Georgius Pachymeres, Chronicle II

poetically, as they say," but now the great Basil: "Perhaps the word of truth delivers 30 that the Spirit is second in rank to the Son." But he found the construction of this proposition, although lying in many of the books, yet removed from some. Elsewhere, Gregory of Nyssa dividing the doctrines concerning God in this way: that we believe one to be the cause and the other from the cause, and again, from that which is from the cause we understand another difference: for the one is immediately from the first, and the other is through the one immediately from the first. And again at the end of the first of the Antirrhetici, "the Son is second to the Father as cause, and the Spirit is second to the Son according to the principle of cause." And elsewhere the great Cyril saying, "that which exists essentially from both, that is, from the Father through the Son," and again, calling the Son the mouth of the Father, but theologizing concerning the Spirit, "as through a mouth signifying to us His own existence." And he found Epiphanius saying the same things in many places and many times. It seemed good, therefore, to him to collect these and more and to write down the theology of the fathers, as he thought. And he wished for the time being to cure and heal as far as possible the mischievousness of the accusation of the Latins, which indeed was also rubbed onto those in communion with them by the mention of their name; but fearing again also the accusations of audacity, in truth he prefixed dreadful oaths, that he was not writing as if condemning 31 our own writers or accusing them of deficiency, nor siding with those others as speaking better, or even thinking any such thing, but only so that for the time being the charge might be remedied, not that of the Latins, certainly not (for them, even if they are absolved of all charges, nevertheless the greatest charge lies in having dared to add the word to the Creed), but that of those in communion with them, for the sake of peace and the ancient state of affairs. And he also brought forward the interchange of prepositions of 'from' for 'through' in the case of the Only-Begotten, wherever it might also be found in the passages concerning the Son. For thus, he says, the sacred Panoplia also teaches, a book approved among the genuine works of the church. And he did this, wishing to make the addition of the Latins equal to our own expressions. And finally, the crown of his audacity, that finding even the most theological Damascene in the thirteenth of his theological chapters saying, "and through the Word the producer of the manifesting Spirit," and taking 'producer' to mean 'cause' (for he said the word could not be taken in any other sense) and saying the Father is the cause 32 of the Spirit through the Word, he had given grounds for the accusation, and not one to be overlooked, nor indeed a common one, that he shared the opinion that the Son is a cause in addition to the Father's causality of the Spirit. And yet, when someone brought the charge against him, he prefaced his words with moderate statements, that while many things are said of God which indeed carry an implication of wrongness, we accept what is said as the sayings of holy men, but we do not accept the underlying implication, "You say," he says, "O men, 'perfect God the Father, and perfect God the Son, and perfect God the Paraclete.' Do we then defile our theology because three gods are implied?" For the time being, to avoid the charge, he even augmented with three clauses the definition read in church on the day of Orthodoxy, adding, making a third anathema for one who either holds the opinion that the Son is a cause or a co-cause with the Father of the Spirit, or knowingly accepts communion with those who so speak and hold such opinions. These things he said, these things he wrote. "But if anything," he says, "pertaining to the preposition 'through' relates to 33 the principle of cause, this is an audacity to say or to think, and if anyone should dare it, he will say that which is signified by 'from the Word', but he will in any case bear the blame for the audacity." These things, in truth, are according to Bekkos, and nothing more. And for this very reason we have deliberately elaborated the details of the history, so that it might be clear how and for what reasons the entire church was already on the verge of partaking of the evil.

ποιητικῶς, ὡς λέγουσι", νῦν δὲ τὸν μέγαν Βα σίλειον "ἀξιώματι μὲν δευτερεύειν τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸ πνεῦμα παραδί 30 δωσιν ἴσως ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας λόγος." τὴν δὲ κατασκευὴν τῆς προ τάσεως, ἐν πολλαῖς μὲν τῶν βίβλων κειμένην καὶ ταύτην, ἐν δέ γ' ἐνίαις παρῃρημένην εὕρισκεν. ἑτέρωθι τὸν Νύσσης Γρηγό ριον οὕτω πως διαιροῦντα τὰς περὶ θεοῦ δόξας ὡς τὸ μὲν αἴτιον πιστεύειν τὸ δὲ ἐκ τοῦ αἰτίου, καὶ ἐξ αἰτίας ὄντος πάλιν ἄλλην διαφορὰν ἐννοοῦμεν· τὸ μὲν γὰρ προσεχῶς ἐκ τοῦ πρώτου, τὸ δὲ διὰ τοῦ προσεχῶς ἐκ τοῦ πρώτου. καὶ αὖθις ἐν τῷ τέλει τοῦ τῶν Ἀντιρρητικῶν πρώτου "δευτερεύει μὲν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ πατρὸς αἰτίου, δευτερεύει δὲ καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ υἱοῦ κατὰ τὸν τῆς αἰ τίας λόγον." ἀλλαχοῦ δὲ τὸν μέγαν Κύριλλον λέγοντα "τὸ ἐκ ἀμφοῖν οὐσιωδῶς ὑπάρχον, τουτέστιν ἐκ πατρὸς δι' υἱοῦ", καὶ αὖθις στόμα μὲν τοῦ πατρὸς λέγοντα τὸν υἱόν, θεολογοῦντα δὲ περὶ τοῦ πνεύματος "καθάπερ διὰ στόματος τὴν ἰδίαν ἡμῖν ὑποσημαῖνον ὕπαρξιν." Ἐπιφάνιον δὲ καὶ ἐν πολλοῖς καὶ πολλά κις τὰ αὐτὰ λέγοντα κατελάμβανεν. ἔδοξεν οὖν ἐκείνῳ ταῦτά τε καὶ πλείω συνάγειν καὶ λογογραφεῖν τὴν τῶν πατέρων θεολογίαν, ὡς ᾤετο. καὶ τὸ ἀτηρὸν μὲν τῆς κατηγορίας τῶν Ἰταλῶν, ὃ δὴ καὶ τοῖς κοινωνοῦσι διὰ τῆς ἀναφορᾶς τοῦ ὀνόματος προσετρί βετο, ἐξιᾶσθαι τέως κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν καὶ θεραπεύειν ἠβούλετο· δεδιὼς δ' αὖθις καὶ τὰς κατηγορίας τῆς τόλμης, ταῖς ἀληθείαις ὅρκους προανετάττετο τοὺς φρικώδεις ἦ μὴν μὴ ὡς δῆθεν κατα 31 γινώσκειν τῶν ἡμετέρων ἢ ἐγκαλεῖν ἐλλείψεως, κἀκείνοις προσκεῖ σθαι ὡς κρειττόνως λέγουσιν, ἤ τι τοιοῦτον καὶ ἐννοεῖν γρά φοντα, ἀλλ' ἵνα τέως καὶ μόνον τὸ ἔγκλημα θεραπεύοιτο, οὐ τῶν Ἰταλῶν, οὔμενουν (ἐκείνοις γάρ, κἂν ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἀφιῶνται τῶν ἐγκλημάτων, ἀλλ' οὖν τῷ τολμῆσαι προσθεῖναι τῷ συμ βόλῳ τὴν λέξιν ἔγκλημα κεῖσθαι τὸ μέγιστον), ἀλλὰ τῶν κοινω νούντων ἐκείνοις εἰρήνης τρόπον καὶ παλαιᾶς καταστάσεως ἕνεκα. ἀντεπεξῆγε δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἐκ εἰς τὴν διὰ κατὰ τὴν τῶν προθέσεων ἀντιπαραχώρησιν, ὅπου ἂν καὶ ἐν τοῖς περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ τόποις εὑρίσκηται. οὕτω γάρ φησι διδάσκειν καὶ τὴν ἱερὰν ὁπλοθήκην, βίβλον οὖσαν ἐγκρινομένην ταῖς γνησίαις τῆς ἐκκλη σίας. τοῦτο δ' ἐποίει τὴν τῶν Ἰταλῶν προσθήκην τοῖς ἡμετέ ροις βουλόμενος ἐξισοῦν. καὶ τέλος ἡ κορωνὶς τῆς τόλμης, ὅτι εὑρίσκων μὲν καὶ τὸν θεολογικώτατον ∆αμασκηνὸν ἐν τρεισκαιδε κάτῳ τῶν θεολογικῶν αὐτοῦ κεφαλαίων λέγοντα "καὶ διὰ λόγου προβολεὺς ἐκφαντορικοῦ πνεύματος," ἐκλαμβανόμενος δὲ τὸ προβολεὺς εἰς τὸ αἴτιος (μηδὲ γὰρ εἶναι τὴν λέξιν ἐπ' ἄλλου ση μαινομένου λαμβάνεσθαι) καὶ διὰ λόγου αἴτιον τὸν πατέρα λέ 32 γων τοῦ πνεύματος, χώραν αἰτίας δεδώκει καὶ οὐ παροπτέας, οὐδέ γε μὴν τῆς τυχούσης, συνδοξάζειν αἴτιον τὸν υἱὸν ἐπὶ τῇ ἐκ πατρὸς αἰτίᾳ τοῦ πνεύματος. καίτοι γε τὰ μέτριά γε τοῖς λό γοις αὐτοῦ προσαρχόμενος, ὅτε τις καὶ ἀντεπῆγεν αὐτῷ τὴν αἰ τίαν, ὡς πολλῶν ἐπὶ θεοῦ λεγομένων καὶ δὴ καὶ κακίας ἐπιφερόν των ἔμφασιν τὰ μὲν λεγόμενα ὡς ἁγίων ῥήματα προσιέμεθα, τὸ δ' ὑπεμφαῖνον οὐ προσδεχόμεθα, "λέγετέ" φησιν, "ὦ οὗτοι, θεὸς τέλειος ὁ πατήρ, καὶ θεὸς τέλειος ὁ υἱός, καὶ θεὸς τέλειος ὁ παράκλητος. ἆρ' οὖν διὰ τὸ τρεῖς θεοὺς ὑπεμφαίνεσθαι κα ταρρυπαροῦμεν τὴν θεολογίαν;" τέως εἰς ἀποφυγὴν τοῦ ἐγκλή ματος καὶ τρισὶ κεφαλαίοις τὸν ἐπὶ τῇ τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας ἡμέρᾳ ἀνα γινωσκόμενον ὅρον ἐπ' ἐκκλησίας ἐπηύξανε προστιθείς, ποιούμε νος ὑπ' ἀνάθεμα τρίτον τὸν ἤτοι δοξάζοντα ἢ αἴτιον ἢ μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς συναίτιον τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ πνεύματος, ἢ συγκοινωνεῖν ἐν γνώσει καταδεχόμενον τοῖς οὕτω λέγουσι καὶ δοξάζουσι. ταῦτα ἔλεγε, ταῦτ' ἔγραφεν. "εἰ δ' ἀνήκει τι", φησί, "τῇ διὰ εἰς 33 τὸν τῆς αἰτίας λόγον, τοῦτο τόλμημα μὲν λέγειν ἢ ἐννοεῖν, εἰ δέ τις τολμῴη, τὸ ἐκ τοῦ λόγου μὲν ἐρεῖ ἐμφαινόμενον, αἰτίαν δὲ πάντως ἀποίσεται τοῦ τολμήματος." Ταῦτα κατὰ τὸν Βέκκον ταῖς ἀληθείαις, καὶ πλέον οὐδέν. διὸ δὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐξεπίτηδες τὰ τῆς ἱστορίας κατὰ λεπτὸν ἐπλατύ ναμεν, ἵν' ᾖ δῆλον ὅπως καὶ ἐφ' οἵαις αἰτίαις ὅσον οὐκ ἤδη ἡ ἐκκλησία πᾶσα τοῦ κακοῦ παραπολαύειν ἤμελλε.