36. In the matter of the
books Περὶ
᾽Αρχῶν, I have
even a claim upon your gratitude. You say that you cut off anything
that was offensive and replaced it by what was better. I have
represented things just as they stood in the Greek. By this means both
things are made to appear, your faith and the heresy of him whom you
translated. The leading Christians of Rome wrote to me: Answer your
accuser; if you keep silence, you will be held to have assented to his
charges. All of them unanimously demanded that I should bring to light
the subtle errors of Origen, and make known the poison of the heretics
to the ears of the Romans to put them on their guard. How can this be
an injury to you? Have you a monopoly of the translation of these
books? Are there no others who take part in this work? When you
translated parts of the Septuagint, did you mean to prohibit all others
from translating it after your version had been published? Why, I also
have translated many books from the Greek. You have full power to make
a second translation of them at your pleasure; for both the good and
the bad in them must be laid to the charge of their author. And this
would hold in your case also, had you not said that you had cut out the
heretical parts and translated only what was positively good. This is
a difficulty which you have made for yourself, and which cannot be
solved, except by confessing that you have erred as all men err, and
condemning your former opinion.