Praise in Some Things, Blame in Others

As for your alternating praise and disparagement of me, you argue with great sharpness that you have the same right to speak well and ill of me that I have to find fault with Origen and Didymus, whom I once praised. I must teach you, then, wisest of men and chief of Roman logicians, that there is no fault of logic in praising a man in some respects while blaming him in others. The fault lies only in approving and disapproving one and the same thing. I will give an example, so that even if you do not understand, the wise reader may understand the point along with me. In Tertullian we praise his great talent, but we condemn his heresy. In Origen we admire his knowledge of the Scriptures, but all the same we do not accept his false doctrine. As for Didymus, we praise both his powers of memory and the purity of his faith in the Trinity; but on the other point, where he went wrong by trusting Origen, we part company with him. The vices of our teachers are not to be imitated; their virtues are. There was a man at Rome whose grammar teacher was an African, a very learned man; and he thought he was rising to his teacher’s level because he copied his shrill voice and his faulty pronunciation. In your preface to On First Principles you speak of me as your brother, call me your most eloquent colleague, and proclaim my soundness in the faith. From these three points you cannot draw back. Carp at me on every other point as you please, so long as you do not openly contradict this testimony you give me. For in calling me friend and colleague, you admit that I am worthy of your friendship; when you proclaim me an eloquent man, you cannot go on accusing me of ignorance; and when you confess that I am in every point a catholic, you cannot fasten the guilt of heresy on me. Beyond these three points you may charge me with anything you like without openly contradicting yourself. The net result of the whole reckoning is this: you are wrong to blame in me what you once praised; but I am not at fault when, in the case of the same men, I praise what deserves praise and blame what deserves blame. [a]