Dialogue Against the Marcionites, Exhortation to Martyrdom (Wettstein 1674)

...these and other doctrines was so uncertain and ambiguous that no one knows what he finally thought. Secondly, in a public dispute against heretics, it is likely that he handed down the public opinion of the Church rather than his own peculiar opinion, which was not yet approved by all: for Origen, being cautious, did not reveal everything he thought to everyone. It is evident that the books On First Principles were the most corrupted of all. Whence it is not to be wondered at that from these alone the Emperor Justinian, in his letter to Mennas, asserted Origen's heterodoxy: whereas, conversely, the books Against Celsus are far cleaner and purer; because, "as it is written in an apology against one alien to the faith, for the sake of those who are children and tossed about, he followed few of the things he studied speculatively," as far as it was fitting in a conflict with a profane man, having regard for the "children" who are tossed about, he accommodated himself to the understanding of the common reader; as he himself confesses in Against Celsus, bk. 5, p. 243; see also p. 249 and 264. But in the books On First Principles, published secretly for the benefit of Ambrosius, he pursued his arguments more freely and more subtly than solidly, because he hoped they would not see the light of day. But frustrated in his hope, when those books were brought into the public by Ambrosius, he did penance and sought forgiveness by writing a letter to Fabian, the Bishop of the Roman City; witness Jerome in his letter to Pammachius and Oceanus, Vol. 2, p. 193. But, to return to our own subject: if this disputation indeed defends the opinion approved by the Catholic Church, it ought to be valued all the more highly by us, the less it is held to be suspected of error, or convicted and accused of it, than other writings of Origen.

Furthermore, the illustrious man urges the words of the authors of the Philocalia ch. 24, as follows: "These things have been excerpted from the seventh book of the Evangelical Preparation of Eusebius Pamphilus. They are, however, by Maximus, as the same Eusebius says, a writer not undistinguished among Christians. These things are found written word for word also in the Catalogue of Origen against the Marcionites and other heretics, with Eutropius as judge and Megethius contradicting." These are taken from the seventh book of Eusebius Pamphilus's Evangelical Preparation. They have Maximus as their author, as Eusebius himself writes, a writer not undistinguished among Christians. But the words are found written in the Dialogue of Origen against the Marcionites and other heretics, with Eutropius as judge and Megethius opposing. From this he infers: Eusebius exhibits that fragment and declares that he borrowed it from the book of Maximus On Matter. But to whom should we give more credit, to Basil and Gregory, who attribute the work to Origen; or to Eusebius, who assigns it to Maximus?