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15Α_150 Great peace have they who love Your law, 0113 and for them there is no stumbling block, said the God-forefather David to God; making known thereby to all, and I declare to those who desire salvation, that by attending to the nature of the ultimate and most divine object of desire with the highest love, they might joyfully pursue with it the good of peace, both for themselves and for all, if possible, indissolubly, removing every stumbling block from all things, through pious and ultimate unanimity toward one another. For which reason, it was also a matter of concern to me, your servant, to set down eagerly in writing that which I had previously established with my tongue, for your most-holy security and full assurance, having cast off through this defense every suspicion concerning our lowliness which has arisen in you from others: "For I cannot bear," as Gregory the Theologian says, "that any of those who carefully observe all our affairs, whether they be well or otherwise, should be offended in me; for it is good neither to sin nor to be suspected of it, as long as it is possible and reason allows, to place a hindrance or a stumbling block for the many; since we know how inexorable and most heavy is the punishment from Him Who does not lie for those who scandalize even one of the little ones."

15Α_152 I make known, therefore, to you most-holy ones, that the notion of counterbalancing and contrary dogmas has never in any way been my opinion, according to the suggestion of those who traduce me. For I have not confessed, nor written at all, one and at the same time two—that is, three, according to them—wills and energies in one and the same Christ our God. For the one is overturned by the other, having no stability 0116 of natural reasonings; in addition to being a dogma unattested by the truth, that is, by the holy Fathers. For if one, how also two? But if two, how also one? And with whom, according to it, has the incarnate Word been established as having the same energy, or rather, the same essence?

For if they should say to the Father, they thereby introduce a double divine energy, unless, for the abolition of the two natural energies of the same one—the divine, I say, and the human—they confess the third energy fabricated by them. For if it is not for their abolition, it is clear that they advocate two divine energies of the same one: a natural and a hypostatic one. But if two, then they are certainly different; and from this their own notion is polytheistic, since for them the divine energy in the Father and the Son is known in otherness and not in natural identity. And not only is their opinion polytheistic, but indeed also atheistic, as they make the Son to have no divine energy, since they confuse nature and hypostasis with each other, along with the properties of each; and they know the same thing as Sabellius, subscribing to the Son as sharing with the Father in each, both nature, I say, and hypostasis, which is alien to the Catholic Church; not to mention that they also make the Father by nature passible and incarnate, or rather made man, by the identity of energy with the Son, both of the miracles and likewise of the passions. Unless, of course, they say that the Son energizes something other than the miracles and the passions, according to, as has been said, the third energy fabricated by them, 15Α_154 by which they suggest that the only-begotten Word also shares with the Father, in addition to the naturally divine one.

But if, being constrained by these things, they determine that the Son shares this third energy not with the unoriginate Father but with the immaculate mother, here too they provide him with two created, that is, human energies: again a natural and a hypostatic one; alienating him, that is, in each respect from God the Father; and being carried along with the division of Arius, according to the complete alienation, as they see it, of the Only-begotten from the Father in both energies. Wherefore indeed us

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15Α_150 Εἰρήνη πολλή τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι τόν νόμον σου, 0113 καί οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῖς σκάνδαλον, πρός τόν Θεόν ἔφησεν ὁ Θεοπάτωρ ∆αβίδ· γνωρίζων ἐντεῦθεν ἅπασι, καί διαγορεύω τοῖς σωτηρίας ἐφιεμένοις, ἵνα τῇ τοῦ ἐσχάτου φύσει προσανέχοντες ὀρεκτοῦ θειοτάτῃ κατ᾿ ἄκρον ἀγάπῃ, ταύτη περιχαρῶς τό τῆς εἰρήνης καλόν πρός ἑαυτούς τε καί πάντας, εἰ δυνατόν, ἀλύτως μεταδιώκοιεν· ἅπαν ἐξ ἁπάντων ἀφαιρούμενοι σκάνδαλον, διά τῆς εὐσεβοῦς εἰς ἀλλήλους καί ἄκρας ὁμοφροσύνης. Οὗ δή χάριν, κἀμοί τῷ ἡμετέρῳ διεσπουδάσθη δούλῳ, γραφῇ καταθέσθαι προθύμως, ὅπερ φθάσας γλώττῃ συνεστησάμην, πρός τήν τῶν ἁγιωτάτων ὑμῶν ἀσφάλειάν τε καί πληροφορίαν, πᾶσαν ἐξ ἑτέρων γεγενημένην ὑμῖν περί τῆς ἡμῶν ταπεινώσεως ὑποψίαν, διά τῆς ἀπολογίας ἀποσκευασάμενος· "Οὐδέ γάρ ἀνέχομαι, καθά φησιν ὁ Θεολόγος Γρηγόριος, πλήττεσθαί τινας ἐν ἐμοί τῶν πάντα τηρούντων ἐπιμελῶς τά ἡμέτερα, εὖ τε καί ὡς ἑτέρως ἔχοντα· καλόν γάρ μήτε ἁμαρτάνοντα, μήτε ὑπονοούμενον, ἕως ἄν οἷόν τε ᾗ, καί ὁ λόγος αἱρῇ, τιθέναι πρόσκομμα τοῖς πολλοῖς ἤ σκάνδαλον· εἴπερ καί τοῖς ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν σκανδαλίσασιν, ἴσμεν ὅπως ἀπαραίτητος καί βαρυτάτη παρά τοῦ ἀψευδοῦς ἡ τιμωρία».

15Α_152 Γνωρίζω τοίνυν τοῖς ἁγιωτάτοις ὑμῖν, ὡς οὐδαμῶς μοι πεφρόνηται πώποτε, κατά τήν τῶν ἐπηρεαζόντων εἰσήγησιν ἡ τῶν ἀντιῤῥόπων καί ἐναντίων δογμάτων ὑπόληψις. Οὐδέ γάρ μίαν ἐν ταὐτῷ καί δύο, τουτέστι τρεῖς, κατ᾿ αὐτούς, θελήσεις καί ἐνεργείας ἐπί τοῦ αὐτοῦ καί ἑνός Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ διωμολογησάμην, ἤ συνεγραψάμην τό σύνολον. Θατέρῳ γάρ θάτερον ἀνατρέπεται, πῆξιν οὐδεμίαν 0116 ἔχον τήν λογισμῶν φυσικῶν· πρός τό καί ἁμάρτυρον εἶναι δόγμα τοῖς ἀληθείας, ἤγουν τοῖς ἁγίοις Πατράσιν. Εἰ γάρ μία, πῶς καί δύο· εἰ δέ δύο, πῶς καί μία; καί τίνι κατ᾿ αὐτήν ὁμοεργής, εἴτουν ὁμοούσιος, ὁ σαρκωθείς καθέστηκε Λόγος;

Εἰ μέν γάρ τῷ Πατρί φήσειαν, διπλῆν ἐντεῦθεν εἰσάγουσι τήν θείαν ἐνέργειαν· εἴπερ μή ἐπ᾿ ἀναιρέσει τῶν δύο τοῦ αὐτοῦ κατά φύσιν ἐνεργειῶν, τῆς θείας λέγω καί τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης, διομολογοῦσι τήν πλαττομένην αὐτοῖς τρίτην ἐνέργειαν. Εἰ γάρ μή ἐπ᾿ ἀναιρέσει, δῆλον ὡς δύο τοῦ αὐτοῦ τάς θεϊκάς ἐνεργείας πρεσβεύουσι· φυσικήν καί ὑποστατικήν. Εἰ δέ δύο, διαφόρους πάντως· κἀντεῦθεν πολύθεον τήν οἰκείαν ὑπόληψιν, ὡς ἐν ἑτερότητι καί οὐ ταυτότητι φυσικῇ γνωριζομένης αὐτοῖς, τῆς ἐν Πατρί καί Υἱῷ θεϊκῆς ἐνεργείας. Καί οὐ πολύθεον μόνον τήν δόξαν· ἀλλ᾿ δη καί ἄθεον· ὡς οὐδεμίαν θεϊκήν ἐνέργειαν ἔχειν κατασκευάζοντες τήν Υἱόν, ἅ τε δή φύσιν καί ὑπόστασιν ἀλλήλοις συμφύροντες, μετά τῶν ἑκατέρας ἰδιωμάτων· καί ταυτόν σύν Σαβελλίῳ γνωρίζοντες, ὡς καθ᾿ ἑκατέραν τῷ Πατρί κοινωνοῦντα, φύσιν τε λέγω καί ὑπόστασιν, τόν Υἱόν ὑπογράφοντες, ὅπερ τῆς καθολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας ἐστίν ἀλλότριον· ἵνα μή λέγω, ὅτι καί φύσει παθητόν τόν Πατέρα καί σεσαρκωμένον, εἴτουν ἐνανθρωπήσαντα, τῇ πρός τόν Υἱόν ὁμοεργίᾳ, τῶν τε θαυμάτων ὁμοίως καί παθημάτων. Εἴ γε μή ἄλλο τι παρά τά θαύματα καί τά πάθη φασίν ἐνεργεῖν τόν Υἱόν, κατά τήν, ὡς εἴρηται, πλαττομένην αὐτοῖς τρίτην 15Α_154 ἐνέργειαν· ᾗ καί κοινωνεῖν, πρός τῇ κατά φύσιν θείᾳ, τῷ Πατρί τόν μονογενῆ Λόγον ὑπαγορεύουσιν.

Εἰ δέ τούτοις στενοχωρούμενοι, μή τῷ ἀνάρχῳ μέν Πατρί· τῇ δέ ἀχράντῳ μητρί κοινωνεῖν κατά ταύτην ὁρίζονται τόν Υἱόν τήν τρίτην ἐνέργειαν, δύο κἀνταῦθα παρέχουσιν αὐτῷ κτιστάς, ἤγουν ἀνθρωπικάς ἐνεργείας· φυσικήν αὖθις καί ὑποστατικήν· ἀλλοτριοῦντες αὐτόν δηλαδή, καθ' ἑκατέραν τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός· καί τῇ Ἀρείου συνεκφερόμενοι διατομῇ, κατά τήν ἐν ἀμφοτέραις ἐνεργείαις τοῦ Μονογενοῦς πρός τόν Πατέρα τελείαν κατ᾿ αὐτούς ἀποξένωσιν. Ὅπου γε καί ἡμᾶς