7

rather than being characterized by the withdrawal of the body. In which respect David the great was at once most practical and most solitary; if to anyone the words, *I am alone, until I pass over*, are a great and credible proof of the argument. For this reason, though they surpassed others in virtue, they were more overcome by his intellect than they surpassed others; and though contributing little towards the perfection of the priesthood, they received more towards the consummation of philosophy; and this was a law for them, whatever seemed good to him; and this again was sworn against, what did not seem good to him, and his doctrines were to them the tablets of Moses, and their reverence was greater than that which is owed by men to saints. Who, when some men arrived, tracking the holy man like a wild beast, since they searched for him everywhere and did not find him, they considered those who had been sent worthy of no account; but they stretched out their necks to the swords, as if facing danger for Christ, and considering that to suffer any of the incurable things for his sake was the greatest share in philosophy, and much more inspired and sublime than the long fastings, and sleeping on the ground, and the other hardship, in which they always delight. 35.1105

XXI. He, then, was engaged in these things, and he praised the saying of Solomon, who philosophized that there is a time for everything. And for this reason he hid himself for a little while, so as to escape the time of war, that he might appear together with the coming of peace; which indeed happened a little later. But the other, since there was now a great lack of anyone to hinder him, overruns Egypt, and ravages Syria with the power of his impiety; and he takes possession of the East as much as he was able, always adding what was sickly, just as torrents add what flows into them, and attaching himself to the more fickle or more cowardly. He makes the emperor’s simplicity his own; for so I call his frivolity, out of respect for his piety. For he was, if the truth must be told, one having zeal, but not according to knowledge. He buys off those in authority who were lovers of gold rather than lovers of Christ (for the property of the poor, badly spent, was a source of wealth for him), and especially among these, the effeminate and unmanly among men, and of doubtful birth, but manifest in their impiety; to whom I know not how or whence the Roman emperors, trusting them with the affairs of women, entrust the affairs of men. And these things the servant of the evil one, the sower of tares, the forerunner of the Antichrist, accomplished; using as a tongue, so to speak, the first among the then eloquent bishops (if anyone is pleased to call eloquent one who was not so much an impious dogmatist as he was an enemy and quarrelsome; for I will willingly pass over his name); while he himself, being a hand to the system, and seducing the truth with gold, which, though collected for piety, the wicked have made an instrument of impiety.

XXII. The result of this power was the synod which previously occupied Seleucia, that of the holy and beautiful virgin Thecla, and after this, this great city, which cities, formerly known for the fairest things, it has made famous for the most shameful; whether we should call that synod the tower of Chalane, which rightly divided the tongues (would that it had divided those too! for their harmony was for evil), or the council of Caiaphas, by which Christ is condemned, or some other such name we must give to that synod, which overthrew and confounded all things. For it destroyed the pious and 35.1108 ancient doctrine, the advocate of the Trinity, by casting up a rampart and shaking the Homoousion with siege-engines; and it opened a door to impiety, through the mediocrity of its written formulas; with a pretext of reverence for Scripture, and for the use of its approved terms, but in truth, introducing unwritten Arianism instead. For 'Like according to the Scriptures,' was a bait for the more simple, plated over the bronze of impiety, the image looking towards all who pass by, the buskin common to both feet, the winnowing by every wind, having received its newly-written authority.

7

μᾶλλον, ἢ τῇ τοῦ σώματος ἀναχωρήσει χαρακτηρίζεσθαι. Καθ' ὃ καὶ ∆αβὶδ ὁ μέγας πρακτικώτατός τε ἦν ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ μο νώτατος· εἴ τῳ τὸ, Καταμόνας εἰμὶ ἐγὼ, ἕως ἂν παρέλθω, μέγα πρὸς ἀπόδειξιν τοῦ λόγου καὶ ἀξιό πιστον. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο, τῶν ἄλλων ἀρετῇ κρατοῦντες, τῆς ἐκείνου διανοίας πλέον ἡττῶντο, ἢ ὅσον ἐκρά τουν τῶν ἄλλων· καὶ ὀλίγα πρὸς ἱερωσύνης τελείω σιν συνεισφέροντες, πλείω πρὸς φιλοσοφίας συντέ λειαν ἀντελάμβανον· καὶ τοῦτο ἦν νόμος αὐτοῖς, ὅ τι ἐκείνῳ ἐδόκει· καὶ τοῦτο ἀπώμοτον πάλιν, ὃ μὴ ἐδόκει, καὶ πλάκες Μωϋσέως αὐτοῖς τὰ ἐκεί νου δόγματα, καὶ πλεῖον τὸ σέβας, ἢ παρὰ ἀνθρώπων τοῖς ἁγίοις ὀφείλεται. Οἵ γε καὶ ἡνίκα παρῆσάν τινες, ὥσπερ θῆρα, τὸν ἅγιον ἀνιχνεύοντες, ἐπειδὴ πανταχοῦ τοῦτον ἀναζητοῦντες οὐχ εὕρισκον, λόγου μὲν οὐδενὸς τοὺς πεμφθέντας ἠξίωσαν· προὔ τεινον δὲ τοῖς ξίφεσι τοὺς αὐχένας, ὡς ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ κινδυνεύοντες, καὶ τὸ παθεῖν τι τῶν ἀνηκέ στων ὑπὲρ ἐκείνου μεγίστην μοῖραν εἰς φιλοσοφίαν νομίζοντες, καὶ πολὺ τῶν μακρῶν νηστειῶν, καὶ χαμευνιῶν, καὶ τῆς ἄλλης κακοπαθείας, ἣν ἐκεῖνοι τρυφῶσιν ἀεὶ, ἐνθεώτερόν τε καὶ ὑψηλότερον. 35.1105

ΚΑʹ. Ὁ μὲν οὖν ἐν τούτοις ἦν, καὶ τὸ τοῦ Σολο μῶντος ἐπῄνει, καιρὸν εἶναι παντὶ πράγματι φιλοσοφήσαντος. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀπεκρύπτετο μικρὸν, ὅσον τὸν τοῦ πολέμου καιρὸν διαφεύγων, ἵνα συναναφανῇ τῷ τῆς εἰρήνης ἥκοντι· ὅπερ οὖν καὶ γίνεται μικρὸν ὕστερον. Ὁ δὲ, κατὰ πολλὴν ἤδη τοῦ κωλύσοντος ἐρημίαν, κατατρέχει μὲν Αἴγυπτον, ληΐ ζεται δὲ Συρίαν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἀσεβείας· ἐπιλαμβάνεται δὲ καὶ τῆς ἑῴας ὅσον ἐδύνατο, τὸ ἀῤῥωστοῦν ἀεὶ προσλαμβάνων, ὥσπερ οἱ χεί μαῤῥοι τὰ συῤῥέοντα, καὶ τοῖς κουφοτέροις, ἢ δει λοτέροις ἐπιφυόμενος. Οἰκειοῦται δὲ τὴν βασιλέως ἁπλότητα· οὕτω γὰρ ἐγὼ καλῶ τὴν κουφότητα, αἰδούμενος τὴν εὐλάβειαν. Καὶ γὰρ ἦν, εἰ δεῖ τἀλη θὲς εἰπεῖν, ζῆλον μὲν ἔχων, ἀλλ' οὐ κατ' ἐπίγνωσιν. Ἐξωνεῖται δὲ τῶν ἐν τέλει τοὺς φιλοχρύσους μᾶλλον ἢ φιλοχρίστους (εὐπορία γὰρ ἦν αὐτῷ τὰ τῶν πε νήτων, κακῶς δαπανώμενα), καὶ τούτων μάλιστα τοὺς γυναικώδεις τε καὶ ἐν ἀνδράσιν ἀνάν δρους, καὶ ἀμφιβόλους μὲν τὸ γένος, προδήλους δὲ τὴν ἀσέβειαν· οἷς οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως καὶ ὅθεν οἱ Ῥω μαίων βασιλεῖς, τὰ τῶν γυναικῶν πιστευομέ νοις, τὰ τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἐγχειρίζουσι. Καὶ ταῦτα ἴσχυσεν ὁ τοῦ πονηροῦ θεράπων, ὁ τῶν ζιζανίων σπορεὺς, ὁ τοῦ Ἀντιχρίστου πρόδρομος· χρώμενος μὲν ὅσα γλώσσῃ τῶν τότε λογίων ἐν ἐπισκόποις τῷ πρώτῳ (εἴ τῳ λόγιον φίλον καλεῖν τὸν οὐχ οὕ τως ἀσεβῆ δογματιστὴν, ὅσον ἐχθρὸν καὶ φιλόνεικον· τὸ γὰρ ὄνομα ἑκὼν ὑπερβήσομαι)· αὐτὸς δὲ ἀντὶ χει ρὸς ὢν τῷ συστήματι, καὶ παρασύρων τῷ χρυσῷ τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ὃν δι' εὐσέβειαν συναγόμενον, ὄργανον ἀσεβείας οἱ πονηροὶ πεποίηνται.

ΚΒʹ. Ταύτης ἀποτέλεσμα τῆς δυναστείας, ἡ πρό τερον μὲν τὴν τῆς ἁγίας καὶ καλλιπαρθένου Θέ κλας Σελεύκειαν, μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο τὴν μεγαλό πολιν ταύτην καταλαβοῦσα σύνοδος, ἃς ἐπὶ τοῖς καλλίστοις τέως γνωριζομένας, ἐπὶ τοῖς αἰσχίστοις ὀνομαστὰς πεποίηκεν· εἴτε τὸν Χαλάνης πύργον, ὃς καλῶς τὰς γλώσσας ἐμέρισεν (ὡς ὤφελόν γε κἀκεί νας! ἐπὶ κακῷ γὰρ ἡ συμφωνία), εἴτε τὸ Καϊάφα συνέδριον, ᾧ Χριστὸς κατακρίνεται, εἴτε τι ἄλλο τοιοῦτο τὴν σύνοδον ἐκείνην ὀνομαστέον, ἣ πάντα ἀνέτρεψε καὶ συνέχεεν. Τὸ μὲν εὐσεβὲς δόγμα καὶ 35.1108 παλαιὸν, καὶ τῆς Τριάδος συνήγορον καταλύσασα, τῷ βαλεῖν χάρακα, καὶ μηχανήμασι κατασεῖσαι τὸ ὁμοούσιον· τῇ δὲ ἀσεβείᾳ θύραν ἀνοίξασα, διὰ τῆς τῶν γεγραμμένων μεσότητος· πρόφασιν μὲν αἰδοῖ τῆς Γραφῆς, καὶ τῆς τῶν ἐγκρίτων ὀνομάτων χρήσεως, τὸ δὲ ἀληθὲς, τὸν ἄγραφον Ἀρειανισμὸν ἀντεισάγουσα. Τὸ γὰρ, Ὅμοιον κατὰ τὰς Γραφὰς, τοῖς ἁπλουστέροις δέλεαρ ἦν τῷ τῆς ἀσεβείας χαλκῷ περικείμενον, ἡ πρὸς πάντας ὁρῶσα τοὺς παριόντας εἰκὼν, ὁ κοινὸς τῶν ἀμφοτέρων ποδῶν κόθορνος, ἡ κατὰ πάντα ἄνεμον λίκμησις, ἐξουσίαν λα βοῦσα τὴν νεόγραφον