Georgius Acropolita, Against the Latins

clarity. For the Son proceeds from the Father, but by generation; the Spirit also proceeds from him, but by procession. So that where there is a proceeding, there is not necessarily generation or procession. And the luminaries of the church, having used this word concerning the Spirit, just as indeed with those previously mentioned, did not mark this with any specific qualification, so that we might know the meaning, which was necessary, if they understood it; for they would have been able to say that it proceeds from the Son, but by procession, if they had inclined to such a purpose.

1.7 Therefore, you too should speak, preserving such words unchanged in their utterance. Teach that the Spirit is sent forth from the Word; for you were taught this by the superior one. Explain also that it is supplied by him and given and sent and proceeds; for you have been taught these things by those greatest men, whose virtue is renowned and whose God-bearing nature is manifest. Basils theologize these things, and Cyrils and Gregorys, who have in no way dared to inscribe the procession of the Spirit upon the Son. And how could we so shamelessly leap upon the name and insist that we know better than they? Where have you ever found in their writings that the Spirit proceeds from the Son? But again those syllogisms, so easily found by you, are brought forward, and this rotten cord of reasoning, by which you deduce absurdities, if indeed what is absurd is false to those who think rightly. For how did so many and such great men not know what is deduced by you? But they knew and taught the premises, but what you bring forth as consequences, or indeed conclusions, they did not receive into their minds at all; for what they have not understood, how could they have set it before those being taught? Take for me yourself the premises as statements, if you wish, and conclusions, and do not through them conclude other things foreign to the truth and alien to the church of Christ.

1.8 What is the art or science of theology, that we should follow its rules? Our preaching is a simple teaching. For Christ taught it, the apostles expanded it, the teachers strengthened it. Again you are contentiously syllogizing, and I set against you the simple word. You conclude falsehoods for me, and I propose to you the truths. You deduce for me from the premises also "from the Son," I declare to you that which is "from the Father." This is of Christ, but that I know not whose; this is the teaching of Wisdom itself, that is a fiction of an unsound mind, contriving things beyond arts and sciences; Christ teaches this, and I have believed the word; you bring forward that, and you no longer have me persuaded. What is this great innovation of words? What is this great idle talk about the divine words, so as not to want to be occupied and to show off in other things, but to strive contentiously to put on airs in divine matters? The Athenians did nothing but say or hear something new, and the new theologians to alter the teachings of the truth.

1.9 But if you reduce to servitude the procession from the sending or the giving or the supplying or the going forth and again you theologize or philosophize about what is by nature or not by nature and what is by authority or by connection and whether from within or from without and whatever belongs to human artifice, I will let you chatter on with such wrongly applied quibbles and with one solution I will overturn your artful divisions or subdivisions or further divisions and that of the necessary consequences to the antitheses. In the face of God's nature and his division and union, even the mind is weak, by which we know definitions, and thought has given up, by which we have found or possessed sciences; and how could opinion have a place when those things before it are obscured and have despaired of comprehension? We humans have discovered the arts and having examined nature we bring forth our arguments naturally, and by art we have known the consequences of nature. But in supernatural matters, what is the technical argument? What the

σαφήνειαν. πρόεισι μὲν γὰρ τοῦ πατρὸς ὁ υἱός, ἀλλὰ γεννητῶς· πρόεισιν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα, ἀλλ' ἐκπορευτῶς. ὥστε οὐχ ὅπου πρόεσις, γέννησις ἐκεῖ ἢ ἐκπόρευσις. ταύτῃ δὲ τῇ φωνῇ χρησάμενοι ἐπὶ τοῦ πνεύματος οἱ τῆς ἐκκλησίας φωστῆρες, καθάπερ ἀμέλει καὶ ταῖς προειρημέναις, οὐ προσδιορισμῷ τινι ἐπεσημήναντο τοῦτο, ἵνα ἔχοιμεν γνῶναι τὸ νόημα, ὅπερ ἦν δέον, εἰ νενοήκασι· προϊέναι γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἀλλ' ἐκπορευτῶς εἶχον ἂν εἰπεῖν, εἰ πρὸς τοιοῦτον ἀπένευον τὸν σκοπόν.

1.7 Λέγε οὖν καὶ σὺ τὰς τοιαύτας φωνὰς ἀμεταποιήτους παραφυλάττων εἰς τὴν ἐκφώνησιν. δίδασκε τὸ πνεῦμα παρὰ τοῦ λόγου ἐκπέμπεσθαι· ἐδιδάχθης γὰρ τοῦτο παρὰ τοῦ κρείττονος. ἑρμήνευε καὶ χορηγεῖσθαι τοῦτο παρ' αὐτοῦ καὶ δίδοσθαι καὶ ἀποστέλλεσθαι καὶ προΐεσθαι· δεδίδαξαι γὰρ ταῦτα παρὰ μεγίστων ἐκείνων ἀνδρῶν, ὧν ἡ ἀρετὴ τὸ ἐπίσημον καὶ ὧν τὸ θεοφορούμενον ὡς ἐπίδηλον. Βασίλειοι ταῦτα θεολογοῦσι καὶ Κύριλλοι καὶ Γρηγόριοι, οἳ οὐδ' ὁπωσοῦν τετολμήκασιν ἐπὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ διαγράψασθαι τὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ἐκπόρευσιν. καὶ πῶς ἂν ἡμεῖς ἀπερυθριάστως οὕτως ἐπιπηδήσωμεν τῷ ὀνόματι καὶ κρεῖττον ἢ ἐκείνους ἑαυτοὺς εἰδέναι ἀπισχυρισώμεθα; ποῦ ποτε εὗρες τοῖς τούτων συγγράμμασι τὸ πνεῦμα ἐκ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐκπορεύεσθαι; ἀλλὰ πάλιν ἐπάγονται οἱ ῥᾳδίως εὑρισκόμενοί σοι συλλογισμοὶ καὶ τὸ σαθρὸν τοῦτο τοῦ λόγου σχοινίον, δι' οὗ συνάγεις τὰ ἄτοπα, εἰ γε ψευδῆ τοῖς εὖ φρονοῦσι τὰ ἄτοπα. πῶς γὰρ οἱ τοσοῦτοί τε καὶ τοιοῦτοι οὐκ ἔγνωσαν τὸ παρά σου συναγό μενον; ἀλλὰ τὰς μὲν προτάσεις ἐγίνωσκον καὶ ἐδίδασκον, ἅπερ δὲ ὡς ἑπόμενα φέρεις αὐτὸς εἴτε δὴ συμπεράσματα οὐχ ὅλως εἰς νοῦν ἐδέξαντο· ἃ γὰρ οὐ νενοήκασι, πῶς ἂν τοῖς διδασκομένοις παρέθεντο; λάβε μοι καὶ αὐτὸς τὰς προ τάσεις ὡς λόγους, εἰ βούλει, καὶ συμπεράσματα, καὶ μὴ δι' αὐτῶν συμπέραινε ἕτερα ἀλλότρια τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ ξένα τῆς ἐκκλησίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ.

1.8 Τίς ἡ τῆς θεολογίας τέχνη ἢ ἐπιστήμη, ὡς τοῖς κανόσι ταύτης ἑψόμεθα; ἁπλῆ τίς ἐστι διδασκαλία τὸ ἡμέτερον κήρυγμα. Χριστὸς γὰρ ταύτην ἐδίδαξεν, ἐπλάτυναν αὐτὴν οἱ ἀπόστολοι, ἐκράτυναν οἱ διδάσκαλοι. πάλιν φιλονεικεῖς συλλογίζεσθαι, κἀγώ σοι τὸν λόγον ἁπλοῦν ἀντιτίθημι. σὺ συμπεραίνεις μοι τὰ ψευδῆ, κἀγώ σοι προτείνω τὰ ἀληθῆ. συνάγεις μοι ἐκ τῶν προτάσεων καὶ ἐκ τοῦ υἱοῦ, ἐγώ σοι τὸ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀποφαίνομαι. τοῦτο μὲν Χριστοῦ, ἐκεῖνο δ' οὐκ οἶδα τίνος· τοῦτο τῆς αὐτοσοφίας τὸ δίδαγμα, ἐκεῖνο πλάσμα διανοίας οὐχ ὑγιοῦς, τεχναζομένης εἰς τὰ ὑπερέκεινα τεχνῶν καὶ ἐπιστημῶν· τοῦτο Χριστὸς διδάσκει, καὶ τῷ λόγῳ πεπίστευκα, ἐκεῖνο προφέρεις σύ, καὶ οὐκέτι πειθόμενον ἔχεις με. τίς ἡ τοσαύτη καινοτομία τῶν λόγων; τίς ἡ τοσαύτη περὶ τοὺς θείους τῶν λόγων ἀδολεσχία, ὡς μὴ θέλειν ἐν ἄλλοις ἀσχολεῖσθαι καὶ ἐπιδείκνυσθαι, ἀλλ' ἐν τοῖς θείοις φιλονεικεῖν ἐναβρύνεσθαι; Ἀθηναίων οὐδὲν ἦν ἢ λέγειν τι καὶ ἀκούειν καινότερον, καὶ τῶν νέων θεολόγων μεταποιεῖν τὰ τῆς ἀληθείας διδάγματα.

1.9 Εἰ δὲ εἰς δουλείαν ἄγεις τὴν ἐκ τῆς πέμψεως πρόοδον ἢ τὴν δόσιν ἢ τὴν χορηγίαν ἢ τὴν πρόεσιν καὶ πάλιν θεολογεῖς ἢ φιλοσοφεῖς τὸ φύσει ἢ μὴ φύσει καὶ τὸ κατ' ἐξουσίαν ἢ κατὰ τὴν συνάφειαν καὶ ἢ οἴκοθεν ἢ ἔξωθεν καὶ ὅσα τοῦ τεχνυδρίου τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου, ἀδολεσχεῖν σε ἐάσω ταῖς τοιαύταις πλημ μελῶς προσφερομέναις ἐρεσχελίαις καὶ μιᾷ τῇ λύσει ἀνατρέψω τὰς ἐντέχνους σοι διαιρέσεις ἢ ὑποδιαιρέσεις ἢ ἐπιδιαιρέσεις καὶ τὸ τῶν ἑπομένων ἀναγκαίων ταῖς ἀντιθέσεσιν. ἐπὶ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ φύσεως καὶ τῆς αὐτοῦ διαιρέσεως καὶ ἑνώσεως καὶ νοῦς ἀσθενεῖ, ἐν ᾧ τοὺς ὅρους γινώσκομεν, καὶ διάνοια ἀπηγόρευκε, δι' ἧς τὰς ἐπιστήμας εὑρήκαμεν ἢ ἐσχήκαμεν· καὶ δόξα πῶς ἂν σχοίη χώραν τῶν πρὸ αὐτῆς ἀμαυρουμένων καὶ ἀπηυδηκότων τὴν νόησιν; ἄνθρωποι τὰς τέχνας εὑρή καμεν καὶ τὴν φύσιν κατεξετάσαντες φυσικῶς τοὺς λόγους προάγομεν, καὶ τέχνῃ τὰς τῆς φύσεως ἀκολουθίας ἐγνώ καμεν. ἐπὶ δὲ τοῖς ὑπερφυέσι τίς ὁ τεχνικὸς λόγος; ποῖος ὁ