48

“an ineffable energy seen invisibly,” for not by the senses, and “conceived unknowably,” for not by reason.

It was possible, then, to add other things; but I fear lest I have set these things forth in vain. For according to the same saint, “he who wishes to explain through words the perception and energy of the divine illumination to those who have not tasted it, is like one who desires to teach through words the sweetness of honey to those who have never tasted it.” But nevertheless, our words have been addressed to you, so that you too might know the truth exactly and that we agree with the voices of the fathers, whose remaining words, being written below, you may go through.

THE FIRST OF THE LATER DISCOURSES IN DEFENSE OF THOSE WHO PRACTICE SACRED HESYCHASM (p. 260)

A NARRATION AND REFUTATION OF THE THINGS WRITTEN BY THE PHILOSOPHER BARLAAM AGAINST THOSE WHO PRACTICE SACRED HESYCHASM. WHAT IS TRULY

SAVING KNOWLEDGE AND EAGERLY SOUGHT BY TRUE MONKS. AGAINST THOSE WHO SAY THE KNOWLEDGE FROM SECULAR EDUCATION IS TRULY

SAVING. Nothing is more terrible than falsehood, nothing is a heavier burden than slander to those who

perpetrate it, but not to those who suffer it. For the latter sometimes become more proven and through endurance obtain the heavenly prizes, but “the Lord will destroy all who speak falsehood.” But if one who is a despoiler cries out as if he were despoiled, and the slanderer laments against his victim, who has done nothing terrible, as if he himself were slandered, what excess of wickedness does he leave behind? And of what condemnation is he not worthy? And if he does not experience this now, yet “he stores up for himself wrath on the day of righteous judgment and revelation of God.” Thinking on these things, then, I lament for the one who came from Sicily and professes to philosophize in secular learning. For seeing him arrayed as a monk, I rejoiced, reasoning with myself that, progressing, he would also be wise in divine matters, having joined the elect among our monks, who, having bid farewell to all other things, throughout their lives in stillness attend to God. For he would become for us, so I said, a scribe like a treasure, according to the word of the Lord, bringing forth things old and new. But now the very opposite has come to pass, and because of him for whom I rejoiced with good hopes, grief has just now come upon my soul for the sake of his soul. For he approached some of our people, and of these the (p. 262) more simple ones, pretending to be a disciple, but he departed having shown that he condemned them to such an extent as to even compose writings against them, accusing them of no small or moderate thing, and with these writings to speak boldly against them, but before the youths who attended him and buzzed around him, and of these he persuaded those who do not profess an elder's mindset and, of the monks, those who have not had experience of the hesychastic way of life. So the rumor began to be spread to all that an abominable doctrine was being advocated by the hesychasts; for he gave them a most vile name, calling them “navel-souled,” and he called the heresy which he himself spoke of “navel-souledness”; but, while not putting forward by name anyone of those condemned by him, and saying that he had encountered the best of our people, he thus clearly made all of them liable to the accusations.

48

«ἄρρητος ἐνέργεια ὁρωμένη ἀοράτως», οὐ γάρ αἰσθητῶς, καί «νοουμένη ἀγνώστως», οὐ γάρ λογιστικῶς.

Ἦν μέν οὖν προσθεῖναι κάι ἕτερα˙ δέδοικα δέ μή καί ταῦτα μάτην προέθηκα. Κατά γάρ τόν αὐτόν ἅγιον «ὁ ἐλλάμψεως Θεοῦ αἴσθησιν καί ἐνέργειαν τοῖς ἀγεύστοις διά λόγου διηγεῖσθαι βουλόμενος, ὅμοιός ἐστι τῷ τοῖς μή γευσαμένοις μέλιτος τήν αὐτοῦ γλυκύτητα διά λόγων διδάσκειν ἐθέλοντι». Πρός σέ δ᾿ ὅμως ἡμῖν οἱ λόγοι γεγόνασιν, ὡς ἄν καί σύ τἀληθές ἀκριβῶς εἰδείης καί ἡμᾶς ὁμολογοῦντας ταῖς τῶν πατέρων φωναῖς, ὧν τάς ὑπολοίπους ὑπογεγραμμένας οὖσας, διέξιθι.

ΛΟΓΟΣ ΥΠΕΡ ΤΩΝ ΙΕΡΩΣ ΗΣΥΧΑΖΟΝΤΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΥΣΤΕΡΩΝ Ο ΠΡΩΤΟΣ (Σελ. 260)

∆ΙΗΓΗΣΙΣ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΑΤΡΟΠΗ ΤΩΝ ΥΠΟ ΤΟΥ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΟΥ ΒΑΡΛΑΑΜ ΣΥΓΓΡΑΦΕΝΤΩΝ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΩΝ ΙΕΡΩΣ ΗΣΥΧΑΖΟΝΤΩΝ ΤΙΣ Η ΟΝΤΩΣ

ΣΩΤΗΡΙΟΣ ΓΝΩΣΙΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΙΣ ΟΝΤΩΣ ΜΟΝΑΧΟΙΣ ΠΕΡΙΣΠΟΥ∆ΑΣΤΟΣ Η ΚΑΤΑ ΤΩΝ ΛΕΓΟΝΤΩΝ ΤΗΝ ΕΚ ΤΗΣ ΕΞΩ ΠΑΙ∆ΕΙΑΣ ΓΝΩΣΙΝ ΟΝΤΩΣ

ΣΩΤΗΡΙΟΝ Οὐδέν ψεύδους δεινότερον, οὐδέν συκοφαντίας ἄχθους βαρύτερον τοῖς

ἐνεργοῦσιν ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τοῖς πάσχουσιν. Οἱ μέν γάρ ἔσθ᾿ ὅτε καί δοκιμώτεροι γίνονται καί δι᾿ ὑπομονῆς τῶν οὐρανίων βραβείων ἐπιτυγχάνουσιν, «ἀπολεῖ δέ Κύριος πάντας τούς λαλοῦντας τό ψεῦδος». Εἰ δέ καί ἀποστερητής τις ὤν, ὡς ἀποστερηθείς βοᾷ, καί ὁ συκοφάντης ὡς συκοφαντηθείς κατά τοῦ πεπονθότος καί μηδέν εἰργασμένου δεινόν ἀποδύρεται, τίνα καταλείπει κακίας ὑπερβολήν; Τίνος δέ καταδίκης οὐκ ἄξιος; Εἰ δέ καί μή ταύτυης πειρῷτο νῦν, ἀλλ᾿ «ἑαυτῷ θησαυρίζει τήν ὀργήν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ δικαιοκρισίας καί ἀποκαλύψεως Θεοῦ». Ταῦτ᾿ ἆρ᾿ ἐγώ τόν ἐκ Σικελίας ἥκοντα καί φιλοσοφεῖν τήν ἔξω παιδείαν ἐπαγγελλόμενον ἐπί νοῦν λαμβάνων θρηνῶ. Τοῦτον γάρ κατά μοναχούς ἐσταλμένον ὁρῶν, ἔχαιρον ἐπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ λογιζόμενος ὡς καί τά θεῖα προϊών σοφός ἔσται, συνελθών τοῖς ἐκκρίτοις τῶν παρ᾿ ἡμῖν μοναχῶν, οἵ τοῖς ἄλλοις πᾶσι χαίρειν εἰπόντες, διά βίου μεθ᾿ ἡσυχίας τῷ Θεῷ προσανέχουσι. Γένοιτο γάρ ἄν ἡμῖν, οὕτως ἔλεγον, γραμματεύς ὅμοιος θησαυρῷ, κατά τόν τοῦ Κυρίου λόγον, ἐκφέροντι παλαιά τε καί νέα. Νῦν δ᾿ ἅπαν τοὐναντίον ἐξέβη καί δι᾿ ὅν ἐπ᾿ ἐλπίσιν ἀγαθοῖς ἔχαιρον, πένθος ἀρτίως καθίκετό μου τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπέρ τῆς ἐκείνου ψυχῆς. Προσῆλθε μέν γάρ τισι τῶν ἡμετέρων, καί τούτων τοῖς (σελ. 262) ἁπλουστέροις, τόν μαθητιῶντα ὑποκρινόμενος, ἀπέστη δ᾿ ἐπί τοσούτῳ κατεγνωκέναι δείξας αὐτῶν, ὡς καί συγγράμματα κατ᾿ αὐτῶν οὐδέν μικρόν οὐδέ μέτριον ἐπικαλοῦντα συνθεῖναι καί μετά τῶν συγγραμμάτων τούτων παρρησιάζεσθαι κατ᾿ αὐτῶν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπί τῶν φοιτώντων αὐτῷ καί περιβομβούντων μειρακίων, καί τούτων ἔπειθεν ἐκείνους ὅσοι μή πρεσβυτικόν ἐπαγγέλλονται φρόνημα καί μοναχῶν τούς μή πεῖραν ἐσχηκότας ἡσυχίου διαγωγῆς. Ἤρξατο δή διαδίδοσθαι πᾶσιν ὁ λόγος ὡς ἀποτροπαίου φρονήματος ὑπό τῶν ἡσυχαζόντων πρεσβευομένου˙ καί ὄνομα γάρ αὐτοῖς περιέθηκε τῶν φαυλοτάτων, «ὀμφαλοψύχους» προσαγορεύσας, καί τήν ἥν αὐτός ἔλεγεν αἵρεσιν «ὀμφαλοψυχίαν» προσειρηκώς˙ ὀνομαστί δέ μηδένα προβαλλόμενος τῶν παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ κατεγνωσμένων ἐκείνων, τοῖς κρείττοσί τε τῶν ἡμετέρων ἐντετυχηκέναι λέγων, πάντας οὕτω σαφῶς ἐποιεῖτο τοῖς ἐγκλήμασιν ὑπευθύνους.