Homilies on the Statues

^7. Therefore, beloved, let us not be distressed, but let us entertain favourable hopes; for if their boldness toward men has been able to prevent such a danger, then what will not their boldness toward God effect? These things also let us tell the Greeks, when they dare to dispute with us respecting their philosophers! From hence it is manifest that their stories of former days are false, but that the things of old reported among us are true; that is, the things concerning John, and Paul, and Peter, and all the rest. For inasmuch as these monks have succeeded to the piety of those men, they have consequently exhibited their boldness. Inasmuch as they were brought up in the same laws, they have consequently imitated their virtues. So that we stand in no need of writings for the purpose of showing the virtues, while the very facts cry aloud, and the masters are shown forth by the scholars. We have no need of disputation to display the trifling of the Greeks, and the little-mindedness of their philosophers, while their deeds now loudly proclaim, as they did aforetime, that all with them is a fable, a stage-play, a piece of acting.