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easily fulfill their proper function, so also the mind, bound to the flesh and filled with the phantasies from it, needs faith and a right way of life, which make its feet like a deer's and set it upon the high places. This very thing wise Solomon also advises, and at one time he presents to us the shameless worker, the ant, and through it outlines for us the practical way, and at another, the wax-molded instrument of the wise bee, and through it he hints at natural contemplation, in which the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is also blended, since from the beauty of created things the Creator is contemplated by analogy. But having given thanks to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, let us put an end to the letter, since every measure is best, as the proverb also says.

9. To Maximus the Philosopher

9.1 Words are truly the images of souls. We have therefore understood you through your letter, as much as, they say, the lion from its claws, and we were pleased to find you not idly disposed concerning the first and greatest of goods, both love for God and for neighbor. And we take your skillfulness towards us as a sign of the one, and your diligence concerning knowledge as a sign of the other. That all things consist in these two is known to every disciple of Christ. 9.2 As for the works of Dionysius which you seek, very many have come to us; yet the books are not at hand, for which reason we did not send them. But we are of this opinion. We do not admire all things of the man; and there are some things which we completely reject. For of this impiety now so much talked about, I mean that of the Anomoean, he is, as far as we know, the first who provided the seeds to men. The cause, I think, was not a wicked intent, but the excessive desire to oppose Sabellius. I am accustomed, for my part, to compare him to a gardener straightening a crooked young plant, who then, through the immoderation of his pulling, misses the middle and leads the shoot to the opposite extreme. Something like this we have found to have happened concerning this man. For in strongly opposing the impiety of the Libyan, he was unaware of being carried away into the opposite evil by excessive ambition. For him it was sufficient to show that the Father and the Son are not the same in subject, and with these things to hold the victory against the blasphemer, but he, in order to prevail very clearly and with overwhelming force, not only posited a difference of hypostases, but also a difference of substance and a subordination of power and a variation of glory. So from this it happened that he exchanged one evil for another evil, and erred from the correctness of the doctrine. For this reason he is also of all kinds in his writings, at one time rejecting the homoousion, on account of the one who used it wrongly for the abolition of the hypostases, at another accepting it in the writings in which he defends himself to his namesake. In addition to these things, he also uttered statements about the Spirit least fitting for a spiritual man, banishing it from the adored Godhead and numbering it somewhere below with the created and ministering nature. Such, then, is the man. 9.3 But as for me, if I must state my own view, the "like in substance," if it has "unvaryingly" added to it, I accept the expression as leading to the same thing as the homoousion, according to the sound meaning of homoousion, of course. For those in Nicaea, having understood this, having called the Only-Begotten "Light from Light" and "true God from true God" and such things, consequently added "homoousion." Therefore, neither of light to light, nor of truth to truth ever, nor of the substance of the Only-Begotten to that of the Father, is it possible to conceive of any variation. If anyone, then, should accept it as I have said, I accept the expression. But if anyone should cut off the "unvaryingly" from the "like," which those in Constantinople have done, I suspect the word

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οἰκείαν ἐνέργειαν εὐκόλως ἀποπληροῦσιν, οὕτως καὶ ὁ νοῦς σαρκὶ συνδεθεὶς καὶ τῶν ἐκ ταύτης φαντασιῶν πληρωθεὶς πίστεως δεῖται καὶ πολιτείας ὀρθῆς, αἵτινες καταρτίζουσι τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ ὡσεὶ ἐλάφου καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ὑψηλὰ αὐτὸν ἱστῶσιν. Τοῦτό τοι αὐτὸ καὶ ὁ σοφὸς παρεγγυᾷ Σολομῶν καὶ ποτὲ μὲν ἡμῖν προφέρει τὸν ἀνε παίσχυντον ἐργάτην τὸν μύρμηκα καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ τὴν πρακ τικὴν ὁδὸν ἡμῖν ὑπογράφει, ποτὲ δὲ τὸ τῆς σοφῆς μελίττης κηρόπλαστον ὄργανον καὶ δι' αὐτῆς τὴν φυσικὴν θεωρίαν αἰνίττεται ἐν ᾗ καὶ ὁ περὶ τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος ἐγκέκραται λόγος, εἴπερ ἐκ καλλονῆς κτισμάτων ἀναλόγως ὁ γενεσιουργὸς θεωρεῖται. Ἀλλ' εὐχαριστήσαντες Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ καὶ Ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι πέρας ἐπιθῶμεν τῷ γράμματι, ἐπειδὴ πᾶν μέτρον ἄριστον, καὶ ἡ παροιμία φησίν.

9.τ ΜΑΞΙΜΩ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΩ

9.1 Εἰκόνες ὄντως τῶν ψυχῶν εἰσιν οἱ λόγοι. Κατεμάθομεν οὖν σε διὰ τοῦ

γράμματος, ὅσον, φασίν, ἐξ ὀνύχων τὸν λέοντα, καὶ ἥσθημεν εὑρόντες περὶ τὰ πρῶτα καὶ μέγιστα τῶν ἀγαθῶν οὐκ ἀργῶς διακείμενον, τήν τε πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἀγάπην καὶ τὸν πλησίον. Σημεῖον δὲ ποιούμεθα τοῦ μὲν τὴν περὶ ἡμᾶς δεξιότητά σου, τοῦ δὲ τὴν περὶ τὴν γνῶσιν σπουδήν. Ὅτι δὲ ἐν δυοῖν τούτοιν ἐστὶ τὰ ὅλα γνώριμον παντὶ Χριστοῦ μαθητῇ. 9.2 Ἃ δὲ ἐπιζητεῖς τῶν ∆ιονυσίου ἦλθε μὲν εἰς ἡμᾶς καὶ πάνυ πολλά· οὐ πάρεστί γε μὴν τὰ βιβλία, διόπερ οὐκ ἀπεστείλαμεν. Ἔχομεν δὲ γνώμης οὕτως. Οὐ πάντα θαυ μάζομεν τοῦ ἀνδρός· ἔστι δὲ ἃ καὶ παντελῶς διαγράφομεν. Σχεδὸν γὰρ ταυτησὶ τῆς νῦν περιθρυλουμένης ἀσεβείας, τῆς κατὰ τὸ Ἀνόμοιον λέγω, οὗτός ἐστιν, ὅσα γε ἡμεῖς ἴσμεν, ὁ πρῶτος ἀνθρώποις τὰ σπέρματα παρασχών. Αἴτιον δέ, οἶμαι, οὐ πονηρία γνώμης, ἀλλὰ τὸ σφόδρα βούλεσθαι ἀντιτείνειν τῷ Σαβελλίῳ. Εἴωθα γοῦν ἀπεικάζειν ἐγὼ φυτοκόμῳ νεαροῦ φυτοῦ διαστροφὴν ἀπευθύνοντι, εἶτα τῇ ἀμετρίᾳ τῆς ἀνθολκῆς διαμαρτόντι τοῦ μέσου καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἐναντίον ἀπαγαγόντι τὸ βλάστημα. Τοιοῦτόν τι καὶ περὶ τὸν ἄνδρα τοῦτον γεγενημένον εὕρομεν. Ἀντιβαίνων γὰρ σφοδρῶς τῇ ἀσεβείᾳ τοῦ Λίβυος, ἔλαθεν ἑαυτὸν εἰς τὸ ἐναντίον κακὸν ὑπὸ τῆς ἄγαν φιλοτιμίας ὑπενεχθείς. Ὧ γε τοσοῦτον ἐξαρκοῦν δεῖξαι ὅτι οὐ ταὐτὸν τῷ ὑποκει μένῳ Πατὴρ καὶ Υἱός, καὶ ταῦτα ἔχειν κατὰ τοῦ βλασφη μοῦντος τὰ νικητήρια, ὃ δέ, ἵνα πάνυ ἐναργῶς καὶ ἐκ τοῦ περιόντος κατακρατῇ, οὐχ ἑτερότητα μόνον τῶν ὑποστάσεων τίθεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ οὐσίας διαφορὰν καὶ δυνά μεως ὕφεσιν καὶ δόξης παραλλαγήν. Ὥστε ἐκ τούτου συνέβη κακοῦ μὲν αὐτὸν κακὸν διαμεῖψαι, τῆς δὲ ὀρθό τητος τοῦ λόγου διαμαρτεῖν. Ταύτῃ τοι καὶ παντοδαπός ἐστιν ἐν τοῖς συγγράμμασιν, νῦν μὲν ἀναιρῶν τὸ ὁμοούσιον, διὰ τὸν ἐπ' ἀθετήσει τῶν ὑποστάσεων κακῶς αὐτῷ κεχρη μένον, νῦν δὲ προσιέμενος ἐν οἷς ἀπολογεῖται πρὸς τὸν ὁμώνυμον. Πρὸς δὲ τούτοις καὶ περὶ τοῦ Πνεύματος ἀφῆκε φωνὰς ἥκιστα πρεπούσας πνευματικῷ, τῆς προσ κυνουμένης αὐτὸ θεότητος ἐξορίζων καὶ κάτω που τῇ κτιστῇ καὶ λειτουργῷ φύσει συναριθμῶν. Ὁ μὲν οὖν ἀνὴρ τοιοῦτος. 9.3 Ἐγὼ δέ, εἰ χρὴ τοὐμὸν ἴδιον εἰπεῖν, τὸ ὅμοιον κατ' οὐσίαν, εἰ μὲν προσκείμενον ἔχει τὸ ἀπαραλλάκτως, δέχο μαι τὴν φωνὴν ὡς εἰς ταὐτὸν τῷ ὁμοουσίῳ φέρουσαν, κατὰ τὴν ὑγιᾶ δηλονότι τοῦ ὁμοουσίου διάνοιαν. Ὅπερ καὶ τοὺς ἐν Νικαίᾳ νοήσαντας, Φῶς ἐκ Φωτὸς καὶ Θεὸν ἀλη θινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα τὸν Μονογενῆ προσειπόντας, ἐπαγαγεῖν ἀκολούθως τὸ ὁμοούσιον. Οὔτε οὖν φωτὸς πρὸς φῶς, οὔτε ἀληθείας πρὸς ἀλήθειάν ποτε, οὔτε τῆς τοῦ Μονογενοῦς οὐσίας πρὸς τὴν τοῦ Πατρός, ἐπινοῆσαί τινα παραλλαγὴν δυνατόν. Εἴ τις οὖν οὕτως ὡς εἶπον ἐκδέχοιτο, προσίεμαι τὴν φωνήν. Εἰ δέ τις τοῦ ὁμοίου τὸ ἀπαράλλακτον ἀποτέμνοι, ὅπερ οἱ κατὰ τὴν Κωνσταντινούπολιν πεποιήκασιν, ὑποπτεύω τὸ ῥῆμα