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to get through. For this reason, I greatly value the good will of the artisans, so that we might be able to suffice for the present endeavor, not hindered by poverty, that praiseworthy and desirable 25.17 evil. But in these things something of jest is also mixed; but you, O man of God, in whatever way is possible and customary, having thus made an agreement with the men, confidently promise to all of them our gratitude and the full payment of their wages; for we shall give everything without fail, as God, through your prayers, opens for us also the hand of blessing.

26.t From the sophist Stagarius to Bishop Gregory

26.1 Every bishop is a hard thing to catch; but you, by as much as you have surpassed the others in learning, by so much do you also cause me fear lest you should strongly oppose my request. 26.2 But putting aside your wisdom for contradiction, emulate, O admirable one, the generous manner, and since we need rafters to roof the house (another sophist would have said poles [rather] or stakes, priding himself on little words rather than being about the business at hand), grant the gift of many hundreds. For you have the power, even if you wish to cut from paradise; but I, if you do not give, will spend the winter under the open sky. Be magnanimous, therefore, O admirable one, by sending a letter to the presbyter of the Osieni, commanding the gift.

27.t Reply of Saint Gregory to the sophist

27.1 If to make a profit is called 'to catch in a net' and this is the meaning the word has, which your sophistic power has brought forth for us from the inner sanctuaries of Plato, consider, O admirable one, who is more difficult to catch, we who are so easily staked off by the power of a letter, or the race of sophists, whose art it is to tax words? 27.2 For which of the bishops has levied a tax on words? Who has made his students pay a fee? But in this the sophists pride themselves, putting their own 27.3 wisdom up for sale just as the boilers of honey do their honey-cakes. Do you see what you do with your ineffable and musical power of words, you who have moved even me, an old man, to leap about, and stir those inexperienced in dancing to the dance? 27.4 And I have ordered that rafters be given to you, who in your rhetorical exercises parade in Median fashion, equal in number to the soldiers who fought at Thermopylae, all long and, according to your Homer, casting long shadows—which the reverend so-and-so has promised to restore to me safely, saying not ten thousand nor twenty thousand rafters, but as many as it is easy both for the one who asked to use and for the one who received to give back.

28.1 Those who are disposed towards the rose, as is likely for lovers of beauty, are not even annoyed by the thorns from which the flower grows; and I have heard someone say something of this sort about them in jest, or perhaps even in earnest, that nature attached those slender thorns to the lovers of the flower like certain erotic ticklings, rousing those who pluck them to a greater desire with its innocuous 28.2 goads. But what does introducing the rose into my letter mean to me? Surely you need to be taught nothing by me, remembering your own letter, which had the flower of your speech, unfolding for us the whole spring of your eloquence, but 28.3 was thorny with certain reproaches and accusations against us. But to me, even the thorn of your words is a pleasure, kindling a greater desire for your friendship; so write and write continually, in whatever way it is pleasing to you to do this, whether being stately, as is your custom, or even irritating through your reproaches. 28.4 But we shall in any case take care that you never of the

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διαπερᾶσαι. τούτου χάριν περὶ πολλοῦ ποιοῦμαι τὴν εὐγνωμοσύνην τῶν τεχνιτῶν, ὥστε δυνηθῆναι πρὸς τὴν προκειμένην ἡμᾶς ἐξαρκέσαι σπουδὴν μὴ κωλυθέντας τῇ πενίᾳ, τῷ ἐπαινετῷ καὶ εὐκταίῳ 25.17 κακῷ. ἀλλὰ τούτοις μέν τι καὶ παιδιᾶς καταμέμικται· σὺ δέ μοι, ὦ ἄνθρωπε τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅπως ἂν δυνατὸν καὶ νενομισμένον ᾖ, οὕτω τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συνθέμενος θαρρῶν ἐπάγγειλαι πᾶσιν αὐτοῖς τὴν παρ' ἡμῶν εὐγνωμοσύνην καὶ τὴν τῶν μισθῶν ἀποπλήρωσιν· δώσομεν γὰρ ἀνελλιπῶς τὰ πάντα, τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ τῶν σῶν εὐχῶν καὶ ἡμῖν τὴν χεῖρα τῆς εὐλογίας ἀνοίγοντος.

26.τ τοῦ σοφιστοῦ Σταγειρίου πρὸς Γρηγόριον ἐπίσκοπον

26.1 Πᾶς μὲν ἐπίσκοπος πρᾶγμα δυσγρίπιστον· σὺ δὲ ὅσῳ παρελήλυθας τοὺς

ἄλλους λογιότητι, τοσούτῳ μοι καὶ φόβον παρέχεις μὴ ἄρα ἰσχυρῶς ἐνστῇς πρὸς τὴν αἴτησιν. 26.2 ἀλλὰ ἀποθέμενος τὴν εἰς ἀντιλογίαν σοφίαν τὸν μεταδοτι κόν, ὦ θαυμάσιε, ζήλωσον τρόπον, κἀπειδὴ στρωτήρων δεόμεθα πρὸς <τὸ> τὸν οἶκον ἐρέψαι (κάμακας δ' ἂν εἶπεν ἄλλος σοφιστὴς [μᾶλλον] ἢ χάρακας, ἐγκαλλωπιζόμενος τοῖς ῥηματίοις μᾶλλον ἤπερ τῆς χρείας γινόμενος), νεῦσον πολλῶν ἑκατοντάδων δόσιν. σὺ μὲν γὰρ κἂν ἐκ τοῦ παραδείσου τεμεῖν βουληθῇς, δύναμιν ἔχεις· ἐγὼ δέ, εἰ μὴ σὺ δοίης, ὕπαιθρος διαχειμάσω. μεγαλοψύχησον οὖν, ὦ θαυμάσιε, γράμμα ἐπιθεὶς πρὸς τὸν Ὀσιηνῶν πρεσβύτερον τὴν δόσιν κελεῦον.

27.τ ἀντίγραφον τοῦ ἁγίου Γρηγορίου πρὸς τὸν σοφιστήν

27.1 Εἰ τὸ κερδαίνειν γριπίζειν λέγεται καὶ ταύτην ἔχει τὴν σημασίαν ἡ λέξις

ἣν ἐκ τῶν Πλάτωνος ἀδύτων ἡ σοφιστική σου ἡμῖν προεχειρίσατο δύναμις, σκόπησον, ὦ θαυμάσιε, τίς ἐστι μᾶλλον ἀγρίπιστος, ἡμεῖς οἱ οὕτως εὐκόλως ἀποχαρακούμενοι δι' ἐπιστολιμαίας δυνάμεως, ἢ τὸ τῶν σοφιστῶν γένος, οἷς τέχνη τὸ τελωνεῖν τοὺς λόγους 27.2 ἐστί. τίς γὰρ τῶν ἐπισκόπων τοὺς λόγους ἐφορολόγησε; τίς τοὺς μαθητευομένους μισθοφόρους ἐποίησε; τούτῳ δὲ οἱ σοφισταὶ καλλωπίζονται, ὤνιον προτιθέντες τὴν ἑαυτῶν 27.3 σοφίαν ὥσπερ οἱ τοῦ μέλιτος ἑψηταὶ τὰ μελίπηκτα. ὁρᾷς ὅσα ποιεῖς τῇ ἀπορρήτῳ σου καὶ μουσικῇ τῶν λόγων δυνάμει, ὅς γε κἀμὲ τὸν γέροντα ὑποσκιρτᾶν παρεκίνησας καὶ τοὺς ἀπείρους τῆς ὀρχήσεως ὑποκινεῖς πρὸς τὴν ὄρχησιν; 27.4 Ἐγὼ δὲ σοὶ τῷ κατὰ τὰς μελέτας τοῖς Μηδικοῖς ἐμπομπεύοντι ἰσαρίθμους τοῖς ἐν Θερμοπύλαις ἀγωνιζομένοις στρατιώταις στρωτῆρας δοθῆναι προσέταξα, πάντας εὐμήκεις καὶ κατὰ τὸν σὸν Ὅμηρον δολιχοσκίουςοὕς μοι σώους ὁ ἱερὸς δεῖνα ἀποκαταστήσειν κατεπηγγείλατο, λέγων μὴ μυρίους μηδὲ δισμυρίους στρωτῆρας, ἀλλὰ τοσούτους ὅσους τῷ τε αἰτηθέντι χρῆσθαι καὶ τῷ λαβόντι εὐχερὲς ἀποδοῦναι.

28.1 Οἱ πρὸς τὸ ῥόδον ἔχοντες ὡς τοὺς φιλοκάλους εἰκός, οὐδὲ τὰς ἀκάνθας ὧν τὸ ἄνθος ἐκφύεται δυσχεραίνουσιν· καί τινος ἤκουσα τοιοῦτό τι περὶ αὐτῶν παίζοντος ἢ τάχα που καὶ σπουδάζοντος, ὅτι καθάπερ ἐρωτικά τινα κνίσματα τοῖς ἐρασταῖς τοῦ ἄνθους ἡ φύσις τὰς λεπτὰς ἐκείνας ἀκάνθας προσέφυσεν, εἰς μείζονα πόθον τοῖς ἀπλήκτοις 28.2 κέντροις τοὺς δρεπομένους ὑπερεθίζουσα. ἀλλὰ τί μοι βούλεται τοῖς γράμμασι τὸ ῥόδον ἐπεισαγόμενον; πάντως οὐδὲν δεῖ σε παρ' ἡμῶν διδαχθῆναι τῆς ἐπιστολῆς μεμνημένον τῆς σῆς, ἣ τὸ μὲν ἄνθος εἶχε τοῦ λόγου τοῦ σοῦ, ὅλον ἡμῖν τὸ ἔαρ τῆς εὐγλωττίας διαπετάσασα, μέμψεσι 28.3 δέ τισι καὶ ἐγκλήμασι καθ' ἡμῶν ἐξηκάνθωτο. ἀλλ' ἐμοὶ τῶν σῶν λόγων καθ' ἡδονήν ἐστι καὶ ἡ ἄκανθα πρὸς μείζονα πόθον τῆς φιλίας ἐκκαίουσα· ὥστε γράφε καὶ συνεχῶς γράφε, ὅπως ἂν ᾖ σοι φίλον τοῦτο ποιεῖν, εἴτε σεμνύνων, καθώς ἐστί σοι σύνηθες, εἴτε καὶ ὑποκνίζων διὰ τῶν μέμψεων. 28.4 Μελήσει δὲ πάντως ἡμῖν τοῦ μηδέποτέ σοι τῆς