Rufinus, The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus, in Reply to Jerome's Letter to Pammachius

2. Nevertheless, a necessity, as it were, is laid upon me to reply, as a simple matter of justice: I mean, because many, as I hear, are likely to be u

3. But, before I begin to clear up these points, there is one in which I confess that he has spoken the truth in an eminent degree namely, when he sa

4. At the very beginning of his work he says, “As if they could not be heretics by themselves, without me.” I must first show that, whether with him o

5. Moreover, to give a fuller demonstration of this point, I will add one thing more. It is the compulsion of those who calumniate me which forces me

6. Behold the discovery of this man of the new learning! a thing which escaped the notice of the Apostles when they delivered the faith to the Church

7. Since then, in reference to our hope of the resurrection, Christ is set forth all through as the archetype, since he is the first born of those who

8. But suffer it to be so, I beg you, as you are lovers of Christ, that the body is to be in incorruption and without these conditions when it rises f

9. I have made answer more at length than I had intended on this single article of the resurrection, through fear lest by brevity I should lay myself

10. But in this, he says, I convict you, that you have translated the work of Origen, in which he says that there is to be a restitution of all things

11. Some time ago, Macarius, a man of distinction from his faith, his learning, his noble birth and his personal life, had in hand a work against fata

12. But I wrote a Preface to each of these works, and in both, but especially in the Preface to the work of Pamphilus, which was translated first, I s

13. In the Preface to the Apology of Pamphilus, after a few other remarks, I said:

14. I wrote these words beforehand as a statement of my faith, when as yet none of these calumniators had arisen, so that it should be in no man’s pow

15. But let me add what comes after. My Preface continued as follows:

16. I should have thought that this statement, I mean the words, ‘I have expressed nothing in my own words I have only restored to Origen what was re

17. But I have said that these men would have been unable to find grounds for accusation on the points I have mentioned, however they may take them, u

18. This is the chief passage which those who were sent from the East to lay snares for me tried to brand as heretical, not only by perversely misunde

19. But what did they actually do? Consider what it was and ask yourself whether the crime is not unexampled? Recall the passage which says: “But perh

20. I remember indeed that one of these people, when he was convicted of having falsified this passage, answered me that it was so in the Greek, but t

21. I am sure that he would have felt that he had enjoyed a triumph if he could have shown that through his representations I had been induced to corr

22. But now I will turn the tables and put my accuser to the question. Tell me, O great master, if there is anything to blame in a writer, is the blam

23. But let us come to these two Commentaries which he alone excepts from the general condemnation and renunciation which he pronounces upon all the r

24. How, I ask, can you, seeing that your Commentaries contain such doctrines, put them forward to prove your soundness in the faith, and to confute t

25. But now let us go on to discuss what he writes further as to God’s judgment, for this too is a matter of the faith. We shall find that as he alter

26. So far he has set forth a single exposition of the passage but on whose authority he wishes us to receive this interpretation he has not made cle

27. Such are the doctrines which are to be found in these works of yours which you single out from all that you have written, and which you desire men

28. But it is possible that this particular passage may have escaped his observation, although he thought that he had revised these books so as to mak

29. What can be more distinct than this statement? What could possibly be thought or said whether by Origen or by any of those whom you say that you c

30. But let us proceed in our study of these Commentaries otherwise, in dwelling too long upon a few special points, we may be prevented from taking

31. But let this pass, for what follows is of more importance. I thank God that he has relieved me from a very serious burden of suspicion. Perhaps I

30 (a). But, I undertook to shew something of more importance still in what follows. After he had said that we had hoped in Christ before, and that in

31 (a). But let us spare him now. We must bend to our examination of the books for, to use an expression of his own, a great work leaves no time for

32. In this passage all room for doubt is removed. In the former passage you said that those who before hoped in Christ are those who, before they wer

33. These are the things which we learn from the Commentaries to which you direct us. These are the rules for the confusion of our faith which you tea

34. It is indeed a thing so unheard of to believe that a man can pronounce condemnation on the fabric which he himself has reared, that I doubt not it

35. But I beg you to listen patiently as I follow him in his continual recurrence to these same doctrines—not indeed in all that he says of them, for

36. I will address the Master in one of his own phrases. Why, after nearly four hundred years, do you give such teachings as these to the Latin people

38. Now, as to the expression which he uses, “Some persons say,” I think it has been made clear by what I have previously said, that, when he says “so

39. You observe how much difference he makes between the souls of men and the angels. Merely the difference between the one sheep and the others, betw

40. There are one or two more things on which he wishes condemnation to be passed. One is this: that these men say that the body is a prison, and like

41. You see how he represents these opinions as things which are held as a kind of esoteric mystery by certain persons, of whom, however, he is one, a

42. I have given you one instance in which he has expressed his own opinion without any ambiguity on the universal resurrection. I will give one more,

43. These things which you have said are read by all who know Latin, and you yourself request them to read them: such sayings, I mean as these: that a

44. You do all this, you know well enough, laughing at us in your sleeve: and you profess penitence merely to deceive those to whom you write. Even if

Book II

Book II.

In the first book of my Apology I have dealt with the accusations of dogmatic error which he endeavours unjustly to fix upon others, and have, by prod

2. Let us see what my adversary himself says on this point in those Commentaries which he has selected. In the second book, in commenting on the words

3. He has endeavoured, indeed, to brand us with the stain of this false teaching by speaking to some of our brethren, and he repeats this by various l

4. But I should like, now that I have satisfied you on my own account, and supported my opinion by an anathema, to make this plain to you further, tha

5. When he was living at Rome he wrote a treatise on the preservation of virginity, which all the pagans and enemies of God, all apostates and persecu

6. For I will now return, after a sort of digression, to the point I had proposed, and for the sake of which it was necessary to mention this treatise

7. You observe how new and terrible a form of oath this is which he describes. The Lord Jesus Christ sits on the tribunal as judge, the angels are ass

8. Take the treatise which he entitles “On the best mode of translating,” though there is nothing in it except the addition of the title which is of t

9. When he wrote his treatises against Jovinian, and some one had raised objections to them, he was informed of these objections by Domnio, that old m

10. You chose a bad introducer. If you will take my counsel, both you and I will by preference turn to him who introduces us to the Father and who sai

8 (2). We will pass on to clear up another of the charges, if only he will confess under the stress of his own consciousness of wrong that he has been

9 (2). But now let us look at the other points which he blames. He says that the doctrines in question are of heathen origin, but in this judgment he

10 (2). I would not, therefore, have you distress yourself overmuch about these points, nor expose yourself needlessly either to penance or to condemn

11. If, then, you really intend to do an act of repentance for those evil speeches of yours, if you are not merely mocking us by saying this, and if y

12. I think very little, indeed, of one reproach which he levels against me, and think it hardly worthy of a reply that, namely, in which, in recount

13. But why should I prolong this discussion? I shall take no notice of his reproaches and railings I shall make no answer to his violent attacks, th

14. Take, again, the Preface to the Song of Songs:

15. Also in the Preface of his Commentary on Micah, which was written to Paula and Eustochium, he says, after some few remarks:

16. Again, in the Preface to his book on the meaning of Hebrew names, he says, some way down:

17. Once more, in his letter to Marcella he says:

18. Lastly, take the following from another letter to Marcella:

19. But perhaps you will say to me: “Why do you fill your paper with this superfluous matter? Does even my friend say that it is a crime to name Orige

20. Well then he says, “Give me an instance in which I have so praised him as to defend his system of belief.” You have no right to ask this, I reply

21. Now suppose that while you were writing this, as you tell us you did, quickly not cautiously, by the poor glimmering light of a lantern, some Prop

22. In the Preface to his book on Hebrew Questions, after many other remarks, he says:

23. You see by this what his opinions are about Origen and also about Ambrose. If he should deny that his strictures apply to Ambrose, which every one

24. The Preface is that for the treatise of Didymus on the Holy Spirit. It is addressed to Paulinianus, and is as follows.

25. You observe how he treats Ambrose. First, he calls him a crow and says that he is black all over then he calls him a jackdaw who decks himself in

26. There is also an astonishing action of his in relation to Melania, which I must not pass by in silence because of the shame which those who hear i

27. But there is danger of expanding my treatise too far and becoming burdensome to the reader it is sufficient that in the passages I have cited he

27 a. I ask whether you can produce anything which I have written, by which you may convict me of having fallen into heresy even in my youth,—anything

28. I repeat that there are no writings of mine in which there is any error to be corrected. There are many of yours which, as I have shewn, according

29. But I must deal with you once more by quoting your own words. You say of me in that invective of yours that I have by my translation shewn that Or

30. It seems needless to make any answer to that part of his indictment in which he says that the works of the Martyr Pamphilus, expressed as they are

31. But I must come to that head of his inculpation of me which is most injurious and full of ill-will nay, not of ill-will only but of malice. He sa

32. Perhaps it was a greater piece of audacity to alter the books of the divine Scriptures which had been delivered to the Churches of Christ by the A

33. There has been from the first in the churches of God, and especially in that of Jerusalem, a plentiful supply of men who being born Jews have beco

34. But let us grant that the Apostle Peter was unable to do what our friend has lately done. Was Paul illiterate? we ask He who was a Hebrew of the

35. What wonder is there then that he should tear me to pieces, being as I am of no account or that he should wound Ambrose, or find fault with Hilar

36. But Origen also, you will tell us, in composing his work called the Hexapla, adopted the asterisks, taking them from the translation of Theodotion

37. This action is yours, my brother, yours alone. It is clear that no one in the church has been your companion or confederate in it, but only that B

38. But you will say, It was impossible for me to reply otherwise than I did. The letter which I received was such that, if I had not replied and retr

39. If your reply to him had been couched in terms like these, would you not have ministered grace and edification both to him, since he has been init

40. I explained the reasons which induced me to make the translation so that it should be seen that I acted, not in the spirit of contention and rival

41. However, let him act in these matters as he himself thinks lawful or expedient. Let me recapitulate in the end of this book what I have said in a

42. I then took up one by one the points in which he had blamed Origen, with the intention of striking at me and discrediting my work of translation.

43. Moreover, I pointed out clearly that it is habitual to him to disparage all good men, and that, if he can find something to blame in one man after

44. It remains that every reader of this book should give his suffrage for one or the other of us, judging as he desires that he may himself be judged

45. After this Apology had been written, one of the brethren who came to us from you at Rome and helped me in revising it, observed that one point in

46. I suppose it is not to be wondered at that I am always blamed for the points in which I have praised him. It is quite right, no doubt. But to come

47. As regards the resurrection of the flesh, I think that my translation contains the same doctrines which are preached in the churches. As to the ot

The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus,…