Letter to John of Jerusalem Concerning the Name of Rufinus

But to return to the matter: Rufinus, concerning whom you have deigned to consult me, has the divine majesty as the arbiter of his own conscience; before which he himself must see, with the full devotion of his duty, how he ought to approve himself.

But as for Origen, whose writings he has rendered into our tongue, our purpose does not know either who he formerly was, or into what words he proceeded. But what my own mind's concern is, I shall for a little while confer with your holiness on this matter. This, then, I have conceived in my mind: that the reading of the translated Origen, made known to the peoples of this City, has, as it were, cast a cloud of blindness upon pure minds, so that he seems to have wished, by devious windings, to dissolve the faith of the Apostles and that established by the tradition of our forefathers.

It is fitting here to inquire what this translation accomplishes for the Roman tongue. I approve it, if it accuses the author, and brings his execrable deed before the people, so that he who had long since been bound by ill fame may at last be held in just hatred. But if the translator lends his consent to such great evils, and publishes them to be read by the people, he has accomplished nothing else by the labor of his work, except that, as though by the judgment of his own mind, he should overturn, under the title of an unexpected assertion, those things which alone, which first, which among Catholic Christians have been held in true faith from the time of the Apostles even to this present day.

Far be this from the catholic discipline of the Roman Church. Never indeed shall it come to pass that we should admit by reason those things which we justly and deservedly condemn. Wherefore that providence of Christ our God, spread throughout the whole world, will deign to prove that we can in no wise accept things which defile the Church, overturn approved morals, wound the ears of those who stand by, and give rise to quarrels, wraths, and dissensions. Moved by which, you will be able to ascertain from what follows what sort of letter our own smallness has, with more diligent care, composed and sent to our brother and fellow-bishop Venerius: whence, then, he who made the translation may keep this conscience with himself, I labor under no superfluous dread, nor am I disturbed by an empty fear.

Certainly it will not be lacking to me as a care, to guard the faith of the Gospel among my peoples, and, so far as I am able, to unite by letters the parts of my body scattered through the various regions of the earth, lest any source of profane interpretation creep in, which, having cast its darkness upon them, might attempt to shake devout minds. This too, which I rejoice has come to pass, I could not keep silent: that Responses have issued from our most blessed Princes, by which everyone who serves God is recalled from the reading of Origen; and he is condemned by the sentence of the Princes whom that profane reading has proved guilty. Thus far the form of my judgment has proceeded.

But since the common complaint concerning Rufinus disturbs you, so that you pursue certain persons with vague suspicions, I shall restrain this opinion of yours by the example of the divine reading, as it is written: Man is not as God: for God sees into the heart, man sees the face. Therefore, dearest brother, laying aside all suspicion, weigh Rufinus in your own mind: if he has translated the sayings of Origen into Latin, and has approved them, he is not unlike the guilty one who lends his assent to another's faults. Yet this I desire you to hold, that he is to be regarded as so estranged from our communion, that we do not even wish to know what he does or where he is. Let him himself, in the end, see to it where he may be absolved.