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For it is good, neither sinning, nor being suspected, as long as it is possible, and reason allows, to place a stumbling block or an offense for the many; since even for those who scandalize one of the little ones, we know how inexorable and most heavy is the punishment from the one who does not lie."

I make known, therefore, to you most holy ones, that I have in no way ever held, according to the suggestion of those who abuse me, the opinion of contrary and opposing doctrines. For I have neither confessed nor at all written down 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 (116( solidity of natural reasonings; in addition to the doctrine being unattested by those of the truth, that is, by the holy Fathers. For if one, how also two; but if two, how also one? And to whom, according to it, has the incarnate Word been rendered of the same energy, or rather, consubstantial?

For if they should say to the Father, they from this introduce a double divine energy; if indeed they do not confess their fabricated third energy for the abrogation of the two natural energies of the same one, I mean the divine and the human. For if not for abrogation, it is clear that they advocate two divine energies of the same one: a natural and a hypostatic. But if two, they are certainly different; and from this their own opinion is polytheistic, as the divine energy in the Father and the Son is known by them in otherness and not in natural identity. And their doctrine is not only polytheistic, but indeed also atheistic; as they construe the Son to have no divine energy, since they confuse nature and hypostasis with each other, along with the properties of each; and knowing the same thing with Sabellius, as they depict the Son as communicating with the Father in respect to both, I mean nature and hypostasis, which is alien to the Catholic Church; not to mention, also making the Father by nature passible and enfleshed, or rather, made man, by the sameness of energy with the Son, of both the miracles and the passions alike. Unless indeed they say that the Son energizes something else besides the miracles and the passions, according to their fabricated third energy, as has been said; by which they suggest the only-begotten Word communicates with the Father, in addition to the divine [energy] according to nature.

But if, being constrained by these things, they define that the Son communicates this third energy not with the unoriginate Father, but with his undefiled mother, here too they assign to him two created, that is, human energies: again a natural and a hypostatic; clearly alienating him, according to each, from God the Father; and being carried away with the division of Arius, according to the perfect alienation, according to them, of the Only-begotten from the Father in both energies. Whereupon they also declare us to be miracle-workers, (117) and not only passible by nature; if indeed by the third, according to them, or as they are fond of calling it, the energy of the whole, that is, of the hypostasis, they say Christ preserves his kinship with us; according to which they reasonably recognize him as voluntarily accepting not only the experience of the passions but also displaying the power of miracles, which is impossible. For it is not possible for the same one energy, or will, or nature at all, to be at the same time divine and human; or uncreated, and created; or unoriginate and originated; or composite, and incomposite; so that by the same one [energy] the Son might preserve his natural and unalterable kinship to each, I mean both the Father and the Mother; or might perform both kinds according to the same [energy], I mean both the naturally divine things and the human things. For not even those who fashion goat-stags would conceive of this.

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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."

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 (116( 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 θε«κῆς 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 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 θαυματουργούς, (117) ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί μόνον φύσει παθητούς ἀποφαίνουσιν· εἴ γε τῇ τρίτῃ κατ᾿ αὐτούς, ἤ ὡς ἐκείνοις φίλον καλεῖν, τῇ τοῦ ὅλου, τουτέστιν, τῇ τῆς ὑποστάσεως ἐνεργείᾳ, τό συγγενές πρός ἡμᾶς ἀποσώζειν φασί τόν Χριστόν· καθ᾿ ἥν ἑκουσίως, οὐ τήν πεῖραν μόνον προσιέμενον τῶν παθημάτων, ἀλλά καί τήν δύναμιν τῶν θαυμάτων ἐπιδεικνύμενον, τοῦτον εἰκότως ἐπιγινώσκουσιν, ὅπερ ἀδύνατον. Οὐ γάρ οἷόν τε τήν αὐτήν καί μίαν ἐνέργειαν, ἤ θέλησιν, ἤ φύσιν τό σύνολον, θείαν ἐν τἀυτῷ καί ἀνθρωπίνην ὑπάρχειν· ἤ ἄκτιστον, καί κτιστόν· ἤ ἄναρχον καί ἠργμένην· ἤ σύνθετον, καί ἀσύνθετον· ἵνα τῇ αὐτῇ καί μιᾷ πρός ἑκάτερον, τόν τε Πατέρα φημί καί τήν Μητέρα, τό συγγενές ἀποσώζῃ φύσει καί ἀπαράλλακτον ὁ Υἱός· ἤ τά ἑκάτερα δρᾷ κατά τήν αὐτήν, τά τε θεῖα λέγω φύσει καί τά ἀνθρώπινα. Τοῦτο γάρ οὐδ᾿ ἄν οἱ τούς τραγελάφους πλάττοντες ἐννοήσαιεν.