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of almost the entire city, and there are many who are pressed together with and speak out with us, but they are worshippers of God by night, not being able to speak freely in the light. But we, children and brothers, by our confidence in God and by the establishment of the truth, and by the very outcome of justice which has already occurred and been demonstrated according to the things shown in the world against both the adulterer and his collaborators, are unswerving from the commandment and the patristic canons; and we will not give in nor will we betray piety, nor indeed will we tear down what we have well built up beforehand through our resistance during the exile, so that we may not be shown to be transgressors of the law. But being held fast by the divine law, we hold fast, as we have held fast before, loving all things, enduring all things, if indeed God should even permit it, rather than partaking in the communion of that man and those who serve with him, until the deposed one ceases from the sacred ministry. Therefore men will babble many things, and they will mock and laugh at us, and indeed, what is more pitiable, not a few of those of the same habit and same rank and seeming to be friends. But it is nothing strange; it is written, "and a man's enemies will be those of his own household." and that they themselves acted as pimps and collaborated and ate and drank with the adulterous marriage and dipped the pen for our exile. But the Lord who was roused then to avenge His law, and who broke the kingdom of the adulterer by blinding him, and put to shame his supporters like the priests of Baal, and gathered our lowliness back to our own monastery beyond all hope, He Himself is present even now, He Himself. even if for a little while He permitted again the unlawful union, but again He was pleased that the gloating of the adulterous couple and the adultery-loving Nazirites should be rejected through the just judgment of our pious emperors, who returned the adulterer after death to his lawful wife, and who called the lewd woman an adulteress and left the child born of adultery without inheritance as unlawful and most lawless, as their honorable mouth has spoken in my hearing according to the Roman laws. But nevertheless the lawless ones are not ashamed, nor is the one who blasphemed against the Holy Spirit in the sacred prayer for the crowning union abashed, but having leapt in like a cat into the church of God he springs again and again begins to defile the holy things through the sacred ministry, and he strives eagerly to make lawlessness known as righteousness and, as the saying goes, to prove himself more holy than the Forerunner and Baptist; for while that one was rebuking the adultery of Herod and dying for the truth, this one both crowned and embraced until death the second Herod who was shown to be in adultery, speaking not in words, but by his very deeds that John the Forerunner was mistaken, having rebuked unlawfully and inopportunely and died. And why indeed do I speak of John, the greatest of all saints? Against Christ Himself, if it is even bold to say, he spoke against and fought against through his accursed mouth; for while Christ called the one who puts away his lawful wife an adulterer (and adultery is a grievous sin and equivalent to that of a murderer and a sodomite and one who commits bestiality and a sorcerer and an idolater, as says the canon of Saint Basil) he himself, having presented this man at the altar in the midst of all the people, dared to utter those accursed words against the Holy Spirit, saying thus (and consider how terrible and strange it is): "4You Yourself, Master, send forth Your hand from Your holy dwelling place and join Your servant to Your handmaid. Yoke them in oneness of mind, unite them in one flesh, whom You were pleased to join to one another. Show their marriage to be honorable, preserve their marriage bed undefiled, be pleased for their life together to remain spotless in a pure heart"5. Did you not then shudder, understanding this? How greatly do you think the Holy Spirit was provoked by this blasphemy

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πάσης τῆς πόλεως σχεδόν, καὶ εἰσὶ μὲν πολλοὶ συνθλιβόμενοι καὶ συμφθεγγόμενοι ἡμῖν, ἀλλὰ νυκτερινοὶ θεοσεβεῖς, μὴ δυνάμενοι ἐν φωτὶ παρρησιασθῆναι. Ἡμεῖς δέ, τέκνα καὶ ἀδελφοί, τῇ εἰς θεὸν πεποιθήσει καὶ τῇ τῆς ἀληθείας ἑδραιώσει αὐτῇ τε τῇ προγεγενημένῃ καὶ ἀποφανθείσῃ ἐκβάσει τοῦ δικαίου κατὰ τὰ ὑποδειχθέντα ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ εἴς τε τὸν μοιχεύσαντα καὶ τοὺς συνεργήσαντας ἀκλινεῖς ἐσμεν τῆς ἐντολῆς καὶ τῶν πατρικῶν κανόνων· καὶ οὐκ ἐνδώσομεν οὐδὲ προδώσομεν τὴν εὐσέβειαν, οὐδ' οὐ μὴν καταλύσομεν ἃ καλῶς προῳκοδομήσαμεν διὰ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἐξορίαν ἐνστάσεως, ἵνα μὴ ἀποδειχθῶμεν παρα βάται νόμου. νόμῳ δὲ θείῳ κρατούμενοι κρατοῦμεν, ὡς προκεκρατήκαμεν, πάντα στέργοντες, πάντα ὑπομένοντες, εἴπερ καὶ παραχωρήσει θεός, ἢ τῆς ἐκείνου καὶ τῶν αὐτῷ συλλειτουργούντων μετέχοντες κοινωνίας, ἕως ἂν παύσηται ὁ καθῃρημένος τῆς ἱερουργίας. Πολλὰ οὖν βαττολογήσουσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, ἐμπαίξουσί τε καὶ ἐπιγελάσονται, καί γε τὸ ἐλεεινότερον, τῶν ὁμοσχήμων καὶ ὁμοταγῶν καὶ δοκούντων εἶναι φίλων οὐκ ὀλίγοι. ἀλλ' οὐδὲν ξένον· γέγραπται, καὶ ἐχθροὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οἱ οἰκιακοὶ αὐτοῦ. καὶ ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐμαστρόπησαν καὶ συνήργησαν καὶ συνέφαγον καὶ συνέπιον τῷ μοιχικῷ γάμῳ καὶ τὸν κάλαμον ἔβαψαν ἐπὶ τῇ ἐξορίᾳ ἡμῶν. ἀλλ' ὁ ἐξεγερθεὶς Κύριος τότε εἰς ἐκδίκησιν τοῦ νόμου αὐτοῦ καὶ ῥήξας μὲν τὴν τοῦ μοιχεύσαντος βασιλείαν τῇ ἐκτυφλώσει, καταισχύνας δὲ τοὺς συλλήπτορας ὡς τοὺς τοῦ Βαὰλ ἱερεῖς, ἐπισυνάγων δὲ τὴν ἡμετέραν ταπείνωσιν εἰς τὸ ἴδιον μοναστήριον παρ' ἐλπίδας, αὐτὸς καὶ νῦν πάρεστιν, αὐτός. εἰ καὶ πρὸς μικρὸν παρεχώρησεν πάλιν τὴν ἀθέμιτον συμπλοκήν, ἀλλ' αὖθις ηὐδόκησεν ἀποδοκιμασθῆναι τὴν ἐπιχαρμονὴν τῶν μοιχοζευκτῶν καὶ μοιχοφίλων Ναζιραίων διὰ τῆς τῶν εὐσεβῶν ἡμῶν βασιλέων δικαιοκρισίας, ἀποδωσάντων μετὰ θάνατον τὸν μοιχὸν τῇ νομίμῳ γαμετῇ αὐτοῦ, ἀποκαλεσάντων δὲ τὴν μαχλῶσαν μοιχαλίδα καὶ τὸ μοιχογέννητον τέκνον ἐασάντων ἄκληρον ὡς ἀθέμιτον καὶ ἀνομώτατον, ὡς ἐνυπήκοόν μοι τὸ τίμιον αὐτῶν στόμα λελάληκεν κατὰ τοὺς ῥωμαϊκοὺς νόμους. Ἀλλ' ὅμως οἱ ἀνομήσαντες οὐκ ἐγκαλύπτονται οὐδὲ ὁ κατὰ τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος δυσφημήσας ἐν τῇ κατὰ τὴν στεφανικὴν συνάφειαν ἱερᾷ προσευχῇ καταδύεται, ἀλλ' εἰσπηδήσας ὡς αἴλουρος ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ πάλιν ἅλλεται καὶ πάλιν ἄρχεται μιαίνειν τὰ ἅγια διὰ τῆς ἱερουργίας, καὶ φιλονεικεῖ τὴν ἀνομίαν δικαιοσύνην γνωρίσαι καί, τὸ δὴ λεγόμενον, ἀποδεῖξαι ἑαυτὸν τοῦ Προδρόμου καὶ Βαπτιστοῦ ὁσιώτερον· ἐκείνου γὰρ ἐλέγχοντος τὴν τοῦ Ἡρώδου μοιχείαν καὶ ὑπὲρ ἀληθείας θνῄσκοντος, οὗτος τὸν δεύτερον Ἡρώδην τῇ μοιχείᾳ δεδειγμένον καὶ ἐστεφάνωσεν καὶ κατησπάσατο μέχρι θανάτου, λόγοις μὲν οὔ, αὐτοῖς δὲ ἔργοις φθεγγόμενος ὡς πεπλάνηται Ἰωάννης ὁ Πρόδρομος, ἀνόμως καὶ ἀκαίρως διελέγξας καὶ ἀποθανών. Καὶ τί δὴ λέγω Ἰωάννην, τὸν μείζω πάντων ἁγίων; αὐτῷ τῷ Χριστῷ, εἰ καὶ τολμηρὸν εἰπεῖν, ἀντεφθέγξατο καὶ ἀπεμαχήσατο διὰ τοῦ ἐναγοῦς αὐτοῦ στόματος· τοῦ γὰρ Χριστοῦ μοιχὸν ἀποκαλέσαντος τὸν ἀφιέντα τὴν νόμιμον γυναῖκα (μοιχεία δὲ τὸ χαλεπὸν ἁμάρτημα καὶ ἰσοδύναμον φονέως καὶ ἀρρενοφθόρου καὶ ἀλογευομένου καὶ φαρμακοῦ καὶ εἰδωλολάτρου, ὡς ὁ κανὼν τοῦ ἁγίου Βασιλείου) αὐτὸς τοῦτον τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ παραστήσας μέσον παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ ἐτόλμησεν ῥῆξαι τὰς ἐναγεῖς φωνὰς ἐκείνας κατὰ τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος, λέγων οὕτως (καὶ σκοπεῖτε τὸ φοβερὸν καὶ ἔκτοπον)· "4αὐτός, δέσποτα, ἐξαπόστειλον τὴν χεῖρά σου ἐξ ἁγίου κατοικητηρίου σου καὶ ἅρμοσον τῷ δούλῳ σου τὴν δούλην σου. σύζευξον αὐτοὺς ἐν ὁμοφροσύνῃ, ἕνωσον αὐτοὺς εἰς σάρκα μίαν, οἷς ηὐδόκησας συναφθῆναι ἀλλήλοις· τίμιον τὸν γάμον ἀνάδειξον, ἀμίαντον τὴν κοίτην αὐτῶν διατήρησον, ἀκηλίδωτον αὐτῶν τὴν συμβίωσιν διαμεῖναι εὐδόκησον ἐν καθαρᾷ τῇ καρδίᾳ"5. Οὐκ ἆρα ἐφρίξατε συνιέντες; πόσον δοκεῖτε παροξυνθῆναι τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον ἐν τῇ βλασφημίᾳ ταύτῃ