Letters 11 to 20: To Heliodorus and Pope Damasus

Our Lord, the teacher of humility, when his disciples were disputing about rank, took hold of one of the little ones, saying: Whosoever of you shall not be converted and become as a little child, cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. And lest he should seem only to teach this and not to practice it, he fulfilled it by example: while he washed the feet of his disciples; while he received his betrayer with a kiss; while he spoke with the Samaritan woman; while, with Mary sitting at his feet, he discoursed of the kingdom of heaven; while, rising from the dead, he appeared first to little women. Satan, however, fell from his archangelic height for no other cause than pride contrary to humility. And the Jewish people, claiming for themselves the first seats and greetings in the marketplace, having previously been reckoned as a drop from a bucket, were blotted out when the Gentile people succeeded them. Against the sophists of the world too, and the wise men of the world, Peter and James, fishermen, are sent.

For which reason Scripture says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. See, brother, what an evil it is to have God for an adversary. For which reason in the Gospel the arrogant Pharisee is rejected, and the humble Publican is heard. I have now sent, unless I am mistaken, ten letters full both of duty and of entreaty, while you do not deign to make so much as a sound; and though the Lord speaks with his servants, brother does not speak with brother. Too reproachfully, you will say. Believe me, if the modesty of my pen did not restrain me, wounded as I am by so much, I would press matters so that you would begin to write back to me, even in anger. But since it is human to be angry and yet not to do wrong, returning, as a Christian, to the old custom, I again beg: that you love one who loves you, and, as a fellow-servant, give a word to a fellow-servant. Farewell in the Lord.

The same John, Apostle and Evangelist, says in his Epistle: Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer; and rightly. For since murder is often born of hatred, whoever hates, even if he has not yet struck with a sword, is nevertheless a murderer in soul. Why, you ask, such a beginning? So that, having laid aside old rancor, we may prepare a clean dwelling-place in our heart for God. Be angry, says David, and sin not. What this means to convey, the Apostle explains more fully: Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. What shall we do on the day of judgment, over whose anger the sun has set not for one day only, but for so many years? The Lord says in the Gospel: If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you; leave your gift there before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Woe is me, wretched, not to say also to you, who for so long a time have either not offered our gift at the altar, or have offered it while our anger, without cause, remained. How have we ever said in the daily prayer: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors, while our mind disagreed with our words, our prayer at odds with our deeds? I therefore beg, as I had already asked in a former letter a year ago, that we may have the peace which the Lord has left us; and may Christ look upon my desire and upon your mind. Before his tribunal, in a short time, our concord, whether reconciled or torn apart, will recover either its reward or its punishment. But if you should refuse, which God forbid, I shall be free. This letter of mine, once read, will absolve me.

With what love and zeal I strove that we might dwell together equally in the desert, the heart, conscious of our mutual affection, knows. With what laments, with what grief, with what groaning I followed you as you departed, these very letters also bear witness, which you see stained with tears. But you, like a spoiled child, cherished the scorn of one who besought you through your blandishments, and I, unwary, did not know what to do then. Should I be silent? But what I ardently desired I could not moderately dissemble. Should I entreat more urgently? But you did not wish to hear, because you did not love in like measure. What alone it could, my spurned affection did. Whom, present, it could not retain, it now seeks, absent. Since, then, you yourself, when departing, had asked that after I had moved to the desert I should send you an invitation in writing, and I had promised that I would do so: I invite you, now make haste. I do not wish you to recall your former needs.

The desert loves those stripped bare. I do not wish the difficulty of your former pilgrimage to frighten you. You who believe in Christ, believe also his words. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. You need take neither wallet nor staff. He is abundantly rich who is poor with Christ.

2. But what am I doing? Am I again, unwary, entreating? Let prayers depart, let blandishments withdraw. Wounded love ought to grow angry. You who scorned me as a suppliant will perhaps hear me as a reprover. What are you doing, a pampered soldier, in your father's house? Where is the rampart? Where the trench, where the winter spent under tents? Behold, the trumpet sounds from heaven: behold, the armed emperor goes forth with the clouds to subdue the world; behold, the two-edged sword proceeding from the mouth of the king mows down all that stands in its way; and do you go forth from your chamber to the battle line, from the shade into the sun?

A body accustomed to a tunic does not bear the weight of a breastplate. A head covered with linen refuses the helmet. A hand made soft by idleness, the hard hilt chafes. Hear the edict of your king: He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters. Remember the day of your enlistment, on which, buried together with Christ in baptism, you swore in the words of the sacrament: that for his name's sake you would spare neither mother nor father. Behold, the adversary in your heart is trying to kill Christ. Behold, the enemy's camps sigh after the bounty which you had received when about to serve as a soldier. Though a little grandson hang from your neck, though your mother, with hair disheveled and garments torn, show you the breasts with which she nursed you, though your father lie on the threshold, go forward over your trampled father, fly with dry eyes to the standard of the cross.

It is the only kind of piety, in this matter, to be cruel.

3. It will come, it will come afterward, the day when you shall return victorious to your homeland; when, as a valiant man crowned, you shall walk through the heavenly Jerusalem. Then with Paul you will receive citizenship. Then you will seek the right of that same city also for your parents. Then you will also pray for me, who urged you on to victory. Nor indeed am I unaware by what fetter you now say you are hindered. We have no heart of iron, no hard breast. Hyrcanian tigresses did not nurse us, born of flint. We too have passed through these same trials. Now your widowed sister clings to you with coaxing arms; now the household servants with whom you grew up say: To whom do you leave us to be enslaved?

Now too your nurse of old, now an old woman, and your foster-father, a second father after natural affection, cries out: Wait a little while for those about to die, and bury them. Perhaps too your mother, her breasts loosened with wrinkled skin, her brow furrowed with lines, repeating the old lullaby of the breast, joins her voice. Let the Grammarians say, if they wish: On you the whole house, leaning, rests. Love of God and fear of hell easily breaks these bonds. But on the contrary, Scripture bids us obey our parents: yet whoever loves them above Christ loses his soul. The enemy holds a sword, to slay me, and shall I think of my mother's tears? Shall I desert Christ's warfare for my father's sake, to whom, for Christ's sake, I owe not even burial—though for his sake I owe it to all men? To the Lord, about to suffer, Peter, counseling him timidly, was a scandal.

Paul, to the brothers restraining him lest he go to Jerusalem, answered: What do you do, weeping and afflicting my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This battering-ram of family piety, by which faith is shaken, must be beaten back by the wall of the Gospel. My mother, and my brothers are these, whoever do the will of my Father who is in heaven. If they believe in Christ, let them favor me as I go to fight for his name. If they do not believe, let the dead bury their dead. But this, you say, applies to martyrdom.

4. You are wrong, brother, you are wrong, if you think that a Christian ever ceases to suffer persecution: And then especially are you attacked, when you do not know that you are being attacked. Our adversary, like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, goes about, and do you think there is peace?

He sits in ambush with the rich, and in secret places slays the innocent. His eyes look upon the poor. He lies in wait in secret, like a lion in his den; he lies in wait to seize the poor man; and do you, sheltered under the shade of a leafy tree, enjoy soft sleep, a future prey? From that quarter luxury pursues me: from that quarter avarice tries to break in: from that quarter my belly wants to be my god instead of Christ. Lust compels me to put to flight the Holy Spirit dwelling within me, to defile his temple. The enemy, I say, pursues me, who has a thousand names, a thousand arts of doing harm; and shall I, wretched man, think myself the victor while I am being captured?

5. I do not wish, dearest brother, when the weight of sins has been examined, that you should judge these things I have mentioned to be lesser than the crime of idolatry.

Rather, learn the judgment of the Apostle, who says: for know this, understanding it, that no fornicator, or unclean person, or covetous man, or defrauder, which is a service of idols, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. And although generally whatever is of the devil savors against God, and what is of the devil is idolatry, to which all idols are enslaved, yet in another place he determines specifically and by name, saying: Mortify your members which are upon the earth, putting away fornication, uncleanness, and evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is the service of idols, for which things the wrath of God comes.

The servitude of idols does not consist only in this, if someone with two little fingers casts incense upon the fire of an altar, or pours out a draught of wine from a bowl into a cup. Let him deny that avarice is idolatry, who can call it justice that the Lord was sold for thirty pieces of silver. Let him not confess sacrilege in lust—but he does, who has violated the members of Christ, and the living sacrifice pleasing to God, with the victims of public lusts, in nefarious defilement. Let him not admit that fraud is idolatry, but he is like those who, in the Acts of the Apostles, reserving part of the price from their own patrimony, perished by instant vengeance. Take heed, brother, that it is not lawful for you to keep anything of your own goods. Every one, says the Lord, who does not renounce all that he possesses, cannot be my disciple. Why are you a Christian with a timid soul?

6. Look back at the net left behind by Peter: look back at the tax-collector rising from the tax-office, at once an Apostle. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head: and do you measure out vast porticoes and huge expanses of roofs? Waiting for an inheritance of this age, you will not be able to be a fellow-heir of Christ. Interpret the word Monk—this is your name. What are you doing in the crowd, who are one alone? And this I do not preach as one whose ship and cargo are intact, nor as a skilled sailor unacquainted with the waves; but as one lately cast up on shore by shipwreck, I give warning with a timid voice to those about to sail. In that surge Charybdis of luxury devours salvation. There, with virgin mouth, lust smiles like Scylla, to work the shipwreck of chastity. There is the barbarian shore, here the devil is the pirate, carrying chains along with his companions to seize captives. Do not believe, do not think yourselves safe.

Though the sea, spread out like a pool, may smile upon you; though its surface, as it lies, is barely rippled by a gentle breeze on its topmost back, this plain has great mountains within it. Danger is enclosed within, the enemy is within. Loosen the ropes, hoist the sails. Let the yard of the cross be fixed upon your foreheads. This calm is a tempest. But perhaps you will say: What then? Are not all who live in the city Christians? Your case is not the same as that of others. Listen to the Lord saying: If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and come, follow me. But you have promised to be perfect. For when, having abandoned military service, you castrated yourself for the kingdom of heaven, what else did you follow but the perfect life? But the perfect servant of Christ has nothing besides Christ. Or if he has anything besides Christ, he is not perfect.

And if he is not perfect, though he promised God he would be perfect, he has already lied. But the mouth that lies kills the soul. Therefore, to conclude: if you are perfect, why do you long for your father's goods? If you are not perfect, you have deceived the Lord. The Gospel thunders with divine voices: You cannot serve two masters; and does anyone dare to make Christ a liar, by serving Mammon and the Lord at once? He cries out often: If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. And do I, loaded down with gold, think that I follow Christ? "He who says he believes in Christ ought himself also to walk as he walked.".

7. But if you have nothing (as I know you will answer), why, being so well prepared for the wars, do you not serve as a soldier? Unless perhaps you think you are doing this in your own country, when the Lord did not perform signs in his own country.

And why is this? Take up the reason with authority: No prophet has honor in his own country. I do not seek honor, you will say: my own conscience suffices for me. Neither did the Lord seek it, seeing that he fled lest he be made king by the crowds. But where there is no honor, there is contempt. Where there is contempt, there is frequent injury; where there is injury, there is also indignation; where there is indignation, there is no rest; where there is no rest, the mind is often led away from its purpose. And where, through restlessness, something is taken away from one's zeal, less is made of what is taken away; and where there is less, it cannot be called perfect. From this reckoning arises the sum, that a Monk cannot be perfect in his own country. But to be unwilling to be perfect is to sin.

8. But driven from this rank, you will appeal to the Clergy. Shall I dare to say anything about these, who certainly remain in their own cities?

Far be it from me to say anything sinister about these, since, succeeding to the apostolic rank, they make the Body of Christ with their sacred mouth; through whom we too are Christians. They who, holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven, in a certain way judge before the judgment; who preserve the bride of the Lord with sober chastity. But, as I touched on before, the case of Monks is one thing, that of Clerics another. Clerics feed the sheep; I am fed. They live from the altar; but for me, as for an unfruitful tree, the axe is laid to the root, if I do not bring my gift to the altar. Nor can I plead poverty as an excuse, since in the Gospel the Lord praised the old widow who put into the treasury two coins, which alone remained to her.

It is not permitted for me to sit before the presbyter; but he, if I sin, is permitted to hand me over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. And indeed in the old Law, whoever did not obey the Priests was either placed outside the camp and stoned by the people, or, with his neck bowed to the sword, expiated his contempt with his blood. Now, indeed, the disobedient is cut down by a spiritual sword; or, cast out of the Church, is torn apart by the raging mouth of demons. But if the pious blandishments of the brethren also urge you toward this same Order, I shall rejoice at your ascent, but fear for your fall. He who desires the Episcopate desires a good work. We know this: but join to it what follows: But such a one must be irreproachable, the husband of one wife, sober, chaste, prudent, of good behavior, hospitable, apt to teach, not given to wine, not violent, but gentle.

And having set forth the other things that follow concerning him, he applied no less diligence to the third rank, saying: Deacons likewise must be chaste, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for base gain, holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved, and so let them minister, having no crime. Woe to that man who, not having a wedding garment, enters into the supper. Nothing remains for him but at once to hear: Friend, how did you come in here? And, while he is silent, it is said to the ministers: Take him, bind his hands and feet, and cast him into outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Woe to him who, having tied up the talent he received in a napkin, while the others made gains, kept only what he had received.

He shall at once be struck by the indignant cry of the Lord: Wicked servant, why did you not give my money to the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest? That is, you should have deposited at the altar what you were not able to carry. For while you, a lazy trader, hold onto the coin, you have occupied the place of another who could have doubled the money. Wherefore, just as he who ministers well acquires for himself a good degree, so he who unworthily approaches the cup of the Lord will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord.

9. Not all bishops are bishops. You look to Peter: but consider Judas too. You admire Stephen: but look also to Nicolas, whom the Lord condemns by his sentence in the Apocalypse: who devised such shameful and unspeakable things, that the heresy of the Nicolaitans arose from that very root. Let each one prove himself, and so approach. Ecclesiastical dignity does not make a Christian.

Cornelius the Centurion, still a pagan, is cleansed by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Daniel, a boy, judges the elders: Amos, tending sycamore fruits, suddenly became a Prophet. David, a shepherd, is chosen as king. Jesus loves the least disciple the most. Recline in the lowest place, brother, so that when someone greater comes, you may be bidden to go up higher. Upon whom does the Lord rest, except upon the humble and quiet, and him who trembles at his words? To whom more is entrusted, from him more is required. The powerful shall suffer torments powerfully. Nor let anyone applaud himself merely for the chastity of a clean body, since men shall render account for every idle word they have spoken, in the day of judgment: since even an insult against a brother is the guilt of homicide.

It is not easy to stand in Paul's place, to hold Peter's rank, of those now reigning with Christ: lest perhaps an angel come who will tear the veil of your temple, who will move your candlestick out of its place. About to build a tower, calculate the cost of the future work. Salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by swine. If a Monk falls, the Priest will pray for him. For the fall of the Priest, who will pray?

10. But since my speech has sailed out from rocky places, and the fragile skiff has advanced into the deep among hollow rocks amid foaming waves, the sails must now be spread to the winds, and, the reefs of questions having been crossed, like joyful sailors, the boat-song of the epilogue must be sung. O desert, blooming with the flowers of Christ! O solitude, in which are born those stones, of which, in the Apocalypse, the city of the great King is built!

O wilderness, rejoicing in closer familiarity with God! What are you doing, brother, in the world, you who are greater than the world? How long shall the shadows of roofs oppress you? How long shall the prison of smoky cities enclose you? Believe me, I see some greater light. It is pleasing, casting off the burden of the body, to fly up to the pure brightness of the ether. Do you fear poverty? But Christ calls the poor blessed. Are you terrified by labor? But no athlete is crowned without sweat. Do you think about food? But faith does not fear hunger. Do you fear to bruise your limbs, wasted by fasting, upon the bare ground? But the Lord lies with you. Does your unkempt hair, filthy on your uncombed head, horrify you? But your head is Christ. Does the boundless vastness of the desert terrify you? But walk in paradise in your mind. As often as you ascend there in thought, so often you will not be in the wilderness. Is your skin rough for lack of baths?

But he who has once been washed in Christ does not need to wash again. And, to be brief, hear the Apostle answering all these things: The sufferings of this age, he says, are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us. You are soft, brother, if you wish both to rejoice here with the world, and afterward to reign with Christ.

11. It will come, it will come, that day, on which this corruptible and mortal thing shall put on incorruption and immortality. Then blessed is that servant whom the Lord shall find watching. Then, at the sound of the trumpet, the earth shall tremble with its peoples, and you shall rejoice. As the Lord comes to judge, the world shall groan mournfully, and tribe shall beat its breast against tribe. Kings once most powerful shall tremble with naked side exposed. Venus shall be brought forth with her offspring. Then fiery Jupiter shall be led forth, and foolish Plato with his disciples. Aristotle's arguments will be of no avail.

Then you, rustic and poor, shall exult, and laugh, and say: Behold my crucified one, behold the judge, who, wrapped in swaddling clothes, wailed in the manger. This is he, the son of the workman and the harlot: this is he who, carried in his mother's bosom, God as man fled into Egypt: this is he clothed in scarlet: this is he crowned with thorns: this is the magician, having a demon, and a Samaritan. Behold the hands, Jew, which you had pierced: behold the side, Roman, which you had dug through. See whether the body is the same that you said the disciples secretly carried off by night. Your love has compelled me, brother, to say these things to you; so that it may fall to you to be present at these things, for whom now the labor is hard.

Since the East, shattered by the ancient madness of its peoples among themselves, tears into small pieces the seamless tunic of the Lord, woven from the top throughout: and foxes lay waste the vineyard of Christ, so that among the broken cisterns which hold no water, it is difficult to discern where the sealed fountain and that enclosed garden may be: therefore I have thought it right to consult the chair of Peter, and the faith praised by an Apostle's mouth: from that source I now seek the food of my soul, whence once I received the garments of Christ. Nor indeed could the vast expanse of the liquid element, and the intervening length of lands, prevent me from seeking the precious pearl. Wherever the body shall be, there shall the eagles be gathered together. The wicked patrimony having been squandered by degenerate offspring, among you alone is the uncorrupted inheritance of the fathers preserved. There, in soil made fruitful by the sod of the earth, the purity of the Lord's seed brings forth its hundredfold fruit.

Here the grain, buried in the furrows, degenerates into darnel and wild oats. Now in the West the sun of righteousness rises: but in the East that Lucifer who had fallen has set his throne above the stars. You are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth; you are vessels of gold and silver: here are vessels of clay or wood, awaiting the iron rod and the eternal fire.

2. Although, therefore, your greatness terrifies me, yet your kindness invites me. From the Priest I ask salvation for the victim, from the Shepherd protection for the sheep. Let envy depart; let the ambition of Roman eminence withdraw, since I speak with the successor of the Fisherman and the disciple of the Cross. Following no one as first, save Christ, I am joined in communion with your Beatitude, that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that upon that Rock the Church is built. Whoever eats the lamb outside this house is profane.

If anyone was not in the Ark of Noah, he shall perish when the flood reigns. And because, for my sins, I have migrated to that solitude which borders Syria at its junction with the wilderness; and since I cannot always seek the Holy One of the Lord from your Holiness across so many intervening spaces, I therefore here follow your colleagues, the Egyptian Confessors, and hide my little skiff beneath their great cargo-ships. I know not Vitalis; I reject Meletius; I am ignorant of Paulinus. Whoever gathers not with you scatters; that is, whoever is not of Christ is of Antichrist.

3. Now therefore, alas! After the Nicene faith, after the decree of Alexandria joined equally by the West, a novel term of “three hypostases” is demanded from me, a Roman man, by the offspring of the Arians, the men of Campsa. Who, I ask, handed down these things from the Apostles? What new teacher of the Gentiles taught this, in place of Paul?

We ask what they think can be understood by “three hypostases”; they say, three subsisting persons. We answer that we believe thus: the meaning does not suffice, they demand the very word itself; because, I know not what poison lurks in the syllables. We cry out: if anyone does not confess three hypostases, that is, three “enhypostata,” that is, three subsisting persons, let him be anathema. And because we do not learn the words by rote, we are judged heretics. But if anyone, understanding hypostasis as ousia, does not say that in three persons there is one hypostasis, he is estranged from Christ: and under this confession we, together with you, are branded alike with the cautery of Union.

4. Decide, I beg, if it please you, and I shall not fear to say three hypostases. If you bid it, let a new faith be established after Nicaea, and let us, in words like those of the Arians, confess ourselves orthodox. The whole school of secular letters knows hypostasis to mean nothing other than ousia.

And shall anyone, I ask, with sacrilegious mouth preach three substances? There is one and only nature of God, which truly is. For that which subsists does not have its being from elsewhere, but has it as its own. All other things which are created, even though they seem to be, are not: because at some time they were not; and that which was not can again cease to be. God alone, who is eternal, that is, who has no beginning, truly holds the name of essence. Therefore he says also to Moses from the bush: I am who am: and again: He who is has sent me. Yet certainly at that time there existed angels, heaven, earth, seas: how then does God claim for himself alone the common name of essence? But because that alone is a perfect nature, and in three persons one Godhead subsists, which truly is, and is one nature: whoever says that there are three, that is, three hypostases, that is, three usiai, under the guise of piety attempts to assert three natures.

And if this is so, why are we separated from Arius by walls, while joined to him in perfidy? Let Ursinus be joined with your Beatitude; let Auxentius be associated with Ambrose. Far be this from the Roman faith: let not the religious hearts of the peoples drink in so great a sacrilege. Let it suffice for us to say one substance, three subsisting persons, perfect, equal, coeternal. Let the “three hypostases” be passed over in silence, if it please, and let one be maintained. It is not of good repute when, in the same meaning, the words disagree. Let the aforesaid belief suffice for us. Or if you think it right that we ought to say “three hypostases” along with their interpretations, we do not refuse. But believe me, poison lurks beneath honey; the angel of Satan has transformed himself into an angel of light. They interpret hypostasis well, and when I say that I hold what they themselves expound, I am judged a heretic. Why do they so anxiously cling to one word?

Why do they hide beneath ambiguous speech? If they believe as they interpret, I do not condemn what they retain. If I believe as they pretend to feel, let them permit me too to speak their meaning in my own words.

5. Wherefore I beseech your Beatitude, by the crucified salvation of the world, by the homoousian Trinity, that authority be given me by your letters either to be silent about, or to speak of, the hypostases. And lest perhaps the obscurity of the place where I dwell should deceive the bearers of letters, deign to send your writings to the presbyter Evagrius, whom you know very well. At the same time also, signify to me with whom at Antioch I ought to communicate; because the men of Campsa, joined with the heretics of Tarsus, seek nothing else than that, propped up by the authority of your communion, they may preach three hypostases in the old sense.

The importunate woman in the Gospel at last deserved to be heard: and though the door was shut with the servants, even at midnight, a friend received loaves from a friend. God himself, who can be overcome by no force against him, is conquered by the prayers of the publican. The city of Nineveh, which perished through sin, stood firm through weeping. To what end are these things recalled with so long a preamble? Namely, that you, being great, may look upon one who is small; that you, a rich Shepherd, may not despise a sickly sheep. Christ brought the thief from the cross into paradise: and lest anyone should ever think a late conversion useless, he made the penalty of homicide into martyrdom. Christ, I say, joyfully embraces the returning prodigal son, and leaving the ninety-nine sheep behind, the one little sheep that remained is carried on the shoulders of the good Shepherd.

Paul, from a persecutor, becomes a preacher; he is blinded in the eyes of the flesh, that he might see more with the mind; and he who led the bound servants of Christ to the council of the Jews afterward glories even in the bonds of Christ. 2. I, therefore, as I have already written before, having received the garment of Christ in the city of Rome, am now held within the barbarous border of Syria. And lest you think this judgment about me was another's, I myself determined what I should deserve. Yet, as the Gentile poet says: “He who runs across the sea changes his sky, not his mind”; so the unceasing enemy has followed me even to my back, that I now suffer greater battles in solitude. For here the Arian madness, propped up by worldly support, rages. Here the Church, split into three parts, hastens to seize me for itself. The ancient authority of the monks dwelling round about rises up against me.

Meanwhile I cry out: whoever is joined to the chair of Peter is mine. Meletius, Vitalis, and Paulinus say that they cling to you; I could believe it if one alone asserted this. Now either two are lying, or all. Therefore I beseech your Beatitude, by the cross of the Lord, by the necessary glory of our faith, the passion of Christ, that you who follow the Apostles in honor may follow them also in merit: so may you sit on the throne to judge with the twelve; so may another gird you, an old man, together with Peter; so may you attain the citizenship of heaven with Paul, as you signify to me by your letters with whom in Syria I ought to communicate. Do not despise a soul for whom Christ died.

I had indeed resolved to use the words of the Psalmist, who says: When the sinner stood against me, I was dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence from good things. And again: But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and as a dumb man not opening his mouth, I became as a man that heareth not. But because charity conquers all things, and affection overcomes resolve, I do not so much return the injury to those who inflict it, as I answer you who ask. For among Christians, it is not the one who suffers, as someone has said, but the one who does the insult, who is wretched.

2. And first, indeed, before I speak with you concerning my faith, which you know very well, I am compelled, against the barbarism of this place, to cry out with the well-known verse:

What race of men is this? What fatherland so barbarous
permits such a custom? We are forbidden the hospitality of the shore.

They stir up wars; and forbid us to stand on the shore's first edge.

These I have taken from a Gentile poet for this reason: that he who does not keep the peace of Christ may at least learn peace from a heathen. I am called a heretic for preaching the homoousian Trinity. I am accused of Sabellian impiety, for pronouncing with untiring voice three subsisting, true, entire, and perfect persons. If this is from the Arians, it is deserved; if from the Orthodox, then those who accuse such a faith have ceased to be orthodox; or, if it pleases them, let them condemn me as a heretic together with the West, a heretic together with Egypt, that is, together with Damasus and Peter. Why do they accuse one man alone, apart from his companions? If a stream flows thinly, the fault is not the channel's but the spring's. It shames me to say it: from the caverns of our cells we condemn the world. Rolling in sackcloth and ashes, we pass judgment on Bishops. What is a kingly spirit doing beneath the tunic of a penitent?

Chains, filth, and unkempt hair are not signs of a diadem, but of weeping. Let them permit me, I beg, to speak nothing at all. Why do they tear at one who does not deserve envy? I am a heretic—what is that to you? Be still; it has already been said. Clearly you fear lest, as a most eloquent man, I go about the churches in Syriac or Greek speech, seduce the peoples, and stir up schism. I have taken nothing from anyone; I receive nothing idly. Daily, by the labor of my own hand and my own sweat, I seek my food, knowing it is written by the Apostle: But if any man will not work, neither let him eat.

3. With what groaning, with what grief, venerable and holy Father, I have written these things, Jesus is my witness. I have kept silence; shall I always keep silence, says the Lord? Not even one corner of the desert is granted to me. Daily my faith is demanded of me, as though I had been reborn without faith.

I confess, as they wish; it does not please. I subscribe; they do not believe. Only one thing pleases them: that I depart from here. Even now I yield: they have torn from me a part of my own soul, my dearest brothers: behold, they desire to depart, nay, they are departing, saying it is better to dwell among wild beasts than with such Christians: and I myself, were it not that both the weakness of my body and the harshness of winter held me back, would already have fled. Yet, until the spring season comes, I beg that the hospitality of the desert may be granted me for a few months more; or if even this seems too long a delay, I withdraw. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. Let them alone ascend to heaven; let it be as though Christ died for them alone; let them have it, possess it, glory in it.

But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.

4. As for the faith, concerning which you deigned to write, I have given to holy Cyrillus a written statement of the faith. Whoever does not believe accordingly is estranged from Christ. As for the rest, I have as witnesses of my faith your own ears, and those of the blessed brother Zenobius, whom all of us here, together with you, greet most heartily.

And it came to pass in the year that king Ozias died: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated. Before we speak of the Vision, it seems that we must first discuss who Ozias was, how many years he reigned, and who were his contemporaries among the other nations. Concerning his person, indeed, as we read in the books of Kings and of Chronicles, he was a just man, and did what was right in the sight of the Lord, building the Temple, constructing an aqueduct, offering vessels, and for this, deservedly overcoming his adversaries: and, which is the greatest sign of piety, having many Prophets in his realm. He, as long as Zacharias the priest, surnamed the Intelligent, lived, pleased God, and entered his shrine with all reverence. But after Zacharias died, wishing to offer the gifts by himself, he invaded the priestly order not so much piously as boldly: and when the Levites and the other priests cried out against him, saying, Art thou not king Ozias, and not a priest?

He refused to listen, and immediately was covered with leprosy on the forehead, according to the word of the Prophet, who says: Fill, O Lord, their faces with shame. This part of the body the priest used to cover with a plate of gold, which in Ezechiel the Lord commands to be marked with the impression of the letter THAU, of which David exults, saying: The light of thy countenance is signed upon us, O Lord: in which part the insolent foreigner, struck with a sling stone, perished. Now Ozias reigned fifty-two years, at which time among the Latins Amulius, and among the Athenians Agamestor the eleventh, held sway. After his death, Isaiah the Prophet saw this Vision, which we now endeavor to explain, that is, in the year in which Romulus, the founder of the Roman empire, was born: as can be made plain to those who wish to read the Book of Times, which we ourselves translated into the Latin tongue from the Greek.

The history having been set forth first, the spiritual understanding follows, for the sake of which the history itself has been repeated. While the leprous king was alive, and, as far as in him lay, scattering the priesthood, Isaiah was not able to see the Vision. As long as he held the kingdom in Judea, the Prophet did not lift up his eyes to heaven: the heavens were not opened to him, the Lord Sabaoth did not appear, nor was the name of the Thrice Holy heard in the mystery of faith. But when he died, all the things which the following discourse will show revealed themselves in the open light. Something of this sort is also written in Exodus: while Pharaoh lived, the people of Israel, oppressed by the work of mud and brick and straw, did not sigh unto the Lord: while he reigned, no one sought the God of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But when he died, the children of Israel sighed, as Scripture says: And their cry went up unto the Lord: whereas according to the history they ought rather to have rejoiced at that time, and to have sighed earlier while he was alive. When Ezechiel too was prophesying, Phaltias the son of Banaias fell dead, and after the destruction of the wicked leader, he says: I fell upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said: Alas for me, alas for me, O Lord Adonai, dost thou make an end of the remnant of Israel (Ezec. 11. 13)? If, then, you understand in Ozias, and Pharaoh, and Phaltias, and others of this kind, contrary powers, you will see how, while they live, none of us sees, nor sighs, nor falls into repentance. Let not sin reign, says the Apostle, in your mortal body. While sin reigns, we build cities for the Egyptians; we are turned about in ashes and filth; instead of grain we pursue straw, instead of solid rock, works of mud.

3. There follows: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated. Daniel too saw the Lord sitting, but not upon a throne high and elevated. The divine voice promises elsewhere also, saying: I will come, and I will sit, and I will judge the people in the valley of Josaphat, which is interpreted, the judgment of the Lord (Joel.). He who is a sinner, and like myself, sees the Lord sitting in the valley of Josaphat: not on a hill, not on a mountain; but in a valley, and in a valley of judgment. But he who is just, and like Isaiah, sees him sitting upon a throne high and elevated. But that I may add another point, when I ponder in my mind that he reigns among the Thrones, Dominations, Angels, and the other Powers, I see his throne exalted. But when I consider how he dispenses the human race, and is said often, for our salvation, to descend to the earth, I see his throne humble and near to the earth.

4. There follows: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated; and the house was full of his majesty, and the Seraphim stood round about him. Certain men before me, both Greek and Latin, expounding this passage, have interpreted the Lord sitting upon the throne as God the Father; and the two Seraphim, which are declared to stand on either side, as our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. To their authority, although they are most learned men, I do not assent. For it is much better to bring forth truths rudely, than falsehoods eloquently: especially since John the Evangelist, in this same Vision, writes that not God the Father, but Christ was beheld. For when he spoke of the unbelief of the Jews, he immediately set forth the causes of their unbelief, saying: And therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said: With the ear you shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing you shall see, and shall not see.

But these things he said, when he saw the glory of the Only-begotten, and testified concerning him. In the present passage of Isaiah, then, he who sits upon the throne commands him, saying: With the ear you shall hear, and shall not understand. Now he who gives this command, as the Evangelist understands it, is Christ: whence it is now gathered that the Seraphim cannot be understood as Christ, since Christ is himself the one who sits. And although in the Acts of the Apostles, against the Jews disputing among themselves, Paul says: “Well did the Holy Spirit speak by Isaiah the Prophet to our fathers, saying: Go to this people, and say: With the ear you shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive.

For the heart of this people has grown gross, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them”, nevertheless for me the difference of persons raises no question, since I know that both Christ and the Holy Spirit are of one substance; nor are the words of the Spirit other than those of the Son, nor did the Son command anything other than what the Spirit commanded.

5. There follows: And the house was full of his majesty. The house of God which is above is seen to be full of glory: but this house which is below, I know not whether it is full of glory, unless perhaps according to the sense of the Psalmist, who says: The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.

Let us also say that those are full of glory on earth who can say: Of his fullness we have all received. This house wise women build, and foolish women destroy with their hands. Of this house Isaiah also speaks: And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills. This is the house, of which the aforesaid Paul also, with sacred voice, testifies elsewhere: And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be said. But Christ, as the Son, over his own house, which house we are: if, however, we hold fast the confidence and the glory of hope firm unto the end. Of this house he speaks also to Timothy: But these things I write, that you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the Church.

6. There follows: And the Seraphim stood round about him; six wings to the one, and six wings to the other; and with two indeed they covered the face, and with two they covered the feet, and with two they flew, and they cried one to another, and said: Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of his glory. We wish to know what these Seraphim are who stand round about God, what the six wings of each one are, and together twelve; how with two they cover the face, and with two the feet, and with two they fly: since above they are said to stand round about God: or how they stand round about, when they are two, and elsewhere fly: what it is that they cry one to another, and repeat thrice the name of the Holy One: how the house above is said to be full of glory, and now the earth is said to be so.

Since these things stir up no small dust, and at the very first sight present the difficulty of interpretation, let us together beseech the Lord, that a coal from the altar may be sent to me also, so that, all filth of sin being wiped away, I may first be able to behold the sacraments of God, and then relate what I see. Seraphim, as we find in the interpretation of Hebrew Names, is interpreted ardor, or fire, or the beginning of their mouth. We ask what this fire may be? The Savior says: I came to send fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled? The two disciples, to whom the Lord had opened the Scriptures on the way, beginning from Moses and all the Prophets, after their eyes were opened and they recognized him, said one to another: Was not our heart burning within us, while he spoke on the way, and opened to us the Scriptures?

And in Deuteronomy God himself is written to be a consuming fire; and in Ezechiel too, from the loins even to the feet he is seen to be fiery; and the words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by the fire, purged from the earth, refined seven times. And there are many other passages which, if I wished to gather them from the whole of Scripture, would be very long. Let us then ask, where is this saving fire? There is no doubt but that it is in the sacred volumes, by the reading of which all the vices of men are purged. But as to what follows, the beginning of their mouth, how it can be referred to the Scriptures, I fear that, if I begin to speak, I may seem not so much to be interpreting as doing violence to the Scriptures.

The beginning of speech and of common language, and all that we speak, universal antiquity has handed down as the Hebrew tongue, in which the Old Testament was written. But after, in the building of the tower, through offense against God the diversity of languages was assigned, then the variety of speech was scattered among all the nations. Therefore both the fire and the beginning of the mouth are observed in the two Testaments: which it is no wonder stand about God, since through them the Lord himself is learned. Six wings to the one, and six wings to the other. Our Victorinus interpreted this of the twelve Apostles. We can also take it of the twelve stones of the altar, which iron did not touch, and the twelve gems, of which the priest's insignia were constructed, which Ezechiel also recalls, and the Apocalypse does not pass over in silence; of which what is true, God will judge: what is likely, we will explain in what follows.

7. There follows: And with two indeed they covered the face, and with two they covered the feet, and with two they flew. They covered the face—not their own, but God's. For who can know his beginning, what he was in the eternity of things before he founded this world: when he founded the Thrones, Dominations, Powers, Angels, and the whole heavenly ministry? There follows: And with two they covered the feet—not their own, but God's. For who can know his last things? What shall be after the consummation of the age, what life shall follow after the human race has been judged? Shall there again be another earth, and after the passing away, other elements again, or shall another world and sun be founded? Tell me the former things, and the last things that are to come, and I will say that you are gods, says Isaiah, signifying that no one can declare what was before the world, and what shall be after the world. And with two they flew.

We know only the middle things, which are disclosed to us from the reading of the Scriptures: when the world was made, when man was formed, when the flood was, when the law was given: how from one man the whole expanse of the earth was filled: and in the last time the Son of God took flesh for our salvation. But the other things which we have mentioned, these two Seraphim covered with face and feet. And they cried one to another. It is beautifully put, one to another.

For whatever we read in the Old Testament, this same thing we find in the Gospel: and what has been read in the Gospel, this is derived from the authority of the Old Testament: in them there is nothing dissonant, nothing diverse. And they said, Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord God Sabaoth. In both Testaments the Trinity is proclaimed. But that our Savior also is called sabaoth, take an example in the twenty-third Psalm. The powers who ministered to the Lord cried out to certain other heavenly Powers, that they might open the gate for the Lord returning: Lift up your gates, O ye princes, or as Aquila interprets it, lift up your gates, your heads, and the King of glory shall come in. Again those, seeing him clothed in flesh, astonished at the new mystery, ask: Who is this King of glory?

And they receive the answer: "The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory": which in the Hebrew is written, "the Lord sabaoth." And it must be known that wherever the Seventy Interpreters have expressed "Lord of hosts" and "Lord Almighty," in the Hebrew is placed "Lord sabaoth," which Aquila interprets, "Lord of armies." The Lord himself here also is of four letters, which is properly set down in God as Jod he, Jod he, that is, two ja's, which, doubled, produce that ineffable and glorious name of God. "The whole earth is full of his glory." This is still said by the Seraphim concerning the coming of the Lord the Savior, how his preaching is extended into every land, and the sound of the Apostles penetrates to the ends of the world.

8. There follows: "And the lintel was raised at the voice with which they cried." We read in the Old Testament that the Lord always spoke to Moses and Aaron at the door of the Tabernacle, as though before the Gospel he had not yet brought them into the Holy of Holies: just as the Church of God was afterward brought in, saying: "The king brought me into his chamber". When therefore our Lord descended to the earth, that lintel—that is, as it were a certain obstacle to those wishing to enter—was taken away: and this whole world was filled with smoke, that is, with the glory of God.

But where in the Latin we read "raised," in the Greek is placed ἐπήρθη, "taken up." But because the ambiguity of the word can be interpreted in either way, our translators rendered "raised" for "taken away." "And the house was filled with smoke." God, as we said above, is fire: when he had descended on Mount Sinai to Moses, at his coming there appeared lamps running to and fro, and the whole mountain full of smoke. Whence it is said in the Psalms: "Who touches the mountains, and they smoke". From fire, therefore, since we cannot grasp the whole substance, a certain lighter and (so to speak) rarer nature of smoke is dispersed throughout the whole world, which we, grasping in part, may say: "We know in part, and we prophesy in part". And: "Now we see through a glass in a dark manner".

9. And, the Seraphim stood round about him: six wings to the one, and six wings to the other.

A certain one of the Greeks, deeply learned in the Scriptures, has explained that the Seraphim are certain powers in the heavens, who, standing before the tribunal of God, praise him, and are sent into diverse ministries, and especially to those who need purging, and who, on account of past sins, deserve to be purged in some part by punishments. But that the lintel was taken away, he says, and the house was filled with smoke, is a sign of the destruction of the Jewish Temple, and of the burning of all Jerusalem, which we now see destroyed. But some, agreeing on the points above, disagree on the final point. For they proclaim that the lintel was taken away at that time when the veil of the temple was rent, and the whole house of Israel was thrown into confusion by a cloud of error: when Josephus reports that the priests, from the inner shrines of the temple, heard the voice of the heavenly powers, "Let us depart from these seats." 10.

There is a certain man from whom I rejoice to have learned much, and who has so refined the Hebrew tongue that among their own Scribes he is reckoned a Chaldean. He has entered upon a far different path; for he says that none of the Prophets except Isaiah saw the Seraphim standing around God, and that not even the Seraphim themselves are read of elsewhere. Then he says that a sign was sent beforehand of the consummation and captivity of Jerusalem, which took place under Nebuchadnezzar. For from Uzziah, under whom he began to prophesy, down to Zedekiah, who reigned last, and who, blinded, was led into Babylon, there were eleven kings, and a twelfth, Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had set over the land, whom Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew in the midst of a banquet, a parricide of the remnants of his country; and that these are the twelve wings, of which four veil the face, as is found in some copies, four fly, four cover the feet.

For of these twelve kings only four were just—Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, and Josiah—who, lifted up through each captivity, dare to glorify God, "Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord God Sabaoth." But the rest, on account of their sins, veil their face; and others who were led into captivity veil the traces of their feet. And the lintel taken away, and the house filled with smoke, as we said above, he explained as the overthrow of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple. 11. And since I have once begun to relate his opinion, let us also touch upon those things which have not yet been touched by me. The tongs by which the coal of the altar was taken up, and the lips purged, he asserted to be Isaiah's own passion, and that by which he was slain under Manasseh the king; and that then, indeed, with lips purged, he said to the Lord: Behold, here, send me, and I said: O wretched man that I am, for I am pricked (according to the Seventy)!

As long as Uzziah lives you do not understand, O Isaiah, that you are wretched; you are not pricked, you are not moved: but when he died, then you perceive that you do not have clean lips, then you recognize yourself unworthy of the vision of God. Would that I too might be pricked, and after being pricked, might be made worthy of the vision of God, though I be a man, and do not have clean lips, and dwell also in the midst of a people having unclean lips. Isaiah, being just, had sinned only in speech: therefore he had only unclean lips, not conscience. But I, since I both see with my eyes unto lust, and am scandalized by hand and foot, and offend in every part of my members, have all things unclean: and because, having once been baptized in spirit, I again defile my garment, I need the purging of a second baptism, that is, of fire. 12. The words in the Scriptures are not simple, as some think; very much is hidden in them.

One thing the letter signifies, another the mystical sense. Behold, the Lord in the Gospel girds himself with a towel, prepares a basin for washing the feet of the disciples, performs the office of a servant: let it be that he teaches humility, that we should minister to one another; I do not deny it, I do not refuse it. But what is it that he says to Peter refusing: Unless I wash your feet, you will have no part with me? And he answered: Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Therefore the Lord, about to ascend to heaven (since the Apostles, as men still standing upon the earth, still had their feet defiled by the filth of sins), wishes to free them entirely from faults, that the prophetic word might fit them: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace; and that they might be able to imitate the words of the Church, saying: I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?

So that even if any dust should afterward cling to them after the resurrection, they might shake it off into the impious city, as a testimony of their labor: because up to that point they strove for the salvation of all, being made to the Jews as Jews, to the Gentiles as Gentiles; so that they defiled even their own footsteps in some part. Therefore, to return to our purpose, just as the Apostles needed the purging of their feet, so Isaiah, who had sinned only in speech, had unclean lips: and, as far as I judge, because he had not rebuked Uzziah rushing into the Temple, nor, after the example of Elijah, had with free voice denounced the impious one, he had unclean lips. "I dwell also in the midst of a people having unclean lips." Isaiah, who is pricked, and testifies himself wretched, is made worthy of purging. But the people, not only not doing penance, but not even knowing that they had unclean lips, do not merit the remedy of purging.

It must be provided, therefore, under this example, not only that we ourselves be just, but that we not dwell with sinners: because the Prophet reckons this too in the part of sin and misery. 13. There follows: And I saw the Lord Sabaoth, the King. The Jews say that Isaiah was put to death by their ancestors for this reason, that whereas Moses saw the hinder parts of God, this man writes that he saw the Lord Sabaoth with carnal eyes, whereas God said concerning this: No man shall see my face, and live.

If we ask them how God, in the law, is said to appear to other Prophets in vision and in sleep, but to speak to Moses face to face; and how that saying stands, "No man shall see my face, and live," when he confesses that he spoke to Moses face to face: they will surely answer that God was seen according to human possibility, not as he is, but as he willed himself to be seen; to whom we also say that Isaiah saw him in the same manner, the main point remaining fixed, that Moses either saw God or did not see him. If he saw him, then Isaiah too saw him, who, saying that he had seen him, was impiously slain by you: because God can be seen. If he did not see him, kill Moses too along with Isaiah, because he is guilty of the same lie, saying that he saw him who cannot be seen. Whatever understanding they have had concerning this passage about Moses, we too shall adapt to the vision of Isaiah.

14. There follows: And one of the Seraphim was sent to me, and in his hand he had a coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth, and said: Behold, this has touched your lips, and it will take away your iniquities, and purge your sins. According to all the Editions which we have set forth above, whether you wish to understand the two Testaments, or certain preparing powers in the heavens, or a certain shadow of the future truth prefigured as a sign of the future captivity, now take the Seraphim thus. We, since we follow the first opinion, assert that the Evangelical Testament was sent to the Prophet: which, having in itself both mandates, that is, both its own and that of the Old Testament, an inflamed word of God, comprises with a double edge of precepts: and with the lips touched, whatever had been of ignorance—for indeed we interpret this as the unclean lips—it drove away by the truth of its purging.

This pair of tongs Jacob beholds on the ladder: this is the two-edged sword: these are the two mites which the widow woman casts into the offerings of God: this is the stater having two denarii, which, found in the mouth of the fish, is given for the Lord and for Peter; by this double pair of tongs, which is held together by the power of union, the coal taken up is sent to the Prophet, of which, in the hundred and nineteenth Psalm, when the Prophet asked God, saying: "Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, and from a deceitful tongue," and after the question of the Holy Spirit: "What shall be given to you, or what shall be added to you, against a deceitful tongue?" it is said: "Sharp arrows of the mighty, with desolating coals", we know that this was granted to the Prophet.

For truly the desolating coal, which makes the tongue pure from sin, is the divine word, of which it is also said in Isaiah: "You have coals of fire, you shall sit upon them, they shall be a help to you" (according to the Seventy). 15. There follows: And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said: Behold, here I am, send me. And he said: Go and tell this people, With the ear you will hear, and you will not understand. These are the words of the Lord asking, not commanding, whom he ought to send, and who shall go to the people; to which the Prophet readily responds: Behold, here I am, send me, and after his promise he is bidden to say: Go, and tell this people: With the ear you will hear, and you will not understand; and looking you will see, and you will not perceive; and the rest which the text of the Prophecy itself weaves together.

I heard on this passage no small disputation of my Hebrew, a little of which I shall set down, that you may note the man's understanding. He said, let us inquire concerning Moses and Isaiah, which of the two did better. Whether Moses, who when he was being sent by God to the people, said: I beseech, Lord, I am not worthy; and again, provide someone else whom you may send: or Isaiah, who, when he had not been chosen, offered himself of his own accord, saying: Behold, here I am, send me.

Nor am I ignorant, he said, that it is dangerous to dispute about the merits of the Saints, and to wish to discuss something either less or more concerning one whom the Lord has crowned; but since he himself said: Seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you, we too, not in order to detract from anyone, but so that, knowing the meaning of Scripture, we may direct ourselves according to its examples, ought to inquire into what may raise a question. He who is the advocate of Moses, he said, extols his humility and gentleness, in that, judging himself unworthy of the ministry of God, he was made the greater; whereas Isaiah, who offered himself unbidden, on beginning to prophesy began with curses: With the ear you will hear, and you will not understand, and looking you will see, and you will not perceive.

On account of which he afterward suffered many evils, and was held by the whole people as a madman, when the divine voice again said to him, cry out, knowing what he had endured by offering himself with earlier readiness, he did not say: Behold, here I am, send me: but asked what it was that he ought to cry, and said: What shall I cry? To which is similar that saying in Jeremiah: Take the cup of this pure wine from my hand, and you shall give it to drink to all the nations to whom I shall send you, and they shall drink, and vomit, and go mad, and fall before the sword which I will send in their midst.

When the Prophet heard this, he did not refuse; he did not say, after the example of Moses: I beseech, Lord, I am not worthy, provide someone else whom you may send; but as a lover of his people, and thinking that by the drinking of the cup the enemy nations would be slain and would fall, he gladly received the cup of pure wine, understanding that Jerusalem too was included among all the nations. Finally, among the other nations: And I took, he says, the cup from the hand of the Lord, and gave it to drink to all the nations to whom the Lord sent me, and to Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and its kings, and its princes, to make them a desolation, and a trackless waste, and a hissing.

Concerning which prophecy, although in many manuscripts the order is disturbed, hear what he says in another place: You have seduced me, Lord, and I was seduced; you took hold of me, and prevailed; I have become a laughingstock, I have spent the whole day in derision. And on the contrary, he who is the advocate of Isaiah (he said) will bring forward this: that the Prophet, trusting not so much in his own merit as in the mercy of God, after he had heard from the Seraph, Behold this has touched your lips, and it will take away your iniquities, and will purge your sins, did not wish to grow sluggish in idleness, but offered himself unbidden to the ministry of God, out of zeal for the faith, as one free from sins.

Moses, however, because he had been trained in secular disciplines, and, having killed the Egyptian, his conscience was in some part defiled; whence also the voice came to him from the bush, saying: Do not come near here; loose the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground: and knowing that he would have a contest against the magicians and against Pharaoh, a most wicked king, he excused himself, saying: I beseech, Lord, I am not worthy: for which in the Hebrew it is read, I have not circumcised lips, the Seventy Translators expressing the sense rather than word for word. From which it can clearly be understood that Isaiah rightly, after his lips had been circumcised, offered himself to the ministry of God, while Moses, with lips still uncircumcised, refused so great a ministry. 16. With the ear you will hear, and you will not understand: and looking you will see, and you will not perceive.

This whole passage, as the Savior says in the Gospel, pertains to that time when he himself deigned to come down to the earth, and performed signs for the Jews who did not understand. And since a manifold explanation follows up to the end of the chapter, and we have already unfolded the wax tablets for the one taking dictation, let it suffice to have dictated thus far: for speech which is not polished by the pen of one's own hand, being already unrefined in itself, becomes much more tiresome if it doubles its tedium by prolixity; so that, tormented by pain of the eyes, we should give attention only to the ears and the tongue. 17. The Seventy: And there was sent to me one of the Seraphim; Aquila and Theodotion: And there flew to me one of the Seraphim; Symmachus: And there flew to me one of the Seraphim.

Daily a Seraph is sent to us, daily to those groaning and saying: Woe is me, for I am pierced with compunction, mouths are purified, and when they have been freed from sins, they prepare themselves for the ministry of God. But as for the other translators saying "flew" instead of "was sent," understand the swift arrival of the divine word upon those who are judged worthy of its fellowship. There is also a diversity in gender. The Seventy, Aquila, and Theodotion translated Seraphim in the neuter gender; Symmachus in the masculine. Nor should sex be thought to exist among the Powers of God, since even the Holy Spirit itself, according to the properties of the Hebrew language, is expressed in the feminine gender, RUHA: in Greek in the neuter, τὸ πνεῦμα: in Latin in the masculine, Spiritus. From which it is to be understood that, when higher things are discussed, and something masculine or feminine is applied, it does not so much signify sex as it sounds the idiom of the language.

Since indeed God himself, invisible and incorruptible, is expressed in almost all languages in the masculine gender, though sex does not apply to him. There is also the error, though a pious one, yet to be censured, of those who in their prayers and offerings dare to say: Who sits above the Cherubim and Seraphim. For that God sits above the Cherubim is written, as there: You who sit above the Cherubim, show yourself. But that God sits above the Seraphim, no Scripture records; and we do not find even the Seraphim themselves standing about God, except in the present passage, in all the holy Scriptures.

18. The Seventy: "And in his hand he had a coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth." Aquila and Theodotion: "and in his hand a stone in tongs, which he had taken from the altar, and he touched my mouth." Symmachus: "And in his hand a stone in tongs, which he had taken from the altar, and brought it to my mouth." As far as the historical sense is concerned, God seems to sit in the Temple of Jerusalem, and before him, according to the Seventy, in Isaiah a coal is brought from the altar: from the altar, that is, of incense or of burnt offerings.

But as far as the mystical understanding is concerned, that fire is sent to him which Jeremiah could not bear: for when it has penetrated the secret places of our soul, it so dissolves us, so refines us from the old man into the new, that we may burst forth into that saying: "Yet I live, now not I, but the grace of God which is in me". The tongs also, according to the other translators, though they always belonged among the priestly furnishings, we ought to take as signifying diverse graces, by which in many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers through the Prophets.

Because in the Hebrew, instead of "coal," "stone" is read, the others also agreeing on this point, it seems to me that the divine word is signified by the term "stone." For just as a stone is a kind of extremely hard and round stone, and smooth with all purity, so the word of God, which can yield to the contradictions neither of heretics nor of any adversaries, is called a stone. Of this stone Zipporah circumcised her son; and Jesus purges the people from their vices; and in the Apocalypse the Lord promises to those who overcome that they shall receive a stone and there shall be written upon it a new name. It seems to me, moreover, that the Seventy too, in that they translated ἄνθρακα, meant the same thing as the others. For ἄνθραξ, which we interpret as "carbuncle," is a kind of shining and gleaming stone, which we also find among the twelve stones.

Whether therefore we take it as "stone" or as "carbuncle," in the stone is shown the truth and rigor of the divine word; in the carbuncle, shining and manifest doctrine. "For the words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire, purified from earth, refined seven times". And elsewhere: "The commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes". But when it says: In his hand he had a coal, let us understand by "hand" the working of activity, as there, In the hand of the tongue are death and life; and in the Psalm: They shall fall by the hand of the sword; or else truly a hand appeared, so that, by the likeness of human form, while the hand of the one reaching out is seen, the Prophet might not be afraid, according to which we have seen even God himself, and Angels, change themselves into human forms, so that fear might be removed from those who saw them.

19. The Seventy: And he said, behold this has touched your lips, and it will take away your iniquities, and will purge your sins. Aquila: Behold this has touched your lips, and your iniquity will depart, and your sin will be propitiated. The other translators agree with Aquila's words. First it is necessary that our lips be touched: then, when they have been touched, that iniquity be put to flight; and when iniquity has been put to flight, that the Lord be propitiated: for with him is propitiation, and according to the Apostle: He is the propitiation for our sins. But when our sins have been purged, we shall hear the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send? And we shall answer: Behold, here I am, send me. 20. The Seventy: And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus: And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: whom shall I send? And who will go for us?

Concerning the comparison of Isaiah and Moses, how the one refused the ministry, while the other, offering himself unbidden, endured hardships, we have discussed elsewhere. But lest we seem to have passed over any of those things which the Jews call δευτερώσεις, and in which they place the whole of knowledge, we now briefly touch on this: why in the Hebrew it is set down, and who will go for us? For just as in Genesis it is said: Let us make man to our image and likeness; so also here, I think, it is said, and who will go for us? And by "us" for whom else are we to reckon but the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to whom he goes, whoever obeys their will? And indeed in that a single speaker's person is set forth, the unity of the Godhead is indicated. But in that "us" is said, the diversity of persons is indicated.

We read in the Song of Songs the voice of the bridegroom saying to the bride: Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove: for behold the winter has passed, the rain has gone away by itself. For when the soul feels tranquility in its thinking, when it is founded upon the rock, and its faith is fixed with a deep root, all the waves of temptation pass by it: and they do not pass by one who is being tempted. It is also to be noted how, to what the Lord had said, whom shall I send, and who will go for us, the Prophet answered only in part: Behold, here I am, send me, and was silent about what followed, understanding that no man is worthy to go for God, and to make his whole journey belong to him who sends him. The Lord, noticing this humility, in that he thought himself unworthy of the second part, commanded what follows, saying: Go. 21. The Seventy: And he said: Behold, here I am, send me.

Aquila and Theodotion: Behold, I am present, send me. Symmachus: Behold, send me. God, who calls those things that are not as though they were, and who said: I am who I am; and elsewhere: He who is has sent me, whomever he has called, he immediately causes to subsist: which is quite clear from the examples of Matthew the Evangelist, while alive, and of Lazarus, already dead four days: who, as soon as they were called by the Lord, the one left behind the tomb of avarice, and the other the tomb of his own death.

Since all things which are without him, are not. Whence the Prophet, purged from vices, dared to say: Behold, I am: although in the Latin codices, on account of the variety of Translators, "I am" is not added. Some think it should be observed, to whom the speech of the one sending, or of the one sent, is said, which in Greek is Apostle. And they wish this to be the difference: that whoever are sent, are Prophets and Apostles equally; but those to whom the speech of the sender is not applied, are only Prophets: which I think superfluous. And since we have once come to the discussion of this word: it should be known that Silas, Paul's colleague, is called Apostle in the Hebrew tongue: he who writes some Epistles with him. And it is read faultily as Silvanus for Silas, since we do not read Silvanus in the Acts of the Apostles.

To his most beloved son JEROME, DAMASUS Bishop, greeting in the Lord. When I was reading commentaries, in Greek and Latin speech, on the interpretation of the Gospels, written by our own men, that is, by orthodox men, both formerly and recently, concerning what is read, Hosanna to the son of David; they put forth not only different, but even contrary things among themselves. It is for your Love, with that burning keenness of intellect, having cut away opinions and having trampled down ambiguities, to write with a lively sense what the matter holds among the Hebrews; so that concerning this too, as concerning many things, they may render thanks to you for our care in Christ Jesus.

MANY have devised different things on this saying, among whom our Hilary, in his Commentaries on Matthew (c. 21, n. 3), put it thus: Hosanna in the Hebrew tongue signifies, redemption of the house of David. First, redemption in the Hebrew tongue is interpreted PHEDUTH: then house, BETH. But that David is not a name inserted in this place is evident to all. Others have supposed that Hosanna means glory. But glory is called CHABOD: some think grace, since grace is named THODA or ANNA.

2. It remains, therefore, that setting aside the rivulets of opinions, we return to the very fountain whence it was taken by the Evangelists.

For just as we cannot find that saying either in the Greek or in the Latin codices, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the Prophets: Because he shall be called a Nazarene"; and that other, "Out of Egypt I have called my son": so also now the truth must be drawn from the Hebrew codices, whence the common people, and especially the harmonious crowd of children, burst forth into this cry, Matthew saying: "And the crowds that went before, and that followed, cried out, saying: Hosanna to the son of David: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest". But Mark put it thus: "They cried out, saying, Hosanna: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest". John indeed agrees with the same word: "And they cried out, Hosanna: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel".

Luke alone did not put the word Hosanna, agreeing in the rest of the interpretation: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven, and glory in the highest". Therefore, as we have said, the Hebrew words themselves must be set forth, and the opinion of all the Translators arranged, so that the more easily what ought to be thought on this matter, the Reader himself may find out for himself from a review of them all.

3. In the hundred and seventeenth Psalm, where we read, "O Lord, save me, O Lord, make me prosper: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," in the Hebrew it is read, Anna adonai, OSIANNA, Anna adonai aslianna; Baruch abba basem adonai. Which Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Fifth Edition, lest we should seem to change anything in the Latin, express thus: ὦ δὴ Κύριε σῶσον δὴ, ὦ δὴ Κύριε εὐόδωσον δὴ, εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου. Only the Sixth Edition agrees with the Seventy Translators in this, that where the others put ὦ δὴ, they wrote ὦ.

And since OSIANNA, which we say corruptly through ignorance as OSANNA, is marked by the interpretation of all as meaning "save," or "make safe": now this remains a matter of concern, what the word ANNA alone, without the addition of saving, signifies. And it should be known that in this passage ANNA is said three times; and the first and second are written with the same letters, ALEPH, NUN, HE, but the third with HE, NUN, HE. Symmachus, therefore, who in the hundred and seventeenth Psalm had agreed with the interpretation of all, in order to give us a clearer understanding, in the hundred and fourteenth Psalm, where it is said: "O Lord, deliver my soul," translated it thus: "I beseech, Lord, deliver my soul." But where the Seventy translated ὦ, and he, "I beseech," while Aquila and the other Editions translate ὦ δὴ, in the Hebrew it is written ANNA: but so that it has ALEPH at the beginning, not HE.

From which we observe, that if ANNA is written with ALEPH, "I beseech" is signified; but if with HE, it is a conjunction, or interjection, which among the Greeks is put as δὴ, and is in σῶσον δὴ, whose meaning the Latin tongue does not express.

4. But since these minutiae and the secret of this sort of discussion, on account of the strangeness alike of the language and of the letters, cause trouble to the reader, I come to a brief explanation, so as to say, concerning the hundred and seventeenth Psalm, which clearly prophesies of Christ, and was very frequently read in the synagogues of the Jews, whence it was also better known to the people, that these verses were taken up: that he who was promised of the race of David had come to save Israel, David saying, "The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. This is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day which the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it. O Lord, save me: O Lord, make me prosper: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord: the Lord is God, and he has shone upon us". Whence also the writing of the Evangelists records, that the Pharisees and Scribes were moved with this indignation, because they saw the people understand the prophecy of the Psalm concerning Christ as fulfilled, and the children crying, Hosanna to the son of David, said to him: "Do you hear what these are saying?" and Jesus answered them: "Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise'"? Confirming the hundred and seventeenth Psalm by the assertion of the eighth Psalm. And concerning that which could be easily expressed, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," the writing of all the Evangelists agrees.

But concerning the word OSIANNA, because they could not translate it into Greek, as we see done also in ALLELUIA, and in AMEN, and in many other cases, they put the Hebrew word itself, saying, OSIANNA. Luke, therefore, who among all the Evangelists was the most learned in the Greek tongue, being, as a physician, one who wrote his Gospel for the Greeks, because he saw that he could not transfer the property of the language, judged it better to be silent than to put down what would raise a question for the reader.

5. In sum, just as we in the Latin language have certain interjections, so that in mocking we say "vah," and in wondering "papae," and in grieving "heu": and when we wish to impose silence, we constrict our breath with clenched teeth and produce only a hiss, sounding "sith": so the Hebrews, among the other properties of their language, have an interjection, so that when they wish to beseech the Lord, they place a word of petitioning affection, and say, ANNA Lord, which the Seventy rendered, "O Lord." OSI, therefore, is interpreted "save"; ANNA is the interjection of one beseeching. If you wish to make a compound word out of these two, you will say OSIANNA, or as we say, OSANNA, the middle vowel letter being elided; just as we are accustomed to do in the verses of Virgil, when for "mene incepto" we scan, giving up conquered, "men incepto." For the ALEPH, the first letter of the following word, coming, excludes the final AIN of the preceding word.

Wherefore, that we may return to the origin of the question, where we read in the Latin: "O Lord, save me; O Lord, be well pleased: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," according to the Hebrew sense we can read: "I beseech, Lord, save; I beseech, Lord, prosper, I beseech: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." But "save" is said, so that we may understand "your people Israel," or generally, the world. Finally, Matthew, who wrote his Gospel in the Hebrew tongue, put it thus, Osanna barrama, that is, Hosanna in the highest: because, at the birth of the Savior, salvation reached even to heaven, that is, even to the heights, peace being made not only on earth, but also in heaven; so that now it might at last cease to be said: "My sword is drunk in heaven".

6. These things, meanwhile, according to the mediocrity of my understanding, I have dictated briefly and concisely.

But let Your Beatitude know, that in disputations of this sort, no annoyance ought to creep in upon the reader; because we too could easily have invented something which would resolve the question by a single word, just as we have shown others have done: but it is more fitting to labor a little for the sake of truth, and to lend an ear to a foreign tongue, than to report a fabricated opinion about another's language.