The creeds we chant are
the sweat of Grecian brows, promulgated by their Councils, and
established by the martyrdom of many.
Yet their natural slowness, as it happens, turns to the glory of
the Latins, since as they were less learned in their studies, so
they were less perverse in their errors. In truth, the Arian
heresy had all but eclipsed the whole Church; the Nestorian
wickedness presumed to rave with blasphemous rage against the
Virgin, for it would have robbed the Queen of Heaven, not in open
fight but in disputation, of her name and character as Mother of
God, unless the invincible champion Cyril, ready to do single
battle, with the help of the Council of Ephesus, had in vehemence
of spirit utterly extinguished it. Innumerable are the forms as
well as the authors of Greek heresies; for as they were the
original cultivators of our holy faith, so too they were the
first sowers of tares, as is shown by veracious history. And
thus they went on from bad to worse, because in endeavouring to
part the seamless vesture of the Lord, they totally destroyed
primitive simplicity of doctrine, and blinded by the darkness of
novelty would fall into the bottomless pit, unless He provide for
them in His inscrutable prerogative, whose wisdom is past
reckoning.
Let this suffice; for here we reach the limit of our power of
judgment. One thing, however, we conclude from the premises,
that the ignorance of the Greek tongue is now a great hindrance
to the study of the Latin writers, since without it the doctrines
of the ancient authors, whether Christian or Gentile, cannot be
understood.
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