Peter's Rock in Mohammed's Flood, from St. Gregory the Great to St. Leo IIIAllies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Islamic
Peter's Rock in Mohammed's Flood, from St. Gregory the Great to St. Leo III
Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Christianity and other religions -- Islam; Church history -- Middle Ages, 600-1500; Papacy; Papacy -- History
At this word they all arose, their fury overmastering them: they pushed
and scratched and tore him; they covered him with spittle from his head
downwards, so that his clothes reeked, until they were washed. And the
bishop, rising, said, this ought not to be done, but his answer only
should be heard, and then be reported to our lord. For religious matters
are done in different fashion from this. The bishop could scarcely induce
them to desist. They took their seats again, and reviled him with
indescribable insults, and imprecations. Epiphanius said furiously,
“Malefactor and cannibal, speakest thou thus, treating us and our city and
our emperor as heretics? We are more Christian and orthodox than thou art.
We confess that our Lord and God has both a divine will and a human will,
and an intellectual soul, and that every intellectual nature has by
nature, Will, and Operation, since motion belongs to life, and will to
mind: and we know Him to have the capacity of Will not only in the
Godhead, but also in the Manhood. Nor do we deny His Two Wills and Two
Operations.”
The abbot, Maximus, answered:—“If you so believe, as the intellectual
Natures and the Church of God, why are you compelling me to communicate on
the terms of the Typus, which merely destroys those things?” “That,” said
Epiphanius, “has been done for accommodation, that the people may not be
injured by these subtleties.” Maximus said:—“On the contrary, every man is
sanctified by accurate confession of the faith, not by its destruction, as
put in the Typus”. “I told thee in the palace,” said Troilus, “that it did
not destroy, but bade silence be kept that we may all live in peace.”
Maximus answered:—“What is covered in silence is destroyed. The Holy
Spirit says by the prophet:—‘There are no speeches nor languages, where
their voices are not heard’: a word not spoken is no word at all.” Troilus
said: “Keep in thy heart what thou wilt; no one prevents thee”. Maximus
answered, “But God did not limit salvation to the heart when he said:—‘He
that confesseth Me before men, I will confess him before My Father in
heaven,’ and the Apostle, ‘With the heart we believe unto justice, but
with the mouth confession is made to salvation’. If then God, and God’s
prophets and apostles bid the great and terrible mystery which saves all
the world to be confessed by holy voices, there is no need that the voice
which proclaims it be in any way silenced, in order that the salvation of
those who are silent be not impaired.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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