To Florus 4.50
Finally, what prize was there for endurance if the pain of wounds and blows could not reach the soul because the path of sensation was blocked? What, then, did Apollinaris’s flattery achieve? All the beauty of the virtues Christ had embodied was emptied out and withered by undeserved praises of his nature. Stripped of all the splendor of its truth, it exposed the Mediator’s sacred teaching to ridicule. Moreover, he would not merely lose the distinction of his works, being fortunate by birth rather than by virtue: he would also face charges of fraud if he told mortals, “Strive toward the patience of a man who feels nothing, and come through real torments to the virtues of an unreal body that suffers no pain”; or, “Conquer the definite impulses of your own nature and imitate the chastity of someone whom weakness made appear pure.” Certainly nothing more profane or wicked can be imagined than such inventions.
Apollinaris had not actually said all these things. But by making that one pronouncement—that the man Christ lacked the sensations implanted by nature, which fall into vice through excess rather than through use—he received all these replies from the catholics in silence, condemned by his own opinion. For the catholic faith is built by affirming all the things whose denial, or the consequences of whose denial, formed and condemned Apollinaris’s heresy. Judge, then, what verdict should be passed on you. You condemn the union of the sexes like Manichaeus. You separate the nature of Christ’s flesh from the common condition of humanity, according to the Manichaeans. You accuse the desire of the flesh, following the statements of your teacher Manichaeus. You say that sensory desire was not present in Christ’s body, whether according to the Manichaeans or according to the Apollinarists. Yet you want us to call you neither an Apollinarist nor a Manichaean! Still, I yield and grant you a favor; I do not regret being generous. As far as I am concerned, you may avoid appearing a follower of Apollinaris, for he devised the lesser impiety. But you yourself make it impossible for you to be called anything other than a Manichaean.
Latin
Quae postremo palma tolerantiae, si dolor vulnerum et verberum, intercepto itinere sensuum, pertingere ad animum non valebat? Quo ergo profecit Apollinaris adulatio? Videlicet ut omnis virtutum pulchritudo, quam in se Christus expresserat, indebitis naturae eius laudibus vacuata flaccesceret, cunctoque veritatis suae splendore nudata sacrum magisterium Mediatoris offerret irrisui. Huc accedebat quoniam non solum operum suorum perdebat insignia, nativitate, non virtute felicior; sed etiam fraudis criminibus urgebatur, si indiceret mortalibus: Extendimini ad patientiam hominis nihil sentientis, et venite per veras cruces ad virtutes corporis falsi nihil dolentis; vel: Imitamini castitatem, certa naturae vestrae irritamenta vincentes, illius quem debilitas fecit pudicum videri. Certe nihil profanius, nihil scelestius talibus excogitari commentis potest. Et Apollinaris omnia ista non dixerat; per illud unum quod pronuntiarat, homini Christo defuisse eos sensus, qui a natura inditi, non usu, sed excessu ad vitia labuntur; haec omnia quae a Catholicis relata sunt, praeiudicio opinionis suae mutus excepit. Horum quippe cunctorum affirmatione construitur catholica fides, quorum negatione vel consecutione Apollinaris haeresis compacta est atque damnata. Tu igitur conice quid de te debeat iudicari, qui commixtionem sexuum damnas, ut Manichaeus; naturam carnis Christi a communione hominum sequestras, secundum Manichaeos; concupiscentiam carnis accusas, iuxta praeceptoris tui dicta Manichaei; dicis concupiscentiam sensuum in Christi corpore non fuisse, vel secundum Manichaeos vel secundum Apollinaristas; et tamen vis a nobis nec Apollinarista, nec Manichaeus vocari. Quamquam do manus, praestoque beneficium; nec nos liberalitatis poenitet; per me ut Apollinaris sectator non videaris licebit; minoris quippe est ille impietatis inventor; per te autem non licet ut voceris aliud quam Manichaeus.