Ambrose of Milan : The truth of the Lord encompasses him, so that he is not afraid of the terror of the night or of the thing that walks about in darkness. Therefore, "Zabulon shall dwell by the sea." Thus he may look upon the shipwrecks of others while himself free from danger. He may behold others driven here and there on the sea of this world, those who are borne about by every wind of doctrine, while himself persevering on the ground of an immovable faith. — On the Blessings of the Patriarchs, Chapter 5 Athanasius of Alexandria : But the sectarians, who have fallen away from the teaching of the church and made shipwreck concerning the faith, wrongly think that evil has some sort of eternal existence. They arbitrarily imagine another god besides the true One, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They fantasize that he is the unmade producer of evil and the head of wickedness, who is also artificer of creation. These men one can easily refute, not only from the divine Scriptures but also from the human understanding itself, the very source of these insane imaginations. — Against the Heathen 6.3 Basil of Caesarea : But what storm at sea was ever so fierce and wild as this tempest of the Churches? In it every landmark of the Fathers has been moved; every foundation, every bulwark of opinion has been shaken; everything buoyed up on the unsound is dashed about and shaken down. We attack one another. We are overthrown by one another. If our enemy is not the first to strike us, we are wounded by the comrade at our side. If a foeman is stricken and falls, his fellow soldier tramples him down. There is at least this bond of union between us that we hate our common foes, but no sooner have the enemy gone by than we find enemies in one another. And who could make a complete list of all the wrecks? Some have gone to the bottom on the attack of the enemy, some through the unsuspected treachery of their allies, some from the blundering of their own officers. We see, as it were, whole churches, crews and all, dashed and shattered upon the sunken reefs of disingenuous heresy, while others of the enemies of the Spirit of Salvation have seized the helm and made shipwreck of the faith. — ON THE SPIRIT 30.77 John Chrysostom : Everywhere, beloved, we have need of faith, faith the mother of blessings, the medicine of salvation; and without this it is impossible to possess any one of the great doctrines. Without this, men are like to those who attempt to cross the open sea without a ship, who for a little way hold out by swimming, using both hands and feet, but when they have advanced farther, are quickly swamped by the waves: in like manner they who use their own reasonings, before they have learnt anything, suffer shipwreck; as also Paul saith, "Who concerning faith have made shipwreck." (1 Tim. i. 19.) That this be not our case, let us hold fast the sacred anchor by which Christ bringeth over the Samaritan woman now. — Homily on John 33 John Chrysostom : "Holding faith, and a good conscience." For he that would be a Teacher must first teach himself. For as he who has not first been a good soldier, will never be a general, so it is with the Teacher; wherefore he says elsewhere, "Lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away." "Holding faith," he says, "and a good conscience," that so thou mayest preside over others. When we hear this, let us not disdain the exhortations of our superiors, though we be Teachers. For if Timothy, to whom all of us together are not worthy to be compared, receives commands and is instructed, and that being himself in the Teacher's office, much more should we. "Which some having put away, have made shipwreck concerning the faith." And this follows naturally. For when the life is corrupt, it engenders a doctrine congenial to it, and from this circumstance many are seen to fall into a gulf of evil, and to turn aside into Heathenism. For that they may not be tormented with the fear of futurity, they endeavor to persuade their souls, that what we preach is false. And some turn aside from the faith, who seek out everything by reasoning; for reasoning produces shipwreck, while faith is as a safe ship. — Homily on 1 Timothy 5 Oecumenius : holding faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, have suffered shipwreck concerning the faith; among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may be taught not to blaspheme. holding faith. For one must be a teacher of oneself before being a teacher to others. And faith, he says, is about doctrines, while conscience is about conduct. which some having rejected. Of these, Paul says, conscience is about living rightly. For when someone lives without consideration it also shipwrecks their faith. In order not to be tormented by the fear of what is to come, they strive to persuade their own soul that all things concerning us, both about resurrection and judgment, are false. whom I have handed over to Satan that they may be taught. Since Satan does not instruct himself, how can he bring good teaching to others? And we say, just as executioners, full of countless evils, train others to be prudent, so also does Satan. For when a person is handed over to Satan, it is by the exclusion from communion. Then the demon, having taken the person stripped of God's help, disciplines him. And this is done for his correction. But why do they hand over to Satan, and he himself does not discipline? So that it may be shown that even Satan is able to coerce, and so that, along with punishment, they are also insulted, with Satan being the avenger. For the apostles punished the unbelievers for their own sake, as Paul himself did to Bar-Jesus and Elymas (Acts 13), and Peter to Ananias (Acts 5); to show that they were able. But those who learned from these things, yet turned away, they handed over to Satan. not to blaspheme. For these, by subjecting faith to human reasoning, have gone astray and blaspheme, as now the Nestorians suffer, and the other heresies. ... — COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY Tertullian : If we think over the rest of faults, tracing them from their generations, let us begin with covetousness, "a root of all evils," wherewith, indeed, some having been ensnared, "have suffered shipwreck about faith." Albeit covetousness is by the same apostle called idolatry. — On Idolatry Tertullian : Moreover, if the crime of Hymenaeus and Alexander-blasphemy, to wit-is irremissible in this and in the future age, of course the apostle would not, in opposition to the determinate decision of the Lord, have given to Satan, under a hope of pardon, men already sunken from the faith into blasphemy; whence, too, he pronounced them "shipwrecked with regard to faith," having no longer the solace of the ship, the Church. — On Modesty Vincent of Lérins : Innumerable are the examples we must omit, since we wish to be brief. But all of them make it sufficiently clear that the customary method of most heresies consists in rejoicing in "profane novelties," in loathing traditional knowledge, which some rejecting have made shipwreck concerning the faith. Conversely, it is proper for Catholics to guard the "deposit," handed down by the holy fathers, to condemn profane novelties, and, as the apostle said, "before and now I say again," let him be anathema "if any one preach to you a gospel besides that which you have received." — COMMONITORIES 24