Letter 146

Isidore of PelusiumUnknown|isidore pelusium
From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk at Pelusium
To: Adamantius
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore explains why heresies multiplied after Christ's incarnation — not a sign of failure but of the devil's desperate reaction.

Why are you surprised that so many heresies arose after the Savior's incarnation in the flesh?

The devil had clearly and unmistakably heard that everything would be subjected to judgment [see Matthew 25], and that he would pay the penalty for what he had done. So he sowed heresies, wanting to have as many companions as possible in his punishment.

And consider: even before the Incarnation, heresies were not few. Some people thought the divine did not exist at all; others that it existed but took no interest in the world; others that it cared about great things but not small ones. The devil was already at work.

What you call a problem — the proliferation of error — is actually the index of how seriously the devil took the Incarnation. He recognized the threat. We should take at least as seriously what he feared.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.