A Warning Against Falsifiers

There is one point I think should not be passed over. You have no right to complain that the man who falsified your papers holds in my eyes the glorious rank of a confessor, since you, who are guilty of this very crime, are called a martyr and an apostle by all the partisans of Origen because of that exile and imprisonment of yours at Alexandria. On your claim to be inexperienced in writing Latin I have answered you above. But you repeat the same things, and, as if you had forgotten your earlier defense, you remind me once again that I ought to know you have spent thirty years devouring Greek books and so do not know Latin. I would have you notice, then, that it is not a few words of yours that I find fault with, though in fact all your writing deserves to be destroyed. What I wanted was to show your followers, whom you have taken such pains to teach to know nothing, how much modesty there is in a man who teaches what he does not know and writes about what he is ignorant of, so that they may expect to find the same wisdom in his opinions. As for what you add, “It is not faults of words that give offense, but sins, such as lying, slander, disparagement, false witness, and all evil speaking; and the mouth that speaks lies kills the soul,” and your plea, “Let not that foul smell reach my nostrils,” I would believe what you say, if I did not find the facts at odds with it. It is as if a fuller or a tanner, speaking to a dealer in spices and perfumes, warned him that he had better hold his nose as he passed their shops. I will do what you recommend. I will stop my nose, so that it may not be tortured by the delightful fragrance of your truthfulness and your blessings. [a]