assisting his purpose. And indeed he found a certain lector named John, a son of a certain Pancratius a painter, similar to his own mind, or rather, foolishness, who from childhood had a demon, behaving disorderly, living in foolishness, 350 whom they nicknamed Hylilas, which some say, being interpreted from Hebrew, is said to mean forerunner and collaborator of the devil. Leo, having taken hold of this man, and having communicated his own plan, took him on as his collaborator, saying that if you help me to take down the icons, I will make you patriarch. And having asked from him authority to search through all the old books everywhere, which are kept in the monasteries and in the churches, he was permitted, along with certain other disorderly and uneducated men. And indeed, having gathered a great many books, they conducted their research in them, but the foolish men found nothing of what they themselves were wickedly seeking, until they took into their hands the synodical acts of Constantine the Isaurian, also called Caballinus, and taking their beginnings from this, they began to find also in the books the passages, which they themselves foolishly and senselessly brought forward, placing marks in the places where they found them, wishing to persuade the foolish people that "in old books we have found that icons should not be venerated." And then, seeking also another who had the ordination of a bishop, they found Constantine, son of a certain presbyter who was a shoemaker, and Kasymatas who had learned grammar, and an old jurist in the Sphorakiou district who had taught children, and for certain crimes had fled to a monastery and 351 been tonsured and named Antony, and who later became abbot in the monastery called "of the Metropolitans." A certain storyteller who loved jokes and games, and suggesting that the young monks under him do these things, and, to speak plainly, having lived shamefully and indecently, I do not know how, later, by God's permission, he also became bishop of Sylaion.

At first being orthodox from childhood, but later for the sake of temporary glory and to have the confidence to enter the palace and speak freely with the rulers, he took up the heresy. When John nicknamed Hylilas, whom they called the Grammarian, and those with him denounced this man to Leo the emperor, who was at that time in Sylaion, he sent and brought him. And having told him his purpose, since he had no spiritual fruit in himself and loved temporary glory, he trampled his own conscience and rejected the cross and the inscription he had made, and turned to the opposite side. For when asked by Leo if it is written that icons should be venerated, he did not answer him with the necessary words of the truth, but said, "It is not written anywhere, but they say that it is an ancient tradition." And Leo said that if it is not explicitly written in the gospel and in the apostle that you should 352 venerate my icon, I do not accept that it should be venerated. And hearing this, he came together with him and the aforementioned disorderly and uneducated men, and is made their leader and first. And so they fought against the truth, with John, also called Hylilas, and his followers beginning to pile up the books from Pentecost. And they took on Antony from the month of July. And so until the month of December they kept the deceit secret. And when asked, they said, lying, that the emperor permitted us to search the books, because some say to him that you have a short time to reign, and for this reason we are conducting the search. And around the month of December, Leo declares to the patriarch that the people are scandalized by the icons, saying that we venerate them wrongly and that for this reason the nations are mastering us. "And so condescend," he says, "a little, and make a dispensation for the people, and let us remove the low-hanging ones." "But if you do not wish to, persuade us for what reason you venerate them, since scripture has never explicitly mentioned it." And the patriarch declares to him that we... what has been well defined from the beginning and from above by both

συναγωνιζόμενον τῷ σκοπῷ αὐτοῦ. καὶ δὴ εὗρεν ὅμοιον τῆς αὐτοῦ φρονήσεως ἤτοι ἀφροσύνης ἀναγνώστην τινὰ Ἰωάννην λεγόμενον, υἱὸν Παγκρατίου τινὸς σκιαστοῦ, ὅστις ἐκ παιδόθεν δαίμονα εἶχεν ἀτάκτως φερόμενος, διάγων ἐν ἀσυνεσίᾳ, 350 ὅν τινα Ὑλιλᾶν ἐπωνόμαζον, ὥς τινές φασιν, ἑρμηνευόμενον Ἑβραϊστὶ λέγεται πρόδρομος καὶ συνεργὸς τοῦ διαβόλου. τοῦτον ἐπιλαβόμενος Λέων, καὶ ἀνακοινωσάμενος αὐτὸς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ βουλήν, προσελάβετο αὐτὸν συνεργὸν αὐτοῦ, λέγων ὅτι ἐὰν συνδράμῃ μοι καθελεῖν τὰς εἰκόνας, πατριάρχην σε ποιῶ. καὶ αἰτήσας παρ' αὐτοῦ ἐξουσίαν τοῦ ψηλαφῆσαι τὰ ἀπανταχοῦ παλαιὰ βιβλία, ἅπερ ἀπόκεινται εἰς τὰ μοναστήρια καὶ εἰς τὰς ἐκκλησίας, ἐπετράπη μετὰ καὶ ἄλλων τινῶν ἀτάκτων καὶ ἀπαιδεύτων. καὶ δὴ συναγαγόντες πλήθη πολλὰ βιβλίων ἐποιοῦντο ἐν αὐτοῖς τὴν ἔρευναν, πλὴν οὐδὲν εὕρισκον οἱ ἄφρονες ὧνπερ αὐτοὶ κακούργως ἐπεζήτουν, ἕως οὗ μετὰ χεῖρας ἔλαβον τῷ συνοδικῷ Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ Ἰσαύρου τοῦ καὶ Καβαλλίνου, καὶ ἐκ τούτου τὰς ἀρχὰς λαβόντες ἤρξαντο καὶ ἐν τοῖς βιβλίοις εὑρίσκειν τὰς χρήσεις, ἅσπερ αὐτοὶ ἀφρόνως καὶ ἀνοήτως προέφερον, σημάδια βάλλοντες εἰς τοὺς τόπους ἔνθα ηὕρισκον, βουλόμενοι πεῖσαι τὸν ἄφρονα λαὸν ὅτι ἐν παλαιοῖς βιβλίοις εὕρομεν τοῦ μὴ προσκυνεῖσθαι τὰς εἰκόνας. καὶ λοιπὸν ζητούντων καὶ ἕτερον ἔχοντα χειροτονίαν ἐπίσκοπον, εὗρον Κωνσταντῖνον, υἱὸν πρεσβυτέρου τινὸς τζαγγαρίου, καὶ Κασυματᾶ μαθόντα τὴν γραμματικήν, καὶ γέροντα νομικὸν εἰς τὰ Σφορακίου καὶ διδάξαντα παιδία, καὶ δι' ἐγκλήματά τινα φυγόντα ἐν μοναστηρίῳ καὶ 351 ἀποκειράμενον καὶ ἐπονομασθέντα Ἀντώνιον, γενόμενόν τε αὖθις ἡγούμενον εἰς τὸ μοναστήριον τὸ λεγόμενον τὰ Μητροπολίτων. μυθολόγος τις γέλοια ἀγαπῶν καὶ παιγνίδια, καὶ τοὺς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ μοναχοὺς νέους ὄντας ταῦτα ποιεῖν ὑποτιθέμενος, καὶ ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν αἰσχρῶς καὶ ἀσέμνως βιοτεύσας, οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως ὕστερον ἐκ παραχωρήσεως θεοῦ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐπίσκοπος εἰς τὸ Συλαῖον.

Τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἐκ παιδόθεν ὀρθόδοξος ὤν, ὕστερον δὲ διὰ τὴν δόξαν τὴν πρόσκαιρον καὶ τὸ ἔχειν παρρησίαν εἰσέρχεσθαι εἰς τὰ βασίλεια καὶ παρρησιάζεσθαι μετὰ τῶν κρατούντων, ἐπελάβετο τὴν αἵρεσιν. τοῦτον καταμηνύσαντες πρὸς Λέοντα τὸν βασιλέα ὅ τε Ἰωάννης ὁ ἐπίκλην Ὑλιλᾶς, ὃν ἐκάλουν γραμματικόν, καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ, ὄντα τῷ τηνικαῦτα ἐν τῷ Συλαίῳ, πέμψας ἤγαγεν αὐτόν· καὶ εἰπὼν αὐτῷ τὸν σκοπὸν αὐτοῦ, μὴ ἔχων καρπὸν πνευματικὸν ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ ἀγαπῶν τὴν πρόσκαιρον δόξαν, καταπατήσας τὴν ἑαυτοῦ συνείδησιν καὶ ἀθετήσας τὸν σταυρὸν καὶ τὴν ἐπιγραφὴν ἣν ἐποίησεν, ἐστράφη εἰς τὸ ἐναντίον μέρος. ἐρωτηθεὶς γὰρ ὑπὸ τοῦ Λέοντος εἰ γέγραπται προσκυνεῖσθαι τὰς εἰκόνας, οὐκ ἀπεκρίθη αὐτῷ τὰ δέοντα ῥήματα τῆς ἀληθείας, ἀλλ' εἶπεν "οὐκ ἔστι γεγραμμένον πώποτε, ἀλλὰ λέγουσιν ὅτι ἀρχαία παράδοσίς ἐστι." καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Λέων ὅτι ἐὰν οὐ γέγραπται εἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον καὶ εἰς τὸν ἀπόστολον ῥητῶς ὅτι προσκυ 352 νήσατε τὴν εἰκόνα μου, οὐ καταδέχομαι προσκυνεῖσθαι αὐτήν. καὶ τοῦτο ἀκούσας συνῆλθεν αὐτῷ καὶ τοῖς προειρημένοις ἀτάκτοις καὶ ἀπαιδεύτοις, καὶ ἄγεται ἀρχηγὸς καὶ πρῶτος αὐτῶν. καὶ λοιπὸν ἠγωνίζοντο κατὰ τῆς ἀληθείας, ἀρξάμενοι ἀπὸ τῇ πεντηκοστῇ οἱ περὶ τὸν Ἰωάννην τὸν καὶ Ὑλιλᾶν σωρεύειν τὰ βιβλία· τὸν δὲ Ἀντώνιον προσελάβοντο ἀπὸ Ἰουλίου μηνός. καὶ λοιπὸν ἕως τὸν ∆εκέμβριον μῆνα κρυπτὸν τὸν δόλον εἶχον· ἐρωτώμενοι δὲ ἔλεγον ψευδόμενοι ὅτι ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐπέτρεψεν ἡμᾶς ψηλαφῆσαι τὰ βιβλία, ὅτι λέγουσιν αὐτῷ τινὲς ὅτι ὀλίγον χρόνον ἔχεις βασιλεῦσαι, καὶ ἕνεκεν τούτου ποιούμεθα τὴν ζήτησιν. καὶ περὶ τὸν ∆εκέμβριον μῆνα δηλοῖ τὸν πατριάρχην ὁ Λέων ὅτι ὁ λαὸς σκανδαλίζεται διὰ τὰς εἰκόνας, λέγοντες ὅτι κακῶς αὐτὰς προσκυνοῦμεν καὶ ὅτι διὰ τοῦτο τὰ ἔθνη κυριεύουσιν ἡμῶν· καὶ συγκατάβα, φησί, τὶ μικρόν, καὶ ποίησον οἰκονομίαν εἰς τὸν λαόν, καὶ τὰ χαμηλὰ περιέλωμεν. εἰ δὲ μὴ βούλει, πεῖσον ἡμᾶς δι' οὗ ἕνεκεν προσκυνεῖτε, τῆς γραφῆς μὴ ἐχούσης ῥητῶς πώποτε. καὶ δηλοῖ αὐτῷ ὁ πατριάρχης ὅτι ἡμεῖς τὰ καλῶς ἐξ ἀρχῆς καὶ ἄνωθεν ὁρισθέντα ὑπό τε