Theophilus and the Letter of Isidore

You go on to write that you learned from my letters that Pope Theophilus had lately put out an exposition of the faith, which has not yet reached you, and you promise to accept whatever he may have written. I am not aware that I ever said this, or that I sent any letters of the kind. But you consent to things you are still unsure about, things whose content and character you do not know, so that you may avoid speaking of things you know perfectly well, and may not be bound by having consented to them. There are two letters of Theophilus against Origen and his disciples, a synodal letter and a Paschal letter, and others against Apollinaris and also against Origen. Within the last two years or so I have translated these and given them to those who speak our language, to build up the church. I am not aware that I have translated anything else of his. [a]

But when you say that you agree with the opinion of Pope Theophilus in everything, take care that your masters and disciples do not hear you, and that you do not offend those many people who call me a robber and you a martyr. Take care, too, not to provoke the anger of the man who wrote letters to you against Bishop Epiphanius, urging you to stand firm in the truth of the faith and not to change your opinion out of any fear. That letter, in its complete form, is held by those to whom it was brought. After this you say, in your usual way, “I will satisfy you even when you rage against me, as I did in the matter you spoke of before.” And again you say, “What do you want? Have you anything more to shoot at with the bow of your oratory?” And yet you are indignant if I find fault with your distasteful way of speaking, though you take up the lowest expressions of the comic playwrights, and in writing on church affairs use language fit only for the characters of prostitutes and their lovers on the stage.