A Synod That Condemns Origen Must Condemn Jerome Too

As for the resurrection of the flesh, I think my translation contains the same doctrines that are preached in the churches. As for the other points, which concern the various orders of created beings, I have already said that they have nothing to do with our faith in the Godhead. But if he appeals to these in order to slander others, though until now they have given no ground of offense, I do not deny his right to do so, if he sees fit to overturn my judgment, by which he might have been acquitted, and to enforce his own, by which he ought to be condemned. It is not my judgment of him that is blameworthy, but his own, which takes others to task for doing what he approves in himself. But this is a new kind of judgment, by which I am defending my own accuser, and he thinks he has at last won the victory over me when he has brought in a verdict of guilty against himself.

But suppose a synod of bishops should accept the sentences you have pronounced, and should demand that all the books containing the doctrines you attack be condemned, together with their authors. Then these books must first be condemned as they stand in the Greek; and what is condemned in Greek must certainly be condemned in Latin. Then will come the turn of your own books. They will be found to contain the same things, even by your own judgment. And just as it has done Origen no good that you praised him, so it will do you no good that I have pleaded on your behalf. I will then be bound to follow the judgment of the catholic church, whether it is given against the books of Origen or against yours.