must be attended to as moved by God. For, "He who rejects you," he says, "rejects me." <8> But let us return to what follows the aforesaid prayer. For having completed it, the hierarch himself kisses the departed, and then all those present. For sweet and precious to all the godlike is he who has been perfected in a divine life. And after the kiss, the hierarch pours the oil upon the departed. But remember that, during the sacred divine birth, before the most divine baptism, the first participation in a sacred symbol is bestowed upon the one being initiated, after the complete removal of the former garment, the oil of anointing. But now at the end of all things the oil is poured upon the departed. And then, the anointing with oil called the one being initiated to the sacred contests, but now the oil being poured signifies that the departed has striven and been perfected in the same sacred contests. <9> Having completed these things, the hierarch lays the body in a holy place with other sacred bodies of the same order. For if the departed lived a God-loving life in soul and body, the body which strove with it in the sacred labors will also be honored with the holy soul. Hence divine justice bestows upon it, with its own body, the rewards due to it as a fellow-traveler and partaker of the holy or of the contrary life. Wherefore also the divine institution of the sacred rites bestows the deifying communions on both: to the soul, in pure contemplation and knowledge of the things being performed, and to the body, through the most divine myrrh as in an image and the most sacred symbols of the deifying communion, sanctifying the whole man and consecrating his entire salvation, and announcing through the universal sanctifications that his resurrection will be most perfect. <VIIa.> <10> But it is not permitted to interpret in writing the consecrating invocations nor to bring forth from secrecy into the public domain their mystical meaning or the divine powers worked in them, but as our sacred tradition holds, having learned them through unpublishable initiations and having been perfected towards a more divine state and elevation by divine love and sacred energies, you will be led up by the perfecting illumination to their supreme knowledge. <VIIb.> <11> But that children, not yet able to understand the divine things, become partakers of the sacred divine birth and of the most sacred symbols of the deifying communion, seems, as you say, to the uninitiated worthy of reasonable laughter, if the hierarchs teach the divine things to those unable to hear and rashly hand down the sacred traditions to those who do not understand, and what is even more laughable: that others say the renunciations and the sacred professions on their behalf. But your hierarchical intelligence must not be angry with those who are in error, but at once reverently and lovingly, for the sake of their enlightenment, give a defense against the objections brought forward by them, adding this also according to a sacred ordinance, that not all divine things are comprehended in our knowledge, but many of the things unknown by us have God-befitting causes, unknown indeed to us, but known to the orders superior to us. And many things are hidden even from the supreme beings and are known accurately by the all-wise and wisdom-making Divinity alone. Nevertheless, concerning this also we say these things, which our godlike initiators, having been initiated by the ancient tradition, have handed down to us. For they say, which is also true, that infants being brought up according to a sacred ordinance will arrive at a sacred state, being perfected free from all error and inexperienced in an unholy life. This having come to the mind of our divine leaders, it seemed good to receive infants in this sacred manner, so that the natural parents of the child being presented hand over the child to one of the initiated, a good instructor in divine things, and for the future the child is to be under him as under

προσεκτέον ὡς ὑπὸ θεοῦ κεκινημένοις. «Ὁ ἀθετῶν» γὰρ «ὑμᾶς» φησιν «ἐμὲ ἀθετεῖ.» <8> Ἀλλ' ἐπανέλθωμεν εἰς τὰ τῆς εἰρημένης εὐχῆς ἀκόλουθα. Τελέσας γὰρ αὐτὴν ὁ ἱεράρχης αὐτός τε ἀσπάζεται τὸν κεκοιμημένον καὶ ἑξῆς οἱ παρόντες ἅπαντες. Ἡδὺς γάρ ἐστι καὶ τίμιος ἅπασι τοῖς θεοειδέσιν ὁ κατὰ θείαν ζωὴν τετελειωμένος. Μετὰ δὲ τὸν ἀσπασμὸν ἐπιχέει τῷ κεκοιμημένῳ τὸ ἔλαιον ὁ ἱεράρχης. Μέμνησο δέ, ὅτι κατὰ τὴν ἱερὰν θεογενεσίαν πρὸ τοῦ θειοτάτου βαπτίσματος πρώτη μέθεξις ἱεροῦ συμβόλου δωρεῖται τῷ τελουμένῳ μετὰ τὴν ὁλικὴν τῆς προτέρας ἐσθῆτος ἀπαμφίεσιν τὸ τῆς χρίσεως ἔλαιον. Ἐν τέλει δὲ νῦν ἁπάντων ἐπὶ τῷ κεκοιμημένῳ τὸ ἔλαιον ἐπιχέεται. Καὶ τότε μὲν ἡ τοῦ ἐλαίου χρῖσις ἐπὶ τοὺς ἱεροὺς ἀγῶνας ἐκάλει τὸν τελούμενον, νῦν δὲ τὸ ἐπιχεόμενον ἔλαιον ἐμφαίνει κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἱεροὺς ἀγῶνας ἀθλήσαντα καὶ τελειωθέντα τὸν κεκοιμημένον. <9> Ταῦτα τελέσας ὁ ἱεράρχης ἀποτίθησιν ἐν οἴκῳ τιμίῳ τὸ σῶμα μεθ' ἑτέρων ὁμοταγῶν ἱερῶν σωμάτων. Eἰ γὰρ ἐν ψυχῇ καὶ σώματι τὴν θεοφιλῆ ζωὴν ὁ κεκοιμημένος ἐβίω, τίμιον ἔσται μετὰ τῆς ὁσίας ψυχῆς καὶ τὸ συναθλῆσαν αὐτῇ σῶμα κατὰ τοὺς ἱεροὺς ἱδρῶτας. Ἔνθεν ἡ θεία δικαιοσύνη μετὰ τοῦ σφετέρου σώματος αὐτῇ δωρεῖται τὰς ἀμοιβαίας λήξεις ὡς ὁμοπορεύτου καὶ συμμετόχου τῆς ὁσίας ἢ τῆς ἐναντίας ζωῆς. ∆ιὸ καὶ τῶν ἱερῶν ἡ θεία θεσμοθεσία τὰς θεαρχικὰς κοινωνίας ἀμφοῖν δωρεῖται, τῇ ψυχῇ μὲν ἐν καθαρᾷ θεωρίᾳ καὶ ἐπιστήμῃ τῶν τελουμένων, τῷ σώματι δὲ κατὰ τὸ θειότατον ὡς ἐν εἰκόνι μύρον καὶ τὰ τῆς θεαρχικῆς κοινωνίας ἱερώτατα σύμβολα, τὸν ὅλον ἄνθρωπον ἁγιάζουσα καὶ τὴν ὁλικὴν αὐτοῦ σωτηρίαν ἱερουργοῦσα καὶ τελεωτάτην αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἔσεσθαι διαγγέλλουσα ταῖς καθολικαῖς ἁγιστείαις. <VIIa.> <10> Τὰς δὲ τελεστικὰς ἐπικλήσεις οὐ θεμιτὸν ἐν γραφαῖς ἀφερμηνεύειν οὐδὲ τὸ μυστικὸν αὐτῶν ἢ τὰς ἐπ' αὐταῖς ἐνεργουμένας ἐκ θεοῦ δυνάμεις ἐκ τοῦ κρυφίου πρὸς τὸ κοινὸν ἐξάγειν, ἀλλ' ὡς ἡ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἱερὰ παράδοσις ἔχει, ταῖς ἀνεκπομπεύτοις μυήσεσιν αὐτὰς ἐκμαθὼν καὶ πρὸς θειοτέραν ἕξιν καὶ ἀναγωγὴν ἔρωτι θείῳ καὶ ἐνεργείας ἱεραῖς ἀποτελεσθεὶς ὑπὸ τῆς τελεταρχικῆς ἐλλάμψεως ἀναχθήσῃ πρὸς τὴν ὑπερτάτην αὐτῶν ἐπιστήμην. <VIIb.> <11> Τὸ δὲ καὶ παῖδας οὔπω τὰ θεῖα συνιέναι δυναμένους τῆς ἱερᾶς μετόχους γίνεσθαι θεογενεσίας καὶ τῶν ἱερωτάτων τῆς θεαρχικῆς κοινωνίας συμβόλων δοκεῖ μὲν ὡς φῂς τοῖς ἀνιέροις εὐλόγου γέλωτος ἄξιον, εἰ τοὺς ἀκοῦσαι μὴ δυναμένους ἐκδιδάσκουσιν οἱ ἱεράρχαι τὰ θεία καὶ τοῖς μὴ νοοῦσιν εἰκῆ παραδιδόασι τὰς ἱερὰς παραδόσεις, καὶ τὸ ἔτι γελοιότερον· ὡς ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ἕτεροι τὰς ἀποταγάς φασι καὶ τὰς ἱερὰς ὁμολογίας. ∆εῖ δὲ τὴν σὴν ἱεραρχικὴν σύνεσιν μὴ χαλεπαίνειν ἐπὶ τοῖς πεπλανημένοις, ἀλλ' εὐλαβῶς τε ἅμα καὶ τῆς αὐτῶν φωταγωγίας χάριν ἀγαπητικῶς ἀπολογεῖσθαι πρὸς τὰς ὑπ' αὐτῶν προφερομένας ἐνστάσεις προστιθέντα καὶ τοῦτο κατὰ θεσμὸν ἱερόν, ὡς οὐκ ἐν τῇ καθ' ἡμᾶς γνώσει πάντα τὰ θεῖα περιγράφεται, πολλὰ δὲ τῶν ὑφ' ἡμῶν ἀγνοουμένων αἰτίας ἔχει θεοπρεπεῖς ἡμῖν μὲν ἠγνοημένας, ἐπιστητὰς δὲ ταῖς ἡμῶν κρείττοσι τάξεσιν. Πολλὰ δὲ καὶ τὰς ὑπερτάτας οὐσίας λέληθε καὶ πρὸς μόνης ἀκριβῶς ἔγνωσται τῆς πανσόφου καὶ σοφοποιοῦ θεαρχίας. Πλήν γε ὅτι καὶ περὶ τούτου ταῦτά φαμεν, ἅπερ οἱ θεοειδεῖς ἡμῶν ἱεροτελεσταὶ πρὸς τῆς ἀρχαίας μυηθέντες παραδόσεως εἰς ἡμᾶς προήγαγον. Φασὶ γάρ, ὅπερ ἐστὶ καὶ ἀληθές, ὅτι κατὰ θεσμὸν ἱερὸν ἀναγόμενα τὰ βρέφη πρὸς ἕξιν ἱερὰν ἥξουσιν πάσης ἀποτελούμενα πλάνης καὶ ἀνιέρου ζωῆς ἀπείρατα. Τοῦτο τοῖς θείοις ἡμῶν καθηγεμόσιν εἰς νοῦν ἐληλυθὸς ἔδοξεν εἰσδέχεσθαι τὰ βρέφη κατὰ τόνδε τὸν ἱερὸν τρόπον, ὥστε τοὺς φυσικοὺς τοῦ προσαγομένου παιδὸς γονέας παραδιδόναι τὸν παῖδά τινι τῶν μεμυημένων ἀγαθῷ τὰ θεῖα παιδαγωγῷ καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν ὑπ' αὐτῷ τὸν παῖδα τελεῖν ὡς ὑπὸ