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Haereticarum fabularum compendium

OF THE BLESSED THEODORET, BISHOP OF CYRRHUS, A COMPENDIUM OF HERETICAL

FABLES.

To the most magnificent and most glorious master, and Christ-loving son, Sporacius, Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus in Augustoeuphratesia, greetings in the Lord. Praiseworthy indeed is the purpose of your magnificence. For you desire to learn of the paths newly cut by certain men on either side of the 83.337 straight road, whose end is the abyss of destruction. But you have received this desire, not so that you might listen to fables most wickedly devised and emitting a foul smell, but so that you may teach the ignorant which is the royal highway, adorned with the apostolic and prophetic footsteps, and having as its end the kingdom of heaven, and what are the paths of the heretics, which bring final ruin upon those who travel on them. The purpose, therefore, as I have said, is both excellent and admirable. But your God-loving soul must know that most of the ancient heresies have been extinguished through divine grace, and have become, to speak prophetically, "like the grass on the housetops, which withers before it is plucked up." And perhaps someone might rebuke us for bringing again into the light of memory those things which had been delivered to the darkness of oblivion. And in addition to this, the nonsense of the fables is great, and the magnitude of the blasphemy dared against God is ineffable for tongues trained in piety; and as for the lewdness legislated and practiced by them, not even one of those brought up on the stage would endure either to describe it, or to hear others speak of it; so much does it surpass even the notorious practitioners of licentiousness. But since the abomination of these all-defiled doctrines, when exposed, reveals as more disgusting both those who impiously begot them and those who foolishly believed them, I will eagerly undertake the labor, looking to the benefit. I will try, as much as is possible, to condense the babble of the fables, to omit the greatest of the blasphemies, and to leap over the filth of the most licentious and defiled orgies. We have divided the composition, so to speak with God's help, into five books. And the first will receive the account of those fables, whose fathers invented a different creator, and having denied the one principle of all things, they supposed other principles that do not exist, and they said that the Lord appeared among men in appearance only. Of these doctrines, the first inventor was Simon Magus the Samaritan, and the last was Manes the sorcerer the Persian. The second will show those who have believed the opposite of these things; who confessed that there is one principle of all things, but called the Lord a mere man. Of this heresy, Ebion was the originator, and it received various conceits down to Marcellus and Photinus. The third will point out those who have sprung up between these and those, who became the fathers of various doctrines. And in the fourth we shall show the more recent heresies, I mean that of Arius, and Eunomius, and all those that grew up after them, up to this last one, which the Master has suddenly torn out by the roots. In these four books, therefore, we shall expose the manifold error of the heresies. But in order that we may also cleanse the tongues of those who will read, and 83.340 the ears of those who will hear, and of the pestilential

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Haereticarum fabularum compendium

ΤΟΥ ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΥ ΘΕΟ∆ΩΡΗΤΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΚΥΡΟΥ ΑΙΡΕΤΙΚΗΣ

ΚΑΚΟΜΥΘΙΑΣ ΕΠΙΤΟΜΗ.

Τῷ δεσπότῃ τῷ μεγαλοπρεπεστάτῳ καὶ ἐνδοξο τάτῳ, καὶ φιλοχρίστῳ υἱῷ, Σπορακίῳ, Θεοδώ ρητος ἐπίσκοπος Κύρου τῆς Αὐγουστοευφρα τησίας, ἐν Κυρίῳ χαίρειν. Ἀξιέπαινος μὲν ὁ τῆς ὑμετέρας μεγαλοπρεπείας σκοπός. Ποθεῖτε γὰρ μαθεῖν τὰς ἑκατέρωθεν τῆς 83.337 ὁδοῦ τῆς εὐθείας καινοτομηθείσας παρά τινων ἀτρα ποὺς, ὧν τὸ τέλος τῆς ἀπωλείας τὸ βάραθρον. Τὸν δὲ πόθον εἰσεδέξασθε τοῦτον, οὐχ ἵνα κάκιστα διαπλα σθέντων καὶ δυσοδμίαν ἀφιέντων ἐπακούσητε μύθων, ἀλλ' ὅπως τοὺς ἀγνοοῦντας διδάξητε, ποία μὲν ἡ βασίλειος λεωφόρος, ἡ τοῖς ἀποστολικοῖς καὶ προφη τικοῖς ἴχνεσι κοσμουμένη, καὶ τέλος ἔχουσα τῶν οὐρανῶν τὴν βασιλείαν, τίνες δὲ τῶν αἱρετικῶν αἱ τρίβοι, αἱ τὸν ἔσχατον ὄλεθρον τοῖς ἐν αὐταῖς ὁδοι ποροῦσιν ἐπάγουσαι. Ὁ μὲν οὖν σκοπὸς, ὡς ἔφην, ἄριστός τε καὶ ἀξιάγαστος. Εἰδέναι δὲ χρὴ τὴν φιλόθεον ὑμῶν ψυχὴν, ὡς τῶν παλαιῶν αἱρέσεων αἱ πλείους διὰ τὴν θείαν χάριν ἀπέσβησαν, καὶ ἐγένοντο, προφητικῶς εἰπεῖν, "ὡσεὶ χόρτος δω μάτων, ὃς πρὸ τοῦ ἐξανθῆσαι ἐξηράνθη." Καὶ ἴσως ἄν τις ἡμῖν ἐπισκήψαι, τὰς τῷ ζόφῳ τῆς λήθης παραδοθείσας πάλιν εἰς τὸ τῆς μνήμης ἐξάγουσι φῶς. Πρὸς δὲ τούτῳ, καὶ πολὺς τῶν μύθων ὁ λῆρος, καὶ τῆς κατὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τολμηθείσης βλασφημίας τὸ μέ γεθος ἄῤῥητον γλώσσαις εὐσεβεῖν παιδευθείσαις· τὴν δὲ καὶ νενομοθετημένην παρ' αὐτῶν καὶ πρατ τομένην λαγνείαν, οὐδὲ τῶν ἐν σκηνῇ τις τεθραμμέ νων ἀνάσχοιτ' ἂν ἢ φράσαι, ἢ λεγόντων ἄλλων ἀκοῦ σαι· τοσοῦτον ἀπολείπει καὶ τοὺς ἐπισήμους τῆς ἀσελγείας ἐργάτας. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τῶν παμμιάρων τούτων δογμάτων τὸ μύσος γυμνούμενον βδελυ ρωτέρους ἀποφαίνει καὶ τοὺς δυσσεβῶς γεγεννηκό τας, καὶ τοὺς ἀνοήτως πεπιστευκότας, ἀναδέξομαι προθύμως τὸν πόνον, ἀφορῶν εἰς τὸ κέρδος. Πειρά σομαι δὲ ὡς ἔνι μάλιστα συντεμεῖν μὲν τὸν τῶν μύ θων ὕθλον, τῶν δὲ βλασφημιῶν τὰς μεγίστας παρα λιπεῖν, καὶ τῶν ἀσελγεστάτων καὶ μιαρωτάτων ὀργίων ὑπερπηδῆσαι τὸ μύσος. Εἰς πέντε δὲ βιβλία διελοῦμεν σὺν Θεῷ φάναι τὴν συγγραφήν. Καὶ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον, τῶν μύθων ἐκείνων τὴν διήγησιν δέξε ται, ὧν οἱ πατέρες δημιουργὸν μὲν ἀνέπλασαν ἕτε ρον, τὴν δὲ μίαν τῶν ὅλων ἀρνηθέντες ἀρχὴν, ἀρχὰς ἑτέρας οὐκ οὔσας ὑπέθεντο, δοκήσει δὲ φανῆναι τὸν Κύριον εἰς ἀνθρώπους ἔφασαν. Τούτων δὲ τῶν δογμά των πρῶτος μὲν εὑρετὴς Σίμων ὁ μάγος ὁ Σαμαρεί της, ἔσχατος δὲ Μάνης ὁ γόης ὁ Πέρσης. Τὸ δὲ δεύτερον, τοὺς τἀναντία τούτοις ἐπιδείξει τεθρησκευ κότας· οἳ μίαν μὲν ἀρχὴν εἶναι τῶν ὅλων συνωμολό γησαν, ψιλὸν δὲ ἄνθρωπον τὸν Κύριον προσηγόρευ σαν. Ταύτης δὲ τῆς αἱρέσεως ἦρξε μὲν Ἐβίων, μέχρι δὲ Μαρκέλλου καὶ Φωτεινοῦ τὰς διαφόρους ἐπινοίας ἐδέξατο. Τὸ δὲ τρίτον τοὺς μεταξὺ τούτων κἀκείνων δηλώσει βεβλαστηκότας, οἳ διαφόρων δογμάτων πα τέρες ἐγένοντο. Ἐν δὲ τῷ τετάρτῳ τὰς νεωτέρας ἐπιδείξομεν αἱρέσεις, τὴν Ἀρείου φημὶ, καὶ Εὐνο μίου, καὶ ὅσαι μετ' ἐκείνας ἐφύησαν, μέχρι ταύτης τῆς ἐσχάτης, ἣν ἀθρόον ὁ ∆εσπότης ἀνέσπασε πρόῤ ῥιζον. Ἐν μὲν οὖν τοῖσδε τοῖς τέτταρσι βιβλίοις, τὴν πολυσχεδῆ τῶν αἱρέσεων γυμνώσομεν πλάνην. Ἵνα δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀναγνωσομένων τὰς γλώττας, καὶ 83.340 τῶν ἀκουσομένων τὰς ἀκοὰς ἀποτρίψωμεν, καὶ τῆς λοιμώδους