Codex 138

[Eunomius, Against Basil and Letters]

Read a work by the same impious man in three books, which is, as it were, a confutation of the absurdities shown by St. Basil to be contained in his blasphemous writings. It is said that while he was in labour with this work he spent several Olympiads[1] shut up in his chamber, and only after an interval of several years brought forth the abortion and evil monstrosity with which he had become pregnant by secret intercourse. Not without difficulty he reared and exhibited the wretched offspring to his fellow-initiates, being especially afraid lest it might somehow fall into the hands of Basil and be torn in pieces before it obtained consistency, and might prematurely wither away and perish before it came to maturity. Wherefore, carefully and, like another Kronos[2] in the fable who swallowed his offspring, he hid and concealed it as long as Basil’s mortal life lasted and inspired him with-dread. But after that saint had left his temporary habitation and had ascended to his own inheritance in heaven, being relieved of this great apprehension, although late in the day, Eunomius ventured to bring out the work, not for the eyes of the general public, but for his own friends. Theodore, Gregory of Nyssa, and Sophronius (whom I have already mentioned) came across the work, lashed it unmercifully like his earlier one and flung it back in the face of its parent, a corpse and smelling of all uncleanness. Thus he paid the penalty of impiety. The style is marked by such absence of grace and charm that the author does not seem to have any idea of the existence of such things. He displays prodigious ostentation and produces discordant sounds by the heaping up of consonants, and by the use of words, difficult to pronounce and containing several consonants, in a poetical, or, to speak more accurately, dithyrambic style. The composition is forced, compressed, and harsh, so that the reader of his works is obliged to beat the air vehemently with his lips, if he wishes to utter clearly words which the author, by excessive roughening, compressing and condensing, interpolating and mutilating, has with difficulty composed. His periods are sometimes spun out to an inordinate length, and the entire work is pervaded by obscurity and want of clearness, his object being to persuade the majority by the force of his eloquence that he goes beyond their capacity, and also to cover up the weakness of his thoughts (which is by no means inconsiderable) by this very obscurity and unintelligibility, and to conceal the poverty of his ideas. He seems to have great faith in logical arguments, attacking others on this count and showing great eagerness to employ them himself, although, since he took up the study late and did not acquire a thorough knowledge of the subject, he can often be convicted of errors in reasoning.

Also read his Lettersto different people, 40 in number. While in these he affects the same subtlety of form, since he is ignorant of the laws of the epistolary style and has had no practice in them, he has been publicly branded and exposed.