Fides Rufini

THE FAITH OF RUFINUS. It is remarkable how many secrets of learning, both historical and dogmatic, this very brief booklet contains, so that it can be compared with large volumes, if not preferred to them, at least set beside them. Hence it seemed necessary to illustrate it with notes, and those laboriously gathered; nor did it need only a moderate amount of illustration, so that it might be compelled to explain the riches which, wrapped up as it were in its own smallness, it concealed. Moreover, it has been relegated to the appendix, for the same reason as the letter of Anastasius, to which it is subjoined in the manuscript codices, although it holds second place after it; for it has little of Pelagian history, much of another, namely Origenist. For in those times, as is to be shown in the notes, questions arising from the books of Origen, which Rufinus the presbyter of Aquileia had recently translated into the Latin tongue, were rife, especially in the place where the booklet was written. But these things will become clear from the notes, in which certain popular opinions must be refuted, and some Origenist doctrines, not sufficiently known even to the learned themselves, will be brought to light.

Out of reverence for the holy places, we have come from Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and we have understood that very many brothers are scandalized against us, because they have heard that we profess many heretical things and things that come against the faith of the Church. Therefore, with God as witness, we testify that the things written below we have in part believed through error, and at the present time condemn; other things, however, in which we are falsely defamed, we have neither said nor do say, and on the contrary, those things which we suspect in others, we have set forth and condemned. Those who say that the devil, and the demons, and the impious—that is, the gentiles, Jews, Samaritans, and all heretics (except Christians who follow the true faith and are sinners) are at some time to be spared, and that their punishments are not perpetual, let them be anathema. Those who say that any holy man, whether prophetic or apostolic, can be perfect without the help of God, let them be anathema.

Those who say that Christ, the Son of God, God the Word, was changed into a man, so that he ceased to be God the Word; or that he was a mere man born of Mary, according to Paul of Samosata and Photinus, and that he advanced into the name of God by merit and virtues, let them be anathema. 4.a Those who say that what is written, "But of the day and hour they know not, neither the angels, nor the Son" (Matt. 24:36; Mark 13:33), is true according to the blasphemy of the Arians, and not because of the economy of the assumed flesh, let them be anathema. Those who say that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that is, the holy Trinity, are of different substance among themselves, and not of one power and nature, let them be anathema. Those who say, in any way and in any sense, that the Son does not see the Father, let them be anathema. Those who say that our souls fell from the height of angels into these bodies, because of certain ancient sins, and that they do penance in this world, taking up those testimonies, "Before I was humbled, I sinned" (Ps. 118:67), and "Bring my soul out of prison" (Ps. 141:8), and other things similar to these, let them be anathema.

Those who say that our Lord and Savior did not come in our substance, but was of a different and more sublime substance, whether celestial, and that he did not take entirely what is from Mary, or that he did not have a human soul, or a mind without sin, let them be anathema. Those who say that after many ages and times, which we cannot comprehend by human thought, there will be a restoration of all things to their ancient state, and that all things will return to their beginnings, let them be anathema. Those who say that after the resurrection we will not have the same bodies, but certain aerial and spiritual ones, and not of the same nature as those in which we were laid in the tomb, although incorrupt and immortal, let them be anathema. Those who say that after the end of the resurrection, and after many times, bodies will be abolished and return to hyle, so that we will be only souls without bodies, as we were before, let them be anathema. Those who say that souls existed before they were born, and that they are not made daily by God together with the body, according to the example of the first man, let them be anathema.