Yielding to your persuasions, illustrious and devout Castorius, I have undertaken, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ and albeit with slender powers, to expound the book of the Apocalypse of blessed John, which is veiled with many mysteries; and I have done so in such a way that I was not content merely with my own findings, but wherever, though few in number, I chanced to find any testimonies expounded on this subject by holy Augustine as well, I unhesitatingly appended them; and moreover I gathered certain sound things from Tyconius, once a Donatist, which accord with a healthy sense; and from those things which had to be selected, restraining what was superfluous, cutting away what was unfitting, and arranging what was unpolished, I tempered them with catholic moderation.
For in his very work I found many things both superfluous and inept and contrary to sound doctrine, so that, concerning the dispute which is carried on between us and them, according to the depravity of his own heart he would seize upon harmful passages, and thought that our Church should be bitingly mocked by a noxious exposition. Nor is it any wonder that a heretic did a thing suited to himself; but as for whatever he was able to find worth gathering—which he indeed unjustly attempted to do—it was our care to carry through truthfully, having seized the opportunities of the passages, and to render their error void by refuting it. Now just as a precious gem in dung ought to be tended and gathered by a prudent man, and, once found, be restored to its native dignity, so wherever truth shines forth, from whatever source, it must be defended for catholic unity.
For to this alone belongs whatever truth has resounded even from outside. For faith justly gathered from the faithless what it recognized to be within its own right; nor can what is usurped be of profit to strangers, but to the sons, when it has been rendered to its true mother. But the Donatists ought not to be exalted on this account, just as, from the saying of Caiaphas, by which he said, 'It is expedient that one should die for the people' (John), the Jews ought not to glory. But neither ought it to be an offence to our own. For if any things shall prove useful for the benefit of the Church, they must be applied to our instruction, and the person of the speaker is not to be regarded, but the quality of the utterance is to be considered. Thus Moses (Exodus),
who was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, after the discourse of the divine word, in whose blessed fellowship he had long since been deemed worthy to share—he, the most meek, listened to his father-in-law Jethro, the untrained; he, the skilled, to the ignorant; he, the master of a vast multitude, to a single man; he, an Israelite, devoutly to a Gentile; and following his counsel, he soon found the profit foretold, when, the burdens of governing the people being shared among many, he was especially relieved. Thus rightly the things aptly said by ethnic authors and joined to apostolic preachings have yielded, by a better command, to our advancement—yet the Gentiles are not thereby permitted to glory. Now this work is extended into five books.
What profit the reading of these will bring to the studious will be proved better by one who has experienced it than by any promise of mine. Yet, on account of the diversity of those who form opinions, I judge that I shall be blamed in diverse ways: since some will begin to complain of the prolixity of this work, while others, weighing the depths of the book, will rather reckon that I ought to be censured for its scantiness. I think the former should be appeased with such words as these: that I should rather confess that I am to be noted for scantiness, because I was neither able competently to penetrate the fullness of the divine mysteries hidden there, nor even able to set forth in fitting language those things which could be understood.
But to the latter let me offer this by way of satisfaction: that I have maliciously withheld nothing from my lords and fellow-servants, but that I would rather ask pardon by a confession of ignorance concerning my scantiness. For even if I would not believe one who had experienced it, I would nonetheless have learned, taught by the saying of holy Jerome, who, speaking of this book, says: 'The Apocalypse of John has as many mysteries as words'; I have said too little, and every praise is inferior to the merit of the volume. In each of its words lie hidden manifold meanings. With these things interceding, both the humble confession earns pardon, and the dignity of the lofty book becomes known to believers at least, even if they do not yet understand.
For whereas elsewhere it is rare for a figurative statement to be interposed into a literal one, here, however, either it is frequently interwoven, or a denser figure is gradually generated out of another, or one and the same thing is set forth thus shadowed under various figures, so that it is not believed the same thing could have been repeated, but another—as is found also in the beginning of Ezekiel and in some of Daniel's visions, but here more abundantly. For which reason you know that I, being weak, must be the more helped by your prayers.