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RUFINUS

VARIOUS PREFACES

[Translated by the Hon. and Rev. William Henry Fremantle, M.A., Canon of
Canterbury, Fellow and Tutor of Baliol College, Oxford.]


THE PREFACE TO THE BOOKS OF RECOGNITIONS OF ST. CLEMENT

   You possess so much vigour of character, my dear Gaudentius, you who
are so signal all ornament of our teachers, or as I would rather say, you
have the grace of the Spirit in so large a measure, that even what you say
in the way of daily conversation, or of addresses that you preach in
church,(2) ought to be consigned in writing and handed down for the
instruction of posterity. But I am far less quick, my native talent being
but slender, and old age is already making me sluggish and slow; and this
work is nothing but the payment of a debt due to the command laid upon me
by the virgin Sylvia whose memory I revere. She it was who demanded of me,
as you have now done by the right of heirship, to translate Clement into
our language. The debt is paid at last, though after many delays. It is a
part of the booty, and in my opinion no small one, which I have carried off
from the libraries of the Greeks, and which I am collecting for the use and
advantage of our countrymen. I have no food of my own to bring them, and I
must import their nourishment from abroad. However, foreign goods are apt
to appear sweeter; and sometimes they are really more useful. Moreover,
almost anything which brings healing to our bodies or is a defence against
disease or an antidote to poison comes from abroad. Judaea sends us the
distillation of the balsam tree, Crete the leaf of the dictamnus, Arabia
her aromatic flowers, and India the crop of the spikenard. These goods come
to us, no doubt, in a less perfect condition than those which our own
fields produce, but they preserve intact their pleasant scent and their
healing power. Therefore, my friend who are as my own soul, I present to
you Clement returning to Rome. I present him dressed in a Latin garb. Do
not think it strange if the aspect which his eloquence presents is less
bright than it might be. It makes no difference if only the meaning is felt
to be the same.

   These are foreign wares, then, which I am importing at a great expense
of labour; and I have still to see whether our countrymen will regard with
gratitude one who is bringing them the spoils(spolia) of his warfare, and
who is unlocking with the key of our language a treasure house hitherto
concealed, though he does it with the utmost good will. I only trust that
God may look favourably on your good wishes, so that my present may not be
met in any quarter by evil eyes and envious looks: and that we may not
witness that extremely monstrous phenomenon, expressions of illwill on the
part of those on whom the gift is conferred, while those from whom it is
taken part with it ungrudgingly. It is but right that you, who have read
this work in the Greek should point out to other's the design of my
translation--unless indeed, you feel that in some respects I have not
observed the right method of rendering the original. You are, I believe
well aware that there are two Greek editions of this work of Clement, his
Recognitions; that there are two sets of books, which in some few cases
differ from each other though the bulk of the narrative is the same. For
instance, the last part of the work, that which gives an account of the
transformation of Simon Magus, exists in one of these, while in the other
it is entirely absent. On the other hand there are some things, such as the
dissertation on the unbegotten and the begotten God, and a few others,
which, though they are found in both editions, are, to say the least of
them, beyond my understanding; and these I have preferred to leave others
to deal with rather than to present them in an inadequate manner. As to the
rest, I have taken pains not to swerve, even in the slightest degree from
either the sense or the diction; and this, though it makes the expression
less ornate, renders it more faithful.

   There is a letter in which this same Clement writing to James the
Lord's brother, gives an account of the death of Peter, and says that he
has left him as his successor, as ruler and teacher of the church; and
further incorporates a whole scheme of ecclesiastical government. This I
have not prefixed to the work, both because it is later in point of time,
and because it has been previously translated and published by me.
Nevertheless, there is a point which would perhaps seem inconsistent with
facts were I to place the translation of it in this work, but which I do
not consider to involve an impossibility. It is this. Linus and Cletus were
Bishops of the city of Rome before Clement. How then, some men ask, can
Clement in his, letter to James say that Peter passed over to him his
position as a church-teacher.(1) The explanation of this point, as I
understand, is as follows. Linus and Cletus were, no doubt,' Bishops in the
city of Rome before Clement, but this was in Peter's life-time; that is,
they took charge of the episcopal work, while he discharged the duties of
the apostolate. He is known to have done the same thing at Caesarea; for
there, though be was himself on the spot, yet he had at his side Zacchaeus
whom he had ordained as Bishop. Thus we may see how both things may be
true; namely how they stand as predecessors of Clement in the list of
Bishops, and vet how Clement after the death of Peter became his successor
in the teacher's chair. But it is time that we should pay attention to the
beginning of Clement's own narrative, which he addresses to James the
Lord's brother.


PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION OF THE SAYINGS OF XYSTUS

RUFINUS TO APRONIANUS, HIS OWN FRIEND

   I know that, just as the sheep come gladly when their own shepherd
calls them, so in matters of religion men attend most gladly to the
admonitions of a teacher who speaks their own language: and therefore, my
very dear Apronianus, when that pious lady who is my daughter but now your
sister in Christ, had laid her commands on me to compose for her a treatise
of such a nature that its understanding should not require any great,
effort, I translated into Latin in a very open and plain style the work of
Xystus, who is said to be the same man who at Rome is called Sixtus, and
who gained the glory of being both bishop and martyr. I think that, when
she reads this, she will find it expressed with such brevity that a vast
meaning is unfolded in each several line, with such power that a sentence
only a line long would suffice for a whole life's training, and yet with
such simplicity that one who looked over the shoulder of a girl as she read
it might question whether I were not quite weak in intellect. And the whole
work is so concise that it would be possible for her never to let go of it.
The entire book would hardly be bigger than the finger ring of one of our
ancestors. And indeed it seems but right that one who has learnt through
the word of God to count as dross the ornaments of the world should now
receive at my hands by way of ornament a necklace of the word and of
wisdom. For the present let this little book serve for a ring and be kept
constantly in the hands: but it will not be long before it will penetrate
into the treasure house and be wholly laid up in the heart, and bring forth
from its innermost chamber the germs of instruction and of a participation
in all good works. I have added further a few choice sayings addressed by a
pious father to his son, but all so succinct that the whole of this. little
work may rightly be called in Greek the Enchiridion(1) or in Latin the
Annulus.(2)


PREFACE TO THE TWO BOOKS OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, ADDED BY RUFINUS TO HIS
TRANSLATION OF EUSEBIUS

    It is the custom, they say, of skilful physicians, when they perceive
that some epidemic disease is near at hand in one of our cities, to provide
some kind of medicine, whether solid or liquid, which men may use as a
preventative to defend themselves from the destruction which is hanging
over them. You have imitated this method of the doctors, my venerable
Father, Chromatius, at the moment when the gates of Italy were broken
through by Alaric the commander of the Goths, and thus a disease and plague
poured in upon us, which made havoc of the fields and cattle and men
throughout the land. You then sought a remedy against the cruelty and
destruction, so that the minds of then which were languishing might be
drawn away from the contagion of the prevailing malady, and might preserve
their balance through an interest in better pursuits. This you have done by
enjoining on me the task of translating into Latin the ecclesiastical
history which was written in the Greek language by that most learned man,
Eusebius of Caesarea. You thought that the mind of those who heard it read
to them might be so held fast by it that, in its eager desire for the
knowledge of past events, it might to some extent become oblivious of their
actual sufferings. I tried to excuse myself from the task, as being,
through my weakness unequal to it, and as having in the lapse of years lost
the use of the Latin tongue. But I reflected that your commands were not to
be divaricated from your position in the Apostolic order. For, at the time
when the multitude in the desert were hungering, and the Lord said to his
Apostles, "Give ye them to eat," Philip who was one of them instead of
bringing out the loaves which were hid in the wallet of the Apostles, said
that there was a little lad there who had five loaves and two fishes. He
knew that the exhibition of the divine virtue would be none the less
brilliant if the ministry of some of the little ones were used in its
fulfilment. He modestly excused his action by adding, "What are these among
so many?" So that the divine power might be more conspicuous through the
difficult and desperate circumstances in which it acted. I felt that, since
you were a scion of the Apostolic order, you had possibly acted in
remembrance of Philip's example, and that, when you saw that the time was
come for the multitudes to be fed, you had engaged the services of a little
lad who might be able to contribute, twice told, the five loaves(1) which
he had received, but who further, to fulfil the Gospel type, might add two
small fishes(2) which he had captured by his own efforts. I have therefore
made the attempt to execute what you had ordered, having the assurance that
the deficiency of my inexperience would be excused on account of the
authority of him who gave the command.

   I must point out the course I have taken in reference to the tenth book
of this work. As it stands in the Greek, it has little to do with the
process of events. All but a small part of it is taken up with discussions
tending to the praise of particular Bishops, and adds nothing to our
knowledge of facts. I have therefore left out all this superfluous matter;
and, whatever in it belonged to genuine history I have added to the ninth
book, with which I have made his history close. The tenth and eleventh
books I have myself compiled, partly froth the traditions of the former
generation, partly from facts within my own memory; and these I have added
to the previous books, like the two fishes to the loaves. If you bestow
your approval and benediction upon them, I shall have a sure confidence
that they will suffice for the multitude. The work as now completed
contains the events from the Ascension of the Saviour to the present time;
my own two books those from the days of Constantine when the persecution
came to an end on to the death of the Emperor Theodosius.

   The following note occurs at the end of the ninth book of Rufinus'
Latin Version of Eusebius.

   Thus far Eusebius has given us the record of the history. As to the
subsequent events, as they have followed on up to the present time, as I
have found them recorded in the writings of the last generation, or so far
as they are covered by my own knowledge, I will add them, obeying, as best
I may, in this point also the commands of our father in God.(3)


RUFINUS' PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION OF ORIGEN'S COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 36, 37,
AND 38.

   The whole exposition of the thirty-sixth, thirty-seventh and thirty-
eighth Psalms is ethical in its character, being designed to enforce more
correct methods of life; and teaches at one time the way of conversion and
repentance, at another that of purification and of progress. I have
therefore thought it well to translate it into Latin for you, my dearest
son Apronianus, having first arranged it in nine of the short sermons which
are called in Greek Homilies, and incorporated it into one whole; and thus
this discourse which in all its parts aims at the correction and the
advancement of the moral life, is collected into a single volume. My
translation will at all events be of use so far as to put the reader
without effort in possession of the meaning of the author, which is here
fully laid open, and to bring home to him the simplicity of life which he
enjoins with clearness of thought and in simple words; and thus the voice
of prophecy may reach not men alone but also god-fearing women, and lend
subtlety to the minds of the simple. Yet I fear that pious lady, who is my
daughter but your sister in Christ, may think that she owes me no thanks
for my work if it brings her nothing but puzzling thoughts and thorny
questions: for the human body could hardly hold together if divine
providence had formed it of bones and muscles alone without blending with
them the ease and grace of the softer tissues.


RUFINUS' PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION OF ORIGEN'S COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE
TO THE ROMANS

   My intention was to press the shore of the quiet land in the little
bark in which I was sailing, and to draw oat a few little fishes from the
pools of Greece: but you have compelled me, brother Heraclius, to give my
sails to the wind and go forth into the deep sea; you persuade me to leave
the work which lay before me in the translation of the homilies written by
the Man of Adamant(1) in his old age, and to open to you the fifteen
volumes in which he discussed the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. In these
books. while he aims at representing the Apostle's thoughts, he is carried
away into a sea of such depth that one who follows him into it may well be
afraid of being drowned in the greatness of his thoughts as in the vastness
of the waves. Then also you do not consider this, that my breath is but
scanty for filling a grand trumpet of eloquence like his. And beyond all
these difficulties is this, that the books themselves have been
interpolated. In almost all the libraries (I grant that no one can tell how
it happened) some of the volumes are absent from the body of the work; and
to supply these, and to restore the continuity of the work in the Latin
version is beyond my talent, but would be, as you must know when you make
your demand, a special gift of God. You add, however, so that nothing may
be wanting to the labour I am undertaking, that I had better abbreviate
this whole body of fifteen volumes, which in the Greek reaches to the
length of forty thousand lines or more, and bring it within moderate
compass. Your injunctions are hard indeed, and might be thought to be
imposed by one who did not care to consider what the burden of such a work
must be. I will, however, attempt it, hoping that through your prayers, and
the favour of the Lord, what seems impossible to man may become possible.
But we will now, if you please, listen to the Preface which Origen himself
prefixes to the work on which he was entering.


THE PERORATION OF RUFINUS APPENDED TO HIS TRANSLATION OF ORIGEN'S
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

   A satisfactory conclusion has now, I trust, been reached of the
Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, the writing of which has been a
work of very great labour and time. I confess, my most loving brother
Heraclius, that in the attempt to respond to your request I have almost
forgotten the precept; "Do not lift a burden above your strength." Even in
the other translations of Origen's works into Latin, which were made
because you earnestly requested it, or rather exacted it as a journeyman's
task, the labour was very great; for I made it my object to supplement what
Origen spoke extempore in the lecture room of the church; for his aim there
was the application of the subject for the sake of edification rather than
the exposition of the text. This I have done in the case of the Homilies,
and the short lectures on Genesis and Exodus, and especially in those on
the book of Leviticus, where he spoke in a hortatory manner, whereas my
translation takes the form of an exposition. This duty of supplying what
was wanted I took up because I thought that the practice of agitating
questions and then leaving them unsolved, which he frequently adopts in his
homiletic mode of speaking, might prove distasteful to the Latin reader.
The works upon Jesus Nave(1) and the book of Judges and the thirty-sixth,
thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth Psalms, I translated simply as I found
them, with no great labour. While then in the other cases which I have
mentioned above, I employed much labour in supplying what Origen had
omitted, in this work on the Epistle to the Romans the labour that fell on
me for the causes described in the Preface was immense and full of
complexity. But there will have been nothing but pleasure in these labours,
provided only that my experience in other cases, of ill-disposed minds
requiting my toils and vigils with contumely, be pot repeated and that I do
not gain for my studies the reward of detraction and for my labour a
conspiracy to ruin me. For in dealing with these men I have to undergo a
new form of accusation. They say to me; When you write these things, in
which are found many pieces the composition or which is due to yourself,
you should place your own name in the title, and let it run thus: 'The
books of Rufinus' commentary on (for instance) the Epistle to the Romans;'
for so, they say, in the case of profane writers, the name in the title is
not that of the Greek author who is translated but of the Latin author who
translates him. But all this complaisance, by which the works are ascribed
to me, is caused not by love to me but by hatred to the author. I am much
more observant of my conscience than of my reputation; it may be apparent
that I have added some things to supply what was wanting; and that I have
abbreviated what was too lengthy; hut to steal the title from the man who
laid the foundations on which the building has been reared is what I cannot
think right. It must be, I grant, in the discretion of the reader, when he
has examined the work, to ascribe the work to any one he thinks right; but
my intention has been not to seek the applause of students but the good of
those who wish to be edified.

   I shall turn next to the work which was long ago imposed upon me but
now is demanded with still greater vehemence by the Bishop Gaudentius,
namely to turn into Latin the books called the Recognition of Clement the
Bishop of Rome, the successor and compassion of the Apostles. In this work
I well know that, to judge by the ordinary rule, I shall have labour upon
labour. In this case I will do what my friends desire, I will put my own
name in the title of the work, though I shall have that of the author also.
It shall be called Rufinus's Clement. If the Lord enable me to fulfil this
task, I shall afterwards return to that which you desire, and say
something, God willing, on the books of Numbers or of Deuteronomy (for this
alone is wanting to my whole work on the Heptateuch): or else I shall write
what I can, the Lord being my guide, on the remaining epistles of the
Apostle Paul.


PREFACE TO ORIGEN'S HOMILIES ON NUMBERS

   My dear brother, I might rightly address you in the words of the
blessed master, "You do well, dearest Donatus, in reminding me of this;"
for I well remember my promise that I would collect all that Adamantius
wrote in his old age on the Law of Moses, and translate it into Latin for
the use of our people. But, as he says, the season was not seasonable for
the fulfilment of my promise, but was full of storm and confusion. How can
the pen move freely when a man is in fear of the missiles of the enemy,
when he has before his eyes the devastation of cities and country, when he
has to fly from dangers of the sea, and there is no safety even in exile?
As you yourself saw, the Barbarian was within sight of us; he had set fire
to the city of Rhegium, and our only protection against him was the very
narrow sea which separates the soil of Italy from Sicily. In such a
position, what leisure could there be for writing, and especially for
translating, a work in which one's duty is not to develop one's own
opinions but to express those of another? However, when there was a quiet
night, and our minds were relieved from the fear of an attack by the enemy,
and we got at least some little leisure for thought, I set  to work, as a
solace from our troubles, and to relieve the burden of our pilgrimage,
together into one and arrange all that Origen had written on the book of
Numbers, whether in the way of homilies or in writings such as are called
Excerpts,(3) and to translate them into the Roman tongue. You urged me to
do this, Ursacius, and aided me with all your might, indeed, so eager were
you, that you thought the youth who acted as secretary too slow in the
execution of his office. I wish, however, to point out to you, my brother,
that the object of this method of studying scripture is not to deal with
each clause separately, as you find done in commentaries, but to open up a
path for the understanding, so that the reader may not be made negligent,
but as it is written(4) may "stir up his own spirit" and draw out the
meaning, and, when he has heard the good word, may add to it by his own
wisdom. In this way I have tried to give all the expositions which you
desired; and now of all the writings that I have found upon the Law the
short comments upon Deuteronomy alone are wanting; these, if God so will,
and if he restores my eye-sight, I hope to add to the body of the work.
Indeed, my very loving son Pinianus, whose truly Christian company I have
joined in their flight because of my delight in their chaste conversation,
requires yet other tasks from me. But do you and he join your prayers that
the Lord may be present with us, and may give peace in our time, and shew
mercy to those who are in trouble, and make our work fruitful for the
edification of the reader.


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF II/III, Schaff and Wace). The digital version is by The
Electronic
Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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