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(p. 142) For you know the life of Symeon the New Theologian, being almost entirely a marvel and glorified by God through supernatural wonders, and if someone called his writings writings of life, he would not fail in what is fitting, and also that holy Nikephoros who, having passed many years in tranquility and stillness, then lingered in the more desolate parts of the Holy Mountain and occupied himself, having gathered from all the patristic voices, he handed down to us their neptic practice. These men, therefore, clearly commend to those who so choose the very thing that you say some are subverting. And why do I speak of the ancient saints? For men witnessed to and proven in the power of the Holy Spirit a little before our time have handed this down to us by their own mouth, they proclaimed in our time this theologian as a theologian indeed and a most sure initiate of the mysteries of the truth of God you hear of that man aptly named Theoleptos, the prelate of Philadelphia, or rather, who from this city, as from a lampstand, illumined the world, that Athanasios, who for no few years adorned the patriarchal throne, whose coffin God also honored, that Neilos from Italy, the zealot of the great Neilos, Selites and Elias, who were in no way inferior to him, Gabriel and Athanasios, who were also deemed worthy of the prophetic gift. You surely hear of all these, and many others who were before them and with them and after them, praising and exhorting those who wish to hold fast to this tradition, which the new teachers of stillness, who know not a trace of stillness, not even from experience, but admonish from idle talk, attempt to set aside and to teach otherwise and to despise, to no useful purpose for their listeners. And we ourselves spoke with some of those saints in person (p. 144) and had them as our teachers. How then, holding these men of no account, who were taught both by experience and by grace, shall we yield to those who have proceeded to teach from pride and disputes about words? This shall not be, it shall not be.

You, therefore, turn away from such men, wisely saying to yourself with David, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name"; and making yourself obedient to the fathers, listen how they urge us always to send the mind within.

THIRD QUESTION (P. 146)

Now, father, I have learned more precisely that not only from works do they not have

knowledge, nor from the experience of life, which alone is certain and irrefutable—those who write against the hesychasts being ignorant—but are also completely deaf to the patristic words. Puffed up without reason, according to the apostle, and intruding into things they have not seen, by the mind of their flesh, they have turned so far from the straight path as to slander those men openly, while not agreeing with themselves in any way; for this reason, while attempting to speak about illumination, they forbid as a delusion every illumination perceptible to the senses, yet these same men also say that every divine illumination is perceptible to the senses, asserting that those which occurred under the old law before the coming of Christ among the Jews and their prophets were symbolic, but clearly sensible the one on Tabor at the Transfiguration of the Savior and the one at the descent of the Holy Spirit and all such as these. But they say that illumination beyond sense is knowledge alone, for which reason they also say that this is superior to the light and the end of all

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(σελ. 142) Συμεῶνος γάρ τοῦ νέου θεολόγου τόν βίον οἶσθα θαῦμά τε ὄντα πάντα σχεδόν καί δι᾿ ὑπερφυῶν θαυμάτων ὑπό Θεοῦ δεδοξασμένον, τά τε συγγράμματα αὐτοῦ συγγράμματα ζωῆς εἰπών τις, οὐκ ἄν ἁμάρτοι τοῦ προσήκοντος, καί Νικηφόρον δέ τόν ὅσιον ἐκεῖνον ὅς, πολυετῆ χρόνον ἐν ἡρεμίᾳ καί ἡσυχίᾳ διενεγκών, ἔπειτα τοῖς ἐρημικωτέροις μέρεσι τοῦ Ἁγίου Ὄρους ἐμφιλοχωρήσας καί ἀπασχολήσας ἑαυτόν, ἐκ πασῶν τῶν πατερικῶν φωνῶν συνειλοχώς, τήν νηπτικήν ἡμῖν αὐτῶν παραδέδωκε πρᾶξιν. Οὗτοι τοίνυν τοῦθ᾿ ὅπερ ἀνατρέπειν φής τινας σαφῶς τοῖς προαιρουμένοις εἰσηγοῦνται. Καί τί λέγω τούς παλαιούς τῶν ἁγίων; Ἄνδρες γάρ μικρῷ πρό ἡμῶν μεμαρτυρημένοι καί ἀποδεδειγμένοι ἐν δυνάμει πνεύματος ἁγίου τοῦθ᾿ ἡμῖν διά στόματος οἰκείου παρέδωκαν, τόν τε θεολόγον τοῦτον ὡς ἀληθῶς θεολόγον καί τῆς ἀληθείας τοῦ Θεοῦ μυστηρίων ἐπόπτην ἀσφαλέστατον ἐφ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀνεκήρυττον τόν φερωνύμως Θεόληπτον ἐκεῖνον ἀκούεις, τόν Φιλαδελφείας πρόεδρον, μᾶλλον δ᾿ ἀπό ταύτης ὡς ἀπό λυχνίας τόν κόσμον φωτίσαντα, τόν Ἀθανάσιον ἐκεῖνον, ὅς ἐπ᾿ ἐνιαυτούς οὐκ ὀλίγους τόν πατριαρχικόν ἐκόσμησε θρόνον, οὗ καί τήν σορόν ὁ Θεός ἐτίμησε, Νεῖλον ἐκεῖνον τόν ἐξ Ἰταλῶν, τόν τοῦ μεγάλου ζηλωτήν Νείλου, τόν Σελιώτην καί τόν Ἠλίαν, τούς μηδέν ἀποδέοντας ἐκείνου, Γαβριήλ καί Ἀθανάσιον, τούς καί προφητικοῦ χαρίσματος ἠξιωμένους. Τούτους πάντας πάντως ἀκούεις καί πολλούς ἄλλους πρό αὐτῶν τε καί σύν αὐτοῖς καί μετ᾿ αὐτούς γεγονότας, ἐπαινοῦντας καί παραινοῦντας, κατέχειν τούς βουλομένους τήν παράδοσιν ταύτην, ἥν οἱ νέοι διδάσκαλοι τῆς ἡσυχίας, οἱ μηδ᾿ ἴχνος ἡσυχίας εἰδότες, μηδ᾿ ἀπό πείρας, ἀλλ᾿ ἀπό λογολεσχίας νουθετοῦντες, ἀθετεῖν καί μεταδιδάσκειν καί ἐξουθενεῖν πειρῶνται, πρός οὐδέν χρήσιμον τῶν ἀκουόντων. Ἡμεῖς δέ καί τῶν ἁγίων ἐκείνων ἔστιν οἷς αὐτοπροσώπως ὡμιλήσαμεν (σελ. 144) καί διδασκάλοις ἐχρησάμεθα. Πῶς οὖν, τούτους παρ᾿ οὐδέν θέμενοι, τούς καί πείρᾳ καί χάριτι δεδιδαγμένους, τοῖς ἀπό τύφου καί λογομαχίας ἐπί τό διδάσκειν χωρήσασιν εἴξομεν; Οὐκ ἔσται τοῦτο, οὐκ ἔσται.

Καί σύ τοίνυν τούς τοιούτους ἀποτρέπου μετά τοῦ ∆αυίδ συνετῶς σεαυτῷ προσλαλῶν «εὐλόγει ἡ ψυχή μου τόν Κύριον καί πάντα τά ἐντός μου τό ὄνομα τό ἅγιον αὐτοῦ»˙ σεαυτόν τε πειθήνιον παρέχω τοῖς πατράσιν, ἄκουε πῶς εἴσω πέμπειν ἀεί τόν νοῦν προτρέπονται.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΤΡΙΤΗ (Σελ. 146)

Ἄρτι, πάτερ, ἀκριβέστερον ἔγνων μή μόνον τήν ἀπό τῶν ἔργων οὐκ ἔχοντας

εἴδησιν, μηδέ τῆς ἀπό τοῦ βίου πείρας, ἥ καί μόνη βεβαία καί ἀνεξέλεγκτος ἀνεπιγνώμονας ὄντας τούς κατά τῶν ἡσυχαζόντων γράφοντας, ἀλλά καί τῶν πατερικῶν λόγων ἀνηκόους παντάπασιν. Εἰκῇ δή φυσιούμενοι, κατά τόν ἀπόστολον, καί ἅ μή ἑωράκασιν ἐμβατεύοντες, ὑπό τοῦ νοός τῆς σαρκός αὐτῶν, εἰς τοσοῦτον ἐξετράπησαν τῆς εὐθείας, ὡς ἐκείνους μέν συκοφαντεῖν φανερῶς, ἑαυτοῖς δέ μηδ᾿ ὁπωσοῦν συμφωνεῖν˙ διό καί περί φωτισμοῦ λέγειν ἐπιχειροῦντες ἀπαγορεύουσι μέν ὡς πλάνην πάντα φωτισμόν αἰσθήσει ληπτόν, οἱ αὐτοί δέ καί πάντα φωτισμόν θεῖον αἰσθήσει λέγουσι ληπτόν, συμβολικούς μέν φάσκοντες τούς ἐν τῷ πάλαι νόμῳ πρό τῆς Χριστοῦ παρουσίας ἐν Ἰουδαίοις καί τοῖς ἐξ αὐτῶν προφήταις γενομένους, αἰσθητόν δέ σαφῶς τόν ἐν Θαβωρίῳ ἐπί τῇ μεταμορφώσει τοῦ Σωτῆρος καί τόν ἐπί τῆς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος καθόδου καί ὅσοι κατ᾿ αὐτούς. Ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν δέ φωτισμόν τήν γνῶσιν μόνην λέγουσι, διό καί ταύτην κρείττω τοῦ φωτός καί τέλος πάσης