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De pace ii

ORATION 22.

Second Oration on Peace, delivered in the city of Constantine, on the occasion of the strife that arose among the people, concerning certain bishops who were at variance with one another.

I. O beloved Peace, a sweet thing and name, which I have now given to the people and received back; I know not whether from all a genuine voice and worthy of the Spirit, but not public compacts set at naught with God as witness, so that our condemnation is even greater. O beloved Peace, my study and my adornment, who we hear is of God, and of whom God, the God and God Himself, as in: The peace of God; and, The God of peace; and, He is our peace; and yet we are not ashamed. O beloved Peace, a good praised by all, but kept by few, where did you ever leave us, so long a time has now passed? And when will you return to us? How greatly I long for you and embrace you more than other men; and I cherish you when you are present, and call you back when you are absent with many lamentations and tears, such as neither Jacob, the patriarch, for that Joseph, who was sold by his brothers, but seized by a wild beast, as he thought; nor David for Jonathan his friend, who became a victim of war, or for his son Absalom afterwards. Of these, the one, being torn by a father's bowels, cried out, "A wild beast has seized Joseph, an evil and savage beast," and putting forth the child's blood-stained tunic, he embraced it as if it were the child's flesh, at once inflamed and comforted by it. And the other now curses the mountains, upon which the war took place. "Mountains of Gilboa," he says, "let neither rain nor dew fall upon you;" and, "How has the bow of Jonathan and his might fallen?" And now he makes excuse for the parricide, as having done no wrong, and makes a libation to the dead; perhaps grieving especially for this in his child, that he had raised a hand against his father. For such is a father; him whom he defended himself against as an enemy while he was fighting, he longs for as a friend now that he is dead; and nature, than which nothing is more powerful, conquers enmity.

II. Pitiable also is the ark held by foreigners; and Jerusalem razed and trodden down by Gentiles; and the sons of Sion, who are precious and of equal weight with gold, going into captivity, and now still scattered, and being a people foreign and sojourning in the 35.1133 world. Terrible also are the things now seen and heard; homelands being destroyed, and myriads falling, and the earth weary with blood and corpses, and a people of another tongue overrunning another's land as their own; let no one accuse this of the unmanliness of the defenders; for these are they who have subdued almost the whole world; but because of our own wickedness, and the prevailing impiety against the Trinity. These things are terrible, and beyond terrible. Who of those who know how to judge calamities by what they have suffered, or suffered with others, will deny it? But nothing is yet so great as peace being persecuted, and the comeliness of the Church stripped away, and its ancient dignity destroyed; and to such an extent has the order been reversed, that whereas we were once made a people out of no people, and a nation out of no nation, now we are in danger of being dissolved from a very great people and nation back into no people and no nation, as it was in the beginning, when you did not rule over us, nor had we come together into one name and order.

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De pace ii

ΛΟΓΟΣ ΚΒʹ.

Εἰρηνικὸς βʹ, λεχθεὶς ἐν Κωνσταντίνου πό λει, ἐπὶ τῇ γενομένῃ τῷ λαῷ φιλονεικίᾳ, περὶ ἐπισκόπων τινῶν διενεχθέντων πρὸς ἀλλήλους.

Αʹ. Εἰρήνη φίλη, τὸ γλυκὺ καὶ πρᾶγμα καὶ ὄνομα, ὃ νῦν ἔδωκα τῷ λαῷ καὶ ἀντέλαβον· οὐκ οἶδα εἰ παρὰ πάντων γνησίαν φωνὴν καὶ ἀξίαν τοῦ Πνεύμα τος, ἀλλὰ μὴ δημοσίας συνθήκας ἀθετουμένας ὑπὸ Θεῷ μάρτυρι, ὥστε καὶ μεῖζον εἶναι ἡμῖν τὸ κα τάκριμα. Εἰρήνη φίλη, τὸ ἐμὸν μελέτημα καὶ καλλ ώπισμα, ἣν Θεοῦ τε εἶναι ἀκούομεν, καὶ ἧς Θεὸν, τὸν Θεὸν καὶ αὐτόθεον, ὡς ἐν τῷ· Ἡ εἰρήνη τοῦ Θεοῦ· καὶ, Ὁ Θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης· καὶ, Αὐτός ἐστιν ἡ εἰρήνη ἡμῶν· καὶ οὐδ' οὕτως αἰδούμεθα. Εἰρήνη φίλη, τὸ παρὰ πάντων μὲν ἐπαινούμενον ἀγα θὸν, ὑπ' ὀλίγων δὲ φυλασσόμενον, ποῦ ποτε ἀπέλι πες ἡμᾶς, τοσοῦτος ἐξ οὗ χρόνος ἤδη; καὶ πότε ἐπανήξεις ἡμῖν; Ὡς λίαν σε ποθῶ καὶ ἀσπά ζομαι διαφερόντως τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων· καὶ παρ οῦσαν περιέπω, καὶ ἀποῦσαν ἀνακαλοῦμαι πολλοῖς θρήνοις καὶ δάκρυσιν, οἵοις οὔτε Ἰακὼβ καὶ τὸν Ἰωσὴφ ἐκεῖνον ὁ πατριάρχης, ὑπὸ μὲν τῶν ἀδελφῶν πεπραμένον, ὑπὸ δὲ θηρίου ἡρπασμένον, ὡς ᾤετο· οὔτε ∆αβὶδ Ἰωνάθαν τὸν ἑαυτοῦ φίλον, ἔργον πολέ μου γενόμενον, ἢ τὸν υἱὸν Ἀβεσσαλὼμ ὕστερον. Ὧν ὁ μὲν σπλάγχνοις πατρικοῖς σπαρασσόμενος, Θηρίον ἥρπασεν, ἐβόα, τὸν Ἰωσὴφ, θηρίον πονηρὸν καὶ ἀνήμερον, καὶ τὴν τοῦ παιδὸς ἐσθῆτα ᾑμαγμένην προθεὶς, ὡς τὰς τοῦ παιδὸς σάρκας περιεπτύσσετο, τῷ αὐτῷ καὶ φλεγόμενος καὶ παραμυθούμενος. Ὁ δὲ, νῦν μὲν τοῖς ὄρεσι καταρᾶται, καθ' ὧν ὁ πόλεμος. Ὄρη τὰ Γελβουὲ, λέγων, μὴ πέσοι ἐφ' ὑμᾶς μήθ' ὑετὸς, μήτε δρόσος· καὶ, Πῶς ἔπεσε τό ξον Ἰωνάθαν καὶ δύναμις; Νῦν δ' ἀπολο γεῖται ὡς οὐδὲν ἠδικηκότι τῷ πατροφόνῳ, καὶ τῷ νε κρῷ σπένδεται· ἴσως καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο ὑπεραλγῶν τοῦ παιδὸς, ὅτι κατὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀνετείνατο χεῖρα. Τοιοῦτο γὰρ καὶ ὁ πατήρ· ὃν ὡς ἐχθρὸν ἠμύνατο πολεμοῦντα, ὡς φίλον ποθεῖ τεθνηκότα· καὶ νικᾷ τὴν ἔχθραν ἡ φύσις, ἧς οὐδὲν βιαιότερον.

Βʹ. Ἐλεεινὸν δὲ καὶ ἡ κιβωτὸς ὑπὸ τῶν ἀλλοφύ λων κατεχομένη· καὶ Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἠδαφισμένη καὶ ὑπὸ ἐθνῶν πατουμένη· καὶ υἱοὶ Σιὼν, οἱ τί μιοι καὶ ἰσοστάσιοι χρυσίῳ, πορευόμενοι ἐν αἰχμα λωσίᾳ, καὶ νῦν ἔτι διεσπαρμένοι, καὶ λαὸς ὄντες τῆς 35.1133 οἰκουμένης ξένος καὶ πάροικος. ∆εινὸν δὲ καὶ τὰ νῦν ὁρώμενά τε καὶ ἀκουόμενα· πατρίδες ἀνιστάμε ναι, καὶ μυριάδες πίπτουσαι, καὶ κάμνουσα γῆ τοῖς αἵμασι καὶ τοῖς πτώμασι, καὶ λαὸς ἀλλόγλωσ σος ὡς οἰκείαν διατρέχων τὴν ἀλλοτρίαν· οὐ δι' ἀναν δρίαν τῶν προμαχομένων κατηγορείτω μηδείς· οὗ τοι γάρ εἰσιν οἱ μικροῦ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην πα ραστησάμενοι· ἀλλὰ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν κακίαν, καὶ τὴν ἐπικρατοῦσαν κατὰ τῆς Τριάδος ἀσέβειαν. ∆εινὰ ταῦτα, καὶ πέρα δεινῶν. Τίς ἀντερεῖ τῶν συμφορὰς δοκιμάζειν εἰδότων ἐξ ὧν πεπόνθασιν, ἢ συμπεπόν θασιν; Ἀλλ' οὔπω τοσοῦτον οὐδὲν, ὅσον εἰρήνη δε διωγμένη, καὶ ἡ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας εὐπρέπεια περιῃρη μένη, καὶ τὸ παλαιὸν ἀξίωμα καταλελυμένον· καὶ παρὰ τοσοῦτον ἡ τάξις ἀντεστραμμένη, ὥστε πρότε ρον μὲν ἐξ οὐ λαοῦ λαὸς, καὶ ἐξ οὐκ ἔθνους ἔθνος γε γόναμεν· νῦν δὲ κινδυνεύομεν ἐκ λαοῦ μεγίστου καὶ ἔθνους, εἰς οὐ λαὸν πάλιν καὶ οὐκ ἔθνος ἀναλυθέντες γενέσθαι, ὡς τὸ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, ὅτε οὐκ ἦρξας ἡμῶν, οὐδ' εἰς ἓν ὄνομα καὶ τάγμα συνεληλύθειμεν.