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be sent to any other nation whatsoever, nor be taught. Wherefore, this great emperor, making security on this point for those after him, caused curses to be inscribed upon the holy table of the church of God, so that he who should dare to give of this fire to another nation might neither be called a Christian, nor be held worthy of any rank or office; but if he should happen to have any, he should be cast out from it and be anathematized for ever and ever and made a public example, whether he be emperor, or patriarch, or any other man whatsoever, whether ruler or ruled, who should try to transgress such a command. And he exhorted all who have zeal and fear of God to be eager to destroy such a one who attempts to do this, as a common enemy and a transgressor of this great commandment, and to consign him to a most hateful and cruel death. But it once happened, since wickedness always finds a way, that one of our generals, having received very many gifts from some foreigners, shared with them some of this fire, and as God could not bear to leave the transgression unpunished, as he was about to enter the holy church of God, fire came down from heaven and devoured and consumed him. And from that time great fear and trembling were put into the souls of all, and no one thereafter, neither emperor, nor official, nor private person, nor general, nor any man at all, dared to contemplate such a thing, much less to attempt to do or perform it in deed." But come now, pass on, and for another kind of unreasonable and unbecoming request seek out and learn fitting and appropriate arguments. For if ever any nation from these unbelieving and dishonorable northern tribes should ask to form a marriage alliance with the emperor of the Romans and either to take his daughter as a bride or to give their own daughter to be the wife of the emperor or the emperor's son, you must with such words refuse their unreasonable request, saying that: "Concerning this matter also a terrible and unalterable command and ordinance of the great and holy Constantine is inscribed upon the holy table of the catholic church of the Christians, Hagia Sophia: that an emperor of the Romans should never form a marriage alliance with a nation using customs different from and alien to the Roman order, and especially with one of a different faith and unbaptized, except with the Franks alone; for that great man, Constantine the holy, made an exception for them alone, because he himself drew his origin from those parts, as there was much kinship and intermingling between Franks and Romans. And why did he exhort the emperors of the Romans to make marriage contracts with them alone? Because of the ancient distinction and nobility of those parts and peoples. But with any other nation whatsoever they are not able to do this, but he who dares to do this, as a transgressor of ancestral precepts and imperial statutes, should be judged an alien to the Christian communion and be delivered to anathema. But that aforementioned emperor Leo, who, as was said above, unlawfully and daringly took the crown from the church without the consent of the patriarch at that time and put it on, and swiftly paid the penalty worthy of his wicked undertaking, also dared to set at naught and reckon as nothing that command of that holy emperor, which, as has already been shown, stands inscribed upon the holy table, and since he had once for all put himself outside the fear of God and his commands, he also made a marriage contract with the Khagan of Khazaria, and took his daughter as his wife, and by this brought great disgrace both upon the Roman empire and upon himself, as having annulled the ancestral commands and reckoned them as nothing; moreover, he was not an orthodox Christian, but a heretic and an iconoclast. Wherefore on account of such of his

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εἰς ἕτερον ἔθνος τὸ οἱονδήποτε παραπέμπηται, μήτε διδάσκηται. Ὅθεν καὶ τοῖς μετ' αὐτὸν ὁ μέγας οὗτος βασιλεὺς ἐξασφαλιζόμενος περὶ τούτου ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ τραπέζῃ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκκλησίας ἀρὰς ἐγγραφῆναι πεποίηκεν, ἵνα ὁ ἐκ τοῦ τοιούτου πυρὸς εἰς ἕτερον ἔθνος δοῦναι τολμήσας μήτε Χριστιανὸς ὀνομάζεται, μήτε ἀξίας τινὸς ἢ ἀρχῆς ἀξιοῦται· ἀλλ' εἴ τινα καὶ ἔχων τύχῃ, καὶ ἀπὸ ταύτης ἐκβάληται καὶ εἰς αἰῶνας αἰώνων ἀναθεματίζηται καὶ παραδειγματίζηται, εἴτε βασιλεύς, εἴτε πατριάρχης, εἴτε τις ἄλλος ὁ οἱοσοῦν ἄνθρωπος, εἴτε ἄρχων, εἴτε ἀρχόμενος τυγχάνοι ὁ τὴν τοιαύτην ἐντολὴν παραβαίνειν πειρώμενος. Καὶ προετρέψατο πάντας τοὺς ζῆλον καὶ φόβον Θεοῦ ἔχοντας, ὡς κοινὸν ἐχθρὸν καὶ παραβάτην τῆς μεγάλης ταύτης ἐντολῆς, τὸν τοιοῦτον ἐπιχειροῦντα ποιεῖν ἀναιρεῖν σπουδάζειν, καὶ ἐχθίστῳ καὶ χαλεπῷ παραπέμπεσθαι θανάτῳ. Συνέβη δέ ποτε, τῆς κακίας ἀεὶ χώραν εὑρισκούσης, τινὰ τῶν ἡμετέρων στρατηγῶν δῶρα παρά τινων ἐθνικῶν πάμπολλα εἰληφότα μεταδοῦναι αὐτοῖς ἐκ τοῦ τοιούτου πυρός, καὶ μὴ ἀνεχομένου τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀνεκδίκητον καταλιπεῖν τὴν παράβασιν, ἐν τῷ μέλλειν αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰσιέναι ἐκκλησίᾳ πῦρ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατελθὸν τοῦτον κατέφαγε καὶ ἀνάλωσεν. Καὶ ἀπὸ τότε φόβος μέγας καὶ τρόμος ἐν ταῖς ἁπάντων ἐνετέθη ψυχαῖς, καὶ οὐκέτι οὐδεὶς τοῦ λοιποῦ, οὔτε βασιλεύς, οὔτε ἄρχων, οὔτε ἰδιώτης, οὔτε στρατηγός, οὔτε ὁ οἱοσοῦν ὅλως ἄνθρωπος κατετόλμησέ τι τοιοῦτον ἐνθυμηθῆναι, μήτι γε καὶ ἔργῳ ἐπιχειρῆσαι ποιῆσαι ἢ διαπράξασθαι." Ἀλλ' ἄγε δὴ μετάβηθι, καὶ πρὸς ἕτερον εἶδος αἰτήσεως παραλόγου καὶ ἀπρεποῦς εὐπρεπεῖς καὶ ἁρμόζοντας λόγους ἀναζήτει καὶ ἀναμάνθανε. Εἰ γάρ ποτε ἔθνος τι ἀπὸ τῶν ἀπίστων τούτων καὶ ἀτίμων βορείων γενῶν αἰτήσηται συμπενθεριάσαι μετὰ τοῦ βασιλέως Ῥωμαίων καὶ ἢ θυγατέρα αὐτοῦ εἰς νύμφην λαβεῖν ἢ ἐπιδοῦναι οἰκείαν θυγατέρα εἰς γυναῖκα χρηματίσαι βασιλέως ἢ βασιλέως υἱοῦ, χρή σε τοιούτοις ῥήμασι καὶ τὴν τοιαύτην αὐτῶν παράλογον ἀποκρούσασθαι αἴτησιν, λέγοντα, ὅτι· "Καὶ περὶ ταύτης τῆς ὑποθέσεως παραγγελία καὶ διάταξις φοβερὰ καὶ ἀπαραποίητος τοῦ μεγάλου καὶ ἁγίου Κωνσταντίνου ἐναπογέγραπται ἐν τῇ ἱερᾷ τραπέζῃ τῆς καθολικῆς τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἐκκλησίας τῆς Ἁγίας Σοφίας· τοῦ μηδέποτε βασιλέα Ῥωμαίων συμπενθεριάσαι μετὰ ἔθνους παρηλλαγμένοις καὶ ξένοις ἔθεσι χρωμένου τῆς Ῥωμαϊκῆς καταστάσεως, μάλιστα δὲ ἀλλοπίστου καὶ ἀβαπτίστου, εἰ μὴ μετὰ μόνων τῶν Φράγγων· τούτους γὰρ μόνους ὑπεξείλετο ὁ μέγας ἐκεῖνος ἀνήρ, Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ ἅγιος, ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸς τὴν γένεσιν ἀπὸ τῶν τοιούτων ἔσχε μερῶν, ὡς συγγενείας καὶ ἐπιμιξίας πολλῆς τυγχανούσης Φράγγοις τε καὶ Ῥωμαίοις. Καὶ διὰ τί μετὰ τούτων μόνων προετρέψατο συνιστᾶν γαμικὰ συναλ λάγια τοὺς βασιλεῖς Ῥωμαίων; ∆ιὰ τὴν ἄνωθεν τῶν μερῶν ἐκείνων καὶ γενῶν περιφάνειαν καὶ εὐγένειαν. Μετ' ἄλλου δέ του οἱουδήποτε ἔθνους μὴ δυναμένους τοῦτο ποιεῖν, ἀλλ' ὁ τοῦτο ποιῆσαι τολμήσας ἵνα, ὡς παραβάτης πατρικῶν εἰσηγήσεων καὶ βασιλείων θεσμῶν, ἀλλότριος κρίνοιτο τῶν Χριστιανῶν καταλόγων καὶ τῷ ἀναθέματι παραδίδοιτο. Ὁ δὲ προμνημονευθεὶς Λέων ἐκεῖνος ὁ βασιλεύς, ὁ καὶ τὸ στέμμα, καθὼς ἀνωτέρω προείρηται, παρανόμως καὶ τολμηρῶς ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας δίχα γνώμης τοῦ τότε πατριαρχοῦντος λαβὼν καὶ περιθέμενος καὶ τὴν δίκην συντόμως δοὺς ἀξίαν τῆς αὐτοῦ πονηρᾶς ἐγχειρήσεως, ἐτόλμησε καὶ τὴν τοιαύτην ἐντολὴν τοῦ ἁγίου βασιλέως ἐκείνου, ἥτις, ὡς ἤδη δεδήλωται, ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ τραπέζῃ ἀναγεγραμμένη καθέστηκεν, παρὰ φαῦλον θέσθαι καὶ ὡς μηδὲν λογίσασθαι, καὶ ὡς ἅπαξ ἔξω τοῦ θείου φόβου καὶ τῶν ἐντολῶν αὐτοῦ πεποίηκεν ἑαυτόν, συνεστήσατο καὶ μετὰ τοῦ χαγάνου Χαζαρίας γαμικὸν συναλλάγιον, καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα αὐτοῦ εἰς γυναῖκα ἐδέξατο, καὶ μέγα ἐκ τούτου ὄνειδος καὶ τῇ Ῥωμαίων ἀρχῇ καὶ ἑαυτῷ προσετρίψατο, ὡς τὰ προγονικὰ παραγγέλματα ἀκυρώσας καὶ παρ' οὐδὲν λογισάμενος· πλὴν οὐδὲ ὀρθόδοξος ἐκεῖνος Χριστιανὸς ἦν, ἀλλ' αἱρετικὸς καὶ εἰκονομάχος. ∆ιὸ χάριν τῶν τοιούτων αὐτοῦ