Maximus the Confessor, Life

not altogether taking away from them the pretense of living, so that there might be something philanthropic for the unphilanthropic, but inflicting punishments more bitter than death itself. For the prefect of the city, having taken them and brought them into the praetorium, first stretched the divine Maximus on four posts, and ordered him to be beaten with hardened ox-sinews; the polluted one showing no pity for his old age, nor for the shriveled members of his flesh, nor for that body spent with fasting and labors; but he flayed him so cruelly, that with the great amount of blood flowing down, he stained all the ground beneath red, and stripped away all his flesh, and left not even a small part of his members whole.

35. Then the beastly one turned to his disciple; and next to his namesake, inflicting many blows on them also, and making them full of welts; and he set heralds over them, shouting these things as they were being scourged: "Those who disobey the imperial decrees and remain unyielding are worthy to suffer thus." And so, when they were barely breathing, they carried them and cast them into the prison.

36. And next they bring forward the holy one together with his disciple, all marked with welts, all swollen, all inflamed with the blows; and though he was in such pain, they did not refrain from doing yet other, worse things to him, having altogether cast aside nature. For that theological tongue, which had poured forth words more than rivers, they unlawfully cut out from deep inside the pharynx and the adjoining epiglottis, (105) so that, the organ of speech being removed, both speech and teaching might be removed with it; and being silent, he would be speechless. But you were not destined, O good Maximus, even with your tongue cut out, to be silent; nor not to sound forth those sweetest words; but he who perfects the tongues of infants, and made the mute and deaf to speak, he himself also made you, against expectation, to speak and to talk, and to utter words more articulated than before.

37. And since they did the same to the disciple Anastasius, and cut out his tongue from deep inside as well, the same grace was strengthening him also; and giving speech without the organ of sound, this speech being wondrously abundant and plentiful. At which the polluted ones, struck with greater envy, also brought another, newer torment upon the noble ones; as if thinking they were doing an injustice if they did not inflict every trial of horrors upon them; whom it would have been far better to lead away to death, as it seemed to them, than to deliver them up to such punishments. For having bound the blessed one with thin cords, and pressed him on all sides with winches, with a chisel and a hammer they cut off his right hand, and threw it on the ground; then, as they were, they turned to his fellow-contestant Anastasius; exacting the same punishment from him also, so that he might have in every way the enjoyment of the same glory. And having cast them, tongueless and handless, out of the praetorium, they dragged and led them around through the marketplace, making a spectacle of the severed members, and using indistinct shouts; and assailing them with mockeries and jests. At which, and after that dishonorable parading, they hand them over to a very long exile; together with the apocrisiarius Anastasius; this alone the accursed ones did well, sending the saints away from themselves.

τό μέν ζῇν δῆθεν τούτοις οὐ παντάπασιν ἀφαιρούμενοι, ἵν' ᾗ τι καί τοῖς ἀφιλανθρώποις φιλάνθρωπον, πικρότερον δ' αὐτοῦ θανάτου τάς τιμωρίας προσεξεργάζοντες. Ὁ γάρ τῆς πόλεως αὐτούς παραλαβών ἔπαρχος, καί ἐν τῷ πραιτωρίῳ εἰσαγαγών, πρῶτα μέν τόν θεῖον Μάξιμον ἐκ τεσσάρων τείνας, νεύροις ἀπεσκληκόσιν ἐκέλευε τύπτεσθαι· μή γῆρας αὐτοῦ κατοικτίσας ὁ μιαρός, μή τά κατεῤῥικνωμένα τῶν σαρκῶν μέλη, μή σῶμα ἐκεῖνο τό νηστείᾳ καί πόνοις δαπανηθέν· ἀλλ' οὕτως ὠμῶς ἔξαινεν, ὡς καί τῷ πλήθει τοῦ καταῤῥέοντος αἵματος, τό ὑποκείμενον ἔδαφος ἅπαν φοινίξαι, καί σάρκας πάσας δαπανῆσαι, καί μηδέ βραχύ τῶν μελῶν ὑγιές ἐναπολιπεῖν.

ΛΕ´. Εἶτα ὁ θηριώδης, καί πρός τόν αὐτοῦ μέτεισι μαθητήν· ἑξῆς δέ καί πρός τόν

ἐκείνου συνώνυμον, πολλάς καί αὐτοῖς ἐπιθείς τάς πληγάς, καί μωλώπων ὑποπλέους ἀπεργασάμενος· ἐπιστήσας τούτοις καί κήρυκας, ταῦτα μαστιζομένοις ἐπιβοῶντας· "Οἱ τοῖς βασιλικοῖς ἀπειθοῦντες θεσπίσμασι, καί ἀνένδοτοι μένοντες, οὕτω παθεῖν ἄξιοι." Οὕς δή καί μικρά πνέοντας, φέροντες τῇ εἱρκτῇ ἐναπέῤῥιψαν.

Λστ´. Καί τό ἑξῆς παριστῶσι τόν ὅσιον συνάμα καί τῷ μαθητῇ, ὅλον τοῖς μώλωψιν

ἐστιγμένον, ὅλον ἐξῳδηκότα, ὅλον ταῖς πληγαῖς ἐμφλεγμαίνοντα· ὅν καί οὕτως ὀδυνῶν ἔχοντα, δρᾶσαι ὅμως ἐπ' αὐτόν καί ἄλλα χείρω οὐκ ἀπέσχοντο, τήν φύσιν παντάπασι διωσάμενοι. Γλῶσσαν γάρ ἐκείνην τήν θεολόγον, καί τούς λόγους ὑπέρ ποταμούς βλύσασαν, ἔνδον ἀπό τοῦ φάρυγγος καί τῆς παραψαυούσης ἐπιγλωττίδος, (105) παρανόμως ἐκτέμνουσιν· ὡς ἄν τοῦ φωνητικοῦ ἀφαιρεθέντος ὀργάνου, συναφαιρεθείη καί λόγος τούτῳ καί διδασκαλία· καί σιγῶν εἴη ἄφθογγος. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἔμελλες, ὦ καλέ Μάξιμε, καί τήν γλῶσσαν τεμνόμενος, σιωπᾷν· οὐδέ λόγους ἐκείνους τούς ἡδίστους μή κελαδεῖν· ἀλλ' ὁ γλῶσσαν καταρτίζων νηπίων, καί ἄλαλον θείς φθέγξασθαι καί κωφόν, αὐτός καί σέ παρά δόξαν καί φθέγγεσθαι πεποίηκε, καί λαλεῖν, καί μεῖζον ἤ πρόσθεν διηρθρωμένους τούς λόγους προΐεσθαι.

ΛΖ´. Ἐπεί δέ τό αὐτό κἀν τῷ μαθητῇ Ἀναστασίῳ ἔδρασαν, καί γλῶσσαν κἀκείνῳ

ἔνδον ἀπέτεμον, ἡ αὐτή ἦν καί τοῦτον ἐνισχύουσα χάρις· καί λόγον διδοῦσα δίχα τοῦ φωνοῦντος ὀργάνου, πολύν τινα τοῦτον παραδόξως καί ἄφθονον. Ἐφ' ᾧ καί μείζονι φθόνῳ πληγέντες οἱ μιαροί, καί ἄλλην τοῖς γενναῖοις καινοτέραν βάσανον προσεπῆγον· ὥσπερ ἀδικεῖν νομίζοντες, εἰ μή πᾶσαν πεῖραν δεινῶν ἐπί τούτοις κινήσαιεν· οὕς καί πολλῷ βέλτιον ἦν θανάτῳ ὑπεξαγαγεῖν, καθό καί ἦν ἐκείνοις δοκοῦν, ἤ οὕτω παραδοῦναι κολάσεσι. Σχοίνοις γάρ λεπταῖς τόν μακάριον ἐνειλίσαντες, καί στρέβλαις πανταχόθεν πιέσαντες, σμίλῃ καί σφύρᾳ τήν δεξιάν τῶν χειρῶν ἀποκόπτουσι, καί ἐπ' ἐδάφους ῥίπτουσιν· εἶθ' ὡς εἶχον, καί πρός τόν σύναθλον μετίασιν Ἀναστάσιον· τήν ἴσην κἀκεῖνον τιμωρίας εἰσπράττοντες, ἵν' ἔχοι πάντως καί τῆς ἴσης δόξης τήν παραπόλαυσιν. Οὕς καί ἀγλώττους καί ἄχειρας ἐκβαλόντες τοῦ πραιτωρίου, εἷλκον καί περιῆγον κατά τήν ἀγοράν, τά κεκομμένα θεατρίζοντες μέλη, καί κραυγαῖς ἀσήμοις χρώμενοι· καί τωθασμοῖς αὐτούς καί σκώμμασι βάλλοντες. Ἐφ' ᾧ καί μετά τήν ἄτιμον ἐκείνην περιαγωγήν, ἐξορίᾳ μακροτάτῃ παραδιδόασι· μεθ' ἅμα καί τοῦ ἀποκρισιαρίου Ἀναστασίου· τοῦτο γε μόνον καλῶς ποιησάμενοι τούς ἁγίους, οἱ ἐναγεῖς, ἑαυτῶν ἀποδιαστείλαντες.