Now let us open up another matter, in which they are again convicted by their own testimony of having assailed the judgment of blessed Cyril, whom they boast to have followed, since, to the prejudice of the great Synod, they likewise charge the same Theodore with having said, in interpreting the Gospel according to Matthew, «that the centurion approached Christ for the healing of his servant not as the Son of God, existing before every creature and the maker of the things that are.» And in this chapter too their fraudulent falsehood appears clearly enough. For Theodore is accused by them on that very ground on which he ought rather to be defended against their accusation. For he did not, as they pretend, in expounding this passage of the Gospel, show what he himself thought of Christ, but rather what the centurion supposed concerning Him.
Nay, he showed also what he himself thought. For he who said that the centurion, out of ignorance, approached Christ not as God, existing before every creature and the maker of the things that are, without doubt himself recognized Christ to be not man only, like Nestorius, but also God, existing before every creature and the maker of the things that are. But how they, as is their custom, have set down in their book Theodore's opinion corrupted just as they pleased, we shall show; and then we shall teach how his words really stand according to the records of the writers, so that in this one instance you may be able to recognize how many improper things—which he did not say—they have inserted through his other opinions, and how many fitting things—which he did say—they have taken away.
For thus they said: «But let us convict the remaining blasphemies of Theodore by a similar method. For the impious Theodore himself, raging against Christ and not granting that the miracles done by Him were done as by God, interpreting perversely the centurion's words which he spoke to the Lord in the healing of his servant, in the Gospel according to John says these things: He well added that: For I too am a man, as if to say: It is no marvel if thou hast this power, being a man, since thou hast received it from God; for I too, being a man, receive those who obey me, once having the power of commanding as I will, through the bounty of Him who gives. Wherefore it is nothing strange that thou too, having received this power from God, by a word alone of command shouldest drive out diseases.»
«For the centurion had not approached Him as the Son of God, subsisting before every creature, and the maker of all things that are.» These things we have transferred from their book into ours. And although even in these words which they composed at their own pleasure the intent of the speaker could not be wholly obscured—since, as has been said, he expressed in them not his own faith, but the supposition of the ignorant centurion—nevertheless, that this may appear more evidently, let us set down the entire words of Theodore himself. «And he besought Him, he says, to heal his servant. To whom the Lord says: I will come and heal him. For this reason especially He promised the more readily to go, that the virtue of the centurion might appear when he declined it. For, I am not worthy, he says, that Thou shouldest enter under my roof;»
«therefore only say the word, and this will suffice for the matter. First, then, he shows much reverence, and secondly the greatest faith. Then also he displays his own faith with prudence: For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this one: Go, and he goes; and to another: Come, and he comes; and to my servant: Do this, and he does it. For it was a mark of prudence to believe such things of Christ according to the reasoning which seemed good to him. For I too am a man; but nevertheless of those over whom I have received power, of these I am lord: what seems good to me, these things are done by my subordinates. Therefore it is nothing strange that thou too, having received this power from God, by a word alone of command shouldest drive out diseases.»
«For the centurion had not approached Him as the Son of God, subsisting before every creature, and the maker of all things that are. For neither was it then the disciples' part, before the cross, to know these things—as we shall show more subtly in what remains, with the Lord's help—but rather as a man who through virtue had obtained from God a power greater than is a man's. Whence He said to him: For I too am a man.» In this manner stand the words of Theodore. Now then compare both, as is worthy of thee, O Emperor, and thou wilt find how many things have been foisted in by them, and how many taken away, lest the truth should appear. But chiefly, who does not see that they took away what was said there for no other reason:
«For it was a mark of prudence to believe such things of Christ according to the reasoning which seemed good to him;» except that, in those words, Theodore might seem to have expressed rather the supposition of the ignorant centurion than his own faith; or that final clause which they would not reach, where he says: «For neither was it then the disciples' part, before the cross, to know these things—as we shall show below, with the Lord's help, more subtly?» Gather, then, together with these words the end of the sentence, and you will find that Theodore believed Christ to be not as a man who through virtue had obtained from God a power greater than is a man's, but the true Son of God, subsisting before every creature, and the maker of all things that are. For how would he say:
It was not then the disciples' part, before the cross, to know it—unless he himself knew this, and believed that the disciples too came to know it after the cross? Who, moreover, would not shudder at such frauds and lies of these men? If no regard is had to that which is written, Thou shalt destroy all that speak a lie (Ps. V, 7), and the fear of God is despised, then at least out of human shame—since they could easily have been detected—they ought to have abstained from manifest falsehood; and yet, speaking of Theodore himself, they say: «We shudder even at the mere memory of his blasphemies, and we beseech God that He may be propitious to us that we endure such things at all upon our tongue.» What sanctity of conscience, and what sincerity!
How do they prove that they shudder at the memory of blasphemies spoken by another, who fabricate so many things that were never said? or how should God be propitious to them, being thus simply and truthfully invoked? These are they who teach a new truth, unknown both to Roman Leo as long as he lived, and to the whole Church hitherto. Let such men, I beseech you, be cast out, and put to flight from your ears, nor let it any longer be free for them to inscribe their lies with the title of your name.
For if they so shamelessly accused this manifest opinion of Theodore concerning the centurion—through which we have rather shown him, as we had promised, to be defended against their accusation—and so attempted to obscure it, some things being foisted in, others taken away, that by a savage interpretation they might turn it into a contrary sense; what must we believe they have done in other matters, where the aforesaid Theodore, contradicting the Apollinarists, spoke certain things more contentiously than modestly and cautiously?
And indeed if the authority of blessed Cyril held them, as they boast, they would not only not say that the evangelical writings had been badly interpreted by Theodore—in which, as they affirm, Cyril testifies that no one dared to censure his labors, but rather, by a favorable decree, to honor the zeal for right doctrines which is in them—but they would also not blame whatever similar things are in the other writings of the same Theodore, but would rather believe that the reason of these had less been open to their understanding; lest, such things being rashly disapproved, they should consequently seem, by reason of the similarity, to blame also those things which they do not deny to have been approved by blessed Cyril in his labors.
But if it is because the Nestorian error believes Christ to be not as the Son of God, existing before every creature and the maker of all things that are, that they therefore condemned Theodore as holding similar views, then it necessarily follows that, since the same Theodore has been proven to have believed Christ to be the Son of God, subsisting before every creature and the maker of all things that are, he was unjustly condemned as a teacher of Nestorius, to whose error he seems to have been much opposed. You see therefore, O godly prince, how, even if other proofs had been lacking to us, by this one alone we might sufficiently and fittingly teach that the letter of the venerable Ibas too, which the Synod approved, was unworthily condemned for the praise of Theodore;