A Discourse on the Albigensian Heresy

...poreal. Thus far, not bad. But he immediately overturns the last point he had established, decreeing that it God or the Divine essence could nevertheless be seen with these very eyes of the body, provided they were strengthened by celestial and Divine power. He claims that this was the opinion of a great number of the Greek Fathers; yet he cites no others than some poem of DamasceneSt. John of Damascus (c. 675–749), a Syrian monk and influential theologian of the Eastern Church. and a passage from Nazianzen’sSt. Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329–390), one of the "Cappadocian Fathers" known for his contributions to Trinitarian theology. 40th Oration, which does not settle the matter at all. He devotes himself entirely to the 14th-century Greeks disputing over the Thaboritic lightThe "Thaboritic light" refers to the light seen by the Apostles at the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor; a major controversy in the 1300s (Hesychasm) centered on whether this light was a created phenomenon or the uncreated energy of God., about which PetaviusDenis Pétau (1583–1652), a French Jesuit theologian and scholar. (1), ThomassinusLouis Thomassin (1619–1695), a French Oratorian theologian. (2), and other theologians have long since written; to these he adds the authority of Leo AllatiusLeo Allatius (c. 1586–1669), a Greek scholar and librarian at the Vatican who sought to reconcile the Eastern and Western churches. (3).

It appears, therefore, that he wished to mock the unwary or the unskilled. Indeed, the authors of the Memoirs of TrévouxThe "Trevotienses" refers to the Jesuit editors of the "Journal de Trévoux," a famous 18th-century literary and scientific journal. (4) rebuked Allatius quite sharply. We can forgive that learned man Allatius for clinging too tenaciously to his fellow Greeks and for treating the Fathers more in the manner of a grammarian than a theologian. However, we cannot forgive Beausobre at all when, in Book III, chapters 1 and 2, he strives to tear down the Christian dogma regarding the nature of God as free from all matter and body. He denies that it is contrary to the Christian Faith to deny that God is entirely spiritual, in the sense that He is commonly believed and said to be.

He could have been taught better on this point by his own Manichaeans, had he not preferred to turn aside to VorstiusConrad Vorstius (1569–1622), a theologian accused of Socinianism and teaching that God has a physical location or body. and the SociniansA rationalist sect that denied the Trinity and often held heterodox views on the nature of the divine substance. in this passage. For the Manichaeans called God "Light" in such a way that they established another principle entirely opposed to Him, which had nothing in common with Him: matter. Therefore, God was removed from all matter. Witnesses to this fact are not only our own writers, who state this as the primary of their dogmas—among whom is Theodoret (5): “He Manes said there are two unbegotten and eternal beings, God and Matter, and he called God Light and Matter Darkness, and Light good and Darkness evil... he said God was removed from matter, and was entirely unknown, both He from matter, and matter from Him.”

But even Mani himself, according to the testimony of Epiphanius (6), began his famous Treasure in this way: “There was God and matter, light and darkness, good and evil, which were so utterly contrary to each other that one had no communication with the other.” What then shall we say? Only that when Mani said God was light, he named God by the name of light in the same way our painters are accustomed to represent a human soul in the form of a small flame or fire; for, as they express it through a certain visual form, so we express the thing we wish to describe with a certain name.

(1) Theological Dogmas, book 1, chapter 12. (2) Theological Dogmas, Treatise 1, book 4, chapter 1. (3) On Consensus, book 2, chapter 17, column 837. (4) Year 1736, article 1, page 14.

(5) Leo Allatius. (6) Heresies 66, number 13?. original Greek: ἦν θεὸς καὶ ὕλη, φῶς, καὶ σκότος, ἀγαθὸν καὶ κακὸν τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀκρῶς ἐναντία, ὡς κατὰ μηδὲν ἐπικοινωνεῖν θάτερον θατέρῳ. "There was God and matter, light and darkness, good and evil, which were so utterly contrary to each other that one had no communication with the other."