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supporting those in need with cheerful giving; diligently caring for hospitality, brotherly love, and philanthropy; pursuing peace and love; in which, as in a certain foundation of good things, all the good things given to men by God are both gathered and preserved.

These things, my blessed master, everyone who loves the kingdom of heaven, and who hastens to flee the experience of the eternal punishments threatened to sinners, makes it his business to do and to keep altogether according to his ability; having as a helper in the keeping of such things 15Β_098 the unceasing memory both of death, and of the 0424 uncertainty surrounding it; and of the desolation after the departure of the soul, which takes nothing else with it, except the conscience branded by the evil things it has done; and the thought of the fearful examination of it by the evil spirits that will happen in this air; the remembrance of the bitter and lightless confinement of souls now in Hades; the expectation of shame before the just Judge and the heavenly Powers at the revelation of secret things, which is heavier than all the punishments threatened to sinners. These things, and more than these, I have already written according to my ability, and writing I will not cease, inasmuch as I am able, having a desire for my beloved master, to bring forth such words.

But let us be sober, and let us be vigilant concerning our own keeping, blessed one; lest we be condemned the more, as speaking and hearing divine things only carelessly and in vain. Since also for these words we will give an account to God on the day of judgment; both I who speak them, and those who hear them; if we leave them completely idle and fruitless; but may it rather be that we all exult in all the words of God, and be shown to be doers of the divine and saving wills within them; by the prayers and intercessions of our all-glorious and all-holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, and of all the saints. Amen.

LETTER 6. TO THE ... ARCHBISHOP JOHN... THAT THE [SOUL] IS INCORPOREAL

SOUL 6. By the same, to the most holy and most blessed archbishop

John, concerning this, That the soul is incorporeal. 15Β_100 Having received the honored [letter] of your perfection in virtue

letter, adorned with all magnanimous humility, I was both amazed and astonished; how, being the same in thought in both, you have remained like yourself; neither unapproachable to the lofty, nor despised by the humble. For having wisely blended for yourself one form of virtue from both, you paradoxically make the one to be contemplated in the other; 0425 in the humble, the lofty; and in the lofty, the opposite, humility. Therefore, servant of God, I accept your command without excuse, which bids me to prove more physically, without scriptural and patristic testimony, if the soul is an incorporeal creature. Trusting again in your drops of teaching, with which you have variously refreshed me when I was parched with ignorance.

But who are these who affirm that there is not an incorporeal creature? and with what non-existent fictions do they oppose your true words? And how is it that those who are more contentious than is proper were not shamed by our argument, which is so far from any extremely contradictory argument? And so that the argument concerning this may proceed for me more methodically, your own as

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δεομένους ἱλαρᾶς μεταδόσεως ἀντεχόμενοι· φιλοξενίας τε καί φιλαδελφίας, καί φιλανθρωπίας φιλοπόνως φροντίζοντες· εἰρήνην τε καί ἀγάπην μεταδιώκοντες· ἐν ᾗ, καθάπερ τινί πυθμένι τῶν καλῶν, συνάγεταί τε καί φυλάττεται πάντα τά τοῖς ἀνθρώποις δεδωρημένα θεόθεν ἀγαθά.

Ταῦτα, δέσποτα μου εὐλογημένε, πᾶς ἐρῶν τῆς τῶν οὐρανῶν βασιλείας, καί φεύγειν σπεύδων τῶν ἠπειλημένων τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν αἰωνίων κολάσεων τήν πεῖραν κατά δύναμιν πάντως ποιεῖν τε καί φυλάττειν ἐπιτηδεύει· τῆς τῶν τοιούτων ἔχων 15Β_098 φυλακῆς ἀρωγόν, τοῦ τε θανάτου, καί τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτόν 0424 ἀδηλίας, τήν ἄληστον μνήμην· τῆς τε μετά τήν ἔξοδον τῆς ψυχῆς ἐρημώσεως, μηδέν ἄλλο συνεπαγομένης ἑαυτῇ, πλήν τῆς ἐπί τοῖς αὐτῇ κακῶς πεπραγμένοις ἐστιγμένης συνειδήσεως· καί τῆς πρός αὐτήν κατά τόν ἀέρα τοῦτον γενησομένης τῶν πονηρῶν πνευμάτων φοβερᾶς ἐρεύνης τήν ἔννοιαν· τῆς ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ νῦν πικρᾶς καί ἀφεγγοῦς τῶν ψυχῶν κατακλείσεως τήν ἐνθύμησιν· τῆς ἐπί τοῦ δικαίου Κριτοῦ καί τῶν οὐρανίων ∆υνάμεων ἐπί τῇ φανερώσει τῶν κρυπτῶν αἰσχύνης τήν προσδοκίαν, τῆς πασῶν βαρυτέρας τῶν ἠπειλημένων τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσι κολάσεων. Ταῦτα, καί τούτων πλείονα, καί ἤδη κατά δύναμιν γέγραφα, καί γράφων οὐ παύσομαι, καθ᾿ ὅσον οἷός τε εἰμι, τόν ἐμόν ἠγαπημένον δεσπότην πόθον ἔχων, τῶν τοιούτων λόγων ἐκβιβαστήν.

Ἀλλά νήψωμεν, καί γρηγορήσωμεν περί τήν ἑαυτῶν φυλακήν, εὐλογημένε· μήπως πλέον κατακριθῶμεν, ὡς εἰκῆ καί μάτην τά θεῖα λέγοντες μόνον καί ἀκούοντες. Ἐπειδή καί ὑπέρ τούτων τῶν λόγων τῷ Θεῷ λόγον ὑφέξομεν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως· ἐγώ τε ὁ τούτους λέγων, καί οἱ τούτων ἀκούοντες· ἐάν ἀργούς παντελῶς καί ἀκάρπους αὐτούς καταλείψωμεν· γένοιτο δέ μᾶλλον πάντας ἡμᾶς, πᾶσιν ἐπαγάλλεσθαι τοῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγοις, καί τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς θείων καί σωτηρίων θελημάτων ποιητάς ἀποφανθῆναι· εὐχαῖς καί πρεσβείαις τῆς πανενδόξου καί παναγίας ∆εσποίνης ἡμῶν Θεοτόκου καί Ἀειπαρθένου Μαρίας, καί πάντων τῶν ἁγίων. Ἀμήν.

ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ S'. ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΝ ... ΑΡΧΙΕΠ. ΙΩΑΝΝΗΝ... ΟΤΙ ΑΣΩΜΑΤΟΣ ΕΣΤΙΝ Η

ΨΥΧΗ ΣΤ´. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρός τόν ἁγιώτατον καί μακαριώτατον ἀρχιεπίσκοπον

Ἰωάννην, περί τοῦ , Ὅτι ἀσώματός ἐστιν ἡ ψυχή. 15Β_100 Τό τίμιον τῆς ὑμετέρας ἐπ᾿ ἀρετῇ τελειότητος δεξάμενος

γράμμα, πάσης μεγαλοφυοῦς μετριοφροσύνης ὡραϊσμένον, ἠγάσθην τε ὁμοῦ καί ἐξέστην· πῶς τε ὁ αὐτός διανοούμενος ἐν ἀμφοτέροις, σαυτῷ καθέστηκας ὅμοιος· μήτε τῷ ὑψηλῷ ἀπρόσιτος, μήτε τῷ ταπεινῷ καταφρονούμενος. Ἕν γάρ ἀρετῆς εἶδος, σοφῶς σαυτῷ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν κερασάμενος, ἑκατέρῳ ποιεῖς παραδόξως ἐνθεωρεῖσθαι τό ἕτερον· 0425 τῷ ταπεινῷ μέν, τό ὑψηλόν· τῷ ὑψηλῷ δέ τό ἔμπαλιν, τήν ταπείνωσιν. ∆ιό δή, δοῦλε Θεοῦ, ἀπαραιτήτως σου δέχομαι τό ἐπίταγμα, φυσικώτερον ἀποδεῖξαι κελεῦον, γραφικῆς καί πατρικῆς μαρτυρίας χωρίς, εἰ ἔστι κτίσμα ἀσώματον ἡ ψυχή. Ταῖς ὑμετέραις πάλιν θαῤῥῶν τῆς διδασκαλίας ψεκάσιν, αἷς μέ διαφόρως ἀγνοίᾳ φρυγόμενον ἐδρόσισας.

Τίνες δέ οὗτοι ὑπάρχουσιν, οἱ κτίσμα ἀσώματον μή εἶναι διαβεβαιούμενοι; καί τίσι τούτοις, ταῖς ὑμετέραις τῶν λόγων ἀληθείας ἀνυπάρκτοις ἀναπλασμοῖς ἀντιπίπτοντες; Πῶς δέ, οἱ μή τοῦ δέοντος εἰσι φιλονεικότεροι, τῷ ἡμετέρῳ οὐκ ἐδυσωπήθησαν ἐπειχειρήματι, παντός εἰς ἄκρον οὕτως ἀντιπτωτικοῦ λόγου πόῤῥω τυγχάνοντι; Καί ἵνα μοι μᾶλλον καθ᾿ ὁδόν ὁ περί τούτου λόγος προΐῃ, αὐτό ὑμῶν ὡς