20

all-wise initiate and mystagogue of mysteries. For by the sacred intertwining of both, you acquired perfection in all good things; according to the one, having become wholly in the whole entirely to God, through the fulfillment of His divine commandments, you are considered to be wholly, through the extreme excess of poverty, among those who, like me, with a soul attached to matter, are defiled by the ichor of impure passions; at the same time thereby securing for yourself safety according to reason; for nothing is stronger than voluntary poverty for the establishment and preservation of good things; for it has become an unbreakable foundation of the divine edifices in the soul, and for all others, for whom the good has been earnestly pursued, becoming a cause of salvation; by leading from active example rather than from didactic address, to a greatness of virtue through lofty humility, those who wisely direct both their mind and their life toward you. According to this zeal, I say, having all the fervor of the Spirit, and having acquired the fire in the earth of your heart, which He came to cast upon it, the Word who is by nature a lover of good and a lover of mankind, who consumes our every wicked habit and motion, you indeed set ablaze those who, out of deceit and folly, are mad for matter and mad for trifles, 15Α_094 in both wicked deeds and spurious words, exposing 0072 their unsoundness and vanity, by the projection of the blessed lamp that burns unquenchably in you according to divine knowledge and virtue; and you warm those who are exceedingly frozen by the frost of this precipitous and lightless projection, with the radiant splendors of the divine words; driving out and dissolving the numbness completely, and transforming extreme timidity into extreme courage and power; and again you give light from the everlasting mountains; of the immaterial, I say, and of the patristic words and doctrines that have surpassed all knowledge and power of all the senses, for those who long for light; and by the taste according to wisdom, having already well depicted for them clearly through hope that very thing which is by nature the object of desire; leading them toward complete transformation through experience, and piously bringing it about. For nothing so depicts the work of your divine priesthood as the unyielding zeal tempered with piety according to God, and the innate reason in us which both contains and ignites this, preparing and wisely steering us to do that which He who is by nature and first commands, for our ascent to Him, and for the perfect restoration through holy deeds and good doctrines; and the avoidance and turning away from those things that cause us to miss this sacred ascent.

And what else dissolves this vehemently, and as it were walls it off; I mean the journey to the Word, except His terrible betrayal by those who have now risen up against those who travel the royal road of the divine and patristic doctrines; and who know no deviation from either side of those who are unfortunately carried into pits of confusion and ravines of division 0073? or who wish to know anything at all, by the grace of the all-holy Spirit who wisely guides and leads by the hand, to the perfect face-to-face knowledge and initiation of the great God and Savior of all, Christ, those who hasten according to their prayers through sincere 15Α_096 and orthodox faith. For betrayal is the alteration of the pious doctrine of Him and about Him, selling Him out by the acceptance of the confession and teaching of the heterodox, for the annulment of His all-holy flesh from us; or rather, for the overthrow of the whole economy; and a betrayal so much graver than the one that happened in the first place, when the Word was with us in the flesh, inasmuch as the knowledge of His divinity and the truth of His humanity have been more perfectly manifested to all; reaching the ends of the inhabited world by the great voice of the holy Fathers who proclaimed it. For it is confessed with certainty by all everywhere, and believed orthodoxly, according to their own, I mean, the God-judged exposition

20

πάνσοφε μύστα καί μυσταγωγέ μυστηρίων. Τῇ γάρ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν ἱερᾷ συμπλοκῇ, τήν ἐν πᾶσιν ἀγαθοῖς ἐκτήσω τελείωσιν· κατ᾿ ἐκείνην μέν, ὅλος ἐν ὅλῳ διόλου γενόμενος τῷ Θεῷ, διά τῆς τῶν αὐτοῦ θείων ἐντολῶν ἐκπληρώσεως, ὅλος εἶναι λογίζῃ δι' ἄκραν πτωχείας ὑπερβολήν ἐν τοῖς κατ᾿ ἐμέ προσύλῳ ψυχῆς διαθέσει, τῷ ἰχῶρι τῶν ἀκαθάρτων ἰλυσπώμενοι παθῶν· ὁμοῦ τε τό ἀσφαλές ἐντεῦθεν ἑαυτῷ κατά λόγον περιποιούμενος· οὐδέν γάρ αὐθαιρέτου πτωχείας εἰς πῆξιν τῶν καλῶν καί συντήρησιν, ἰσχυρότερον· θεμέλιος γάρ τῶν ἐν ψυχῇ θείων οἰκοδομημάτων καθέστηκεν ἀῤῥαγής, καί τοῖς ἄλλοις ἅπασιν, οἷς τό καλόν διεσπούδασται, σωτηρίας γενόμενος πρόξενος· τῷ ἄγειν ἐξ ὑποδείξεως ἐνεργοῦς μᾶλλον, ἤ διδακτικῆς προσφωνήσεως, εἰς μέγεθος ἀρετῆς δι᾿ ὑφέσεως ὑψηλῆς, τούς πρός σέ τόν τε νοῦν ὁμοίως καί τόν βίον σοφῶς ἀπευθύνοντας. Κατά τοῦτον δέ, φημί, τόν ζῆλον, ὅλην ἔχων τήν ζέσιν τοῦ Πνεύματος, καί τό πῦρ ἐν τῇ γῇ τῆς καρδίας κτησάμενος, ὅ ἦλθεν ἐν αὐτῇ βαλεῖν, ὁ πᾶσαν ἡμῶν ἐκδαπανῶν μοχθηράν ἕξιν καί κίνησιν, φιλάγαθος φύσει καί φιλάνθρωπος Λόγος, φλογίζεις μέν τούς ἐξ ἀπάτης τε καί ἀνοίας ὑλομανοῦντάς τε καί ὑθλομανοῦντας, 15Α_094 ἔν τε πράξεσι φαύλαις καί κιβδήλοις λόγοις, τούτων ἀπελέγχων 0072 τό σαθρόν τε καί εἰκαῖον, τῇ προβολῇ τῆς ἀσβέστως ἐν σοί καιομένης κατά θείαν γνῶσιν καί ἀρετήν μακαρίας λαμπάδος· θερμαίνεις δέ, τούς τῇ πήξει λίαν κατεψηγμένους, ταύτης δή τῆς κρημώδους καί ἀφεγγοῦς προβολῆς, ταῖς ἀκτινοφανέσι τῶν θείων λόγων αὐγαῖς· τό τε νύχος πάμπαν ἐλαύνων καί διαλύων, καί τήν ἄκραν συστολήν πρός ἄκραν ἀνδρείαν μετάγων καί δύναμιν· φωτίζεις δέ πάλιν ἀπό ὀρέων αἰωνίων· τῶν ἀΰλων φημί, καί πᾶσαν πασῶν αἰσθήσεων ὑπερβεβηκότων γνῶσιν καί δύναμιν, πατρικῶν λόγων τε καί δογμάτων, τούς ἐφιεμένους φωτός· καί τῇ κατά τήν σοφίαν γεύσει, τοῦτο σαφῶς ἐκεῖνο δι᾿ ἐλπίδος εἰκονισθέντας ἤδη καλῶς, ὅπερ αὐτό φύσει καθέστηκε τό ποθούμενον· πρός τήν διά πείρας ἄγων αὐτούς, καί προσάγων εὐσεβῶς ὁλικήν μεταποίησιν. Οὐδέν γάρ οὕτω τῆς κατά σέ θείας ἱερωσύνης εἰκονίζει τό ἔργον, ὡς ὁ κατά Θεόν εὐλαβείᾳ σύγκρατος καί ἀνένδοτος ζῆλος, καί ὁ τούτου συνεκτικός ἅμα καί ἐξαπτικός ἐν ἡμῖν ἔμφυτος λόγος, ἐκεῖνο δρᾷν παρασκευάζων, καί σοφῶς οἰακίζων, ἅπερ ὁ φύσει καί πρῶτος διακελεύεται, πρός τήν ἡμῶν ἄνοδον εἰς αὐτόν, καί τελείαν δι᾿ ἔργων ὁσίων καί δογμάτων ἀγαθῶν ἀποκατάστασιν· ἀποφυγήν δέ καί ἀποστροφήν, τῶν ταύτης ἡμᾶς ποιούντων διαμαρτεῖν τῆς ἱερᾶς ἀναβάσεως.

Καί τί γε ἄλλο διαλύει ταύτην σφοδρῶς, καί οἷον ἀποτειχίζει· φημί δέ τήν πρός τόν Λόγον πορείαν, πλήν τῆς αὐτοῦ φοβερᾶς προδοσίας τῶν νῦν ἐπιφυέντων τοῖς τήν βασιλικήν ὁδόν τῶν θείων καί πατρικῶν δογμάτων ὁδεύουσι· καί μηδεμίαν τῶν παρ' ἑκατέρα δυστυχῶς φερομένων ἐν βαράθροις συγχύσεως καί φάραγξι διαιρέσεως παρεκτροπήν 0073 γινωσκόντων; ἤ γνῶναι καθοτιοῦν βουλομένων, χάριτι τοῦ σοφῶς ὁδηγοῦντός τε καί χειραγωγοῦντος παναγίου Πνεύματος, εἰς τήν πρόσωπον πρός πρόσωπον τελείαν ἐπίγνωσίν τε καί μύησιν αὐτοῦ τοῦ μεγάλου Θεοῦ καί Σωτῆρος τῶν ὅλων Χριστοῦ, τούς κατ᾿ εὐχάς δι᾿ εἰλικρινοῦς 15Α_096 καί ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως ἐπειγομένους. Πρόδοσις γάρ ἐστι, ἡ τῆς εὐσεβοῦς αὐτοῦ τε καί περί αὐτοῦ δόξης παραλλαγή, τῇ προσλήψει τῆς τῶν ἑτεροδόξων ὁμολογίας καί διδαχῆς ἀπεμπολοῦσα αὐτόν, εἰς ἀναίρεσιν τῆς ἐξ ἡμῶν παναγίας αὐτοῦ σαρκός· μᾶλλον δέ τῆς ὅλης οἰκονομίας ἀνατροπήν· καί προδοσία τῆς ἐν πρώτοις, ὅτε σαρκί μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν ὑπῆρχεν ὁ Λόγος, γεγενημένης, βαρυτέρα τοσοῦτον, ὅσῳ τελειωτέρα τοῖς πᾶσιν ἥ τε τῆς θεότητος αὐτοῦ γνῶσις, καί τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἀνθρωπότητος ἡ ἀλήθεια προδήλως γεγένηται· τά πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης διαλαβοῦσα τῇ μεγαλοφωνίᾳ τῶν αὐτήν κηρυττόντων ἁγίων Πατέρων. Πᾶσι γάρ πανταχοῦ βεβαίως ὁμολογουμένου, καί ὀρθοδόξως πιστευομένου, κατά τήν αὐτῶν, φημί δή τῶν θεοκρίτων ὑφήγησιν