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for the intelligent man, that we need much experience and dialectic, if we are to strike down our opponents, and cast down every high thing of theirs, raised up against the true knowledge. For this reason he sharpened them in every way; he brought them together, anointed them with words for courage, filled them with a nobler spirit. For (84) even if they surpassed him in their throne, yet in wisdom and understanding, they were inferior and wanting; not to mention his other virtue, and the man's renown in all things. Therefore, they were both yielding to his words, and to his other exhortations and counsels that were so very beneficial, being persuaded without objection. For they saw in the man a life that was elevated and extraordinary, and a discourse abundant and great, flowing not in drops, but like rivers; and an understanding and the other state in his soul, not equalled by anyone at all. For all these reasons, not only priests and bishops, but also those who were leaders of the laity and of the multitude, were entirely and in all things dependent on him, and hanging from him as from a magnet; having experienced the same thing toward the blessed man, as they say the pieces of iron do toward that stone; or as those held fast by their melodies are to the mythical Sirens. But when these men learned at that time that the Bishop of Rome had gathered an assembly of bishops, so that together with them he might subject the absurd dogma to curses and anathema, they themselves were also led to do this by the exhortation and suggestion of the divine Maximus; not only Africa and its surrounding region, but also any who were in the other islands there, being induced to the task, and having zealously done the good deed; because indeed all of these had him as both teacher and guide, and as a helper in their actions.

ΙΕ´. Not much time passed after that, and John, the president of Rome

departed to the Lord; and Theodore ascended to his throne, no less a successor to the presidency than to orthodoxy. Meanwhile Pyrrhus, having been driven from the capital city, reached Africa, and met with the divine Maximus, presenting his own arguments to him, and receiving those from him; and as both of them entered into questions and counter-arguments, how could I at present worthily set forth either the saint's solution to each problem, with its persuasiveness and truth, or Pyrrhus' defeat and acquiescence to each of the things said? For the one, as something irrefutable and insoluble, proposed that there is one will in the one Christ, and said that a true understanding could not be otherwise; but the other, while conceding this one according to hypostasis, yet he also divided the two natures, with which the wills were also co-divided, and he demonstrated this very strongly and irrefutably. And the one again brought together the willers with the wills, connecting absurdity with absurdity; but the holy man, this on the one hand, as exceedingly illogical, logically refuted and disproved it. "For if it be granted," he says, "that the willers are introduced along with the wills (for I will use the very words of that blessed tongue), then surely the wills will also be introduced along with the willers by a logical conversion; (85) and it will be found, according to you, of the superessential and supremely good and most sovereign divinity, that on account of its one will, there is also one hypostasis, according to Sabellius; and on account of the three persons, there are also three wills; and for this reason three natures, according to Arius; if indeed, according to the patristic definitions and canons, a difference of wills also introduces a difference of natures."

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γάρ ὁ εὐσύνετος, ὅτι πολλῆς ἡμῖν δεῖ τῆς ἐμπειρίας καί τῆς διαλέξεως, εἴγε μέλλοιμεν βάλλειν τούς ἀντιτεταγμένους, καί πᾶν αὐτῶν καθαιρεῖν ὕψωμα, κατά τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἐπαιρόμενον γνώσεως. ∆ιά τοῦτο παντί τρόπῳ ἐκείνους παρέθηγε· συνεκρότει, λόγοις ἤλειφε πρός ἀνδρείαν,γενναιοτέρου ἐνεπίπλα φρονήματος. Εἰ (84) γάρ καί τῷ θρόνῳ ὑπερεῖχον, ἀλλά τήν γε σοφίαν καί σύνεσιν, ἐλλάτους ἦσαν καί ἀποδέοντες· ἵνα μή τήν ἄλλην ἀρετήν λέγω, καί τήν ἐν ἅπασι τοῦ ἀνδρός εὔκλειαν. Ὅθεν καί λόγοις τε ἦσαν τοῖς ἐκείνου ὑπείκοντες, καί παραινέσεσιν ἄλλαις καί συβουλαῖς οὕτω πολύ ὠφέλιμον ἐχούσαις, ἀναντιῤῥήτως πειθόμενοι.Ἑώρων γάρ ἐν τῷ ἀνδρί βίον μέν ἀνῳκισμένον καί ὑπερφυῆ, λόγον δέ ἄφθονον καί πολύν, καί οὐ κατά τινας ψεκάδας, ἀλλά κατά ποταμούς ῥέοντα· σύνεσιν δέ καί τήν ἄλλην κατάστασιν ἐν ψυχῇ, οὐδενί οὐδ' ὅλως παρισουμένην. ∆ι' ἅ πάντα, οὐχ ὅσον ἐν ἱερεῦσι καί ἐπισκόποις, ἀλλά καί ὅσοι τοῦ λαοῦ καί ὅσοι τοῦ πλήθους προτεταγμένοι, ἐκείνου τε ἦσαν ὅλοι δι' ὅλων ἐξηρτημένοι, καί αὐτοῦ οἷα μαγνήτιδος ἐκκρεμάμενοι· ταυτόν πεπονθότες πρός τόν μακάριον, ὅ φασι πρός τήν λίθον ἐκείνην τά σιδήρια· ἤ καί ὅ πρός τάς μυθευομένας Σειρῆνας, οἱ τούτων τοῖς μέλεσιν ἐνισχημένοι. Ἐπεί δ' οὗτοι ἐπύθοντο τηνικαῦτα συνέλευσιν ἐπισκόπων τόνῬώμης ἀθροίσαντα, ὡς ἄν κοινῇ σύν αὐτοῖς τό ἔκτοπον δόγμα ἀραῖς ὑποβάλῃ καί ἀναθέματι τοῦτο δή καί αὐτοί προτροπῇ καί εἰσηγήσει τοῦ θείου Μαξίμου πρᾶξαι προήχθησαν· οὐκ Ἀφρική μόνον καί ὅσον περί ταύτην, ἀλλά καί εἴ τινες ἐν ἄλλαις ταῖς ἐκεῖ νήσοις, πρός τό ἔργον ἐπαχθέντες, καί σπουδῇ τό καλόν δράσαντες· ὅτι δή καί ἅπαντες οὗτοι, ἐκεῖνον εἶχον καί διδάσκαλον καί καθηγητήν, καί τῶν πραττομένων συλλήπτορα.

ΙΕ´. Χρόνος τό ἀπ' ἐκείνου διῄει οὐχί συχνός, καί Ἰωάννης ὁ τῆςῬώμης πρόεδρος

πρός κύριον ἐκδημεῖ· ἄνεισι δέ πρός τόν ἐκείνου θρόνον Θεόδωρος, οὐχ ἧττον τῆς προεδρείας, ἤ τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας διάδοχος. Ἐν τοσούτῳ δέ καί Πύῤῥος, οἷα τῆς βασιλίδος ἀπελαθείς, καταλαμβάνει τήν Ἀφρικήν, καί τῷ θείῳ Μαξίμῳ συγγίνεται, λόγους τούς οἰκείους αὐτῷ προβαλλλόμενος, καί τούς παρ' ἐκείνου δεχόμενος· ὧν καί ἀμφοτέρων πρός πεύσεις καί ἀντιῤῥήσεις ἰόντων, πῶς ἄν ἐπί τοῦ παρόντος ἀξίως, ἤ τήν τοῦ ἁγίου μετά τοῦ πιθανοῦ καί τῆς ἀληθείας ἐν ἐκάστῶ προβλήματι παραστήσαιμι λύσιν, ἤ τήν τοῦ Πύῤῥου πρός ἕκαστον τῶν λεγομένων ἧτταν καί συγκατάθεσιν; Ὁ μέν γάρ, ὥς τι τῶν ἀμάχων καί δυσεκλύτων, ἕν εἶναι τῷ ἑνί Χριστῷ προὐβάλλετο καί τό θέλημα, καί οὐκ ἄν φησιν ἄλλως ἔχειν τήν ἐπ' ἀληθείας κατάληψιν· ὁ δέ, καί ἕνα τοῦτον καθ' ὑπόστασιν ἐνθυπέφερεν· ἀλλά γε καί τό διπλοῦν διῄρει τῶν φύσεων, αἷς συνδιῃρεῖτο καί τά θελήματα καί τοῦσο ἰσχυρῶς ἄγαν καί ἀναντιῤῥήτως ἐδείκνυ. Καί ὁ μέν αὖθις τοῖς θελήμασι καί τούς θέλοντας συνῆγεν, ἀτόπῳ συνδέων τό ἄτοπον· ὁ δ' ὅσιος, τοῦτο μέν ὡς ἐκτόπως παράλογον ἀπέτρεπεν ἐκ τοῦ ἀκολούθου καί ἤλεγχεν. "Εἰ γάρ δοθῇ, φησί, τοῖς θελήμασι συνεισάγεσθαι καί τούς θέλοντας (αὐτοῖς γάρ τοῖς τῆς μακαρίας γλώσσης χρήσομαι λόγοις), πάντως καί τοῖς θέλουσι τά θελήματα κατά τήν εὔλογον ἀντιστροφήν συνεισαχθήσεται· (85) καί εὑρεθήσεται, καθ' ὑμᾶς, τῆς ὑπερουσίου καί ὑπεραγάθου καί ἀρχικωτάτης θεότητος, διά μέν τό ἕν αὐτῆς θέλημα, μία καί ὑπόστασις, κατά Σεβέλλιον· διά δέ τά τρία πρόσωπα, τρία καί τά θελήματα· καί διά τοῦτο τρεῖς φύσεις, κατά Ἄρειον· εἴπερ, κατά τούς πατρικούς ὅρους καί κανόνας, ἡ διαφορά τῶν θελημάτων, καί φύσεων εἰσάγει διαφοράν."