Florilegium
The witness of Scripture & the Fathers
Exact quotations, arranged by theme: what the Church has always been told about tradition, false teachers, fellowship, defilement, the bishop, and the one limit of obedience. Scripture is quoted from the King James Version; the Fathers from the public domain Ante-Nicene and Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers translations, cited by work and chapter.
Theme 1
Hold fast what was delivered
Before any question of separation arises, Scripture and the Fathers bind the Church to the faith once delivered. The rule of continuity comes first; everything below presupposes it.
“Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”
Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.
The doctrines of the Fathers are despised; apostolic traditions are set at nought; the devices of innovators are in vogue in the Churches.
Theme 2
Wolves will come: mark and avoid
The Lord and His Apostles did not merely predict false teachers; they commanded a posture toward them, vigilance, marking, avoidance, rejection. The apostolic men repeated the command with startling severity.
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.”
“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.”
“A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject.”
“If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness… from such withdraw thyself.”
“And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”
For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist; and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts… is the first-born of Satan.
John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bathhouse without bathing, exclaiming, “Let us fly, lest even the bathhouse fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.” And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion, who met him on one occasion, and said, “Dost thou know me?”, “I do know thee, the first-born of Satan.”
Theme 3
No fellowship with darkness
The principle beneath the canons on communion: fellowship transmits. To bid the false teacher God speed is to become a partaker of his deeds; to share another's sin is possible even without sharing his opinion.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? … Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.”
“If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”
“Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.”
It is fitting, therefore, that you should keep aloof from such persons, and not to speak of them either in private or in public… But avoid all divisions, as the beginning of evils.
I therefore, yet not I, but the love of Jesus Christ, entreat you that ye use Christian nourishment only, and abstain from herbage of a different kind; I mean heresy.
…οὐχ ὁ τόπος γὰρ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἁγιάζει, ἀλλ’ ὁ ἄνθρωπος τὸν τόπον… ὡς γὰρ οἱ ὅσιοι ἱερεῖς ἁγιάζουσιν, οὕτως οἱ ἐναγεῖς μιαίνουσιν.…for it is not the place that sanctifies the man, but the man the place… for as the holy priests sanctify, so the accursed defile.
Theme 4
Judgment in the Mysteries
The heart of the doctrine of defilement: the Mysteries remain real, and precisely because they are real they can be received unto judgment. Defilement is not the emptying of the sacrament but the condemnation of the unworthy communicant.
“Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord… For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.”
“Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean.”
…πλὴν ὅτι μολυσμὸν ἔχει ἡ κοινωνία ἐκ μόνου τοῦ ἀναφέρειν, κἂν ὀρθόδοξος εἴη ὁ ἀναφέρων.…except that communion has defilement from the mere commemorating [of the heresiarch], even if the one commemorating is Orthodox.
…ἓν ἐγκαλέσαντες μόνον, τὸ μὴ τῇ ἀσεβείᾳ συνθέσθαι μηδὲ τῇ κοινωνίᾳ χρανθῆναι, ἣν ὡς ἰὸν ὄφεως φεύγομεν, οὐ σῶμα βλάπτουσαν, τὰ δὲ βάθη μελαίνουσαν τῆς ψυχῆς.…charging one thing only: that they would not consent to the impiety nor be defiled by the communion, which we flee like a serpent's venom, a thing that does not harm the body but blackens the depths of the soul.
Theme 5
The bishop, and the limit of obedience
The same tradition that binds the faithful to the bishop states the one limit of that bond. Nothing without the bishop, and yet, where the faith itself is at stake, flee even an angel from heaven. Both halves are the Church's voice; neither may silence the other.
“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account.”
See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father… Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop… Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.
He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.
Πονηρός, πῶς λέγεις; εἰ μὲν πίστεως ἕνεκεν, φεῦγε αὐτὸν καὶ παραίτησαι, μὴ μόνον ἂν ἄνθρωπος ᾖ, ἀλλὰ κἂν ἄγγελος ἐξ’ οὐρανοῦ κατιών.“Wicked”, in what sense do you mean? If indeed in regard to faith, flee him and avoid him; not only if he be a man, but even if he be an angel come down from heaven.
…μόνον μὴ μιάνητε ἑαυτοὺς μετὰ τῶν Ἀρειανῶν.…Only do not defile yourselves with the Arians. For this teaching is not of the Apostles, but of the demons and of their father the devil.
Theme 6
Separation that is not schism
Where the limit is reached, the canons themselves define a withdrawal that heals rather than tears. The canon's own verdict on those who wall off from a publicly preached, already condemned heresy: not schismatics, but worthy of honour.
…οὐ μόνον τῇ κανονικῇ ἐπιτιμήσει οὐχ ὑπόκεινται, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς πρεπούσης τιμῆς τοῖς ὀρθοδόξοις ἀξιωθήσονται.…such persons are not only not subject to canonical penalty, but are worthy of the honour due to the Orthodox; for they have condemned not bishops but pseudo bishops, and have not fragmented the Church's unity by schism, but have been eager to deliver her from schisms.
Ἦν δὲ καὶ ἑτέρως χρήσιμόν τε καὶ ἀναγκαῖον… τὸ τῶν θείων ἐλαύνεσθαι θυσιαστηρίων τὸν βεβηλοῦντα αὐτά.It was also otherwise useful and necessary… to drive away from the divine altars the one who defiles them.
For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace.
Theme 7
Guard the deposit: the whole people as keeper
The faith is a deposit entrusted to the whole Church. Scripture charges every believer to contend for it, and the Eastern Patriarchs in 1848 drew the conclusion: among the Orthodox, the guardian of religion is the very body of the Church.
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
“That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.”
Among us, neither Patriarchs nor Councils could ever introduce new teaching, for the protector of religion is the very body of the Church, even the people themselves.
Theme 8
The Eucharist and the faith
The oldest witnesses fence the Chalice with the confession. One bread makes the many one body, and precisely for that reason no one approaches it who holds another faith. The Creed stands at the door of the offering.
“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.”
“One Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
Take heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to show forth the unity of His blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons.
And this food is called among us the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true.
Theme 9
Confession unto blood
The limit of obedience is not a debating point but a place the saints have died. When a man's command and God's collide, the Apostles answered once for all; the martyrs and confessors only repeated them, in prison, in exile, and under the knife.
“Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.”
“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?
…μόνον μὴ μιάνητε ἑαυτοὺς μετὰ τῶν Ἀρειανῶν.…Only do not defile yourselves with the Arians. For this teaching is not of the Apostles, but of the demons.
Theme 10
Speaking the truth in love
The confession this library defends is not the enemy of charity but its costliest form. Scripture joins the two in a single breath, and the risen Lord, praising a church for testing false apostles, warns it in the same words never to lose its first love.
“But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”
“Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.”
“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.”
“And how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”
Let it be done with love for mankind, not with hatred of the men, but with a hatred of their vices.
Theme 11
The promise to the Church
The confessor's confidence rests not on his own strength but on a promise. The gates of hell will not prevail; the Spirit of truth abides for ever; the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Because she cannot fail, resistance is faith and not despair.
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.”
“That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”
For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace: but the Spirit is truth.
Theme 12
The narrow way and the Cross
The faith was never promised as the broad and easy road. Its gate is strait, its way is the Cross, and the world's hatred of it is a mark of the way. Yet the Lord has overcome the world, and the seed that is buried rises.
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.
How these texts are handled
Every entry names its work and chapter; translations are identified (KJV; ANF/NPNF series, the same public domain translations hosted at newadvent.org/fathers). Entries marked Documented were checked against the source; Strongly supported follows the well attested wording of the cited series with a final page level check pending. Nothing here is invented, and the themes place each text in the Church's whole teaching, see the editorial standards and the Canon 15 research centre.