Contra Julianum Of the blessed Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, an address to

 a fine thing for those who will encounter it, and for those who have a heart easily led astray and most readily carried away to things that are not fi

 1.1 Book One The wise and discerning, and those knowledgeable in the sacred doctrines, marvel at the beauty of the truth, and in every discourse have

 those after them would know the things of the first, and not rather those before them the things of the later Therefore, since the sons of the Hellen

 it was necessary to hide in the city of the Sun in Sippar. And Xisuthros, having accomplished these things, immediately sailed to Armenia, and straigh

 he made human affairs a preliminary exercise for more divine ones. Having brought the times down from Abraham to Moses, let us therefore begin here ag

 Azariah, also called Uzziah, governing the affairs of the Hebrews, and Arbaces of the Medes, and Proca Silvius of the Latins. 1.14 Therefore, from the

 coming together into a harmony of sound, Osirapis, so that in the same name Osiris and Apis might be understood. For both of these a death and a buria

 brought to them from Phoenicia, except that the things of Moses had been written And Solon, the discoverer of the laws in Athens, and indeed Plato hi

 stars and the elements of the world, fire and water, air and earth, from which all individual things are said to be composed but others again, having

 a time for the increase of what he had rightly learned sharpened his mind, then indeed, then he was taught the doctrines concerning the divinity more

 but the divine Abraham running up did not speak as to three: Lords, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant, but named the

 Upon the Sodomites who had sinned unbearably he sent the fire he rained, it says, upon Sodom fire and brimstone, the Lord from the Lord. 1.29 But to

 of nature and preeminence and worth would be reckoned both creator and creation, generated and ungenerated nature, incorruptible and under corruption,

 we are accustomed to grant the proper place, far from it but we also reckon ourselves among the children of Abraham. For we are the sons according to

 full of various counsels, and likewise that Leto suggests forgetfulness, and Hermes both memory and reason. Then he takes up natural philosophy and ex

 to them, and are some torn apart so as to think and say different things? But I would say, O excellent one, that those who were the first and earliest

 is, being a mixture of all the ages, and light of his own powers and works, the beginning of all things, a luminary in heaven, and father of all, mind

 Indeed, the sun which seems all-shining does not even seem to allow one to see himself, but if anyone gazes upon him shamelessly, he takes away his si

 what has been said by them concerning the Holy Spirit. For Porphyry says, setting forth the opinion of Plato, that the divine substance proceeded as f

 that not a few of the wise men among the Greeks, being self-willed, have gone astray, and have held opinions that rise up against each other, but ther

 found saying, setting this forth both in the middle and at the end, he would show that the arguments of his refutation were not, I suppose, produced i

 they set up their plot for the souls of the more simple. For they deceived those throughout all the earth, saying that the heaven and the other elemen

 having contrasted them with the Greeks' as being superior, how does he demand that we be silent, and make no mention at all of the things among them,

 Then do you think you have deliberated well, and not rather that you will suffer the very worst of all evil reputation? But if he should wish to under

 they reject certain foods, but they fear none of the strange things. And in addition to this they delight the supreme Zeus, having chosen to honor his

 belching forth according to what seems right to each, how could they not be thought to be guessers rather than men of knowledge of the truth? For some

 Of Plato. Consider, then, what he says about the creator and what words he puts in his mouth in the cosmogony, so that we may compare the cosmogony of

 distributed to all upon the earth, Moses was a helper and was shown to be an introducer of the most beautiful teachings to all, first by having cried

 it is not easy even for those who have known him to say he is capable in all things. And again, elsewhere: To this common conception of all men there

 the earth, and Apollo the sun and the golden-spindled, resounding one, that is Artemis, the moon? And simply applying to each of the things made by Go

 The supreme nature is understood and exists beyond all, beyond mind, reason, and wonder, having willed to make the living being like itself, as far as

 I will place upon you who are under me this commandment given to you through my Word for this law you have. For as I said just now, the Creator estab

 proclaimed, and thinks it a small thing to have been given by God to human nature to be made by Him in His image and likeness. And yet how would not a

 Did the Creator of all things entrust to other gods the necessity of laboring over the creation of the three kinds? From indolence, then, they might s

 it will campaign against His glory to think that others are also able to create and to call into existence the things that once were not for it is no

 of all nature. If, then, two things are acknowledged as existing, that which comes into being and that which makes, they are one by union, the one pre

 weave mortal to it? It is clear, then, that the demiurgic gods, having received creative power from their own father, generated the mortal animals upo

 of the ruling substances, and so he says: For Empedocles, Strife divides, and Friendship unites and this is also incorporeal for him, but the element

 of others, whatever things may have been made, and reaching even to the most insignificant of them. Is this not then a joke, tell me, and babbling hen

 if each one should need it, and showing that such a great and immeasurable creation is not without a superintendent, through which things it is well-o

 of God, and the earth his footstool. Rightly so, o noble one for I will recall God himself saying through one of the holy prophets. Heaven is my thro

of others, whatever things may have been made, and reaching even to the most insignificant of them. Is this not then a joke, tell me, and babbling henceforth, departing from what is reasonable and from true concepts; then how would it not be clear to everyone? That he delights in unsound and strange opinions along with his own teachers would certainly be clear; for while insisting that heaven is God, he says again as follows: 2.50 {JULIAN} What need have I to call Greeks and Hebrews here as witnesses? There is no one who does not raise his hands to heaven when praying, swearing by God or gods, and in short, when forming a concept of the divine, is carried thither. And they have experienced this not without reason; for seeing that nothing in heaven is diminished, nor increased, nor changed, nor undergoing any disorderly passion, but its movement is harmonious, its order rhythmic, the laws of the moon are fixed, and the risings and settings of the sun are fixed, always at fixed times, they reasonably supposed it to be God and God's throne. For such a thing, being multiplied by no addition, nor diminished by subtraction, and standing outside of change according to alteration and turning, is pure of all corruption and generation. And being by nature immortal and indestructible, it is pure of every stain; and being eternal and unmoved, as we see, it is either carried in a circle around the great Creator by a better and more divine soul dwelling in it, or having received its motion from God himself (just as, I think, our bodies are moved by the soul in us), it revolves in an infinite circle with unceasing and eternal motion. 2.51 {CYRIL} That his words are therefore those of a madman, and of one utterly deprived of true concepts, is not unclear. But since he has somehow supposed that raising the hands and indeed the eyes on high by those intending to pray would suffice for him as proof that heaven is God, come, let us speak to him on this point. Tell me, then, if it should seem good to someone to gaze upon the clouds, and he himself should send the eye of his body upward and upon them, would this matter be sufficient to convince him that he must confess them also as goddesses? Then how would he not be deserving of ridicule, who is so carried away into deceit by frigid concepts? But since, he says, because of what heaven is by nature, it has reasonably been marveled at and supposed by the many to be both God and God's throne, let him come forward and teach whether he has considered it to be the same thing and places both in equal measure; but I would never think that he would reach such a point of madness as to suppose that being God and being His throne differ in no way. For that things concerning God would not reasonably be conceived in the same way as in our perception, nor indeed as in the case of bodies, even if it might be said less than it ought, one would least of all doubt. Therefore if it were called God's throne, it would signify the kingdom under him, just as indeed it is also true to say in our case that so-and-so's throne is splendid and pre-eminent, that is, his rule and his kingdom. 2.52 Then how could the ruled share equally with the ruler, the ruling power with the meanness of the ruled, the superior with the subjected, the disadvantaged with the advantaged? How then, and in what way, does he say heaven is either God or God's throne? But Yes, he says, for it makes its motion well-ordered and harmonious and rhythmic, and the sun and moon are accustomed to make fixed illuminations, and the risings and settings and revolutions and courses of the stars and their motions from place to place are the same and unvarying and at all times. Then how was not the divine Paul very wise, as from such things pointing out the leader, and from the good order in creation its president, the one who legislates for the things made by him in a manner befitting God how

ἄλλων, ὅσαπερ ἂν εἶεν τὰ πεποιημένα καὶ μέχρις αὐτῶν καθικνούμενα τῶν ἄγαν εὐτελεστάτων. Ἆρ' οὖν οὐ γέλως, εἰπέ μοι, ταυτί, καὶ τερθρεία λοιπὸν ἀποφέρουσα τοῦ εἰκότος καὶ τῶν εἰς ἀλήθειαν ἐννοιῶν· εἶτα πῶς οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο παντί τῳ σαφές; Ὅτι δὲ σαθραῖς καὶ ἀλλοκότοις ἐφήδεται δόξαις ὁμοῦ τοῖς ἰδίοις καθηγηταῖς, δῆλος ἂν εἴη δήπουθεν· Θεὸν γὰρ εἶναι διϊσχυριζόμενος τὸν οὐρανόν, πάλιν ὦδέ φησι· 2.50 {ΙΟΥΛΙΑΝΟΣ} Τί δεῖ μοι καλεῖν Ἕλληνας καὶ Ἑβραίους ἐνταῦθα μάρτυρας; Οὐδείς ἐστιν ὃς οὐκ ἀνατείνει μὲν εἰς οὐρανὸν τὰς χεῖρας εὐχόμενος, ὀμνύων Θεὸν ἤτοι θεούς, ἔννοιαν δ' ὅλως τοῦ θείου λαμβάνων ἐκεῖσε φέρεται. Καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἀπεικότως ἔπαθον· ὁρῶντες γὰρ οὔτε ἐλαττούμενόν τι τῶν περὶ τὸν οὐρανόν, οὔτε αὐξόμενον οὔτε τρεπόμενον οὔτε πάθος ὑπομένον τι τῶν ἀτάκτων, ἀλλ' ἐναρμόνιον μὲν αὐτοῦ τὴν κίνησιν, ἐμμελῆ δὲ τὴν τάξιν, ὡρισμένους δὲ θεσμοὺς σελήνης, ἡλίου δὲ ἀνατολὰς καὶ δύσεις ὡρισμένας, ἐν ὡρισμένοις ἀεὶ καιροῖς, εἰκότως Θεὸν καὶ Θεοῦ θρόνον ὑπέλαβον. Τὸ γὰρ τοιοῦτον, ἅτε μηδεμιᾷ προσθήκῃ πληθυνόμενον, μηδὲ ἐλαττούμενον ἀφαιρέσει, τῆς τε κατὰ ἀλλοίωσιν καὶ τροπὴν ἐκτὸς ἱστάμενον μεταβολῆς, πάσης καθαρεύει φθορᾶς καὶ γενέσεως. Ἀθάνατον δὲ ὂν φύσει καὶ ἀνώλεθρον, παντοίας ἐστὶ καθαρὸν κηλίδος· ἀΐδιον δὲ ὂν καὶ ἀκίνητον, ὡς ὁρῶμεν, ἤτοι παρὰ ψυχῆς κρείττονος καὶ θειοτέρας ἐνοικούσης αὐτῷ φέρεται κύκλῳ περὶ τὸν μέγαν ∆ημιουργόν, ἢ πρὸς αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν κίνησιν (ὥσπερ, οἶμαι, τὰ ἡμέτερα σώματα παρὰ τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν ψυχῆς), παραδεξάμενον τὸν ἄπειρον ἐξελίττει κύκλον ἀπαύστῳ καὶ αἰωνίῳ φορᾷ. 2.51 {ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΣ} Ὅτι μὲν οὖν παραπαίοντος οἱ λόγοι, καὶ τῶν εἰς ἀλήθειαν ἐννοιῶν ὁλοτρόπως ἠμοιρηκότος, οὐκ ἀσυμφανές. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἀποχρήσειν αὐτῷ πρὸς ἀπόδειξιν οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως ὑπείληφε τοῦ Θεὸν εἶναι τὸν οὐρανὸν τὸ τὰς χεῖρας αἴρειν ὑψοῦ καὶ μέντοι τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τοὺς εὔχεσθαι διανοουμένους, φέρε πρὸς τοῦτο λέγωμεν αὐτῷ. Ἆρ' οὖν, εἰπέ μοι, κἂν εἴ τῳ νεφέλας καταθρῆσαι δοκοίη, πέμποι δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἄνω καὶ ἐπ' αὐταῖς τὸν τοῦ σώματος ὀφθαλμόν, ἀρκέσειεν ἂν εἰς πληροφορίαν τὸ χρῆμα αὐτῷ τοῦ χρῆναι θεὰς καὶ αὐτὰς ὁμολογεῖν; Εἶτα πῶς οὐκ ἂν εἴη γελᾶσθαι πρέπων ὁ ψυχραῖς οὕτως ἐννοίαις εἰς ἀπάτην συνηρπασμένος; Ἐπειδὴ δέ, φησίν, ἐξ ὧν εἶναι πέφυκεν ὁ οὐρανὸς εἰκότως τεθαύμασται καὶ ὑπείληπται παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς καὶ Θεὸς ὑπάρχειν καὶ Θεοῦ θρόνος, διδασκέτω παρελθὼν εἰ ταὐτὸν εἶναι νενόμικε καὶ ἐν ἴσῳ τίθησι μέτρῳ τὰ ἐπ' ἀμφοῖν· ἀλλ' οὐκ ἂν οἰηθείην πώποτε πρὸς τοῦτο αὐτὸν ἀποπληξίας ἐλθεῖν ὡς κατ' οὐδένα τρόπον διαφέρειν οἴεσθαι τὸ εἶναι Θεὸν καὶ θρόνον αὐτοῦ. Ὅτι μὲν γὰρ οὐχ ὡς ἐν αἰσθήσει τῇ καθ' ἡμᾶς οὔτε μὴν ὡς ἐπὶ σωμάτων νοοῖτ' ἂν εἰκότως τὰ περὶ Θεοῦ, κἂν εἰ λέγοιτο τυχὸν ἧττον ἢ χρῆν, ἐνδοιάσαι τις ἂν ἥκιστά γε. Θρόνος οὖν εἰ λέγοιτο Θεοῦ, τὴν ὑπ' αὐτῷ βασιλείαν κατασημήνειεν ἄν, καθάπερ ἀμέλει καὶ ἐφ' ἡμῶν ἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν ὡς εἴη τοῦ δεῖνος λαμπρὸς καὶ ὑπερφερὴς ὁ θρόνος, τουτέστιν ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ ἡ βασιλεία. 2.52 Εἶτα πῶς ἰσομοιρήσειεν ἂν τῷ κρατοῦντι τὸ κρατούμενον, τῇ τῶν κρατουμένων μικροπρεπείᾳ τὸ ἄρχον αὐτῶν, τοῖς ὑπεζευγμένοις τὸ ὑπερτεροῦν, τῷ πλεονεκτοῦντι τὸ μειονεκτούμενον; Πῶς οὖν ἄρα καὶ τίνα τρόπον ἢ Θεὸν εἶναί φησιν ἢ Θεοῦ θρόνον τὸν οὐρανόν; Ἀλλὰ Ναί, φησίν, εὔτακτον γὰρ καὶ ἐναρμόνιον καὶ ἐμμελῆ ποιεῖται τὴν κίνησιν, ὡρισμένους δὲ φωτισμοὺς ἥλιός τε καὶ σελήνη ποιεῖσθαι πεφύκασιν, ἄστρων τε ἀνατολαὶ καὶ δύσεις καὶ περιφοραὶ καὶ δρόμοι καὶ αἱ κατὰ τόπους κινήσεις αἱ αὐταὶ καὶ ἀπαραλλάκτως καὶ ἐν καιρῷ παντί. Εἶτα πῶς οὐ πάνυ σοφὸς ἦν ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος, ὡς ἀπό γε τῶν τοιούτων τὸν ἡγεμόνα καταδεικνύς, καὶ τῆς εὐταξίας τῇ κτίσει τὸν πρύτανιν, τὸν τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γεγονόσι θεσμοθετοῦντα θεοπρεπῶς τὸ ὅπως