'And thus it was said to it: Arise and devour much flesh. After this beast I looked, and behold another beast, like a leopard, and it had upon it four wings of a bird, and the beast had four heads, and power was given to it. After this I looked, and behold a fourth beast, terrible, wondrous, and exceedingly strong; its iron teeth devoured and crushed, and the rest it trampled with its feet. And this beast was greater than the other beasts which had been seen before, and it had ten horns. And I considered its horns, and behold, another lesser horn came up in the midst of them, and three of the horns which were before it were rooted up from before its face. And behold, eyes of a man were in this horn, and a mouth speaking great things.'
'I beheld until thrones were set, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool; his throne was a flame of fire, its wheels a burning fire. A river of fire shone forth before him; thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. He sat in judgment, and the books were opened. Then I beheld, because of the voice of the great words which that horn was speaking — I beheld until the beast was slain and perished, and its body was given over to be burned. And the dominion of the rest of the beasts was taken away, and length of life was given to them until a season. I beheld in the vision of the night, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came even to the Ancient of Days.'
'He drew near and was presented before him, and there was given to him dominion and honor and kingdom, and all peoples, tribes, and tongues serve him; and his power is a perpetual power which shall never pass away, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed. My spirit shuddered within my frame, and I, Daniel — the visions of my head troubled me. And I drew near to one of those standing by, and sought the truth from him concerning all these things. And he told me the truth, and made known to me the interpretation of the words: These four great beasts are four kingdoms which shall rise upon the earth; and the saints of the most high God shall receive the kingdom and shall possess it forever. And I inquired diligently concerning the fourth beast, which was exceedingly terrible beyond the other beasts.'
'Its teeth were of iron and its claws of bronze; it devoured and crushed, and trampled the rest with its feet. And [I inquired] concerning its tenth horn which was on its head, and concerning the other horn which came up and cast down the three former horns — whose eyes and mouth spoke great things, and whose appearance was greater than the rest. I beheld, and that horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and gave judgment to the saints of the most high God; and the time came, and the saints obtained the kingdom. And he said: The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be eminent above all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall trample it and cut it down.'
'Its ten horns are ten kings that shall arise; and after them another shall arise, who shall surpass in evils all who were before him, and he shall bring low three, and shall speak words against the most high God, and shall wear out the saints of the most high God, and shall devise to change times and law; and it shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time. And judgment shall sit, and it shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end; and the kingdom and power and greatness of kings is given to the saints of the most high God. And his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all shall serve and obey him.' I ought indeed to have inserted only that portion which declares, by your acts, to which of the beasts you are like;
but in order that you might know that you are destined to be in that Gehenna into which the glorious Daniel relates that beast to be cast — unless you correct yourself — and how those whom you persecute are destined to reign forever, established in the kingdom of the Lord (which you might thereby perceive), we append all these things. Likewise for this reason I judged that the whole revelation should be applied, that you might, at least by reading, satisfy yourself that you tyrants, persecutors of God's religion, have been called beasts;
for I am indeed desiring to make clear — before your conscience infected with the poisons of the Arian dogma, before you who are not a religious man but a destroyer of religion — that I am not, as you allege, insolent, because I call you a wild beast or a monstrous brute; since you see that you are so named, names applied to you also according to your deeds. Moreover, that you bear the likeness of that fourth beast, that you desire to fulfill these things which it was foretold it would fulfill, is manifest. It is written of the Antichrist, to whom you are likened, or are yourself judged to be: 'He shall speak words against the most high Lord, and shall wear out the saints of the most high God, and shall devise to change times and law; and it shall be given into his hand.'
These things you have already done and are doing. For when you say: The Son of God is not true God, but was made from nothing — you speak words against God. For we Christians, since we claim one divinity for the Father and for his only Son, and you are assailing this our defense, affirming concerning the Son that there was [a time] when he was not and that he was made from nothing — assuredly you prove yourself to be either the Antichrist or certainly his forerunner. For you cannot be understood to be anything else but either the forerunner of Antichrist or the Antichrist, you who dare to call the apostolic and evangelical faith heretical, and attempt to vindicate your blasphemy as the catholic faith. You feel that you suffer injury, because you are called a beast by us;
you are found to devise to change the faith — that is, that we should not believe as the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs believed, but you have decreed that it must be believed as your fellow-destroyer Arius [believed]. And do you say that you are not rightly called a beast, when, precisely because you would do these things, the most holy prophet called you a beast? You are not less than the Antichrist in unbelief, O Constantius; for with iron teeth you do not cease to devour the servants of God. What need of more words? The Antichrist will do nothing else but that the only Son of God be denied; and this is what your most unclean soul, fattened upon folly, is doing.
But however much you rage, they shall pass — your times shall pass — and those [times] shall come in which I am to see you (unless you take counsel for yourself) set within that fiery river, and to see then those whom you hostilely persecute, because they are unwilling to perish with you — [to see them] not in that place of torments in which you are to be, but with the holy angels ever rendering thanks and praises to God; but [to see] you within that flaming flood. I would not have you marvel that the glorious Daniel designated you a beast, when even the blessed Paul said of your associates, to the Cretans: The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies; and below:
Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and to the commandments of men who turn themselves away from the truth. Hence we bishops are injurious to you, because we rebuke and reproach you: why you dared to turn yourself away from the truth; why you willed, forsaking the commandments of God, to cling to the blasphemies and commandments of men; why, finally, having forsaken God, you took up idolatry. Hence I seem to you to be your enemy, because I wish you to walk according to the apostle's precept, and not according to the commandments of Arius and of the Jews. Against these our most just charges, seeing yourself overcome by the truth, you are wont to say:
The sacred Scriptures enjoin that you ought to be subject to kings and to all who are set in high place; and do you dare to press such and so great things upon me, Lucifer? These [texts] you behold; such as bid you be honored you understand; but those which bid you to act, those you feign not to know — those which admonish you to obey the lord priests, those which urge that you ought to present yourself as one out of all your fellow-servants, and to call yourself superior to no one, if you wish to be found a servant of God. 'These things,' says the blessed apostle to Titus, 'speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority; let no man despise thee.' If you are a Christian — since you too are one of those concerning whom he said: These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority;
let no man despise thee' — assuredly you ought to hear me correcting you with all authority, and not to despise [me]. Then you will be a Christian, if you do not despise me when I exhort you to persevere as a Christian; but if you despise [me], you are already found not to be among the Christians. For if you had been a Christian, you would not have despised him whom God has ordained to instruct his people, and to whom the apostle said: These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority; let no man despise thee. For to what do I exhort you? Only that you be not a murderer; that you not persecute the house of God; that you cease to torture, proscribe, deport, shut up in prison, slaughter, in various ways destroy and kill those whom you discern to be Christians.
[I exhort you] that you cease, in short, to blaspheme the only Son of God; that you take up the apostolic faith which you call heretical — this, namely, our [faith], which the bishops at Nicaea set down against you and all heretics — that you may be believing as we are, and may deign to reject the idolatry established through your master Arius; that you may proclaim yourself a Christian, not an Arian; that you cease to bring false accusations against the priests of God. This is my correction; this is my reproach. The apostle tells me to reprove you with all authority, and you say: Lucifer does me injury — and you do not say: The priest of God admonishes and exhorts me according to the precepts [given] to the priests, that I may be able to lead a life most acceptable to God.
For as to your saying that we owe you our submission, know that we understand ourselves to be debtors in rendering obedience not to you alone, but to all who dwell in high place. For the Apostle says: 'Admonish them to be subject to princes and magistrates, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, not to be quarrelsome but moderate, showing all gentleness toward all men. For we ourselves also were once foolish and unbelieving, going astray, serving diverse desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another;'
'but when the kindness and love toward man of God our Savior shone forth, not by works of righteousness which we did, but according to his own mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of life.' He admonishes, therefore, that we ought to be subject in good works, not in evil ones. If it is a good work to slay a man in his absence, to put to death one unheard who cries out to clear himself, to spurn together with you, casting aside all regard for mercy, one whom we know to be innocent; if it is a good work to deny the only Son of God—a work,
if it is acceptable to God to forsake the apostolic faith and to embrace the heretical—then you might justly say that I act against the counsels of the sacred Scriptures. I add this further: that the Apostle made mention of those princes and magistrates who had not yet believed in the only Son of God, who assuredly were to be provoked to believe by our humility and gentleness, by our long patience in adversity, and by our utmost obedience in fitting matters. But if you, because you are emperor, feigning yourself to be one of us, should compel us to forsake God and take up idolatry, must we then acquiesce to you, lest the Apostle's precepts should seem to have been passed over? And yet you, who feign yourself a Christian, attempt to make Christians—
you attempt to make into what you yourself are, that is, apostates—you who still remain foolish and unbelieving in your malice, the very malice in which the Apostle says we too were before our knowledge of God, before we received the sacred faith. In what were we to yield to you, except in fulfilling what was lawful? Or when you say, you blasphemous murderer, 'Kill those who believe in the only Son of God, be with me persecutors of his house, deny him with me, spurn the apostolic faith, take up my heresy, of which I have shown myself with all the strength of my heart a lover'—who is more wretched than you, that a man should not shun you, should not flee from you as one who counsels these things, recognizing you to be a temple of demons? Because you hear these things, you say:
'I suffer injury from Lucifer, a wretched man—and, moreover, an emperor!' But that blasphemous, befouled speech of yours does not follow: 'I hear what I deserve from Lucifer, the priest of the Lord.' The vessel of election says to the Galatians: 'I marvel that you are so quickly removed from him who called you into grace, unto another gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: if any man preach to you any other gospel than that which you have received, let him be anathema.'
And do you suppose that anything else can be declared to you by me except that you are anathema, since I find you preaching otherwise than the blessed apostles handed down? Since, therefore, you hear from me that I hold you anathema for preaching otherwise than the apostles preached—if you should say that I am injurious, know that you lie; if you bear anything of the man about you, you will be able to see that I say to you 'anathema' for this reason: because already the blessed Apostle has anathematized you. You declare me injurious because I call you foolish; but how can I rightly be called injurious by you, when it is established that I speak the truth, namely that you are foolish? For if the Galatians hear 'O foolish Galatians' from the blessed Apostle, why do you think that you ought not to be called by the name of a fool?
For if they were called foolish because they had obeyed false brethren—since, giving heed to the suggestions of those serpentine allies of yours, they had judged both that the Sabbaths ought to be kept and that circumcision was to be observed—how much more worthily are you called foolish, you who have shown yourself a denier of the only Son of God! Because I say to you: 'Tear yourself away from the rabid Arian dogs, grieve that by clinging to their malignant council you too have become a dog,' you call me stubborn; but perhaps you are ignorant that the deniers of the only Son of God have been called dogs, called fat bulls, called sons of iniquity, an adulterous and harlot seed, sons of perdition and an unrighteous seed.
If it has escaped you that you are so named by God, hear him say through Isaiah to your fellow-blasphemers the Jews: 'Come hither, you sons of iniquity, adulterous and harlot seed, in whom you have delighted and against whom you have opened your mouth and against whom you have thrust out your tongue. Are you not sons of perdition, an unrighteous seed?' And in another place: 'See that all are blinded, they have not known to understand; they are all dumb dogs that cannot bark, dreaming in their bed, loving to slumber. And they are shameless dogs, souls that know no satisfaction, and they are wicked, knowing no understanding; all have followed their own ways.' Who are these, to whom or on account of whom these things are said?
Surely those whom in the twenty-first Psalm the only Son of God accuses through the mouth of David, saying: 'Many bullocks have compassed me, fat bulls have beset me. They opened their mouth against me, as a lion ravening and roaring'; and further on: 'Many dogs have compassed me, the council of the malignant has beset me; they pierced my hands and my feet.' Since, therefore, you perceive that those masters of yours in sacrilege are called bullocks, fat bulls, and dogs, you cannot, being one of the council of the malignant, judge me insolent because I call you by those names by which your pestilent fellows have been and are called; for you are no less in wickedness, you who dare to say:
'There was a time when he was not, and he was made out of nothing'—so that you might not be called by those names fitting to you. But if you would not be called by these names, change your ways, correct your errors, as the most blessed Paul and the rest of that faithless people corrected theirs. Because I say to you: 'Tear yourself away from the council of the malignant,' I seem to you to be insolent. On what account? Surely because I profess myself a Christian, because I have refused to forsake God and go off after your idolatry. It is not for the first time that we are called insolent and proud by you sacrilegious ones; for so were called also all those who resisted the deadly edicts of your fellow-tyrants. And that I may pass over the rest at the close of my discourse, I shall turn again to King Antiochus alone.
Did he judge those who resisted him to be insolent and proud, or not? Without doubt he did; for because they esteemed them to have been insolent and proud, he persecuted with such cruelty those consecrated to God, even unto death. It remains, then, for you to consider what further deeds Antiochus committed against that people whom you have already come to know; and if you can rightly say that those men were proud and insolent toward Antiochus, you can say the same of us. For these very things we suffer from you which they too endured from Antiochus; thus we are crying out for the faith, for religion, just as they too cried out; thus we profess to serve the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, just as they too confessed.
'The king sent,' says the Scripture, 'an old man of Athens to compel the Jews to remove themselves from their ancestral and divine laws, that they should not use them, and to defile also the temple that was in Jerusalem, and to name it after Jupiter Olympius, and Mount Gerizim, as those who inhabited the place were, after Jupiter Hospitable. And the affliction was most grievous and burdensome to all. For the temple was filled with the revelries of the Gentiles, with men consorting with harlots, and with women approaching within the sacred precincts, bringing in besides those things which were not lawful; the altar too was full of unlawful things forbidden by the laws. Neither were the Sabbaths kept nor the ancestral solemn days observed.' And further on:
'And they were led, by bitter necessity, month by month, on the king's birthday, to partake of the sacrifices; and when the feast of Bacchus was celebrated, they were compelled, wearing ivy, to go about in procession in honor of Bacchus. And a decree went out to the neighboring Greek cities, the Ptolemies suggesting that this same practice be carried out against the Jews, that they should partake of the sacrifices, and that those who would not go over to the institutions of the Greeks should be put to death. There was, therefore, misery to behold. For two women were denounced for having circumcised their sons, whose infants they hung at their breasts, and when they had led them publicly about the city, they cast them headlong from the wall. And others ran together into caves nearby, and secretly kept the seventh day.'
'And when this was made known, they were burned, because out of reverence they feared to bring themselves aid on the solemn day.' What do you think the worshipers of God ought to have done then? Ought God to have been pleased, or Antiochus? If you do not judge that they ought to have pleased Antiochus, then neither ought we, assuredly, to please you; for you too, though in another manner, are nonetheless desiring to take us away from God and to join us to the devil, as he wished to do with them. The very same cruelty is carried out through you; thus savage and unjust are you toward those who resist your deadly edict.
It remains, therefore, as has often been said, that you grieve at having gone astray, and recognizing yourself to be a murderer and a blasphemer, you, a deserter of God, present yourself to his house; otherwise you will have to lay the blame upon yourself, when you begin to see yourself there where now are all those fellow-tyrants of yours.