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AT this time, as the faith extended and our doctrine was proclaimed
boldly before all, Origen, being, as they say, over sixty years
old, and having gained great facility by his long practice, very
properly permitted his public discourses to be taken down by
stenographers, a thing which he had never before allowed. He also at
this time composed a work of eight books in answer to that entitled
True Discourse, which had been written against us by Celsus the
Epicurean, and the twenty-five books on the Gospel of Matthew,
besides those on the
Twelve Prophets, of which we have found only twenty-five. There is
extant also an epistle of his to the Emperor Philip, and another to
Severa his wife, with several others to different persons. We have
arranged in distinct books to the number of one hundred, so that they
might be no longer scattered, as many of these as we have been able to
collect, which have been preserved here and there by different
persons. He wrote also to Fabianus, bishop of Rome, and to many
other rulers of the churches concerning his orthodoxy. You have
examples of these in the eighth book of the Apology which we have
written in his behalf.
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