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Therefore, I myself also sought these writings from him. But he made it a matter of such great concern that these writings should come to the sight of none of our people, that he would not provide them even to those who had spoken with us a short while ago and had seen us once, without first making them swear an oath to show them to none of those who embrace the quiet life. But wandering thus in darkness and fleeing the light of free speech, they nevertheless did not ultimately escape my hands. Having received them, therefore, I myself also went through some of them and saw that there was not a single sound word, but everything was falsehood and terrible slander. For he said that he had been taught by those whom he was accusing that all of divine Scripture is completely useless to everyone, and that the knowledge of existing things is wicked, and that the (p. 264) essence of God is to be contemplated in a sensory way, and that certain other sensory observances and activities and practices lead to this contemplation. And having called all these things ‘navel-souledness’—I know not how—and having refuted them as demonic, as he himself thought, and having established himself as the only safe teacher, he then proceeded to discuss noetic prayer and the holy light, and he set forth ascents and measures of contemplations and knowledge, and he testified that the greatest part of the perfection in them came to him from secular education and the study of it, being a gift of God, similar to those given to the prophets and apostles.

Such were his writings, and he was intending and contriving things not a little worse than these, until, learning of our refutations against him, he became so cowardly that he confessed in church his intention to lock these writings away and, as they were causes of scandal, to abandon and completely destroy them. But when, on account of these words, he was released from a just condemnation, and he also encountered some of our books that argued against such things and perceived the inescapability of the refutations, unable to bear the shame, he sat down again and erased some of his own writings, and changed others, and he completely blotted out the name ‘navel-souledness,’ a name merely refuted, devoid of substance and unable to be said of any subject, just like the goat-stag and the horse-man and whatever things are of mere invention. And what he formerly declared to be demonic, he now calls natural, and this too I do not know how. As for those of my writings which he encountered, some he omits as if he had not even seen them, not daring even to look upon them, but others he has slanderously altered and then proceeds against them, and while doing this, he himself laments as if he is being slandered. (p. 266) And he entrusts these writings not even to all his friendly companions, but to a very few of his closest associates, one of whom, having come to me, thought it right to deliver these things, having detected the deceit on his own and beseeching me to make use of myself and my arguments, opposing each of the strongholds of falsehood in turn and making the light of truth, as far as I was able, unobscured by bastard teachings. Therefore, judging that I should obey this noble request and make myself an advocate of the truth again according to my ability, I shall begin now, as before, from his treatise *On Words*.

This, then, is his preface: "As it is with health, so it is with philosophy: for it is given directly by God and is found through diligence. And just as it is not one kind of health that is given by God and another that comes about through the medical art, but the same, so it is also with wisdom. And God gives this to us, to prophets and apostles, and he has given to us both the oracles through the inspired men and the lessons according to philosophy, through which, again, seeking wisdom, we find it." These things are not yet altogether terrible, although he equates things that differ very greatly and by an amount one could not express; for God heals even the incurable and raises the dead from their tombs, and the wisdom for prophets and apostles is himself the Word of the Father, the wisdom before the ages, as Paul also says of him: "who became for us wisdom from God." But that from the outside

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Ἐζήτουν τοίνυν καί αὐτός παρ᾿ ἐκείνου ταυτί τά γράμματα. ∆ιά τοσαύτης δ᾿ ἐκεῖνος ἐποιεῖτο σπουδῆς μηδενί ταῦτα τῶν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς εἰς ὄψιν ἐλθεῖν, ὡς καί τοῖς πρό ὀλίγου ὡμιληκόσιν ἡμῖν καί ἅπαξ ποτέ τεθεαμένοις ἡμᾶς οὐ παρεῖχε, μή πρότερον ἐξορκίσας μηδενί δεῖξαι τῶν τήν ἡσυχίαν ἀσπαζομένων. Πλανώμενα δ᾿ οὕτως ἐν σκότει καί τό φῶς φεύγοντα τῆς παρρησίας τάς ἐμάς ὅμως χεῖρας εἰς τέλος οὐ διαπέφευγε. Λαβών οὖν καί αὐτός ἔστιν ἅ διῆλθον καί εἶδον ὡς ἔπος οὐδέν ὑγιές, ἀλλά πάντα ψεῦδος καί συκοφαντίαν δεινήν. Ἔλεγε γάρ ὡς ἐδιδάχθη παρ᾿ ἐκείνων ὧν κατηγόρει, τήν μέν θείαν πᾶσαν Γραφήν ἀνωφελῆ πᾶσι παντάπασιν εἶναι, πονηράν δέ τήν τῶν ὄντων γνῶσιν, τήν τε τοῦ (σελ. 264) τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐσίαν αἰσθητῶς εἶναι θεωρητήν καί πρός ταύτην ἄγειν τήν θεωρίαν ἕτερά τινα αἰσθητά τηρήματά τε καί ἐνεργήματα καί ἐπιτηδεύματα. Ταῦτα δέ ἅπαντα ὀμφαλοψυχίαν οὐκ οἶδ᾿ ὅπως καλέσας καί δαιμονιώδη ἀπελέγξας, ὡς αὐτός ᾤετο, καί καταστήσας ἑαυτόν μόνον ἀσφαλῆ διδάσκαλον, τοὐντεῦθεν περί προσευχῆς νοερᾶς καί φωτός ἱεροῦ διεξῄει, καί ἀναβάσεις καί μέτρα προετίθει θεωρημάτων καί γνώσεων, καί τό πλεῖστον τῆς ἐν αὐταῖς τελειότητος ἐμαρτυρεῖτο οἱ προσγίνεσθαι παρά τῆς ἔξω παιδείας καί τῆς περί ταύτην σπουδῆς, δῶρον οὖσαν Θεοῦ, τῶν προφήταις καί ἀποστόλοις δεδομένων ὁμοίως.

Εἶχε μέν οὕτω τά τῶν συγγραμμάτων αὐτῷ, καί τούτων οὐ μικρῷ χείρω διενοεῖτο καί συνεσκεύαζε, μέχρις οὗ πυθόμενος τάς ἡμετέρας πρός αὐτόν ἀντιρρήσεις ἐπί τοσοῦτον ἀπεδειλίασεν, ὡς τά γράμματα οἱ ταῦτα συγκλεῖσαι σκόπει καί ὡς σκανδάλων αἴτια καταλιπεῖν τε καί ἀφανίσαι παντάπασιν ἐπ᾿ ἐκκλησίας ὁμολογῆσαι. ˙Ως δέ διά τούς λόγους τούτους ἀφείθη καταδίκης δικαίας, ἐνέτυχε δέ καί τισι τῶν ἀντιλεγόντων ἡμετέρων βιβλίων πρός τά τοιαῦτα καί τό ἄφυκτον κατενόησε τῶν ἐλέγχων, τήν αἰσχύνην οὐ φέρων, καθίσας αὖθις, τά μέν ἀπαλείφει τῶν οἰκείων γραμμάτων, τά δέ ἀμείβει, καί τό μέν τῆς ὀμφαλοψυχίας ὄνομα ἐξαλείφει παντάπασιν, ὄνομα μόνον ἐξεληλεγμένον, πράγματος ἐστερημένον καί κατά μηδενός ὑποκειμένου λέγεσθαι δυνάμενον, ὥσπερ ὁ τραγέλαφος καί ἱππάνθρωπος καί ὅσα τῆς ψιλῆς ἐπινοίας ἐστίν. Ἅ δέ δαιμονιώδη πρότερον ἀπεφαίνετο, φυσικά προσαγορεύει νῦν, οὐκ οἶδα καί τοῦτο πῶς. Οἷς δ᾿ ἐνέτυχε τῶν ἐμῶν, τά μέν ὡς μηδ᾿ ἰδών παραλείπει, μηδ᾿ ἀντιβλέψαι πρός ἐκεῖνα τολμῶν, ἔστι δ᾿ ἅ συκοφαντικῶς ἀμείψας, ἔπειτα κατ᾿ ἐκείνων χωρεῖ, καί τοῦθ᾿ οὕτω πράττων, αὐτός ὡς συκοφαντούμενος ἀποδύρεται. (σελ. 266) Πιστεύει δέ ταῦτα οὐδέ τοῖς φίλοις ἑταίροις ἑαυτοῦ πᾶσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ὀλίγοις πάνυ τῶν οἰκειοτάτων, ὧν εἷς ὡς ἐμέ, διακομίσαι ταῦτα δίκαιον ἔγνω, παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ τήν ἀπάτην φωράσας κἀμέ ἱκετεύσας ἐμαυτῷ καί τοῖς λόγοις χρήσασθαι, πρός ἕκαστον ἐν μέρει τῶν ὀχυρωμάτων τοῦ ψεύδους ἀντικαθισταμένῳ καί τό τῆς ἀληθείας φέγγος νόθοις διδασκαλίαις ἀνεπισκόπητον, ἐφ᾿ ὅσον ἄρα δυναίμην, κατασκευάζοντι. ∆εῖν οὖν κρίνας ὑπακοῦσαι τῇ καλῇ ἀξιώσει καί συνήγορον ἐμαυτόν αὖθις τῆς ἀληθείας ποιῆσαι πρός δύναμιν, ἄρξομαι καί νῦν ἀπό τοῦ Περί λόγων ἐκείνῳ λόγου, καθάπερ καί πρότερον.

Ἔστι δή αὐτῷ τό προοίμιον τοῦτο˙ «Ὥσπερ ἐπί τῆς ὑγείας οὕτως ἔχει καί ἐπί τῆς φιλοσοφίας˙ αὐτόθεν μέν γάρ δίδοται παρά Θεοῦ καί δι᾿ ἐπιμελείας εὑρίσκεται˙ καί ὥσπερ οὐκ ἄλλο μέν εἶδος ὑγείας δίδοται παρά τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἄλλο δέ διά τῆς ἰατρικῆς παραγίνεται, ἀλλά τό αὐτό, οὕτω κἀπί τῆς σοφίας˙ δίδωσι δέ ἡμῖν ταύτην προφήταις καί ἀποστόλοις Θεός, δέδωκε δέ ἡμῖν τά τε διά τῶν θεουργῶν λόγια καί τά κατά φιλοσοφίαν μαθήματα, δι᾿ ὧν πάλιν τήν σοφίαν ζητοῦντες εὑρίσκομεν». Οὔπω ταῦτα πάνυ δεινά, καίπερ ἐξισάζοντος τά μακρῷ πάνυ καί ὅσον οὐκ ἄν εἴποι τις διαφέροντα˙ καί τά ἀνίατα γάρ ἰᾶται Θεός καί νεκρούς ἐκ τάφων ἀνίστησι καί σοφία προφήταις καί ἀποστόλοις αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ Πατρός λόγος, ἡ πρό αἰώνων σοφία, ὡς καί Παῦλος περί αὐτοῦ λέγει˙ «ὅς ἐγενήθη ἡμῖν σοφία ἀπό Θεοῦ». Ἡ δ᾿ ἐκ τῶν ἔξω