In the Periarchon were contained, without all doubt, many unfound and unwarrantable Notions, and Ruffinus corrected those only that related to the Trinity. He corrected, says Jerom, what Origen had impiously written concerning the Trinity, being well apprised it would have given great Offence at Rome. But as to his other Errors, those especially concerning the Fall of the Angels, and the first Man, the Resurrection, the World or Worlds of Epicurus, the Restoration of all Things, &c. he either left them, as he found them in the Original, or confirmed them with Reasons borrowed from the Comment of Didymus, an avowed Defender of Origen. Thus he declared himself a Catholic with respect to the Trinity; that in other Points the Reader might not be aware of him as an Heretic[[1358]].
Ruffinus’s Answers.
In Answer to this Charge, Ruffinus declared, that it was never his Intention to correct all the Errors that were ascribed to Origen; that the Declaration he had made, in his Preface to the Periarchon, ought to be restrained to those Errors only that related to the Trinity; and that it was very uncharitable to judge of his Faith, from the Faith of the Author he translated, and not from his own Words. He then declares his Sentiments touching some particular Points, in which Origen was thought to differ from the Church; adding, that where Origen differed from the Catholic Church, he differed from Origen.
Jerom condemns
Origen, and inveighs
against Ruffinus.
Anastasius, notwithstanding the Solicitations of Marcella, declined either proceeding against Ruffinus, or censuring his Translation, till Two Years after, when Jerom, in a new Version which he published of the same Work, undertook to prove, that several Opinions of Origen were truly heretical, and as such ought to be condemned by the Church. As to Ruffinus, he inveighed bitterly against him, as if he had translated that Work with no other View but to propagate the Errors it contained. Thus began the famous Quarrel between these Two Writers, which occasioned no small Disturbance in the Church, some siding with Jerom against Ruffinus, and others with Ruffinus against Jerom. Among the former, the most sanguine were Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria, Epiphanius Bishop of Constantia in the Island of Cyprus, and Anastasius Bishop of Rome. Theophilus not only condemned in a Council, which he summoned for that Purpose, the Errors of Origen, but Origen himself, declaring him an Heretic, and forbidding all under his Jurisdiction to read, or even keep his Works by them; which is the first Instance we have of such Prohibitions. |Origen condemned by Anastasius and sev-
eral other Bishops.| His Example was followed by Epiphanius, Anastasius, Venerius Bishop of Milan, Chromatius Bishop of Aquileia, and several others. But some, and among the rest John Bishop of Jerusalem, and Chrysostom then Bishop of Constantinople, disapproving the rash Conduct of their Collegues, could by no means be induced to confirm the Sentence they had pronounced; which Epiphanius resented to such a Degree, that he immediately separated himself from their Communion. Sozomen adds, that he even refused to pray for young Theodosius, while he was dangerously ill, because his Mother Eudoxia would not banish from Constantinople some Monks who had warmly espoused the Cause of Origen[[1359]]. Ruffinus ranks Epiphanius among those Plagiaries, who, borrowing from Origen all they said or writ, cried down his Works, in order to deter others from reading them, and consequently from discovering, that what was admired in them was not their own[[1360]].
Ruffinus is summoned
to Rome.
Origen being thus condemned as an Heretic, near 150 Years after his Death, Anastasius, at the Instigation of Marcella, Pammachius, Oceanus, and some other of Jerom’s Friends in Rome, writ to Ruffinus, complaining of his Translation, and summoning him to appear, and give an Account of his Faith. In Answer to this Letter, Ruffinus sent him a Confession of Faith intirely agreeable to that of the Catholic Church, adding, that he held no other; that his Faith had been sufficiently tried in the Persecution of Valens; and that, as to the Translation of Origen’s Work, he had there neither approved nor disapproved, but barely related, the Sentiments of that Writer. He modestly declined complying with the Summons calling him to Rome; and concluded with declaring, that the Faith of the Roman Church and his were one and the same[[1362]][[N42]].
[N42]. The chief Errors of Origen were concerning the Trinity, the Resurrection of the Body, the Eternity of Hell-Torments, and the Origin of Souls. If his Works were not interpolated by the Heretics, as Ruffinus pretended they were, it is no easy Matter to determine what was his real Opinion with respect to the Trinity; for in some Passages he seems to acknowlege an Equality, and in others to establish an Inequality, between the Father and the Son. As to the Resurrection, he was accused of not believing, that the Body, at least the same Body, was to rise from the Dead. He denied the Eternity of Hell-Torments, and held, that even the Devils would repent in the End, and be saved. He maintained the Souls to have been created before the World; to have been confined to the Bodies, which they animated, as so many Prisons, to expiate[expiate] there the Sins which they had committed; to be in perpetual Motion passing from one Body to another, and at last to become Angels. With the Three last Errors chiefly Ruffinus was charged by St. Jerom; and it was to clear himself from such an Imputation, that, in his Answer to Anastasius summoning him to Rome, he declared his Belief with respect to those Articles, styling his Answer on that Account an Apology. As to the Trinity, those whom they called Origenists, were allowed, even by their Enemies, to be quite orthodox in their Belief of that Mystery. Touching the Resurrection, Ruffinus declared and explained his Faith in such clear Terms as ought to have left no room, even for St. Jerom, to arraign him on that Head. He expressed himself in a manner no less orthodox with respect to the Eternity of the Pains of Hell. But, as to the Origin of Souls, he owns himself to be quite at a Loss what to think, and what to determine, on that Subject, since no particular Opinion had been yet settled by the Church, and the Ecclesiastical Writers disagreed in that Point among themselves; some believing, with Tertullian and Lactantius, the Souls to have been formed with the Bodies; and others maintaining, with Origen, that they were all created before the World: as to himself, he declared, that he held nothing for certain but what he was taught by the Church, viz. that the Souls as well as the Bodies proceeded from God[[1]]. This Jerom called a false, artful, and imposing Confession, as if Ruffinus did not believe what he professed in the most solemn Manner to believe; and Anastasius, judging of his Faith not from his own Words, but from those of Jerom, separated himself from his Communion.
I cannot help observing here, that Jerom, whom nothing now will satisfy but the Condemnation of Origen, used a few Years before to inveigh with the same Gall and Bitterness against the Enemies of that Writer as he does now against his Friends, condemning with as much Acrimony those who accused him, as he now condemns those who excuse him. Origen had been condemned in his Life-time by Demetrius Bishop of Alexandria, and by several other Bishops: and Jerom, after telling us, in speaking of the Judgment that was given against him, that he had written more Books than others had time to read; and that in the Number of his Volumes he had surpassed Varro, and the other most eloquent Writers both Greek and Latin; adds, But what Reward did he receive for so much Toil and Labour? He was condemned by the Bishop Demetrius; and, if we except the Bishops of Palæstine, Arabia, Phœnicia, and Achaia, he was condemned by all the rest. Even Rome assembled her Senate against him, not because he taught any new Doctrines, or held any heretical Opinions, which those who snarl at him, like so many mad Dogs, would fain make us believe; but because they could not bear the bright Rays of his Eloquence and Knowlege, and were forced to be dumb when he spoke. This Passage is quoted by Ruffinus, and Jerom himself owns it to have been copied from his Letter to Paula[[2]].