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of the churches, (σελ. 184) to the greatest of animals, the elephant. Which they say “does not even at sleep time recline on the ground for rest, but rests by slightly bending its side joints; and if it should ever suffer something and fall down, it can no longer get up. But for elephants, the cause is the weight of the body and its great fleshiness, being both cumbersome and pressing downwards, like some lead of many talents laid upon them, but for the Latins, it is pride, I think, their only, I might almost say, incurable passion, which is also, according to the apostle, the particular condemnation of the only evil one; for which reason he too is incurable for ever.

But if this tribe of the Latins should cast this off - for they can, for they are men - perhaps we, all of the right way, gathered into one and with certain privileges, as it were, just as nature has found a help for fallen elephants from those not lying down, using the divinely inspired oracles, will both raise them up and set them upright, holding unswervingly to the rule of piety. But nothing at all will help those who lie down willingly, even if the cure for their false opinion is prepared and brought by the celestial minds themselves. For of them is the word spoken in prophetic sayings, as “We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed.”

Therefore, he who gives a hand to these almost gives it in vain, having allotted this one very good thing to himself and having given to God a demonstration of his own virtue, and only having shown them to be willfully evil and perhaps having stopped them from proceeding further in their errors. For even now, if they do not wish to speak differently with clarity, what better remedy could they have for (186) their correction, than that the Holy Spirit has his hypostasis from the Father alone, and not also from the Son? Which has been previously demonstrated through many things and through the addition of the word “alone,” the orthodox understanding concerning the sure theology of the Holy Spirit having become more manifest, and their addition having been clearly convicted of being contrary to the rightly dividing preaching of the truth.

But even apart from these things, we see no necessity brought from any quarter to move the Spirit-moved decrees concerning piety of the holy synods from the ages and to refashion the patristically-handed-down symbol of piety, so as to add and to maintain that the Holy Spirit has his existence also from the Son. For what if there are things in the divinely-inspired Scripture that seem to disagree with what has been expressed in common by the theologians, and from there confessed by all of us, shall we not rather, to the best of our ability, reconcile those things with the truth that is in every way indisputable, but shall we fall away from the truth on account of them? Or if we confess that something even surpasses our understanding and we yield the comprehension of these things to certain others, whoever may be deemed worthy - even if he be of the last of the deep and hidden mysteries of the Spirit, and judging ourselves unworthy of these things, we will humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, but, oh the passion, shall we also be ignorant of God himself because of being unwilling to confess ignorance of anything, just like those who were ignorant of the divinity of the Son because of the things written with difficulty concerning him? Not at all. For neither could the scriptural testimonies, not being well understood, have helped those who do not renounce in time or have delivered them from their impiety and the eternal condemnation for it; but they will pay an eternal penalty, because having set aside the clear utterances and having investigated the unclear ones with a puffing up of knowledge, (σελ. 188) or rather not having investigated nor having been persuaded by those who truly did investigate, they justly reaped true foolishness from this puffed-up knowledge itself.

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ἐκκλησιῶν οὔσῃ, (σελ. 184) τῷ μεγίστῳ τῶν ζώων ἐλέφαντι. Ὅν φασι «μηδ᾿ ὕπνον καιρόν ἐπ᾿ ἐδάφους ἀνακλίνεσθαι πρός ἄνεσιν, τοῖς δέ πλαγίοις ἄρθροις μικρόν ἐποκλάζοντα διαναπαύεσθαι˙ ἄν δέ πού τι παθών καταπέσῃ, μηκέτ᾿ ἀνίστασθαι δύνασθαι. Ἀλλά τοῖς μέν ἐλέφασι τό βάρος τοῦ σώματος αἴτιον καί ἡ πολυσαρκία δύσχρηστός τε οὖσα καί κάτω πιέζουσα, καθάπερ τις ἐπικειμένη μόλυβδος πολυτάλαντος, τοῖς δέ Λατίνοις ὁ τύφος οἶμαι τό μόνον, μικροῦ δέω λέγειν, πάθος ἀνίατον, ὅ καί τῷ μόνῳ πονηρῷ κρίμα κατά τόν ἀπόστολον ἰδιαίτατον˙ δι᾿ ὅ κἀκεῖνος εἰς αἰῶνας ἀνίατος.

Ἄν δέ τό τῶν Λατίνων τοῦτο φῦλον τοῦτον ἀπόθωνται - δύνανται γάρ, καί γάρ ἄνθρωποι - τάχ᾿ ἄν ἡμεῖς οἱ τοῦ ὀρθοῦ πάντες συναχθέντες εἰς ἕν καί οἷόν τισι προνομαίαις, ὅ καί τοῖς καταπεσοῦσιν ἐλέφασι παρά τῶν μή κειμένων ἡ φύσις ἐξεῦρε βοήθημα, τοῖς θεοπνεύστοις λογίοις χρησάμενοι διαναστήσομέν τε καί στήσομεν ὀρθίους, ἀπαρεγκλίτως ἐχομένους τοῦ κανόνος τῆς εὐσεβείας. Ἐθελοντάς δέ κειμένους ὀνήσει τό παράπαν οὐδέν, κἄν παρ᾿ αὐτῶν τῶν οὐρανίων νόων σκευάζηταί τε καί προσάγηται τό τῆς ψευδοδοξίας ἴαμα˙ τούτων γάρ λόγος προφητικοῖς ρήμασιν ἐκπεφασμένος, ὡς «ἰατρεύσαμεν τήν Βαβυλῶνα καί οὐκ ἰάθη».

Μικροῦ τοίνυν μάτην τούτοις δίδωσιν ὁ χεῖρα διδούς, τοῦτο μόνον εὖ ἄγαν ἑαυτῷ νείμας καί ἀποδούς τῷ Θεῷ τήν τῆς οἰκείας καλοκαγαθίας ἐπίδειξιν, ἐκείνους δέ μόνον ἐθελοκακοῦντας ἀποδείξας καί ἴσως στήσας τοῦ μή πρόσω τῶν ἀπτοπημάτων χωρεῖν. Καί νῦν γάρ, εἰ μή σαφῶς ἑτεροφωνεῖν ἐθέλουσι, τί κρεῖττον ἄν σχοῖεν φάρμακον πρός (186) ἐπανόρθωσιν, ἤ ὅτι περ ἐκ μόνου τοῦ Πατρός, ἀλλ᾿οὐχί καί ἐκ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τήν ὑπόστασιν ἔχει τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον; Ὅ προαποδέδεικται διά πολλῶν καί διά τῆς ὑποφωνήσεως τοῦ "μόνου", ἀριδηλοτέρας γεγονυίας τῆς ὀρθοδόξου διανοίας περί τῆς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἀσφαλοῦς θεολογίας καί τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτούς προσθήκης ὑπεναντίας φανερῶς ἐληλεγμένης τοῦ ὀρθοτομοῦντος κηρύγματος τῆς ἀληθείας.

Ἀλλά καί χωρίς τούτων οὐδέ τινά ποθεν ἀνάγκην ἐπαγομένην ὁρῶμεν μετακινεῖν τάς πενυματικινήτους περί θεοσεβείας ψήφους τῶν ἀπ᾿ αἰῶνος ἱερῶν συνόδων καί μετασκευάζειν τό πατροπαράδοτον τῆς εὐσεβείας σύμβολον, ὡς προστιθέναι καί ἰσχυρίζεσθαι τήν ὕπαρξιν ἔχειν καί ἐκ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον. Τί γάρ, εἰ τῆς θεοπνεύστου Γραφῆς ἔστιν ἅ δοκοῦσι διαφωνεῖν πρός τά κοινῇ τοῖς θεολόγοις ἐκπεφασμένα, κἀντεῦθεν ἀνωμολογημένα πᾶσιν ἡμῖν, οὐκ ἐκεῖνα μᾶλλον συμβιβάσομεν τῇ πανταχόθεν ἐχούσῃ τό ἀναμβισβήτητον ἀληθείᾳ πρός δύναμιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἡμεῖς ἐκπεσούμεθα δι᾿ ἐκεῖνα τῆς ἀληθείας; Οὐδ᾿ εἴ τι καί τήν ἡμετέραν ὑπερβαίνειν διάνοιαν ὁμολογήσομεν καί ἄλλοις δή τισι τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτά συνέσεως παραχωρήσωμεν, ὅστις ἄν ἀξιωθείη - κἄν τῶν ἐσχάτων ᾗ τῶν βαθέων καί ἀποκεκρυμμένων μυστηρίων τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἡμᾶς δ᾿ αὐτούς ἀναξίους κρίναντες τούτων, ὑπό τήν κραταιάν χεῖρα τοῦ Θεοῦ ταπεινώσομεν, ἀλλ᾿ ὤ τοῦ πάθους, καί Θεόν αὐτόν ἀγνοήσομεν διά τό μηδέν ἐθέλειν ὁμολογεῖν ἀγνοεῖν, ὥσπερ οἱ καί τήν τοῦ Υἱοῦ θεότητα ἀγνοήσαντες διά τά δυσλήπτως περί αὐτοῦ γεγραμμένα; Οὔμενουν. Οὐδέ γάρ ἐκείνοις αἱ γραφικαί μαρτυρίαι, μή καλῶς ἐκληφθεῖσαι, δυνηθεῖεν ἄν συνάρασθαι παραιτουμένοις οὐ κατά καιρόν ἤ τῆς ἀσεβείας αὐτούς καί τῆς δι᾿αὐτήν αἰωνιζούσης καταδίκης ἐξελέσθαι˙ ἀλλά κρίσιν τίσουσιν αἰώνιον, ὅτι τάς σαφεῖς ἀθετήσαντες φωνάς καί τάς ἀσαφεῖς φυσιώσει γνώσεως ἀνερευνήσαντες, (σελ. 188) μᾶλλον δέ μή ἐρευνήσαντες μηδέ τοῖς ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐρευνήσασι πεισθέντες, ἐξ αὐτῆς ἐνδίκως τῆς πεφυσιωμένης γνώσεως τήν ὄντως ἀφροσύνην ἐκαρπώσαντο.