Read the little treatise of John Philoponus[365] against the
divinely-inspired doctrine of the holy and consubstantial Trinity,
set forth by John Scholasticus, archbishop of Constantinople, in his
catechetical speech, delivered at the first indiction[366] during the
reign of Justin.
The style is what one would expect from the author, being clear
but altogether lacking in energy and dignity. His arguments are
not only blasphemous, but utterly unsound and feeble, and he shows
himself unable to give even a superficial colouring of truth to his
fallacious arguments against the true faith. Inventing natures,
substances and godheads, like the insolent babbler that he is, he
pours forth a stream of blasphemy against the Christian faith, going
minutely into such points as “how many does one mean?” Thus, in
his ingenious trifling, as he considers it, or rather his puerile
want of taste, he insolently boasts that he despises the mystical
rites of our Church. It is not only in these particular arguments
that he appears weak and silly, but in all the other works he has
written, with the exception of those in which he has plagiarized
from others, while falsely laying claim to originality. He is far
removed from those writers who know how to distinguish the true from
the false, and are capable of attaining subtlety of thought. As for
the writings falsely claimed by him as his own, they have generally
preserved the character of their authors, except that in some cases
his vicious style and equipment have destroyed the noble manliness
of the original writers. They resemble those compounds which,
naturally excellent, owing to the manner in which they are reared and
nourished, show signs of spuriousness and degeneracy. In this work
he introduces quotations from the holy Fathers, such as Gregory the
Theologian, Basil the Great, the sorely-tried Athanasius and Saint
Cyril, but they in no way assist his impious design.