Letters

Saint Maximus the Confessor · the golden age of the Fathers

Letters

Copyright © 2026 Theologians Press. Translation copyright © 2026 Tyler Rhain Holliday. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Purchase of this volume conveys no license to reproduce, distribute, or commercialize its contents, nor to republish it, in whole or in part, under this or any other name or imprint. The Dogmatic and Polemical Letters Translated by T.R. Holliday This volume gathers the dogmatic and polemical letters of Saint Maximus the Confessor (c. 580–662), addressed to bishops, abbots, and officials across the Byzantine world in defense of Chalcedonian Christology against the Monothelite heresy. This has been prepared for purchase in Theologians Bible by Theologians Press, translated by T.R. Holliday. LETTERS, DOGMATIC AND POLEMICAL 3 Letters, Dogmatic and Polemical Letter 1. — a Hortatory Discourse, in the Form of a Letter, to the Servant of God, Lord George, the All-Praised No one, I think, of those deprived in whatever manner of the light, so longs to enjoy the ray of the sun, as we, all of us humble men who have been richly filled with your goodness, long once more to behold you present, and to enjoy your beauty — you who are marked by the divine manners of virtues bred into you together, in which we know you excelled greatly even when dwelling among us before; through which we were more clearly taught that virtue belongs to disposition, not to rank, and that God-likeness belongs to inclination, not to dignity.

For those in whom, as blessed as you, the power of love toward God has been genuinely rooted in the depth of the soul, to them belongs, without doubt, a constancy toward the good; just as, indeed, to those infatuated with the love of material things belongs a proneness to fall into, and be scattered among, a multitude of passions. And this quite reasonably. For he who cleaves in disposition, by his own longing, to the Divine — which is one and alone and impassible, and has, from eternity, nothing whatsoever different in essence contemplated together with it or upon it (for nothing of what is from it attains to it) — becomes himself, too, one and alone and impassible, having come, by an unrelated inclination toward the One, to be one and alone and unchangeable. For if there is one and only one thing desired by him, and this is properly unchangeable, as being, on account of its natural infinity, unmoved in essence (for the unmoved infinite has nowhere to move), then he too, as a lover of the One, has fittingly become one and alone and unchangeable, having made his disposition wholly unmoved from the One. But he who, through ignorance of the better, has bound the love of his soul, by his own disposition, to material things — which are by nature changeable and alterable, and can nowhere at all come to rest — is of necessity changeable and passible and easily altered, having the disposition of his soul co-moved, in its passion, with the things that are by nature moved and passible.

Let nothing of the things that are, then, my blessed lord, be able to dislodge you from this good and God-befitting habit, which has your understanding as a fellow-traveler toward God; let not time, disorderly changing along with itself the course of material affairs, alter the firm footing of your understanding; let not the threat of men, holding forth fear, shift the steadfastness of your good disposition; let not the speech of flattering men, sweetening the ear of the soul with its utterance, relax its vigor; let not the appetite for retaliation, arising from the possibility of harming someone, altogether corrupt the mildness of your character; let not the desire for the glory of ruling diminish your longing for the love of the Divine (1). For it is by no means a lack of glory before God or before men, not to rule over men; rather it is an increase of glory, insofar as the soul stands free of every outward disturbance and care, as my own reasoning holds it; and everyone who piously surveys what is fitting will, I think, agree. For every man who is truly virtuous and a lover of God is self-sufficient for all happiness, needing no outward covering to procure it. For he who has made the manifestations of the divine properties, in the course of his life, marks of recognition for himself possesses, entire, the fullness of all good things; through which there naturally comes to be, in men, exact assimilation to God — to which not even any comparison of the things after God whatsoever can be made.

And simply put: let neither sickness nor health, nor wealth dragged down below, nor the poverty of perishing things, nor blame, nor praise, nor death, nor life, nor the present, nor the future, nor, once for all, any other thing among beings or among things coming to be, be able to adulterate this philosophy which has nurtured you and advanced you to this renown before God and men. And how shall this come about? If we should entrust all that concerns ourselves to God (2); and consent to seek nothing whatsoever of the things we have not been commanded by God to seek; but to seek with all diligence everything that we have been commanded to seek from God; and, as for the things that, after God, lie under our own judgment and power, to will them in every way, and to strive to give them form through actual deeds; but as for the other things, since, by every reckoning, they have no need of our judgment for their coming to be or ceasing to be, to yield them to God, with thanksgiving and faith, to lead where He wills and purposes, being in no way at variance in our reasoning with the whole of His providence and governance (3) — by which everything is unknowably brought, with unspeakable wisdom, to its own end according to God‘s foreknowledge, even if, in some other way, contrary to our hope, it brings about the outcome of such matters.

For most wise is our guardian and protector, since indeed He has not acquired wisdom as something that befell Him, but is Himself, properly, in essence, both being and called wisdom. Let us wish to keep genuinely but one thing: to love Him, as He said, with our whole heart, and soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves — being eager to devise every means of bringing this divine ordinance to fulfillment; and the whole divine aim will have been, for us, most fully accomplished within its own proper scope, whatever rank or station, way of life or condition we may have — whether ruling or ruled, rich or poor, healthy or sick, or however otherwise disposed in body — and concerning all the other things that by no means follow our will according to our own inclination, let us not be anxious at all. For what is it to us, that which is not constituted according to nature by necessity, or according to disposition by our own willing? And it may be that reason, wishing us to observe this very point, has, through the divine commandment, given us no ordinance concerning it — lest, undertaking things not in our power, contrary to nature, we should blamefully misuse the power of willing, and both show it to be weak, as not having what can in no way be under it, and also do violence to God, supposing the governance of providence — which wisely uses the things not in our power for the chastisement of the evils that are in our power, and for the increase and vigorous course of the goods that are in our power — to be our own.

Distinguishing, then, the things not in our power from those in our power, let us believe that the former belong wholly to divine providence, while the latter, together with divine providence, are also the accomplishment of the judgment of our own will. It is in our power, then — to put it summarily in a definition (4) — everything that, by the account of virtue, or, contrariwise, by the manner of vice, accompanies our judgment according to our will. But it is not in our power (5), everything that does not have our own choice as the maker of its own existence; and everything that exists by nature is free of virtue and vice, but, by the use of those who have it, becomes, or rather is more properly said to appear, this or that. Let us, then, will strongly, and hold in great esteem, all the goods that are in our power alone, as being works of our own choice together with God, and as belonging to our own judgment; and thus we shall become obedient and wellreined colts of divine grace, receiving the Word as our rider, and rightly accomplishing for us the course of the virtues. But the things not in our power, as not being by nature, in themselves, either vice or virtue, but instruments of choice, bringing the hidden impulse of the reason that is in our power into the open, let us not will at all — lest we corrupt, by misuse, the natural power of willing, which wishes to lay hold of things impossible, and things that cannot be accomplished by it.

Rather, let us entrust these to God, and receive with thanksgiving every change of times and circumstances, coming to pass for our benefit according to God‘s saving will; so that not only through the same means, but also through different ones, and likewise, evenly through uneven ones, the good of virtue may be accomplished in us. For no one ever falls from good hope, who yields and entrusts to God the governance and providence, on his behalf, of the things not in his power. And true is the saying of the Wise Man somewhere in his words: ’Look at the ancient generations, and see who trusted in the Lord, and was put to shame; or who called upon Him, and He overlooked him?‘ Since these things are so, as the discourse, running with truth, has shown, and has clearly set forth the distinct property of things willed and things not willed, discerning by definition what is not to be confused with one another — let us neither, if rule should be taken from us, contend for it as though enduring the deprivation of some good (for rule does not by any means follow upon our willing it, being far removed from the account of what is in our power — just as neither wealth nor health, nor whatever of the things lying in between is given form, through us, toward virtue or vice); nor again, if it is given to us, let us altogether reject it as some evil, since it can, perhaps, be an instrument of virtue for those who love God; and it is reasonable that, offering all things to God with all diligence, in addition to all that is in their own power, they should also offer those things not in their power that happen to them, permitted by dispensation, since they have already chosen the good.

For that without which men can become, and be, and remain good and virtuous — what is not, by its own nature, in itself, good or evil, we can neither love nor flee; and again, evil men, destitute of all virtue — the possession of these things is by no means necessary to them in any way, nor is the lack of them necessary, for the coming-to-be or the preservation of any good or evil. Since indeed some, deprived of power and wealth and health, have acquired many treasures of eternal goods; while others, on the contrary, possessing power and wealth and health, have, by their own judgment, become fallen away from all the divine goods. And poor Lazarus bears witness to this, and the rich man who was with him: the one, deprived of all material power, health, and abundance, receives the blessed rest in the bosom of Abraham; the other, being at the summit of abundance in these material things, is kept away from the holy ones by the chasm, and is condemned to have the punishing fire as his portion. And again David and Job, the great champions of truth, tested through both ways of life, diametrically and antithetically removed from one another, preserved virtue increasing through the opposite conditions. For virtue is not the work of wealth and health and power, nor again of the lot opposed to these, so as to undergo change to the contrary, being altered together with circumstances; but it is the work of divine disposition, and of a judgment perfected to the utmost in the good, and fixed unchangeably according to God, preserving its own unaltered identity amid opposite conditions.

Let us, then, embrace rule when it is given, and receive it as an instrument of the assistance given us by God for virtue; and again, when it is taken away, let us not seek it, as though laying aside a great weight of fearful burden that conceals from us the aim of Providence for our benefit — the Providence that dispenses, in love for mankind, what is profitable to each. For, ‘seek not,’ says the Wise Man, ‘to become a judge, lest you be unable to root out iniquities; lest at some time you show partiality before a powerful man, and set a stumbling-block in your uprightness; and you sin against the multitude of the city, and cast yourself down among the crowd, and doubly bind yourself with sin.’ Yet, blessed one, if you should wish to be shown even by these very things, you have come short of none among your peers. For ‘the eyes of the Lord,’ as the same Wise Man said, ‘looked upon you for good, and raised you up from your humility, and lifted up your head, and many marveled at you, and recount your virtues to peoples and nations.’ And what the Holy Spirit foretold, through great David, concerning the apostles: ‘Into all the earth their sound of your good deeds went out, and to the ends of the world the sweet-smelling report of your virtues has come.’

For you did not eat your bread alone, but shared it richly with orphans, and from their youth guided them as a father, and led them from their mother‘s womb toward righteousness. You did not overlook the naked as they perished, and did not clothe them; but all the helpless blessed you, for you warmed their shoulders with the shearing of your lambs. You did not set your gold in the dust, that is, for the enjoyment of your flesh, but sent all your wealth ahead into heaven, for the preparation of the goods of the soul. You were not deceived by perishing wealth, nor did you set your heart upon it as it flows away. You did not lodge with mockers, whose life is shame, and whose living is filled with stains. Your foot did not hasten to deceit; nor did you rejoice at the fall of enemies, nor did your heart say, ’Well done. ‘ The earth did not groan against you; for you did not eat its strength alone without payment, nor did you crush the souls of its owners. You withheld your hands from unjust gifts; you delivered the poor from the hand of the powerful, and wept over every helpless one; and seeing a man in distress, you groaned. You helped orphans who had no helper; and the mouths of widows blessed you. For you put on righteousness, and clothed yourself with just judgment as with a double cloak.

You became an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame, and a father to the helpless. You broke the jaws of the unjust, and snatched the prey from between their teeth. And, to sum it up: you feed the hungry, and give drink to the thirsty, and shelter strangers, and clothe the naked, and visit the sick, and minister to those in prisons; or rather, through all these things, you please God, for whose sake you judged it more glorious than all else to supply all these needs readily. For this reason God has justly kept you, and His lamp shines above your head — that is, the law of the commandments shines forth brilliantly upon you in all things, through the practice of the virtues; and by His light you walk in darkness — that is, by the knowledge of pious contemplation of the things that are, you traverse unharmed the deception of this age and its ignorance, hastening toward the shadowless light. For to you alone, in truth, beloved one, beyond all men, it has come to pass, not to corrupt virtue by the weight of rule, nor to bow the law of Christ in any way to gold; but to enslave your authority to virtue to such a degree that you are recognized by virtue and by reason alone, and have become renowned everywhere among all for the glory of your righteousness.

But if, in declining, as is likely, the harsh treatment of the flesh, we suppose that through our authority we are procuring for it comfort, let us know that the comfort of the flesh was devised for life by the transgression of the divine commandment, and man, preferring temporal things to eternal, introduced it; whereas the harsh treatment of the flesh was shown and legislated, through Himself, by the keeping of the divine commandment, and by God, who for this cause became man. And the one is the cause of the estrangement of men from paradise and the goods there; the other is the cause of their return to paradise, and of their assumption into the heavens; and, most wonderful of all, the cause of their intimacy with God. And for this reason let us cleave, in every way, to the harsh treatment of the flesh, as being an instrument of divine grace, not changing along with times and circumstances; but let us utterly disregard the comfort of the flesh, as something to be spat out, and as certain to be dissolved altogether, suffering its own fate, and not overstepping its own bounds, as the divine mouth of Christ, Gregory, said — and as productive of all the stains of the soul — so that we may become wholly God‘s alone, through all the movements both of soul and of body, flashing forth the divine rays.

And, simply put, let us become capable of receiving God wholly, and become wholly, entirely, gods by grace — to such a degree that we are considered, in every respect, to be another Himself, apart from identity of essence with Him; for this is perfection: bearing in ourselves nothing whatsoever that marks this present age — lest, because of that, some deprivation of the divine condition should come upon us, and we should grieve bitterly over the blemish upon our true completeness, yet find no means of correction. When this age has passed away from our doings, nothing at all of present things remains as it is now, in shape and in position. Nothing of visible things holds faithfulness and stability for those who possess it. Nothing stands enduringly, remaining unmoved for those overcome by it: not glory, not wealth, not power, not health, not disrepute, not poverty, not slavery, not sickness, not beauty, not youth, not eminence, not deformity, not old age, not low birth. All things pass, all things wither, all human things vanish like a shadow, and every mass of human pomp is more easily dispersed than a bubble. ‘For every man,’ it says, ‘is grass, and all the glory of man is like the flower of grass; the grass withered, and the flower fell.’ For truly all human things bear, in their very potential, corruption bound up with their coming-to-be; and often, in some cases, corruption even precedes coming-to-be — so that the middle, contemplated through both, can be stolen away by the coincidence of the extremes with one another (6); and this Providence wisely contrives, so that the account of things that are altered may become an education toward faith in eternal things.

All things change into one another, and each is overturned into the other; and through one another they confirm their own corruption more than their coming-to-be. Let us not, then, bind the imperishable soul to temporal things, nor weigh down the mind, dragging it down to earth by care for material things, when it is by nature free from matter. Let us naturally distinguish, by reason, things that never coincide with one another in essence; and no toil remains for us in withdrawing from attachment to perishing things the soul, which, being incomposite, can in no way admit dissolution of its nature. Let us flee Sodom — I mean the deception of the senses concerning sensible things, and their confusion — that we may flee the burning, that is, the punishment by fire that altogether follows upon these things. Let us be saved to the mountain, that is, to the height of the God-befitting way of life, lest we be taken along with them, we who have not yet wholly emigrated from the senses, even if we seem, like blessed Lot, to be idle from evil (7), by not cooperating with the Sodomites in like deeds — that is, with the passions coming through the senses, in what is suited to passions. Let us pass by, as far as we are able, the things that run past, and cannot in any way be held by us, having their very existence as a passing flow; letting only the disposition of the soul, wickedly marked in regard to them, grow up in us — for the sake of which every torment is destined to be stretched over the condemned.

Let us give up all things readily, or use them for God through those in need, from whom deprivation naturally and necessarily follows for us. Let us give up, by our own choice and will, the things that are naturally given up and let go by necessity. Let us not make the soul, which by nature images its own Maker, subject to things coming to be and passing away through an unreasoning attachment — the soul which never receives an end after coming to be, and is ordained ever to seek God through all things, and to hasten toward Him. Let us not wish to have what we are unable to hold; nor let us attach ourselves, as to eternal things, to what by every means passes away. ‘For the fashion of this age passes away,’ as the Saint said; and, ‘heaven and earth shall pass away,’ as the God of the Saint has said; and let us accept the divine, unlying pronouncement, and let our faith in the word reach its power, and let us be confirmed, through clear demonstration, of the outcome of what is said. For that whose parts are subject to corruptions and alterations, as one of our own wise men said, of this the whole too, evidently, though the time has not yet arrived through actuality in which this shall come to pass — the whole will likewise be subject to dissolution; since indeed every man, from what he suffers each day, knows by nature that he shall die, even though death is not yet present through actual events.

Let us become, then, our own, and God‘s — or rather, God’s alone, and not at all the flesh‘s and the world’s. Let us prepare ourselves to call upon our God, according to what is written: ‘Prepare yourself, Israel, to call upon your God’ — that is, let us be cleansed of evil marks and defilements, casting away from ourselves even the bare imaginations of the passions, as far as possible. For thus truly is prepared everyone who wishes to be well prepared, that we may receive, through the virtues, as through certain divine colors, the exact likeness to God. For thus he duly calls upon God, who is not ignorant of how one must call upon God; for preparation is, I would say, the estrangement from the passions, and calling upon is the genuine intimacy with God through the virtues. Or again, preparation is the brightness that comes to be, through the virtues, in those who are worthy; and calling upon is the reception of deifying grace through true knowledge. For thus we shall be able to have our garments always white, according to what is written — that is, our ways made bright through the virtues, and translucent, and having no trace of darkness. ‘And my soul shall rejoice in the Lord my Savior’ — rejoicing both at the stripping off of the old man, corrupted according to the desires of deceit, and at the putting on of the temple built according to God in the Spirit.

‘For our God will clothe us with a garment of salvation, and a tunic of gladness’ — that is, the habitual, philosophic practice, according to character, through the virtues, and the unfaltering, gnostic contemplation in the Spirit — that we may also enjoy, in due course, the primary goods of the divine and undefiled bridal chamber that is to come. In all these things let us look carefully at how we walk, and what we plan concerning ourselves, knowing that many invisible witnesses stand by at what we do — not looking only at what appears, but peering into the very souls, and examining the hidden things of the heart. For truly many choruses of angelic Powers stand about us on every side, recording with all exactness in heaven the things done and said by us, and thought, down to a mere inward musing, for our conviction on the fearful day of judgment — when all visible creation, shaken with unspeakable urgency, is driven to its own consummation; and heaven and earth shall pass away with a rushing sound; and the elements in between, being set on fire, shall be dissolved; and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and what follows upon these. When thrones are set, and the Ancient of Days sits enthroned, and books are opened, holding the faithful and unfalsified records of our deeds and words and thoughts; when thousands of thousands of angels minister to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Him; and a fearful threat of blazing fire runs everywhere, encompassing all things round about, and melting the mountains like wax — ‘for a river of fire,’ it says, ‘drew before Him.’

When Tartarus, and the vast and inconceivable pit, and outer darkness, and the unsleeping worm, are made present; and upon these fear stood, all things suspended, awaiting the outcome; and the angels of wrath, gleaming with punishing fire, beholding fire, and breathing fire, stand ready for every vengeance upon every transgression. And all creation besides, both earthly and heavenly — as much as is among angels, and the powers above angels, and as much as belongs to men — stands by with trembling, awaiting the fearful manifestation of the divine will; before all of which our deeds shall be read out, and the exposure of hidden things shall take place; so that all shall thus know one another‘s sins, as each knows his own, reading unerringly the book of his own conscience. ’For I will reprove you,‘ it says, ’and set your sins in order before your face.‘ And again: ’Their own devices shall encompass them.‘ And behold, man and his work, and the judge who cannot be deceived, having present the fearful and magnificent power of the heavenly ranks, sits enthroned on high, flashing forth all righteousness, and rendering to each, by a true and just sentence, what is due according to worth: to those standing on the right for their good deeds, gently giving the kingdom of the heavens prepared from the foundation of the world; but those who have obtained the position on the left, because of their desolation of good works, He drives away with wrath into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Who shall bear that raging fire? Who shall not be terrified at the strange sight of that worm? Who shall be able to bear the swiftness and, at the same time, the heaviness of that outer darkness? Who shall endure Tartarus bellowing, and the abyss seething up together with it from its depths? Who of those who behold the sharp and grim glance, and the downcast look, of the angels appointed over this, will not tremble, shaken? Who will not fear the most terrible of all evils — the turning away of the face of God, who is by nature gentle and loving to mankind and compassionate — a God from whom all creation turns away together and is likewise appalled together, justly indignant against those who, by a spiteful disposition, have impaled themselves upon so many evils, since they have forced the God who is by nature and alone loving to mankind to appear to them as such? Who shall bear the endless shame of conscience that is to come at the manifestation of hidden things? Who shall be able to measure the unceasing wailing, and that bitter and senseless weeping, and the gnashing of teeth, and the lamentations of those oppressed in torments, or the pain of remorse lying heavy upon the very center of their heart, and justly scorching the depths of their soul? Who shall be sufficient to tell of the anguish that comes upon them from having no hope of a period for repentance, nor an end to the punishment laid upon them, nor any expectation of a change again to a good life?

For that judgment, final and unique, is truly fearful, and just — indeed just more than it is fearsome, and perhaps for this reason all the more fearsome, that it is just — and it shuts up all the ages upon itself according to God‘s just sentence. Who, taking to mind the groanings and sighs uttered from the very midst of their heart, touching even the marrow, and bitterly gnawing at their inward parts, shall be able to be free of tears? Who could bear the lamentation and wailing without pain and the dejection that goes with it, and with what words of remorse they will be uttered, both by each of the punished toward himself, and by all toward all? For then truly does each become a true acknowledger of his own offenses, when things stand revealed, naked in themselves, and free of every covering of deceit. ‘Righteous is Your judgment, O God; for You called us, and we did not obey You; You offered us words, and we did not attend, but made Your counsels void; we did not attend to Your words. Therefore justly came upon us destruction, and ruin, and storm, and affliction, and siege; and now we call upon You, and You do not hear; we seek from You, and we find no mercy; for neither did we hearken to Your words, nor did we show mercy to our neighbor.

For we who hated wisdom, and did not choose the fear of the Lord, nor wished to attend to the counsels of God, reap such fruits of our own seeds, and are filled with our own folly. For the deceit of life has blinded us, and we did not know the mysteries of God, nor did we hope at all that there was a reward for holiness. For this we were filled with the paths of lawlessness, and traveled through trackless deserts’ — that is, of divine visitation — ‘and we did not know the way of the Lord. And now what has arrogance profited us, and what has wealth together with boastfulness contributed to us? All those things have passed away like a shadow, and like a message running past, and like a ship passing through the surging water, of whose passage no track can be found, nor a path of its course amid the waves; or like a bird flying through the air, of which no evidence of its journey is found. All those things have passed away’ — leaving us this fire as an inheritance, remaining for all the ages. ‘Righteous is Your judgment, O God’ — for saying the same things, we shall never henceforth cease. We were called, and did not obey; we were admonished, and did not attend. Concerning these terrors we were taught daily, and despised what was said.

The words concerning these things did not grieve us then even a little; otherwise the present circumstances would not now grieve us so severely. What now holds our life fast seemed nonsense to us then, though often sung in our ears. Oh, the negligence! Oh, the deceit! Oh, the evil counsels! Oh, the wicked dealings! Oh, the wonder of God‘s just sentence against us upon these things! How He has repaid us, for each kind of our sins, with a fitting torment! For a pitiable and detestable pleasure of the flesh, we have been justly condemned to have this fearful Gehenna. We have been condemned to dwell in this gloom and dreadful darkness, since we loved all shameful things — sights, and hearings, and words — and preferred, before all divine goods together, horse-races and theaters and hunting-spectacles, in which companies of demons danced, and all divine visitation and recognition through angels was absent; where the dignity of chastity was insulted in many ways, while the evil and loathsome thing of licentiousness was openly held in honor. Justly are we now deprived of light, since in our temporal life we did not behold creation for the glory of God who made it, but defiled our eyes and ears and tongue — or rather, through these, corrupted the soul made according to the image of God, with all the sights and sounds and words hated by God, and with our mutual slanders against one another.

We have been cast down into Tartarus, being terribly worn away at once by both constriction and depth, since we preferred arrogance to the lofty humility that is the source of lofty and divine things, and thrust away the firmness and vigor of virtue on account of the excessive softness and dissipation of the flesh. Where now is our arrogance, and the boastful disposition toward all that came with it, and the sluggish and easily-dissolved softness of the flesh? Oh, the folly! Instead of unrestrained laughter, and the unseemly noise of the cheeks, this heavy gnashing of teeth is now ours. Not wishing to practice the learning of the divine and saving words, but preferring the excess of drunkenness to the divine praise that comes through the word, we are now terribly punished, our tongue burning fearfully with thirst. And worthy too is the fruit we reap for our hatred of our brothers, envy and guile and hypocrisy, from which and through which come murder, slander, and false accusation, and rancor, and lying, and perjury — this unsleeping worm, insatiably devouring the depth of our soul. Since, twisting the straightness of love, we made the heart crooked, and, corrupting the impassibility of truth, we made it bent — creating for ourselves, through willing hatred, an unwilling evil, and digging a worse crookedness through lying, on account of which we were not united to God who is straight and upright.

For He Himself said, through the holy prophet David, ’A crooked heart did not cleave to me.‘ We receive, then, things worthy of what we have done — or rather, we obtain wages worthy of our own disposition according to our purpose: fire of pleasure, the fire of Gehenna; and for the darkness of ignorance and temporal deceit, eternal darkness; and for the punishing and unsleeping worm, the worm of the heart made crooked and bent through hatred and lying; and for the noise of licentious cheeks and their seething, noise and the gnashing of teeth; and for the height of vain arrogance and dissipation, a fall and a gaping depth, and the gloom of terror. And, simply put, for each of our voluntary evils, we justly receive back the fitting involuntary punishment. Oh, our wretchedness! Why did we not, unhappy as we are, quench the fire of the flesh through fasting and vigil and meditation on the divine words — good and ready extinguishers of the fire — instead of now being fried by this fire? Why did we not accustom our eyes and ears and tongue to see and hear and speak according to nature, so that we might not now have this gloom and this most heavy silence, but might instead, together with the saints, enjoy the light and the word and the wisdom of God, having become beholders and hearers and hymn-singers of the divine glory?

If through love we had put to death the willing worm of hatred, and through truth had made falsehood vanish, we would now be free of this burning worm, and of the rest of the terrors that now hold our life fast. Righteous is the judgment of God. We do not find what we did not seek. The door of the kingdom of the heavens is not opened to us, since we did not knock at the door of the virtues through practice; we do not receive the enjoyment of eternal goods, since we did not ask, through prayer, for the grace of knowledge. For we had no love for divine things, but, binding our mind to earthly things, corrupted our whole life together with them. And all those things, vanishing like smoke, have passed away, but the account of the judgment upon them remains forever untraveled. These things, then, those men, learning by what they suffer the power of divine justice, will perhaps say to one another, to sum it up in a picture; but who shall I become, wretch that I am? On what deeds relying shall I hope to be delivered from the fearful condemnation, being destitute of all virtue and knowledge? I fear lest, bound hand and foot, I be cast into a land murky and dark, into a land of eternal darkness, where there is no light, nor is the life of mortals seen — having, by my own will, bound the practical powers of the soul with the passions, and hindered the steps of the soul from the divine course of the evangelical way of life.

Woe is me for the fearful shame that has no end, unless, changing, I become free of my many evils! Woe is me for the weeping, and the bitter tears, and the gnashing of teeth, unless, waking even late at last, I shake off the deep sleep of negligence, and strip off the filthy garment of sin. Instead of light, darkness; instead of joy, grief; instead of rest, punishment and constraint, shall by every means receive me. And, most pitiable of all, or rather, to speak more truly, more grievous — which even to say alone brings me pain, how much more to suffer it! (Be merciful, O Christ, and save us from this pain) — separation from God and His holy powers; and an intimacy with the devil and the evil demons remaining forever; having no expectation of deliverance from these terrors. For with whom, in this present age, through our wicked practices, we have chosen, by our own will and judgment, to associate, with these it is reasonable that, of necessity, even against our will, we shall be condemned to be in the age to come. And it is more punishing and more terrible than every torment, to be forever with those who hate and are hated, apart even from torments, let alone with them; and to be separated from Him who loves and is loved. For God is hated, justly judging, by those who are judged — He who is by nature love, and is so called; but He does not hate those who are judged, for He is by nature altogether free of passion.

Believing these things truly, without falsehood, shall come to pass, beloved one, let us not neglect ourselves; but with all diligence, with all our strength, while we have time, let us flee the deceitful world and the ruler of the world. For it passes away, and all things in it wither. For truly there shall be, there shall be a time, when a fearful trumpet shall sound, uttering a strange voice, and this whole thing shall be dissolved, collapsing from the order now seen in it. And the visible world shall pass away, receiving its own consummation; while the world of noetic things, now hidden, shall appear, bringing mysteries altogether strange to eyes and ears and understanding. And the trumpet, sounding at the divine command, shall raise up the countless and innumerable myriads of human bodies at once, as from a certain sleep, from death, leading them to examination; and God shall render to each just recompense worthy of what he did through the body, whether good or evil, giving to all that exist a great and fearful and final closing. But may it be that we all keep before our eyes without ceasing both the saving fear of Gehenna, and the precious longing for the kingdom of the heavens — and it is properly the same to say of both, since God becomes and is spoken of as all things to all, according to each one‘s quality of vice or virtue — the fear producing in us a complete abstention and cessation from evils; the longing cheerfully urging us on, in abundance, to the doing of good things.

Let these things from me, small and poor as I am, be, blessed one, tokens of my love toward you, for the guarding and safekeeping of the good things that are present in you — of which I suppose there is need even for one so greatly adorned throughout with virtues as you. For I have no other way to be able justly to repay you for your many kindnesses toward me, than by disposing myself in this manner. Together with me, all the honored Fathers who, for your sake, dwell in this region genuinely and unanimously greet you, entreating God unceasingly, night and day, with tears, to restore to us our George, in health — truly sweet both to behold and to be named — that together with him we may traverse the present life unharmed, and enjoy the grace of the loving God, the giver of good things, that is to come; while our all-holy, glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, together with all the saints, intercedes for us, and propitiates God on our behalf. Amen. Scholia 1. See, concerning human rule.

2. What one must seek and will, and what one must yield to God.

3. That to rule and to be ruled, and to be rich and to be poor, belong neither to nature, nor to disposition, but to the Providence that guides all things.

4. Definition of what is in our power, that is, of free will.

5. Definition of what is not in our power, that is, of what is not subject to free will.

6. By ‘the extremes’ he means coming-to-be and corruption; and the middle between coming-to-be and corruption is the thing that has come to be, in which corruption often anticipates coming-to-be, entering in together with the coming-to-be of the thing that comes to be, and corrupting its constitution before it has come to be.

7. Those who hold the soul riveted by attachment to the senses are not saved, he says, even if they are idle from the passions that delight the senses, unless they wholly remove the soul from attachment to the senses — just as blessed Lot, had he not gone out from Sodom, even though he did not do the deeds of the Sodomites, would not have escaped the descent of the fire. Letter 2. to John the Cubicularius, on Love. Learning, God-guarded ones, both from myself while present, and no less — or rather even more than when present — while absent, that you cleave to holy love toward God by grace and toward your neighbor, and attend to it in fitting ways, that you might also have this divine mark: love‘s boundlessness and indefiniteness in respect of virtue — namely, not only to do good to those present, but to be eager to do good even to those absent, and removed by a great distance of place — and learning each time of the increase of this love, both through those who come here, and also through your honored letters, as though beholding, as in a mirror, the form of divine grace that shines forth in you, I rightly rejoice and am glad; and, giving thanks on your behalf to God, the giver of good things, I do not cease, together with the holy Apostle, to cry out: ’Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places‘ — being especially persuaded, and knowing, that your holy soul is bound indissolubly in spirit, through love, to my own wretched soul, having the law of grace as a friendly bond, by which, joining me invisibly to yourselves, you brighten together with your own good things the shame that is mine from sin, causing it to vanish by the comparison.

For truly nothing is more God-like than divine love, nor more mysterious, nor loftier for men unto deification; since it contains within itself all the goods that the discourse of truth recounts under the form of virtue, and stands utterly removed from all that is comprehended under the form of vice — as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets (1), which the mystery of love succeeds, making us gods from men, and gathering into the universal reasoning of the commandments their particular expressions, by which all are contained uniformly according to divine good pleasure, and from which they are given forth in manifold ways according to the divine dispensation. For what kind of good things does love not possess? Not faith, the first foundation of the matters of piety, which assures the one who has it that God is, and of the divine things — and more than the eye, striking upon the surfaces of sensible things, provides to those who see the perception of them? Not hope, which brings to subsistence for itself the good that truly subsists, and grasps it more firmly than a hand grasps the thickest material thing that falls under touch? Does it not give the enjoyment of the things believed and hoped for, having, through itself, the things to come present according to disposition? Not humility, the first foundation of the virtues, by which we can become acknowledgers of ourselves, and cast down the vain swelling of arrogance?

Not gentleness, by which we repel both blame and praise, and drive off the disturbance of the diametrically opposed evils, glory I mean and disgrace? Not meekness in suffering, by which, even while suffering, we remain unaltered toward those who do us wrong, being in no way ill-disposed? Not mercy, by which, willing it, we make our own the misfortunes of others, and are not permitted to be ignorant of our kinship and common nature? Not self-control and endurance, and long-suffering, and kindness, peace and joy, by which we readily lull to rest wrath and desire and their burning heat and fever? And simply, to sum it up: love is the end of all good things, since, as concerns God, it is the highest of goods, and the cause of every good, leading and bringing those who walk in it, being faithful, unfailing, and enduring. For faith is the foundation of what comes after it — hope, I mean, and love — firmly establishing what is true; and hope is the strength of the extremes — love, I mean, and faith — showing through itself what is faithful and what is beloved in both, and teaching us to make our course, through itself, toward that. And love is the fulfillment of these — embracing wholly, with its whole self, the final object of desire, and providing to these a rest from their motion toward it, substituting, in place of believing that it is and hoping that it will come, the enjoyment of it as present, through itself.

This alone, properly speaking, presents man as being according to the image of the Creator, wisely subjecting what is in our power to reason, but not bending reason down to it; and persuading disposition to walk according to nature, in no way factious against the reasoning of nature — according to which all of us, as one nature, so too can have one disposition and one will toward God and toward one another, having no separation from God and from one another, whenever we choose, as an element, the law of grace, through which we renew, by our own disposition, the law of nature. For it is impossible for those not first joined to God in concord to be able to agree with one another in disposition. For since, in the beginning, the devil who deceived man, through a maliciously contrived deceit born of self-love, deceiving through the assault of pleasure, separated us in disposition from God and from one another, both perverting what was upright and dividing nature in this manner, cutting it up into many opinions and imaginations, and established, over time, the method and invention proper to each evil as a law, making use of our own powers toward this end, and implanting in all a wicked support for the persistence of evil — namely, discord of disposition — from which he once persuaded man to be turned aside from motion according to nature, and to move his desire from what was permitted toward what was forbidden, and to establish for himself three great and original evils, generative, simply put, of all vice: ignorance, I mean, and self-love, and tyranny — dependent on one another, and constituted through one another.

For from ignorance of God comes self-love; and from this, tyranny over one‘s kin; and no argument will contradict this — these having been established through the misuse of our own faculties, reason and desire and anger; whereas by reason one ought, instead of ignorance, to be moved toward God alone, by seeking, through knowledge; and by desire, purified of the passion of self-love, to be driven toward God alone, out of longing; and with anger separated from tyranny, to strive to attain God alone; and, from these, and for whose sake these are, to fashion divine and blessed love, which joins to God, and shows the lover of God to be God. Since, then, these evils have come to pass, by man’s own will but through the deceit of the devil (2), God, who both made nature and, in His wisdom, heals it having grown sick through vice, for love of us emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, uniting this unchangeably to Himself according to hypostasis, becoming so entirely man, like us, from us, for our sake, that to unbelievers He was thought not to be God at all — though He was as much God as the ineffable and true reasoning of piety supposes Him to be for the faithful — so that He might destroy the works of the devil, and, restoring to nature its faculties undefiled, might renew again the power of love, which joins us to Him and to one another, that power which is the antagonist of self-love — self-love being the first sin, and the first offspring of the devil, and known and existing as the mother of the passions that come after it; which love, having done away with self-love, He who made Himself worthy of God did away with, together with it, the whole crowd of vice, which has no other foundation or cause for its existence apart from it.

For no longer does such a man know arrogance, the mark of the impious conceit that opposes God, that composite and monstrous evil. He does not know vainglory, which falls, and casts down with itself those who are puffed up on account of it. He withers envy, which justly withers first those who have it, by making his kin his own through voluntary goodwill; and he strips off wrath, and bloodshed, and anger, and guile, and hypocrisy, and dissimulation, and rancor, and covetousness, and everything into which the one man has been divided. For when self-love, as I have said, the beginning and mother of evils, is plucked out, all that comes from it and after it is accustomed to be plucked out together with it — since, when this does not exist, no form or trace of vice whatsoever can subsist at all; but instead, all the forms of virtue are brought in, which fulfill the power of love, which gathers together the things that have been divided, and again fashions man into one reason and manner, and equalizes and levels all the inequality and difference that exists in all things according to disposition; and duly advances him to the praiseworthy inequality — namely, that each, according to purpose, draws his neighbor to himself, and honors him above himself, to the same degree that he was before eager to push him away and be preferred above him; and freely releases himself from himself, for love‘s sake, by separating from the particular reasonings and properties conceived of him individually according to disposition, and is gathered into a single simplicity and identity, according to which no one is at all separated from what is common, but each is one with each, and all with all, and, rather than with one another, one with God — having the one reason of being manifested through themselves, alone according to nature and disposition; and God, who is contemplated in this — with whom the reason of the being of beings is naturally kept, through all attentiveness, pure and undefiled by us, and to whom it is elevated, as cause and maker, being purified, through prudent zeal, by the virtues and the labors that attend them, from the passions that are factious against it.

This, perhaps, that great Abraham accomplished, and, having restored himself to the reason of being of nature, or rather restored that reason to himself, and through this having been given over to God and having received God — let both be said, since indeed the truth is beheld in both — he was deemed worthy to see God as a man, and to receive Him, as a fellowtraveler, through His love for mankind, with the perfect reason according to nature; toward which he was raised up, letting go of the peculiar property of divided and dividing things, no longer considering any man other than himself as another, but knowing the one as all, and all as one — not, evidently, the one that belongs to disposition, concerning which is faction and division, so long as it remains at variance with nature — but looking to the sole reason that belongs to nature, concerning which stands what is unvarying, with which we know God is altogether shown together, and through which He deigns, as good, to be signified, making the creatures His own; since creation cannot know Him from Himself, as He is. For it was not possible, in the nature of things, for one not yet become identical to himself and simple, but still divided in disposition into many parts with respect to nature, to be gathered to the simple and identical — unless, having first, through love for mankind, joined disposition to nature, He showed one peaceful and unfactious reason over both, moved primarily toward nothing else whatsoever among the things after God; according to which nature remains uncut and undivided in those who have received this gift, not being divided together with the disposition-differences of the many.

For no longer, becoming different and different toward this one and that one, do they divide nature, but remain the same toward the same, not looking to what is peculiar to each according to disposition, by which divided things are divided, but to what is common and undivided in all according to nature, by which divided things are gathered together — none of the divisible things being drawn along together with it, and through which God is manifested to those who have it, being shaped, through love for mankind, according to the property of each one‘s virtue, and deigning to be named from it. For the most perfect work of love, and the end of its activity, is to prepare, through a relational exchange, that the properties, and the appellations, of those joined to one another through it, should shine forth as belonging to one another — making the man God, and making God to be named and to appear man, on account of the one and unvarying will and motion of both according to the will — as we find in the case of Abraham, and of the rest of the saints. And perhaps this is what was said in the person of God: ’By the hands of the prophets I was likened‘ — the fashioning of God toward each, out of the virtue present through practice in each, through great love for mankind.

For the hand of every righteous man is his practice according to virtue, in which and through which God receives likeness toward men. Great, then, is the good of love, and the first and preeminent good of all goods, joining, through itself, God and men in regard to itself, and preparing the Maker of men to appear as man, on account of the unvarying likeness of the deified man toward God in what is good, as far as attainable for man — which I suppose to be active in loving the Lord God with the whole heart and soul and strength, and one‘s neighbor as oneself. Which is, to sum it up in a definition, the inward relation, held wholly toward the first good, together with the whole providence, according to nature, for the whole of the race; after which there is nothing higher to which the Godloving man can be raised, all the ways of piety having been traversed by him; which love we both know and name, not assigning one love to God and a different, divided one to our neighbor, but one and the same, whole — owed to God, but joining men to one another. For the activity and clear demonstration of perfect love toward God is genuine disposition, through voluntary goodwill, toward one’s neighbor. ‘For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen,’ says the divine Apostle John, ‘cannot love God whom he has not seen.’

This is the way of truth, which the Word of God, naming Himself, presents to those who travel it as having become pure of all passions before God the Father. This is the door, through which he who enters becomes holy of holies, and is made worthy to become a beholder of the unapproachable beauty of the holy and royal Trinity. This is the true vine, in which he who has firmly rooted himself is deemed worthy to become a partaker of the divine quality. For this all the teaching of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel both exists and has been given, that, taking desire for the ineffable good things, we may confirm our longing by our manner of life — honoring the creature, for the sake of the Creator who is desired, to the same degree that befits the Creator and that the reasoning of nature demands, legislating equal honor, and cutting away all the apparent inequality that presumption sees in each, of nature, and enclosing all within Himself according to one power of identity. For this the Maker of nature Himself — truly a fearful thing to do and to hear! — put on our nature, uniting it unchangeably to Himself according to hypostasis, that He might halt its drifting, and gather it to Himself, being, in disposition, at variance with itself; and might make manifest the all-glorious way of love, truly divine and deifying, and leading to God — let it be said that it is even God existing — which way the thorns of self-love had, in the beginning, overgrown; and, having prefigured in Himself the sufferings on our behalf, might grant it, free of hindrances, to all — casting out the stones that were in it through His disciples, as He Himself had foretold through the prophets, saying, ‘And cast the stones out of the way’ — and might persuade us duly to cleave to Himself and to one another to the same degree that He Himself, going before us, showed by His own example, enduring to suffer for our sake.

For this all the saints, to the very end, stood opposed to sin, taking no account of the present life, and endured the manifold forms of death, that they might unite themselves, from the world, to themselves and to God, and might heal in themselves the fractures of nature. This is the true and blameless theosophy of the faithful, whose end is the good and the truth — since love for mankind is good, and love for God according to faith is true — these being the marks of love, as joining men to God and to one another (3), and therefore having the persistence of good things unfailing. As the most genuine lovers of this divine and blessed way, you too, blessed ones, having become so, contend the good contest to come to the end, cleaving mightily to those things by which the passage to its completion is made — I mean love for mankind, love of the brethren, love of strangers, love of the poor, compassion, almsgiving, humility, gentleness, meekness in suffering, patience, freedom from anger, longsuffering, endurance, kindness, forbearance, goodwill, peace toward all — from which, or through which, the grace of love, once fashioned, leads the man who made it, having been deified, to God. ‘For love,’ says the divine Apostle — or rather Christ, who spoke these things through him — ‘is longsuffering, is kind; it does not envy; it does not boast; it is not puffed up; it does not behave unseemly; it does not seek its own; it is not easily provoked; it thinks no evil; it does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; it bears all things.

Love never fails,’ having God, the only unfailing and unaltering one; and it makes the man who lives according to it such, that, accepting you too, He may say through Jeremiah the prophet: ‘I say to you, this is the way of my commandments, and the law that abides forever. Let all who hold to it come to life; but those who forsake it shall die. Take hold of it, my child, and walk toward its shining, opposite its light. Do not give your glory to another, nor what is profitable to you, to a foreign nation. Blessed are you, that the things pleasing to God are known to you, and you have learned where prudence is, where strength is, where length of days and life are, where light of the eyes and peace are; and you have set foot on the way, and I appeared to you from afar. Therefore with an everlasting love I will love you, and will have mercy on you with compassion, and will build you up, and you shall be built; and you shall go forth with a company of those who rejoice, because you stood upon the ways, and considered, and asked for the eternal paths of the Lord; and you saw where the good way is, and walked in it, and found holiness for your soul.’ And again through Isaiah: ‘I am the Lord your God, who has shown you how to find the way of righteousness, in which you shall walk, and you have heard my commandments; therefore your peace has become like a river, and your righteousness like a wave of the sea.’

And I too, rejoicing in your good things, will dare to say, together with God, taking it from the great Jeremiah: Blessed are you, for you have stripped off the garment of mourning for your affliction — I mean the old man, corrupted according to the desires of deceit — and have put on the comeliness of the glory that is from God forever — I mean the new man, created in the Spirit according to Christ, according to the image of the Creator; and you have wrapped yourself in the double robe of the righteousness that is from God; and you have set upon your head the mitre of eternal glory, being adorned both with the sure way of the virtues, and with the unfaltering reasoning of wisdom. Therefore God will show your brightness to all beneath heaven, and will call your name ‘Peace of righteousness, and glory of piety.’ I have nothing more than these words to offer in demonstration of the invisible disposition of my soul; for I have nothing worthy of your good things to offer to God and to you, except to marvel at you as far as I am able, and to approve you as you succeed, and to rejoice together with you, who propitiate God through good works; and, through you, to praise virtue; and through virtue, to hymn God, who joins you to Himself.

So that it seems to me the same thing, and equal, to praise you and virtue, and to hymn God, who has granted you the brightness of virtue — the virtue that deifies you, by grace, to God, through the reception, as far as attainable for man, of the divine properties. Scholia 1. That love is given in place of the Law and the Prophets; and that from it all the reasonings of the commandments are issued, and are contained by it in a single form.

2. See the motion according to reason and nature, from which man was, from the beginning, turned aside by the counsel of the evil one.

3. The works of blessed love, joining into one, around him who possesses it, both God and all mortals, by an ineffable reasoning. Letter 3. to the Same. Having received the honored letters of your longing for the Lord, together with the blessing sent to the most devout monks of the pious monastery of the holy and glorious martyr George, I gave thanks to God for such eagerness of yours toward the good — that, by your zeal, loosing the bonds of those held fast by poverty, you have freed yourselves from the bonds of sin; and, purposing to nourish bodies, you have nourished your own soul with divine grace, and have given to me too the occasion to reap the fruit of true contemplation. For, coming to be within myself, I understood for what reason God simply legislated that all men should show mercy and receive mercy from one another: that, wishing to unite you to one another both in nature and in disposition, and impelling all humanity, indeed, toward this end, He inscribed for us, in His love for mankind, the saving commandments; but the self-love and cunning of men, either rejecting or sophistically distorting one another and the law, has cut up the one nature into many portions; and, having introduced the callousness now prevailing over it, has armed nature, through disposition, against itself. For this reason, whoever, by sober reasoning and nobility of prudence, has been able to resolve this irregularity of nature, has shown mercy to himself before others, having fashioned his disposition according to nature; and has drawn near to God in disposition on account of nature; and has shown in himself what is the manner of the reason according to the image; and how God, fittingly, from the beginning, having fashioned our nature like Himself, and a clear likeness of His own goodness, established it entirely the same with itself — unwarring, peaceable, unfactious, bound both to God and to itself through love; according to which we cleave to God with longing, and to one another with compassion.

And he has shown mercy also to those who ought to receive mercy — not only assisting them, but also teaching how God, hidden, is manifested through the worthy; so that those too, henceforth, respecting toward themselves the love for mankind shown by their neighbor, may be able readily to lay claim to this grace as though it were God‘s own. But if anyone, being able to do this from having the means, disregards men in need, he will be shown to have justly cut himself off both from them and from God; as one who, through disposition, has been ignorant of nature — or rather, has, through his own disposition, corrupted the goods present to himself by nature. These things, then, are what befall as many as have, by disposition, preferred harshness to love for mankind, and judge their kin and fellow humanity of less worth than mere coins, and, through their desire for gold, have walled off the entrances of God to themselves — themselves pitiably suffering the fall from what is better, at their own hands. But those, on the other hand, who wisely strive to unite the fractures of nature by a manner of mutual love, and, in order to cooperate with God, through love, thankfully bring about, as far as lies with them, the identity, in disposition, of other men — despising all things upon the earth — are shown to be true advocates of God through their deeds.

And this you have shown yourselves to be, both now and before, beloved ones — in every word and manner, and by a generous distribution of your possessions to all, eagerly apportioning yourselves, both in soul and body, and showing your disposition to be identical with nature in yourselves, exceeded by nature in one respect alone: that nature has, from the start, received the seeds of the things that come to be — or rather, from God, from whom the powers of good things have also been laid down beforehand in nature. Wherefore, being magnificently watered from God with many outpourings of grace, you have abundantly poured out, together with all, the mercy of your love for mankind upon the aforementioned most devout men — supporting their weakness, already shaken by the poverty of their condition, and healing, as far as was possible, the hardship worn into them by poverty. Do not, then, cease doing good to the needy, that by your emptying you may keep your fullness undiminished. And, with gladness of soul, confirming your faith and hope and love toward God, refrain from binding words and gestures and a word of murmuring, as the divine oracle somewhere says — which concerns the necessity of giving, and not deliberating too much over it — a thing which regret altogether accompanies, which is a heavier thing than not doing it at all.

For we all know that no one has yet clearly known whom to blame for the unworthiness of doing or receiving good — whether those able to do good, or those in need of receiving good — but that this belongs to the time to come, according to which it shall be known what and how great your goods are, and how they came to be disposed. Thus has God wisely seen fit that, in the present, the abyss of His judgments should remain covered. And knowing this, the wise Proverbialist counseled us, without calculation, to cast our bread even upon the water — as something that will not be swept away nor lost, but will, in time to come, meet us again with more abundant increase, for those who have, for the sake of the good, in simplicity of heart, acquired the practice of sharing — from Christ our God and Savior, who receives into Himself all that we do for one another, whatever it may be. For if, as loving mankind, He accepted to suffer on our behalf, what would He not willingly do for those who imitate His love for mankind toward us? Letter 4. to the Same, on Grief According to God. I rejoice and am glad, finding in every letter my blessed lord grieving with a praiseworthy grief; knowing that grief according to God works an unregretted repentance unto salvation for those fortified with divine fear throughout their whole strength — not permitting the soul, having turned away from the divine tribunals, to be disposed according to nature toward perishing things; things through which, for those who make the course of the present life carelessly, the wicked confusion of the passions, taking up residence, prepares the wretched mind to be caught in the snares of the devil, and fittingly makes it a teacher of every vice — as one that has yoked its natural activity, contrary to nature, to the disorderly impulses of anger and desire.

For the soul that has once, through deceit, bound its noetic power to material things is most resourceful and swift only in the discovery of base things. For this reason I pray unceasingly, night and day, though heavily burdened with many sins, that this saving grief may be preserved in my blessed lord — grief which is truly the stern mistress of the passions, and the venerable and glorious mother of the virtues — that, guarded by it, he may strike off the wicked sting of sin. For truly no one who has enclosed this in the depth of his heart is ever caught by the arrows of the devil. No one who invisibly cherishes this in his soul fears the manifold onslaughts of the demons. No one who has chosen to live together with this ever attaches himself to visible things. No one who has this marking his life is defiled by the filth of perishing things. No one who has bound this indissolubly to his reasonings allows his senses to be borne, disorderly, toward what they ought not. No one who has formed his soul by this can consider himself altogether greater than another; but rather he would believe himself to be, and be considered, less than everyone. No one who has girded this about his mind slips away from the contemplation of divine things. No one who has fitted this wholly to himself will be ignorant of the watchwords of the pious way of life.

This the Holy Spirit fashions, visiting the hearts of the worthy. This alone I know to be generative of the joy in the kingdom of the heavens. For grief according to God is clearly a divine seed, yielding as its ripe fruit the gladness of eternal good things. This is renewed by the exact recollection, in the mind, of what has been lived through. This is nourished by the book of our transgressions according to conscience, diligently read. This is procured by the remembrance of death, and by the sharpest pain that comes upon the soul at its departure, ever anticipated. This is kept utterly unquenched by the fearful and merciless scrutiny of the spirits of wickedness gathered against the soul in the air, ever formed in the mind. For who, beloved one, marked with the filth of sins as I am, does not fear the vigilance of the holy angels? By whom, receiving by divine decree the end of the present life, one is driven out from the body by force and against one‘s will, with wrath. Who, bearing a defiled conscience along with himself, does not dread the most savage and barbarous assault of the wicked demons — each one, in that air, after his departure, cruelly tearing the wretched soul away from itself through the intervening passion, and shaming it by the exposure of its own deeds, and instilling in it utter despair of hope for the good things to come?

This grief is saved and nourished by the exact re-imaging, after the discernment made in the air with regard to the spirits of wickedness, of the state of the souls in Hades — how they pass their time in deep darkness and heaviest silence, having as their nourishment the sharpest sighs and tears and the dejection that goes with them; awaiting always nothing else but the just condemnation according to the divine sentence. This grief is confirmed by the hope of the resurrection; by the majesty of the fearful and all-glorious coming of Christ; by that most dreadful day of judgment, ceaselessly meditated on in the mind — on which heaven and earth, and the whole order of visible things, shall pass away with a rushing sound; the elements being set on fire and dissolved by the boundless fire, purifying beforehand, for the entrance of the pure, the creation defiled by us; on which thrones are set, and the Ancient of Days sits enthroned, and the countless ranks of the holy angels and archangels stand by in ministry with fear and trembling; and all the nature of men is brought to examination; and books are opened, of our deeds and words and thoughts, holding the records with all exactness. Through which comes the exposure of all that we have done, before the whole of creation; so that all know one another’s sins to the same degree that each knows his own, reading unerringly the book of his own conscience; according to which those standing on the right of the Judge shall receive the promises of ineffable good things; but those who take the position on the left shall receive the eternal fire, and the outer darkness, and the unsleeping worm, and the gnashing of teeth, and the unceasing tears, and the endless shame — by which every condemned person will be grieved more than by the endless torment from the ages, or by all the other kinds of punishment together.

Of these things, so truly fearful, both realities and names, he who has grief according to God is never at all forgetful; but he will be disposed as one who ever sees the Judge and is seen by Him; and will pass through the present life piously and justly, neither doing, nor saying, nor thinking anything foreign to divine grace and calling. The offspring of this praiseworthy grief is that preeminent good among men, humility; by which the pious and Godloving man will truly consider himself the least of all — even if he be a king in rank — making the boundary of his selfknowledge the weakness according to nature, under which all who share the same nature end alike, in no way carrying his reasoning beyond the natural principle on account of rank. The projection of this is gentleness, being a habit that repels the movements, contrary to nature, of anger and desire; through which man receives likeness to the angels, among whom there is no anger raging and unbecomingly barking at its kin; nor indeed desire dissolving the noetic sinews and dragging the appetite down toward matter — but reason alone, holding the whole dominion, and leading fervently, in the mind, toward the Word who is above cause and nature. The fruit of this is love, by which, united to God and to one another, we willingly care for one another as much as is attainable, to the degree that God, as compassionate, holds fast to all.

The end of this is the kingdom of the heavens, and the enjoyment of the divine good things there. For to this end grief according to God brings those who cherish and preserve it. The marks of this grief are: to have accustomed the eyes to look upon creation only for the glory of the Creator, and to view the affairs of one‘s neighbors without envy or malice; to have the ears open readily only for the reception of the words of God and the supplication of those who beseech us; but to be diligently stopped against all slander and loathsomeness of shameful words; to have the tongue consecrated by the good report of others, in no way defiled by insults and slanders against others. And, simply put, to sum it up: let us reshape all the members, both of body and of soul, toward what seems good to the Spirit; and let the whole aim of piety be, for us, fully accomplished. Examining ourselves in all exactness for these things, blessed one — if we find that we have them, let us diligently preserve them; but if we find ourselves possessing none of them, let us labor eagerly to acquire them: humbling ourselves before all men, as men, for the sake of God and our common nature; remaining gentle and mild toward what happens contrary to our own will; ready to share with the poor, and hospitable toward strangers; ready, as far as possible, to assist those in need of protection; of one soul and one mind toward friends; adaptable in all things toward acquaintances; approachable to the more humble; compassionate and loving toward the weak; long-suffering toward those who provoke us to anger; forgiving toward those who offend; becoming a comfort to those who grieve.

And, simply put, let us become all things to all, both for the fear of God, and for the anticipated threat of the judgments to come. For without these things here enumerated, there is, for anyone whatsoever, no hope at all of salvation. These things, and more than these, my longing for you compels me to say. For I have no way to measure it, since it makes me continually picture you before me, and converse with you in soul as though you were present, and compels me to meet with you, though absent, through letters. But let us not receive the force of what has been said carelessly; since, along with other things, we shall have such words too, altogether, either as advocates or as accusers — both I who speak, and those who hear — on the fearful day of judgment, according to whichever way we are disposed toward them. And may it be that all of us, both those who say something of what is needful, and those who hear, be shown forth as doers of all the divine words, and not hearers or speakers only; by the grace of Christ, our God and Savior, who has called us to His own glory and kingdom. Letter 5. to Constantine. If, as when meeting me in person, my blessed lord truly rejoices through my letters, as he has written, it is clear that, accepting my words, he altogether rejoices.

Now the acceptance of words is the disposition, corresponding to the words, of the one who accepts the words. And of this disposition the exact proof is the work of the power carried within the words. Let, then, my lord furnish me a most faithful pledge of his exhortation concerning speech — his own eagerness to do what is spoken; and I will never restrain my lips, according to what is written, from speaking to him what can be profitable to him and to me and to others, insofar as I am able to receive, for the sake of God who gives simply to all and does not reproach, the grace of understanding wisely and speaking piously the things understood. Let us become, then, beloved one, eager doers of the works commanded, and let us flee the deceit of this age, and bind our soul to none of the things reputed pleasant in it. For the world passes away, and all things in it wither, being by nature the wastage of corruption. And this eagerness for divine things, in those who aim at salvation, is evidenced not only by hatred of sin, and a quiet manner of life; and by estrangement from wicked men, and the soul‘s aversion to all perishing things; and by contempt of the flesh for virtue’s sake, and firm and unyielding self-control toward all things that deceitfully fawn upon the soul through the senses — by which we wither all licentious appetites, and lull to rest the disorderly movements of anger, not allowing reasoning, enslaved, to be carried along with them, and, like a charioteer swept away by unruly horses, to be borne over precipices, there being no one to set in order and to be able to check the irrational impulse of those yoked beneath — but also by patience and endurance toward all involuntary trials, by which, even suffering bodily, we remain unmoved by passion in soul, and unconquered, cast down by none of the things that shake us.

Through both of these — self-control, I mean, over the sufferings that are in our power, and patience over those not in our power — being tested, we bring forth, as it were from some most divine sowing of the commandments, the seemly and ripe fruits, the virtues. Such as: understanding knowledge, against ignorance and superstition; courage, against cowardice and reckless rashness; temperance, against licentiousness and folly; righteousness, against injustice — I mean against greed and against deficiency — arming ourselves with humility, against arrogance; putting forward condescension, against haughtiness; moderation, against conceit; long-suffering, against faintheartedness; and further, cleaving to gentleness toward all, and meekness, and cheerful sharing with those in need; diligently caring for hospitality and brotherly love, and love for mankind; pursuing peace and love, in which, as in a certain foundation of good things, all the good things given to men from God are gathered and kept. These things, my blessed lord, every lover of the kingdom of the heavens, and every one eager to flee the experience of the eternal punishments threatened to sinners, strives, as far as possible, to both do and keep — having as an aid to the keeping of such things the unforgetting remembrance of death and of its uncertainty; and the thought of the desolation of the soul after its departure, bringing with it nothing else but the conscience marked by its own evil deeds; and the notion of the fearful scrutiny by the wicked spirits that will take place against it in that air; the recollection of the bitter and lightless confinement of souls now in Hades; the expectation of the shame before the righteous Judge and the heavenly Powers at the exposure of hidden things — the heaviest of all the punishments threatened to sinners.

These things, and more than these, I have already written as far as I am able, and I will not cease writing, insofar as I am able, having my beloved lord as my longing, who draws out such words from me. But let us be sober, and watch over our own keeping, blessed one, lest we be condemned all the more, as speaking and hearing divine things vainly and to no purpose only. Since for these very words we shall render account to God on the day of judgment — both I who speak them, and those who hear them — if we leave them altogether idle and unfruitful. But may it be, rather, that all of us delight in all the words of God, and be shown forth as doers of the divine and saving wills contained in them; by the prayers and intercessions of our all-glorious and all-holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary, and of all the saints. Amen. Letter 6. to the Most Holy and Most Blessed Archbishop John, Concerning: That the Soul Is Incorporeal. Having received the honored letter of your perfection in virtue, adorned with every noble modesty, I marveled and was amazed at once — how, thinking the same in both, you remain like yourself: neither unapproachable in the lofty, nor despised in the lowly. For, wisely blending for yourself one form of virtue out of both, you make each be seen, paradoxically, within the other — in the lowly, the lofty; and in the lofty, conversely, humility.

Wherefore, servant of God, I accept, without excusing myself, your command, which bids me demonstrate, more from nature, apart from scriptural and patristic testimony, whether the soul is an incorporeal creature. Trusting again in the dews of your teaching, with which you have refreshed me, parched as I variously am by ignorance. But who are these who insist that there is no such thing as an incorporeal creature? And against whom, with these unreal fabrications of yours contrary to the truth of the arguments, do they set themselves? And how have these men, more contentious than is fitting, not been abashed by our undertaking, which stands so utterly far from every contrary argument to the highest degree? And, that the discourse concerning this may proceed the more for me along its way, I will make my own beginning from that very wise argument of yours, invincible as an ally of the truth — as one adorning myself with your own equipment.

1. If body is by its own nature immovable — and the soul too is a body, even if the finest-parted, as they say, being a body it will not be moved. And if this is so, whence comes motion to us? And this ad infinitum, until we arrive at an incorporeal creature. But if they should say that we are moved by God according to the first principle — since I know that most of our motions are absurd and shameful, they will of necessity declare the Divine to be, altogether, the cause of these too.

2. Another. And again, if every bodily existence whatsoever, according to true reasoning, being distinguished by quantity and quality, in bulk and form, and surface and shape, bounds the contemplation concerning itself, as being distinguished by necessary limits — for the one who investigates it cannot imagine it apart from any of these. But the soul, if it is a body, is altogether circumscribed either by these, or is these, or is some of these, or by some of these, or in these, or in some of these. But it is neither by these, nor is it these, nor some of these, nor by some of these, nor in these, nor in some of these, circumscribed. Therefore the soul is not a body.

3. Another. If, then, it is not in doubt to them that the soul exists — but existing, it is none of the things that the understanding grasps, from which, or by which, bodies exist: not color, not shape, not resistance, not weight, not magnitude, not extension into three dimensions; and, simply, altogether none of the things comprehended concerning bodily nature — then that which is none of these, as the argument has shown, will altogether be incorporeal, if indeed it exists.

4. Another. Further, if every contraction and expansion and division belongs to bodies; but that which is free of every contraction and expansion and of division of any kind whatsoever is altogether incorporeal — then the soul is incorporeal, as being altogether incapable of receiving any of these.

5. Another. If all bodily substance is divided into the ensouled and the unsouled; but the soul, if it is a body, will altogether be either ensouled or unsouled. But if ensouled, it will be ensouled altogether by an ensouling substance, or power, or accident. But to say that soul is ensouled, just as one might say light is illuminated, or fire is heated, is altogether ridiculous. And if we should say that a substance ensouls the soul, we shall again say it to be either body or incorporeal. And if body, the same absurd approach of reasonings from absurdities, which the argument received before this, it will receive again, until it is agreed together that the soul is incorporeal. But if we should say that a power, or quality, ensouls the soul — one that is life-giving and motive of the substance — this will be involuntary and without independent subsistence. In addition to which, there would be, alternately and contrary to nature, a difference in ruling and being ruled — if indeed the soul, having been created by nature to rule the body, as an incorporeal substance, will, as body, according to them, be ruled by that which does not exist according to substance — I mean the power that pertains to quality — the soul which exists and subsists according to substance, and this is the common presumption of all.

But if we should say that the body is unsouled, it will be unfeeling and without imagination, irrational and unthinking. But indeed all these things both are and are seen to be about the soul, and in the soul; therefore the soul is not a body. For that it has this body as another substance, we do not refuse to say, knowing it well; but to declare that it is a body, as being at once most rash and most uneducated, we altogether avoid — not being ignorant that ‘to have’ differs greatly from ‘to be.’ But if, because they say the Divine is incorporeal, fearing a fear that does not exist, they do not admit to calling the soul incorporeal, lest they bring it to equality with God — let them also excise the rest of our attributes, that their contest of folly may be complete for them — namely, all that we, as participants, have from God; or all that God is called, from us, as one who acts and gives, or imparts, has been designated; or has been designated God by us. What, then, do I mean by these? Being, living, being illumined, being made good, reasoning, understanding — some on account of substance, others on account of motion, that is, disposition and inclination. For we are called beings, and living, and lights, and good, and intellectual, and rational.

And likewise we name God being, and living, and light, and good, and mind and reason — whether as being these things and being so called from a cause, or as being made to act, calling the Divine these things from our own attributes. What reasoning, then, have they, that the soul is and is named all these things, in addition to many others, but is no longer incorporeal, whatever the Divine may be — as though we must either not be called these things, because the Divine is so, or God must not be named these things, whatever we too are called? But indeed we are these things, and are so named — not as being identical with God on account of these, but as caused related to cause, or as partaker related to what is partaken, or as existence related to cause. Nor comparatively or synonymously, as with things of the same substance, but homonymously, and, so to speak, by way of participation — the things being infinitely separated from one another in nature — unless one is pleased, truly, to call the Divine even above nature and thing. Where, then, again according to them, if it should be granted that the soul is a body, will the reasoning of the ‘according to the image’ be preserved for us, unless we say that the soul has, in every respect, the likeness to the archetype?

For just as we name it the image of the intellectual, intellectual, and of the immortal, incorruptible, and invisible, the image recognized in these — so too, calling it the image of the incorporeal, incorporeal, as escaping all bulk, and likewise all measurement by extension, we again say it to be something other than that, according to the property of its nature. Since it would no longer be an image, but an unvarying identity. And in what things is that seen in the uncreated and unchangeable and beginningless nature, in the same things we consider it clearly shown that the created rational nature is manifested — not in the same manner, but as, in the furthest echoes, a manifestation of the voice of reason. And just as, through the things accomplished among beings according to the ordering of the universe, the most philosophic mind, transferring the powers of its own thoughts to the pure and immaterial, distinguishes the mover from the things moved, and, apprehending it as existing from itself, one and alone and simple, remaining the same, and as a productive cause in the constancy proper to its identity, knows it to be inaccessible in nature to other things — unchangeable, because unmoved (for there is nothing toward which that which makes and fills beings, and is above all beings that are, will be moved); but all-containing, as maker, and, before coming-to-be, knowing all things by the infinity of its power — in the same manner of contemplation, also through the varied and skillful motion of the members and parts of the small world — I mean man — reasoning about the motive cause, it knows it to be something other in substance than the organic existence of the body; and not as body in body, which seems so to the young sophists and to the dogmatists of things unproven; but it beholds it as simple and unitary in the things that are scattered, and, in the things that are contracted, indeterminate; changeable indeed, as being moved; but moved, as having that toward which it will be moved; but of the change according to motion, it knows the cause to be, not nature, but judgment, whenever this happens to be in error.

Change, then, does not, I think, pertain to the substance itself of the soul; since it would have changed infinitely, and would not have remained the same according to substance; but pertains to the motion that comes from us, being carried along with the self-ruling will. Therefore, that those who argue against us should say and declare that even the evermotion of the soul toward the Divine has the power of change does not seem to be the mark of those speaking the truth, but of those seeking pompously for cleverness, and not reverently for exactness of reasoning. Since who that is a partaker of reason, and not without a share of the love of virtue, is ignorant that the ever-motion of the soul toward the good is nothing other than a natural activity, accomplished with a view to, and for the sake of, the cause for which it came to be? But change is a motion contrary to nature, introducing a failure to attain that cause. For change, to speak in my own way, is nothing other than a weakness and a falling away from the activities according to nature. Do not, then, permit the wordy chatterers any longer to say, ‘You dare to compare God and creation.’ Since the Divine, properly speaking, is neither body, nor incorporeal, nor substance, nor any of the things thought or spoken — that I may not enumerate all in order — but remains, even when thought, ungraspable, and, when spoken, ineffable.

Let these things, then, be said by us in a spirit of inquiry, but not dogmatically; and if they are sufficient for the subject, as far as is possible through a brief letter, and do not fall far short of your greatness of mind — thanks be to God, and to you who advance us. But if you wish, should those who argue against us not be persuaded, to engage them more contentiously, we are ready, by God‘s grace, to bring down upon them the surrounding cloud of divine witnesses and testimonies that we possess; that, laying aside the whole burden of the laborious examination of this matter, and the easily-provoked wordy warfare of the contentious, we may hold, undisturbed, the true knowledge concerning God and His creatures. But if this has been said deficiently, as every effort must suffer, and not successfully, as brought forth from an unlearned mind and a weak instrument — forgive me, beloved ones, for obedience alone, as God who searches the hearts knows, having dared to say even these things; and correct gently him who does not wish to be ignorant of anything profitable, and guide compassionately, with sympathy, him who desires to walk uprightly. Letter 7. to John the Presbyter, Concerning: That the Soul Has Intellectual Activity Even After Death, and Departs from None of Its Natural Powers. On the second of the present month of August, of the current first indiction, our common friend delivered to me the honored letter of your paternal holiness.

Reading it, I was rightly comforted concerning you, my lords, and, after God, the cause of all good things for me, passing your days in health. For the Holy Spirit of God is so wholly united to you that, even beholding you, absent, with the eyes of the mind alone, I am set in order, according to whatever power, life, and reason is in me — as one beholding and revering God, made manifest through you in remembrance. But I was grieved not a little at the doctrine concerning the soul which, as you have written, is being fearlessly proclaimed there by certain men, considering how great a strength and boldness such an evil has here too. But what fills me with even more dejection here, and casts, like a cloud, a weight upon my mind, is the novel doctrine concerning the resurrection now championed by almost everyone, and especially by those monks reputed distinguished — so that one no longer merely conjectures, as a preliminary sign, the coming of Antichrist, but rather believes and affirms that it is already present — even one who has but the smallest share of reasoning, the very absurdity of what is said bearing witness to such an evil. For those who fearlessly sharpen their tongue against everything, and consider nothing said or done impiously to be fearful, say that the bodies, at the resurrection, will continue to be sustained for life by phlegm and blood again, and by yellow and black bile, and by the drawing of air, and by sensible food — nothing at all appearing strange, through the resurrection, in comparison with the present life, except that they will no longer be able to die.

I do not know how, against all that is said in Holy Scripture concerning the soul and the resurrection of the dead, through the prophets and apostles, and through the very Word of God who conversed with us through flesh — and especially what is peculiarly declared to the Corinthians concerning the resurrection through the divinely-inspired Paul — they willingly stop their ears, and close the eye of the soul against understanding, though these things are so clear and audible, and need no interpreter for their being known; and, having the very nature of beings, teaching no less than the things divinely declared — a nature which is known even to lead barbarians to the knowledge of the truth, presenting itself as a manifest proof of the things sought — they are not ashamed. For who, unless he is altogether deprived of the grace pertaining to reason, is ignorant that every nature, being essentially distinguished by its own properties, and thereby showing both the manner of its own existence, and the difference by which it is unmixedly distinguished from other natures — when it is deprived of the properties that hold its substance together, either will not exist at all, or will have become what it was not — if indeed it should at all endure to be said to exist, in a merely conventional sense, after the removal of its properties.

For every subject is naturally disposed to perish together with its perishing natural properties. For where, or how, will there be an ox, and a horse, and a lion, and the like, if the properties that hold together the substance of each are not present? Or who, being free of madness, would dare say that these things exist apart from those properties? I do not comprehend it. If, then, it is true that nothing among beings can exist or be known apart from the things that naturally and properly characterize it, those who take away from the soul what is essentially inborn in it — that is, its rational and intellectual character, by which it always both is and acts, understanding and reasoning — clearly, even if they do not say so, take away together with it its very existence; and, according to them, it is corruptible and mortal, not having existence after the death of the body. What could be more absurd than this? But if they suppose it to live, even in word, if not in fact, wary of the refutation from all sides, it is altogether also moved. For all life of things generated is shown in motion. But if it is moved, it altogether also acts; for all motion is manifested through activity. But if it acts, being moved naturally in every respect, and not merely positionally, or accidentally, it will act — not, that is, cyclically, or by locomotion; or, to sum it up, corporeally — but intellectually and rationally.

But if it both lives and is moved and acts intellectually and rationally, it altogether reasons and understands and knows. But if it does not know and reason, neither does it act, nor is it moved, nor does it live. For it is not possible for there to be life without inborn motion; nor for natural motion to be manifested, when there is no proper activity. Otherwise too: the soul is rational and intellectual either on account of itself, or on account of the body. And if on account of itself, it is altogether, in its very own substance, rational and intellectual, and self-subsistent. But if it is self-subsistent by itself, by nature and according to itself, it will act even together with the body, understanding and reasoning according to nature, and never ceasing from the intellectual powers naturally present to it. For the things naturally present to whatever exists, as long as it is and subsists, are inalienable. The soul, then, always existing from the moment it came to be, and subsisting on account of God who fashioned it thus, always both understands and reasons and knows, both by itself, and together with the body, on account of itself and its own nature. No argument, then, will be found that can alienate the soul from what is naturally present to it, and not on account of the body, after the body‘s dissolution.

But if the soul is rational and intellectual on account of the body, then, first, the body is more honorable than the soul that came to be for its sake. And further, it will also have its intellectual and rational character from the body, as having come to be for its sake. For if, apart from the body, the soul is in no way able to understand or reason, its understanding and reasoning will altogether be present to it from the body. But if the soul has acquired understanding and reasoning from the body, as being unable to have these apart from it, according to those who say so, it will altogether not even be self-subsistent. For how could that which, apart from the body, does not have by itself its own characteristic feature, be self-subsistent? But if it is not self-subsistent, then clearly it is not even a substance. But a substance that is not selfsubsistent is an accident, existing only in the body, which alone subsists naturally; but after the body’s dissolution, it will be able to exist as nothing whatever. And there will be nothing more, for those so foolish as to have taken away the immortality of the soul, than the vain labor of Epicurus and Aristotle, with whom, as is likely, these noble fellows are also proud to be ranged. And so much for this.

But as for what is said by them concerning the resurrection, who that cares for virtue and piety, hearing it, will not procure for himself, through passion — I mean through indignation against them — that which is free of passion? For if, as they say, the body will rise, without variation, formed by the very same conflicting humors as in the present life, and will be nourished at the fearful presence of God after the consummation of this world, I think, to sum it up, cutting off the many things that could be said, that they are proclaiming nothing else through this than that death is eternal, and corruption unending. For if death is the corruption of bodies so constituted, and the body constituted by the influx of foods is always perishing, being dissipated by the flow, on account of the natural antipathy of the humors in it, from which it is also constituted — then, always, through the very means by which they suppose the body to be constituted after the resurrection, they proclaim death to be preserved forever. One ought rather to believe that the body itself rises according to substance and form, but incorruptible and immortal, and, to speak in the Apostle‘s manner, spiritual instead of animal — as bearing nothing of its alterable, constitutive property with respect to corruption, in the way God knows how to transmute it toward impassibility and honor — and to inquire no further into this.

Seeing the many rejoicing and taking pleasure in these things, I was struck dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence from good things, judging silence more profitable than speech for every prudent man; and I go about, mourning within myself, and downcast — reckoning how much such words, neglected, flitting about everywhere like sparks, will work the death of souls; and there is no one able, or willing, to come to the defense of reason, endangered, on account of the prevailing wickedness of the times. Wherefore I groan all the more at my separation from you, not having near me the all-powerful oversight of your paternal holiness, which guards me and delivers me from harmful things, propping up my many stumblings more frequently with your word. Letter 8. to the Same. Longing according to the flesh is naturally disposed to fade with time, departing together with those who are separated locally, who have their connection according to it. For it has its constitution around sense-perception, which is in no way able to apprehend those not present. But longing according to the spirit always has those joined according to it noetically present with one another, even if they are separated bodily from one another; admitting no circumscription of time or place. For it has its existence around the mind, which is in no way divided or enclosed together with bodies divided from one another locally.

Having been deemed worthy, from the beginning, to have this longing toward you, most holy ones, I think I see you always present, and perceive you speaking; and there is no time or place able to remove me from remembrance of you, which continually shows you present in spirit, and drives away all the foul-smelling thoughts in me, unable to bear the great fragrance of the divine grace in you; and I am persuaded that I do not merely imagine, in memory, you, most holy ones, but truly perceive you present, making what happens an exact confirmation of your presence. For the effective power in you, by grace of God, driving away, together with the remembrance of you, the demons that trouble me, provides the clearest evidence of your presence. And it is no wonder if the God of signs and wonders makes those absent bodily present noetically — as He Himself knows, and those from whom, in a manner befitting God, such things are worked — and more so than bodies are present to one another locally. And if merely being remembered, honored Fathers, you provide such a penance for my dishonorable thoughts, visiting invisibly in spirit, how much more would you, present before my eyes, and consecrating my hearing with the divine words through living voice, and brilliantly teaching virtue by your own manner of life? For this reason I go about mourning and downcast, longing for and seeking you, the good shepherd and teacher, who knows how to make the wandering sheep, which I am, dwell in a place of green pasture — I mean the habit of virtue, which repels the burning heat of the passions through practice; and who is able to nourish it beside the water of rest — I mean the one who waters the mind, through contemplation, with the grace of knowledge, who turns back my soul from vice to virtue by divine words and examples, and guides it on the paths of righteousness; who shows the saving ways of piety; and wisely encourages with rod and staff — that is, by the remembrance of the eternal punishments, as by a rod, leading back the one being led into vice, and, by the exhortation of the good things to come, as by a staff, strengthening through hope the one advancing in virtue — which, I think, the Lord and Savior also symbolically

hinted at, when He poured wine and oil upon the wounds of the one who had fallen among robbers. For, mixed together, the fear of Gehenna and the eternal fire, and the longing for the kingdom of the heavens, preserve the soul unharmed, binding it fast to the love of the Creator, cleansed by the astringency from every passionate thought. But fill, then, honored Father, this very reed pipe of the teaching of the divine Spirit, and call, in shepherd-like and loving fashion, the one wandering without a shepherd upon the mountains of ignorance and the hills of vice; and bring him under your right hand, and bind up, with compassion, the one torn by the many wicked bites of the wolves of Arabia — that is, of the West; for ‘Dusmai’ (‘West’), as they say, is what the name ‘Arabia,’ interpreted according to the Greek tongue, signifies. And I understand, perhaps not mistakenly, according to the reasonings of anagogy, by ‘Arabia,’ this flesh — which, in my case, tyrannically resists the divine laws of the spirit; which nourishes many, truly, shameless and untamed wolves; which is truly a ‘setting,’ and has truly come to be called so on account of sin; upon which the good Shepherd has trodden, as good and loving to mankind — the God who shepherds Israel, and the Word of God, who sits upon the Cherubim — having, evidently, taken heed, and beheld our danger; and for this reason having manifested Himself, and roused His own might, and come in the flesh to save those who were perishing, and to slay the wicked beasts nourished in it; and to make it a land of peace, and a pasture of rational sheep, led up to God through practice — the law of which I myself have not yet passed through unharmed, by spiritual contemplation, as Israel passed by Mount Seir; nor have I passed impassibly through its desires, by gnostic practice, as the brothers of the sons of Esau, dwelling in Arabia, did through Moses, who trace their lineage from Jacob — but I still dwell in Arabah, according to the sons of Esau, the West, I mean the flesh; after the present life, on account of the pleasures of the flesh, not looking for another life.

In which not even every true Israel who sees God deigns to sojourn, hastening to emigrate from the flesh through the virtues, and longing to make his home with the Lord through knowledge — the true ‘land of promise’ of ineffable good things, mystically both being and named, flowing with milk and honey. For the Lord is nourishing to those who are infants with respect to Him, and gladdening to those who play the man with respect to Him — nourishing, with the virtues through practice, as with milk, those who fear Him, and sweetening, with mystical knowledges, as with honey, through spiritual contemplation, those who love Him. Do not, then, cease shepherding me, taken by wild beasts, with compassion, by words of truth, honored Father; and do not cease delivering me from the passions in the flesh, together with the spirits of wickedness that stir them up, which devour and consume my inner man; and call me to yourself, and lodge me beneath your wings — if indeed every fear of sensible barbarians is truly absent, for whose sake I, loving my life, crossed such great expanses of sea — concerning which I especially beg you, most holy ones, after the desired notice of your all-radiant health in God, to declare more exactly, and to show me, through letters, the whole present state of affairs there, as it is.

For, being weak in reasoning, and altogether unsound, and scarcely able even in peace to keep sober in small measure, and, out of timidity, to gather together my mind, scattered over many things, I wish to make my voyage with security — being imperfect in understanding, and not able to enter into the reasonings of the providence that wisely administers all things; lest, in what happens, my reasoning, buckling from ignorance, and yielding, from weakness, in the contests of endurance, I be deprived of the crowns from them, having become a deserter in the trial of what is required. By this letter, as though present, I greet you, most holy ones, and all those with you; asking, through your holy and acceptable prayers, to be commended to Christ, God and Letter 9. to Thalassius, Presbyter and Hegumen. There are, well say some, three things that lead man; or rather, toward which man is moved by will and disposition according to choice: God, and nature, and the world. And each of these, drawing him, removes him from the other two, altering the one led toward itself; and makes him, by position, that very thing which it itself is known to be by nature — except, however, in the case of nature. For nature preserves man as what he is. If, then, it is God who leads man, He is by nature disposed to make him a god by position, through the grace of the Word, bestowing deification, as good, beyond nature, upon the one led; and He cuts him off cleanly from the other two, world and nature, I mean.

But if it is nature that leads man, being with itself, it shows man to be by nature man, standing midway between God and the world, as partaking in disposition of neither of these. But if it is the world that carries him, it makes the man so led into a beast — or rather, mere flesh — fashioning in him the passion born of deceit; whereby, having set him far from God and from nature, it teaches him to do all things contrary to nature. The extremes, then — God and the world, I mean — are accustomed to draw man away both from each other and from the middle term, I mean nature. But the middle term, being the boundary between them, if it should find man looking only to itself, keeps him equally distant from the extremes when moved — neither permitting him to run up to God Himself, nor deigning to let him fall down to the world. As soon, then, as man is moved in disposition, inwardly, toward one of these, at once he has both exchanged his activity for that very thing, and changed his appellation, being called carnal, or psychic, or spiritual. The work and mark of the carnal man is to know only how to do evil. Of the psychic man, neither ever to wish to do, nor to suffer, evil. Of the spiritual man, to wish only to do good, and, if it should happen to suffer evil for virtue‘s sake, to accept this readily.

If, then, you long to be led by the Spirit of God, blessed one — as indeed you do long — remove from yourself world and nature; or rather, circumcise yourself from these, and do not refuse to be wronged; do not decline to bear mockeries and insults; and, to sum it up: while suffering evil, never cease doing good to those who do evil, and letting go of all that is done to you, for the sake of God and virtue, according to Him who said: ’If anyone wishes to go to law with you, and to take your tunic, let him have your cloak also.‘ And again, according to the blessed Apostle, who says: ’Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being blasphemed, we entreat.‘ Furthermore, if you would be persuaded by me, blessed servant of God, lay up great favor for those who have afflicted you; and, if it should be necessary, do not refuse to suffer further loss on their account in every way; but rather bless when reviled; and endure when persecuted, and entreat when blasphemed, that you may not be carnal, as one who knows and wishes only to do wrong; nor psychic, as one who does not endure being wronged; but rather spiritual, knowing and practicing willingly only doing good; and knowing how to suffer evil readily, for virtue‘s sake, from those who wish it — looking to Jesus, the author of our salvation, who, in place of all the good things which no one has yet been able to comprehend in knowledge, endured all the terrible things, which no one has ever endured, at the hands of sinners, and on behalf of sinners, with longsuffering.

For the aim of the Giver of the commandments is to free man from world and nature. And for this reason condemned is he who is not persuaded; and it is in vain that worldly fathers make excuses for their offspring, and the superiors of the communities of those practicing the monastic life make excuses that the commandments should reasonably be inactive for them. Which, if we should accept as true, the Lord will be shown to have written a law of salvation for no one at all. But the natural man, I think, Scripture’s reasoning has called ‘psychic,’ since the property of nature is by nature contemplated only around ensouled things, and simply things subject to generation and corruption, as those skilled in such matters say. I have written these things to you, my lord, since I found, through your reader, that you were much distressed at what had happened. But pray mightily, as one able before Him who is able to forgive sins, on behalf of Maximus, your servant and disciple, honored Father. Letter 10. to John the Cubicularius. Since you have bidden me write to you concerning the cause for which God judged it right to ordain that men should be ruled by kings — nature being one and the same for all, and, by its own simple reasoning, declaring all who share it to be of equal honor — I will speak according to my ability, hiding nothing of what I have received from wise and blessed men; cutting off the many things that could be said about this, for the sake of brevity.

A true argument, as they say, mystically declares that man, having by the grace of God his Maker obtained lordship, by grace, over the whole visible world, by misusing the innate powers of the intellectual substance within him, turning their motions toward what is contrary to nature, brought upon himself and upon this whole world the alteration and corruption now prevailing over them, by a just judgment of God — lest the power of the soul, being moved toward things contrary to nature, should be preserved immortal for him without limit — which would be not only the extremity of vice, and a manifest fall from man‘s own true reality, but also a clear denial of the divine goodness. For this reason this toilsome and much-groaning life of men, being borne and bearing, one thing in one way and another in another way, through the great irrationality and disorder of the matter that nurtures it — and, more exactly speaking, in the very act of bearing, bearing all men — makes all men partakers of its own terrors, and leaves absolutely no one free of its own disturbance. And this was ordained according to the fitting reasoning of God‘s wisdom, so that, even if late, learning from suffering evil at its hands amid circumstances how much harm the friendship for it can do, we, who love the present life irrationally, in disposition, might come to know that separation from it is far more useful to us than union with it; and might justly and reasonably confirm our hatred toward it; and, fleeing the confusion and disturbance of visible things, might soberly transfer our longing to the settled identity of noetic things.

But since, even being scourged, and suffering countless terrible things, we do not consent to loose the bond of our friendship toward it, God, as wise and good, ordained the law of kingship for men by providence, warding off from afar the great madness of vice that was foreknown to arise in life on account of laxity; lest men should become, like the fish of the sea, a devouring prey to one another, with no one presiding, and no one hindering the unjust assault of the stronger against the weaker. For this reason, as is fitting, I think, kingship was necessarily introduced to the human race, receiving wisdom and might from God; and the equallyhonored nature was permitted to be divided into ruling and being ruled — so that, by the one, it might set in order those who lawfully obey the ordinances of nature; and by the other, might justly punish those who, through self-will of disposition, do not wish to yield to these; and might, thereby, grant justice to all, arbitrated by longing and fear — through which the irregularity of each individual‘s disposition being removed, the equal, calm, and gentle character of nature in all is brilliantly displayed. Which would never have come to be, had not fear checked the senseless impulse of the many toward absurdity, and, by force, through threat, led them to the calm of the prudent.

For what reason is naturally disposed to persuade the prudent to embrace willingly, this fear is accustomed to compel the senseless to accept unwillingly. For this cause I have learned that kingship was permitted to enter into the life of men, and I accept the argument as true, and as instructive of the cause. But if some other argument stands as the cause of this, according to divine Scripture, I consider this to be graspable only by those pure in understanding. Nevertheless, this too does not altogether disagree with the aim of divine Scripture. For that Scripture, too, relates that God, to men who had rejected the kingdom of God, granted, even so, that they should be ruled by themselves — lest the disorder of anarchy should produce a multiplicity of rulers, and thereby work a destructive faction throughout the whole human race, no one being entrusted, by divine decree, with the care of them; God setting in order, by reason, those educated toward mildness through reason; and punishing, by the fear of power, those who fabricate wickedness, and who, in disposition, corrupt in themselves, by ways contrary to nature, the innate good of knowledge. Whoever of kings, then, has been eager to keep this law of kingship thus, has truly been shown to be second to God on earth, having become a most faithful minister of the divine will, and having justly obtained to rule men by being ruled by God.

But whoever, having thrust aside this ordinance, has determined altogether to rule for himself, and not for God, will reasonably work the contrary of these things — tyrannically shaking off from himself the good, and setting them far from every counsel and power; but, in a revolutionary manner, drawing to himself the wicked, and making them masters of all his authority — which is the final pit of destruction for both rulers and ruled. But may God grant that we be ruled by Him willingly, through the fulfillment of His life-giving commandments; and that we honor worthily those who rule on earth according to Him, as guardians of His divine ordinances. Letter 11. to a Hegumeness, Concerning an Ascetic Who Left the Monastery, and Repented. The heralds of truth, and those who became ministers of divine grace, as many as, from the beginning down to us, each in their own times, have made clear to us the saving will of God, say that nothing is so pleasing and dear to God as the true return of men to Him from repentance. Wishing to show this to be, above all others, the most divine thing, the Godruling Word of God and the Father — or rather, the first and only mark of His infinite goodness — deigned, by a certain ineffable manner of condescension, to converse with us through flesh, doing and suffering and saying those things by which it was necessary for us, being enemies and foes, to be reconciled to God and the Father, and, having been estranged from the blessed life, to be led back again to it.

For not only did He heal our sicknesses by miracles, and, taking up our infirmities through sufferings, and, through death, paying, as one made liable though sinless, our debt, free us from our many and fearful offenses — but, teaching in manifold ways, He has willed that we, being willing, should become equal to Himself according to the disposition of love for mankind, and perfect love toward one another. For this reason He cried: ‘I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’ And: ‘They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.’ And: ‘I have come to seek and to save that which was lost.’ And: ‘I was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ And, by the parable of the coin, He hinted that He had come to restore the royal image, having become buried under the foulest dung of the passions. And: ‘Amen I say to you, there is joy in heaven and on earth over one sinner who repents.’ For this He restored, with wine and oil and bandages, the man who fell among robbers, was stripped of every covering, and by his wounds had become half-dead; and, setting him upon His own beast, brought him to the innkeeper; and, giving what was sufficient for his care, promised also to give whatever more should be spent, when He returned.

For this He says the all-good Father inclined toward the return of the prodigal son, and, embracing him who had run back to Him through repentance, adorned him again with the beauty of paternal glory, finding no fault at all with him for his former deeds. For this, finding the sheep that had strayed from the divine hundred, wandering upon the mountains and hills, He led it back to the fold of the sheep, not driving it, nor wearing it out with toil, but, placing it upon His own shoulders, saved it compassionately, bringing it back to its fellows in the flock. For this He cried out: ‘Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden in heart, and I will give you rest.’ And: ‘Take my yoke upon you’ — calling the commandments a yoke, that is, the life set right according to the Gospel; and calling the burden that which seems to be the toil of repentance — ‘for my yoke,’ He says, ‘is easy, and my burden is light.’ And again, teaching divine righteousness and goodness, He exhorts, saying: ‘Be holy’; and, ‘Be perfect’; ‘Be merciful’; ‘Be compassionate, as your Father in heaven is.’ And, ‘Forgive, and you shall be forgiven.’ And, ‘Whatever you wish that men should do to you, do likewise to them.’ And such things. And, simply, that I may not lengthen the letter by speaking of each in turn — for this He justifies repentant harlots, and receives converted tax collectors, and makes them heralds of the Gospel.

For this He takes to Himself even confessing robbers, who purchase salvation by death, on account of fear, and brings them with Himself into paradise, confirming the promises of the good things to come. For this He brings to their senses raging persecutors, through zeal, and puts forward, ordaining as apostles to the nations in His own place, those who once persecuted Him — that we might learn love for mankind and gentleness; and that we might not readily despair of ourselves when we sin, nor remain unsympathetic and unfeeling toward those who sin — having God as our pattern in what we do. Since, then, we have been taught that these things are so, according to the very truth, and that it is the will of God that all men be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth; and remember that the sole beginning and ground of His wonderful sojourn among us through the flesh is our salvation — I confidently ask your holiness, putting forward to you, as a supplication, the very life-giving sufferings of Christ, our God and Savior, by which we were redeemed from the power of darkness. I believe you to be a genuine disciple of the Son of God, bearing within yourself, throughout the whole course of your life, the Teacher living and active — as one who has cleaved wholly to Him from childhood — that, through me too, a lowly and sinful mediator, having nothing worthy of your virtue, you may honor His loving self-emptying on our behalf, and receive this repentant sister, melted in tears.

For great and unspeakable is the contrition of her heart, and the humility of her spirit, both for the sin she has committed, and for her separation from you, which she mourns. Do not, then, despise, blessed servant of God, a contrite and humbled heart, which God compassionate and did not despise; merciful, but, becoming tender-hearted and sympathetic, imitate Him who willingly consented to die for us, out of love for mankind; and deign to receive her and embrace her, and consent to confirm your love toward her. And strengthen her by words and deeds of love for mankind and gentleness, and snatch her from the hands of the tyrant, and bind up, with compassion, the wounds inflicted upon her; lest, weighed down too heavily by grief, she be pierced by the thorn of despair; and we be required to answer for the blood of a soul destroyed at our hands — or, to speak more truly, betrayed to the enemy of our life, to have as his subject, for whatever he might wish — a soul that ought to live through our long-suffering and gentleness; and we be justly accused of having neglected the divine wills and sufferings. For, though this word is harsh, yet it is true: they dishonor the good will of God, and, as far as lies with them, despise His loving self-emptying on our behalf, who are unwilling to repent, and who do not receive those who repent — since, though obligated to make one another‘s misfortunes their own, on account of the equal honor of nature, they have shown themselves not even to have respected the very goodness of God toward us — if, in nothing else, at least by not imitating it toward their own kin.

As, then, one who knows, blessed servant of God, that divine justice fittingly conforms itself to the dispositions of our souls, becoming toward us such as we have made ourselves toward one another; and rendering God to us such as we, first, have disposed ourselves toward those who share our nature — do not delay to receive with open hands your suppliant and servant; but without delay, in imitation of God, with all diligence, place the sheep upon your shoulders, and bring it together to the secure fold, and guard it henceforth unassailable by wolves; that you too may obtain such a loving God and Savior, Christ, the Judge of all, who, at His fearful and most glorious appearing, will render to you the eternal fruits of what you have sown. May we too obtain this, through His gracious mercy and love for mankind; by the prayers and intercessions of our Lady, the all-glorious Theotokos, and of all His saints. Amen. Letter 12. to John the Cubicularius, on the Correct Doctrines of the Church of God; and Against Severus the Heretic. [Part 1 of Several] Considering it good not to withhold from you, God-guarded ones, anything of what comes to me concerning your own affairs — for this is what our law of true love commands, and lawgiver, and Love itself, Christ, teaching us to make one another our own through ourselves — I have composed this present letter, declaring that in the month of November of the current fifteenth indiction, a certain Theodore, by name a chancellor, arrived here — truly noble, and not without a share of freedom of manner, as far as I could conjecture from what I observed — bearing a letter from our common lady, the God-guarded Patrician, as he said it was inscribed, to the blessed servant of God, the all-praised eparch here, for the purpose of releasing the nuns dwelling here — of the monastery of Amma Joannia, from Alexandria, and of the monastery called of Sacerdos — who are of the heresy of Severus, who employed such madness of falsehood and such abundance of it against the truth as to trouble the holy Church of God even to this day.

But to none of the other officials there who serve the God-guarded Patrician did he deliver, altogether, even a bare syllable of anything else. Wherefore I too, along with many others, wondered, perplexed within myself, what the reason could be, by which my God-guarded lord did not think fit to make anything known to me through him; and such a letter caused, as is likely to happen in such cases, as you know, my lord, much murmuring among the faithful people; and it diminished, almost, the reverence in which the lady, the all-praised Patrician, was held by the catholic Church of God; and it shook all who dwell in this land of Africa, already firmly possessed of good preconceptions concerning her — had not the said all-praised eparch, employing a method befitting his prudence, everywhere proclaimed the letter to be false and spurious; and he pretended to be indignant at the chancellor, and dealt fittingly with those heretics from Alexandria and Syria who had been emboldened under the pretext of such a letter — disciplining some with imprisonment, others with blows, saying that they should not insult the preconceptions held of our lady the Patrician. For they shamelessly insisted, relying, as I said, on the letter, that she rejoiced in their doctrines; and they did not refrain from saying to everyone, falsely, that Thomas, their so-called bishop, was one of those who came to her freely, and was greatly honored by her — which especially of all things troubled and scandalized everyone.

So that I too was of necessity called at that time to go and refute, face to face, those who had dared to say this, and to persuade those who had heard it that neither she, nor her spouse, who has become one of the saints, had in any way whatsoever inclined toward the heretics, by the grace of Christ the Savior. And likewise many others of the most devout monks sojourning here, and especially the blessed servants of God and our Fathers called the Eucratades, saying the same things, kept the many free of such a false suspicion. And, simply put, the said all-praised man has gone to every length to show her pure of every blame, and purposed to make manifest to all that she is faithful to God, and honorable. But I myself have not yet become free of doubt concerning this, I who especially make your affairs my own, small and worth nothing as I am, among the great and those deemed worthy of divine grace; being still troubled about this, and not knowing what to decide and determine. For, knowing our common lady, the all-praised Patrician, to stand, from her ancestors, upon the unbreakable rock of the faith, and to have been taught to breathe almost nothing else but the right faith in God proclaimed by the catholic Church of God, I cannot believe the letter to be hers.

And again, seeing a chancellor confirmed by dreadful oaths, and affirming that he was sent here for this purpose alone by her, I consider it fearful not to believe him; and I stand midway between two reasonings, a boundary between them, unable to find the one that prevails and can draw the soul‘s assent to itself. Yet, my blessed lord, that I may speak the truth, and confess all that I have been able to judge — and receive me as one who, out of much labor of soul, on account of my love for you, boldly speaks freely — if indeed, by the will and disposition of you, God-guarded ones, the letter on behalf of the aforesaid heretical women was made by her, which I marvel at, I do not accept it — judging that you are not free of blame. For I hear from divine Scripture, teaching us, how Jehoshaphat, that pious and faithful king of Judea, having allied himself with Ahab, king of Israel, defiled with many stains of idolatry, when he once stirred up war against Syria, was rebuked and accused by God, who spoke to him thus through the prophet: ’Do you help a man hated by me, and hostile to the Lord God?‘ But if she did this, persuaded perhaps by others who suggested it, not even so do I assent to what was done, calling to mind that Rehoboam, the son of the great Solomon, who, by preferring the counsel of the young to that of the elders, cut off the greater part of his own kingdom; and knowing, at the same time, that it is forbidden to undertake matters of canon law which are not permitted, especially for women, to whom the divine word has declared silence to be more fitting than speech.

One must not, then, help heretics as heretics, in whatever manner, even if it were permitted to everyone to do everything without fear — both for the reasons stated, lest we unwittingly offend God; and because it is not good to give them license to parade about in their own falsehood, and to be stirred up against piety — lest, being made manifest through us, like a serpent, they should be able, by the bite of deceit, to shake the secure foundation of the faith of some of the simpler folk; and we too be found, though we do not wish it, sharing in the judgment hanging over them for this. For thus, at first, the all-praised eparch, employing his customary sympathy toward them, even bestowed upon them wine worth much gold for their sustenance, together with a generous supply of their other needs; but when he found them puffed up with the conceit of arrogance, he turned away from them. For immediately, as though by an order, they began to gather together, and to entice the daughters of the faithful, and to hide and deny them to their parents, who sought them for a considerable time; and dared to perform propitiatory rites and re-baptisms; and, having come to them often with much exhortation and learned these things, and having urged them at length to cease from such practices and to be united to the holy Church of God, but having accomplished nothing — at last, seeing the evil had become great and now uncontrollable, and the crowds of the faithful murmuring about what was happening, fearing lest something disorderly should befall them, the faithful multitude of the Romans being inflamed with anger against them, not enduring even the bare name of heretics — considering it fitting and lawful that royal counsel and judgment should be taken concerning this matter, he referred everything, by report, together with the most holy archbishop and the most illustrious notables here, to our most pious emperor, and to the most holy patriarchs, of Rome and of Constantinople.

And indeed, having received a serene letter from our most faithful emperor, and a sacred letter from the most blessed patriarchs, commanding that all the heretics of the land who persist in their own false doctrine be driven out; but that the aforesaid women, if willing to come to the holy, undefiled, and life-giving catholic Church, should have their own communities left untouched; but, if refusing the truth, and unwilling to yield to the imperial decree, should be perpetually confined, each singly, in the ascetic houses of the orthodox, and their property, according to the law — with which they had generously supported those who led them astray, relying especially on it — should be turned over to the public treasury; he did everything diligently, just as he was commanded. By the grace of Christ he persuaded all the heretics from Syria, Egypt, and Alexandria, and Libya, to come to the holy Church of God; and, of the aforesaid women, those from the monastery of Sacerdos, who had been foolishly moved, out of their ingrained arrogance, against the command of the pious lord, he distributed among the pious ascetic houses of the orthodox, for the fulfillment of what had been piously commanded — some by exhortation, others even by compulsion, becoming all things to all of them, for God‘s sake — until at last, learning what was fitting, he persuaded them to be united to the catholic Church of God, together with many other communities; but those of Amma Joannia, prudently, and quite reasonably, on account of the truth of the ecclesiastical doctrines that already shone forth in them, having come with all joy, he restored to all of them, men and women, their own monasteries — finding a worthy reward for his greatness of mind concerning divine things, namely, to be adorned with apostolic graces, and to become genuinely the mouth of the Lord, according to the divine oracle that says, ’If you bring forth the precious from the worthless, you shall be as my mouth‘ — or rather, receiving this great and wonderful work as a prelude of the divine recompense awaiting him, and a most faithful pledge of glory together with Christ.

But I do not write this because I wish the heretics to be afflicted, nor because I rejoice in their ill-treatment — far from it! — but rejoicing rather, and exulting together, in their conversion. For what is more delightful to the faithful than to behold the scattered children of God gathered together into one? Nor am I exhorting you to set forth harshness in place of love for mankind — far be it that I should be so mad! — but I urge you to do and work good to all men, with attentiveness and discernment, and to become all things to all, as each of you is able; only, in whatever concerns aiding heretics toward the establishment of their mind-damaging opinion, I wish and pray that you be altogether hard and unyielding. For I myself define it as hatred of mankind, and separation from divine love, to try to give strength to error, unto the greater ruin of those already possessed by it. Exposition of the Orthodox Confession. Before all things, and above all things, we must be sober and watchful, and guard against the assaults of the thieves, lest we be despoiled by them unawares; and we shall rather keep the great and first remedy of our salvation — I mean the good inheritance of the faith, confessing it in soul and mouth with boldness, as the Fathers have taught us.

Who, following those who from the beginning became eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, declared that the one Son of God, of the holy and consubstantial, undefiled and blessed Trinity — God the Word, the radiance of glory and the express image of the Father‘s hypostasis, the maker of all creation visible and invisible, the infinite, the unbounded, the invisible, the incomprehensible, the inconceivable, who made and holds all things together by the mere inclination of His will; who is immeasurable in goodness — became man for our sake, and was incarnate of the holy, all-glorious, ever-virgin Mary, properly and truly the Theotokos; uniting to Himself, according to hypostasis, flesh from her, consubstantial with us, ensouled with a rational and intellectual soul, which did not pre-subsist even for the twinkling of an eye, but received both its being and its subsistence in God the Word Himself; and, being perfect God, became perfect man — neither laying aside being God on account of becoming man, which He was not, nor being prevented from becoming what He was not, man, on account of having remained what He was and is, God; but, being the one, becoming the other also, confirming the truth of each — the divine together with the human — by divine wonders and human sufferings; and, according to His own nature and substance in relation to the Father, being uncreated, invisible, uncircumscribed, unalterable, unchangeable, impassible, incorruptible, immortal, maker of all things; but according to the nature of His flesh and yours, the same being created, passible, circumscribed, containable, mortal — the same, yet not according to the same respect, on account of the things from which, and in which, He has His being; the same consubstantial with God the Father according to divinity, and the same consubstantial with us according to humanity; twofold in nature, that is, in substance; since, being the Mediator of God and men, He must properly preserve the natural kinship toward the things mediated, by existing as both — so that, in very truth, in Himself and through Himself, joining earthly things to heavenly, He might bring to God the Father the material nature of men, warred against by sin, having saved it, made it beloved, and deified it — not by identity of substance, but by the ineffable power of the incarnation — that He might make us too partakers of the divine nature,

through His own holy flesh from us, as a firstfruits. Wherefore He is known to be, in reality and not merely in name, God and man at once, the same; yet not twofold in hypostasis, that is, in person, on account of His being one and the same, both before the flesh, and having remained the same after the flesh; nor is there any addition made to the Holy Trinity, or subtraction, from the incarnation of the Word; the same having suffered in flesh for our sake, but ever remaining the same, impassible in His divinity; so that our salvation lies in the death of the onlybegotten Son of God — O the paradoxical and inexpressible mystery! — and yet the divine glory and identity of His substance with undiminished. Father remains continually Concerning Difference; and How One Must Piously Confess Two Natures in Christ After the Union. Since these things have been so wisely declared, according to sound understanding, by the sacred teachers of the Church, it is altogether pious for us too, following them, to confess that there are two natures, dissimilar in substance, which came together for the ineffable union; and to hold that these remained unconfused even after being united — the statement that they remained unconfused introducing no division whatsoever (far be it, ever!), but signifying that the difference remains unchanged. For difference and division are not the same thing.

Difference is the principle by which the underlying subjects differ from one another, and is declarative of how each is — that is, that the flesh is, by nature and substance, what it is; and again that God the Word is, by nature and substance, what He is. But division is a cutting straight through, that is, one that cuts the underlying subjects entirely through, and sets them as subsisting individually and separately, each by itself, and as separated from one another. If, then, such a principle is preserved even after the union — the principle which shows that the Word has not been turned into flesh, and that the flesh has not departed from its natural definition, but confirms that each has remained what it is by nature according to substance, even though a union has taken place — how is it not altogether just to confess that the difference of the natures that came together is preserved even after the union? And if this is not in doubt, having truth itself as a faithful witness, it is manifest and clear to all that the things that came together remain unconfused — neither the divinity having been turned into flesh, nor the flesh having been changed into the nature of divinity. What reasoning, then, remains, if all men wish to be led by the fear of God, and everywhere to hold the truth itself, and not their own faulty supposition, as the standard of the divine doctrines, that could demonstrate that it is unreasonable to confess the things that are preserved?

Otherwise, Concerning the Same Things. In addition to all these things, the Fathers teach that the principles of the things that came together are always preserved; and that these very things that came together contribute both together toward one person of the Son and one hypostasis. If this is so, how is it not necessary, again according to the Fathers, both to speak of the difference, by knowing that the principles are preserved — and that, after the union, each of the things that came together is preserved in the property according to its nature — and, by confessing that both contribute toward one person of the Son and one hypostasis, to know exactly that these are by nature undivided? That the difference of the things that came together, and these very things that came together, are preserved after the union, free of all change and confusion, the most holy luminary of the Church, Cyril — to whom those who fight in vain against the holy Church of God pretend, above measure, to be attached — will suffice as witness, testifying in the second book against the blasphemies of Nestorius, writing thus: ‘Now that the mystery concerning Christ has been brought forward for us, the principle of the union does not ignore the difference, but excludes division — not confusing or commingling the natures, but, because the Word of God has partaken of flesh and blood, He is again understood and named one and the same Son.’

And in his Apology to Andrew, who had found fault with the third chapter, saying thus: ‘One would be free of all blame, perhaps, in knowing that the flesh is one thing, according to its own nature, apart from the Word who was begotten of God the Father; but the Only-Begotten is another, according to the principle of His own nature. But to know these things is not to divide the natures after the union.’ Behold, ‘after the union’ is also clearly set down by the great Cyril, piously understood and spoken, according to him, by the faithful. For it shows that the principle of the being of the things united has by no means been harmed by the union, and that the one has not been commingled with the other, on account of the one hypostasis common to both; but rather that each is preserved and remains, according to what each is by nature in substance. For this too the wise Cyril, knowing well, expressly says: ‘That the natures are neither confused with one another, by their contributing toward one hypostasis of the Son; nor are they divided from one another, by each being and remaining and being understood, one and the other, even after the union’ — each together with its natural property and difference, according to which the Word is God by nature, and not flesh — even though He made the flesh His own economically — and the flesh is flesh by nature, not God — even though it became the very own flesh of God the Word, through the union.

How, then, is it not necessary, pious, and fitting, according to the teaching of the Fathers, saying that the difference is preserved after the union, and that the two natures both are and are preserved in the one Christ, from which He also is, to hold that after the union there is difference of the things that came together toward the indivisible union — knowing that they have received no change into one another, or alteration whatsoever? For it is altogether necessary that every difference be a difference of certain things that differ; and wherever it is possible to conceive of a difference, there the things that differ must altogether exist. For such things are, in a certain way, mutually implicative of one another — as causes and their effects, conceived as relatives concerning the same substance. For if the heterogeneity of substance of the things from which He was constituted is productive of the difference in Christ, as a cause, then altogether the difference too is declarative, as an effect, of the natural otherness of the things united, as its proper cause. For such things are naturally implicative of one another, as has been said; and when one is spoken of, it is altogether necessary to confess the other also; and when one is taken away, it does not follow to say that the other exists either. One must, then, speak of two, lest we introduce a bare difference; and use number for this alone, to show that the difference of the things that came together has remained, as being preserved after the union, and not divided — in addition to its being easier for the truth to be shown from the more signifying utterance of the realities themselves, than for the realities to be confirmed as different merely from the sound of a word.

That Number Neither Divides, Nor Is Divided, Nor Introduces Division, According to Its Own Principle, in the Things to But if some, preferring opinion to truth, say that number is divisive, or divided, or introductory of division; and, fearing this fear that does not exist, refuse to say that the two natures that came together in Christ are preserved after the union, lest a cutting and a division should creep into the mystery of the incarnation, do not see what reasoning of understanding on this matter they have. For either they declare themselves wiser in this than the holy Fathers who used such an expression and suspected no division — deceived into thinking they can enter into divine things somehow more spiritually than they — or, examining by themselves the principles of things, puffed up with conceit about their own opinion, they have failed to recognize the truth that escaped them. Since who, of those trained in the least degree in the divine teachings of the Fathers, is ignorant that every number, according to the great and God-bearing Gregory, is declarative of the quantity of the underlying subjects, but not of the division of things, as these men suppose? For how, I would gladly ask them, could that which does not subsist according to substance be able to divide? For it belongs to substance, when it subsists, to be able by nature to do something to something else.

And how will that which cannot suffer, according to its own principle, be divided? For those skilled in these matters have declared this to belong properly to accident, that is, to quality, of the things said to be in a subject. If, then, number can neither divide, nor be divided, according to its own principle — for it is not naturally disposed to act (for that belongs to substance), nor to suffer (for that belongs to accident) — neither will it be able of necessity to introduce with itself division of things, as they have their nature and position, and their relation to one another, before number, remaining fixed; and after being numbered, suffering nothing strange at all on account of the number. For if we say, for example, ten men, or anything else of the things subsisting by themselves, and signify a divided quantity, we do not know that they then received their being by themselves, and their being distinguished from one another by their hypostases, through the number; but rather that they, through themselves, and not through the number, are this, and are so many — not by division, but we have signified their quantity through the number. And again, saying that a stone is two-colored or many-colored, and whatever else belongs to continuous quantity, we do not divide the one stone into two stones or five; nor do we cut the colors in it from one another, but we signify that there are so many of them, unconfusedly, around it and in it, as in a subject; no cutting or division of the stone having taken place, or being able to take place, from the continuous quantity of colors numbered around it — just as no confusion or mixture happens to the colors either, from the one subject around which the stone is.

For the stone, having its unity in its subject, and having its colors around it, indivisibly possessed, is shown to be a quantity. And likewise the colors of the stone itself, differing from one another in quality, having quantity, again contribute toward one subject, according to the composition of the stone, possessing unity unconfusedly, and it is one and the same stone, neither divided by the quantity of colors, nor confused by the unity of the subject. Having its existence, then, according to different principles, in one respect it admits number, but in another it does not accept this. Every number, then, is not declarative of the very relation of things — division, I mean, and continuity — but of the quantity of what it happens to be of, introducing the principle of quantity being quantity, but not of how things exist. For how could it be able to introduce together with itself the relations of things, which existed before it, and can be known apart from it, having no manifestation of kinship toward them, being separated from them by the mere fact of their quantity? For, seeing a multitude of men, or horses, or oxen, and the like, we know that each exists by itself, and is individually divided by its hypostasis, and is this apart from number, as I said before; but, needing number to show their quantity, we by no means make it the cause of their relation, since we have no need of it at all even to know that relation.

And again, beholding a stone, or a flower, or an animal of many colors, and the like — for the sake of knowing that they are variously colored, we by no means employ number; but for the sake of wishing to know the quantity of the colors in them, we do not deny needing it. How Number Is Piously Employed to Show the Difference. So that quantity does not, in being present, make or introduce division; rather, it shows quantity, but introduces difference. For just as every difference is declarative of some quantity that admits number, introducing the principle of how a thing is (for that which is without quantity is altogether also without difference, as being simple in substance and quality) — so too every number of certain differing quantities is declarative, according to the principle of how they are, or how they subsist, of the difference of the subjects, and is not introductory of relation. That these things stand thus, according to the very truth, and that every number is declarative of difference and not of division, the most holy Cyril again bears witness to the argument, in his letter to Eulogius, writing thus, word for word: ‘So too in the case of Nestorius: even if he says two natures, signifying the difference of the flesh and of God the Word, yet he no longer confesses the union together with us.

For we, having united these, confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord; and, further, one nature of the Word, incarnate.’ As if he were saying: We, examining the all-wise dispensation of the mystery — whenever we wish to show that the difference of the things that came together is preserved after the union, we speak, in this respect alone, of two natures — using number only in contemplation, for the sake of showing the difference; but whenever we set forth precisely the ineffable manner of the union of the mystery, we say one nature of God the Word, incarnate. For this, I think, is what he wishes to show by saying, ‘We, having united these, confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord; and, further, one nature of the Word, incarnate.’ That is: we, confessing the union, and articulating its manner exactly, with piety, do not use the significant expression of difference to show the union; but, taking one for the difference and the other for the union, each fittingly, we keep the meaning of what is signified unconfused. So that it is clear from this that it was common to him and to Nestorius to say two natures, so far as knowing the difference goes. But it was no longer common to confess the union also, by saying, ‘one Christ, one Son, one Lord, and one nature of the Word, incarnate’ — which Nestorius did not consent to say.

For to declare, ‘So too in the case of Nestorius: even if he says two natures, signifying the difference of the flesh and of God the Word, yet he no longer confesses the union together with us,’ wishes to show nothing other than this: that Nestorius confesses the difference together with us, by saying two natures; but no longer confesses the union together with us, not saying, ‘one Christ, one Son, one Lord, and one nature of the Word, incarnate.’ And this has become clear to the lovers of the good, and to those eager to love the truth, from the fact that the teacher is nowhere seen either forbidding the saying of two natures after the union — but rather dividing the natures after the union — or teaching that the difference of the things that came together has been abolished after the union; as one can learn from his countless writings. If, then, the union always stands, and the things united always remain unconfused, and the difference of the things united is always preserved — for which the number was employed, according to the Fathers — how is it not necessary, since indeed the union, and the things united, and their difference, always stand and remain and are preserved, both to speak piously of two natures, to show the difference of the things that came together, and again to confess one incarnate nature of God the Word, to indicate the union according to hypostasis — neither of these expressions, evidently, being abolished by the other, as it seems to some to be an unwise hypothesis of wisdom — lest confusion or division be introduced?

For, by keeping silent the expression that fittingly shows the difference, we give room for confusion; but again, by not saying the expression signifying the union, how do we not know that we are giving occasion to division? But both are always piously set forth and spoken of the same Christ — yet not in the same respect, since what is signified by each is not the same as the other. For difference and union are not the same thing, even though they exist and are spoken concerning the same one, and of the same one; for the one, uttered separately from the other, is incomplete, so far as showing the whole mystery goes, not carrying along the other as its advocate, and is shown to be suspect — the one, of division, on account of Nestorius, who denies the union according to hypostasis, and who does not consent to confess that the uncircumscribed deigned to be held fast in flesh for our sake; the other, of confusion, on account of Apollinaris and Eutyches, who deny the difference of the things that came together after the union, and who are ashamed to confess that the invisible submitted to our senses, on account of the natural property of His holy flesh from us. It is necessary, then, as has been said, for those who truly wish to be pious, both to confess one incarnate nature of God the Word, that through this the utmost union may be shown; and again to speak of two natures, that the difference of the things that came together and are preserved unconfused after the union may be shown; and to employ number for this alone.

For the Fathers did not approve of the difference being shown by some other expression, as is reasonable. But if anyone, trusting in himself, is also able to devise a more fitting expression for showing this, let him not begrudge us the benefit, and we too shall not begrudge him the instruction — that I may not say, the audacity. How One Must Understand the Passage Found in the Letter of Saint Cyril to Succensus; and That the Expression ‘In Two’ Does Not Conflict with Those Who Say One Incarnate Nature of the Word — Unless It Is Taken Impiously, in the Sense But if they should say that, nevertheless, the objection is no less in conflict — of those who say two natures united indivisibly after the union — with those who say one incarnate nature of the Word, as the holy Cyril lays down in the second memorandum to Succensus — I count this to be plainly the mark either of those ignorant of, or of those maliciously distorting, the expressions of the Fathers; and of those who reckon contending against the truth more profitable than being reconciled to it. For they ought to have known, since we shall render account even for a bare thought to the righteous Judge of our doings, to attend, with understanding and with the fear of God, to the patristic writings, and to be eager not to make a matter of strife and division out of words that teach peace and concord.

For to whom is it not evident, to anyone paying the least attention, that the blessed Cyril does not appear simply to forbid such an expression, but forbids it as brought forward according to the malicious intent of Nestorius, who said the union had come to be relational — as the blessed Cyril himself testifies concerning himself, at the end of the same letter, making his own purpose manifest to those overly contentious, speaking thus: ‘But the word “indivisibly,” added, seems, in our usage, to be significant of right doctrine. But they do not understand it so. For “indivisible,” with them, according to the empty utterances of Nestorius, is taken in a different manner. For they say that the man in whom the Word of God dwelt is indivisible from Him in equality of honor, sameness of will, and authority. So they do not utter the words simply, but with a certain deceit and malice.’ Behold, this wondrous teacher clearly lays down that there is a twofold manner of ‘indivisible’: the one, signifying the union according to hypostasis, which he embraces, and says to be significant of right doctrine; the other, indicative only of a relational connection, which he rejects — and he exhorts the faithful to do this very thing: to recognize that, from the similar utterance of the same word, the poison of heretical impiety can often be secretly injected into the more simple-minded.

Wherefore, in his own usage, he holds saying ‘two, indivisibly’ to be orthodox, since he himself said the union to be according to hypostasis; but, as brought forward by the followers of Nestorius, he makes the expression ‘indivisible’ suspect, since they held the union to have come to be only by relational connection. The union according to hypostasis, then, is, according to the Fathers, the coming together of things of different substance into one hypostasis, each of the things composing it having, toward the other, its natural property undefiled, unchanged, and undivided. But relational union is the equal motion of will, and the unvarying sameness of disposition, of things subsisting individually by themselves in personal, separate units. He, then, who confesses the union according to hypostasis, even if he says two natures in Christ, united indivisibly after the union — evidently meaning the union according to hypostasis — in no way departs from the truth. For he confesses that the things of which Christ is composed have remained unconfused, on account of the difference that is preserved, according to the Fathers; while, the one according to hypostasis being able in no way to know the things that differ from one another by natural principle as being outside it, and separate, in any manner. But he who advocates the relational union, even if he should say the word ‘indivisible’ ten thousand times, has incurred blame — meaning that they are united by a certain loving mutual disposition, and calling the things signified ‘indivisible’ — being in no way able to say that God the Word is one hypostasis together with His own ensouled and intelligent flesh from us.

For it is impossible for one hypostasis to come to be from two particular hypostases, divided by a particular principle in relation to things of the same species. So that our holy Father Cyril does not simply condemn and reject saying ‘two natures united indivisibly after the union,’ but rejects the sense signified by such an expression as used wrongly. If, then, it has been shown, even if but modestly — yet, as far as I can tell, sufficiently, insofar as could be conveyed in a letter — from the holy Fathers, and from the sequence of common notions, that number can neither make, nor suffer, nor introduce any division whatsoever, but simply shows quantities, and does not touch upon relation, whatever it happens to be — what suspicion of cutting or division, then, remains for those who set themselves in faction against the holy Church of God, and who vainly cut themselves off from the common body — doing nothing more, or suffering anything more, than being pitiably deadened and corrupted by the separation, and preparing for themselves, as far as concerns the unseemliness done to the body of Christ, a judgment — so that, for this reason, they refuse the right and pious confession of the faith; unless, indeed, under the pretext of piety, so as not to seem to cut the union, embracing confusion instead, they contrive, as cunning men, not to be caught in impious opinion.

That the Difference in Christ Belongs to Realities, or Substances, and Not to Qualities; and That Every Difference Necessarily Introduces with Itself the Quantity of the Things Said to Be of It, and Quantity Its Own Signifying Number, Whether the Quantity Is Continuous or Divided. For they ought — if this were not truly so — not to have refused to say, when they utter the word ‘difference’ merely and only in speech, as though applied to nothing, ironically, to deceive the more simple — what and how many the differing things are, of which they confess there to be a difference. For if they believe that the things from which the union comes are preserved after the union, they would altogether confess two things to be preserved. For the things that came together toward the indivisible union are just that many, having received, from the union, no change whatsoever, or confusion, or diminution, or contraction, or transformation into one another. But now, not holding this opinion — as having denied that the natures are preserved after the union — they have made themselves liable to refutation, even if they do not wish it, saying that the difference is preserved by quality alone, apart from the realities — which is plainly the mark of men jesting; and reckoning it, reasonably, an insult not to be laughed at; and clearly emptying the Gospel, legislating that there can be qualities without underlying substances, and supposing that difference can be recognized apart from quantity.

For, it seems, these most wise men were ignorant that every quality altogether belongs to an underlying substance, around which it is contemplated and spoken of, having no existence by itself; and that every difference, being declarative of the dissimilarity and otherness of one thing to another according to the principle of how it is, is naturally disposed to introduce with itself the quantity of the differing things, whether of substances, or of qualities, or of properties. And, simply, to sum it up: whatever else they might say to differ from one another, they would altogether have contemplated the differing things in quantity, having recognized the difference either by sense or by understanding. For it is impossible to be able to affirm or show a difference apart from quantity. Since things not altogether identical with one another can in no way admit one and the same principle of being. For substance, that is, nature, for instance, in relation to substance, or quality in relation to quality, or property in relation to property, or anything else that is not altogether identical — for things altogether identical with one another, and not admitting of difference, we can never say to have one and the same principle of how they are. But that one and the same principle cannot be contemplated in the same respect over all things, having produced the difference, reasonably shows that those things whose principle of being is different, and not the same, cannot be one and identical with one another.

But when we say that one thing differs from another, or that some things differ from others, we signify many, or at least two, and not one — even if, in another respect, and by another manner and principle, we say them to belong to one, and to be able to be one: as, of one fire, the qualities and properties around it; and of one Christ, the natures from which, and in which, He is known to be constituted; and of one man, the things from which he was composed, and in which he is known to exist. But one in hypostasis, both in the case of Christ and of man as we are — that is, as a whole composed of these as parts, properly receiving, most completely, both the differing principles of being of the parts; but not one in nature and substance, since the parts do not admit of one another‘s principle of being, or since we cannot know one and the same principle of being in both. For the principle of divinity and of humanity is not the same — just as neither is that of soul and body, as is clear to all. Wherefore the reasoning of truth never determined Christ to be one in nature, nor to be a simple or composite nature. For the name ’Christ‘ is not declarative of substance, or nature, as of a species, predicated of many individuals differing in hypostasis, as the blessed Cyril says in the scholia: ’That the name “Christ” has neither the force of a definition, nor does it signify the substance of anything; but it is understood as the hypostasis of the Word in an assumption, evidently, of flesh having an intelligent soul.‘ But neither did it declare man to be one nature composed of soul and body, as though the body were of the same substance as the soul; but as a species — cut off from other species according to their constitutive difference, but predicated equally of the individuals contained under it, as under a species.

And it was not for this reason that it denied the soul and body to be two, according to the substantial principle, as soul and body, and one substance and another, according to the principle of being — the things from which, and in which, and as which, man exists. That It Is Impious to Say That Christ Is One Composite Nature, and Contrary to the Truth. For every composite nature, having its own parts contemporaneous with itself and with one another according to the very coming-into-being, and brought forth from nonbeing into being, and unto the completion of the ordering of the universe, by the power that constituted the universe and holds it together in being, has, by necessity and reasonably, its own parts as mutually contained by one another; as is the case with man, and with all other things that have obtained a composite nature — the soul involuntarily governing the body, and being governed by it, and involuntarily supplying it with life, merely by being in it, and by nature partaking of passion and pain, on account of the receptive power for these implanted in it — even though certain persons, having strayed from the true doctrines of the Church concerning the soul in the highest degree, fabulously claiming, in Hellenic fashion, that the soul pre-exists its own body, or, in Jewish fashion, that it comes to exist afterward, and supposing that it takes the lead as a not-good and not God-befitting beginning of the creation of visible things, are disposed antagonistically toward such reasoning — of whom, judging it not the time nor place at present to refute their unsound and shoddy problems concerning this, I shall return to the matter at hand.

In this way, then, as has been set forth, since every nature that is composite is such, no one of those who have chosen to think piously concerning divine things would ever dare to say that Christ is one composite nature, lest, by necessity, being drawn by a certain natural sequence and consequence to say such things, he should render Him wholly created and out of non-being, circumscribed and passible, and not consubstantial with the Father; and should suppose either that the flesh is co-eternal with the Word, or that the Word is contemporaneous with the flesh — for such is the reasoning of every composite nature — and thus make himself liable to fearful charges. For that which belongs to a composite nature is, evidently, also composite according to nature. But that which is composite according to nature could never be of the same nature and consubstantial with what is simple according to nature. It is not permitted, then, for the pious to say that Christ is one composite nature — not only on account of the absurdity gathered from such an expression, but also because none of the God-approved Fathers has ever been shown to have said this; but rather to confess one composite hypostasis of Christ, and two natures, that He may be known to be both consubstantial and of the same nature with the Father according to divinity, and the same known to be consubstantial and of the same nature with us according to flesh; and that He may be believed to be one and the same toward the Father and toward us, as the Mediator of God and men.

Concerning the Composite Hypostasis. But if, since every hypostasis too is shown to be composite, having its own parts contemporaneous with itself and with one another, and we do not deny saying that Christ is a composite hypostasis, our opponents should say that we too cannot shake off the charge on this account, as having been caught by our own arguments — we say that this would truly be so, if we had supposed the hypostasis to be composite as having a species predicated of it. But now, not saying this, we shall in no way take on any such form, knowing clearly that not every composite hypostasis, falling under some species, is composite in virtue of itself, but on account of the nature containing it, whenever it is composite, and the predicated species to which it is naturally referred — the particular, that is, the individual, having in itself the universal, that is, the common and generic, most fully; but the individual reasoning does not, on the whole, impart anything to the generic. Which, concerning Christ, none of the teachers of the doctrine of piety, from of old down to us, has ever been proclaimed to hold; concerning whom no one will be able to find either genus or species predicated as of Christ. For the God-ruling Word did not sojourn among us through flesh according to the principle of nature, but, by the manner of dispensation, having united to Himself, without deficiency, according to hypostasis, renewed our nature.

So that they have gained nothing from their great cleverness — that we may take up the sequence of what was examined a little before — being turned back again to the quantity which they have fled, unable, wise as they are, to say that even the difference in quality itself is without quantity. For it is altogether necessary that there be many, or, at the least, two, as has been said before, the qualities of which they suppose there to be a difference. For no one with any sense would ever say that a single quality, altogether unmixed in relation to another, differs from itself. Let them, then, in the end, either cease from speaking of a bare difference, learning that it is altogether declarative of a quantity of certain differing things; or let them, together with us, accept the confession of the truth, employing number piously, according to the Fathers, solely for the reasoning of the difference, unto the knowledge that the things that came together have remained unconfused. Otherwise, let them tell us — since we wish, lovingly, to ask — if they have any not ignoble argument of wisdom, how, while saying that the things that ran together toward the union are two, and not denying that these very things have remained unconfused even after the union — since neither has departed from its natural definition and principle — even though both together contribute toward one person of the Son and one hypostasis — they do not confess two things to be preserved, even according to their own account, if they speak truly; and what account they give for the diminution, and for what cause, and how both natures have become one?

Or, if the union has remained pure of diminution, what is their reasoning for not saying that the things preserved without diminution are two — and we willingly consent to the deprivation of the one, and marvel at the vigor of their fine learning, as though they alone have been shown capable of the knowledge of ineffable things. But they will never be able to set forth an argument that persuades of this. Even if, above all, we take refuge at last in that shoddy and hollow invention of Severus — the thing he carries about and sings everywhere as though it were something wise — saying it to be ridiculous to say that two natures come to be shown again, from two natures, as a result of the union — gathering, as though from a premise given by us, what seems to follow. For from whom, of those instructed in the divine doctrines of the Church, have they ever heard that the union produced two natures from two natures? But they will by no means be able to say they have heard this, if they have regard for the truth. We say, rather, that the union came to be from two natures; but that one composite hypostasis of Christ was produced from them — that very hypostasis guarding and preserving those very natures from which it was composed, as a whole its own parts, without deficiency, together with their natural properties, unchangeably; and being itself guarded and preserved in them, as a whole in its parts.

From two natures, then, we say Christ to be, not two natures, but one composite hypostasis — that hypostasis being inclusive of these as its own parts — the natures — and containing them as its own and completing parts; and both existing and being known in them, as in its parts. For as long as it is believed that the things that came together have remained unconfused — and they always remain unconfused — it is impossible that they should not be two, according to the fact of being what each is by nature, according to substance; just as it is likewise impossible that they should not be one, according to the principle of hypostasis, as long as the union exists — and it always exists, according to the pious confession of the faithful. Wherefore, saying it to be both one and two, we do not say it in the same respect, of both, concerning the same one thing; but in one respect and in another. As, according to the principle of nature, of the things from which the union came, there is the ‘two.’ For we do not know God the Word to be identical, according to nature, with His own flesh. But according to the principle of hypostasis, there is the ‘one.’ For we know God the Word to be identical with His own flesh according to hypostasis.

We neither, then, foolishly merge the natures into one nature, by saying that the natural difference in Christ has been abolished, lest we introduce a change of the Word and of the flesh; nor again do we madly divide them into two independently subsisting things, by positing a difference also according to the principle of hypostasis, lest we deny our own salvation — as those who divided impiety between themselves diametrically opposed, Apollinaris together with Eutyches, and Nestorius, did: the former not knowing a natural difference in Christ; the latter, in addition to this, also introducing a personal one — both falling away from the truth. But, knowing the natural property to be unchanged even in the union according to hypostasis, we turn away likewise both from confusion and from division — neither making the union a confusion, as though ignorant of the things united, nor making the difference a division, as though knowing the differing things to subsist by themselves, divided. This, then, as it seems, the great Theologian Gregory also plainly teaches, in the great Apologetic, saying, ‘One from both, and both through the one’ — as if he were saying: For just as it is one from both — that is, one from two natures, as a whole from parts, according to the principle of hypostasis — so too, through the one according to hypostasis, as a whole, both, according to the principle of nature, are the parts — that is, the two.

Which, in his second Oration on the Son, expounding more clearly, he says: ‘For even if the combined whole is one, it is not so by nature, but by conjunction.’ This very thing the blessed Cyril too is shown to hold, in his letters to Succensus, in which, using the example of man, he says: ‘So that the two are no longer two, but through both one living being is produced’ — almost expressly crying out in these words: that, of the things from which the composition comes, both in the case of man as we are, from soul and body, and in the case of the mystery concerning Christ, from divinity and humanity, the being two according to the substantial principle has not been abolished — since neither do they remain any longer of different substances; but the being two by themselves, in an independent, particular unity, is not at all admitted by the reasoning of piety — lest we divide the one man, that is, living being, into two men or two living beings; and the one Christ into two Christs, or two Sons. For if the blessed Cyril had not known well how, everywhere, to think and hold and teach this, he would not have said that the difference of the natures has not been abolished on account of the union; he would not have taught that the one and the other, this one and that one, and both together, are the one Christ, and that the natures have remained unconfused.

He would not have held that the Word had not passed over into the nature of the flesh, or that the flesh had not been changed into the nature of the Word itself. He would not have known the evangelical and apostolic expressions concerning the Lord, held by the God-speaking men, some making them common, as of one person, others dividing them, as of two natures. He would not have refused to say that the whole, that is, Christ, is one nature, if he had known this to be pious. He would not have defined the human nature to be nothing other than intellectually ensouled flesh, thereby affirming the nature of humanity to be perfect in Christ. He would not have said that, by adding ‘incarnate,’ the signification of our own substance is introduced. He would not have determined that saying ‘two natures united indivisibly’ is significant of right doctrine, unless the expression should be maliciously brought forward in the manner Nestorius held. He would not have been shown to say such things, but countless others, as is clear to the diligent from his writings. From where, then, and from which teachers, will they establish that it is not necessary for the faithful to piously confess the two natures in Christ, from which He also is, preserved after the union, even according to their own account, as they say? For none of the approved teachers is found anywhere to have decreed this; on the contrary, all of them both said, and taught the faithful to say, by their own expressions — unless, indeed, having customarily fabricated in their hearts what seems good to them, as though for the deceit of the more simple, they should put forward the fabrication as belonging to one of the Fathers.

But these men, it seems, considering it shameful to be persuaded, and preferring their attachment to the men who deceived them from the beginning over divine love, and preferring contentiousness to piety, and being honored as priests by men, to whom they bring deceit by lying to us about things that are not so, and receiving evil for evil — the reward of their deceit, I mean, being perishable things — valuing lower the acceptance and honor from God for concord of the faith than making war upon the truth, and attempting to draw people away from it, they do not cease, as many as they are able. Wherefore I, the least, exhort you, being genuine children of the holy apostolic Church, in which, illumined through the regeneration of the divine bath, you were deemed worthy to be adopted by God in the Spirit — to keep yourselves from such men, remembering the holy Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans in this manner: ‘I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.’ And again, concerning these very men, accustomed to stir up disturbances in the Church of God, writing to the Corinthians thus: ‘For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.’ And the deceitfulness of the intent, and the underhandedness of the manner, of these very men, the Lord, hinting at it in the Gospels, foretold, as it were securing the faithful beforehand, saying: ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them.‘ And concerning these very men the holy Evangelist John too, in his first catholic epistle, making the pious more watchful, says: ’Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesses not that the Lord Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come; and even now already it is in the world.‘ Ever remembering these words, calling upon you, blessed ones, to hold to piety, than which nothing is more proper for men toward being made friends of God, with all attention and diligence, I wish all of you, with all your power, to turn away from those who do not accept the pious and saving doctrines of the Church; and especially, having learned that it belongs to the teaching of Antichrist not to confess our Lord and God Jesus Christ in the flesh, as the great evangelist John expressly cries out — which those now warring against the Church of God plainly proclaim, denying the nature of the flesh, by refusing to confess that it is preserved and exists in Christ; and they do not shudder — to speak more truly, or more boldly, more fittingly — to put themselves forward as heralds of an opinion opposed to God.

But these men, having chosen to be so precariously disposed in the faith, reap the fitting fruit of their own folly: to have obtained, before all, an easily-detected conviction of their double impiety. Brief Exposition of the Understanding of the Expressions Rightly Confessed of the Faith Concerning Christ, According to the Catholic Church. We, then, together with God be it said, who feed upon the divine and pure pasture of ecclesiastical teaching, holding the vine-branch of piety unfelled, are bold to confess, before God and men, all the pious expressions of the Fathers concerning Christ, piously — taking each with a pious understanding and the fitting reasoning; just as, from of old, we were catechized in the saving word of the faith by those who, from the beginning, became ministers of grace. We confess, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing Him to be, from two natures, as composed of divinity and humanity; and in two natures, as existing in divinity and humanity. For just as, saying from two natures, we hold that He is from divinity and humanity, so too, saying in two natures, we reasonably signify that He exists in divinity and humanity — as having been separated from none of the natures of which He is composed, after the union, but always both being and being known in them, from which He also is. We confess Him, again, as two natures united according to hypostasis indivisibly, believing Him truly to be, the same, both God and man, the names being verified by the very realities.

For as we believe Him to be, and to be called, the Son of God, and God, by nature and in truth, on account of His identity of substance with God the Father — so too we say that He is, and is called, the Son of man, and one who became man, by nature and in truth, on account of His natural kinship according to flesh with her who bore Him. For if we shall not confess Him to be two natures, as God together with man at once, we shall be convicted of saying that He is composed of mere names, and not of realities; and of Him not truly being, what is signified that He is, by the names — so that one who chooses to blaspheme could suppose, according to them, that the one worshiped and adored by us is nothing at all — which surpasses every excess of impiety. Wherefore, guarding ourselves against being subjected to charges of blasphemy, we do not cease confessing Christ to be from two natures, as from divinity, as has been said, and humanity; and in two natures, as in divinity and humanity; and believing Him to be two natures, as being, the same, God together with man at once — since not only in these, but also these; nor only these, but also in these — knowing Him as a whole from parts, and a whole in parts, and, through the parts, a whole.

For if He Himself, who gave being to the things that are, also granted them the power for their continuance, so that the species should not be commingled with one another and change into one another, but each should remain according to the principle by which it came to be from Him — so that, from the stability that comes from the natural property of each, those attentive lovers of the contemplation of divine things might be able, as far as attainable, to conceive of the all-wise and knowing Creator and Marshal of the universe — much more will He confirm, in Himself, His own infinite power, remaining what He was, and becoming what He was not; and not denying what He became, together with remaining what He was, by existing as both, without deficiency and unchangeably. And we also piously say ‘one incarnate nature of God the Word, having flesh with an intellectual and rational soul’ — by adding ‘incarnate,’ introducing the signification of our own substance. For it is a periphrasis, expressing, at once, by union, through a name and a definition, the two natures — by a name, that of the one nature of the Word, which signifies the common element of substance together with the property of hypostasis; by a definition, that of the human nature, as the teacher himself says: ‘For what is the nature of humanity, but flesh intellectually ensouled?’

So that he who says ‘one incarnate nature of God the Word’ shows that God the Word exists together with ensouled flesh, understanding the flesh, altogether, to be something other in substance than God the Word — as indeed the true and unadulterated disciple of piety would understand it. And, saying the union according to hypostasis, we understand and confess that the union came to be of one of the natures — meaning that neither exists nor is understood at all by itself alone, but together with the other with which it is composed and conjoined; nor again does it, according to the substantial principle, become commingled with the other, or, in any way, suffer diminution of its natural perfection from the union. And again, we confess the natural union in the sense of saying ‘true,’ just as the holy Cyril himself both said and explained these expressions — not toward the abolition of the two natures, or of one of them, from which Christ is, after the union, as Apollinaris, Eutyches, and Severus, following Simon Magus, Valentinus, and Mani, have delivered — as is easy for those who wish to see, from Severus‘s own writings against the men named as impious, according to the agreement of their statements, to observe the identity of their doctrines. Likewise, of the same and one Christ, we speak of two births: that from God the Father before the ages, and that which, for our sake, came to be in the last times from the holy Virgin; and we hold the wonders and the sufferings to belong to the same one.

We confess also the holy, all-glorious Virgin to be, properly and truly, the Theotokos — not as having become the mother of some mere man, pre-formed, as it were in the twinkling of an eye, apart from the union with the Word, and deified from progress in works and from the height of virtue; but as truly of God the Word Himself, the One of the Holy Trinity, incarnate from her by an ineffable conception, and perfectly made man. These, then, being the Church of God‘s own expressions, having piously taught both to say and to understand, she has committed them to be kept by the divine and bright light of knowledge; exhorting, through the Prophets and Apostles, and through Christ Himself, who by His own sufferings compacted and fitted her together, to take up a manner of life fitting and befitting the great profession of the faith — considering what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, and being watchful unto it. For we have been taught that no less than pious faith does the best manner of life require, for obtaining eternal life — lest, building upon the foundation of the faith what does not befit it, through wicked practices, having insulted, as it were, the calling and the grace of adoption, we render ourselves, instead of joy and unending glory, liable to eternal fire.

Seeing, then, many paths of virtue, blessed ones, and being sober lovers of the blessed beauty of Christ, granted to men by the Lord of all — having one aim, and all converging to one end, unto salvation — let us not neglect our own salvation, nor let slip the time given to us for repentance, which, once lost, it is impossible to regain. But before we go, as great Job somewhere says, to the place from which we shall not return, to a land dark and gloomy, to a land of eternal darkness, where there is no light, nor is the life of mortals seen, let each of us be zealous, according to his own power, to propitiate God. For, in view of the varied and differing conditions of our souls, He, as good, has fittingly made there to be many paths leading blamelessly, for those who travel them, to the eternal dwellings — so that each, choosing the one fitting for himself, and making the course of his life through it, might attain the all-glorious place laid up in the heavens according to hope. Let us, then, as we have power, by the cooperation and grace of Christ, lay hold of what is fitting. Let us compassionately lighten the misfortune of the poor man, and not neglect to make his want more moderate. Let us not put off covering the nakedness of the naked, out of reverence for the garment of incorruption given to us.

Let us grieve together with those worn out by the affliction of imprisonment and by bodily weakness, and those oppressed by the burden of exile, and let us be eager to make the hardships of others our own — that, imitating Him who took up our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses, toward our kin, and honoring His loving selfemptying for our sake by our deeds, we too may be able to become worthy beholders and partakers of His glory — not practicing these things for the sake of glory from men, of which, after the present life, nothing at all subsists as grounds for acceptance; but, having become wholly God‘s in truth, and serving Him, who is and becomes all things to all, through love for mankind toward one another, let us both say and do all things by which we shall be well-pleasing to Him. For thus, by our gradual advances in virtue, we shall, God be it said, be able one day fittingly to pursue divine philosophy also, and to be transposed to the life above, having despised all things upon earth — considering it better and more honorable to have the last rank with God, than to hold the first among the things of earth under the earthly king; beginning to lay hold of this for ourselves, and having accustomed, in quiet and gentle stillness, the senses of the soul to view creation prudently, we shall carry off the greatest gain: to be well guided, through the disturbance and instability of visible things, to the things that stand fixed and unmoved; and not to remain among them, nor consent to be held fast by them — from which, hating the disorder of the one, and longing for the firmness of the other, we shall call deep unto deep — contemplating, through the great works among visible things, the principles among noetic things, as far as attainable for men; and thus, truly, through wordlessness, peering into the innermost of the inmost sanctuaries, we shall recognize our own paltriness, being taught mystically, through the oracles of the Spirit, how, being earth and ashes, we are transformed into divine glory, by the grace of Him who was well-pleased; and into what blessedness that which is by nature paltry and to be spat upon is refashioned; and thus, astonished at the spectacles of the infinite, we shall reap the strong safeguard

of the virtues, humility, I mean — the greatest and first gift of God, being the fruit of true philosophy — through which, putting to death the causes of the passions, I mean the senses, together with their kindred attachment to sensible things, we cut ourselves off entirely from the world; so that we may be able to fix an unclouded eye of the soul upon noetic things — from which, or after which, the soul, already truly formed by humility, and having become henceforth capable of receiving a divine impression, is taken up by divine love, and it makes us friends instead of servants, granting us the chief commandment of the law, ’You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul,‘ and so forth — in that it permits none of our intellectual powers to be stretched, manfully, toward anything else whatsoever, but toward God alone. Let us strive, then, while we have the time appointed to us by God, to bring the aim of the pious and Christian profession into action. And since ‘our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age’ — the invisible tyrants and enemies, who wage their battles not openly, but weave their wars in the secret places of the heart — let us take up the whole armor of God, as the divine Apostle exhorts us, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand; and, having girded our loins with truth, and put on the breastplate of righteousness, in which all the fiery darts of the evil one shall be quenched.

Let us continue steadfastly in all prayer and supplication, and receive the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, dividing, to sum it up, the worse from the better, and teaching the pious the conduct befitting Christians — which is the work of perfect discernment: exactness of the eyes, self-control of the tongue, discipline of the body, humble-mindedness, purity of thought, the abolition of anger, as great Basil somewhere says; the kindling of the mind toward God; and, in the face of temptations, being ready to add, for the sake of guarding what is honorable, contending against them; not going to law when despoiled; giving love in return for hatred; making forbearance equal to persecutions; giving comfort in return for blasphemies; being put to death to sin; being crucified together with Christ; transferring the whole of our love, unrelated to anything else, toward God. I have written these things, my blessed lord, not being ignorant of the firmness of your faith in Christ, and of the dignity growing in it through the commandments; but wishing you to know how great and how much of a struggle I have concerning you, ever kindling my heart with care; and I exhort you to watch more soberly over the champions of the heresies — lest any of them, deceiving you with the persuasive speech of falsehood, should be able to muddy, with their own filth of impious doctrines, the clear and living stream of faith in you — which may it never be!

For they possess a two-edged sword, and a tongue like a sharpened razor, slaughtering souls, and dispatching them to the trapdoor of hell, and to the pit of darkness, and depriving them, through their deceptive fair speech, of life in Christ. But may our very Lord and God Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son and Word of God the Father, the maker of all creation visible and invisible, who, for our sake, out of His unspeakable love for mankind, accepted death, as He Himself was well-pleased, and delivered us by His own blood from the power of darkness — may He Himself hold your right hand, and guide you into His fear, and fill you with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, and grant you to walk worthily of Himself, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of His truth; and strengthen you with all power, according to the might of His glory, unto all endurance and long-suffering; and, keeping you, with joy and thanksgiving, contending together for the Gospel of His grace, deem you worthy of the portion of the saints in light; by the prayers and supplications of our all-glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, and of all the saints. Amen. Letter 13. — Abridged Discourse to Peter the Illustrious, Against the Doctrines of Severus. My blessed lord has truly shown that bodily absence can do nothing to diminish the spiritual love of those who are joined to one another intellectually through love according to God, in that he did not disdain, through his own honored letters, to visit me, lowly and sinful as I am, and possessing nothing worthy of his love.

Having received these, I embraced them with joy, as though he himself were present in spirit, and gave thanks as is my custom to Christ, the only God and Savior of all, knowing that he had accomplished the watery course of his journey unto salvation. For my blessed lord, truly sweet both present and absent, is no less beloved by all when away than when at hand, on account of the grace of the poverty of the Holy Spirit that shines upon him — through which every soul that genuinely lays hold of this virtue as belonging to God becomes a holy temple, a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit — of Him who humbled Himself to the form of a servant, and showed forth this virtue to men both in deed and in word. In imitation of Him, my blessed lord has himself inwardly acquired both gentleness and humility: gentleness, that having quenched the passionate movements of anger and desire, he might become pleasing to God and to men (for gentleness is nothing other than the complete stillness of anger and desire toward what is contrary to nature, by which the divine will becomes manifest to those who possess it — for great David says in the Psalms, “He will guide the gentle in judgment; He will teach the gentle His ways”); and humility, that having cut away the calluses of pride, he might become well-pleasing to God and approachable to all men (for humility is each man‘s recognition, set side by side with God, of the surpassing and creative Cause; by which men naturally come to a shared disposition toward one another, and forgiveness of debts is granted to debtors — for the same great David says again, “Look upon my humility and my labor, and forgive all my sins”).

Having such a manner of life, then, my blessed lord, I pray that he be preserved unshaken — true to his name — in the firmament of faith in Christ, and higher than every heretical storm-wave, as a genuine child of the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of God, founded upon the pious confession, against which the evil mouths of heretics, opening like the gates of Hades, can prevail nothing at all. For concerning the bastard and illegitimately grafted shoots set into the good olive from the wild olive, I already knew, even before you, blessed ones, wrote to me, that according to the prophetic word, “as a dog returns to its own vomit” — I mean the foulness of their disgust concerning the faith — they have turned back to it; being, as it were, second Simons, and Demases, and Hermogeneses, choosing to prefer falsehood to truth, and doing no harm, as they suppose, to the heralds of piety by their apostasy, but rather justly harming themselves by the loss of grace — unable even to enjoy to their heart‘s content this present age, for the sake of which they departed from the truth, since it is by nature unstable and easily altered, and ever running past those who think they hold it fast. For truly disgusting, full of foulness, and destitute of all grace is every doctrine that does not proclaim that the things of which Christ consists are preserved according to nature in the one Christ after the ineffable union — but which, as it were, denies the whole economy of God concerning man, and curtails the rational, ensouled body assumed by the Word of God from the undefiled, holy, all-glorious Virgin, who is in truth Theotokos.

For he truly curtails the matter — even if he should seem in some way to confess it barely with his mouth, deceiving those who hear — and utterly denies the incarnation, who, after the union, does not say that the nature of the flesh is and is said to be, unconfusedly and inseparably united to God the Word according to hypostasis; but who, under the pretext of piety, so as not to seem to cut the union by means of number, in reality clearly denies the very existence, properly speaking, of all the natures of which Christ consists after the union. A More Natural Discussion Concerning Number They suffer this, it seems, from not knowing that every number neither divides nor is divided according to its own principle, nor is it in any way productive of division or of union. For it is not by nature such as to act or be acted upon, since it is not a substance or an accident, which are the things to which acting and being acted upon belong; but it is only indicative of the quantity of the underlying things, however they happen to be disposed in relation — whether united or distinguished. It is, so to speak, a name of quantity apart from the relation attached to it, signifying nothing more. For number does not of necessity produce the natural distinction of beings, or their quantity; nor does it of itself effect the continuity of things joined together under the same species; nor is it in any way characteristic of the individuating property of the individuals distinguished from one another by their accidents under the same species.

For to do these things belongs properly to the divine wisdom and power that constituted the universe and preserves each thing unconfused amid the natural distinctions among beings in the whole; but number, as I have said, only indicates the bare quantity of things, not the manner of it, as a name properly suited to quantity. A More Precise Discussion Concerning Difference and Quantity, and the Pious Confession of Both If, then, according to the Fathers, number is indicative of the quantity of things, but not of their relation; and every quantity, when considered under a natural otherness, necessarily admits of difference; and even those who fight against the truth speak of a natural difference in Christ after the union; and the quantity of the things that differ — without which difference is impossible, together with the number that signifies it, without which quantity cannot be known at all — must, of necessity, be spoken of by them after the union, if they wish to demonstrate, by an orderly and well-connected sequence, the coherence of their own teaching. But if they deny the quantity of the natures preserved in Christ after the union, let them not dare to speak even of the difference of the natures of which Christ consists after the union — knowing that whatever has difference in any respect cannot be one in every account and manner.

And that which cannot be one in every account and manner is, in some respect, at the very least two, or more. Therefore, in saying that there is difference in Christ after the union, they cannot say that Christ is one in every account and manner after the union. And if Christ is not one in every account and manner after the union, then clearly, in some account and manner, Christ is two after the union. And if, in some account and manner, Christ is two after the union, on account of the difference within Him of the natures of which and in which He consists — as the argument has shown — it is plain that they are impiously contending in vain, who speak of the difference of the natures of which Christ consists after the union, yet by their silence plainly do away with the very natures whose difference it is. For the denial of things that exist and are preserved is truly an abolition of them. For either the natures have not, according to them, been abolished after the union, and they exist and are preserved, and it is right that they be confessed as preserved after the union; or, if it is not right that they be confessed after the union, then according to them it is right to say that they neither exist nor are preserved in Christ, and they have been abolished.

For what it is not right to name at all, it is far better and more just, I think, to say does not exist at all — unless they can persuade us by argument how it can be right, in Christ, not to confess the things of which Christ consists as existing and preserved after the union, without any change or alteration, or transmutation of one into the other according to their essential principle; in which case we would gladly accept the denial of the confession of the things that exist and are preserved in Christ. But just as Christ is not, in every account and manner, one after the union, so again He is not, in every account and manner, two after the union. And if Christ is not, in every account and manner, two after the union, then surely, in some account and manner, on account of the identity of hypostasis — that is, the one hypostasis, in respect of which He cannot have difference — Christ is one. Since, then, the same is, according to different accounts and manners, both one and two, it is necessary to examine according to which account and which manner the same is one, and according to which He is two. That It Is Blasphemous to Say That Christ Is Simply One If, then, they shall say that He is one according to the account of nature, then according to them the whole will simply be one nature, without any difference whatsoever.

But if we grant them to say this, then, according to them, Christ will be neither God nor man; neither a creature at all, nor a Creator. For that which is called simply “nature” does not admit of the signification of either of these at all. But if, fleeing this manifest absurdity, they should say that Christ is one, but composite, nature, they have truly failed to realize how the darkness of impiety has driven them into the furthest error. A More Precise Discussion Concerning Composite Nature and Its Principle, and How Those Who Say That Christ Is One Composite Nature Are Impious For every composite nature, first, has the coming-together of its parts with one another, in the composite union, involuntary and unchosen. Second, it possesses its parts as coeval with one another and with itself, coexisting from their coming into being, neither part temporally preceding the other. Further still, it is known to have come into being for the completion of the wholeness that, in its grandeur, describes the universe — none of which is at all observed in the case of Christ by those who wish to be pious, lest we make the coming-together of the Word with the flesh involuntary and unchosen, and either make God the Word coeval with the flesh according to His coming into being, or make the flesh co-eternal with the Word according to His unoriginate existence, or determine that Christ is nothing more than the rest of the species considered under a common nature, as a part brought forth for the completion of the whole together with the other species, by the power that constituted the universe.

For this is the definition, principle, and law of every composite nature, as the force of truth and the course of logical sequence guides those who make their examination of beings with understanding to say. And who could still remain among the ranks of the pious, thinking thus concerning God the Word, who exists before all the ages — or rather, more properly speaking, the Maker of the ages — who made His self-emptying toward us men by a voluntary and selfdetermined will, becoming man for our correction and renewal, not for the completion of the universe? For it was in the manner of an economy, and not by a law of nature, that the Word of God ineffably sojourned among men through flesh. Therefore Christ is not a composite nature, according to the innovation of those who empty the Gospel — being, in the manner of His coming into being, wholly unenslaved to the law of composite nature — but a composite hypostasis, not having any composite nature whatsoever predicated of it according to species: which is indeed a paradox, to behold a composite hypostasis without any composite nature predicated of it according to species. But if, according to those men, Christ is a composite nature, then this marvelous acropolis of the doctrines of Severus is, of necessity, either generic or singular — for it is impossible to conceive of any other, intermediate, kind.

And if Christ is a generic nature, He will clearly be predicated of many things differing in number, and will exist only in conception, in those things in which He has existence, not being known in Himself, in any proper hypostasis, apart from the accidents observed in the individuals under Him. For such is the definition and principle of every generic nature — and thus a multitude of Christs would be introduced to us instead of one, having no identity whatsoever, in any manner, with God or with men, on account of the excessive and unrestrained madness of Severus against the truth. But if Christ is a singular nature — to say nothing of the fact that nature is nowhere at all circumscribed by a single person — even if, as their final and greatest argument, they should put forward as an example the fabled bird, the phoenix, thinking it a mighty and unanswerable proof establishing their opinion (though I fear to say anything on this point, lest I incur the laughter of the wise for folly, in attempting to show that a fable is a fable): if the phoenix is a bird, it is certainly also an animal; and if an animal, then, first, it is not wholly singular as an animal; and second, if an animal, it is also an ensouled, sentient body; and if the phoenix is an ensouled, sentient body, it clearly falls under generation and corruption.

Let us ask the wise observers of beings themselves, whether it is possible for any ensouled and sentient body subject to generation and corruption to have a singular nature according to hypostasis — bodies whose succession from one another according to species is the clearest mark and definition of their existence. As even the divine Scripture bears witness, furnishing by itself the certainty of the matter, when it introduces God commanding great Noah thus: “And God said to Noah, Go in, you and all your house, into the ark; for you have I seen righteous before Me in this generation. And of every clean beast bring in to you seven and seven, male and female; and of the beasts that are not clean, two and two, male and female; and of every clean bird of the heaven, seven and seven, male and female; and of every bird of the heaven that is not clean, two and two, male and female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.” Among these, if the phoenix is numbered as a bird — a winged animal — then according to the divine pronouncement it does not have a singular nature according to hypostasis. But let us not, as I said, speak of such things; for it is not our wish to contend over matters that are not necessary. It is plain to all that if Christ is a singular nature, He is consubstantial neither with God the Father nor with men.

For that which is wholly singular in nature is altogether estranged from natural kinship with anything else. But if, according to those men, as the argument has shown, Christ is, according to nature, wholly estranged from all beings, we shall urge these new dogmatists themselves to say what Christ actually is by nature, and by what reasoning they worship a Christ who, so far as their own premises go, is being blasphemed by them as not existing at all. If, then, a great and fearful danger of necessity follows, according to the force of the argument that has been given, upon those who say that Christ is one according to nature — that is, one nature, whether called simple or composite, and this either generic, that is, common, or singular, that is, particular — let us guard our hearts with all watchfulness, keeping them pure of such an opinion, that we may also be freed from the threat that hangs over it. And let us piously confess “two” in Christ according to the principle of natural otherness — that is, of the difference of the natures of which He consists, preserved even after the union, as parts in a whole, according to which the parts never naturally coincide with one another, so long as each preserves, unimpaired, its own natural principle in relation to the other; but let us confess “one” according to the principle of hypostatic identity, according to which Christ, as a whole, admits no distinction whatsoever from Himself arising from difference — that is, no division — since He is believed to be one hypostasis both before the flesh and after the incarnation, and is worshipped and glorified by us as one of the Holy and Royal Trinity.

For the hypostasis of Christ is singular, being in no way, according to its characterizing property, divided between the extremes by which it is bounded. And by “extremes” I now mean God the Father, of whom Christ was begotten divinely before the ages, and the holy, all-glorious Virgin and Mother, of whom He was begotten humanly for our sake — preserving, by His own kinship of parts with both extremes, the unimpaired identity of essence with each. In these parts Christ, while admitting the principle of difference, does not depart from His own singular hypostasis. For every whole, and especially one considered as composed of different parts, while singularly preserving the identity of its own hypostasis, also has an unconfused difference between its own component parts, according to which it preserves undefiled the essential principle of each part in relation to the other. And likewise the parts, in their composition with one another, while preserving the pure and unimpaired principle according to nature, have the undivided identity of the singular whole to which they belong, according to which they singularly preserve, altogether undivided, the principle according to hypostasis. If, then, as the argument has shown in running its true course, it is altogether impious to lay down “one” in Christ according to the principle of nature, just as, conversely, it is impious to lay down “two” according to the principle of hypostasis — the former being the peculiar mark of the foulness of Apollinaris, who blends and confuses the natures into one nature, and makes the economy entirely indiscernible, positing no nature properly speaking after the union (for each of these flees from being what it is, passing over and lapsing into the other); the latter being the mark of the Judaizing madness of Nestorius, who divides the one hypostasis into two hypostases, and denies the whole economy, refusing to say that God the Word was united essentially, according to hypostasis, to flesh — let us rightly and fittingly employ the argument, turning the voices of the perverse toward what is straight: saying “two” according to the principle of natural otherness, that is, of difference; and “one” according to the principle of hypostasis — so that both the difference of the natures of which Christ consists may be preserved in Christ after the union, and the identity and singularity of the hypostasis of the incarnate God the Word may likewise

be preserved unmultiplied. For the mutual demonstration and confession of the underlying realities, according to the heretics, produces the disappearance of the realities themselves — since truth does not allow the proper designations of things to be exchanged for one another. For this reason we confess Christ to be two natures, as I have said, according to the principle of the difference of the natures of which He consists, preserved in Him even after the union — the same being both God and man after the union. That He Who Says That Christ Is God and Man After the Union Thereby Confesses, Along with the Names, the Natures of Necessity After the Union, If He Has Truly Chosen to Believe Rightly For if Christ is God and man after the union, according to the common confession, then clearly He verifies, after the union, that He possesses the realities corresponding to the names. For realities are conceived of prior to their proper names, and a name could never exist apart from the reality that itself furnishes the name its place and receives its signification. But if Christ, according to them, does not possess after the union the realities of which these are the names, then, according to them, these appellations will be shown to be bare, established with nothing underlying them, and destitute of realities; and Christ will, according to them, be God and man only in name, and not in reality — than which what could be more godless?

But if, shrinking from such madness, they should say that the appellations applied to Christ after the union are not destitute of realities — then, just as they do not shrink from saying the two appellations of Christ after the union, so too let them say the two natures of Christ, of which and in which He consists, after the union, of which these are also the appellations — if indeed they truly and faithfully confess that the things united are preserved really, according to nature, after the union. Concerning the Expression “in Two”; and Concerning the Pious Confession, According to the Fathers, of the One Incarnate Nature of the Word; and the Denial of the One And again we believe the same to be, inseparably, in two natures, that is, in Godhead and manhood. For just as, in saying that Christ is of two natures, we understand Him to be of Godhead and manhood, as a whole of parts; so too, in saying that He is in two natures after the union, we believe Him to be in Godhead and manhood, as a whole in its parts. And the parts of Christ are His Godhead and His manhood, of which and in which He has subsisted. And again we have been taught, according to holy Cyril, to believe, to say, and to proclaim one incarnate nature of God the Word, having flesh possessed of an intellectual and rational soul — understanding, by the word “incarnate,” that our own nature has been brought in as its essence.

And again, we confess the wonders and the sufferings of the same one Christ, and the two births of the same — the one before the ages, incorporeally, from the Father, and the one in time, corporeally, from a Mother and Virgin, brought about for our sake. Wherefore we confess her, above all and in truth, properly to be Theotokos, as having given birth to God the Word, begotten of the Father before all the ages, incarnate from her in the last times. But we altogether refuse to say that Christ is one composite nature — not only for the reasons stated, but also because not one of the approved Fathers has ever, up to this day, been shown to have used this expression; and because it is manifestly the offspring of Apollinaris the heretic and his disciples, whose error Severus, having accepted, is naturally also adorned with their expressions. For Christ is not, according to Apollinaris and Severus, a natural monad by composition, so long as He preserves the otherness, unconfused, of the natures of which He consists, even after the union. Nor again is He, according to Nestorius, a hypostatic duality, so long as the things that have come together have not subsisted in themselves, wholly distinguished from one another; and so long as the incarnate God the Word is one, even after the incarnation, and did not assume the flesh, rationally and intellectually ensouled, and united to Him, as already pre-subsisting according to its own principle of nature — but rather, according to the Fathers, is one composite hypostasis, according to which the same is wholly God, and one of the Holy and all-praised Trinity, together with the manhood, on account of His Godhead; and the same is wholly man, and one of mankind, together with the Godhead, on account of His manhood.

A MORE NATURAL DISCUSSION CONCERNING COMPOSITE HYPOSTASIS; AND A PRECISE DEMONSTRATION THAT THOSE WHO CONFESS CHRIST TO BE ONE COMPOSITE HYPOSTASIS DO NOT FALL INTO THE SAME ABSURDITIES AS THOSE WHO SAY THAT HE IS ONE COMPOSITE NATURE But if someone should suppose that, because every composite hypostasis also has its parts as coeval with one another, the same absurdity follows also for those who say that Christ is one composite hypostasis, such a one, in my judgment, does not suppose rightly. For it is not simply the case that every composite hypostasis has its parts as coeval with one another according to their coming into being, but only that hypostasis which subsists under a composite nature, and has such a nature predicated of it as its species — a nature which, having the aggregate of its individuating properties bound up with the common and general predicated essence, that is, nature, is a nature together with its properties. If, then, the nature under which the hypostasis subsists, and which is predicated as its species, is composite, then that nature must of necessity itself be composite, and must have its parts as coeval with one another, on account of the essence — that is, nature — predicated of it, being such as is the same in species apart from its distinguishing marks. For just as, in defining hypostasis spoken of simply, we say, “Hypostasis is a certain essence together with properties,” or, “a certain essence, inclusive of all the individuating properties in its own particular,” so too, in defining hypostasis spoken of with a further specification, and not simply, we say, “Composite hypostasis is a certain composite essence together with properties,” or, “a certain composite essence, inclusive of all the individuating properties in its own particular.”

For the things commonly observed in the individuals falling under the same species characterize, in the first instance, the essence, that is, nature, as generic, in the individuals under it. And the composite is common to all the individuals falling under a composite species. Therefore the composite characterizes, in the first instance, a composite nature in the individuals falling under it, but not the hypostasis. Moreover, again, every definition arises from the common and general elements of the individuals falling under it, and all things falling under generic categories naturally have the beginning of their own description from the generic elements — because it is these that clearly and primarily constitute what the thing being defined properly is. And if this is true, as indeed it is, it is plain that he who calls a hypostasis, referred to a certain nature, composite, has expressed, along with the individuating properties that characterize it particularly, that which belongs generically to the common element of essence, in the individual of the hypostasis. So that he who says that a hypostasis subsisting under a certain nature is composite has said nothing other than that the nature, that is, the essence, is composite, together with its properties. If, then, as has been shown, every composite nature has the coming-together of its own parts with one another in composition as involuntary and unchosen, and possesses its parts as coeval with one another, and has come into being for the completion of the wholeness that, according to species, is observed in each of the things that exist; then every hypostasis, according to its natural constitution, plainly has, unaltered, the same relation to its being as belongs to its own genus and species.

Let them, then, show that the composite hypostasis of Christ subsists under a composite nature, and let them gather that His parts are coeval with one another, and then let them justly bring the same charge against us. But until they are able to do this, they build the foundations of their own doctrines upon sand. For he who ignorantly forces Christ under the aforesaid absurdities, on the ground that He is a composite hypostasis, and is so piously confessed by us, has wandered far from the road leading to the truth — or rather, more properly speaking, has wandered from the truth itself. For this great and awesome mystery of Christ neither has, as a general individual, any nature at all predicated of it as its species, nor is it itself a genus or species predicated of the individuals naturally falling under it — so that it cannot be brought under any of the aforementioned rules, since the comingtogether of God the Word with the flesh in composition is not equal to, or of the same kind as, that of composite things generally in their mutual union. That the Union with the Flesh Came About for the Word Alone According to Assumption, He Pre-Existing, and Willing to Empty Himself for Union with Flesh For in the case of all composite things generally that are so by nature, it is not the coming-together of this with that, according to assumption, that produces the constitution of the whole, as of a species from parts; rather, it is the sudden coming into being of the parts, out of non-being into being, according to their coming-together with one another at the same moment as their coming to be, that produces the composition of the whole.

But the mystery of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ did not come about in this manner; rather, being God by nature, and Son of God by nature, simple and incorporeal, and co-eternal with the Father, and Maker of all the ages, He, by a will of love for mankind, became man according to assumption of flesh; and for our sake, being simple by nature and incorporeal, He became, out of us, by economy, composite according to hypostasis and embodied — as the holy and great Dionysius the Areopagite says, divinely inspired, in the first chapter of his treatise On the Divine Names, discoursing thus concerning the divine incarnation: “And especially loving toward mankind, in that He truly and wholly communicated, in one of His own hypostases, with our human reality, calling the extremity of humanity back to Himself, and uniting it to Himself; from which the simple Jesus [ineffably] was composed; and the eternal One received a temporal extension; and He who has surpassingly transcended every natural order came to be within our own nature.” If, then, it was not according to the law and order of the nature of composite things, but by another ordinance apart from the nature of composite things — for the Word of God was ineffably composed with the flesh according to assumption, and did not receive His being, together with the flesh, according to a coming-into-being for the completion of some whole according to species, as the argument of truth cries aloud to all — then it is in vain that the unlearned attempt, unlawfully, to bring under the ordinances proper to nature a composition that transcends every definition and principle of nature.

For this reason, he who says that the enanthropesis (becoming man) came about according to the assumption of flesh, both preserves the pre-eternal existence of God the Word, and piously confesses His voluntary and selfdetermined incarnation in time; and he preserves, even after the union, the unconfused difference between the Word who assumed and the flesh that was assumed. But he who does not confess that God the Word became man unchangeably, according to the assumption of flesh, will not be able truly to confess any of the things stated, in any manner. For how, if the Word did not pre-exist without beginning, could He, according to will, assume flesh differing from Him in essence? It is precisely in His case, I think, that the union according to assumption of that which differs in nature is properly said to have come about — since He alone, and alone in this manner, assumed the other-natured without passion and truly, and preserved Himself, in every account and manner, unchangeable and unmultiplied, and the thing assumed unaltered — which is impossible to come about in created nature. For in created nature, together with the coming-into-being of the parts, for the completion of some whole according to species, according to their sudden coming-together with one another, every composition naturally comes about, preserving throughout the whole an equal proportion of the parts to one another — as is the case with us, and with all things that have received a composite nature according to species.

For in us, the soul has, by its own activities, powers of the body proportionate to it, the body being by nature receptive of these on account of its sudden coming-into-being, together with the soul, unto being. But God the Word, having, in no account or manner, powers of the nature assumed by Him proportionate to His own natural activities — for that which is above nature is not measured by nature, nor is there anything at all among beings receptive of Him according to nature — alone, therefore, became man, willing it, ineffably, according to the assumption of flesh rationally and intellectually ensouled; as He who is, and preexists, and is capable of all things, innovating the natures in a manner above nature, that He might save man. This is the faith I have learned, and was taught, both from our holy and blessed Fathers who have gone before, and from those now living who have been entrusted with the helm of the holy catholic Church of God, and who rightly steer her toward the harbor of the divine will — with which faith, by their intercessions, I shall also depart, leaving behind this present life; offering this confession to God in place of every dignity, undefiled and unstained, and higher than every heretical storm. For I cannot boast of a life adorned with the works of righteousness, having been throughout my whole life here a willing transgressor of the divine laws.

These things, then, I have written to you, my blessed lords, as briefly as I could, so that you may know, if there is anything of use in what has been written, how you may in some measure send away the wolves clothed in sheep‘s clothing, who terrify with meaningless howls the divine and gentle sheep of Christ’s holy flock, and not be swept away by falsehood wickedly impersonating truth. As for advocating voices of the Fathers in support of the faith of the Church, I have not for the present been able to insert them into this letter, on account of my great lack of books here. For you have there, with you, my blessed lord, father and teacher, lord abba Sophronius, truly sober-minded and wise, an advocate of the truth, and an unconquered champion of the divine doctrines, able to contend both in deed and in word against every heresy, rich, along with all his other excellences, in a multitude of divine books, and generously enriching those who wish to learn divine things. Resorting to him, then, you will, I well know, obtain all right and unerring knowledge of the divine and saving doctrines. Farewell. Letter 14. — to the Same, a Dogmatic Letter. God, being good by nature, does nothing that He does not do that is evil. Man, becoming good through diligence of will, is always shown to rejoice in the things that God by nature does.

For man has no other means of recognizing what is good, than his shared disposition toward that which is brought about by God. For it is God‘s own to make good things; man’s own is to be well-disposed toward them. For it is the virtue of a man to show that what has been made by God is embraced with a disposition of will. If, then, everything is good that has God as the cause of its coming to be, then good, and indeed the greatest of goods, is the union of things that have been separated, since it stands as a manifest work of God. And if this is altogether true, I know that you rejoice to behold the scattered gathered together into one, being good yourselves, on account of your own disposition toward what is fair. Receive, then, I beg you who are kept of God, as good men, the most God-beloved deacon my lord Cosmas, who bears this modest letter of mine — a good and understanding man, adorned with a manner of life according to God — and reckon him among your own friends; and if there should be need to lay a request on his behalf before the God-honored Pope, that he might recover his own rank of ministry in the Church to which he had been appointed, do not hesitate. For he has embraced the pious doctrine of the Church‘s divine teaching so genuinely that he contends fervently on its behalf, and knows this to be the boundary and law of piety: to deny nothing of what belongs to Christ after the ineffable union, He being at once, truly, one and the same, God and man.

For He did not cast off what He was, in truly becoming what He was not — for He is unchangeable; nor did He alter what He became, remaining what He was — for He is loving toward mankind; but He is wholly, according to hypostasis, both, by nature, as one out of both, and through Himself, one, He preserves both, without change or diminishment, being in truth these very things according to the union that is according to hypostasis. For the union according to hypostasis, having its counter-distinction in relation to division, but not in relation to the natural difference of the things united according to it, makes a complete abolition of the former, while effecting a firm preservation of the latter, of which number stands as the indication. For one could never conceive of a difference altogether devoid of quantity, however wise and formidable in argument he might be. For as long as the parts of a composite whole are preserved without confusion, out of which the whole has been constituted, the natural difference of the parts of the whole preserved in the union in relation to one another is not unknown. And as long as the principle of the difference according to essence of the parts remains preserved in the whole, it is impossible for the quantity of the parts of the whole that differ from one another according to essence to be unknown — of which number naturally makes an indication, but not a division, since number is indicative not of the relation of things, that is, of union or division, but only of bare quantity, not of the manner of it.

But if number is naturally indicative of quantity, and not of relation, then he who piously uses number, after the union, only to indicate the difference of the natures of which Christ consists, preserved in Christ, does not at all divide the union, but only knows that the natures have remained unconfused after the union — of which the one Christ and Lord, and Son and God, incarnate and perfectly made man, consists. Wherefore he also proclaims, after the union, one nature of the Word Himself incarnate, with flesh possessed of an intellectual and rational soul — not being ignorant of the difference, but setting it aside and, so to speak, placing division outside; that by these expressions he might drive away at once from the divine court both the confusion of Apollinaris and the division of Nestorius, the evils that stand at opposite extremes, and become a pure worshipper of the mystery — confessing the same to have been begotten from above, from the Father, before all the ages, and the same to have been begotten from below, that is, by the assumption of flesh, rationally and intellectually ensouled, from the Mother, for our sake, in the last times. And for this reason believing the holy Virgin to be, properly and in truth, Theotokos, because she, having conceived the Word instead of by seed, bore in her womb and gave birth to Him incarnate from herself — the same working the wonders, the same undergoing by His own will the trial of human sufferings, the same crucified, buried, risen on the third day according to the Scriptures, taken up incarnate into the heavens, from which He had come down to us without flesh, as He Himself knows, He who, as God, has by nature no transition from place to place.

For being infinite by nature, and therefore in no manner contained by beings, since He is free of all circumscription; and being by nature loving toward mankind, and therefore having accepted our fleshly birth according to will, and having become capable of containment by what is ours; the same shall come again, with the distribution prepared for each according to his worth. Having gladly received this confession, the aforesaid most God-beloved lord Cosmas — I too received it with joy, and preferred it to my own soul, knowing his simple disposition toward Christ; and concerning the dogmatic points he asked about, I gave him a written and concise answer, which it would be fitting for you, who are kept of God, also to receive and study. For you will benefit him through your own good exposition upon the text, filling out the meaning of what was, for the sake of brevity, left incomplete. So much, then, concerning this. But I remind you, kept of God, to watch and pray according to the Lord‘s command, lest we be caught in the snares of the trials that beset us from every side. For if we watch and are sober, I know that we are kept safe from the wiles of the demons; and if we pray, we draw to our aid the divine grace, which fights along with us, and shows us victors over every hostile power, and delivers us from all deception and ignorance.

And we ought especially to do this now, since, even apart from the commandment, nature itself, taking circumstance as its counsellor, becomes a teacher of refuge in God. For what among the evils now besetting the world is more full of trial? What is more terrible to those who perceive what is happening? What is more pitiable or more fearful to those who suffer it? To see a desolate and barbarous nation overrunning a foreign land as though it were its own; and the civilized way of life being devoured by wild and untamed beasts who have only the bare outward form of men; and the Jewish people — who from of old rejoice in the blood of men, and know only the murder of God’s creature as pleasing to the divine, and are therefore more raging than all who are notorious for wickedness, having become the most conspicuous in the wealth of their malice; and who, thinking to serve God, do the very things by which God is abhorred — the most faithless of all the peoples on earth, and for this reason most fit to receive the hostile power — going before it in every manner and disposition of the sojourning of the evil one, and by their deeds signifying the presence of Antichrist, since they knew not the true Savior — this hateful and lawless people, hater of man and hater of God, and for this reason the more a hater of man because a hater of God, permitted to revel in outrages against the saints, as though vengeance were near, that it might be more justly punished, its tyranny and rebellion against God having been fully made manifest through its deeds — this people, champion of falsehood, author of bloodshed, and enemy of truth; the bitter persecutor of my own faith, through which the error of polytheism was overthrown and the phalanxes of demons were driven off; through which all the nations have clapped their hands, according to the prophecy, and shouted to God with the voice of triumph, for the Lord Most High is fearsome, a great King over all the earth.

The only-begotten Son was made known to them mystically, having sojourned among us through flesh: Lord, as enjoining virtue upon His servants, who bear it through the practice of the commandments; Most High, as the giver of true knowledge to those who, through contemplation, out of love of wisdom, press on toward the bare comprehension of the mysteries beyond their symbols; fearsome, as judge and avenger of transgressions; King, as the distributor to each of what has been prepared according to his worth; and great, as doing, above nature, opposite things by opposite means — through suffering fashioning dispassion, and through death fashioning life, and by a paradoxical power, through His own privations according to flesh, bestowing unchangeable possession of good things upon nature. And even so this maddened people is not ashamed, nor does it cease persecuting faith and virtue — which it clearly persecutes out of envy, having fallen from both, and not knowing that it has fallen, lame in both its limbs, and altogether unable, or rather unwilling, to say more properly, to rise up from the fall of impiety — as ever betraying faith and virtue for the sake of arrogance and pleasure, an apostate and foolish people, an untaught nation. Having apportioned its life between these two, this apostate people, full of iniquities, makes the one the mother of apostasy from God, the other the author of hatred of man, so that both God and creation are outraged by it — the one being despised, the other being defiled by the pollutions of its practices.

What of these things, as I have said, is more fearsome to the eyes or ears of Christians — to see a savage and monstrous nation permitted to stretch out its hands against the divine inheritance? But it is the multitude of our sins that has caused these things to come to pass. For we have not lived worthily of the Gospel of Christ. We have all sinned, we have all transgressed, we have all forsaken the way of the commandments, which said, “I am the Way,” and have become savage toward one another, ignorant of the grace of His love for mankind, and of the mystery of the sufferings undergone for us by God incarnate; and we have traveled impassable paths, having ratified by the disposition of our will the relations of dishonorable passions. But let us watch and pray, lest our hearts be further weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness. For surfeiting is wavering concerning the word of faith in times of persecution; and drunkenness is the casting away of the natural reasonings by which true discernment of things comes about, whenever the soul, through weakness, gives way beneath the assaults of trials, and, being darkened, suffers a storm concerning the word, as I have said, of faith. For if we pray and watch, we hold more firmly to faith in our Lord and God Jesus Christ, beholding and taking, by experience, the outcome of what He foretold; and we are not at all astonished, nor do we endure a storm in our soul, as suffering something contrary to promise, but we hold our faith the more firmly, seeing through the events themselves the Lord‘s prediction being fulfilled.

And if the outcome of what was foretold is able to establish faith, how much more shall we, through what is now taking place, establish our faith, finding Him who spoke to be true; and let us confess Him before men, fearing no death whatsoever, that He also may confess us before the Father, and bring us forward, having been saved through the good confession, of which He Himself, for the pattern of our own good deeds, made the beginning, bearing witness under Pontius Pilate and confessing the good confession — which may we be counted worthy, by His grace, to imitate, whenever the occasion calls; not leaping rashly into dangers on behalf of the word of piety, but fleeing, so far as we are able, from trials, both out of sparing regard for our persecutors and out of a discerning testing, in full knowledge, of the natural weakness inherent in us; guiding those who are as yet infants, and awaiting the Word who calls — who, invisibly present in the contests of those who lawfully fight on behalf of piety, brings to completion the course of martyrdom, since He alone is able to conquer both sense and nature, since martyrdom is clearly a victory over sense and nature, through which a rising up of mind and reason against the passions naturally comes to be, by which the desire for God is confirmed, persuading, in a manner beyond wonder, through death, His lovers to pass over to the One they desire — whom may we be counted worthy to stand beside, shining with our confessions of Him, which may we also carry away with us, departing hence, and passing over into the unending world, by the prayers and intercessions of our all-holy Lady the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, and of all the saints.

Scholion 1. He who uses, it says, the expression “two natures” only to indicate the difference in Christ, contends against Apollinaris; and he who again uses the expression “one incarnate nature of God the Word” casts out the division of Nestorius. For he who equally flees the impiety of each of these speaks both expressions. Letter 15. — Concerning the Common and the Particular, That Is, Essence and Hypostasis, to Cosmas the Most GodBeloved Deacon of Alexandria. To the most God-beloved lord Cosmas, deacon, Maximus the lowly sends greeting. Since much discussion has arisen among us concerning the divine incarnation, touching upon the very subtleties of pious doctrine, and taking occasion from this you have asked my lowliness to say, O man of God, what is the common and universal, and what is the particular and proper, so that from this the whole account of the union might become clear to us — I shall speak nothing whatsoever of my own; but what I have been taught by the Fathers, this I declare, departing in nothing from their teaching on these matters. The common and universal, that is, the generic, according to the Fathers, is essence and nature — for they say these are identical with one another. The proper and particular is hypostasis and person — for according to them these too are identical with one another. And great Basil makes this clear, writing thus to Terentius: “But if we too must say briefly what seems right to us, we shall say this: that the relation which the common has to the particular, this essence has to hypostasis.

For each of us both partakes of being by the common principle of essence, and is such-and-such a person by the properties that surround him.” And again, the same, discoursing on such matters to Amphilochius, says: “Essence and hypostasis have this difference, which the common has to the particular — as, for example, the animal has to a given man.” And after other things: “Those who say that essence and hypostasis are the same are compelled to confess only different persons.” And again, writing to teach a certain canonical point, interpreting the meaning of “consubstantial,” he says: “This expression also corrects the evil of Sabellius. For it does away with the identity of hypostasis, and introduces the complete notion of the persons — for a thing is not consubstantial with itself, but one thing with another. So that it stands well and piously, both marking off the individuality of the hypostases, and establishing the unvarying sameness of the nature.” And again in the second letter to the people of Neocaesarea he teaches, saying: “For one must know that just as he who does not confess the common element of essence falls into polytheism, so he who does not grant the properties of the hypostases is carried off into Judaism.” And again, in the document he caused Eustathius the Armenian to sign, he writes, plainly stating: “It is fitting, then, plainly to confess that they believe according to the words set forth by our Fathers at Nicaea, and according to the sound meaning conveyed by those words.

For there are some who, even within this faith, corrupt the word of truth, and draw the meaning of its words toward their own will. Marcellus even dared, impiously, concerning the hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ, expounding Him as a bare word, to claim that he took his starting-points from there, wickedly interpreting the meaning of ‘consubstantial.’ And certain men, following the impiety of Sabellius of Libya, supposing hypostasis and essence to be the same, draw from there occasions for the construction of their own blasphemy, from the fact that it is written in the faith: ‘But if anyone says that the Son of God is of another essence or hypostasis, the holy and catholic Church anathematizes him.’ For those Fathers did not say that essence and hypostasis are the same. For if the two expressions signified one and the same [notion], what need was there of both? But it is clear that, since some denied that He was from the essence, and others spoke of Him as being of some other hypostasis, they thus rejected both as foreign to the mind of the Church. For where they declared their own mind, they said that the Son is of the essence of the Father, without adding ‘of the hypostasis.’ So that the one statement stands for the abolition of the wicked opinion, while the other serves to make manifest the saving doctrine.”

In harmony with this, Gregory, surnamed the Theologian, in his first theological oration, is likewise found saying: “When I speak of a middle way, I mean the truth; toward which it is well only to look, avoiding both the base contraction and the more absurd division — so that we do not, for fear of polytheism, contract the Word into one hypostasis, leaving us with bare names, supposing the Father and Son and Holy Spirit to be the same.” And again, a little further on: “Since it is necessary both to preserve the one God, and to confess the three hypostases, that is, three persons, each with its own property. It would be preserved, in my own account, by holding to one God, since Son and Spirit are referred to one cause, not being compounded or blended together; and to the three hypostases, with no blending or dissolution or confusion conceived of, lest the whole be dissolved through that by which the one is glorified more than is fitting. And according to the one and same, so to call it, movement and will of the Godhead, and the identity of essence.” And again in the Farewell Oration: “We believe in Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, consubstantial and of like glory, in whom also baptism has its perfection — you who have been initiated know what is denial of godlessness and confession of Godhead.

And thus we are ordered, recognizing the one in essence and in the undivided character of worship, and the three in the hypostases, that is, persons.” And indeed in the oration on the Lights, the same says this: “And when I say ‘of God,’ be illumined by one light, and by three — by three, according to the individual properties, that is, hypostases, if anyone is pleased to call them so, or persons; for we shall not quarrel about names, so long as the syllables lead to the same understanding; and by one, according to the principle of essence, that is, Godhead.” Such, then, is the agreement of divine doctrine which our God-inspired Fathers Gregory and Basil set forth, expressly declaring: essence to be identical with nature, as the common and universal; and hypostasis to be identical with person, as the particular and specific — nowhere confusing the meaning of these terms by any interchange or mingling of one into the other. For, moved by one and the same Spirit, they handed down the right confession of the faith to the peoples. And in agreement with these you will find all who, by the grace of the Spirit, were entrusted with the helm of the Church, upholding the right doctrine of the pious faith, and turning aside in nothing at all from this understanding. A MORE NATURAL DEMONSTRATION, SHOWING THAT NOTHING AMONG BEINGS IS IDENTICAL WITH ANOTHER BOTH IN ESSENCE AND IN HYPOSTASIS; BUT THINGS IDENTICAL IN ESSENCE ARE DIFFERENT IN HYPOSTASES, ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT IN ESSENCE If, then, essence and nature are identical, and person and hypostasis are identical, it is plain that things of the same nature and of the same essence as one another are altogether of different hypostasis from one another.

For in respect of both — I mean nature and hypostasis — nothing among beings is identical with another. For things united to one another according to one and the same nature, that is, essence — that is, things that are of the same essence and nature — could never be united according to one and the same hypostasis, that is, person; that is, they could not possess one person and one hypostasis. And things united according to one and the same hypostasis, that is, person, could never be joined according to one and the same essence, that is, nature — that is, being of one and the same essence and nature could never be found to come about. But things united according to one and the same nature, that is, essence — that is, things that are of one and the same essence and nature — are distinguished from one another by their hypostases, that is, their persons, as is the case with angels and men, and with all creatures observed in species and genus. For angel is distinguished from angel, and man from man, and ox from ox, and dog from dog, according to hypostasis, but not according to nature and essence. And the argument will venture to say something greater: that not even in the case of the first, unoriginate, and creative cause of beings do we observe nature and hypostasis to be identical with one another — since we know one essence and nature of Godhead, existing in three hypostases differing from one another by their properties; and three hypostases in one and the same essence and nature of Godhead.

For it is a Monad in Trinity, and a Trinity in Monad, that is worshipped by us — Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, one God; the Son not being the Father, but what the Father is; nor the Spirit being the Son, but what the Son is — for whatever the Father is, except unbegottenness, the Son is (for He is begotten); and whatever the Son is, except generation, the Holy Spirit is (for He proceeds). Unbegottenness, generation, and procession do not divide the one nature and power of the ineffable Godhead into three unequal or equal essences and natures; but they characterize as persons — that is, hypostases — the things in which, or which, the one Godhead — that is, essence and nature — is. And things united according to one and the same hypostasis, that is, person — that is, being of one hypostasis, and completing one person — differ in the principle of essence, that is, nature, as is the case with the human soul and body, and with all things that have their coming-together according to hypostasis. For these are not consubstantial with one another. Things, then, united according to one and the same essence, that is, nature — that is, being of one and the same essence and nature — are altogether consubstantial with one another, and of different hypostases: consubstantial, in respect of the essential commonality observed in them in unvarying natural identity, according to which no one of them is more, or is called more, what it is than another, but all admit of the one and the same definition and principle of essence; but of different hypostases, in respect of the personal otherness that distinguishes them, according to which one is distinguished from another, not agreeing with one another in the characterizing properties according to hypostasis; but each, by its own aggregate of properties, bears the most particular principle proper to itself according to hypostasis, according to which it does not admit of communion with things of the same nature and essence.

But things united according to one and the same hypostasis, that is, person — that is, things that complete, by union, one and the same hypostasis — are of the same hypostasis with one another, and of different essence: of the same hypostasis, in respect of the undivided personal unity completed from them by union, according to which the properties that divide each from its own essential kinship become, by their comingtogether at the same moment as their coming into being, characteristic of the one hypostasis completed from them, according to which the identity of the two in relation to one another is observed, admitting of no difference whatsoever — as is the case with the human soul and body. For the properties that mark off someone‘s body from other bodies, and someone’s soul from other souls, coming together in union, characterize and, at the same time, mark off from other men the hypostasis completed from them — of Peter, say, or of Paul — but do not mark off the soul of Peter or Paul from its own body. For soul and body are identical with one another, in respect of the one hypostasis completed from them by union, since neither of these two subsisted in itself, separated from the other, prior to their composition into a species for coming to be. For coming-into-being, composition, and the completion of the species from them by composition are simultaneous.

But they are of different essence, in respect of their natural otherness in relation to one another, according to which they in no way admit, in respect of essence, one another‘s definitions and principles; but each renders the other different from itself, unassimilable to the principle of the other according to its own essence — according to which, preserving the essential difference of soul and body, we do not confuse the hypostasis completed from them, by the interchange and transformation of one into the other, of the parts, that is, natures, of which it was composed, into disappearance. If, then, according to the coming-together of soul and body simultaneously with the coming-into-being of the species, a certain man naturally comes to be complete — in respect of the natural commonality of his own parts preserving his consubstantiality with other men, but in respect of the individuality of the same parts preserving his distinct hypostasis in relation to other men; being united, by the natural commonality of his own parts, to other men, in relation to whom he bears one and the same nature according to species, but being distinguished, by the individuality of his parts according to hypostasis, from the rest of men, in relation to whom he bears another and different person, by which principle he is distinguished from other men, preserving the unity of his own personal undivided monad wholly unvarying; and by which he is naturally united to other men, preserving unconfused the difference of the essential otherness of his own parts — then plain to us from this, and containing nothing enigmatic, is the principle governing the incarnation, that is, the enanthropesis, of the one God the Word of the holy, consubstantial, and worshipful Trinity.

THAT CHRIST, BEING UNITED TO THE EXTREMES BY THE COMMONALITIES OF HIS OWN PARTS ACCORDING TO ESSENCE, PRESERVED THE DIFFERENCE OF THE PARTS IN RELATION TO ONE ANOTHER; BUT BY THE INDIVIDUAL PROPERTIES OF THE PARTS, SHOWED THE IDENTITY ACCORDING TO HYPOSTASIS, AS A WHOLE, COMMON TO Teaching us expressly that God the Word, being perfect according to nature and essence, in respect of which He is identical with, and consubstantial with, the Father and the Spirit, and according to person and hypostasis, in respect of which He is distinct from the Father and the Spirit, preserving the unconfused personal difference, having become incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, was perfectly made man — that is, He became a perfect man, by the assumption of flesh possessing an intellectual and rational soul, which received in Him both its nature and its hypostasis, that is, its existence and its subsistence, at the very moment of the conception by the Word; since the Word Himself, instead of by seed — or rather, was Himself found to be, as it were, the seed of His own incarnation — willed it, and became composite according to hypostasis, He who is simple and uncomposite according to nature, remaining one and the same, unchangeable, undivided, and unconfused, in the permanence of the parts of which He consisted; so that He might be, according to hypostasis, a mediator of the parts of which He was composed, joining in Himself the distance of the extremes, making peace and reconciling to God the Father, through the Spirit, human nature — being truly God according to essence, and truly having become man according to nature by economy; neither divided by the natural difference of His own parts, nor confused by the hypostatic unity of the same.

But by the principle of the essential commonality of the parts of which He was composed, being united by nature to the Father and to the Mother, He showed that He preserved the difference of the parts of which He was composed in relation to one another; while by the principle of the hypostatic individuality of His own parts, being distinguished from the extremes — I mean the Father and the Mother — He was manifestly shown to possess the singularity of His own hypostasis wholly unvarying, always being unified in the personal identity, at the highest degree, of His own parts with one another. For the essential commonality of one of the parts with the extremes, within the unity of the one hypostasis, preserving unconfused the difference of the other nature, did not allow the pious to recognize one nature of both arising from the union — lest there come to be an utter disappearance, in respect of essence, of the parts, in the coming-to-be, by composition, of one nature of the whole from them, which would have no way of preserving the natural kinship to the parts of the extremes, not preserving the essential difference of the parts of which it was composed, in relation to one another, after the union; but it allowed one to see a single hypostasis, composite from the union, preserved by the natural existence of the parts of which it was composed.

But the individual property of one of the parts, considered together with the composition of both toward the constitution of the whole of Christ, in conjunction with the essential commonality, produced a common mark of the parts, characterizing the one hypostasis completed from them. For we say that a common hypostasis of flesh and Godhead came to be, according to the ineffable union — the one hypostasis of Christ, completed by the coming-together of the two into a natural, that is, true and real, union. And I say common, as one and the same most particular hypostasis of the parts declared from the union; or rather, one and the same hypostasis of the Word, existing now and before — but before without cause, simple and uncomposite; and afterward, having become, on account of a cause, by the assumption of flesh intellectually ensouled, unchangeably, in truth composite — in respect of which, being marked off from the extremes, I mean the Father and the Mother, He is united to Himself, having no difference in any respect whatsoever; lest there come to be an utter disappearance of the hypostatic identity of the parts, through the coming-to-be of a difference of the parts in that respect, which would dissolve the union according to hypostasis into a personal duality, having no way to show the personal identity of the parts in relation to one another preserved, divided by the hypostatic difference into a duality of persons.

THAT THE THINGS COMMON TO THE PARTS ACCORDING TO HYPOSTASIS MARKED OFF THE WHOLE, THAT IS, CHRIST, FROM THE EXTREMES; BUT THE THINGS COMMON TO THE PARTS IN RELATION TO THE EXTREMES ACCORDING TO ESSENCE JOINED CHRIST, AS A WHOLE, ESSENTIALLY TO For it was not by the properties by which the flesh was marked off from the rest of men that it preserved its difference in relation to the Word; nor again was it, by the properties in which it differed from the Word, marked off from us. But by the properties by which it was marked off from us, it preserved the union, that is, identity, according to hypostasis, with the Word; and by the properties by which it was naturally united to us, it correspondingly preserved its essential difference in relation to the Word. Just so the Word, by the properties by which He was marked off from the commonality of the Godhead, as Son and Word, preserved the union, that is, identity, according to hypostasis, with the flesh; and by the properties by which, as God, He preserved His natural difference in relation to the flesh, He, being united in essence to the Father and the Spirit, interchanged difference and identity in relation to Himself and to the extremes: being united to the extremes by the commonalities of the parts according to nature, but being distinguished from the extremes, according to hypostasis, by the individual properties of the same parts — in the hypostatic identity of His own parts, showing the difference of the extremes preserved in relation to Himself; and in the essential otherness of the parts, bearing the natural identity in relation to the parts of the extremes.

And if He was united to the extremes by the commonalities of the parts, and marked off from the extremes by the individual properties of the parts, it is plain that, by that in which He was united to the extremes, He had the natural difference of the parts in relation to one another preserved; while by that in which He was distinguished from the extremes, He had the hypostatic identity of the parts manifestly appearing. Christ, therefore, had, in respect of each of the parts of which He was composed, both the common and the particular: the common, in the principle of the essential identity in relation to His own parts of the extremes, according to which He had the difference of the parts in relation to one another preserved even after the union; the particular, in the principle of the hypostatic identity of the parts, according to which He was marked off from the extremes, preserving unconfused His distinction in relation to them. For the true union according to hypostasis, of each of the parts that come together for the composition of some whole, together with their coming-together at the same moment as the coming-tobe of the whole, takes up together with the common the property that marks off each from the essential commonality, and shows it to be enhypostatic, but not a hypostasis — since it did not subsist by itself, separately, marked off from things of the same kind, or from that with which it coexists by union for the coming-to-be of some whole, which is proper to hypostasis.

For that which subsists by itself, separately, is a hypostasis — if indeed they say that a hypostasis is an essence together with properties, differing numerically from things of the same kind; while the enhypostatic is that which in no way subsists by itself, but is observed in others, as a species in the individuals under it; or that which is combined with something else, different in essence, for the coming-tobe of some whole — which, to the degree that it differs in the properties that mark it off from things of the same essential kind, to that same degree it is unified, becoming identical, with that with which it is composed according to hypostasis. For it is not by the properties by which it is marked off from things of the same kind that it is distinguished also from that with which it is composed by union and coexists; but by the properties by which it differs from things of the same essence, it preserves, in relation to that with which it is composed, the identity of hypostasis, preserved within the wholly singular character of the person — which is precisely what the true argument holds in the case of the divine economy, that is, the incarnation. For by the properties by which the flesh, marked off from us, differed, by these it had identity according to hypostasis with the Word; and by the properties by which the Word differed from the Father and the Spirit, being marked off as Son, by these He preserved His singular union according to hypostasis with the flesh, preserved without division in any respect whatsoever.

The flesh of God the Word, therefore, did not become a hypostasis. For never — not even to the utmost speed of bare conception — did it altogether subsist by itself, marked off by its own properties from things of the same kind, or possessing, in relation to the Word with whom it is composed according to hypostasis, its own individuality separated from the common; but, being enhypostatic, it received its cominginto-being in Him and through Him; and having become, by union, His flesh, and being unified with Him according to hypostasis, by the principle of the individuality that marks it off from other men — or, to speak more clearly, making, according to hypostasis, its own that which is the Word‘s own, as also the essential commonality of which it truly, by union, became flesh. THAT CHRIST, BEING PERFECT GOD, AND THE SAME PERFECT MAN, HAD, OF THE THINGS HE WAS, THE COMMON AND THE PARTICULAR, BY WHICH HE EFFECTED IN HIMSELF THE UNION AND DISTINCTION OF THE EXTREMES — BY THE UNION OF THE EXTREMES WITH HIMSELF, CONFIRMING THE TWO NATURES OF WHICH HE WAS COMPOSED AS PRESERVED IN HIMSELF; BY THE For if the Word, being God by nature, became man without change by the assumption of flesh intellectually ensouled, it is plain that, being one out of both, and through one Self truly confirming both, He, being the same, had of both the common and the particular, by which He effected the union and distinction in relation to the extremes: by the natural difference of His own parts in relation to one another, being united in essence to the extremes; by the identity, that is, of the same parts, being distinguished according to hypostasis from the extremes.

And if He, being the same, had both difference and identity, it is plain that the same was both one and two: one, by the principle of His own undivided personal monad; two, by the principle of the essential otherness of His own parts in relation to one another, preserved even after the union. For difference is a principle, according to which the mutual otherness of the things signified is naturally preserved, and is indicative of the manner of their being; while identity is unvaryingness, according to which the principle of the thing signified possesses a wholly singular character, known by no manner of difference. A Brief Discussion Concerning Difference, by Which It Is Shown That the Essential Quantity of the Things United Is If, then, the essential difference in relation to one another of the parts of which Christ was composed is preserved after the union, it is a clear demonstration to the pious that the essential quantity of the things united has remained unimpaired after the union, preserving, throughout the whole composed from them, the unvarying definition and principle of essence of each part in relation to the other. And if the hypostatic identity of the whole in relation to its own parts — or rather, to speak more clearly, of the parts in relation to one another in the composition of the whole from them — is preserved, it is plain that the parts, in respect of the one hypostasis completed from them, do not in any way differ from one another at all.

And hence there is no argument that can show either the essential difference confused, or the hypostatic singularity divided. A Fuller and More Natural Demonstration Concerning Difference and Quantity, and the Number That Indicates If, then, we speak of difference in Christ after the union, and quantity is of necessity introduced together with every difference, and we know number to be indicative of this, then, rightly employing number only to indicate the difference of the things that differ after the union, we do not by number altogether divide the things signified, but indicate that the existence of the things united is preserved — since every number is naturally indicative of quantity alone, but not divisive. For that which neither acts nor is acted upon, how could it be the master of any relation whatsoever? Since acting belongs to essence alone, as being acted upon belongs to accident, that is, quality — from which, those skilled in such reasoning say, existence proceeds, and from which relations proceed. But, considering it more precisely, relations turn out to be the work not even of these — I mean essence and accident — but of the cause and power productive of all things, which implants in each of the things that have come to be the principle constitutive of its being, and representative of its natural kinship and estrangement in relation to one another.

And if, properly speaking, relations do not have essence as their productive cause, much less could number — which, insofar as it is not essence, cannot act at all, and insofar as it is not an accident, that is, a quality, is not such as to be acted upon. And if number is naturally neither active nor passive, it is therefore a sign indicative of quantity, making no reference whatsoever to the relation within the quantity signified — since it is not a genus, able to be predicated of other things, but a sign, as I said, indicative of the genus that is carried predicatively of other things. And if number has neither the property of acting nor of being acted upon, it is plain that, insofar as it does not act, it is not indicative of any relation whatsoever — that is, of union or division; for this, as I said, belongs to a different principle — and insofar as it is not such as to be acted upon, it is not divided. For every number is in itself undivided, admitting no motion by alteration, which is proper to quality; nor contraction and expansion, which is proper to essence; nor increase and diminishment, which is proper to quantity. And if number is significative of quantity, but not of relation — for number is significative only of quantity spoken of simply, not of the manner of it — it is plain that number is naturally productive neither of division nor of union, but only of an indication of quantity, however we conceive it to exist.

For, as I said, acting belongs to essence, and being acted upon to accident, that is, quality — of which number is neither. For if it were essence, it would also be self-subsistent, needing nothing else for its constitution; and if it were an accident, that is, a quality, it would either produce the most particular difference, and combine with the genus to complete the definition of the subject, furnishing an indication of species, but not of quantity; or, joined commonly to the species, it would introduce the difference, and produce the distinction of one individual from another among those referred to the same species; or it would produce the difference properly so called, in the aggregate of all the properties in the individual, and would indicate the thing signified through it not merely as different from another but as altered in showing itself. But if number is altogether not taken up among the definitions of things at all, then number is neither essence nor quality. And if number is neither of these, it is plain that it is naturally neither active nor passive; and if number has neither acting nor being acted upon, it naturally neither unites at all as acting, nor is it altogether divided as being acted upon; but, making an indication only of the quantity of things, it does not touch upon their relation. And if number is significative of quantity alone, and not of any relation conceived within it, number is, so to speak, rather a certain expression and designation proper to quantity.

Therefore he who speaks of difference in Christ after the union has of necessity also conceived of the quantity of the things that differ, together with the difference. For that which is altogether simple, and unreceptive of difference — because wholly identical with itself and singular, and whole and wholly unrelated, as not having the genus “quantity” predicated of it, and therefore not numbered at all — but he who has conceived of quantity together with difference — for it is impossible for a difference to be known that altogether does away with quantity — taking up number only to indicate, not to divide, the quantity conceived together with the difference, does not depart from the truth, signifying by number the quantity necessarily conceived together with the difference — since, as I said, with every difference spoken of in whatever manner, quantity is of necessity conceived together with it, of which we have been taught that number is naturally indicative, not divisive. And if he who signifies by number the quantity necessarily conceived together with difference, for the sake of establishing the mystery, does so lest he proclaim a confusion of the things united — how, according to some, is it not right to think that, for this cause, the essential quantity of the things preserved unconfusedly in Christ after the union is confessed — since number, as the argument has shown at length, is naturally indicative of difference, but not of division?

If, then, the essential principle of one of the things united has remained unaltered after the union, not lapsing into the definition of essence of the other, then plainly the Godhead of Christ has remained, essentially, Godhead, not passing over into the essence of flesh; and His manhood, again, has remained, essentially, manhood, not undergoing transformation into the nature of Godhead. And if neither the Godhead of Christ nor His manhood has passed over into the other on account of the union according to hypostasis, but the natures have remained unconfused, according to great Cyril, then it is clear that the difference of the natures preserved in Christ after the union stands established, and no argument will gainsay it. And if the difference after the union belongs to the things preserved unconfusedly in Christ, and it is impossible for a difference to be known altogether separated from quantity, let the quantity of the things that differ be spoken of to indicate the difference, lest we be suspected of maintaining a bare and unreal difference. For the argument knows every bare difference to be one that has no really existing truth of the things underlying it, of which it is the difference. We, then, never properly saying that hypostasis and nature are the same, according to the teaching of the Fathers, as the argument has already shown above, piously maintain in Christ both identity and difference.

Identity, by the principle of the one hypostasis, according to which we confess God the Word to be identical with His own flesh — lest the all-praised Trinity receive a personal addition, becoming a Quaternity. Difference, by the principle of the essential otherness of the things of which He consists, according to which the parts of Christ do not at all pass over into one another. For Godhead and manhood could never be essentially identical, lest something created become, by union, of the same nature and consubstantial with Godhead — since to say that nature is consubstantial with nature we know to be the mark of a deranged mind. For nature could never by nature be of the same nature and consubstantial with nature. For “of the same nature” and “consubstantial” are naturally spoken only of individuals referred to one essence under the same species. THAT HE WHO DOES NOT SAY THAT NATURE AND HYPOSTASIS ARE THE SAME PIOUSLY SPEAKS, IN THE CASE OF CHRIST, OF BOTH UNION AND DIFFERENCE — BELIEVING THE ONE TO BE ACCORDING TO HYPOSTASIS, THE OTHER ACCORDING TO NATURE Holding this confession, we neither deny the difference of the natures after the union, of which the one Christ was composed, believing the natures to have remained unconfused; nor are we ignorant of the union according to hypostasis, confessing Christ to be one of the holy, consubstantial, and worshipful Trinity.

But we also make manifest, by number, the difference of the things of which Christ truly consists, preserved in Him without division or confusion after the union, for the refutation of the confusion of Apollinaris and Eutyches; and since we know the union according to hypostasis, we put forward, with a resounding voice, the one incarnate nature of God the Word, with flesh possessing an intellectual soul, against the division of Nestorius — equally fleeing also the confusion of Apollinaris, who denies the natural difference of the things united after the union, and holds the flesh to be identical in nature with the Word on account of the union; and the division of Nestorius, who proclaims a hypostatic difference in Christ, and cuts apart the identity of the flesh with the Word according to hypostasis. THAT SEVERUS, SAYING THAT NATURE AND HYPOSTASIS ARE THE SAME, MAKES THE UNION A CONFUSION, AND THE DIFFERENCE A DIVISION; BY WHICH HE IS SHOWN BOTH TO QUATERNITY OF PERSONS, AND TO CUT THE MYSTERY OF THE MONAD INTO A DUALITY OF GODHEADS, AND BLASPHEMOUSLY TO CAST CHRIST OUT OF ALL ESSENTIAL But Severus, properly saying that essence and hypostasis, nature and person, are the same, in the case of the divine incarnation, knows neither the union as unconfused, even though he pretends to say so, nor the difference as undivided, even though he goes about boasting of this too; but he makes the union a confusion, after the manner of Apollinaris, and the difference an estrangement, after the manner of Nestorius.

For if hypostasis and nature are the same, then in no way, according to him, will the flesh be either identical with or different from the Word. For in speaking of a difference in Christ after the union as in a natural quality, he too will be found dividing the union along with Nestorius, introducing a difference of the flesh from the Word according to hypostasis after the union — since, according to him, a difference as in a natural quality could not otherwise be understood than as a difference in a hypostatic quality, if indeed nature and hypostasis are the same. For, in speaking of a difference as in a natural quality, he is of necessity compelled also to introduce a difference as in a hypostatic quality, in order to show that hypostasis is the same as nature. But if he speaks of a difference according to hypostasis after the union, fearing division, let him not, then, speak of a natural difference after the union either, if indeed he has decided to be consistent with himself, and is eager to keep the rules he himself has laid down — since he knows nature and hypostasis to be the same in definition and principle. And if, in respect of both — I mean nature and hypostasis — the flesh has no difference, as Severus supposes, in relation to the Word, then let it plainly be, according to the nonsense of Apollinaris, of the same essence and of the same hypostasis with Him.

And if the flesh is consubstantial with the Word, it will also be consubstantial with the Father and the Spirit, and the Trinity will be shown to have become a Quaternity — since things consubstantial do not admit of a coming-together with one another according to hypostasis. But if the flesh is of the same hypostasis as the Word, it will be of a different essence — for things of the same hypostasis have, in relation to one another, a wholly and altogether different principle of essence. And if the flesh, as being of the same hypostasis with the Word after the union, is of a different essence, then Christ will be found, according to Severus, cut into two natures after the union — if indeed, according to him, number has altogether the power of division. Thus everything that fights against the truth is easily turned against itself, and easily falls. And if, in saying that there is one composite nature of Christ after the union, he seems to attribute to it a difference as in a natural quality: first, insofar as He is a composite nature, Christ will be altogether consubstantial with none of the beings — if indeed, according to essence and nature, Christ is one and singular. For nature, as has been said, could never at all be consubstantial with nature. And not being consubstantial with any of the beings, He will be neither wholly God nor wholly man; or, if He is God, he who maintains this will be shown to be a polytheist, saying that the Father and the Holy Spirit are God as of an uncomposite, that is, simple, nature, and saying that Christ is God as of a composite, that is, not simple, nature, and thereby proclaiming two Godheads — one simple, and one composite.

And moreover, in speaking of a difference as in a natural quality, if he says that the natures of which the qualities are properties underlie the different qualities, he too will be shown to make an indication of two natures after the union — becoming, against his will, an advocate of the very things he contended against. But if he says that the difference belongs to bare qualities apart from the realities, let him say the union too belongs to these. For of whatever things there is difference after the union, of these plainly there is also union; and in a few syllables he has introduced the spontaneity of Epicurus and the deceptive phantasm of Mani, Christ not really existing for him in the realities, but in empty qualities; and Christ will be God only in quality, and not in reality. For immortality and mortality, of which he says there is a difference after the union, belong to natures, but are not themselves natures. For where is mortality, if there is no one who dies; or immortality, if there is no nature that death does not touch? But truly wickedness is without reasoning, and the mere appearance of wisdom naturally becomes the author of great folly. And it is more profitable for the wise to embrace silence toward such men, than to seem, by refuting them, to be playing games with the mystery themselves.

Severus, then, holding such views concerning Christ, died together with his own doctrines. A Brief Exposition, with the Right Defense of the True Confession of the Fathers “We do not think thus, we do not believe thus, nor is this the portion of Jacob,” says the one who spoke; but confessing that the one Christ — that is, His one hypostasis — was composed of two natures, each perfect according to its own principle of being, namely Godhead and manhood, we believe the natures to have remained unconfused, and without any division whatsoever, after the union. For, believing Christ to exist, we have confessed that the natures of which He was composed are preserved after the union. And for this reason we proclaim a natural difference in Him, considering, that is, the parts of which He was composed — since Godhead and manhood are not the same in essence — but a hypostatic identity — for the flesh is manifestly identical, according to hypostasis, with the Word. Knowing, then, the real difference, after the union, of the natures of which Christ was composed, we are not ignorant of the identity according to hypostasis — since, though the parts of Christ differ from one another naturally, they do not differ in respect of the hypostasis of the whole composed from them, since it is not natural for the completing parts of a whole to differ from one another altogether, in respect of the principle of the whole.

Confessing, then, the same to be two natures, we have recognized Him to be, at the same time, both God and man — since we do not put forward these appellations as bare, and applying to nothing. And believing Him to be, inseparably and unconfusedly, in two natures after the union, we have proclaimed the same to be perfect in Godhead, and the same perfect in manhood, as a whole in parts. For it is in the parts of which He was composed that He is known, as a whole, after the union — since Christ has no other indication of His being, and being preserved, and being properly named, than the natural persistence, after the union, of the parts of which He was composed unto being. For Christ is not only from these, but in these, and, more properly speaking, these are Christ. And we number, after the union, the things of which Christ consists, not dividing — God forbid — the natures, but only making manifest their difference preserved after the union. And we confess a coming-together according to a natural, that is, true and real, union, according to holy Cyril, and we maintain the all-holy Virgin to be, properly and in truth, Theotokos — not simply, but as having truly conceived Him who was ineffably begotten of God the Father before all the ages, God the Word, and having given birth to Him ineffably incarnate from herself.

And we speak of the wonders and the sufferings of the same, as there being, that is, one Christ, who works both the divine and the human — the divine, in a fleshly manner, since it was through flesh, not devoid of natural activity, that He put forward the power of the wonders; the human, in a divine manner, since, without natural compulsion, He willingly and by His own authority accepted the trial of human sufferings. Of the same we speak of the cross, and the death, and the burial, and the resurrection, and the ascension into the heavens — from which He, having come down without flesh, did not pass through places by change of location, He who is contained by no beings in any manner. For He is free of all circumscription; but He was manifested through flesh, as by nature loving toward mankind, being, by a true birth from a woman, made capable, as He willed, of containment by what is ours. Wherefore also, to Him, even incarnate, together with the Father and the Spirit, we offer one worship. If, then, in soul and mouth we call the holy Virgin, properly, Theotokos, and confess the union according to hypostasis, and say that a coming-together according to a natural union has come to be, and maintain one Lord and Christ and Son, and the one nature of God the Word Himself incarnate; and if we believe Christ to be one of the Holy Trinity, worshipped and numbered together with the Father and the Spirit — how are we reviled by the fearless, who dare to say all things falsely, as though dividing, on account merely of the bare expression of number, put forward by us, as has often been said, only to indicate the difference of natures preserved after the union?

If, then, number of necessity always produces a division of the quantity of things, let someone show this, and we shall accept the slander as true. But if they merely do violence, slandering those who proclaim the true faith of the mystery, for the sake of a love of glory from which they suffer, they themselves shall give account to God on the day of judgment, says the divine Apostle, for those whom they have swept away into error — those, that is, who have completed the course of the present life; and as for those who remain, may they have God changing them, and leading them to the recognition of the truth now warred against by them. For it is profitable to speak thus, on account of the commandment enjoining us to pray for those who curse us. I, then, have set these things before you concisely, servant of God, concerning what you asked, for the sake of your assurance — not thinking one thing in my soul, as some who delight in Severus rumor about, and speaking otherwise to those I meet; do not suppose this of me — but I speak as I have been taught, and think, and believe, and as I received from the Fathers. And, more properly speaking, I bring forth my very thought, embodied in words. And if this account is false, may I not attain to the blessedness that is there, but may I carry off, as the fruit of falsehood, estrangement from the promised good things.

But do you, for the sake of my obedience, deign to repay me with your prayers, that Christ our God, the salvation of those who fear Him, may heal the wounds of my soul by the power of the mystery of His lifegiving sufferings undergone for us — He who alone, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is glorified unto the ages. Amen. In the definition, he says, the commonality of things identical in essence is observed.

2. That the properties characterizing a composite hypostasis, he says, belong to its parts in common.

3. A precise definition of hypostasis.

4. A definition, that is, a description, of the enhypostatic.

5. A general definition of difference.

6. A general definition of identity.

7. That which is called a genus is quantity, of which number is indicative.

8. He said “properly,” because their own definitions do not change into one another. For things whose definition is not one do not have one principle; and things whose principle is not one have a different manner of being; and things whose manner of being is different do not have identity throughout. Therefore nature and hypostasis are not the same, since they do not, properly speaking, have one manner of being, and principle, and definition. It will therefore be said of hypostasis by an extended use, and in some particular respect, but not properly. Letter 16. — to the Same. Struck by many lashes of grief over what has happened, through the slander of those who do not fear the Lord, against the noble guardian of the virtues, lord George — your sacred letter, holy Father, having already reached me, brought consolation: on the one hand bearing the good news of your health, desired by all; on the other, announcing the firm footing of your right confession of the Lord Jesus Christ, our true God. This confession, confirmed by the trial of sufferings, has been transformed into unchangeableness for you, who counted the misfortune of the present life as nothing — you who, having long held its good fortune of little account, transferred all the longing of your soul solely to the things hoped for. Such a disposition faith and a good conscience naturally characterize: the one guarding the pious word, stained in no way by false opinion; the other fashioning a life pleasing to God, set right by the keeping of the commandments.

For both are needed — I mean word and life — by him who is eager to prefer, above all things, the companionship of wisdom; that we may also piously proclaim the mystery of the unchangeable self-emptying, through flesh, of the God of all on our behalf; confessing Christ to be, in truth, at once God and man — the one existing without cause, on His own account; the other, having come to be for our sake, afterward. Neither casting off what He was for the sake of what He became — for He is unchangeable; nor denying what He became for the sake of what He was — for He is loving toward mankind. For He alone, properly existing in the abundance of power, was able, without change, unconfusedly, to become what He was not, and to remain, both, properly, what He was and what He became — the singular character of His own hypostatic monad admitting no division, on account of the difference of the things of which He was composed, naturally preserved in Him after the union; since, being united according to hypostasis to flesh intellectually ensouled, He was shown, by His wonders, remaining unchangeably what He was; and He appeared, by His sufferings, preserving unalterably what He became. And through both — I mean wonders and sufferings — He granted us both the abolition of sin and the grace of deification.

Let us, then, honor the calling of grace by a manner of life adorned with the commandments, shaken by no pleasure or pain of any kind whatsoever; and let us show, by what we do or suffer, that we cling only to God, who gave Himself for us as a ransom and an exchange, having entrusted to Him our whole life, present and to come — as being, by the principle of our origin, from Him, and, by the manner of our conduct, through Him, and as destined, by the mystery of grace, of the hoped-for deification, to come to rest in Him; and let us receive our eternal well-being through what now seems, alas, ill-being, showing, by what we suffer, our disposition hidden toward God, unaltered by any manner of the pains that befall us. Let us not, then, lose heart in our afflictions, honored Father, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proof, and proof, hope; and hope does not put to shame, having a sure enjoyment of the eternal good things for the sake of which we suffer. But let us nobly bear what befalls us, looking to Jesus, the author of our salvation, who, being true God, willingly accepted death on our behalf, that, suffering, we might rejoice, having become united with Him through death, being leavened toward a resurrection of indestructible life. Since it is the will of the divine law that we, doing good, should suffer unjustly as disciples of Christ, unto the condemnation of sin — which the intelligible serpent, through deceit, brought in, persuading man to transgress the divine commandment, and to prefer the temporal to the eternal — over whom we have received authority to trample, keeping the grace that guards us, kept safe by the observance of the commandments; which grace is achieved, by those who love the Lord, only through the illtreatment of the flesh, whether voluntary or involuntary, joined with sober reasoning.

Having fixed all your desire upon this, you do not feel the afflictions, holy Father, having the joy of the things hoped for conquering your present affliction — of which may we all be found worthy, Christ our great God and Savior distributing these things to us, as He knows, according as each is worthy; by the intercession of His undefiled and all-holy Mother, ever-virgin, and of all the saints. Amen. Letter 17. — to Julian the Scholastic, Alexandrian, Concerning the Church‘S Doctrine of the Incarnation of the Lord. It filled me, lowly and sinful, and with me, so to speak, the whole holy catholic Church of God, with great joy and spiritual gladness — the honored letter of my lord kept of God, bringing us good news of the firm and unshaken resolve, both of him and of my lord with him, lord Christopemptus the most wise Scholastic, concerning the right, pious, and saving confession of the faith in Christ our true God — who became man for this reason, that He might gather the nature of men to Himself, and put a stop to its being borne badly against itself — or rather, standing in rebellion against and divided against itself, having no stability at all, on account of the unstable movement of each man‘s will. Wherefore, giving thanks to God for you always, most honored ones, we make unceasing supplications, sinners though we be, that you may be preserved unshaken and unmoved for all time in the saving confession of the faith, believing that the Son and Word of God the Father, having truly become man from men, on behalf of men, according to men, without sin, was not turned from being God even in becoming man; nor has He been diminished from truly being man, having remained what He was, and is, and shall ever be by nature: God.

But being God according to essence and nature on His own account, He unchangeably, by economy, for our sake, truly became man, by the assumption, that is, of flesh possessing an intellectual and rational soul. Wherefore the same is by nature and in truth God, being truly and unfailingly, at once, the one and the other — since neither of the natures that came together, in the mystery of His incarnation, that is, His perfect enanthropesis, unto union according to hypostasis, in any way denied itself on account of the union, but preserved its own essential principle and definition, that is, its natural individuality, in relation to the other, unconfused and unaltered, after the union. For the union does not abolish the difference of the things brought together into one hypostasis, but wholly expels their division into separate existence. Since, then, the things of which Christ consists are preserved unimpaired in Christ according to nature, even after the union, how is it not right to confess the things of which Christ consists, even after the union, according to some who do not perceive how perilous and dangerous a thing it is, and how it involves harm to every soul, to contend against what is manifest, and plainly to deny the truth that exists — and how this is proper only to those who altogether do not expect resurrection and judgment?

For to whom is the word of truth not clear and manifest, being simple and without excess, and containing nothing enigmatic at all? For if Christ is God and man, in reality and in truth, after the union, and is not said to be God and man merely by calling and appellation — it is plain that he who says and thinks that Christ is, at once, God and man after the union, has truly confessed, together with the names, the natures of which these are the names — if indeed he does not think that the appellations applied to Christ are bare, and altogether destitute of realities. What absurdity, then, has the holy catholic Church of God committed, if she says that the things of which Christ consists are preserved in Christ, by an unbroken union, according to nature, unconfusedly and undividedly, even after the union? What has she thought that is foreign to the teaching of the holy Fathers, if she neither holds that the divine nature of the Word has been turned into the nature of the flesh, nor that the nature of the flesh itself has passed over into the nature of the Word on account of the union, and teaches the faithful so to think and speak after the union? What does she not rather confirm of the paternal tradition, teaching men to think thus, and confessing one Lord and one Christ, and the same one Son, and one nature of God the Word Himself incarnate, with flesh possessing understanding a the rational and expression intellectual according to soul, the interpretation of our holy and blessed Father Cyril — meaning, by saying “incarnate,” that the indication of our own essence is thereby introduced, and not denying the nature of the flesh of the Word on account of the union?

For the things preserved according to nature, unconfusedly, unchangeably, and undividedly, by an unbroken union, in Christ, even after the union, without any diminishment whatsoever, it is altogether most fitting and most just to confess also after the union. For it is the property of true faith to confess what we have been taught to think. If, then, the things of which Christ consists are preserved according to nature after the union, it is altogether right also to think that they exist in Christ after the union. And if it is right to think that the things of which Christ consists are preserved after the union, it would be far more right and fitting, and most necessary for all who are concerned for their salvation, also to confess them — since the unfailing confession of true faith is the demonstration of it. And this much concerning these matters. For there is no need to say more, addressing this discourse to you, who are in no way ignorant, through grace, of the things pertaining to right faith in Christ. Concerning the things you wrote to me about, most honored ones, I have brought our own honored letters as well to the notice of the blessed servant of God, the most acclaimed Prefect; and he has eagerly promised to fulfill every request of yours. And I do not cease reminding him, until he shall altogether bring your request to completion.

May the Lord and God of all and our Savior Jesus Christ, who willingly accepted death on our behalf, and redeemed us by His own blood from the power of darkness, and gave us the new commandment to love one another as much as we have been loved — may He Himself hold your right hand, and guide you in every good work, and direct your steps according to Himself; bringing you, in the fullness of the fruits of righteousness, to the wondrous place of His tabernacle, where is the dwelling of all who rejoice. Letter 18. — in the Person of George, the Most Acclaimed Prefect of Africa, to Nuns Who Had Apostatized from the Catholic Church in Alexandria. I, for my part, thought that you had truly been established well, and had the foundations of your soul unshaken, from the right and pious confession and hope of the blameless and unerring faith in Christ — revering the grace of God that had called you, and had united you to the living, sound, and blameless body of the holy catholic and apostolic Church; and had strengthened you, already fallen prey to the wasting disease of error and ignorance, and made you a useful member of the common body of the Church, in which the pious, right, true, and saving word of the apostolic faith is proclaimed flourishing, embracing within itself all that is under heaven, and ever adding and joining to what has already been gathered that which is still lacking, and showing all men from the ends of the earth to the ends thereof to have one soul and one tongue in spirit, according to the concord and unanimity of the faith — which faith the Word of God, the maker of men, ineffably, from men, on behalf of men, according to men, truly having become man, by the assumption of flesh possessing a rational and intellectual soul, and not by a change of Godhead — without sin, of course — taught us men to confess and embrace, denying not even one of His natures whatsoever, after the union, that is, after the enanthropesis — neither the divine, according to which He is and remains always, on His own account, God and consubstantial with the Father; nor the human, according to which the same truly became man for our sake, as loving toward mankind, and is consubstantial with

us. For He was not turned from what He was and is, and shall ever be, by nature, God; nor again did He, in becoming man by an unbroken union of ensouled flesh, change His nature — being one and the same, God and man; not existing as God and man by calling and appellation only, but properly existing, and truly named, God and man in reality and in truth. Having, from the union, the “one” and singular according to hypostasis, but not according to nature, as the Fathers teach, saying, “For even if the combination of both is one, it is not one by the nature of the coming-together” — according to which, by economy, for our sake, as good, He deigned to become composite, preserving unharmed, even after the incarnation, His simplicity according to nature, according to which He remains of the same nature and consubstantial with the Father. For Godhead and manhood are not the same. For although the Word of God became man, He became man by the assumption of flesh united to Him intellectually, according to hypostasis, by an unbroken union. Wherefore the same is properly both God and man, being the one and having become the other, and existing unfailingly as both this and that — neither confused by the utterly singular character of the hypostasis, according to which the principle of difference is altogether absent, nor divided by the pure otherness of the natures of which He consists, according to which the principle of difference has in no way been abolished by the union.

Since, then, the difference of the natures of which Christ consists is preserved unconfusedly even after the union, there is, I think, no argument at all that could show it to be right that the quantity of the things naturally differing, preserved in Christ by an unbroken union, should not be confessed — since every difference of necessity introduces with itself a quantity of things differing from one another in some respect. For never could anyone, however clever and resourceful he might be, if he thinks rightly and gives even a small account of truth, say that there is a difference apart from quantity, clearly knowing that every difference belongs either to the essential otherness of certain things, or to the unlikeness of certain things according to quality and property — which the quantity of the underlying things, whether they are united or altogether apart from union, produces. For in those things in which one and the same principle is not observed in every respect, there is an indication of quantity, of which difference is a property. If, then, in the case of Christ, it follows, by the argument, to say, in respect of the union, the wholly singular according to hypostasis, as the Fathers teach; while it is consistent and fitting to speak of quantity in respect of the difference of the natures of which Christ consists, preserved in Christ, unconfusedly and undividedly, even after the union — it is plain that, just as he who does not say that Christ, on account of the union according to hypostasis, is one nature of God the Word incarnate, rightly understood according to the interpretation of our most holy Father and teacher Cyril, does not believe the union to have come about; so too he who does not confess the two natures after the union, of which Christ consists, cannot say that the difference is preserved.

For the difference after the union belongs to the natural otherness of the things of which Christ consists, and not merely to an unlikeness of quality apart from the natures underlying the qualities — without which it is impossible for a quality to exist by itself — lest we introduce a bare, or rather more properly speaking, a false and nonexistent difference. Persuaded that we hold this confession of the faith precisely, according to the Fathers, I have never hesitated to write everywhere, at every time, to patriarchs and bishops and rulers, and to our most pious and ever-illustrious emperors themselves, for the sake of giving thanks to God, making known to all your genuine conversion and faith in Christ. And I never thought, as I have said, that you would so quickly turn away from your saving calling. But since, on account of my sins, the evil one, who from the beginning has, through deceit, been dragging the race of men to ruin and destruction, has managed to persuade you also to prefer falsehood to truth, and, more than God and the good things laid up for the saints, to grant to men, out of wicked habit, a deception that lures only to death, taught to do so; and has been able, to speak prophetically, to turn you back like dogs to your own vomit — I charge you, if you are so incurably disposed, and have resolved to the end to turn away from the grace of Christ, that for now you give up the gifts that have been made to you by me to Theopemptus, the man sent by me for this purpose alone, with a written instruction, so that you may have no uncertainty about this.

And again, if it seems good to our most pious and Christ-loving and ever-illustrious emperors, and to the most holy patriarchs, since all things concerning you are, through me, by God‘s help, made known to their serenity, that they should learn of your apostasy and of such great wickedness and ingratitude, I shall judge it well that this be done. For I will not keep silent about so great an evil. But if, taking to heart the fearsome tribunal of Christ, before which, in the presence of angels and archangels and the whole assembly of the heavenly hosts, and all human nature, the case that I shall bring against you concerning this matter will be tried, you repent, and return again to the God who called you in grace — then I wish you to have again that very endowment given to you by me; and I shall not cease, as long as I manage to live this present and temporary life, devising ways for your greater establishment; nor shall I refuse to give myself as a ransom for your souls, if the occasion should require this to be done of necessity. And I shall give it eagerly, when God, through His grace, calls me to this — if only you will restore yourselves again to Christ God, and heal well the cutting-off and separation that has come upon you from His body, by your return.

Letter 19. — to Pyrrhus, the Most Holy Presbyter and Having read your holy letter, God-honored Father, I recognized your mind as wholly worked, whole, by the Spirit; and I perceived it to have departed from natural understanding by just so much as I found it to have laid hold of divine and more-than-natural wisdom. For I thought I beheld, as though present through your letters, your Godwise mind itself, shining with the unmingled rays of the Spirit alone — by which he who is deemed worthy to be adopted as a son by the Father of all is naturally transfigured toward what is more divine — and myself delivered from ignorance of the divine doctrines to the same degree that I had before thought myself to be holding fast to knowledge of them. Wherefore, marveling at your keenness of mind in all things, I could only cry aloud that one saying which a certain woman of old cried out to the Lord, struck with astonishment at the power of His words: “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts that nursed You.” And I count blessed not only her who bore you, honored Father, as having been counted worthy to become the mother of such a man, but also her who conceives, and ever bears and gives birth to your pious word and thought — she who has been shown to be a womb capable, by grace, of the Word who is beyond nature, on account of the kinship of your will with the Word Himself.

And indeed, by your firm dispositions, brought forth from your heart, with which, after the manner of breasts, in both practice and contemplation, you nourish the Word, who grows together with you by the supply of pious thoughts and manners — and, wonderful to say, effects the deification of the very mind that nourishes Him, as its own growth. For what else could I say to you, honored Father, beholding you become the begetter of such words — by which, as from a certain mountain of the height of knowledge, you have made known to us the decree concerning the divine doctrines, brought and issued like tablets inscribed by God‘s own hand, through the new Mediator, and, for us, the great Moses, and priest of priests, and head of the divine priesthood over the whole world — a decree which the holy and only-worshipped Trinity dictated, as through the instrument of the aforesaid high priest, and by which it has bound the Churches yet more closely to concord, setting at nothing the innovation concerning the faith which seemed to many to have arisen in the city of Alexandria. For the decree given has entirely preserved this understanding, according to which our God-bearing Fathers handed down to the holy Churches to believe: declaring one and the same God the Word both before the flesh and after the flesh — which He Himself united to Himself for our sake, intellectually ensouled, according to hypostasis, the flesh assumed from the holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary; He Himself deigning to become, as it were, the seed of His own incarnation, that He might also truly become man, and show, by the seedless conception and the incorrupt birth, nature being innovated, and suffering no diminishment by the innovation.

For the mystery was, on God‘s part, a voluntary self-emptying toward men out of goodness, and not a fall from Godhead — the willing condescension through flesh. For He remained what He was, even in becoming what He was not — for He is unchangeable. And He preserved what He became, remaining what He had been — for He is loving toward mankind. By the things He worked in a manner befitting God, He showed what He had become to be unaltered; and by the things He suffered in a manner befitting man, He confirmed what He had been to be unchanged. For He worked the divine things in a fleshly manner, since it was through flesh, not devoid of natural activity; and the human things in a divine manner, since He admitted the trial of human sufferings by will and with authority, and not through compulsion of circumstance. For neither were the divine things done in a divine manner, since He was not a bare God; nor the human things in a fleshly manner, since He was not a mere man. For this reason the wonders were not without suffering, and the sufferings were not without wonder; but the one, if I may venture to say so, was not without passion, and the other was manifestly wondrous; and both were paradoxical, because both divine and human, proceeding from the one and the same incarnate God the Word, who, through both, really confirmed the truth of the things of which, and which, He was.

For that which is produced, unconfusedly, from certain things by a union according to a natural coming-together, both preserves unchanged the natures of which it consists, and preserves unimpaired their constitutive powers, for the completion of one work — whether what came about was a suffering or a wonder — according to the image, Father, of your own wonderful and fitting example for the mystery of the divine incarnation: the heated sword, whose cutting we know to be burning, and whose burning we know to be cutting. For a coming-together according to hypostasis has come about of fire and iron, neither having departed from its own natural power on account of the union with the other; nor again possessing this power as loosed from union after the union, and separated from that with which it is composed and coexists. This, then, is the precision of the divine doctrines which I found so wisely woven into your letters; and having fixed my mind upon it, according to whatever modest power of understanding is in me, I prayed that I might be made able to keep it, and to hold it in my thought, admitting of no erasure through forgetfulness. But do you, God-honored Father, have sympathy with me, your servant, and grant, as one loving toward mankind, the pardon that is due, since I am unable to undertake what has been enjoined.

And do not condemn me for disobedience; but rather accept me as one eager to become aware of his own ignorance. For rashness is hateful, and the first offspring of the deepest ignorance, by which the disease of pride is naturally made manifest, producing in those it has seized a disposition set against God. And accept my refusal in this matter as free of every passion; and do not reject me for putting forward to you the same words which Moses first, and Jeremiah afterward, put forward to God on such occasions — the one saying, “I beg You, Lord, I am not able, neither before yesterday, nor before the third day, nor since You began to speak to Your servant; I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.” The other saying, “O Existing One, Lord Master, I do not know how to speak, for I am young.” For in truth I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue, and deprived of the understanding needed to speak good things — having neither a mind capable of grasping divine matters, nor speech in utterance able to serve the greatness of what has been sought. For I am still young in my passions, and possess a rebellion of the flesh that has gained the advantage over the law of the spirit. Even if, then, we should grant, by hypothesis, that I lack nothing of the power required for such matters, who is so bold and so rash as to add further prescription to what has been so hierarchically decreed by divine vote?

I beg you rather, by your honored letters, to make clear to me by a definition what “activity” is, and in how many senses “activity” is spoken of, and what, beyond this, pertains to “operation”; and what difference we say there is between these, in relation to “work” and “action,” so that I may be able to understand the force of what has been written. For I have not yet been able precisely to grasp in what sense and with what meaning the “one activity” ought to be received or understood. For we do not simply utter meaningless sounds, but signify concepts by our words. For this reason I have often found the God-inspired Fathers yielding on words, but never on concepts — since the mystery of our salvation exists not in syllables, but in meanings and realities. For the one thing they did out of concern for peace; the other, in establishing souls in truth. And this much concerning these matters. I beg, honored Father, your holiness, graciously to receive the divine Fathers who bring this modest letter, for a need beneficial to the common order of monks, who have given themselves to this voyage; and to grant that everything be done for them which the precise word of the divine commandment requires for those who aspire to divine things, and who have as the sole pattern of their own life the Word incarnate.

For they are worthy of your zeal in this, since they draw, blamelessly, the divine yoke of virtue and knowledge. But I fear, in writing these things, lest I incur reproach among those who do not know you, Father, and have not had experience of your condescension, for untimely boldness and lack of taste; and lest it be said of me too, justly, what a certain wise man outside our own tradition said, having observed a foolish man puffed up over something: “He drove the fool to insolence, though the wise man merely smiled.” In all things, then, holy Father, forgive me, your servant, and by your all-holy prayers propitiate for me Christ our God, whom you serve continually, both by purity of mind and by exactness of life. Letter 20. — to Marinus the Monk. Knowing, for my part, the multitude of my own offenses, and foreseeing the condemnation that will, as is likely, follow upon them after the departure of this life; and beholding, as it were, that great and fearsome tribunal already assembled in my soul, before which each of us shall receive, according to his worth, the recompense of what we have done — I determined to make silence my companion, sparing myself, as it seemed to me, in every way from divine words that are above me; lest I be condemned the more, and the more justly, as one who puts forward the words of God, deadened by my own inactivity in good works, and therefore unable to grant those who hear them life in grace; and as one whose manner of life has no power to display the paths of virtue to the one who speaks of them; and so become liable to the coming threat, not only as having, in myself, through my own wicked ways, put to death the life-giving words of God, but also as furnishing to those who hear a living image, plain to all, of contempt for those very words, in the whole wicked conduct of my life.

I, then, as I have said, both knowing and fearing these things, shook off my eagerness to speak and write of divine words, judging it a very great injustice, and a ruinous harm, to receive vain praise from listeners for a work I do not perform. But since the most holy hegumen, a man of great prudence, and altogether honored by me — whom I was unable to refuse, on account of the beauty of virtue that becomes him through his divine understanding — has overcome my resolve of silence by his many divine incantations of reasoning, and has compelled me to trace out this modest letter to your piety, having recounted to me some part of your achievements according to God, and greatly benefited me thereby — I thought it necessary to say, in brief, those things which are profitable and salutary to you and to me, and to all who wish to hear. David, the great prophet and king, showing to those who have set themselves to love God, and have chosen the divine salvation above all things on earth, the truly gnostic path of the divine virtues, and opening the practical door of knowledge, says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and a good understanding have all they that do it.” And if fear is the beginning of wisdom, then the end of wisdom is plainly a good understanding, belonging to those who practice it.

And if this is so, let us strive, with all our power, to acquire the fear of God, and the good understanding: fear, that we may flee the defilements of sin, shaking them off from the soul by the expectation of eternal punishments; and understanding, that we may be shown to be doers, with knowledge, of all the divine wills. For he who fears the penalties that follow upon the transgression of the divine commandments is not taken captive by the passions that defile his soul; and he who has, inwardly, the good understanding that rightly distinguishes temporal things from eternal, becomes richly adorned with all divine good things, allowing the knowledge within him to be shown idle in no way. For just as fear, in those who truly fear God, becomes the destroyer of unclean passions, so also understanding, in those who are truly understanding, becomes the maker of all the virtues. Let us, then, fear God, and do nothing of what He does not will; and let us love His understanding, and neglect nothing of what He wills us to do. For he who fears God hates all lawlessness, and he who has taken up residence in good understanding loves all righteousness. For just as hatred of lawlessness marks him who fears, so too love of righteousness makes the understanding man manifest. Let us not, then, fashion fear only in outward manners, nor show reverence to exist only in visible ways; but let it be by a disposition of soul, and a humility of heart secured by frequent groanings from the depths, and struck, invisibly, in conscience, by the scourge of the memory of past sins, and, on account of this, not enduring, through its own selfrestraint, to look at all upon the failings of others.

For he who feigns the fear of God only in outward manners is in no way different from an ape, which imitates the manners and gestures of men. For this animal, among the four-footed, though naturally far removed from human nature, seems, by its imitation of manners, to those who watch it, to be a man, though it possesses nothing human by nature — just as he who imitates the manners of those who truly fear the Lord, to deceive onlookers, but does not have the disposition of will made like theirs by divine fear, is a certain other Sadducee, or Scribe, both being and being called such — preserving the outward form of reverence, with an external decorum, but altogether lacking the reality itself, on account of an unclean friendship with the passions lying somewhere deep in his soul. Let us not again display divine knowledge merely by the utterance of words polished to beauty; nor let us define the good understanding to consist merely in the bare ability to speak, apart from doing; but let it be by a disposition of soul made like the virtues through practice, and thus by practice brightening the light of knowledge, and by knowledge illuminating the vigor of practice; so that, joined through deeds, the fear that comes with the desire for God according to good understanding may work in us the complete divine wisdom — beginning in the abstinence from evils that comes with divine fear, and being perfected in the practice of the commandments according to good understanding.

For he who determines understanding to consist in the mere bare utterance of divine words is like a parrot, which imitates human speech. For this bird alone among the winged creatures, having been taught, mimics human words, though it has nothing at all human by nature — just as he who, up to bare utterance alone, imitates the words of the truly understanding, to the amazement of his hearers, but does not have the habit of knowledge made like theirs by the practice of the virtues, is truly a certain other Pharisee, or a blameworthy priest, both being and being called such — feigning understanding by the utterance of words alone, but altogether lacking the wisdom that truly has its being in works; and therefore greatly puffed up, and, by the arrogance of the conceit that nourishes the pride in his mind, setting himself against the word of truth — not knowing, it seems, that the theology of demons is manifestly the knowledge of those who, out of love of glory, are greatly puffed up about it, without practice — having Jesus expressly rebuking the one who is, as it were, theologizing, though such a man, held fast by his passion, does not perceive it. For this reason, let us fear God with fear, and free ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, not allowing the law of the flesh, through the praised mortification of our members, to rise up against the law of the spirit; nor let us circumscribe the majesty of divine fear by outward manners alone; but let us make our outward composure the herald of the good disposition within, in the soul, that we may flee the coming threat of fire; and let us adorn good understanding with the practice of the commandments, lest we, as vainglorious, carry about dead words, deprived of the life that comes with the practice of the commandments; but let us make the divine words active, pursuing peace with all men, and love; taking care for kindness and gentleness, and longsuffering, and forbearance toward all in all things; bearing what befalls us with patience and thanksgiving; and receiving afflictions unshaken, as divine gifts, opposing nothing to the reasonings of the providence that beneficially conducts our life through these things — that we may attain eternal life together with all the saints, delighting in the good things to come, in the

abiding of eternal blessedness, hearing God say to us: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” And let us rejoice, enjoying those ineffable good things “which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man — which God has prepared for those who love Him.” Letter 21. — to the Most Holy Bishop of Cydonia. My lord, kept of God, having come to know, through pious inquiry into the mystery of God‘s economy toward us, God Himself as equal to Himself in height and in depth alike, and marveling at how the boundary, joined together with the boundless around Him, though opposite and unmixed, came to be made known through one another — the infinity being ineffably bounded together with the boundary, and the boundary being supernaturally spread out together with the infinity — while He Himself, in respect of whom both these things hold, remains identical with Himself, yielding nothing at all of Himself in either respect: existing and being known, according to nature, as unbounded, but according to economy, as incomprehensible; having the height of divine glory beyond conception, and the depth of His condescending economy beyond circumscription — has, with understanding, laid himself, as it were like wax, pliantly beneath God as beneath a seal; and receiving Him, stamped wholly and to the depth, he has made himself a clear likeness of the divine blessedness.

For having wisely exchanged himself for the divine ways: by virtue he tempered the loftiness of his rank to the lowliness of his nature; and again, by knowledge, he raised up the lowliness of his nature to the height of his rank; and he made each to be seen, paradoxically, within the other. For in both respects he has kept himself identical with himself, yielding nothing of dignity in either; showing very plainly, by this, that he has acquired an unadulterated likeness to God, since God put forward the priesthood on earth, having ordained it in His own stead — so that, being seen even bodily, His mysteries might not cease to appear to those able to see. For this reason, my lord, being borne godlike both in word and in manner, has wrought much salvation for me. For just as the Lord exhorted men to be reconciled to God the Father as men who had been offended against rather than as men who had offended, as the divinely inspired Paul bears witness, saying, “We are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were exhorting through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” — so that, ashamed by the greatness of the benefit, they might come to a realization of their own hardness of heart — so also my lord, having skillfully mastered me by a voluntary condescension, by pretending to wish to learn from me, through letters, the very things which he himself has been set forward to teach by virtue of his rank, has, even if late, made me aware of my own ignorance.

I confess, then, the grace to my lord; and I glory in the manner by which he has gently driven away the cloud of my self-conceit; and I ask him not to cease shaping his servant by such words and such ways. Letter 22. — to Auxentius. If, trusting in the Spirit, you have determined to neglect the writing of letters to friends, on the ground that you hold the love between us as something indissolubly established, needing nothing to renew it, then I both praise the reasoning and accept you, trusting in that treasury of love from which and toward which it is natural for it both to begin and to find its rest. But if, out of mere sluggishness, you excuse yourselves from the fitting practice of friendship, that of writing, I shall not cease to do the opposite; not knowing how to be ashamed of friends for the sake of worldly reputation. And if neither of these two is the reason for your not writing, then receive, though absent, and give eagerly to those who are absent, as nature has taught, the meeting that comes through letters — or rather, as God, having made nature wise, has provided as a comfort. For a word given shape in letters pricks the memory when it is still, and rouses it when it slumbers, toward the seeing and the tracing again of the faces of those we love; through which longing, like a fire that has been quenched, is fanned back into flame from a small spark.

Letter 23. — to Stephen the Presbyter. It is the property of spiritual love not only to benefit those in need who are present, but also to comfort those who are absent; and not to allow souls to be cut off together with bodies, nor the power of the word, by which the soul bears the image of its Creator, to be circumscribed by place; but either, being present with those we love, to converse suitably, face to face, by voice, or, being absent, to speak with them through letters. For this manner of intercourse nature, by God‘s grace, wisely devised, for the undivided union of those greatly separated from one another bodily by distance of place. For in this way the word, sounding frequently in voice and in letters, implants in the soul a memory not easily washed away, so as continually to behold those who are ever present in spirit through love; and to embrace them, and to be recalled from all sorrows. Do not, then, forget me, your child and disciple, honored Fathers; but, being both disciples and teachers of love, feed my starving soul with the word of the virtues; and enlighten my mind, oppressed by the darkness of ignorance, looking to the reward laid up for you in heaven for this — even if what you do should perhaps draw you away for a little while from a better and more honored occupation.

For I know that it is not equal, in respect of true glory, to converse immediately with God, and to provide, with compassion, for those who are lesser. And yet even this is not foreign to what is reckoned acceptable to God. Letter 24. — to Constantine the Sakellarios. The honored letter of my lord, kept of God, came with peace, and bore him wholly, appearing in its very manner. For it is natural that the disposition of the soul be somehow made manifest together with the gravity of one‘s words and the fairness of one’s ways. And I rejoiced, as though I had received my lord himself present, and I embraced him in spirit, and, taking him wholly into the room of my heart, I laid him to rest there; and I glorified Christ our God, who has wisely implanted in men the law of love, according to which those who rightly know how to tend the seeds of love can never be absent from one another, however greatly they may be separated bodily by distance of place. But since the letter, bringing good news of worldly peace, has changed sorrow into joy of soul, it is fitting that we should, for this, become altogether grateful to God who granted it, lest we appear ungrateful for His kindness, having repaid our benefactor badly. And we shall indeed become grateful, if we make right use of the peace, and, setting aside the friendship, wrongly formed within us, with the world and the ruler of this world — a friendship that stands, through the passions, against God — we at last, even if late, put an end to the war; and, having made an unbreakable truce of peace with Him, cease, in the abolition of the body, our enmity toward Him.

For it is impossible for us to be befriended to God while, through the passions, we rebel against Him, and consent to pay tribute, through wickedness, to the evil tyrant and murderer of souls, the devil, unless we have first been altogether at war with the evil one. For until then we stand as enemies and foes of God, even if we drape upon ourselves the name of the faithful, so long as we are willing to be enslaved to passions of dishonor; and no benefit at all will accrue to us from worldly peace, so long as the soul remains ill-disposed, in rebellion against its own Maker, and unwilling to come under His kingdom — sold still to countless harsh masters, who drive it on to wickedness, and prepare it deceitfully to choose the road that leads to destruction rather than the one that saves. But when we sober up from the drunkenness of the passions, and rise up against the wicked and tyrannical kingdom of the devil, and shake off his most bitter yoke from ourselves; and when we perceive how much our friendship with him has corrupted us — then we shall receive the peaceful presence of the peaceful and gentle King, Christ, coming invisibly upon us; and we shall consent to come under His yoke, as He orders and directs us by the laws of truth; and we shall accept sending forth to Him, willingly, our friendship, offering to Him willingly tributes and taxes — the fruits of righteousness brought to completion in us through the virtues, according to the commandment.

Delighting in these, for the sake of our salvation, He who alone is without need will grant us, as one who cannot lie, all that He has promised us. And this is: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered into the heart of man — what God has prepared for those who love Him.” For He made us for this very purpose: that we might become partakers of the divine nature, and share in His eternity; and appear like Him according to deification by grace, for the sake of which the whole constitution and continuance of beings exists, and the bringing forth and coming to be of beings. Let us, then, become worthy of peace, my blessed lord, manfully casting away from ourselves the passions that rebel within us against God. Let us dissolve, as far as we are able, the body, through whose vigor the entrance of the devil into the soul comes about. Let us halt the mind when it wanders, by divine readings, and lead it back again to God. Let us, by the discipline of self-control and vigilance, soberly restrain desire, which is carried disorderly by appetite toward many things. Let us wisely lull to rest, by prayers and supplications and almsgiving, anger when it seethes and is disturbed. Let us stop, by fear of God and the threat of the things to come, the senses when they move and act unrestrainedly.

Above all things, and before all things, let us remember death, and the soul‘s fearful departure from the body; and how the principalities and powers and authorities of darkness meet it in this air, each one dragging and tearing it toward itself, in proportion to the evil kinship formed with it, relationally, through passion, in the midst. Let us remember the bitter pain that comes upon the soul in Hades, according to conscience, at the memory of the evils it has done through the body. Let us remember the final consummation of the whole world, in which this whole universe is consumed by a great and boundless fire — the elements fearfully shaken by the melting of the burning; the heaven fleeing in its folding, fearfully, in haste, from before the face of the fire that purifies creation beforehand for the presence of the Pure One; the sea vanishing, the earth heaving from its very depths, and bringing forth, unimpaired, the countless myriads of human bodies. Let us remember the dreadful hour of the defense that shall take place before the fearsome and dread judgment-seat of Christ, when the whole power of the heavens, and the whole creation of men from the foundation of the age, shall behold what belongs to each, down to a bare thought; when, on account of the brightness of their works, some shall receive the ineffable light, and the radiance of the holy and blessed Trinity, shining more clearly upon those able, through purity of soul, to see and to receive it; while others, on account of the wretchedness of their works, shall receive the outer darkness, and the unsleeping worm, and the unquenchable fire of Gehenna; and, heaviest of all, the shame in the conscience that has no end.

Let us remember all these things, that we may become worthy of the one, and be condemned not to have experience of the other; and let us become wholly our own, and wholly God’s — or rather, wholly and only God‘s — bearing nothing earthly within ourselves, that we may draw near to God, and become gods, receiving our being gods from God. For thus are the divine gifts honored, and thus is the presence of divine peace welcomed with affection. And this much concerning these matters. May the God of peace, who reconciled us to Himself through the cross, and redeemed us by His own blood from the power of darkness, grant His own peace, which surpasses all understanding, to my blessed lord, and count him worthy of His heavenly kingdom, where is the dwelling of all who rejoice, and the chorus of those who keep festival. Letter 25. — to Conon the Presbyter and Hegumen. I believe, as I have received and been taught, that God is love; and that just as He Himself is one, never ceasing to be one, so He makes those who live according to His love to be one, and grants them one heart and one soul, however many they may happen to be — that, having as it were one soul, they may know one another‘s hearts, and not weary themselves searching in ignorance concerning what is hidden, each man guessing at his neighbor’s disposition toward himself.

For this reason, trusting in the grace of Christ moving within you, holy Father, that you are ignorant of nothing in my heart, just as, perhaps — even if it is bold to say — I am ignorant of nothing in yours, I make bold, for the present, to defer my coming to you, knowing that you will not believe my deferral to be due to disobedience, but to a bodily ailment forcibly hindering me from the journey, and not allowing the readiness of my soul to proceed into deed. But even absent in body, through this present letter, I who am ever present in spirit, and never separated from you in soul, embrace you, my father and protector according to God, and the guardian of my salvation, and your holy flock, worthy of the kingdom of Christ; and I beg you to make supplications on my behalf to the Lord, that I may carry away a faith in Him that is living and active, not deadened by the passions, but possessing the power of His cross, and His death, and burial, and resurrection: the power of the cross, in the inactivity of sin; the power of death, in the most complete casting away of wickedness; the power of the burial, in the laying aside of the soul‘s fantasy concerning sensible things; and the power of the resurrection, in the wealth of the virtues, and the abundance of true knowledge of Him, and the raising of the mind on high, away from things that perish — that I may become of one body and one soul with Him.

And, simply put, according to His promise, like Him in all things, apart from identity of nature with Him — lest, having deadened the life given to me by Him through the things I have mentioned, by works of dishonor, I justly bear the judgment of those who have killed their own life, our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is truly fearsome, and beyond all condemnation, willingly to deaden the life given to us by God, as a gift of the Holy Spirit, through love of things that perish. And this fear is altogether known to those who have trained themselves to prefer truth to selflove. Letter 26. — to Thalassius the Presbyter, Who Asked How Certain Kings Among the Nations, When a Wrath Sent from God Was Pressing Upon the Subject Multitude, Sacrificed Their Children and Firstborn, and the Wrath Ceased, as Is Recorded of Many of the Ancients. God also permitted the Greeks to be guided by oracles, through which they devised for themselves the foreknowledge of things to come, and ways of deliverance from things that grieved them; and He often granted that events should turn out according to their hopes, preparing the way, by providence, for all men, according as each was able to receive it, toward the reception of the great mystery that was to come. For if the affection of rulers for the ruled, proceeding into deed, has snatched a whole subject people from a pressing necessity, it is neither strange nor incredible that He who is by nature loving toward mankind, and the sole Creator and King of men, should, by economy, through flesh, put forward His own Son to death on behalf of all men, that He might redeem them from the evils that held them fast.

Indeed, when the kings of Israel and Judah campaigned against the Moabites, in the time of the holy prophet Elisha, and, after a great victory, were about to sack the very city of that kingdom, the king of the country, taking his son, according to what seems to have been the custom among the nations, sacrificed him upon the wall before the eyes of the kings; and by this means he propitiated the kings, and persuaded them to turn back from the wrath prepared against him, and delivered his subjects. God, then, in permitting the Greeks to carry out what came from their own devising, was wisely appropriating it toward the reception of the great mystery; and in giving the law to the people of Israel, He was, throughout, fashioning a type of the mystery to come. Wherefore, after the mystery of our salvation had appeared and been brought into effect, He abolished those things, from both Gentiles and Jews, which He had before given, or permitted to come about, for the shaping of what was to come. For “of Him, and through Him, and unto Him are all things” — all that has come to be or shall come to be, at every time and in every manner: some by good pleasure, some by economy, some by permission. What is recorded by the ancients, then, is not a myth; but it truly happened, and there followed upon it the deliverance for the sake of which it happened.

But let us, with God‘s help, examine in detail what has been written, when we are together with you. Yet he who has understood how even the flesh of a serpent can, by art, heal those who are sick, will faithfully accept the method of divine providence. Letter 27. — to John the Cubicularius. Those who have established love for one another according to the world need one another‘s bodily presence for its preservation, on account of the forgetfulness that naturally withers away every longing constituted around bodies alone — together with which the memory of those so disposed toward one another naturally dies down as well. And there are times when the very thing that seems able to preserve the worldly relation of men to one another is undone by a satiety that supervenes, wiping out the whole disposition that came before. And often the failure of some one of the causes that supply it, or even some small pretext that intervenes, brings about a swift reversal, into hatred, of a love so constituted. But those who are bound to one another indissolubly by the bond of love according to God, whether together or apart from one another, rather intensify this bond — having it within themselves for God’s sake, He who is Himself love, and who supplies to the worthy the power to love; and very justly so, I think.

For just as it is natural for the disposition of those so disposed toward one another according to things naturally in flux to flow away together with them, so, among things stable and ever the same, the affection of those so disposed toward one another is accustomed to remain altogether unshaken and unmoved together with them — intensifying their longing for one another toward the boundless, to the same degree that God, the cause of this relation, naturally draws to Himself, in spirit, those who are attached to one another. Loving you, then, in this manner, greatly beloved one, I have you inseparably present with me always, in soul, stamped deep within my spirit; and however great the length of time, and however great the distance of place between us, I never cease seeing and embracing you intellectually. Believing that I am loved by you equally, if not more, I do not hesitate to write without delay concerning whatever is needful, knowing that one soul has come to be of us both, through the spirit. And I know that you do not think yourself outraged in hearing this, considering the fearsome condescension of God toward men, which is beyond mind and reason. Receive, then, kindly, the one who brings this modest letter, and be to him all that He who has ordained that men share one another‘s misfortunes has commanded; and make your neighbor so much your own that he is no longer thought another, according to the disposition, mutually exchanged, of those transformed toward one another.

For the divine word bids us not only to rejoice with those who rejoice, but also to weep with those who weep; and not simply to love, but to love our neighbor as ourselves — not to mention the new commandment, which, for the sake of love for one another, commands us, when the occasion calls for the contest, to lay down our very souls; which commandment the Lord who gave it fulfilled in deed, not refusing to lay down His own soul on our behalf — a pattern for us of perfect well-pleasing, by which the law of self-love is gently quenched — that law which at the beginning, through pleasure, deceitfully led us away from God and from one another; and which, teaching us to think that instead of one God there are many, or none at all, has utterly shattered the power of the reason within us in relation to the flesh, and, cutting the one nature into many portions, has, for the sake of pleasure, made savage against one another the power of the anger within us. Be, then, as I have said, all things to him who needs your help, that you may find God becoming such to you — He who, out of love for mankind, deigns to become all things to all. Letter 28. — to Cyrisicius the Bishop. Having been allotted, by the grace of the high priesthood given to you, to be an imitator on earth of divine goodness, honored Father, you have left none of the ways that characterize it unfulfilled; but, holding them all in succession, following upon one another, you have taken care to adorn the mystery of the high priesthood with the tunic of the virtues, woven from above through the Spirit — a tunic which the demons can never tear, even by a multitude of trials, though they crucify you.

Take care, then, to gather together into one the scattered children of God. For this too is a mark of divine goodness; and, having become the head of the honored body of the holy Church of God, fit the members together with one another by the master-building of the Spirit; and call, with a loud voice, as one appointed a herald of the divine teachings, both those far off and those near; and bind them to yourself with the unbreakable bond of the love of the Spirit — if indeed the expectation of the enemies has fled, and been altogether brought to nothing, by which they became so estranged from their own mother — so that it may be granted to you also to say, in a manner befitting Christ: “Behold, I and the children whom God has given me.” But deign to count your lowly and unworthy servant and suppliant worthy of your honored letters concerning this, holy Father; and do not disdain, in your prayers, to offer me, presenting a sacrifice of praise before God. Letter 29. — to the Same. God came down from heaven seeking, and, longing for the sheep, clothed Himself in it; and thus, having saved the one that had gone astray, He laid it upon His shoulders with the flock and, in compassion, brought it back. And you, most holy Father and shepherd, having filled the reed-pipe of the Holy Spirit‘s teaching alone, have brought back to yourself, full, the flock of rational sheep — a flock that had departed from its homeland unwillingly, but now willingly runs to your voice, that of the good and knowledgeable shepherd, as having complete discernment of what is beneficial.

For it did not wander and cross the wide seas out of neglect of the divine pasture, but for the sake of the saving safety of its divine treasures of soul. But receive a flock that has not only remained untrampled by wolves, but has also become a destroyer of wolves, and is rich in many good things of soul. And press forward, and prosper, and reign, for the sake of truth, and gentleness, and righteousness — as a teacher of the divine doctrines of piety, and a guide of a pure life and a dignified way of living, and a lawgiver of right discernment in all things — having received, together with the aforesaid sacred flock, also the sanctified lord abba George the presbyter, a sacred man, whose life is equal to his word, and who, through both, is a destroyer of the wicked power. But since I have been swallowed up in great grief, unable to bear separation from them, either receive me as well, and give me rest beneath your wings, or strengthen me, by your prayers, to bear nobly the pain that comes with separation from those most dear to me. Letter 30. — to John the Bishop. Those who have rationally examined the nature of beings say that the power of fire is such as to attract everything that lies near it; and, comparing God to this symbolically, the interpreters of the divine mysteries say that He too is attractive of all who wish to obey His laws, and are willing to embrace a holy life.

And, saying that the priesthood exists in relation to Him as an image fittingly bears the likeness to a portrait, they declare that it too, by the same law of grace and compassion, is attractive of all who fall under its own nature. Having, then, been allotted, holy Father, to bear this image of God on earth, call to yourself, by ways and words of compassion, those who long to return to you, and desire to be shepherded by you according to their prayers; and confirm, by true promises in your honored letters, your care for them, with God‘s help, in all things — if indeed the foul-smelling expectation of the enemies has altogether passed away, on account of which those who thought it safe to follow the law of God, who plainly cries out, “If they persecute you in this city, flee to another,” endured so great a flight, preferring the praiseworthy fear to boldness — so that, trusting after God in your words, they may make their return without fear, and may find, in the merciful care you extend to them in all things, relief from the labors under which they were oppressed during this fearful exile, endured for the sake of virtue and of obeying God, who commanded them to flee from their persecutors. Do not, then, disdain, holy Father, to receive your suppliant and servant who entreats you; but honor, by your own letters, as one honored, him who is worthy of no honor; and commend me, in your prayers, to Christ, the only honored One, who has also, at great cost to Himself, honored the dishonored man — whom, imitating in all things as your Master and Lord, you have shown yourself to those who see you to be, by the grace of the Spirit, another Him.

Letter 31. — to the Same. Just as a ray gently draws to itself a healthy eye, which naturally delights in light, and imparts to it a share of its own brightness, so too true priesthood, being throughout a mark of the blessed Godhead for those on earth, draws to itself every soul that is, by disposition, God-loving and divine, and imparts to it a share of its own knowledge, peace, and love; that, having brought each power of the soul to the completion proper to its own activity, it may present to God, throughout, those it has mystically initiated, having been deified. For the end of the rational activity of the soul is true knowledge; of the desiring power, love; and of the incensive power, peace — just as it is also the property of true priesthood, through these, both to be made divine and to make others divine. For it is toward this that we naturally have the reasoning faculty, that we may seek God; and we received desire, that we might long for Him alone; and we obtained the incensive power, that we might contend for Him alone. And the end of seeking is true knowledge; of longing, continual and fervent love; and of the divine contests, the peace that surpasses all understanding. Knowing you, all-holy and thrice-blessed ones, to be doers and teachers of these highest goods, the true servant of God, both daughter and mother, Eudocia the recluse, together with her sacred flock, has returned to you, having shown you, honored of God, to be victors over all who were eager to have her for themselves.

For she is truly a servant, as one who fulfills the divine commandments; a daughter, as having, throughout, by disposition, an unvarying likeness to God; and a mother, as being also generative, in others, of the disposition according to virtue. But rejoice, then, henceforth, and be glad, having recovered the most honored part of your holy flock; and having received especially also the sanctified lord George my presbyter, the truly divine “farmer” [Georgios], and most approved cultivator of the divine and great George, sufficient in deed and in word before God and all the people, according to the farming skill of souls, and therefore beloved by all who love the Lord. But since I, for the present, have become halfdead and half-cut-off, torn from their beneficial companionship, either receive me also as a diseased member, and heal me, or console me by your prayers, and persuade me to bear the separation without suffering. For this too is a property of the divine and true priesthood. Letter 32. — to Abba Polychronius. Since we are about to celebrate the burial, according to the flesh, of Christ, who was put to death and buried for us, and His resurrection, let us examine whether we too have been put to death and buried according to the old man, which is corrupted according to the desires of deceit, and have risen according to the new man, which is renewed according to the image of Him who created it.

And the sign of the first, the mortification, is complete freedom from the passions; and of the second, the resurrection, is a stainless and true boldness according to conscience, and the illumination of knowledge in the mind. And if these things have come to pass in us, let us keep festival together with Christ our God; but if not, let us contend, at the very least, not to betray the Word to the passions like Judas, nor to deny Him like Peter — lest we should be unable to repent, and be led away, having changed our minds to no profit; or lest we should weep bitterly and wash away the marks of denial. For denial of the Word is the abandonment, through fear, of the doing of good; and betrayal is the deliberate impulse, carried into act, toward sin — of which may we never have experience. Letter 33. — to the Same. If, according to Job, the great conqueror of trials, “the life of man is a trial upon earth”; and if the world, as the Lord said, “lies in the evil one”; and “many are the afflictions of the righteous,” as great David declares; and if we must, of necessity, according to the righteous judgment of God, have trials and struggles, whether against men or against demons, as the holy Apostle says — let us entreat God to grant us endurance, that we may be able to be drawn up out of the mire of the passions, and to stand upon the unshaken rock — I mean, by grace, dispassion in Christ — the trial-filled life, and the wicked world, and men, and demons having been put to death within us: that is, the passionate life, and the pleasure-deceit that comes through the senses, and the fleshly sufferings, and the passionate movements of the soul, and the involuntary trials brought upon us on account of these, which have been called afflictions.

Let us endure, then, that we may be saved; for “he who endures to the end shall be saved.” The peace of Christ be with us. Amen. Letter 34. — to the Same. Going forth to His suffering, the Lord left us peace; and again, having risen from the dead, He gave us peace. What is He hinting at through this? That we must pass through opposite circumstances without passion, neither falling under grievous circumstances so as to be without better hope, nor being carried away together with bright occasions so as to cast off the reasoning that trains us; but being the same, both in suffering and in faring well. And this does not come about unless we first tread upon the asp and the basilisk — that is, unless we rise above disobedience to the divine words, and the acceptance of wicked reasonings — and trample down the lion and the dragon, that is, anger and desire; and when these have been done away with, all peace will be ours, no one of the things that remain here being able to move us toward anything. Let us master anger and desire, and we shall have overthrown, at once, the whole house of the aliens together with those in it, having put to death, together with the passions, the passionate life and conduct. Letter 35. — to the Same.

If, after that great and fearsome wilderness, the people of Israel receive the land of rest; and — most astonishing of all things to hear — He who became man for our sake, being God and Lord of all, enters into His glory through sufferings and the cross and death, there being no other way appointed for Him, as it is written: “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory?” — let us not lose heart in our afflictions, growing faint; but let us look to Jesus, the author of our salvation and its perfecter, and let us nobly endure what befalls us. For the end of every affliction is joy, and of every labor, rest; and of every dishonor, glory; and, simply put, the end of all the pains endured for the sake of virtue is to be with God forever, and to enjoy the eternal rest that has no end. But pray, Father, that we may attain to it, having crossed well the sea of life, and having kept the intelligible footings of the soul from its brine and its snares. Letter 36. — to the Same. Blessed is our lord before the Lord, and blessed is the garden of his heart, which the true husbandman Jesus planted, and has filled with the undying plants of righteousness — of whose fruits we too have partaken, having been filled with his spiritual vegetables, with which the great Apostle knew how to nourish those too weak for the immediate direct vision of divine things, feeding them, as it were with vegetables, on the natural contemplation of visible things, and leading them by the hand, through the magnificence of what appears, toward its Creator.

In imitation of him, our blessed Father and teacher has affectionately shown us kindness, setting before us, symbolically, through his vegetables, the understanding of this creation. But impart to us also solid food, and stir our soul, weakened by pleasures, and lacking appetite for divine things, sharpening its desire by the more subtle account of providence and judgment; that you may not nourish your disciples on vegetables alone, teaching them only the principles of things that come to be and pass away, but may also establish them, with the bread and the wine and the oil, in the accounts of eternal things — giving, as it were solid bread, the word that holds the virtues together, and warming the heart, as with wine, by the word of unforgetting knowledge, toward a deifying ecstasy in your followers, and, as it were oil, nourishing and preserving unquenched the flame within them, producing in your servants the peaceful and untroubled disposition of gentleness. Letter 37. — to the Same. Again we have received your honored letter, together with gifts, holy Father; and again we have enjoyed good things equal to the former: by the gifts, having quenched the blackening burning of the passions in our soul — for before them we had already eaten the intelligible words, not believing that these were sent by you idly, or in vain, or by chance, since it is you who are moved throughout by word and spirit, and who make of us an instruction for the soul, along with food for the body; and by the letter, having found humility, the mother of all the virtues, through which both the birth and the guarding of good things is wrought in those who possess it, we wept abundantly, perceiving how far we have removed ourselves from this path.

For your mourning became a rebuke of the evils we are held fast by, and awakened our understanding, deeply asleep, and exercised our memory, veiled by the covering of puffed-up self-conceit; and it has made us aware of ourselves, feeling in due measure the disturbance caused by our own sins. And it has made us partakers, in some measure, of wisdom, having taken cognizance of our own failings, if indeed he speaks truly who says: “Those who know themselves are wise.” Do not cease, then, honored Father, both renewing our understanding by your word, and asking, by prayer, our deliverance from evils; that you may receive for these a reward from God, who grants the complete purification of the soul according to conscience. Letter 38. — to the Same. We thank you, honored Father, that you have given yourself to us as a most excellent pattern of repentance, persuading us, through confession, to lay bare the dark treasuries of the passions within ourselves — through which the hatred of sin naturally comes to be confirmed. For we are, in truth, those who cherish the passions, the memory of which, after the deed, brings distaste: like onions, loving the assent to wicked reasonings, by which the sight of the soul toward virtue and knowledge becomes duller, receiving, as it were, layers — the passionate imaginings of visible things. For “onion” [kromyon], according to those skilled in etymology, means “closing of the eye” [koris myein].

And like garlic, chewing on the fulfillment, through activity, of the passions, by which the mind, filled with impurity, breathes outward, through shameful words and manners, the foulness of the evils it has fed on through deed. But teach us, holy Father, how, after casting these away, we may love the manna — I mean the rational bread of divine knowledge, rained down upon us from heaven — and keep it incorrupt: neither storing it up for tomorrow, by delay, lest it breed worms of fleshly passions, rotting through idleness; nor parading it about for display, lest it come to nothing, melted away by vainglory. Feed us again with such words, honored Father, your disciples, and commend us in prayer to God, who cannot be worshipped by us apart from your mediation. Letter 39. — to the Same. You nourish us ungrudgingly, sanctified Father, both the visible and the intelligible man: supplying the body with what sustains it, and giving the soul what makes it grow in the Spirit. For God has made you rich in both respects, having blessed your entrance. For by “entrance” I mean the acquisition of the gifts supplied to you by God, multiplied through practice; and by “exit,” the sharing of the word that comes from you to others — bearing, as it were fruit, in those very ones who receive it, the activity of what is fitting.

Letter 40. — to the Same Thalassius, Presbyter and Hegumen. [Note: the Greek text of this letter is fragmentary at several points in the manuscript tradition; gaps are marked below with an ellipsis in brackets, as in the source.] Having carefully read the wise and honored letter of your paternal holiness, master, and having considered everything, and read through the whole book of my conscience, I found nothing in me of the things it contained [...]. I quickly drew in the tension of my soul, tightening its slackness, judging it vain to be credited with praises belonging to another‘s excellences, and reckoning it the property of a soul alone that is inclined toward every seductive deceit. For it is truly vain to attempt rashly to appropriate to oneself, as full of virtue, praises belonging to one who does not have, in his actual deeds, the glory of what is said of him. But my master, judging the excellences of others by his own abundance of virtue, votes as he does out of the overflow of his God-like perfection, covering the shame of one wounded by many [...] passions, as is the custom of those who love the Lord. Yet I, my blessed master [...] of an all-radiant perfection in virtue, having besought the command [...] most unworthy, about to fall under every reproach and blame, as it were on account of my own rashness before [...], having set your love above [...]

to lord abba Thomas, eagerly assisting in this matter — supplying, that is, the sufficient material, I think, through the winter, so that, with the Lord’s cooperation, such a command of yours may be able to be fulfilled. May you be greatly preserved for me, beloved and honored Father, and may you preserve, by your entreaties to God [...] your servant and slave — and I shall add, your lover — delivered by your intercession alone from every diabolical device. Letter 41. — to the Same. He who has been taught by the Spirit to take everything captive unto Christ knows how to reap benefit from all things — as indeed you do even from me, who am wholly estranged from divine grace, and firmly bound by the laws of the flesh, and who have nothing, either great or diligently pursued. I ought altogether to have excused myself from ever coming to you, lest I do more harm by doing what you bid. And I shall come when the Lord wills, knowing that you have remained undefiled and unstained even while keeping company with me, the profane one. For what is holy by habit, like what is holy by nature, will be defiled by nothing unclean. As for the matter of the Vestitor, you do well to share in his suffering, if the thing brings no harm; and especially if you know yourselves able to bear with it.

Letter 42. — to the Same. [Note: the Greek text of this letter is fragmentary in the manuscript tradition; gaps are marked below with an ellipsis in brackets, as in the source.] The blessed David, that great king of the Lord, after the fearsome wars with the Philistines, after the great trials at the hands of his own countrymen, after his toilsome flights, and the frequent plots against him in return for his many benefactions, after the risings of his own kin, after [...] and his kingdom, when he perceived God [...] on every side [...] — then he resolved to build a house for the Lord God [...]. And God accepted him as one who had resolved well [...] yet a fitting distinction, saying [...] that it was the offspring from him who must bring the good work to completion [...] undertaking; adding the reason: that he had shed much blood upon the earth. And he obeys God‘s counsel; and he welcomes the advice with pleasure, and judges it more honorable than his own glory. And he himself does not build the temple of God, but hands it over to his son abundantly [...], giving both the material and the pattern; teaching us thereby, I think, the well-ordered bonds of salvation. And that I may not lengthen my discourse by going through the contemplation of each of these things in detail — the peaceable [...]

able to build the temple of God above [...] these are they, and if anyone [...] — but not able to persuade to keep guard through fear, and, while cooperating in the building of the most divine temple, suffering harm — Hiram, king of Tyre, and the hundred and fifty thousand foreign hewers of stone and drawers of water. But “press forward, and prosper, and reign” — even though you have reigned without your own Maximus — “for the sake of truth, and gentleness, and righteousness,” these very things. And I would add: watch with all your might not to be carried away, as it were, together with the daughters of the pagan kings, lest they divide the kingdom together, to a foolish son and a rebellious slave. For much willingly [...]. Farewell, honored Father, and pray for your servant [...] and grievously held fast by many sins. Letter 43. — to John the Cubicularius. [Note: this letter is, in the manuscript tradition, a nearduplicate of Letter 24, To Constantine the Sakellarios, addressed here to a different recipient with only minor verbal variation.] The honored letter of my lord, kept of God, came with peace, and bore him wholly, appearing in its very manner. For it is natural that the disposition of the soul be somehow made manifest together with the gravity of one‘s words and the fairness of one’s ways; and I rejoiced, as though I had received my lord himself, and I embraced him in spirit, and, taking him wholly into the room of my heart, I laid him to rest there; and I glorified Christ our God, the light that has implanted in men the law of love, according to which those who rightly know how to tend the seeds of love can never be absent from one another, however greatly they may be separated bodily by distance of place.

But since the letter, bringing good news of worldly peace, has changed sorrow into joy of soul, it is fitting that we too should, for this, become altogether grateful to God who granted it, lest we appear ungrateful for His kindness, having repaid our benefactor badly. And we shall indeed become grateful, plainly, if we make right use of the peace, and, setting aside the friendship, wrongly formed within us, with the world and the ruler of this world, we at last, even if late, put an end to the war that stands, through the passions, against God; and, having made a truce of peace with Him, cease, in the abolition of the body, our enmity toward Him. For it is impossible for us to be befriended to Him while, through the passions, we rebel against Him, and are held fast paying tribute, through wickedness, to the evil tyrant and murderer of souls, the devil, unless we have first been altogether at war with the evil one. For until then we stand as enemies and foes of God, even if we drape upon ourselves the name of the faithful, so long as we are willing to be enslaved to passions of dishonor, and consent willingly to bring dreadful tribute to the devil through works of shame. And no benefit at all will accrue to us from worldly peace, so long as the soul remains ill-disposed, in rebellion against its own Maker, and unwilling to come under His kingdom — sold still to countless masters, who ever drive it on to wickedness, and prepare it to choose, deceitfully, the road that leads to destruction rather than the one that saves.

But when we sober up from the drunkenness of the passions, and rise up against the wickedness and tyrannical kingdom of the devil, and shake off his most bitter yoke from ourselves, and perceive how much our friendship with him has corrupted us — then we shall receive the peaceful presence of the peaceful and gentle King, Christ, coming invisibly upon us; and we shall consent to come under His yoke, as He orders and directs us by the laws of truth; and we shall accept sending forth to Him, willingly, our friendship, offering to Him willingly tributes — the fruits of righteousness brought to completion in us through the virtues, according to the commandment. Delighting in these, for the sake of our salvation, He who alone is without need will grant us, as one who cannot lie, all that He has promised us. And this is what “eye has not seen, and ear has not heard — what God has prepared for those who love Him.” For He made us for this very purpose: that we might become partakers of the divine nature, and share in His eternity; and appear like Him according to deification by grace, for the sake of which the whole constitution and continuance of beings exists, and the bringing forth and coming to be of things that were not. Let us, then, become worthy of peace, my blessed lord, manfully casting away from ourselves the passions that rebel within us against God.

Let us dissolve, as far as we are able, the body, through whose vigor the entrance of the devil into the soul naturally comes about. Let us halt the mind when it wanders, by divine readings, and lead it back again to God. Let us, by the discipline of self-control and vigilance, soberly restrain desire, which is corrupted disorderly by appetite toward many things. Let us wisely lull to rest, by prayers and supplications and almsgiving, anger when it seethes and is disturbed. Let us stop, by fear of God and the threat of the things to come, the senses when they move and act unrestrainedly. Above all things, and before all things, let us remember death, and the soul‘s fearful departure from the body; and how the principalities and powers and authorities of darkness meet it in this air, each one dragging and tearing it toward itself, in proportion to the evil kinship formed with it, relationally, through passion, in the midst. Let us remember the bitter pain that comes upon the soul in Hades, according to conscience, at the memory of the evils it has done through the body. Let us remember the final consummation of the whole world, in which this whole universe is consumed by a great and boundless fire — the elements fearfully shaken by the melting of the burning; and the heaven fleeing in its folding, fearfully, in haste, from before the face of the fire that purifies creation beforehand for the presence of the Pure One; the sea vanishing, the earth heaving and shaken from its very depths, and bringing forth, unimpaired, the countless myriads of human bodies.

Let us remember the dreadful hour of the defense before the fearsome and dread judgment-seat of Christ, when the whole power of the heavens, and the whole creation of men from the foundation of the age, shall behold what belongs to each, down to a bare thought; when, on account of the brightness of their works, some shall receive the ineffable light, and the radiance of the holy and blessed Trinity, shining more clearly upon those able, through purity of soul, to see and to receive it; while others, on account of the wretchedness of their works, shall receive the outer darkness, and the unsleeping worm, and the unquenchable fire of Gehenna; and, heaviest of all, the shame in the conscience that has no end. Let us remember all these things, that we may become worthy of the one, and be condemned not to have experience of the other; and let us become wholly our own, and wholly God’s — or rather, wholly and only God‘s — bearing nothing earthly within ourselves, that we may draw near to God, and become gods, receiving our being gods from God. For thus are the divine gifts honored, and thus is the presence of divine peace welcomed with affection. And this much concerning this matter. May the God of peace, who reconciled us to Himself through the cross, and, when we were enemies, redeemed us by His own blood from the power of darkness, grant His own peace, which surpasses all understanding, to my blessed lord, and count him worthy of His heavenly kingdom, where is the dwelling of all who rejoice, and the chorus of those who keep festival.

Letter 44. — to John the Cubicularius, Concerning Of old, through the Law and the Prophets, God, as good, gave men, in many ways, the law of love for one another; and at the end of the ages He Himself, as loving toward mankind, fulfilled it, becoming man — not only loving us as Himself, but even more than Himself, as the very power of the mystery plainly teaches those who have piously received the confession of faith in Him. For if He, willingly, as one accountable, of His own will put Himself forward, on behalf of us who were bound to suffer as those accountable, to suffering and death, it is plain to anyone who has perceived even a little of the grace that He loved us, for whose sake He of His own will delivered Himself to death, more than Himself; and that He, as more than good, preferred — even if the statement is bold — the outrage undergone by economy for our sake, at its fitting time, to His own natural glory, as more honorable. For the return of those who had gone astray is truly a surpassing honor and an increase of the glory of God, and, more than natural glory, a manifest advance and demonstration in the open. And nothing is more proper to Him, in the reckoning of glory, than the salvation of men — for the sake of which every word and every mystery exists; and the most mysterious of all mysteries: God Himself, truly for love‘s sake, having become man by the assumption of flesh intellectually and rationally ensouled, and having, unchangeably, taken upon Himself the sufferings of nature, that He might save man, and give us men Himself as a pattern for virtue, and a living image of goodwill and love toward Him and toward one another, able to put all to shame toward the return owed Him.

Since, then, it is a law of God, old and new, that we love one another as much as we have been loved, and make one another‘s misfortunes so much our own that we requite one another’s dispositions in exchange, on account of the relation of love, according to the commandment that bids us “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” — I entreat my lord, kept of God and blessed, who has one and only aim: to follow, through equal love for mankind, Him who passed through the heavens, Jesus, bound by no tie whatsoever of kinship to this deceptive world and its ruler — for the present world truly is deceptive, ever alluring by deceit toward desire for things that perish, and binding fast, in the slavery of material things, those who are by nature free and heirs of the heavenly good things, its sport being, through pleasure, to trick those who consent to be held fast by it. Knowing, then, that my blessed lord has, as I have said, this one aim of salvation, I entreat him, on receiving my lord who is with him, the most magnificent Theocharistus, who brings this modest letter of mine, to become to him, in all in which he needs assistance after God — or rather, with God — all that we ourselves wish God to become to us, and our neighbor, in the matters for which we pray.

For he is truly a good man, a temple of every work of righteousness, and, after God, a genuine protector of my own parish; and a ready comforter in many, frequent, and grievous illnesses; and, simply put, he has, according to the power within him, given aid to me and to many others. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from Him on that day, since he has been a rest and comfort to many. Wherefore, if I have found favor in the eyes of my blessed lord, and he counts me among those beloved to him according to God, let him by all means, with all zeal, take up his cause, allowing nothing unjust, so far as it lies in his power, to happen to him. For this is what the law of love dictates, and what the mystery of God‘s most divine sojourning among men through flesh requires — that he may return, with God’s help, recounting the benefactions of my blessed lord, and the unadulterated zeal of his assistance to him; and I too shall receive an increase of boasting, having been allotted from God such a lord on earth, ready for every good work, and a protector, prompt and most sincere, of all who are in need. May God, who alone is good and loving toward mankind, who for the sake of our salvation administers all things to all savingly, hold your right hand, my lord, and guide you into the way of His righteousness, and count you worthy of the heavenly kingdom, having been well transformed here by the divine gifts.

May the God of all and our Lord Jesus Christ preserve our most pious and ever-illustrious emperors, and strengthen the might of their pious reign, and speak good and peaceable things concerning us their lowly servants into their hearts. And, if I may venture to say something — for my grief makes me bold — may He grant them this too as a prayer pleasing to Him: that, since they consented to recall, even for a moment, the most acclaimed prefect of this province — a man shining like a lamp in a parched place, and freeing all, in a certain manner, from the pain of not seeing — a man loving God, faithful, pious, good, reverent, temperate, self-controlled, forbearing, gentle, compassionate, merciful, a feeder of the poor, a carer for the aged, a protector of widows, a guardian of monks, unacquisitive [unharmed], a lover of the Church; and, to sum it up, a friend of all, both living and dead — caring for the living in every manner of affection, and honoring the dead, in the beauty of buildings for their burial, as Joseph of Arimathea honored the Lord who consented to be put to death in the flesh for us; and further, besides these things, a most fervent zealot for right reason according to the apostolic faith, a herald of a life of righteousness. And, to speak concisely, while other men have devoted themselves, each to different things, according to his own inclination, on earth, it has been George‘s work and endeavor to care for and support the hospitals, the homes for the aged, the guesthouses for strangers, and the almshouses, and the monasteries, and the burial-places for strangers, and all the multitudes of the poor and needy scattered, like flocks, by kind throughout the cities; and to surpass, by the rays of his love for mankind, the boundaries of east and west, of northern and southern regions.

Such being the case, who among those who in any way lay claim to piety does not know how great a favor toward the whole this man‘s well-pleasing works have called down from God, ever flourishing through the readiness attending upon him? The opposite, which would occur through their idleness, I shall pass over in silence, for its ill omen. And who could measure the tears poured forth like fountains from every eye, by those who dwell in this land, at his departure — all of them clinging to him, and forcibly pulling him back toward themselves, and not allowing him, so to speak, even to board the ship, and imploring him with wailing, seeking him, as it were, each according to his own kind and age: some, the provider of poverty’s needs; others, the steward of prosperity; the widows, their protector; the orphans, their father; the poor, their lover of the poor; and strangers, their lover of strangers; and brothers, their lover of brothers; the sick, their physician; those in misfortune, their consolation; gray old age, its staff — and, simply, all of them, him who had become all things to all, that he might win all, and be won, on behalf of all, for God? Wherefore, according to the grace given you by God, my blessed lord, by whatever ways and persons you know, if you should be able to bring it about that he return again, know that you will have offered a great sacrifice to God, and given a genuine token of goodwill and unbreakable security to our God-established emperors.

For no one stands as a more genuine servant of their pious reign than he. Farewell, greatly beloved one, and most honored to me of all, genuine servant of God. Letter 45. — to the Same. In every generation, at its proper time, God, providing for human nature, and caring for the salvation of us all, has raised up one who would live a holy life, shining forth like light with the virtues, as one able, by his own resolve, to receive the divine laws, giving him as much strength as the people being led was likely to need for its conversion; so that the rest of men, attending to him as to a lamp of the light of righteous works, might themselves also order their life according to God, tripped up by no passion born of ignorance. And for us, in due season, a certain lamp and rule of virtue has been raised up: George, the Christ-loving prefect — a man of such great and abundant virtue, who has received from God, by grace, such an abundant power, surpassing, by as much, those formerly appointed and put forward for this office, as we ourselves — that is, our own generation, pressed down by so heavy a weight of wickedness — needed for our recovery, even from the multitude of those who do us harm. A man good and loving toward mankind, if ever there was one among the most Godloving men of old or now: merciful, gentle, forbearing, longsuffering, humble-minded, temperate, free of wrath, free of love of money, loving, unresentful of wrongs, beneficent, hospitable, a lover of the poor, compassionate, sharing what he has, most zealous, watchful, a lover of the Church; and, most honored of all, a most fervent zealot for the pious doctrine of right faith.

And the rest follows as is contained in the former letter, in which I also signified this, in part, to my blessed lord through another letter. For to comprehend, by the power of speech, all of this man‘s achievements is among the things impossible and not to be attempted; and I have set this forth only because my lord, kept of God, knowing the man’s love of God, as being, through the very facts themselves, a divine grace, has shown that he receives and honors it; and I have declared that it should be commended to our pious and ever-illustrious emperors, who image forth the divine power on earth; and that he should persuade the unjust tongues of lawless men not to be received, tongues that “work deceit like a sharpened razor,” and “love evil more than good” — lest room be given to falsehood against truth, and injustice take boldness against righteousness, and, simply put, wickedness against every virtue, through the interchange and confusion of these with one another. For it is written: “To punish a righteous man is not good, nor is it holy to plot against just rulers.” For this is fitting for my blessed lord to accomplish, being a lover of wisdom and prudence — which I pray may be kept always by my lord, kept of God, as a guard of his soul and his body.

And I entreat that the bearer of this letter of my nothingness, who has an understanding of soul older than the age of his body, be received favorably, on account of the discernment that becomes him, as one devoted to the divine pursuit of learning, and one who does not disdain to have a genuine relation to me, the lowly one. To Anastasius the Monk Yesterday, the eighteenth of the month, which was the holy Pentecost, the patriarch made known to me, saying: “Of what Church are you? Of Byzantium? Of Rome? Of Antioch? Of Alexandria? Of Jerusalem? Behold, all of them, together with the provinces subject to them, have been united. If, then, you are of the catholic Church, be united, lest, innovating a strange path for your life, you suffer what you do not expect.” To them I said: “The catholic Church is the right and saving confession of faith in Him, on account of which He whom Peter blessed — for he confessed Him well — declared to be God of all. But let me learn the confession on which the union of all the Churches has come about; and if it has come about rightly, I shall not be estranged from it.” And they said: “Even though we have no instruction concerning this, we tell you, that you may be altogether without excuse: we say two energies on account of the difference, and one on account of the union.”

“Do you say the two have become one on account of the union,” I said, “or, besides these, some other?” “No,” they said, “but the two have become one on account of the union.” “We have rid ourselves of realities,” I said, “having fashioned for ourselves an unhypostatic faith, and a nonexistent God. For if we confuse the two into one on account of the union, and again divide into two on account of the difference, there will be neither a single unity nor a duality of energies, since they continually abolish one another, and render inactive that to which they are attached, and altogether nonexistent. For that which has no immovable property from nature, and whose motion is altered and lapses by no principle of change, is deprived of all essence, according to the Fathers, having no energy essentially characterizing it. This, then, I cannot say, nor was I taught by the holy Fathers to confess it. Do as seems good to you, since you are the ones in authority.” “Hear, then,” they said: “It has seemed good to the emperor and to the patriarch, by a precept of the Pope of Rome, that you be anathematized if you do not comply, and that you undergo the death appointed for you by them.” Having heard this, I answered them: “May what has been appointed for me by God before every age receive its fulfillment, bringing Him the glory known to Him before every age.”

“And that you may know this, and make an addition of prayer and supplication to God, I have made known to you what has been declared, entreating the Lord God, and our holy Fathers there with Him, to make these things known to them, for this same reason.”