Gentleness has measure; glean ears not sickle; do not bottle teachers’ ad-lib
Cyril: But if somehow someone should heap griefs and insults upon the one practicing gentleness and forbearance of evil, and the things through which the angers come—if it should come about measuredly, he would sometimes endure and bear it nobly, and will make the matter an exercise of gentleness and unanger. And if someone should go beyond the measured, and run beyond the bounds of forbearance, nothing unlikely, that the virtue somehow forced would also briefly grow slack.
Palladius: You speak well; for the good somehow is drunk among humans, and with no one shaking it, it stands scarcely.
Cyril: Come then already, if it seems good, also upon the loving itself. For it is the preeminent virtue, and the more excellent of the others. Yet it does not endure the too-great misuse. Which again the law guides for us as in a form of parable and clear example, saying: ‘And if you should enter into the harvest of your neighbor, and should gather ears in your hands, you will not set a sickle upon the harvest of your neighbor; and if you should enter into the vineyard of your neighbor, and should eat grape as much as for your soul to be filled, you will not cast into a vessel.’ For gathering a few ears with hands, or shearing a cluster unto desire or food, would have no harm. For he will bear it, I think, with good cheer; these things are the law of love, and the matter does not appear beyond the measure. But also bringing iron while reaping upon the things of the neighbor somehow swims over and thereafter leaps over the mutual-loving, and goes into the bounds already of grasping. So this is a clear example of not needing to misuse the lovings of the brothers, and of honoring also the mutual-loving with self-sufficiencies. And it is not inelegant, as I at least think, to fit the word upon this again also to certain others among us, who plucking as some intelligible food the voices of those teaching in the Churches, whichever would come about from the immediate and ready, do not endure to remain as far as this, but going somehow beyond the measure, and casting as into a vessel, also deposit them in tablets—being very fond of learning, yet somehow wronging brothers unto suspicion, because they deposit at once in writing what was improvised, as if something of the things very much prepared. But the law, O best ones, I would say to them, has clearly commanded to cast nothing into a vessel.
Palladius: So then it is slippery to pry up as it were a virtue of soul, and to dare all but to shake the mind that has stepped well by the superfluous of the misuse.
Cyril: The word is exact. For the God of the wholes has clearly justified that we must not plot against virtue, but rather share, if it should happen, the goods from virtue. And he makes the riddle dim upon this, and in altogether small things he paints the things incomparably overlying. For it has been written in the
Greek
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀλλ' εἴπερ τις τυχὸν τῷ πραότητά τε καὶ ἀνεξικακίαν ἐπιτηδεύοντι, λύπας τε καὶ ὕβρεις ἐπισωρεύσειε, καὶ τὰ δι' ὧν οἱ θυμοὶ, μετρίως μὲν εἰ γένοιτο, διακαρτερήσειεν ἂν ἔσθ' ὅτε καὶ οἴσει γεννικῶς, γύμνασμά τε πραότητος καὶ ἀοργησίας τὸ χρῆμα ποιήσεται. Εἰ δὲ δή τις ἴοι τοῦ μετρίου πέρα, καὶ τῶν ἀνεξικακίας ὅρων ἐπέκεινα τρέχοι, τὸ ἀπεικὸς οὐδὲν, καταβιασθεῖσαν ὥσπερ τὴν ἀρετὴν καὶ ἀτονῆσαι βραχύ.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ λέγεις· μεθύει γάρ πως ἐν ἀνθρώποις τὸ ἀγαθὸν, καὶ οὐδενὸς κατασείοντος, ἕστηκε μόλις.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἴθι δὴ οὖν, εἰ δοκεῖ, καὶ ἐπ' αὐτὴν τὴν ἀγάπησιν. Ἀρετὴ γὰρ ἡ προὔχουσα, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἐστὶν ἡ προφερεστέρα. Τῆς γε μὴν ἄγαν καταχρήσεως οὐκ ἀνέχεται. Ὃ δὴ πάλιν καθάπερ ἐν εἴδει παραβολῆς καὶ σαφοῦς παραδείγματος, ὁ νόμος ἡμῖν ὑφηγεῖται λέγων· «Ἐὰν δὲ εἰσέλθῃς εἰς τὸν ἀμητὸν τοῦ πλησίον σου, καὶ συλλέξῃς ἐν ταῖς χερσί σου στάχυς, καὶ δρέπανον οὐ μὴ ἐπιβάλῃς ἐπὶ τὸν ἀμητὸν τοῦ πλησίον σου· ἐὰν δὲ εἰσέλθῃς εἰς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα τοῦ πλησίον σου, καὶ φάγῃς σταφυλὴν ὅσον ψυχήν σου ἐμπλησθῆναι, εἰς δὲ ἄγγος οὐκ ἐμβαλεῖς.» Τὸ μὲν γὰρ ὀλίγους χερσὶ συναγεῖραι στάχυας, ἤγουν ἀποκεῖραι βότρυν εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν ἢ τροφὴν, οὐδὲν ἂν ἔχοι τὸ βλάβος. Οἴσει γὰρ, οἶμαι, σὺν θυμηδείᾳ· ταυτὶ τῆς ἀγάπης ὁ νόμος, καὶ οὐκ ἐπέκεινα τοῦ μέτρου τὸ χρῆμα φαίνεται. Τὸ δὲ καὶ ἀμῶντα σίδηρον τοῖς τοῦ πέλας ὑπενεγκεῖν, ὑπερνήχεταί πως καὶ ὑπερθρώσκει λοιπὸν τὸ φιλάλληλον, καὶ εἰς ὅρους ἤδη τοὺς τῆς πλεονεξίας οἴχεται. Οὐκοῦν ὑπόδειγμα τοῦτο σαφὲς τοῦ μὴ κατακεχρῆσθαι δεῖν ταῖς τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἀγαπήσεσίν ἐστι, τιμᾷν δὲ ταῖς αὐταρκείαις καὶ τὸ φιλάλληλον. Οὐκ ἄκομψον δὲ καθάπερ ἐγῷμαι, τὸν ἐπὶ τῷδε πάλιν εἰς ἡμᾶς καὶ ἑτέροις τισὶν ἐφαρμόσαι λόγον, οἳ τὰς ἐν ταῖς Ἐκκλησίαις τῶν διδασκόντων φωνὰς, αἵπερ ἂν ἐκ τοῦ παραχρῆμα καὶ προχείρου γένοιντο, καθάπερ τινὰ τροφὴν δρεπόμενοι νοητὴν, οὐ μέχρι τούτου μένειν ἀνέχονται, πέρα δὲ ὥσπερ ἰόντες τοῦ μέτρου, καὶ οἷά περ εἰς ἄγγος ἐμβάλλοντες, καὶ δέλτοις ἐναποτίθενται, χρηστομαθεῖς μὲν ὄντες λίαν, ἀδικοῦντες δέ πως εἰς ὑπόληψιν ἀδελφοὺς, ὅτι τὸ ἐσχεδιασμένον εὐθὺς, ὥσπερ τι τῶν ἄγαν κατεσκευασμένων, ἐναποτίθενται γραφῇ, Ἀλλ' ὅ γε νόμος, ὦ βέλτιστοι, φαίην ἂν αὐτοῖς, τὸ μηδὲν εἰς ἄγγος ἐμβάλλειν προστέταχεν ἐναργῶς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Σφαλερὸν οὖν ἄρα τὸ ἀναμοχλεύειν ὥσπερ ψυχῆς ἀρετὴν, καὶ τὸν εὖ βεβηκότα νοῦν μονονουχὶ κατασείειν ἀποτολμᾷν τῷ τῆς καταχρήσεως περιττῷ.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀτρεκὴς ὁ λόγος. Χρῆναι γὰρ δεῖν δεδικαίωκεν ἐναργῶς ὁ τῶν ὅλων Θεὸς, οὐκ ἐπιβουλεύειν ἡμᾶς ἀρετῇ, μετέχειν δὲ μᾶλλον, εἰ τύχοι, τῶν ἐξ ἀρετῆς ἀγαθῶν. Καὶ ἀμυδρὸν ἐπὶ τούτῳ ποιεῖται τὸ αἴνιγμα, καὶ ἐν μικροῖς κομιδῆ τὰ ἀσυγκρίτως ὑπερκείμενα ζωγραφεῖ. Γέγραπται γὰρ ἐν τῷ
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 8 of a seventeen-book dialogue — not the whole work.
English follows Migne PG 68 (Aubert reprint). The PDF and a cleaned text of the same print were checked against each other. This page is Book 8 of seventeen. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 68 De adoratione Book 5 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 8)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 8)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.