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TRANSLATIONS OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
GENERAL EDITORS : W. J. SPARROW-SIMPSON, D.D.,
W. K. LOWTHER CLARKE, B.D.
SERIES I
GREEK TEXTS
GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
OF CHKEftM
LITERATURE . SEMES I
GREEK TEXTS
GREGOW
THAUMATURGfUS
ADDRESSroOiyGEN
By W METCMJFE.BX).
*~*r
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. London
The Macmillan. Companu .
1920 l
First published 1907 wider the tltk of
" Origen the Teacher?
Re-issue 1930.
PREFACE
THE name of Origen is inseparably connected
with the Catechetical School of Alexandria, over
which he presided for almost thirty years (A.D. 203-
231). Yet the most graphic sketch of Origen the
teacher has for background not Alexandria, but
Csesarea. The Farewell Address which Gregory
the Wonder-worker composed, and in all proba-
bility also delivered, on the occasion of his leaving
Origen's circle there, and Origen's letter of acknow-
ledgment, are not only precious remnants of the
once abundant materials for the personal history
of Origen, but also important documents in the
history of Christian learning. Until the publication
of Koetschau's handy edition, 1 they were not easily
accessible, being buried in somewhat scarce and
expensive collected editions (a remark which
applies equally to the existing translations). 2 The
text, too, was none of the best, and even when
editors have done their utmost, Gregory's style is
1 Des Gregorios Thaumaturges Dankrede an Origenes,
als Anhang der Brief des Origenes an Gregorios Th., heraus-
gegeben von Dr. phil. Paul Koetschau. Leipzig, 1894
(Kriiger's QuellenscJiriften^ Heft 9).
2 There is an English translation of the Address by the
late Principal Salmond in Vol. xx. of Clark's Ante-Nicene
Library, and of the Letter in the supplementary volume to
the same series by Prof. Allan Menzies, p. 295.
6316051
6 PREFACE
such a quagmire, a thicket, a labyrinth, to borrow
his own comparisons, that he is by no means easy
to follow. For my own part, when I first encoun-
tered the Address, I was driven to write down the
translation as the only way of making sense of the
text. Any one who knows Lommatzsch's text will
understand what I mean. 1 I afterwards came across
Koetschau's edition, and it occurred to me that a
new translation from his texts might be accept-
able to the increasing number of those who take an
interest in such studies, but who have not the time
or patience to wrestle with Gregory's original.
The Letter to Gregory is an interesting example
of Origen's habits of thought, and equally with
the Address, forms perhaps the best introduction
to the study of Origen's writings.
1 Origenis Opera^ xxv., p. 339.
GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
INTRODUCTION
l
S. GREGORY the Wonder-worker, whose original
name was Theodoras, was of a heathen family be-
longing to Pontus. He and his brother Athenodorus
were drawn by a series of events which he details
below (c. v.) into the circle which had newly gathered
round Origen at Csssarea, and eventually returned
home to become the founders of the Church of their
native land. 1 Having been ordained the first
bishop of Pontus, Gregory applied himself to the
evangelisation of the province with such devotion
that, as has been said, when he began he found
only seventeen Christians ; when death ended his
life-work there remained only seventeen heathen.
The date of his birth is nowhere stated, but it
may be calculated as not later than 212 A.D. (cf.
Koetschau, p. xv.). According to Suidas, he died
in the reign of Aurelian (270-275).
The legends which speedily gathered round the
first bishop of Pontus, and procured for him the title
J EuseblUS, H. E. VI. 30. '&$ eri veovs a/JL(j>& ^iruricoirqs TWV
Kara Il6urov XK\rjv &utr/u^, H. E. v. 10 ; rb fo-
SaffKaXeiov r$>v tepoov X6ycav, ibid. ; 5. rrls tfcmyx^eajs- ?) rov
KOLT-nx^v 5iarpij8^, vi. 3. A full list is given by Rcdepenning,
Origems, I. p; 57 n,
3 Holm, Hist. Greece, IV., 307 E.T., describes the original
foundation as one " which had something of the Institut de
France^ and something of the colleges at Oxford and
Cambridge."
INTRODUCTION 13
nounced a feature that " to eat one's dinner " was
as well understood there as at the Inns of Court, 1
botanical gardens, and zoological collections. Under
Roman rule it continued to enjoy the Imperial
patronage. Contemporaneously with the increase
of learned institutions throughout the empire early
in the Christian era, the Museum became some-
what more of a place of instruction. Part of its
library of 700,000 rolls had been burned by Julius
Ccesar. That section which was housed in the
Sarapeum had escaped. The loss was partly
made up by Claudius, who founded the Claudi-
anum, in which his historical compositions were
to be recited annually ; while Hadrian not only
transferred the rich collection of Pergamus to
Alexandria, but also increased the number of chairs
there. The University, for so we may now call it,
was a close reflection of the intellectual habits of
the time, in that it had chairs of the four chief
schools of philosophy, 2 It was famous as a medical
school. To say of a physician that he came from
Egypt was in itself a sufficient recommendation. 3
and greate$t of all was the fame of its grammarians
and literary critics. 4
r The Alexandrians did not put it quite so politely ot fr r$
? ffirovpevoi, Neocorus, p. 2773 ; B(J following whom
Koetschau has entitled it Dankrede in his edition.
In the MS. it is usually found along with Contra
Celsum y and was regarded as a testimonium to
Origen from the more orthodox Gregory, In the
same sense Pamphilus affixed it to his Apologia.
Socrates (If. E. iv. 27) accordingly calls it ora-
TLKOS Xoyos.
The Address is drawn up in due Form with
prooemium, main body, and conclusion as
follows
" Gregory professes his incompetence for the task,
owing to his inexperience in composition, due to
his eight years' want of practice and his legal
studies in another language, but he dare not refuse
it lest he seem guilty of ingratitude " (i.-iii. m.}.
He begins his speech by thanking God through
Christ, and his guardian angel, and introduces a
sketch of his early years and the events by which
his angel led him and committed him to the care
of Origen (iii. ;#.-vi.). He details Origen's methods
of instruction, as summarised in the previous
pages (vii.-xv.). A lamentation over his depar-
ture from the paradise of Origen's circle to the far
country of secular life (xvi.-xvii.) leads to the
Conclusion, in which he begs Origen's blessing
and remembrances (xviii.-xix.).
The date of the Address is somewhat difficult to
c
34 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
determine. It contains two notes of time. One is
in c. i., where Gregory explains his incompetence
for his self-imposed task by saying that for eight
years he has composed no speech and has heard none
save from these admirable men who have embraced
the true philosophy, who, Draseke notwithstanding,
are members of Origen's circle. The other passage
is in c. v., where, referring to the beginning of their
acquaintance, he says that Origen was newly
arrived in Caesarea, " as if to meet us." But before
founding on these passages, we have to take into
consideration (a) the statement of Eusebius, H. E.
vi. 30, that Theodore and his brother studied five
full years with Origen, and (b) the difficulty of
determining the exact date of Origen's departure
from Alexandria and his arrival at Cassarea.
Meanwhile it may be observed that Eusebius, in
c. 29, before the passage just cited, mentions
the accession of Gordian (June 238), which would
indicate that the Address was not delivered earlier
than that date, and that Gregory's meeting with
Origen was not earlier than the middle of 233.
Koetschau has made the most recent examina-
tion of the question, and has given an excellent
summary of the evidence, which, however, scarcely
bears out his conclusions. He accepts Eusebius'
statement that Gregory was five years with Origen,
and would make Gregory's eight years include the
three years or so during which his literary studies
gave place to the study of Latin and law previous
to his departure for Berytus (c. v.). It is true that
INTRODUCTION 35
In c. iiL, a paragraph further on, Gregory does
refer to his legal studies and his difficulties with
Latin as a further disability, but even making
every allowance for the eccentricities of Gregory's
style, it is surely a somewhat forced interpretation
to carry the force of d/craer^s over a page or so of
very confused Greek. Is it not possible that Gregory
means by d/acter?]? simply that he was eight years
with Origen, and that Eusebius' TreWe is due to
writing E' for H' ? Draseke suggests that it may
be an inference from the fact that in 235 the perse-
cution of Maximin broke out (p. 105).
There remains the further question of Origen's
arrival at Csesarea.
According to Eusebius, Chronica (cod. Amandi-
nus), it occurred in A. Abr. 2248 = 230 A.D., accord-
ing to Jerome in 2249 = 231 A.D., and according to
the Armenian version in 2252 = 234. In his Church
History, Eusebius gives another date, and that one
which can be checked. He says in vi. 26 that soon
after Origen's final departure from Alexandria,
Demetrius died in the tenth year of the reign of
Alexander Severus, i. e. 231, and in the forty-third
of his bishopric, which accordingly began in 188.
In favour of this, and against the other reading
8co8e/ca in vi. 26, we have the statement, in v. 22,
that Demetrius took in hand the office of bishop
in the tenth year of Commodus=i88 or 189.
The date of Origen's great opponent may there-
fore betaken as definitely fixed. By 231 Origen
had left Alexandria for ever. We cannot imagine
36 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
that he had any inducement to linger on the road
between there and Csesarea, certainly not to spend
a year or two, as Koetschau asserts (p. xiv.). Rather
he went out in haste, as the Israelites had gone up
out of Egypt (In Joann. vi. init.), and as Eusebius'
language seems to imply, was already in Csesarea
when Demetrius died in the course of the year.
By the end of it, or early in 232, Gregory and
Athenodorus must have halted at Csesarea, while
the charm of novelty still surrounded Origen's
arrival. If we take his own statement that he spent
eight years attending Origen's lectures, and not
necessarily therefore neglecting his legal studies
(his brother-in-law would see to that), then his
return to Pontus and the delivery of the Address
would fall as nearly as possible in the end of 239,
or at latest early in 240, previous to Origen's
departure for Athens.
The date of Origens Letter is more difficult to
determine, and this question is further complicated
with the question of its purpose, There are two
theories. According to the general view, in which
Koetschau follows Ryssell and Redepenning, the
Letter is an acknowledgment of the Address, written
from Nicomedia, on the way to Greece, in 240.
The other view places the Letter earlier, and
regards it as a warning against the seductions of
philosophy to which Gregory was exposed while
he was seeking asylum in Egypt during the per-
secution of Maximin, 235-237. This view has been
expounded by Draseke, as the result of a careful
INTRODUCTION 37
examination of the Letter and Address. 1 His main
contentions are as follow
(a) The Letter contemplates two courses as open
to Gregory : Law or Philosophy. But in the Ad-
dress (c. xiv.), Gregory's mind is made up, and he
looks forward not too enthusiastically to the sordid
and unquiet atmosphere of the law courts of his
native place.
() Origen's advice to cultivate philosophy as
ancillary to the earnest and prayerful study of
theology and the Scriptures seems superfluous if
offered subsequently to the Address (see especially
cc. xiL-xv.) which recounts Gregory's diligence in
precisely such a course of study, beginning with
philosophy and culminating in theology and
scriptural exegesis.
(c) So far as we know, Gregory had practically
completed his studies when he returned to Neo-
Csesarea; while the Letter finds him undecided,
and in a spirit very different from that evinced at
the end of the Address.
Draseke further suggests that we have here an
explanation of Gregory of Nyssa's statement that
Gregory studied under Origen at Alexandria,
namely, that he did for a time study at Alex-
andria, during the Maximinian persecution, when
Origen's circle was broken up. We may set aside
Draseke's assertions that there was no circle of
1 Jahrbucher fur frotestantische Theplogie^ vii. 1881, p,
102, Dr, J. Draseke, Der Brief des Origenes an Gregorios
von Neocasarea.
38 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
students about Origen at Csesarea (119), and
that the OavjjLao-ioi avbpes of the Address (c. i.)
can only mean Alexandrian teachers. They are
no assistance, but rather the reverse, to his main
argument The questions which we have to con-
sider are, whether Origen and his friends had to
leave Caesarea during the persecution, and whether
Gregory would find Alexandria safer than Csesarea.
Koetschau has summed up the evidence against
Origen's withdrawal. Gregory does not allude to
it in his Address. Eusebius (77. E. vi. 28), though
he refers to Origen's notices of the persecution,
never says that he had to leave Cassarea. The
only authority for such an assertion is Palladius. 1
"The error of the otherwise utterly unreliable
Palladius is to be explained as a misunderstand-
ing or mis-statement of Eusebius' words (H. E.
vi. 27, 28), and a combination of these passages
with an earlier one" (vi. i/). 2
But on the other hand, Eusebius (H, E. vi. 28)
represents the persecution as animated by Maxi-
min's dislike to Alexander and all his friends, the
Church among the rest, and her leaders in particular.
As Draseke remarks, Caesarea and Origen would
be among the first to feel the weight of Maximin's
resentment. If Ambrose and Protoctetus were
in uncommon danger (7re/Horax ^ TV^OVCTO)
we can hardly suppose that Origen, who had been
in intimate relations with Alexander and Julia,
1 Historia Lausiaca^ Rosweyd De Vitis Patrum, vii. c. 147.
2 Koetschau, p. xiii.
INTRODUCTION 39
would escape notice. It should be observed that
in c. 30 Eusebius returns to Origen with the
words, ro> Se 'H/uyeW CTH rrjs Kcucrapaas ra o-wrjOij
TrpcLTTovri, as if to imply that after the death of
Maximin he was able to resume his usual duties at
Caesarea. He uses a somewhat similar phrase at
the end of vi, 19 to describe Origen's resumption
of his duties at Alexandria after an absence of
some duration.
Origen's own notice of the persecution, in the
22nd book on S. John, has perished. Preuschen
has confounded it with a very vague allusion in the
32nd (c. 3. p. 408 R., Origines, IV., p. Ixxx.). There is
another passage, however, which may be connected
with it, xxviii. p. 399 R., a>
5icoy^60?s /cat rcus K.a& fjfji&
. But this is such a commonplace
among the Alexandrians, that we can scarcely
venture to refer it to any particular case.
Finally, if we suppose with Draseke that Origen's
Letter was addressed to Gregory while he was in
Alexandria, then we have the reason for his choice
of the comparisons of the treasures of the Egyptians
and the case of Hadad the Edomite. They repre-
sent Gregory's own case, sojourning for a time in
Egypt, not merely in figure, but in fact, and sorely
tempted by the attractions of secular life.
As to the second question, whether Gregory
would be safer at Alexandria than at Csesarea, Zona-
ras xii. 19, states that during the persecution Philip
the Arabian was Prefect of Egypt, and no doubt he
40 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
would do little to carry out Maximin's designs.
But while quite a safe refuge for Gregory, Alex-
andria was impossible for Origen in view of his
comparatively recent expulsion in 231.
On the whole, we are inclined to agree with
Draseke in regarding the Letter as anterior to the
Address, and as dating from the Maximinian
persecution, 235-237,
Koetschau's text of the Address (V) is based upon
the Vatican MS. Gr. 386, belonging to the thirteenth
century, which he denotes by A. As has been in-
dicated, Contra Celsum is in the same volume.
According to Koetschau (Texte u. Untersuchungen
VI. pt i), A is the parent MS. of the Venetian
MSS., gr. 45 (M), and gr. 44 (V). From the latter
are derived the MSS. gr. 146 in New College
Library, Oxford, and Palatine- Vaticanus gr. 309,
on which HoscheFs edition of 1605 * s based. In
addition to the separate edition by Hoschel already
mentioned, there is one by J. A. Bengel (Stuttgard,
1722) with a selection of notes. The English
translations have been named in the Preface (p.
5). Latin translations accompany the editions of
Vossius (by Jacob Sirmond), Hoschel (Laurent.
Rhodomanus), and Bengel. There is a German
translation in the Kemptener Bibliothek der Kir-
chenvater, Vol. 159. For the above information I
am indebted to Koetschau's Introduction to his
edition.
INTRODUCTION 41
The Address is prefixed also to the Paris MS.,
S. Gr. 6 1 6, dated 1339 (P), which Koetschau
agrees with Dean Armitage Robinson in deriving
from A.
The Address was first printed by Vossius in 1604
(S. Gregorii . . . Thaumaturgi opera om.}. Gal-
land's text (Bibliotheca Vet. Patrum, 1778, Vols.
III., XIV.) is reprinted by Migne Patr. Gr., Vol X.
It is also included in Origen's works, Delarue,
Vol. IV., app. ; Lommatzsch, Vol. XXV., p. 339.
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN
Saint Gregory the Wonder-worker's Address to
Origen> which he delivered in Ccssarea of Palestine
after his many years 1 study with hwi^ when he was
about to depart to his fatherland.
I. A good thing is silence for men generally on
many occasions, but especially at the present
moment for me, who, whether I wish it or not, am
muzzled and constrained to be silent For I find
myself unpractised and without skill of your fair
and seemly discourses, which are spoken or com-
posed in choice and well-weighed words and
phrases in well-connected and unbroken sequence ;
perhaps because I have not the gifts for labouring
this graceful and truly Hellenic art, or, what is
more, because for eight years 1 I have not spoken
or written a discourse great or small myself, nor
have heard any one else writing or speaking in
private, or delivering a panegyric or holding a
disputation in public, except these admirable men
who have embraced the true philosophy. 2 These
are little concerned with fine diction and the
seemliness of words. They put the sound in the
second place, and choose to concern themselves
with the facts and their particular and accurate
1 See Introduction, p. 34.
2 Cf. ibid.
42
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 43
investigation and exposition. Not, I think, that
they do not desire, for indeed they desire exceed-
ingly, to express the nobility and accuracy of their
thoughts in noble and seemly speech ; but because
they cannot readily embrace in one, and that only
a small and human soul, both the sacred and divine
" power " residing in thought, and the " word n of
eloquence which resides in utterance, 1 two things
the coveted desire of every man, yet so incompati-
ble since indeed silence is in some sort the
friend and fellow- worker of thought and research,
but the aptness and fluency of the word you
would seek and find nowhere else than in articulate
sounds and their constant practice.
And what is more, yet another study hampers
my mind greatly, and the word ties my tongue if
I should desire to speak ever so little in the
language of the Hellenes our marvellous laws, by
which now the affairs of all men under the dominion
of the Romans are directed, neither composed nor
studied without labour, which in themselves are
wise and accurate and copious and admirable, and
in a word, most Hellenic, but are expressed and
handed down in the language of the Romans, so
striking and brave and wholly conformable to
Imperial power, but so burdensome to me.
Yet it could not be otherwise, nor would I say
that I desired it. And forasmuch as our utter-
ances are but a sort of pictures of the affections of
our souls, let us acknowledge that it is with capable
1 I Cor. iv. 19, 20 ; cf. Injoannem^ I 20,
44 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
speakers as with good painters, thorough artists in
their art and rich in store of colours, who are in no
wise embarrassed thereby, but are enabled to exe-
cute, not mere likenesses, but pictures varied and
of enhanced beauty by the very mingling of many
colours.
II. But as for ourselves, like poverty-stricken
artists, destitute of these various colours, either
having never owned them, or perhaps having
squandered them, as with charcoal or potsherds,
these usual and common words and phrases, 1 let us
with the words convenient to us, copying according
to our ability, endeavour to give some indication
of the outlines of the patterns in our soul, if not
brilliantly or even tastefully, at least like a plain
black and white sketch. Though if any word fair
or pleasing to the tongue comes our way, we
welcome it gladly, since we value it highly.
But in the third place, yet another thing
hinders me and turns me aside, and restrains me
much more than the others, and bids me keep
silence ; and that is my subject, which at once in-
cites me to speak, and makes me pause and
hesitate. For I propose to speak of one to
appearance and opinion only a man, but to those
who can see, prepared even now in virtue of his
greatness with the great preparation for the tran-
sition into the divine. It is not his race nor his
1 Cf. Injoannem^ iv. 2, where the earthen vessels of 2 Cor.
iv. 17, are said to represent the commonplace diction of the
Scriptures which the Greeks hold in contempt.
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 45
bodily nurture that I am proceeding to praise
and then pausing and casting about in excess of
misgiving; nor is it his strength or beauty. These,
forsooth, are the praises of striplings, which occa-
sion little anxiety whether worthily or unworthily
spoken. For as for making a discourse in solemn
form and with becoming hesitation whether too
cold or too impetuous, on things not abiding or
steadfast, but liable to all manner of speedy disso-
lution, I would not, even had the task set me been
to speak on any of those things which are useless
and vain, and such as I would never willingly have
set myself to speak on no, if such a task had
been set me, my speech would have contained
no trace of misgiving or care, lest in any
expression I should seem to come short of its
merits. But now I am about to recall whatever is
most God-like in him, whatever in him is akin to
God, whatever, though imprisoned in this appear-
ance and mortality, is forcing its way with all
welcome toil unto likeness with God. 1 I am about
to touch, as I may, on things too great for me ;
and on some measure of the thanksgiving due
1 " Nothing in Clement is more startling to the reader of
the present day than his repeated assertion of the deification
of the gnostic, not merely in the future (as here, Strom, vil.,
P. 830) but in this present life, as in P. 894. ... See also
Harnack, Dogmengesch., who goes so far as to say that the
idea of deification is to be found ' in all the Fathers of the
ancient Church after Origen' (Vol. III. 164 n. tr.), cf. his
Excursus on the use of the word e6s (Vol. I. 1 19), and the
references in the Index under the heading Deification.'"
Hort-Mayor, Seventh book of the Stromateis^ p. 203.
46 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
through him to God, that it was granted me to
happen upon such a man, contrary to all human
expectation, even my own, who never intended
or expected it; and purposing to touch on such
matters, I, who am so little and utterly devoid of
wisdom, shrink and hesitate and fain would be
silent.
To keep silence, forsooth, is obviously the safe
course for me, lest under pretence of compliment,
but quite as much from forwardness, I utter irre-
verent and vile and trivial discourse about things
reverend and holy, and not merely come short of
the truth, but, according to my poor inability,
even take from it in the opinion of those who are
convinced that the feeble word will be framed in
detraction, rather than in power adequate to the
facts which it would describe.
Yet, dear Head, 1 no detraction or insult can
touch thy qualities, still less the divine, abiding
in their place as they do, unshaken, unaffected
by our little unworthy words. But how we are
to escape the reproach of rashness and forward-
ness we know not, rushing ignorantly with little
sense or preparation on matters great and per-
haps too high for us. Had we presumed to indulge
in these youthful indiscretions elsewhere and on
other persons, even then we had been rash and
venturesome enough ; but at least shameless
effrontery would not have been the blame of our
forwardness, inasmuch as we should not have exer-
1 A reminiscence of the opening of the Antigone.
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 47
cised our rashness on thee. But now we are about
to fill up the measure of our folly nay, have
already filled it in daring to break with unwashen
feet (as the Word saith) on ears whereon the Word
of God Himself walks and resides, not as on most
men's, shod with the thick hide of enigmatical and
dark sayings, but barefooted, clear and evident 1
But we, bearing our mere human words, like so
much filth and mud, dare to bring them to ears
trained to listen to divine and pure voices.
Is it not enough to have erred so far? Must we
not begin to be sober, and proceed no further, but
stop here? I would fain do so. Yet since I have
once been so rash, let me recite the cause which
has hurried me so far in this enterprise, if by
any means I may find pardon for this piece of
forwardness.
III. To my mind unthankfulness is a dreadful
thing, dreadful, yea, utterly dreadful, For to ex-
perience good and not endeavour to repay it at
least by words of thanksgiving, if no other means be
possible, is the mark of one witless wholly and
insensible to benefits, or of one bereft of memory.
For whoever felt and appreciated the benefits he
received even though the memory is not pre-
served to subsequent times if he does not at
the moment offer some thanks to the source of
his good, he is evil and unthankful and unholy,
and guilty of a sin unpardonable in great or small ;
if he be great and of great mind, for not having
1 Cf. Injoannem^ xxxii. 6 ', and below, cap. xv. init.
48 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
his great benefits always on his lips with every
expression of thankfulness and praise ; if he be
small and of little account, for not lauding and
blessing with all his might his benefactor not only
in great things, but in small. Those of great and
proficient mental powers, as out of greater abund-
ance and great wealth, ought to render their
benefactors the greater and more zealous thanks
according to their power ; while as for those who
are little and in straitened circumstances, it does
not become them to be negligent or indolent, nor to
take their ease under pretext of being unable to
offer aught worthy or perfect . But, as befits men
poor yet willing, they should reckon not his whom
they honour, but their own power, and offer thanks
according to their ability, gracious, it may be, and
agreeable to him who is honoured, and in his judg-
ment not inferior to the great and numerous, if
offered with ample zeal and whole-heartedness.
So in the sacred books it is borne that a small and
poor woman in comparison with the rich and able
who brought of their wealth great and precious
gjft s she alone, who cast in a small, yea, the
smallest gift, yet her all, received the testimony
that she had offered the greatest gift. For it
was not, I deem, by the amount of material offered
the external but rather by the thoughts and
preferences which prompted the offering, that the
Divine Word weighed its value and magnificence.
So, even for us it is not becoming to desist for fear
our thanks should be unequal to the benefaction ;
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 49
but on the contrary to venture and endeavour to
offer, if not adequate, at least our available thanks
in some sort of return, in the hope that if we fail of
the perfect, our discourse may at least attain to the
partial, and escape the reproach of utter thank-
lessness. 1 For utter silence under the specious
pretext of inability to say anything worthy is in
truth unprofitable. But an attempt at acknow-
ledgment is always a mark of consideration, even
though the ability of him that offers thanks be
less than desert calls for. So I will not be silent,
even though I am unable to speak worthily. If I
only say all that I can say, I shall congratulate
myself.
So let this speech of mine be one of thanks-
giving. I would not choose to address the God of
all, although from Him are the beginnings of all our
benefits, and with Him, too, we should begin our
thanksgivings, and hymns, and praises. Yet not
even if I could present myself whole, not such as I
am now, defiled and unclean, mixed and alloyed
with utter and uncleansable evil, but my naked
self, all clean, all bright, all sparkling, without any
admixture of evil not even, I say, if I could
present myself all naked like some new birth,
should I of myself bear any gift adequate to the
praise and recompense of the Master and Cause of
all, whom no one, no, not all men together, could
ever worthily bless, not even though the whole
i St. Luke xxi. i. Eth. Nic. viii., 6, 7 ; Hort-Mayor,
P 2 32.
50 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
universe, purified and become one and the same, all
things rapt out of themselves, or rather coming
again to Himself, should combine in one breath
and one burst of harmony. What of His works
even could any one comprehend excellently and
completely, and, if possible, celebrate worthily?
Nay, from the very nature of man's power, which
he obtained from none other than Him, it is im-
possible to find elsewhere anything greater which
he might offer in thanksgiving.
IV. But our blessings and laudations to the King
and Provider of all, the unfailing source of all good,
let us entrust to Him that healeth our infirmity
even in this also, and alone is able to supply
what is lacking, the Defender and Saviour of our
souls, His First-born Word, the Creator and Pilot
of all things, who Himself alone, on His own
behalf, and on behalf of us all, singly and
unitedly, is able to send up continuous and unceas-
ing thanksgivings to the Father. For He is the
Truth, and the Wisdom and Power of the very
Father of all. 1 Moreover, being in Him and
with Him, it cannot be that through forgetfulness
or foolishness, or by reason of any infirmity as of
one foreign to Him, He should lack power of
thanks, or not lacking it with reverence be it said
leave the Father unblessed. For He alone has
power to fill up perfectly the worthiness of the
praises offered through Him, whom the very Father
of all, having made one with Himself, that
1 i Cor. i. 24 ; S. John xiv. 10.
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 51
through Him alone, only not circumscribing Him-
self, He might honour and be honoured with
power in all respects equal to His own a lot
which He first and only of all existences ob-
tained, His Only-Begotten, the Word God in Him.
Thus only are the thanks and worship of all
other beings possible, when we bring and refer to
Him alone the power of worthy thanks for all the
benefits which come from the Father to us, con-
fessing that this is the one path of piety, the com-
plete remembrance through Him of the Cause of
all. Wherefore, then, since the Providence which
extends unto all, careth for us both in the greatest
and in the least, and preventeth us thus far, be that
acknowledged the perfect and worthy Word for
thanksgiving and praises which is most perfect and
quick and the living Word of the First Intelligence
Himself.
Let this our Address then be one of thanks-
giving, if of men, to this holy man here above all : or
if I wished to speak in loftier strain of those who
appear not, but are nearer the divine, and have a
care of men, let it be to him who by some great
dispensation obtained the lot of governing me
from childhood and tending me and caring for me,
the holy angel of God " who nourished me from
my youth up J) saith that man dear to God. But
he means his own angel. For he, being great,
would in due proportion have some one of the
greatest, yea, perchance the very Angel of Mighty
Counsel, the common Saviour of all ; by reason of
52 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
his perfection having had Him alone allotted as his
guardian. 1 I do not know clearly : he only knows
and blesses his angel, a good one, whosoever he
be. And we, in addition to the common Governor
of all men, bless him who is the tutor of our own
infancy, who in all things has been our all-good
fosterer and guardian (not in the way that appeared
good to myself or any of my kindred and friends,
for we were blind and saw nothing in front of us
so as to be able to decide what was necessary, but
as appeared good to Him who foresaw all things
that were for the benefit of our soul), who has of
old, and now still nurtures me, chastens me, and
leads me by the hand, and, moreover, ordered all
things so as to bring me in contact with many,
but pre-eminently with this man this is the
chiefest thing of all. I was not bound to him by
any human kinship or blood, nor otherwise related
to him, nor one of his neighbours, nor even of
the same race, the usual occasions of friend-
ship and acquaintance. But, in a word, unknown,
alien, estranged as we were, separated from each
other so far as intervening mountains and rivers
could divide us, us He brought together by His truly
divine and wise providence and wrought this
saving companionship for me, having purposed it
aforetime, I think, from my very birth and infancy.
Yet how He did this would be a long tale to tell,
1 Gen. xlviii. 15 : Isai. x. 6. The belief in guardian angels
was held not only in the Church, but among^ the Gnostics
(Neander, Ch. Hist, ii. 57, 60) and the Stoics (Lightfoot,
S) 279 n). Cf. Plato, Rep. x. 620 E.
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 53
not only if I insisted on every detail, and made no
attempt to omit anything, but even if I should
choose to pass over many things and mention the
principal only.
V. Our earliest nurture from our birth was under
our parents, and our father's ways were those
erroneous customs from which no one, methlnks,
hoped that we should be delivered ; nor had I any
hope, young and undiscerning and under a heathen
father. Then came the loss of my father, and my
orphanage, which was not improbably the begin-
ning of my knowledge of the truth. For then was
I first put to the saving and true word, I know not
how, by force rather than of my own will For
what judgment had I at fourteen years? Yet
from that time forth the sacred word began straight-
way to dwell in me ; in such wise that when the
common reason of man had just developed, then
only it began to dwell within me. 1 Though I did
not at first, yet now when I consider, I reckon It
no small sign of the sacred and wondrous provi-
dence which was exercised over me that this
succession of events was so distributed over my
years, namely that all previous to that age, as
being the works of error, should be consigned to
infancy and unreason, lest the sacred word should
be consigned in vain to a soul not yet reasonable ;
but when it became reasonable that it should not
be bare, although of the divine and pure word, at
least of the fear according to that word, that
1 The Greek for both word and reason is logos.
54 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
so divine and human reason should work together
in my soul, the one aiding by means of the power
unspeakable by me, but familiar to it, and the
other being aided. This consideration fills me at
once with rejoicing and with fear. I rejoice in my
advancement; I fear lest, having been reckoned
worthy of such things, I yet fail of the end But
I see that somehow, unknown to me, my discourse
has lingered at this stage in my desire to declare
in due order my divine direction to this man.
Nevertheless, let me hasten on and deal concisely
with what follows, not professing to render the due
praise to Him who ordered all things so, nor thanks
nor reverence let us not commit the vulgarity of
naming these things, yet saying nothing worthy
but professing merely to make a narration, or
confession, or some of these more modest things.
It seemed to the only one of our parents left to
care for us, our mother, that being so far educated,
as became boys of no mean gifts and training, we
should go to an orator with the intention of
becoming orators. We went, and those who were
judges said that we should be orators in no long
time; for my own part, I neither could nor would
say so, though there was no thought of these
present surroundings, nor as yet any foundation of
the causes which were potent to bring us hither.
But in his watchfulness, the divine leader and
guardian, without our relatives' knowledge or in-
tention of ours was at hand counselling one of my
instructors, who had been charged with quite another
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 55
duty, namely, to teach me the language of the
Romans, not in the expectation of my becoming
proficient, but that I might not be wholly unversed
in that language. It happened that he had some
acquaintance with law. He (my divine guardian)
put it into my mind and inclined me through that
man to learn Roman law. The man was persist-
ent in this, and I was persuaded, more to please
him than from any taste for the study. When he
got me to be his pupil, he began to teach me zeal-
ously, and declared what my experience has since
proved to be most true, that an acquaintance with
law would be an excellent passport tyobiov he
called it whether I elected to become an orator,
one of those who plead in the courts, or to embrace
any other calling. He made this assertion, using
the word in a human sense, but it seems to me that
he delivered himself under some inspiration more
divine than he supposed, for when, with my con-
sent or not, I had become a student of these laws,
the toils were fast about me, and the cause and
occasion of my journey hither was the city of
Berytus, a city which is not far distant from these
parts, and is very Roman, and has a reputation
as a school of these laws. As for this holy
man, he was moved and removed from Egypt and
the city of Alexandria, where he formerly had his
residence, to this place as if to meet us, by other
matters. It is not in me to explain them aright,
and I willingly pass them over. Yet so far there
was no great necessity for my coming here, and for
56 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
my union with this man. So far as law was
concerned, we might even have gone to reside in
Rome. How, then, was it brought about ? The
then governor of Palestine had taken a relative of
mine, my sister's husband, suddenly, reluctant
alone, without his bedfellow, and brought him
hither to aid him and share in the toils of
governing the people, for he was a lawyer, and
perhaps still is. He came with him, but intended
shortly to have his wife, whom he had sent for,
being vexed and unwilling to be separated from
her, So while we were purposing to reside abroad,
it is true, but anywhere rather than here, a
soldier suddenly came in upon us with orders to
escort and see to the safety of our sister on her
way to join her husband, and to bring us as her
companion. Thus we should be doing a favour to
our relative, and most of all to our sister, in seeing
that she lacked nothing of dignity and comfort on
the journey, and to our home and kinsfolk, who
applauded our resolution, and be accomplishing 1
somewhat not alien to our purpose, should we
proceed to Berytus and there study law. Every-
thing therefore impelled me: my desire to serve
my sister, my own studies, and also the soldier
(for mention should be made of him also), with
authority for the use of several of the public
vehicles, and orders for a considerable sum, more
on my account than on my sister's. These things
were apparent : but the other things not apparent
1 Reading SiaTrpa%o[j,vov$ y as Koetschau suggests.
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 57
but more true, our communion with this man, our
true learning concerning the word through him,
the help of our soul to salvation, these led us un-
seeing and unknowing, but to our salvation. So it
was not the soldier, but a God-sent companion and
good escort and defender l who has preserved us
all through this life as through a long wayfaring,
that altered all our plans and our thought of going
to Berytus, which we imagined was our chief incen-
tive, and brought and settled us here, doing and
moving all things until he should bind me by all
means to this man, the cause of so much good to
me. But he, my God-sent angel, having come so
far and handed his charge over to him, perhaps in
a manner rested, not from any weariness or fatigue
(for the race of God's servants is unwearying), but
because he had committed me to a man who would
if it were possible fulfil all his providence and
care.
VI. And he took us over, and from the first day,
veritably the first day, the most precious of all days
if I must say so when first the true light began
to rise upon me, began by using every device to
bind us firmly, us who were like some wild beasts,
or fishes, or birds, fallen into snares or nets, trying
to struggle out and escape away, and wishful to
depart from him to Berytus or our fatherland. He
used every turn of language, pulled every string,
1 This is curiously like the petition of the Greek evening
office (Robinson, p. 36). "A-j^Xov elp-fjj/rjs, viarbv dtiyybv,
$>V tyvx&v teal v&v ffta/jLoircov Tjft&v, irapa TOV Kvpiov
5 8 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
as they say, employed every resource of his abilities,
praised philosophy and those enamoured of philo-
sophy in long numerous and apt eulogies, insisting
that they only lived the life befitting the reasonable
beings 1 who studied to live rightly, who "knew
themselves," first their own nature, and secondly, the
things essentially good which a human being ought
to follow after, and the really evil things which he
ought to avoid. He reproached ignorance and all the
ignorant, and they are many, who, like younglings
blind of intellect, knowing not even what they are,
erring like irrational creatures, utterly ignorant and
unwilling to learn what good or evil is, rush and fly
as if after good things, after the possessions and
opinions and esteem of the multitude, and after
bodily comforts, reckoning these things of much,
nay, the utmost, value, and after such of the arts
as can furnish these forth, and after such callings
as can provide them, military service, the civil ser-
vice and the practice of law. He laid special stress
on the things which were exciting us, while
said he we were neglecting the chief of our en-
dowments, namely reason. I cannot now tell how
many sayings of this sort he was wont to utter
forth urging us to philosophise, and not one day
only, but all those early days when we first resorted
to him transfixed by his word as by a dart, and in
our new youth (for he was compounded of a certain
1 of \oytKol with Origen means all the intelligences, man
included, who participate more or less in the Logos. See
In Joannem and De Principiis^ passim.
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 59
sweet grace and persuasiveness and a certain
cogency), while we were still casting about and
considering and essaying to philosophise, but not
yet fully decided, yet withal somehow unable to
drawback, and attracted to him by some constrain-
ing power greater than his words. One could by
no means reverence the Lord of all this faculty of
which man alone of all things living on the earth
has received the privilege and honour ; probably
every one, whether wise or simple, possesses it, who
has not utterly lost his understanding through some
infatuation he used to declare, and that truly, that
true religion was utterly impossible to one who did
riot philosophise. Heaping such sayings one upon
another in great number, he would carry us away
like enchanted creatures finally rendered completely
motionless by his arts, and settle us I know not
where by his arguments, with a power which was
divine.
Furthermore, something else was striking the goad
of friendship into us, no easily resisted thing ; that
was the keenness and great urgency of his ability
and good disposition, which shone so benevolently
upon us in his very tones as he discoursed or talked,
trying not to get an easy victory over us in argu-
ment, but by his able and kindly and genuine ability
to save us and render us partakers of the benefits
of philosophy, and especially of those which the
Deity had granted to him particularly in greater
measure than to most men, perhaps than to any of
the present day, having granted to him of religion
60 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
the saving Word who visits many and operates in
all as many as He may approach (for there is none
who can resist Him who is and is to be King of all),
yet is hidden and not comprehended easily, nor even
with effort, by the many, so that when questioned
they can state aught clearly about Him, Like
some spark kindled within my soul there v/as
kindled and blazed forth my love both toward Him,
most desirable of all for His beauty unspeak-
able, the Word holy and altogether lovely, and
toward this man his friend and prophet Deeply
stricken by it, I was led to neglect all that seemed
to concern me : affairs, studies, even my favourite
law, home and kindred there, no. less than those
among whom I was sojourning. One thing only
was dear and affected by me : philosophy and its
teacher, this divine man and the soul of Jonathan
was knit with David. 1 This I read subsequently in
the sacred writings, but I had by that time experi-
enced it no less distinctly than it is written,
distinctly prophesied though it is. For it says
not merely Jonathan was knit to David ; but the
noblest parts, the soul, which even though the parts
apparent and visible to man are severed, cannot
themselves be forced to severance by any device,
and in no wise against their will. For the soul is
free, and can be confined in no way "you would
not keep it shut up in a cell." 2 For the first prin-
1 I Sam. (i Regg.) xviii. i.
2 Cf. Demosthenes, De Corona^ p. 258 ( 97 Bekker). In
DePrincipitS) i. i, Origen sets forth the current philosophical
doctrine that the soul is independent of local conditions. The
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 6 1
ciple of its being is to be where Reason (z/oy) is,
and if it seem to be in your cell, it is only there in
a secondary sense, as imagined by you, and is in no
wise hindered thereby from being where it may wish
to be. Rather by all manner of means it must in
reason be believed that it can be in the place and in
the relations where the energies suitable to it alone
reside. So is not my experience most plainly and
succinctly explained in the saying about the soul
of Jonathan being knit with the soul of David ?
these which, as I said, will never be prevailed on
against their will to be sundered, and are little
likely to desire it of their own will. For I do not
think that it is for the worse, which is manifold 1 and
too easily persuaded to change, that the power to dis-
solve these holy, these dear bands was given they
were certainly not riveted on us originally for that
end but for the better, which is stable and not
easily shaken; for which end rather these bands
were fashioned and this holy bond. Now it was
not the soul of David which was knit to the soul
of Jonathan by the Divine Word, but contrariwise
the soul of the inferior is spoken of as being affected
and being knit to the soul of David. For the better,
divine mind being simple and self-contained can move and
operate without expansion or contraction or any addition
or circumscription. Our own mental activity is dependent
of spatial conditions. . . Its vagaries in sea-sickness or fever
are the fault of the body, which under strange conditions
receives the motions of the mind in a disordered fashion,
and serves it with a coarser touch (acuminis ejus ictus
obtusiore ministerio dispensare).
1 The philosophical maxim : cf. De Oratione^ 21,
62 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
being self-sufficient, would not choose to be knit to
that which is inferior to itself. But the inferior, as
needing the assistance of the superior, required to
be bound intimately to the better, that that which
remains constant might take no harm from its
association with the worse; while that which in
itself is irregular might, being knit and fitted to the
better, do no harm, but might by the constraint
of the bonds be won over to the better. Wherefore
also, to fashion the bonds was the part of the more
excellent, not of the worse ; but to be bound so as
not even to have the power to cast loose from the
bonds, the part of the worse. By some such con-
straints, this David having enlaced us has held us
from that day until now, unable, even if we would,
to loose ourselves from his bonds. Even if we
depart abroad, he will not cease to hold our soul
thus knit according to the divine saying.
ORIGEN'S DIALECTIC
VIL Thus taking us from the first and en-
compassing us about on every hand, when he had
toiled much, and seemed to have come to a stand-
still, then he treated us as a skilled farmer would
some field, wild and either nowise good soil, but
salt and parched, shallow and sandy ; or else not
utterly fruitless or unfertile, but though rich, yet
dry and untended, rough and encumbered with
thorns and wild bushes; 1 or as a vine-dresser
1 For the figure of the soil cf. Clement, Strom, i. 320 ;
Redepenning, i. 68 n. 3.
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 63
would some stock, either wild and devoid of fruit,
yet not wholly useless, if one by the vine-dresser's
art should take a cultivated shoot to engraft, slitting
it in the middle, and inserting the graft, and binding
it fast, and should then tend them till both shot
together as one (for you may see a tree mixed and
bastard, fruitful out of barren, bearing the fruit of
the good olive on wild roots) ; l or a wild tree, yet
not useless to the skilled nursery-man ; or a tree
cultivated, but uselessly luxuriant, or leafless and
sapless and dry from want of attention, choked
by the excessive growth of superfluous shoots,
hindered from shooting to perfection and bear-
ing fruit by its neighbours. He found us in some-
what the same condition, and with his husband-
man's skill surveyed us, and not only observed the
faults beheld of all and openly to be seen, but dug
down and searched to the inmost recesses, asking
and propounding and hearing us answer. When
he perceived anything which was not useless and
unprofitable and ineffectual in us, he broke the
ground, turned it over, watered it, used every
device, applied all his skill and care, and wrought
us into shape. The "thorns and thistles/' 2 and all
the tribe of wild grasses and herbs which our mad
and startled soul had sent forth and thrown up (for
it was disordered and hasty) he cut out and pulled
up with his inquiries and restraint, grappling with
us in argument, and sometimes overthrowing us in
true Socratic fashion if he espied us rushing off in
1 Rom. xi. 17. 2 Gen. iii. 18.
64 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
all directions like wild horses, 1 plunging out of the
track and running aimlessly about, until by per-
suasion and compulsion, as if by the bit of reason
in our mouth, he rendered us quiet to his hand.
It was difficult and not without discomfort to us at
first, as he produced his reasons to us unaccustomed
and not as yet practised in following the argument
as he produced it; yet he reformed us. When in
any respect he had made us fit, and prepared us
well for the reception of the words- of truth, then, as
in ground well wrought and softened, ready to foster
the proffered seed, he brought it on without stint,
making his sowing in due season, and in due season
all the rest of his attentions, performing each in the
appropriate way and with the appropriate instru-
ments of reason. Whatever was dulled or spurious
in the soul, whether it was so constitutionally or
had become gross from excessive bodily nurture, he
quickened or restrained with the fine reasonings
and turns of the reasonable affections, which from
the simplest beginnings twine round one another,
until they result in a web from which there is no
means of escape, These roused us like sleepers,
and taught us to adhere constantly to the tasks set
before us, and not to weary because of their length
or their minuteness. What part was uncritical and
hasty in us, as when we agreed with whatever pre-
sented itself, even though it happened to be false,
or often contradicted, even though true statements
1 Like Polus in the Gorgias, 471, or the description of the
soul in Phadrus.
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 65
were made, this also he educated with arguments
such as those above mentioned and various others,
for this part of philosophy is many-sided. He
accustomed us not to express our assent idly or
fortuitously only to retract, but after exact in-
vestigation not only of the obvious many opinions
in acceptance and high repute here, thanks to some
high-sounding utterance, had found a way into our
ears as if true, although adulterate and false, and
had snatched a verdict of truth from us ; these were
soon exposed as unsound and unworthy our cre-
dence, vain counterfeits of truth, and he had no
difficulty in exhibiting us as ludicrously deceived
and giving our testimony in vain where it was of
least avail ; other arguments again, worthy indeed
of acceptance and with nothing specious about
them, or else expressed in unconvincing language,
and so considered paradoxical and utterly in-
credible, and thus rejected as false, and undeservedly
vilified, then subsequently were understood by those
who could follow them out and understand them
correctly to be the truest and absolutely most in-
contestable of all, although previously reckoned as
rejected and exploded. Well he taught us to con-
sider not only obvious and evident, but sometimes
erroneous and sophisticated arguments, to probe
each and sound it to see whether it gave any
echo of unsoundness ; x and to have grounds
first for our confidence in ourselves, and so to have
grounds for our agreement with others or for
1 Plato, Philebus, 55 C.
E
66 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
our own utterances. In this manner he gave us a
reasonable training for the critical part of our
soul as regards words and arguments not after
the fashionable rhetoricians' judgment whether this
or that is Hellenic or barbarous in expression, that
small and trifling and unnecessary study, but
a study most necessary to Hellenes and Bar-
barians, to wise and simple, in short (that I may
not become tedious in detailing every art and
occupation) to all men, whatever manner of life they
elect ; since indeed all men in their common con-
versation about any subject whatever have an
interest and concern in not being deceived.
SCIENCE
VIII. Not only [did he guard against] this form
of deception, which Dialectics alone can rectify, but
he also raised up the humility of our souls, which
were amazed by the great and marvellous and
manifold and all-wise workmanship of the universe,
and which wondered unreasonably, and were flut-
tered with astonishment, and, like irrational beasts,
knew in no wise how to account for things ; he
awoke and raised that up by other studies, namely
Physics. He explained each existence, both by
resolving them very skilfully into their primary
elements, then by reversing the process and detail-
ing the constitution of the universe and of each
part, and the manifold variation and change in
every portion of it, until carrying us on with his
wise teaching and arguments, both those which he
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 67
had learned and those which he had discovered,
concerning the sacred economy of the universe and
its faultless constitution, he established a reason-
able, in place of an unreasoning, wonder in our
souls. This divine and lofty science is taught by
the study of Nature (js
GREGORY'S ADDRESS TO ORIGEN 73
way, he taught that prudence consisted in the
soul's remaining self-contained, and In the de-
sire and endeavour to know ourselves, this the
noblest task of philosophy, which is ascribed to
the most prophetic of spirits as the prime maxim
of wisdom <( Know thyself.' 3 That this is the
true work of wisdom and this the divine wis-
dom, is well said by the ancients, and that the
virtue of man and of God is veritably the same,
when the soul studies to see herself as in a mirror,
and also mirrors the divine mind in herself (if she
become worthy of such fellowship), and traces out
the unutterable path of this apotheosis. And so,
consequently, with Temperance and Courage : we
are temperate, he said, when we preserve the
wisdom of the soul which knows herself, if it has
accrued to her, for this in turn is Temperance, a
certain saving knowledge ; and we are courageous
when we stand firm in all these attainments,
and decline from them neither wilfully nor under
compulsion, but guard and keep these attainments :
such is this virtue, inasmuch as it is a saviour
and custodian of precepts.
XII. On account of our "sloth and sluggish-
ness" 1 he has yet to make.us just and wise, and
temperate or brave, despite his urgency. We
neither possess, nor have come near to possessing
so much as one virtue human or divine, far from it.
For they are exceeding great and lofty, and none
of them may be grasped or attained by any but
1 Iliad, xix. 411.
74 GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
him to whom God inspires power : but we are not
so gifted by nature, and would never profess that
we are worthy to attain this gift, neglecting as we
do, by reason of our sloth and weakness, all the
things which befit those who are earnest after
excellence and suitors of perfection. So we have
yet to become just or temperate, or to possess any
other virtue. But we are lovers, loving with a most
ardent love, which was long ago effected perhaps
he only had the power by this admirable man,
the friend and advocate of the virtues, who by
force of his virtue implanted in us the love of the
beauty of righteousness, whose golden face he
showed to us, and of prudence (^po'znjcn?) the de-
sire of all, and of the true wisdom (cro^ta) most
delectable, and of temperance, of divine aspect,
which is the balance of the soul and peace to all
who possess her, and of courage 1 most admirable,
1 Salmond translates, "and for patience, that virtue
peculiarly ours," quoting the Stuttgart editor's note. " It
does not appear that this should be connected by apposition
with avSpeias-. But Gregory, after the four virtues which
philosophers define as cardinal^ adds two which are properly
Christian, viz. patience^ and that which is the hinge of all
piety" The distinction between Qpdvyffis and cro^m is Aristo-
telian, and the addition of (StnJr^ or eucre^efa to the original
four virtues was made by Plato himself. See Grant, Ethics
of Aristotle (2nd ed.), i. 144, 177, and his notes on ii. vii. ;
Plato, Protag. 349 B ; Clement, Strom, yi. 803. For the cour-
age of the Gnostic see Clement, ibid. vii. 870 and 838. Hort-
Mayor's note on the latter is conclusive against Salmond's
translation. "'Ai/fye/a was said to be concerned vepl r&$
vTT^ovds (Stoics ap. Stob. Eel. II. 104). In P. 632 cb/fyeia is
said to be v virofj-ovri Ka.1 /caprepfx Kal TOIS 6(JLoioiS' eirl 5e ry
TnQu]J.it TCtTTTi\offo([)laV' Gregory (c. i.) terms
Christianity rfa /cAV <}>i\offo
