necessary to try to demonstrate that the father of lies is clearly at work speaking through them, when it is possible, by taking in hand the pious horos of the sacred synod, full of all rectitude, to relearn afresh what is set forth in it, and as quickly as possible to expose publicly the error monstrously fabricated by our adversaries? For what does the horos ordain, except that the venerable image of Christ be honored in a manner similar to the figure of the cross? And as for the saints, it is not unclear how they will be honored proportionately.

Having shown ingratitude for these things, and having become deniers of their own confessions and agreements, and still clinging to the same folly and derangement, they further add such things as these:

...he dared to call them full of the lighting of candles and the fragrance of incense;

with forced veneration he led the simple astray.

Who says these things? The accusers of those who are praised, the dark ones concerning the light, the untutored concerning wisdom—to them the theological utterance would most justly apply:

For they who once wisely gloried in the brightness of doctrines, are now unlearnedly enveloped in mist by the darkness of vain teachings.

For the very things which, standing before in their own right confession, they honored as sacred, these now, as if gone out of their minds and turned toward impiety, they insult foolishly—truly and senselessly.

Whence the bewildered and unstable state of their reasonings is put on public display, together with their readiness and swift propensity toward blasphemy against the holy things.

Let anyone who has examined these matters with right reasoning and an incorruptible criterion, and who knows how to judge, decide what is secure in these matters.

The violent, and in truth insubstantial, instigator of this apostasy, and the newly-sprung teacher displayed to these very men, I mean that impious Constantine—who insulted and spat upon all the things of divine grace, and reckoned the holy and the profane as one and the same, being anointed all over with his beloved horses and holding them as dear as fragrant myrrh—how much zeal and honor he deemed the horses themselves worthy of, many of those still remaining alive today know.

For indeed, honoring with processional honors and attentions the horses that carried off the victory prize in the horse-races, he filled them with fragrance from choice incenses prepared from the most costly perfumes.

And as for the lightings, why need one even speak of how exceedingly bright and most lavish they were? For indeed he made that horse-parade the occasion of a very great festival, and adorned it with the vessels taken from the holy churches, vessels set apart for the lighting of the divine liturgies and services;

which he, as an attendant, distributed alike to the chariot-horses and to those who held their reins, and to the very men enrolled in the clergy and consecrated to God, together with lighting and the most brilliant torch-bearing, such as one might behold on our own festal days—going before and following, and carrying the sacrificial vessels in their hands.

And it was possible to see a pitiable spectacle, worthy of tears, how the divine things were brought forth by irrational men unto the honor of irrational beasts.

He organized and put together such a rite—that procession—as great as one might arrange for an act of religious worship;

and no one has yet indicted this man for idolatry, as would have been fitting, nor has anyone been vexed on seeing the racing horses at the very horse-races, and the charioteers, honored in this way.

But they become bitter accusers of the saints, and condemn the lighting and the incense, these deranged men having forgotten that all things holy among us—among which are also these—have from the beginning obtained such honor.

So utterly, thrown headlong by the irregularity and disorder that has taken hold of the times, have these wretches gone astray, that they did not deem it right to grant to holy things even the honor which the impious offer to irrational animals;

but as to how the veneration of the holy things came about 'by force,' let those who were truly dragged away from it by force, and who endured very many dangers for the love of Christ, declare.

And what monstrosity the things that follow these fashion for them, and into what contradictions the wretched men fall, rushing shamelessly and without blushing, setting falsehood in opposition to the nature of things, even as if it were the truth;

they will straightaway have manifest refutations of their false mythmaking.

For like bats, which are always vexed by the sun's rays but rejoice in night and darkness, so also these men flee from the light of truth, and take refuge, as in their own home, in the beloved and familiar darkness of falsehood.

For what unholy things these all-daring men presume to belch forth, striving to show themselves the most well-disposed servants toward that degenerate and half-barbarous offspring.

And he granted a second Noah to the Christians, who also strove to blunt the storm of heresy together with the sting of the devil.

But let them hear, from us and from the truth itself, that this man in truth raised up a flood against the Christians and the evangelical proclamation, and was the author of so great a disturbance and surge—and was a second, not Noah (neither fleeing the flood, but bringing it on, and being wholly drowned in it himself, having no saving ark of faith), but rather some grievous Pharaoh, a taskmaster, and an Egyptian monster, or some other Assyrian or Babylonian abomination;

and a bitter tyrant against the people and the inheritance of the Lord, who engendered the intelligible tempest and the harsh storm of souls, raging madly while the Church still remained tranquil in its calm, and being exceedingly vexed at the established state of affairs.

And here it is truly fitting to say:

"If the Lord Sabaoth had not, through the bowels of his mercy and compassion, looked down from heaven, his holy dwelling place, and had mercy on us and helped us, and wondrously calmed the storm and surge that had risen up against the church, and, commanding the tempest of apostasy and impiety, made it settle into a calm breeze, and, by God-judged verdicts, went after the cause of these calamities — that nature most fertile in producing every evil — and removed him from underfoot, as he deserved" — nothing would have prevented all those under this realm, having fallen into a very great and extraordinary shipwreck, from sliding down into the depth of unbelief, from which thereafter there would have been no hope of being saved.

And what sort of fruits these men bear, following such manner and teaching — just as was already shown in the case of those who led them into impiety — becomes known through their very deeds.