[902] Marcus Aurelius Probus, Emperor a.d. 276-282, from being an obscure Illyrian soldier came to be universally esteemed the best and noblest of the Roman Emperors.
[903] 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.
[904] 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."
[905] Matt. iii. 7.
[906] Ib. xxvi. 49.
[907] Heb. iv. 16.
[908] 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."
[909] The Saracens are mentioned by both Pliny and Ptolemy. See Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography.
[910] There is no mention of Aristotle in the Acta Archelai, but Scythianus is stated (cap. li.) to have founded the sect in the time of the Apostles, and to have derived his duality of Gods from Pythagoras, and to have learned the wisdom of the Egyptians.
[911] These four books are stated by Archelaus (Acta, cap. lii.), to have been written for Manes by his disciple Terebinthus.
[912] In allusion to this name the history of the Disputation is called (Acta, cap. i.) "The true Treasure."
[913] The true reading of this sentence, proairoumenon ton Skuthianon, instead of ton proeiremenon Sk., has been restored by Cleopas from the ms. in the Archiepiscopal library at Jerusalem. This reading agrees with the statement in Acta Archel. cap. li.: "Scythianus thought of making an excursion into Judæa, with the purpose of meeting all those who had a reputation there as teachers; but it came to pass that he suddenly departed this life, without having been able to make any progress."
[914] This statement agrees with the reading of the Vatican ms. of the Acta Archelai, "omnibus quæcunque ejus fuerunt congregratis."
[915] In the Acta there is no mention of Palestine, but only that he "set out for Babylonia, a province which is now held by the Persians."
[916] Clem. Alex. (Strom. i. 15): "Some also of the Indians obey the precepts of Boutta, and honour him as a god for his extraordinary sanctity."
[917] Cf. Acta Arch. cap. lii.: "A certain Parcus, however, a prophet, and Labdacus, son of Mithras, charged him with falsehood." On the name Parcus and Labdacus, see Dict. Chr. Biogr., "Barcabbas," and on the Magian worship of the Sun-god Mithras, see Rawlinson (Herodot. Vol. I. p. 426).
[918] See below, § 33.
[919] Cf. Acta Arch. cap. liii. "A boy about seven years old, named Corbicius."
[920] See a different account in Dict. Chr. Biogr., "Manes."
[921] Mark iii. 29.
[922] Prov. xxx. 21, 22.
[923] John xviii. 8.
[924] Jonah i. 12.
[925] The account of the discussion in this and the two following chapters is not now found in the Latin Version of the "Disputation," but is regarded by Dr. Routh as having been derived by Cyril from some different copies of the Greek. The last paragraph of § 29, "These mysteries, &c.," is evidently a caution addressed to the hearers by Cyril himself (Routh, Rell. Sac. V. 199).
[926] Ps. v. 9.
[927] Deut. iv. 24.
[928] Luke xii. 49.
[929] 1 Sam. ii. 6.
[930] Matt. xxv. 41.
[931] Is. xlv. 7.
[932] Matt. x. 34.
[933] 2 Cor. iv. 4, noemata, "thoughts."
[934] 2 Cor. iv. 3.
[935] Matt. vii. 6.
[936] Matt. xiii. 13. Both A.V. and R.V. follow the better reading: "because seeing they see not, &c."
[937] Matt. xiii. 15.
[938] Ib. xxv. 29; Luke viii. 18.
[939] Instead of the reading of the Benedictine and earlier editions, ei de dei kai hos tines exegountai touto eipein, the mss. Roe and Casaubon combine dei kai os into the one word dikaios, which is probably the right reading. Something, however, is still wanted to complete the construction, and Petrus Siculus (circ. a.d. 870) who quotes the passage in his History of the Manichees, boldly conjectures esti kai houtos eipein. A simpler emendation would be--ei de dikaios tines exegountai, dei touto eipein--which both completes the construction and explains the reading dei kai hos.
[940] noemata, 2 Cor. iv. 4.
[941] Matt. xiii. 13.
[942] Mark iv. 34.
[943] See the note at the end of Procatechesis.
[944] Disput. § 55. Compare the account of Manes in Socrates, Eccles. Hist. I. 22, in this series.
[945] The Gospel of Thomas, an account of the Childhood of Jesus, is extant in three forms, two in Greek and one in Latin: these are all translated in Clark's Ante-Nicene Library. The work is wrongly attributed by Cyril to a disciple of Manes, being mentioned long before Hippolytus (Refutation of all Heresies, V. 2) and by Origen (Hom. I. in Lucam): "There is extant also the Gospel according to Thomas."
[946] In the Disputation, § 9, Turbo describes these transformations: "Reapers must be transformed into hay, or beans, or barley, or corn, or vegetables, that they may be reaped and cut. Again if any one eats bread, he must become bread, and be eaten. If one kills a chicken, he will be a chicken himself. If one kills a mouse, he also will be a mouse."
[947] See Turbo's confession, Disput. § 9: "And when they are going to eat bread, they first pray, speaking thus to the bread: I neither reaped thee, nor ground thee, nor kneaded thee, nor cast thee into the oven: but another did these things and brought thee to me, and I am not to blame for eating thee.' And when he has said this to himself, he says to the Catechumen, I have prayed for thee,' and so he goes away."
[948] On the rites of Baptism and Eucharist employed by the Manichees, see Dict. Chr. Biogr., Manicheans.
[949] The original runs: Ou tolmo eipein, tini embaptontes ten ischada, didoasi tois athliois. dia sussemon de monon deloustho. andres gar ta en tois enupniasmois enthumeisthosin, kai gunaikes ta en aphedrois. Miainomen alethas to stoma k.t.l.
[950] O men gar porneusas, pros mian horan d epithumian telei ten praxin; kataginoskon de tes praxeos hos miantheis oide loutrou epideomenos, kai ginoskei tes praxeos to musaron. O de Manichaios thusiasteriou meson, hou nomizei, tithesi tauta, kai miainei kai to stoma kai ten glottan. para toioutou stomatos, anthrope k.t.l.
[951] hou nomizei. The Manichees boasted of their superiority to the Pagans in not worshipping God with altars, temples, images, victims, or incense (August. contra Faustum XX. cap. 15). Yet they used the names, as Augustine affirms (l. c. cap. 18): "Nevertheless I wish you would tell me why you call all those things which you approve in your own case by these names, temple, altar, sacrifice."
[952] Kakeinoi peri ouranon tas dusphemous echousi glossas. 'Iesous legei peri tou patros autou, Ostis ton helion autou anatellei epi dikaious kai adikous, kai brechei epi ponerous kai agathous. kakeinoi legousin, hoti hoi huetoi ex erotikes manias ginontai, kai tolmosi legein, hoti esti tis parthenos en ourano eueides meta neaniskou eueidous, kai kata ten ton kamelon e lukon kairon, tous tes aischras epithumias kairous echein, kai kata ten tou cheimonos kairon, maniodos auton epitrechein te partheno, kai ten men pheugein phasi, ton de epitrechein, eita epitrechonta hidroun, apo de ton hidroton autou einai ton hueton. Tauta gegraptai en tois ton Manichaion bibliois; tauta hemeis anegnomen, k.t.l.
[953] 2 Cor. vi. 14.
[954] Gr. episteme. See note on Introductory Lect. § 4.
[955] Matt. v. 28.
[956] semnotatos is the reading of the chief mss. But the printed editions have semnotetos, comparing it with such phrases as stoma atheotetos (vi. 15), and metanoia tes soterias (xiv. 17).
[957] This saying is quoted three times in the Clementine Homilies as spoken by our Lord. See Hom. II. § 51; III. § 50; XVIII. § 20: "Every man who wishes to be saved must become, as the Teacher said, a judge of the books written to try us. For thus He spake: Become experienced bankers. Now the need of bankers arises from the circumstance that the spurious is mixed up with the genuine." On the same saying, quoted as Scripture in the Apostolic Constitutions (II. § 36), Cotelerius suggests that in oral tradition, or in some Apocryphal book, the proverb was said to come from the Old Testament, and was added by some transcriber as a gloss in the margin of Matt. xxv. 27, or Luke xix. 23. Dionysius of Alexandria, Epist. VII., speaks of "the Apostolic word, which thus urges all who are endowed with greater virtue, Be ye skillful money-changers,'" referring apparently as here to 1 Thess. v. 21, 22, "try all things, &c." (See Euseb. E.H. VII. ch. 6 in this series: Suicer. Thesaurus, Trapezites: and Resch. (Agrapha, pp. 233-239.)
[958] 1 Thess. v. 21, 22.
[959] Compare § 13 of this Lecture, where Cyril seems to refer especially to the heresy of Manes, as described in the Disputatio Archelai, cap. 6: "If you are desirous of being instructed in the faith of Manes, hear it briefly from me. That man worships two gods, unbegotten, self-originate, eternal, opposed one to the other. The one he represents as good, and the other as evil, naming the one Light, and the other Darkness."
Lecture VII.
The Father.
Ephesians iii. 14, 15
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,...of whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named, &c.
1. Of God as the sole Principle we have said enough to you yesterday [960] : by "enough" I mean, not what is worthy of the subject, (for to reach that is utterly impossible to mortal nature), but as much as was granted to our infirmity. I traversed also the bye-paths of the manifold error of the godless heretics: but now let us shake off their foul and soul-poisoning doctrine, and remembering what relates to them, not to our own hurt, but to our greater detestation of them, let us come back to ourselves, and receive the saving doctrines of the true Faith, connecting the dignity of Fatherhood with that of the Unity, and believing In One God the Father: for we must not only believe in one God; but this also let us devoutly receive, that He is the Father of the Only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. For thus shall we raise our thoughts higher than the Jews [961] , who admit indeed by their doctrines that there is One God, (for what if they often denied even this by their idolatries?); but that He is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, they admit not; being of a contrary mind to their own Prophets, who in the Divine Scriptures affirm, The Lord said unto me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten thee [962] . And to this day they rage and gather themselves together against the Lord, and against His Anointed [963] , thinking that it is possible to be made friends of the Father apart from devotion towards the Son, being ignorant that no man cometh unto the Father but by [964] the Son, who saith, I am the Door, and I am the Way [965] . He therefore that refuseth the Way which leadeth to the Father, and he that denieth the Door, how shall he be deemed worthy of entrance unto God? They contradict also what is written in the eighty-eighth Psalm, He shall call Me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the helper of my salvation. And I will make him my first-born, high among the kings of the earth [966] . For if they should insist that these things are said of David or Solomon or any of their successors, let them shew how the throne of him, who is in their judgment described in the prophecy, is as the days of heaven, and as the sun before God, and as the moon established for ever [967] . And how is it also that they are not abashed at that which is written, From the womb before the morning-star have I begotten thee [968] : also this, He shall endure with the sun, and before the moon, from generation to generation [969] . To refer these passages to a man is a proof of utter and extreme insensibility.
3. Let the Jews, however, since they so will, suffer their usual disorder of unbelief, both in these and the like statements. But let us adopt the godly doctrine of our Faith, worshipping one God the Father of the Christ, (for to deprive Him, who grants to all the gift of generation, of the like dignity would be impious): and let us Believe in One God the Father, in order that, before we touch upon our teaching concerning Christ, the faith concerning the Only-begotten may be implanted in the soul of the hearers, without being at all interrupted by the intervening doctrines concerning the Father.