C. Delarue, O.S.B., Epistola dedicatoria ad Clementem XII

To Clement XII,

Supreme Pontiff.

Most Holy Father,

That distinguished defender of the Christian religion, Origen, whose surviving works, as many as could be found, come forth into the light under the favourable auspices of Your Holiness, so honoured and venerated the august and holy name of the Roman Pontiff that he may serve as an example to others. He knew that the prince of the apostles had established at Rome that eternal See and consecrated it with his own blood, which, ever ignorant of heresy, is ever the head of religion and of the Church, and the necessary centre of Catholic unity. Hence "he burned with so great a desire of seeing face to face the most ancient Church of the Romans," that he could be deterred from approaching it, "while Zephyrinus was governing," neither by the distance of places nor by the recent slaughter of very many martyrs.

How much more splendidly, Most Holy Father, does it go with him now, to whom, reviving again after the lapse of so many centuries in this new edition of his works, it is granted to behold the same Mother Church of all Churches, no longer groaning under the bitter yoke of Caracalla, an impious and greedy emperor, but joyful and triumphant, especially since from the most ancient, most noble family of the Corsini, fruitful in heroes, she has obtained, amid the applause of the Christian world, a prince under whose strong and gentle ordering of all things there is nothing that she can complain is wanting to her happiness.

For when, Most Blessed Father, could the times of Rome be happier than when by your care the majesty of the laws is restored, morals are amended, its due honour stands firm for virtue, the food supply of the common people is abundantly provided for, embezzlers of the public treasury are severely punished, the liberal arts are promoted, and public buildings are either completed or restored by your munificence and truly royal liberality in such a way that modern Rome yields to ancient Rome in scarcely any kind of magnificence?

Nor indeed, though the Roman domain is now encircled by narrower limits which once were most ample, is your mind, capable of embracing the world, also confined within them; rather, as solicitude for all the Churches presses on every side, your providence extends itself to every single part of the Christian world, and beneath the shelter of kindly Peace, which you assiduously foster among Catholic princes, the roots of vices are everywhere plucked up, dissensions arisen in the Churches are settled, due obedience is rendered to the Apostolic See, truth gives her laws to the nations, and the empire of Christ flourishes day by day.

Engaged in so many and so great cares, Most Holy Father, truly worthy of the Pontiff of Christians, you remit nothing of that singular love wherewith you, yourself most learned, have always pursued men of letters.

You have spare moments in which you deem them worthy of the paternal address of Your Holiness, and those whom, before supreme virtue raised you to the supreme pontificate, you embraced as another Maecenas with benevolence, you do not cease now, as ruler of affairs, to load with perpetual benefits and to kindle to greater endeavours. Hence the hope has shone forth that neither would Origen wholly displease Your Holiness, "in whom there is so great a force of genius, so keen, so profound, so great a magnificence of doctrine and of all erudition," that Greece itself, fruitful in minds of genius, seems scarcely to have produced his equal.

Nor is there reason for them to say that "while he indulges his own genius too much and trusts sufficiently in himself, while he forsakes the ancient simplicity of the Christian faith and the ecclesiastical traditions and the teachings of the ancients," he sometimes slips into monstrous ravings, and that the works of a man "to whose condemnation the city of Rome consented when a senate was convened" cannot fittingly be dedicated to the venerable name of the Supreme Pontiff. Why not indeed, Most Holy Father, if Origen does not teem throughout with errors, but has almost innumerable good things mingled with a few evils; if neither patronage is sought for his erroneous opinions, nor did he himself stubbornly adhere to them? I address a learned Pontiff, who knows full well that he himself, accused of violated faith before the Apostolic See, signified his repentance by letters to the blessed Fabian. And if against him, condemned by the East, Rome acceded as judge, it is no wonder at that time, when the fame of a most celebrated man, concerning whom there were great divisions of minds, spreading more and more day by day, was about to win favour for his bolder inventions among the unlearned populace greedy for novelty. But afterwards, when the discords of the Churches concerning Origen had been laid to rest and his peculiar tenets had fallen into the contempt of all, gentler dealing with him began, gradually and little by little the ecclesiastical decrees against reading his works passed into disuse, and at length there prevailed that most prudent judgement of Jerome, whereby he pronounces that "Origen is sometimes to be read on account of his erudition, in the same way as Tertullian, Novatus, Arnobius, Apollinarius, and several ecclesiastical writers both Greek and Latin, so that we may love their good things and avoid the contrary; for neither are perverse dogmas to be received on account of his learning, nor on account of the perversity of his dogmas, if he published any useful commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, are they to be altogether rejected."

Revolving these and other such things in his mind of old, Most Blessed Father, the Supreme Pontiff Nicholas the Fifth left no stone unturned whereby he might collect from every quarter the Greek remains of so great a man. He sent even to Constantinople someone to buy up and bring back to him his eight books Against Celsus, wherein with immense erudition of every kind and with inescapable force of arguments he prostrates and overwhelms that Epicurean juvenilely insulting the Christian religion. When Cristoforo Persona had translated those books, although sprinkled with some stain of error, from the Greek into the Latin tongue, Sixtus the Fourth wished them to be dedicated to himself; whose patronage claimed for Origen gives hope that you also, Most Holy Father, will kindly receive this new edition of his surviving works as an eternal monument of the supreme reverence and intimate obedience of myself and of the whole Congregation of St. Maur towards you and the Holy See, and will bestow the apostolic blessing, which as a suppliant begs

of Your Holiness

Your most obedient and most devoted servant, Brother Charles Delarue, priest and Benedictine monk of the Congregation of St. Maur.