NOTE: - 46 -

[... having denied the power] thereof: and from such turn away... who are ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Janes and Jamres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith” (II Tim. 3:5–8). From among such were certain [men] who had utterly departed and withdrawn from the true Evangelical preachings of the blessed Apostle Paul, and had become estranged from the Apostolic traditions, of whom the chief were Phygelos and Hermogenes. “These,” saith Oskiberan, “became base-minded in all things.” Against such doth the blessed Apostle Paul warn his disciple: “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygelos and Hermogenes” (II Tim. 1:13–15). Seest thou, beloved, prudent reader, how the holy Apostle striveth, by repeating and reiterating his words of admonition unto Timotheos, to establish him as a steadfast keeper of the traditions of the Evangelical and Apostolic preachings, both oral and written, and to caution [him] against those who deny and reject the Apostolic traditions? Wherefore he ceased not ever to impress upon him this word: “O Timothee, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee” (I Tim. 6:20–21). Now let us come to the examination of the words of their slander against the incontrovertible Apostolic ordinances; for in vainglory they say and write: “We acknowledge as correct the wondrous Nativity of Jesus Christ our Lord to be on the 25th of December, and the Baptism on the 6th of January; likewise also the Annunciation of the holy Virgin on the 25th of March, and moreover the forty-day Presentation on the 2nd of the month of February. Wherefore we also perform these wondrous-renewed solemnities together with the Greeks and with the Latins.” Thou hast read the fabrications of their newly-invented words; read also the canonical words of the holy Apostles, as it is written in chapter 5, wherein [...]