1 The "blessedness" is the grace of Baptism, the hope which is as a fragrant odour already borne towards the Candidates. These were called no longer Catechumens, but , as already on the way "to be enlightened." Compare xvi. 26, the last sentence, and see Index, "Enlighten".
2 nohta/. The word is much used by Plato to distinguish things which can be discerned only by the mind from the objects of sight and sense. Here "the spiritual (or, mental) flowers" are the Divine truths in which "the fragrance of the Holy Spirit" breathes.
3 By "the vestibule" is meant "the outer hall of the Baptistery" (xix. 2), and by "the King's Palace" the Baptistery itself, which Cyril calls "the inner chamber" (xx. 1) and "the bride-chamber" (ii. 2; xxii. 2). See index. "Baptistery." Here the local terms have also an allegorical sense, Baptism being regarded as the marriage of the Soul to Christ.
4 Another allegory, form the season of Spring, when the Lectures were delivered.
6 That the Candidates on their first admission carried torches or lighted tapers in procession is a conjecture founded on this passage and I. 1: "Ye who have just lighted the torches of faith, preserve them in your hands unquenched." But see Index, "Lights."
7 Rom. viii. 28. in S. Paul's argument the "purpose" is God's eternal purpose of salvation through Christ (Eph. I. 11; iii. 11): but Cyril applies it here to sincerity of purpose in coming to Baptism.
10 Greek, u 9pografh/, meaning either an "indictment," or a descriptive "sketch." For the former meaning, see Plato, Theaet. 172, E. u'pografh\n . . . h@n a'ntwmosi/an kalou=sin.
13 "The faithful" are those who have been already baptized, and instructed in those mysteries of the Christian Faith which were reserved for the initiated. See Index. "aithful."
14 Matt. xxii. 12. The same passage is applied to Baptism in Cat. iii. 2.
15 See Cat. xxii. 8 and Index, "White."
16 The Greed word (xrw=ma) is used by Ignatius in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans of a discolouring stain.
18 The Greek word (e'pisth/mh which commonly means "knowledge" or "understanding." is applied here and in vi. 1 to the intelligence and skill displayed in the arrangement of the public services of the Church. Compare Apostolic Constitutions, ii. 57, where the Bishop is exhorted to have the assemblies arranged meta\ pa/shj e'pisth/mhj.
19 In the same passage of the Apostolic Constitutions precise directions are given for reading a Lesson from the Old Testament, singing the Psalms, and reading the Epistle and Gospel.
20 By "the ordained" (kanonkw=n) are meant all whose names were registered as bearing office in the Church, Priests, Deacons, Deaconesses, Monks, Virgins, Widows, all having their appointed placed and proper duties. Apost. Canon. 70, ei! tij e'pi/skopoj, h@ presbu/tepoj, h@ o!lwj tou= katalo/gou tw=n klprikw=n, k.t.l.
21 Compare Apost. Const. as above: "Let the Presbyters one by one, not all together, exhort the people; and the Bishop last, as being the commander."
22 S. Aug. de Civit. Dei., ii. 28: "Though some come to mock at such admonitions, all their insolence is either humbled by a sudden conversation (immutatio) or suppressed by fear or shame."
23 Greek, profesmi/a. Compare Gal. iv. 2: "the time appointed of the father." At Athens it meant a "limitation," or fixed period within which a debt must be claimed or paid, or an action commenced.
25 S. Ambrose on the 119th Psalm, Serm. xx. § 48, speaks of some who pretended to be Christians in order to marry one whose parents would not give her in marriage to a heathen.
28 S.Cyril plays upon the word "Catechumen," which has the same root as "echo."
35 This sentence is omitted in one Ms. (Paris, 1824), but probably only through the repetition of the word "baptism." On the laws of the Church against the repetition of Baptism, and concerning the re-baptism of heretics, see Tertull de Baptismo, c. xv: Apost. Const. xv.: Bingham, xii. 5: Hefele, Councils, Lib. I. c. 2: Dictionary Christian Antiq. I. p. 167 a.
36 Rufinus, in the Exposition of the Creed, on the Remission of sins: "The Pagans are wont to say in derision of us, that we deceive ourselves in thinking that crimes which have been committed in deed can be washed out by words."
37 The reading in the Benedictine Edition, mhde\ o 9 nou=j sou r 9embe/sqw, has little authority, and is quite unsuitable. See below, to\ ble/mma r 9emBo/menon.
40 The Samaritans are frequently mentioned by Epiphanius and other writers of the 4th century among the chief adversaries of Christianity. "In their humble synagogue, at the foot of the mountain (Gerizim), the Samaritans still worship, the oldest and the smallest sect in the world." (Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 240.)
43 On the Disciplina Arcani, or rule against publishing the Christian Creed and Mysteries to Catechumens and Gentiles, see Index, "Mysteries."
44 The title "King" (Basileu/j) is used in the Greek Liturgies and Fathers of the Roman Emperor, as in the Clementine Liturgy: u 9pe\r tou= basile/wj kai\ tw=n e'n u 9peroxh=, where it is taken from 1 Tim. ii. 2. Compare Cat. xiv. 14, and 22 Kwnotanti/nou tou= basile/wj.
45 Ps. xlvi. 10. Sept. sxola/sate, "give attention freely."
46 From S. Augustine, de Symbolo, I. 1 (Migne T. vi. p. 930), we learnt hat the Candidates were brought in before the Congregation on e by one for exorcism; and so, as Cyril here shews, they had to wait outside till the others returned.
47 Chrys. in Matt. Hom. lxxiv. § 3: "You ought to have within you the wall that separates you from the women: but since ye will not, our fathers have thought it necessary to separate you at least by these boards; for I have heard from my elders that there were not these walls in old times." These barriers had not yet been introduced at Jerusalem, or Cyril's admonition would have been needless. Compare Apostolic Constitutions, II. 57.
48 1 Cor. xiv. 34; 1 Tim. ii. 12.
49 1 Sam. I. 12, 20. On the various interpretations of the name Samuel, see Dict Bib. "Samuel," and Driver on the passage. Cyril adopts the meaning "heard of God."
50 Ps. cxxxix. 12. On Easter Eve the Church was full of lights which were kept burning all night, and the newly-baptized carried torches. Gregory of Nyssa, preaching on the Resurrection (Orat. iv.) describes the scene: "This brilliant night, by mingling the flames of torches with the morning rays of the sun, has made on e continuous day, not divided by the interposition of darkness."
51 Or, as the Benedictine Editor conjectures, "the waters which have a Christ-bearing (xristofo/ron) fragrance." On the epithet xristofo/roj,. see Bishop Lightfoot's note on Ignat. ad Eph. § 1 and § 9. Its meaning, as well as that of Qeofo/roj is defined in the answer if Ignatius to Trajan, 9O Xristo\n e!xwn e'n ste/rnoij (Matyr. Ign. Ant. § 2).
52 Cat. xxi. 1: "made partakers therefore of Christ, ye are rightly called Christs."
53 Ps. xxxii. 1, which verse is still chanted in the Greek Church as soon as the Baptism is completed.
54 S. Basil has a passage in praise of Baptism almost the same, word for word, with this. It is more likely to have been borrowed from Cyril by Basil and other Fathers, than to be a later interpolation here.
59 Greek prosfe/sqai, Sept. Deut. xiii. 4, "cleave unto Him." Compare Josh. xxiii. 12; Ps lxii. 10, "Set not your heart upon them."
62 It is doubtful whether this caution proceded from Cyril himself when issuing a written copy of his Lectures, or from some later editor. Eusebius (E.H. v. 20)_ has preserved an adjuration by Irenaeus at the end of his treatise, On the Ogdoad: I adjure thee, who mayest transcribe this book, by Our Lord Jesus Christ, and by His glorious advent, when He cometh to judge the quick and the dead, to compare what thou hast written and correct it carefully by this copy, from which thou hast transcribed it; this adjuration also thou shalt write in like manner, and set it in the copy.
63 Gr. to\ su/nolon. Plat. Leg. 654 B; Soph. 220 B.
1 The title prefixed to this Lecture is given in full. In the following Lectures the form will be abbreviated. See Index, a'na/gnwsij and sxediasQei=sa.
8 Ps. xxxii. 1. See Procat. 15.
19 Gr. knohto/n, i.e. the true Paradise, to be seen by the mind, not by the eye. Apoc. xii. 7, 17.
26 1 Cor. iii. 6. When Paul plants and Apollos waters, it is God Himself who works through His ministers.
29 Some Mss. omit th= proseuxh= after sxola/zeij.
30 Ps. xlvi. 10: sxola/sate. Comper Procat. 13.
31 Compare Procat. 17: xviii. 1.
6 Milles and the Benedictine Editor omit these clauses, but the more recent editions of Reischl and Alexandrides insert them on the authority of Munich, Jerusalem, and other good Mss.
8 Omitted by recent editors with the best Mss.
9 Gr. kekoi/mhtai "has fallen asleep."
10 Eccles. x. 4. Compare Eph. iv. 27: "Neither give place to the devil."
11 1 John iii. 8; John viii. 44.
12 On Cyril's doctrine of the Angels, see Index, "Angels."
14 Ezek. xxviii. 12-17, an obscure passage, addressed to the Prince of Tyre, and meaning that he was "the perfect pattern" of earthly glory, set in a condition like that of Adam in Paradise, and, seemingly, blameless as Adam before his fall. Cyril seems to regard the Prince of Tyre as an embodiment of Satan, because he was deified as the object of national worship: v. 1, "Thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God."
16 Literaly, "its old age" (to\ gh=raj). Compare iii. 7, and Dict. Chr. Biogr., Macarius, p. 770 a.
19 This is the reading of the Septuagint instead of - "He placed at the east of the garden of Eden."
20 Gen. iv. 12: "A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the earth."
22 Ps. lxxxvii. 4. "Rahab" is there a poetical name of Egypt, and the passage has nothing to do with Rahab the harlot. The Benedictine Editor rightly disregards S. Jerome's suggestion, that Rahab is, like Egypt, a type of the Gentile Church.
26 For "all time," the reading of the best Mss., the Benedictine text has "all mankind."
27 The Benedictine has, "But if thou wilt I will set before thee other examples also of our state? Come on to the blessed David."
29 Bened. "The king, the wearer of the purple."
36 Resch. (Agrapha, p. 137) quotes various forms of this saying from early writers, and regards it as a fragment of an extracanonical Gospel. But see Lightfoot, Clem. Rom. c. xiii.
39 Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, § 120 charges the Jews with having cut out a passage referring to the death of Isaiah. Theophylact commenting on Heb. xi. 37, says: "They were sawn asunder, as Isaiah by Manasses: and they say that he was sawn with a wooden saw, that his punishment might be the more painful to him from being prolonged." Jerome on Is. i. 10, says that he was slain because of his calling the Jews "princes of Sodom and people of Gomorra," and because he said, "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up."
44 From this point the Mss. differ so widely that the Benedictine Editor gives two complete recessions of the whole Lecture. The Codd. Coislin, Ottob., 2, and Grodec, with the editions of Prevot and Milles, forming as it were one family of Mss., constitute the received text. On the other hand the older Munich Codex, with Codd. Roe and Casaubon, exhibit a recension of the Lecture differing from the editions. Reischl wishing to retain the received text ualtered, though preferring the other in particular passages, intended to append the other recension complete, but having left his work half finished, failed to do so. The chief variations are given in the following notes.
45 Roe and Casaubon (R. C.) add: "into the furnace of fire."
47 Song of the Three Children, v. 24.
49 R. C. "A great stream of repentance was poured forth, when they said, For Thou art righteous," &c.
50 Song of the Three Children, v. 4.
51 R. C. "Did then repentance quench the flames of the furnace, and dost thou disbelieve that it is able also to quench the fire of hell?"
52 The Gospel only says, "There was darkness over all the land." An eclipse of the sun was impossible at the time of the Paschal full moon.
53 R. C. "That the narrative is not appropriate to those who are here present. For it was because Ananias and his companions refused to worship the idol, that God gave them that marvellous power. Adapting myself, therefore, to such a hearer, and looking to the profusion of instances, I come next to a different example of repentance."
54 R. C. "most impious, and most fierce in temper."
55 Jer. viii. 1; Baruch ii. 25.
59 nohta/. R. C. add "and heavenly."
61 R. C. "But those which had been constructed in the Temple, which were over the mercy-seat of the Ark." Besides the two Cherubim of solid gold which Mosesplaced on the two ends of the Mercy-seat (Ex. xxxvii. 7 ff.), Solomon set "within the oracle" two Cherubim of olive wood overlaid with gold, ten feet high with outstretched wings overshadowing the Ark (1 Kings vi. 23-26; viii. 6, 7). All these were either carried off or destroyed, when Nebuchadnezzar took away "all the treasures of the house of the Lord" and "cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon, King of Israel, had made in the Temple of the Lord" (2 Kings xxiv. 13; 1 Esdras I. 54; 2 Esdras x. 22). The Benedictine editor is concerned because Cyril has paid no attention to the strange fiction in 2 Maccabees ii. 4 that Jeremy the Prophet "commanded the Tabernacle and the Ark to go with him" to Mount Horeb, and there hid them, with the Altar of Incense, in a hollow cave, to remain "unknown until the time that God gathers His people again together."
62 The Greek word rendered "Sancturary" is h 9 a 9liwou/nh, literally "the holiness."
64 R. C. "The veil of the Sanctuary he tore down, he overturned the altar, and took all the vessels and carried them away to an idol temple. The Temple itself he burned."
65 R. C. Afterwards he was turned into a wild beast: "he who was like a wild beast and most cruel in disposition; but he was turned into a wild beast, not that he might perish, but that by repentance he might be saved."
66 R. C. "of birds." See Dan. iv. 33.
67 R. C. "after the midst of the furnace had become to Ananias and his companions as the tinkling breath of rain, he saw and believe not."
68 R. C. "But afterwards he came to his senses and repented, as he says himself."
70 R. C. "And after he had been scourged many years, he gave praise to Him that liveth for ever, and acknowledged Him that had given him the kingdom, and recognised the King of kings. And though he had often sinned in deeds, on making confession only in words, he received the benefit of God's unspeakable loving kindness. He who was of all men most wicked, by the Divine judgment and loving-kindness of God who chastised him, crowned himself again with the royal diadem, and recovered his imperial throne."
71 R. C. "If then there is present among you any from among the Heathen who has ever spoken evil against Christians, or in times of persecution plotted against the Holy Churches, let him take Nabuchodonsor as an example of salvation: let him confess in like manner, that he may also find the like forgiveness. If any has been defiled by lust and passions, let him take up the repentance of the blessed David: if any has denied like Peter, let him die like him for the sake of the Lord Jesus. For He who to his tears begrudged not the Apostleship, will not refuse thee the gospel mysteries. And for women let Rahab be a pattern unto salvation, and for men the manifold examples mentioned of the men of old times.
72 R. C. "And be ye all of good hope, having regard to the lovingkindness of God; not that we may fall back into the same sins, but that having had the benefit of redemption, and lived in a manner worthy of His grace, we may be able to blot out the handwriting that is against us by good works; in the power of the Only-begotten, the Son of God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father, with the Holy Ghost, both now and ever, and unto all the ages of eternity. Amen."
2 The invisible or spiritual (nohto/j) hyssop is the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost in Baptism. Compare Ps. li. 7".
3 S. Cyril here, and still more emphatically in xiii. 39, distinguishes the hyssop (John xix. 29) from the reed (Matt. xxvii. 48), implying that the sponge filled with vinegar was bound round with hyssop, and then fixed on a reed. Another opinion is that the reed itself was that of hyssop. See Dictionary of the Bible, "Hyssop."
6 So in § 15, the soul is regarded as a vessel for receiving grace.
10 Is. lxi. 10. Compare Cant. iii. 11: Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion and behold King Solomon, with the crown wherewith his mother hath crowned him in the day of his espousals. In the passage of Isaiah the bridegroom's crown is likened to the priestly mitre.
14 bwmoi=j used of heathen altars only, in Septuagint and N.T.
15 Both here and in xix. y, Cyril speaks of things offered to idols just as S. Paul in 1 Cor, x. 20. The Benediction of the water of Baptism is found in the Apostolic Constitutions, vii. 43: "Look down from heaven, and sanctify this water, and give it grace and power, that so he that is to be baptized according to the command of Thy Christ, may be crucified with Him, and may die with Him, and be buried with Him, and may rise with him to the adoption which is in him, that he may be dead to sin and live to righteousness."
17 See the note on "the twofold grace perfected by water and the Spirit," at the end of this Lecture.
19 sthlh/. Sept. A pillar of stone, bearing an inscription, was a common form of memorial among the Israelites and other ancient nations. See Dictionary of the Bible, "Pillar."
21 S. Cyril considers that Cornelius and his friends were regenerated, as the Apostles were, apart from Baptism; as August. Serm. 269, n.2, and Chrysost. in Act. Apost. Hom. 25, seem to do. R. W. C.
29 From the Clemetine Recognitions, I. 54 and 60 we learn that there were some who asserted that John was the Christ, and not Jesus, inasmuch as Jesus Himself declared that John was greater than all men, and all Prophets. The answer is there given, that John was greater than all who are born of women, yet not greater than the Son of Man.
30 The locust being winged suggest the idea of growing wings for the soul. Is. xl. 31: pterofuhsousin w 9j a'etoi/.
36 The Greek word (u 9po/stasij) is used by Polybius (xxxiv. 9) for the deposit of silver from crushed ore, and by Hippocrates for any sediment or deposit. here it means, as the context clearly shews, the old skin cast by a snake. Compare ii. 5.
39 Cant. v. 3. In the Song, this saying is an excuse for not rising from bed. S. Cyril applies it in a different way.
52 Job xl. 26 in the Sept. in place of xli. 7: Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears? (A.V. and R.V.)
53 Job xli. 13, Sept. but in R. V. xli. 22: And terror danceth before him.
55 Compare III. 3, and see Index, "Baptism."
57 Rom. vi. 4. Instead of "might rise again" (Roe Casaub. Mon.), the older Editions have "might raise thee up," which is less appropriate in this part of the sentence.
70 Cant. viii. 4, Gr. a 9delfido/n, "brother," "kinsman."
72 The Fathers sometimes speak as if Baptism was primarily the Sacrament of remission of sins, and upon that came the gift of the Spirit, which notwithstanding was but begun in Baptism and completed in Confirmation. Vid. Tertullian. de Bapt. 7, 8, supr. i. 5 fin. Hence, as in the text, Baptism may be said to be made up of two gifts, Water, which is Christ's blood, and the Spirit. There is no real difference between this and the ordinary way of speaking on the subject; - Water, which converys both gifts, is considered as a type of one especially, - conveys both remission of sins through Christ's blood and the grace of the Spirit, but is the type of one, viz. the blood of Christ, as the Oil in Confirmation is of the other. And again, remission of sins is a complete gift given at once, sanctification an increasing one. (R. W. C.) See Index, "Baptism."
1 The number "ten" is confirmed by Theodoret, who quotes the article on Christ's "Birth of the Virgin" as form Cyril's fourth Cathechetical Lecture "On the ten Doctrines." The Mss. vary between "ten" and "eleven," and differ also in the special titles and numeration of the separate Articles.
3 Job xli. 24, Sept.; xli. 15: h 9 kardi/a au'tou= . . e!sthken w!sper a!kmwn a'nh/latoj. These statements concerning the Devil seem to be directed against Origen's opinion (De Principiis I. 2), that the Angels "who have been removed from their primal state of blessedness have not been removed irrecoverably." The question is discussed, and the opinions of several Fathers quoted, by Huet, Origeniana, II. c. 25.
4 Matt. vii. 15. The same text is applied to Heretics by Ignatius, Philadelph. ii. and by Irenaeus, L. I. c. i. § 2.
8 Is. xlvi. 3. Sept. paideuo/menoi e 9k paidi 9ou e!wj lh/rwj.
9 Rom. xvi. 17. Cyril has eu'glwtti/aj in place of eu'logi/aj.
10 Compare Ignatius, Trall. vi.
12 Compare Rom. vi. 17: "that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered." The instruction of Catechumens in the Articles of the Faith was commonly called the "Traditio Symboli," or "Delivery of the Creed."
14 Compare Hermas, Mandat. I. Athan. Epist. de Decretis Nic. Syn. xxii.: ou@tw kai\ to\ a!trepton kai\ u'nalloi/wton au'to\n ei\nai swqhsetai. So Aristotle (Metaphys. XI. c. iv. 13) describes the First Cause as a'paqe\j kai\ a'nalloi/wton.
15 Iranaeus, i. c. xxviii. says that Cerdo taught that the God of the Law and the Prophets was not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: for that He is known, but the other unknown, and the one is just, but the other good. Also III. c. 25, § 3: "Marcion himself, therefore, by dividing God into two, and calling the one good, and the other judicial, on both sides puts an end to Deity." Compare Tertullian, c. Marcion. i. 2 and 6,; Origen, c. Cels. iv. 54.
16 This tenet was held by the Manichaeans and other heretics, and is traced back to the Apostolic age by Bishop Person (Exposition of the Creed, Art. i. p. 79, note c). Compare Athanasius c. Apollinarium, I. 21; II. 8; c. Gentes, § 6; de Incarnatione, § 2, in this series, and Augustine (c. Faustum, xx. 15, 21, and xxi. 4).
17 Matt. vi. 24; Luke xvi. 13.
19 S. Aug. in Ps. lxxv. 6: Si in aliquo loco esset, non esset Deus. Sermo 342: Deus habitando continet non continetur. Origen, c. Cels. vii. 34: "God is of too excellent a nature for any place: He holds all things in His power, and is Himself not confined by anything whatever." Compare the quotation from Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, in the note on Cat. vi. 8.
22 See Cat. xv. 3, and note there.
23 i'de/an. Cyril uses the word in the Platonic sense, as in the next sentence he adopts the formula, which Plato commonly uses in describing the "idea:" a'ei\ kata\ ta\ au'ta\ kai\ w 9sau/twj e!xein. Phaed. 78 c.
24 Job xxxi. 26, 27. The worship of Sun and Moon under various names was almost universal.
25 Gaea or Tellus, the earth; Zeus or Jupiter, the sky; rivers, fountains, & c.
26 Music, Medicine, Hunting, War, Agriculture, Metallurgy, &c., represented by Apollo, Aesculapius, Diana, Mars, Ceres, Vulcan.
27 Herodotus, Book II., describes the Egyptian worship of various birds, fishes, and quadrupeds. Leeks and onions also were held sacred: Porrum et caepe nefas vilare, Juv. Sat. xv. 9. Compare Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. c. ii. § 39, Klotz.
29 Clement of Alexandria (Protrept. c. iv. § 53, Klotz) states that the courtesan Phryne was taken as a model for Aphrodite. "Praxiteles when fashioning the statue of Aphrodite of Cnidus made it like the form of Cratine his paramour." Ibid.
31 th=j monarxi/aj tou= qeou=. See note on the title of Cat. VI. Praxeas made use of the term "Monarchy" to exclude the Son (and the Spirit) from the Godhead. Tertullian in his treatise against Praxeas maintains the true doctrine that the Son is no obstacle to the "Monarchy," because He is of the substance of the Father, does nothing without the Father's will, and has received all power from the Father, to Whom He will in the end deliver up the kingdom. In this sense Dionysius, Bishop of Rome, speaks of the Divine Monarchy as "that most sacred doctrine of the Church of God." Compare Athanas. de Decritis, Nic. Syn. c. vi. § 3 and Dr. Newman's note. In Orat. iv. c. Arian. p 606 (617), Athanasius derives the term from a'rxh/, in the sense of "beginning:" ou!twj mi/a a'rxh\ qeo/thtoj kai\ ou' du/o a'rxai/, o$qen kuri/wj kai\ monarxi/a e'sti/n. See the full discussion of Monarchianism in Athanasius, p. xxiii. ff. in this series, and Newman's Introduction to Athan. Or. iv.
32 For fora/n (Bened.) many Mss. read fqora/n, "corruption."
34 Ton o/moion kata\ pa/nta tw= gennh/santi. On the meaning and history of this phrase, proposed by the Semi-Arians at the Council of Ariminum as a substitute for o 9moou/sion, see Athan. de Syn. § 8, sqq.
35 e'nupo/statoj. Cf. xi 10; Athan. c. Apollinar. I. 20, 21.
36 The Mss. vary much, but I have followed the Benedictine text.
37 Matt. xi. 27; John x. 15; xvii. 25.
38 This was a point earnestly maintained by the orthodox Bishops at Nicaea, that the Son begotten of the substance of the Father is ever inseparably in the Father. Athan. de Decretis Syn. c. 20 ; Tertullian c. Marc. IV. c. 6. Cf. Ignat. ad Trall. vi. (Long Recension); to\n me\n ga\r xristo\n a'llotrionsi tou\ Patro/j.
39 ui 9opatori/a. A term of derision applied to the doctrine of Sabellius. Compare Atlantis. Expositio Fidei, c. 2: "neither do we imagine a Son-Father, as the Sabellians." See Index, Uiopa/twr.
40 Do/goj proforiko/j, the term used by Paul of Samosata, implied that the Word was impersonal, being conceived as a particular activity of God. See Dorner, Person of Christ, Div. I. vol. ii. p. 436 (English Tr.): and compare Athanasius, Expositio Fideic. I; uio\n e'k tou\ Patro\j a'na/rxwj kai a'i!dia/qeton. Cardinal Newman (Athan. c. Arianos, I. 7, note) observes that some Christian writers of the 2nd Century "seem to speak of the Divine generation as taking place immediately before the creation of the world, that is as if not eternal, though at the same time they teach that our Lord existed before that generation. In other words they seem to teach that He was the Word from eternity, and became the Son at the beginning of all things; some of them expressly considering Him, first as the lo/goj e'ndia/qetoj, or Reason, in the Father, or (as may be speciously represented) a mere attribute; next, as the lo/goj proforiko/j, or Word."
The terms lo/goj e'ndia/qetoj, or 'word conceived in the mind,' and lo/goj proforiko/j, or 'word expressed' (emissum, or prolalivum), were in use among the Gnostics (Iren. II. c. 12, § 5). As applied to the Son both terms, though sometimes used in a right sense, were condemned as inadequate. Compare xi. 10.
41 a/nuposta/toij lo/noij. Athan. c. Arianos Orat. iv. c. 8: pa/lin oi 9 le/gontej mo/non o!noma ei\nai ui 9ou\, a'nou/sion de\ kai\ a'nupo/staton ei\nai to\n ui 9o\n tou\ Qeou/, K.T.L.
42 o 9moiopaqh=. Compare Acts xiv. 15; Jas. v. 17.
43 On the origin of the Docetic heresy, see vi. 14.
44 Valentinus the Gnostic taught that God produced a Son of an animal nature who "passed through Mary just as water through a tube, and that on him the Saviour descended at his Baptism." Irenaeus, I. vii. 2.
45 The words which the Benedictine Editor introduces in the brackets are found in Theodoret, and adopted by recent Editors, with Codd. M. A.
46 Eusebius, Life of Constantine, iii. 28.
47 The discovery of the "True Cross" is related with many marvellous particulars by Socrates, Eccles. Hist. I. 17; and Sozomen, E. H. ii. I. A portion was said to have been left by Helena at Jerusalem, enclosed in a silver case; and another portion sent to Constantinople, where Constantine privately enclosed it in his own statue, to be a safeguard to the city. Eusebius, Life of Constantine, iii. 25-30 , gives a long account of the discovery of the Holy Sepulcare, but makes no mention of the Cross. Cyril seems to have been the first to record it, 25 years after. Cf. Greg. Nyss. Bapt. Christi (p. 519).
48 Compare xiv. 18, 19, on the Descent into Hades.
49 The same Old Testament saints are named in xiv. 19, as redeemed by Christ in Hades.
52 Justin M. Dialogue with Trypho, 247 C: We call Him Helper and Redeemer, the power of whose Name even demons do fear; and at this day, when exorcised in the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judaea, they are overcome.
53 Tertullian, de Coroná, 3: At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the Sign. If for these, and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom as their strengthener, and faith as their observer.
56 Matt. xxiv. 15. Compare Cat. xv. 9, 15.
57 Compare xv. 27, where the followers of Marcellus of Ancyra are indicated as holding this opinion.
58 In xvi. 6-10, Cyril gives a long list of heresies concerning the Holy Ghost.
61 This clause is not in the Creed of Nicaea, but is added in the Creed of Constantinople, A.D. 381.
63 qeopoio/n is omitted in Codd. Roe, Casaubon, and A.
64 The Benedictine Editor argues from Cat. i. 5, "that thou mayest by faith seal up the things that are spoken;" and xxiii. 18: "sealing up the Prayer by the Amen," that Cyril means by "this seal" the firm belief of Christian doctrine. Compare John iii. 33. But Milles understands by the "seal" the Creed itself, which agrees better with the following context.
65 h 9 swthri/a ga\r au!th th\j pi/stewj h 9mw=n, which might be rendered, "this our salvation by faith," or, with Milles, "this safety of our Faith." For the rendering in the text compare Heb. iii. 1: a'rxiere/a th\j o 9mologi/aj h 9mw=n. On eu 9resilogi/a, see Polybius xviii. 29, § 3.: dia/ th\j proj a'llh/louj eu 9resilogi/aj.
67 In the Clementine Homily xvi. 16, the soul having come forth from God, clothed with His breath, is said to be of the same substance, and yet not God. In Tertull. c. Maricon II. c. 9, the soul is the affatus (pnoh/ not pneu\ma) of God, i.e. the image of the Spirit, and inferior to it, though possessing the true lineaments of divinity, immortality, freedom, its own mastery over itself.
68 Tertull. c. Marc. II. 6:It was proper that he who is the image and likeness of God should be formed with a free will, and a mastery of himself, so that this very thing, namely freedom of will and self-command, might be reckoned as the image and likeness of God in him.
69 Compare Aug. de Civ. Dei. v. 1, where he says that the astrologers (Mathematici) say, not merely such or such a position of Mars signifies that a man will be a murderer, but makes him a murderer. See Dict. of Christian Antiq., "Astrology."
71 "The Orphic poets were under the impression that the soul is suffering the punishment of sin, and that the body is an enclosure or prison in which the soul is incarcerated and kept (sw/zetai) as the name sw\ma implies, until the penalty is paid." Plato, Cratyl. 400. Clement of Alexandria (Strom. III. iii. 17), after referring to this passage of Plato, quotes Philolaus the Pythagorean, as saying: "The ancient theologians and soothsayers also testify that the soul has been chained to the body for a kind of punishment, and is buried in it as in a tomb."
79 Apelles, the heretic, attributed the difference of sex to the soul, which existing before the body impressed its sex upon it. Tertall. On the Soul, c. xxxvi.
80 Irenaeus I. vii. 5: "They (the Valentinians) conceive of three kinds of men, spiritual, material, and animal.... These three natures are no longer found in one person, but constitute various kinds of men. . . . And again subdividing the animal souls themselves, they say that some are by nature good, and others by nature evil." Origen on Romans, Lib. VIII. § 10: "I know not how those who come from the School of Valentinus and Basilides. . . suppose that there are souls of one nature which are always safe and never perish, and others which always perish, and are never saved."
82 On the impure practices of the Manichees, see vi. 33, 34.
83 Fortunatus, the Manichee, in August. Disput. ii. 20, contra Fortunat. is represented as saying, What we assert is this, that the soul is compelled to sin by a substance of contrary nature.
85 mona/zontej. Compare xii. 33; xvi. 22. The origin of Monasticism is usually traced to the time of the Decian persecution, the middle of the third century. Previously "there were no monks, but only ascetics in the Church; from that time to the reign of Constantine, Monachism was confined to the auchorets living in private cells in the wilderness: but when Pachomius had erected monasteries in Egypt, other countries presently followed the example. . . . Hilarion, who was scholar to Antonius, was the first monk that ever lived in Palestine or Syria." Bingham, VII. i. 4.
89 The condemnation of a second marriage, which the Benedictine Editor and others import into this passage, is not to be found in it. tou\j deute/rw ga/mw sumperienexqe/ntaj neither means "qui ad secundas nuptias ultro se dejecere," nor even "who consented to," - or, "consented together in - a second marriage," without any intimation of censure. See V. 9; VI. 13: Ecclus. xxv. 1; gunh\ kai\ a 9nh=r e'autoi\j sumperifero/menoi); 2 Macc. ix. 27; Euseb. H. E.ix. 9, 7: a'necika/kwj kai\ summe/trwj sumperife/rointo auQtoi\j; Zeno, ap. Diog. Laert. vii. 18; to\ sumperiferesqai toi\j fi/loij. Diog. Laert. vii. 13: eu'sumperiforoj. Polyb. IV. 35, § 7, and II. 17, § 12. The gentleness with which Cyril here speaks of second marriages is in striking contrast with the passionate vehemence of Tertullian in the treatise de Monogamia, and elsewhere. Aug. de Haeresibus, cc. 26, 38, reckons the condemnation of second marriage among the heretical doctrines of the Montanists and Cathari. In the treatise de Bono Viduitatis, c. 6, he argues that a second marriage is not to be condemned, but is less honourable than widowhood, and severely rebukes the heretical teaching on this point of Tertullian, the Montanists, and the Novatians. De Bono Conjugali, c. 21: Sacramentum nuptiarum temporis nostri sic and unum virum et unam uxorem redactum est, ut Ecclesiae dispensatorem non liceat ordinare nisi unius uxoris virum. On the practice of the Church at various times see Bingham, IV. v. 1-4; Suicer, Thesaur. Digami/a.
91 The Nicolaitans (Apocal. ii. 14, 20); and the Valentinians, of whom Irenaeus (II. xiv. 5), says that they derived their opinion as to the indifference of meats from the Cynics. See also Irenaeus I. vi. 3; and xxvi. 3.
95 The various sects of Gnostics, and the Manichees, considered certain meats and drinks, as flesh and wine, to be polluting. Vid. Iren. Haer. i. 28. Clem. Paed. ii. 2. p. 186. Epiph. Haer. xlvi. 2, xlvii. 1, &c., &c., August. Haer. 46, vid. Canon. Apost. 43. "If any Bishop, &c., abstain from marriage, flesh, and wine, not for discipline (di 0 a!skhsin) but as abhorring them, forgetting that they are all very good, &c., and speaking blasphemy against the creation, let him amend or be deposed," &c. R. W. C.
96 Acts xv. 20, 29. The prohibition of blood and things strangled has continued to the present day in the Eastern Church, though already disregarded by the Latins in the time of S. Augustine (lc. Faustum. xxxii. 13).
97 Tertullian (Apologeticus, c. 9) speaks of those "who at the gladiator shows, for the cure of epilepsy, quaff with greedy thirst the blood of criminals slain in the arena," and of others "who make meals on the flesh of wild beasts at the place of combat:" and contrasts the habits of Christians, who abstain from things strangled, to avoid pollution by the blood.
99 Compare xviii. 6, 9; Athenagoras, On the Resurrection of the Dead, c. 3.
100 XVIII. 6. John xii. 24; 1 Cor. xv. 36.
104 Gr. loutrou\ meta/noian. Other readings are lu/tron metanoi/aj, "redemption by repentance," and loutro\n metanoi/aj "a laver (baptism) of repentance."
105 Gal. iii. 24. The Paidagwgo/j is described by Clement of Alexandria (Paedag. i. 7) as one who both conducts a boy to school, and helps to teach him, - an usher: "under-master" (Wicliff).
107 tw=n a'pokru/fwn. The sense in which Cyril uses this term may be learned from Rufinus (Expositio Symboli, § 38), who distinguishes three classes of books: (1) The Canonical Books of the Old and New Testaments, which alone are to be used in proof of doctrine: (2) Ecclesiastical, which may be read in Churches, including Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, Judith, and the Books of the Maccabees, in the Old Testament, and The Shepherd of Hermas, and The Two Ways in the New Testament. (3) The other writings they called "Apocryphal," which they would not have read in Churches. The distinction is useful, though the second class is not complete.
108 The The original source of this account of the Septuagint version is a letter purporting to have been written by Aristeas, or Aristaeus, a confidential minister of Ptolemy Philadelphus, to his brother Philocrates. Though the letter is not regarded as genuine its statements are in part admitted to be true, being confirmed by a fragment, preserved by Eusebius (Praeparatio Evangelica, ix. 6.), of a work of Aristobulus, a Jewish philosopher who wrote in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, 181-146, B.C. Upon these testimonies it is generally admitted that "the whole Law," i.e. the Pentateuch was translated into Greek at Alexandria in the reign either of Ptolemy Soter (323-285, B.C.), or of his son Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247, B.C.), under the direction of Demetrius Phalereus, curator of the King's library.
109 Up to this point Cyril's account is based upon the statements of the Pseudo-Aristeas. The fabulous incidents which follow, concerning the separate cells, the completion of the whole version by each translator, the miraculous agreement in the very words, proving a Divine inspiration, are found in Philo Judaeus, Life of Moses, II. 7.. Josephus, Antiquities, XII. c. ii. 3-14, following the letter of Aristeas, gives long descriptions of the magnificent presents sent by Philadelphus to Jerusalem, and of his splendid hospitality to the translators, but makes no allusion to the separate cells or miraculous agreement. On the contrary he represents the 72 interpreters as meeting together for consultation, agreeing on the text to be adopted, and completing their joint labours in 72 days. The slightest comparison of the Version with the original Hebrew must convince any reasonable person that the idea of divine inspiration or supernatural assistance, borrowed by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and other Fathers, apparently from Philo, is a mere invention of the imagination, disproved by the facts. Compare the article "Septuagint" in Murray's Dictionary of the Bible.
110 The rendering "trench not" (R. W. C.) agrees well with the etymology of the verb (paraxara/ssw). Its more usual signification seems to be "counterfeit," "forge." The sense required here, apart from any metaphor, is "transgress" (Heurtley).
111 The name "Nun" is represented by "Nave" in the Septuagint, which Cyril used.
113 The Epistle of Jeremy, which now appears in the Apocrypha as the last chapter of Baruch. On the number and arrangement of the Books of the Old and New Testaments the student should consult an interesting Essay by Professor Sanday (Studia Biblica, vol.. iii.), who traces the introduction of a fixed order to the time when papyrus rolls were superseded by codices, in which the sheets of skin were folded and bound together, as in printed books. This change had commenced before the Diocletian persecution, A.D. 303, when among the sacred books taken from the Christians codices were much more numerous than rolls. On the contents of the Jewish Canon, see Dictionary of the Bible, "Canon." B. F. W. "Josephus enumerates 20 books `'which are justly believed to be divine. 0'" One of the earliest attempts by a Christian to ascertain correctly the number and order of the Books of the O.T. was made by Melito, Bishop of Sardis, who travelled for this purpose to Palestine, in the latter part of the 2nd Century. His list is as follows: - "Of Moses five (books); Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Jesus son of Nave, Judges, Ruth, four Books of Kings, two of Chronicles, Psalms of David, Solomon's Proverbs, which is also called Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Job, Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Twelve in one Book, Daniel, Ezekiel, Esdras." (Eusebius, H.E. III. cap. 10, note I, in this s.) Cyril's List agrees with that of Athanasius (Festal Epistle, 373 A.D.), except that Job is placed by Ath. after Canticles instead of before Psalms.
114 Gr. yeudepi/grafa. For an account of the many Apocryphal Gospels, see the article by Lipsius in the "Dictionary of Christian Biography," Smith and Wace, and the English translations in Clark's Ante-Nicene Library.
115 Cyril includes in this list all the books which we receive, except the Apocalypse. See Bishop Westcott's Article "Canon," in the Dictionary of the Bible, and Origen's Catalogue in Euseb. Hist. vi. 25 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. i.).
116 Compare xix. 8. where all such acts of divination are said to be service of the devil.
2 See Procatechesis 6, and Index, Faithful.
4 1 Cor. iv. 3. See Index, Confession.
7 This sentence is a spurious addition to the text of the Septuagint, variously placed after Prov. xvii. 4, and xvii. 6. The thought is there completed by the antithesis, but to the faithless not even an obol. The origin of the interpolation is unknown.
9 It was a common objection of Pagan philosophers that the Christian religion was not founded upon reason but only on faith.
Cyril's answer that faith is necessary in the ordinary affairs of life is the same which Origen had employed against Celsus (I. 11): "Why should it not be more reasonable, since all human affairs are dependent upon faith, to believe God rather than men? For who takes a voyage, or marries, or begets children, or casts seeds into the ground, without believing that better things will result, although the contrary might and sometimes does happen?" See also Arnobius, adversus Gentes, II. 8; and Hooker's allusion to the scornful reproach of Julian the Apostate, "The highest point of your wisdom is believe" (Eccles. Pol.. V. lxiii. 1.).
10 By "aliens from the Church," and "those who are without," S. Cyril here means Pagans: so Tertullian, de Idololatriâ, c. xiv. But the latter term is applied to a Catechumen in Procatechesis. c. 12, and was also a common description of heretics: se Tertullian, de Baptismo, c. xv.
13 Is. vii. 9, according to the Septuagint. But A. V. and R. V. both render: If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.
16 1 Pet. v. 9: Whom resist, stedfast in the faith.
17 Ps. xi. 2, that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart (R. V.) The Hebrew word Peo)
, signifying deep darkness (Job iii. 6; x. 18) is vigoursly rendered by the Seventy skotomh/nh, which is explained by the Scholiast on Homer (Od. xiv. 457: Nu\c d0 a!r0 e'ph=lqe kakh\ skotomh/nioj) to be the deep darkness of the night preceding the new moon.
19 James ii. 21. Casaubon omitted mo/non, which is found in every Ms.. thus making the meaning to be, "He was justified not by works but by faith," which directly contradicts the statement of S. James, and is inconsistent with the following context in S. Cyril.
20 James ii. 23; 2 Chron. xx. 7; Is. xli. 8; Gen. xv. 6.
28 Jer. iv. 4: Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart. The Seeptuagint agrees closely with the Hebrew, but Cyril quotes frely from memory.
36 neu=ra. "Sinews" is the original meaning, the application to "nerves," as distinct organs of sensation, being later.
37 For a'nasth=sai, with Roe, Casaubon, and Alexandrides.
40 kata\ th\n proshgori/an. compare Aristotle, Categories, V. 30: tw= sxh/mati th=j proshgori/aj. Cyril's description of faith as twofold, and of dogmatic faith as an assent (sugkata/qesij) of the soul to something as credible, seems to be derived from Clement of Alexandria, Strom. II. c. 12. Compare by all means Pearson on the Creed, Art. I. and his Notes a, b, c.
43 eu'qresth/sewj, Bened. and Reischl, with best Mss. Milles and the earlier editions have e'reunh/sewj, "searching."
44 Luke xxiii. 43; the argument is used again in Cat. xiii. 31.
49 S. Chrysostom (Hom. xxix. in 1 Cor. xii. 9, 10) in like manner distinguishes dogmatic faith from the faith which is "the mother of miracles." The former S. Cyril calls our own, not meaning that God's help is not needed for it, but because, as he has shewn in § 10, it consists in the mind's assent, and voluntary approval of the doctrines set before it: but the latter is a pure gift of grace working in man without his own help. Compare Apostolic Constitutions, VIII. c. 1.
50 This Lecture was to be immediately followed by a first recitation of the Creed. See Index, Creed.
51 e'p0 auQth=j th=j le/cewj. "in ipsâ lectione" (Milles): "ipsis verbis" (Bened.): "in the very phrase" (R. W. C.). See below note 4.
52 Compare S. August. Serm. ccxii., "At the delivery of the Creed," and Index, Creed.
53 Compare Aeschylus, Prometheus V. 789: h=n e'ggra/qou su\ mnh/mosin de/ltoij qrenw=n.
54 e'fo/dion, Viaticum, I. e. provision for a journey, and here for the journey through this life. It is applied metaphorically by other Fathers (a) in this general sense, to the reading of Holy Scripture, Prayer, and Baptism, and (b) in a special sense to the Holy Eucharist when administered to the sick and dying, as a preparation for departure to the life after death. Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), Canon xiii. "With respect to the dying, the old rule of the Church should continue to be observed, which forbids that any one who is on the point of death should be deprived of the last and most necessary viaticum (e!fovdion)."
57 e'p0 auqth=j th=j le/cewj. (Bened. Reischl. with best Mss.). tau/thj th=j le/cewj, "this my recitation," (Milles).
58 2 Thess. ii. 15. Compare Cat. xxiii. 23.
59 Prov. vii. 3. Note 9, above.
60 Matt. xxv. 27; Luke xix. 23. See note on Catech. vi. 36: "Be thou a good banker."
3 This clause is omitted in some Mss. Various forms of the Doxology were adopted in Cyril's time by various parties in the Church. thus Theodoret (Hist. Eccles. II. c. 19) relates that Leontius, Bishop of Antioch, A.D. 348-357, observing that the Clergy and the Congregation were divided into two parties, the one using the form "and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," the other "through the Son, in the Holy Ghost," used to repeat the Doxology silently, so that those who were near could hear only "world without end."
The form which was regarded as the most orthodox, and adopted in the Liturgies ran thus: "Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and ever, and to the ages of the ages." See Suicer's Thesaurus, Docologi/a.
4 Iranaeus II. xxviii. 4: "But since God is all mind, all reason, all active Spirit, all light, and always exists as one and the same, such conditions and divisions (of operation) cannot fittingly be ascribed to Him. For our tongue, as being made of flesh, is not able to minister to the rapidity of man's sense, because that is of a spiritual nature; for which reason our speech is restrained (suffocatur) within us, and is not at once expressed as it has been conceived in, the mind but is uttered by successive efforts, just as the tongue is able to serve it."
5 Tertullian, Apologeticus, § 17: "That which is infinite is known only to itself. This it is which gives some notion of God, while yet beyond all our conceptions - our very incapacity of fully grasping Him affords us the idea of what He really is. He is presented to our minds in His transcendent greatness, as at once known and unknown." Cf. Phil. Jud. de Monarch. i. 4: Hooker, Eccles. Pol. I. ii. 3: "Whom although to know be life, and joy to make mention of His name; yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know Him not as He is, neither can know Him."
8 The opinion of Aristarchus of Samos, as stated by Archimedes (Arenarius, p. 320, Oxon), was that the sphere of the fixed stars was so large, that it bore to the earth's orbit the same proportion as a sphere to its centre, or more correctly (as Archimedes explains) the same proportion as the earth's orbit round the sun to the earth itself. Compare Cat. xv. 24.
11 Job xxxvi. 27: a'riqmhtai\ de\ auQtw= otago/nej u 9etou=. R.V. For He draweth up the drops of water.
14 John i. 18. They are the Evangelist's own words.
19 The Benedictine and earlier printed texts read o 9 gennhqei=j a'paqw=j pro\ tw\n xro/nwn ai'wni/wn: but the words in brackets are not found in the best Mss. The false grammar betrays a spurious insertion, which also interrupts the sense. On the meaning of the phrase o 9 gennhqei/j a'paqw=j, see note on vii. 5: ou'pa/qei path\r geno/menoj.
21 Iren. II. xiii. 3: "He is altogehter like and equal to Himself; since He is all sense, and all spirit, and all feeling, and all thought, and all reason, and all hearing, and all ear, and all eye, and all light, and all a fount of every good, - even as the religious and pious are wont to speak of God."
22 monooeidh=. A Platonic word. Phaedo, 80 B: tw= me\n qei/w kai\ a\qana/tw kai\ nohtw= kai\ monooeidei= kai\ a'dialn/tw kai\ a'ei\ w'san/twj kuta\ ta\ au'ta\ e!xonti e 9autw= oo 9mooioo/tatoon ei\nai yuxh/n. See Index "hypostasis."
23 Iren. II. xiii. 3: "If any object that in the Hebrew language different expressions occur, such as Sabaoth, Elöe, Adonai, and all other such terms, striving to prove from these that there are different powers and Gods, let them learn that all expressions of this kind are titles and announcements of one and the same Being."
24 See the passages of Irenaeus quoted above, § 2 note 4, and § 7 note 3.
31 Philo Judaeus (Leg. Alleg. I. 14. p. 52).. Qeou= ga\r ou'de\ o 9 su/mpaj ko/smoj a'ci/on a@n ei!h xwri/on kai\ endiai/thma, e'pei\ au'to\j e 9autw= th/poj. So Sir Isaac Newton, at the end of the Principia, asserts that God by His eternal and infinite existence constitutes Time and Space: "Non est duratio vel spatium, sed durat et adest, et existendo semper et ubique spatium et durationem constituit."
35 Job xi. 7 (R. V.): Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? Cyril seems to have understood ta\ e!sxata as "the least," not as "the utmost."
39 The cat was sacred to the goddess Pasht, called by the Greeks Bulastis, and identified by Herodotus (ii. 137) with Artemis or Diana. Cats were embalmed after death, and their mummies are found at various places, but especially at Bubastis (Herod. ii. 67).
"The Dogs are interred in the cities to which they belong, in sacred burial-places" (Herod. ii. 67), but chiefly at Cynopolis ("City of Dogs") where the dog-headed deity Anubis was worshipped.
Mummies of wolves are found in chamber excavated in the rocks at Lycopolis, where Osiris was worshipped under the symbol of a wolf.
40 The lion was held sacred at Leontopolis (Strabo, xvii. p. 812).
41 "In the neighbourhood of Thebes there are sacred serpents perfectly harmless to man. These they bury in the temple of Zeus, the god to whom they are sacred." (Herod. ii. 74.)
At Epidarus in Argolis the serpent was held sacred as the symbol of Aesculapius. Clement of Alexandria (Exhort. c. ii.) gives a fuller list of animals worshipped by various nations. Compare also Clement. Recogn. V. 20.
Illic aeluros, hic piscem fluminis, illic
Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam.
Possum et caepe nefas violare et frangere morsu.
46 The early Creeds of the Eastern Churches, like that which Eusebius of Caesarea proposed at Nicaea, expressly declare the unity of God, in opposition both to the heathen Polytheism, and to the various heresies which introduced two or more Gods. See below in this Lecture, §§ 12-18; and compare Athan. (contra Gentes, § 6, sqq.)
47 Clement of Alexandria (Exhort. cap. ii. § 37), quotes a passage from a hymn of Callimachus, implying the death of Zeus;
"For even thy tomb, O king, The Cretans fashioned."
Adonis, or "Thammuz yearly wounded," was said to live and die in alternate years.
48 By the word "falls" (a'poptw/seij) Cyril evidently refers to the story of Hephaestus, or Vulcan, to which Milton alludes (Paradise Lost, I. 740):-
"Men call'd him Mulciber, and how he fell
From heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn
To noon he fell, form noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day."
49 The "thunder-strokes" refer to "Titan heaven's first-born, With his enormous brood" (Par. Lost, I. 510). Cf. Virgil, Aen. vi. 580:-
"Hic genus antiquum Terrae, Titania pubes,
Fulmine deject fundo volvuntur in imo."
Ibid. v. 585:-
"Vidi et crudeles dantem Salmonea poenas,
Dum flammas Jovis et sonitus imitatur Olympi."
Clem. Alex. (Exhort. II. § 37):- "Aesculapius lies struck with lightning in the regions of Cynosuris." Cf. Virg. Aen. vii 770 ss.
50 The theory of two Gods, one good and the other evil, was held by Cerdo, and Marcion (Hippolytus, Refut. omnium Haer. VII. cap. 17: Irenaeus, III. xxv. 3, quoted in note on Cat. iv. 4). The Manichees also held that the Creator of the world was distinct from the Supreme God (Alexander Lycop. de Manichaeorum Sententiis, cap. iii.).
51 2 Cor. vi. 14. Cyril's description applies especially to the heresy of Manes. See § 36, note 3, at the end of the Lecture; also Cat. xi. 21. and Cat. xv. 3.
52 So Iranaeus (I. xxiii. 2) says that "from this Simon of Samaria all kinds of heresies derive their origin."
55 Irenaeus (I. xxiii. 2): "Having purchased from Tyre, a city of Phoenicia, a certain harlot named Helena, he used to carry her about with him, declaring that this woman was the first conception of his mind, the mother of all, by whom in the beginning he conceived in his mind the creation of Angels and Archangels."
56 Cf. Epiphan. (Haeres. p. 55 B): "He said that he was the Son and had not really suffered, but only in appearance (dokh/sei)."
57 Irenaeus (I. xxiii. 1): "He taught that it was himself who appeared among the Jews as the Son, and descended in Samaria as the Father, but came to other nations as the Holy Spirit."
Cyril here departs from his authority by substituting Mount Sinai for Samaria, and thereby falls into error. Simon had first appeared in Samaria, being a native of Gitton: moreover in claiming to be the Father he meant to set himself far above the inferior Deity who had given the Law on Sinai, saying that he was "the highest of all Powers, that is the Father who is over all."
58 "Justin Martyr in his first Apology, addressed to Antoninus Pius, writes thus (c. 26): `There was one Simon a Samaritan, of the village called Gitton, who in the reign of Claudius Caesar, and in your royal city of Rome, did mighty feats of magic by the art of daemons working in him. He was considered a god, and as a god was honoured among you with a statue, which statue was set up in the river Tiber between the two bridges, and bears this inscription in Latin:
Simoni Deo Sancto;
which is,
To Simon the holy God.
"The substance of this story is repeated by Irenaeus (adv. Haer. I. xxiii. 1), and by Tertullian (Apol. c. 13), who reproaches the Romans for installing Simon Magus in their Pantheon, and giving him a statue and the title `Holy God. 0''
"In A.D. 1574, a stone, which had formed the base of a statue, was dug up on the site described by Justin, the Island in the Tiber, bearing an inscription - `Semoni Sanco Deo Fidio Sacrum, &c. Hence it has been supposed that Justin mistook a statue of the Sabine God, `Semo Sancus, 0' for one of Simon Magus. See the notes in Otto's Justin Martyr, and Stieren's Irenaeus.
"On the other hand Tillemont (Memories, t. ii. p. 482) maintains that Justin in an Apology addressed to the emperor and written in Rome itself cannot reasonably be supposed to have fallen into so manifest an error. Whichever view we take of Justin's accuracy concerning the inscription and the statue, there is nothing improbable in his statement that Simon Magus was at Rome in the reign of Claudius."(Extracted by permission from the Speaker's Commentary, Introduction to the Epistle to the Romans, p. 4.)
59 "Justin says not one word about St. Peter's alleged visit to Rome, and his encounter with Simon Magus." But "Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History (c. A.D. 325), quotes Justin Martyr's story about Simon Magus (E. H. ii. c. 13), and then, without referring to any authority, goes on to assert (c. 14) that `immediately in the same reign of Claudius divine Providence led Peter the great Apostle to Rome to encounter this great destroyer of life, 0' and that he thus brought the light of the Gospel from the East to the West 0' (ibidem).
Eusebius probably borrowed this story "from the strange fictions of the Clementine Recognitions and Homilies, and Apostolic Constitutions." See Recogn. III. 63-65; Hom. I. 15, III. 58; Apsot. Constit. VI. 7, 8, 9 . Cyril's account of Simon's death is taken from the same untrustworthy sources.
62 It is certain that S. Paul was not at Rome at this time. This story of Simon Magus and his `fiery car 0' is told, with variations, by Arnobius (adv. Gentes, II. 12), and in Apost. Constit VI. 9.
64 Cerinthus taught that the world was not made by the supreme God, but by a separate Power ignorant of Him. See Irenaeus, Haer. I. xxvi., Euseb. E. H. iii. 28, with the notes in this Series.
65 Menander is first mentioned by Justin M. (Apolog. I. cap. 26): "Meander, also a Samaritan, of the town Capparetaea, a disciple of Simon, and inspired by devils, we know to have deceived many while he was in Antioch by his magical art. he persuaded those who adhered to him that they should never die." Irenaeus (I. xxiii. 5) adds that Meander announced himself as the Saviour sent by the Invisibles, and taught that the world was created by Angels. See also Tertullian (de Animâ, cap. 50.)
66 Carpocrates, a Platonic philosopher, who taught at Alexandria (125 A.D. circ.), held that the world and all things in it were made by Angels far inferior to the unbegotten (unknown) Father (Iren. I. xxv. 1; Tertullian, Adv. Haer. cap. 3).
"Those who are called Ebionites agree that the world was made by God: but their opinions with respect to the Lord are like those of Cerinthus and Carpocrates."
68 On Marcion, see note 5, on Cat. iv. 4.
72 Marcion accepted only St. Luke's Gospel, and mutilated that (Tertullian, Adv. Marcion. iv. 2). He thus got rid of the testimony of the Apostles and eye-witnesses, Matthew and John, and represented the Law and the Gospel as contradictory revelations of two different Gods. For this Cyril calls him `a second inventor of mischief, 0' Simon Magus (§ 14) being the first.
73 Basilides was earlier than Maricon, being the founder of a Gnostic sect at Alexandria in the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138). His doctrines are described by Irenaeus (I. xxvii. 3-7), and very fully by Hippolytus (Refut. omn. Haer. VII. 2-15). The charge of teaching licentiousness attaches rather to the later followers of Basilides than to himself or his son Isidorus (Clem. Alex. Stromat. III. cap. 1) and against which Agrippa Castor wrote a refutation. Origen (Hom. I. in Lucam.) says that Basilides wrote a Gospel bearing his own name. See Routh, Rell. Sacr. I. p. 85; V. p. 106: Westcott, History of Canon of N. T. iv. § 3.
74 "The doctrines of Valentinus are described fully by Iren§us (I. cap. i.) from whom S. Cyril takes this account. Valentinus, and Basilides, and Bardesanes, and Harmonious, and those of their company admit Christ's conception and birth of the Virgin, but say that God the Word received no addition from the Virgin, but made a sort of passage through her, as though a tube, and made use of a phantom in appearing to men." (Theodoret, Epist. 145.
78 Irenaeus, l. c., and Hippolytus, who gives an elaborate account of the doctrines of Valentinus (L. VI. capp. xvi. - xxxii.), both represent Sophia, "Wisdom," as giving birth not to Satan, but to a shapeless abortion, which was the origin of matter. According to Irenaeus (I. iv. 2), Achamoth, the enthymesis of Sophia, gave birth to the Demiurge, and "from her tears all that is of a liquid nature was formed."
In Tertullian's Treatise against the Valentinians chap. xxii., Achamoth is said as by Cyril to have given birth to Satan: but in chap. xxiii. Satan seems to be identified (or interchanged) with the Demiurge.
79 The account in Irenaeus (I. ii. 6) is rather different: "The whole Pleroma of the Aeons, with one design and desire, and with the concurrence of the Christ and the Holy Spirit, their Father also setting the seal of His approval on their conduct, brought together whatever each one had in himself of the greatest beauty and preciousness; and uniting all these contributions so as skilfully to blend the whole, they produced, to the honour and glory of Bythus, a being of most perfect beauty, the very star of the Pleroma, and its perfect fruit, namely Jesus."
Tertullian, Against the Valentinians, chap. 12, gives a sarcastic description of this strange doctrine, deriving his facts (chap. 5) from Justin, Miltiades, "Irenaeus, that very exact inquirer into all doctrines," and Proculus.
80 This statement does not agree with Irenaeus (I. vii. 1), who says that the Valentinians represented the Saviour, that is Jesus, as becoming the bridegroom of Achamoth or Sophia.
81 John 10, 11: "Neither bid him God speed" (A. V..): "give him no greeting" (R. V.)
83 Eusebius in his brief notice of the Manichean heresy (Hist. Eccles. vii. 31) plays, like S. Cyril, upon the name Manes as well suited to a madman.
84 Marcus Aurelius Probus, Emperor A.D. 276-282, from being an obsucre Illyrian soldier came to be universally esteemed the best and noblest of the Roman Emperors.
85 Routh (R. S. V. p. 12) comes to the conclusion that the famous disputation between Manes and Archelaus took place between July and December, A.D. 277. Accordingly these Lectures, being "full 70 years" later, could not have been delivered before the Spring of A.D. 348.
86 Leo the Great (Serm. xv. cap. 4) speaks of the madness of the later Manichees as including all errors and impieties: "all profanity of Paganism, all blindness of the carnal Jews, the illicit secrets of the magic art, the sacrilege and blasphemy of all heresies, flowed together in that sect as into a sort of cess-pool of all filth." Leo summoned those whom they called the "elect." both men and women, before an assembly of Bishops and Presbyters, and obtained from these witnesses a full account of the execrable practices of the sect, in which, as he declares, "their law is lying, their religion the devil, their sacrifice obscenity."
90 Cyril takes his account of Manes from the "Acta Archelai et Manetis Disputationis," of which Routh has edited the Latin translation together with the Fragments of the Greek preserved by Cyril in this Lecture and by Epiphanius. There is an English translation of the whole in Clark's "Ante-Nicene Christian Library."
91 The Saracens are mentioned by both Pliny and Ptolemy. See Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography.