C. Delarue, O.S.B., Admonitio generalis in Origenis epistolas

GENERAL ADMONITION ON THE LETTERS OF ORIGEN.

Eusebius, in Book VI of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 2, says that whatever pertains to the life of Origen he gathered for the most part from his letters; and in chapter 36 of the same book he relates that whatever [letters] he was able to find scattered here and there, kept by various persons, he arranged separately in books of their own, lest they should be dispersed again; and that they numbered above a hundred. The fourth book of this collection is cited by Rufinus in his little book On the Adulteration of the Books of Origen. But out of so great a number of letters there are very few of which any particular knowledge has come down to us.

1° First is reckoned the one which, as Eusebius witnesses (Ecclesiastical History, Book VI, chapter 2), he sent to his father Leonides, held in prison for the faith's sake, and by which he most vehemently exhorted him to martyrdom, admonishing him, among other things, in these words: "Hold fast; do not change your mind on our account": "Beware lest you change your resolve for our sake." The rest of this golden letter has perished.

2° Mention is made of that in which he describes the ardour of Ambrose for the sacred Scriptures, and a fragment of which, from Cedrenus page 253 and from Suidas under the entry "Origen", is shown below in the first place.

3° There is recorded the one in which, as Eusebius witnesses (Book VI of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 19), and Suidas under the entry "Origen", he clears himself against those who blamed his excessive zeal for Greek learning. Some small part of it is presented below in the second place.

4. Mention is made of that epistle which he sent against his adversaries in the year of Christ 231 or 232, after his departure from the city of Alexandria, to his Alexandrian friends. Of this two notable fragments are exhibited below in Latin, the one from the second book of Jerome Against Rufinus, the other from the Apologetic treatise of the same Rufinus for Origen. To these is subjoined another fragment of the epistle of Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, to Origen.

5. Those epistles of Origen appear to have been in great number which, as Eusebius testifies in Book VI of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 36, he wrote both to Fabian, bishop of the city of Rome, and to several other prelates of the Churches concerning the sound orthodoxy of his faith about the year of Christ 236; but they have long since perished. Concerning the epistle to Fabian, Jerome in Epistle 41, otherwise 65, has these words: "Origen himself, in the epistle which he writes to Fabian, bishop of the city of Rome, does penance for having written such things, and lays the causes of his rashness upon Ambrose, because he brought forth into public what had been published in secret."

6. There has come down to us entire in Greek the epistle of Origen to Africanus concerning the history of Susanna. Below, it is subjoined to the epistle of Africanus.

7. There is still extant the epistle to Gregory Thaumaturgus, wherein he exhorts him that, despising the study of philosophy, he should give himself wholly to Sacred Scripture. It was written about the year 240. It is exhibited entire in Greek below from the Philocalia.

8. Jerome, in the Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 60, mentions the letters of Origen to Beryllus, bishop of Bostra in Arabia. They were written about the year of Christ 240, but through the injury of time have long since perished.

9. Eusebius, in Book VI of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 36, mentions his epistle to the Emperor Philip himself, and another to his wife Severa. Jerome makes mention of the same in the Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 54: "To the Emperor Philip," he says, "who was the first among the Roman kings to be a Christian, and to his mother [Eusebius: wife] he composed letters, which are extant even to this day." The same is testified by Vincent of Lérins in the Commonitorium I, chapter 23, in these words: "How venerable he was not only to private station, but also to the Empire itself, the histories declare, which relate that he was summoned by the mother of the Emperor Alexander, on account, to be sure, of the merit of his heavenly wisdom, with the grace of which he burned, and she with the love of it. But his epistles also bear witness to the same, which he wrote with the authority of a Christian master to the Emperor Philip, who was the first of the Roman princes to be a Christian," namely about the year 245. Yet they have long since perished.

10. Jerome, in the Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 57, says that in his age there were extant several epistles of Origen to Trypho his hearer. Of these today there is not even a syllable.

11. Eusebius, in Book VI of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 39, where he relates the persecution of Decius and what Origen suffered in it, says these words: "Now the things that befell Origen during the persecution, of what sort and how great they were, and of what sort of end he met, as the evil daemon drew up all his forces in rivalry against the man, and manoeuvred against him with every device and power, and fell upon him beyond all others who were warred against at that time; and of what sort and how great were the bonds that the man endured for the word of Christ, and the tortures upon his body, the punishments under an iron collar and in the depths of the prison, and how for very many days he was stretched and dragged down in his feet through four spaces of the wooden stocks of torture, and the threats of fire and whatever other things brought upon him by the enemies he bravely bore; and of what sort of outcome his affairs met, the judge eagerly striving with all his might by no means to put him to death; and what sort of utterances he left behind after these things, themselves full of benefit for those in need of recovery: very many epistles of the man contain at once the truth and the exact account." "Moreover, what and how great things befell Origen in that persecution, and what the outcome of them all was, while the worst daemon ever more urgently moves all his forces against him, and assails him with all engines and strength, and rushes chiefly upon him above all the rest who were attacked at that time; what likewise and how great things that man endured for the doctrine of Christ, namely bonds and torments of body, and in the innermost recess of the prison the hardships of an iron collar; and how for the space of many days his feet were stretched in the stocks even to four intervals of holes; in addition to these, threats of fires, and whatever other things inflicted by enemies he bravely sustained, and of what sort at length the outcome of these things was, the judge ambitiously striving with every effort of his strength not to kill him; finally, what discourses he left after these things, and how useful to those who stand in need of consolation, his very many epistles record no less truly than accurately." Of these, however, nothing survives today.

12. In several manuscript Catenae of the Greek Fathers on Deuteronomy 16:20, there is cited a fragment of Origen "from the epistle to the presbyters Photius and Andrew," "from the epistle to Photius and Andrew the presbyters." But our most learned Montfaucon rightly warns on page 41 of the Bibliotheca Coisliniana that Origen was erroneously written for Severus, whose epistle to the presbyters Photius and Andrew is mentioned in codex 8 of the same Bibliotheca Coisliniana, page 44. Wherefore we have abstained from publishing this supposititious fragment among the genuine works of Origen.