Read the work of the presbyter Basil of Cilicia,[566] written against
John Scythopolita, whom he calls “pettifogger” and several other
names, and otherwise abuses. For instance, he asserts that he was
suspected of being a Manichaean; that he limited the sacred forty
days to three weeks, and during them did not even abstain from eating
fowl; that he took part in heathen rites; that he was greatly given
to gluttony, and never communicated while the sacred office was being
performed, but after the Gospel took part in the holy mysteries with
the boys, and immediately hurried to the holy table. Such insulting
and brutal remarks are scattered broadcast throughout the work. The
work is dramatic in character, in the form of a dialogue, dedicated
to a certain Leontius, who had asked the author to write it. The
characters are Lampadius, who defends Basil, and Marinus, who defends
John. Marinus, during the course of the discussion, is represented as
condemning his client and going over to Lampadius, a certain Tarasius
being then introduced as interlocutor. The disputants are represented
as asking and answering questions intended to benefit themselves and
to censure and perplex the opponent’s advocate. The whole work is
divided into sixteen books: the first thirteen are in the form of a
dialogue in which the author has expended great energy and labour
in attacking John’s first book alone, while the remaining three are
directed against the statements in the second and third books.
In the first book, after the preface is concluded, he takes his stand
against two chief points, the first that “The word suffered in the
flesh,”[567] the second, “To say Christ is the same as saying God.”
In the second book he attempts to show that he has been unjustly
blamed and that John has misunderstood the words, “There shall
come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse.”[568] In the third book
he asks how the words, “Now the son of man was glorified and God
was glorified in him,”[569] and the rest of the passage are to be
understood. In the fourth book, he inquires how the body is said to
be peculiar to God, about His unity, the words, “God, thy God hath
anointed thee,”[570] and “I sanctify myself.”[571] In this book
Marinus, abandoning the rôle of opponent, goes over to Lampadius. In
the fifth book, where Tarasius is introduced as taking up the part of
Marinus, the author makes more bitter accusations against John, with
which nearly the whole book is taken up. In the sixth book he attacks
more severely the union of Christ our Saviour. He also discusses the
words “God, thy God, hath anointed thee,” and the attitude of the
Church towards the expression “He was made flesh.”[572] In the eighth
book, he falls headlong into numerous absurdities in discussing “The
Word was made flesh” and also “No man hath ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is
in heaven.”[573] In the ninth book he speaks of “That Rock was
Christ,”[574] “Thy life shall hang in doubt before thee,”[575] and
“This gate shall be shut,”[576] to all of which he gives an impious
interpretation. The tenth book deals with “To you is the word of this
salvation sent”[577] and “He who spared not his own Son”[578] and “Of
the Word of life,” which your hands have touched, and “God so loved
the world that he gave his only-begotten Son”[579] and so on. In the
eleventh book he discusses, “This is our God, there shall none other
be accounted of in comparison of him,”[580] and “Afterwards did he
show himself upon earth and conversed with men,”[580] and “Arise, O
God, and judge the earth,”[581] and “He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father,”[582] and against those who asserted that the apostles
could not teach the truth owing to the weakness of their hearers.
In the twelfth book he teaches that one of the Trinity suffered,
and discusses “Had they known it, they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory.”[583] He puts forward a weak and sinful plea for our
denying that there are two Christs, in which his defence is prompted
by his wishes. In the thirteenth book he inquires how it is that
there are not two Sons, and indeed it would seem from his defence
that there must be. Tarasius, as if unable to meet the arguments
against him, remains silent, and Basil (or Lampadius) discontinues
his zealous questions and answers. The last three books are more
detailed, and attack the statements of John in the second and third
books.
This Basil, as he himself tells us, was a presbyter of the Church
at Antioch, when Flavian was bishop there, and Arcadius emperor of
Rome. His style is poor, and especially in the dialogues differs
little from the language of the common people. Nor is he accurate
in composition, but frequently makes mistakes and uses solecisms;
at the same time, he endeavours to be clear. His arguments against
the orthodox are keen and show the practised logician; in fact, he
seems to have wasted his whole life in his idle attacks upon the
true faith. Although he is tainted with Nestorianism, he does not
defend Nestorius, but praises the fathers Theodore and Diodorus. He
does not openly use so much blasphemous language against the divine
Cyril. He declares that John, the object of his attack, relies for
support on nothing but the twelve “chapters” of Cyril, especially the
twelfth, in which he introduces the suffering of God. With this he
concludes his idle labours. As mentioned above, the work is dedicated
to a certain Leontius, whom he pompously calls most holy, most
beloved of God, and Father.