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the Lord, all his angels”; and in the one hundred and third: “who makes his angels spirits,” and so forth. But the statement is not reversible; for the subordinate things are not named by the characteristic of the superior ones, and because the subordinate powers are initiated through the transcendent powers.

Concluding: That is, the last order of the angelic arrangements. And we say: Someone might ask: Did these orders of the celestial beings, (14E_246> the transcendent, and the lower, and the still more inferior, come to be in this way, so that one is higher and another is lower? And we say that God created all intelligible beings with free will; for if man, existing from a mixture of dust and soul, became possessed of free will, how much more did the intelligible powers, which have nothing earthly or heavy, become possessed of free will? For this is also what the divine Scripture presents, saying that the devil voluntarily fell from the angelic order; and this divine man, two pages ago, concerning angelic powers: that for, by intellectually imprinting themselves upon the godlike and raising themselves supracodsmically towards the thearchic likeness and desiring to form their own intellectual being, from all of which it is shown, that the intelligible powers are possessed of free choice and free will. Rightly, therefore, he says that each is illumined with divine understandings in proportion to its own desire for the good; for this reason they are also called orders, in ranks, just as is the desire within them. For this reason here, he says, it is not reasonable to name the last order seraphim or thrones. But note why all the orders are called angels: because the angels properly so called lead up the holy men to the divine illuminations known to them.

But just as this one: Namely the order of the angels. Those among us: Having been filled with these most contemplative mysteries, the sacred

Dionysius, reveals, saying, that the last order, called angels, guide the hierarchs of the Churches among men as tutors, to the ascent towards God, and the higher ones initiate this lower order itself, our tutor, and those placed above it in ranks, as being subordinate.

Of the one that assigns by lot: That is, of the last, of the angels, I mean. But note that he thinks all the names of the nine orders are common to each order, because they are commonly (14E_248> illumined from the godlike unto the light-giving from God, even if not in the same way. It is possible, he says, to name all the intellectual and bodiless orders commonly in another way too, that is, according to the godlike, which is according to the likeness to God; insofar as is possible for each of them; so that all the supracodsmic orders are called godlike, and they all have another communion, the gift of the most luminous illumination from God, even if the illumination is given according to what is possible for each, either to a lesser or to a greater degree. But in the discourse On the Divine Names he says that only the taxiarchs of every order are called divine.

Properties: Note how he calls the proportions of each order properties.

ON CHAPTER 6 § 1. Only accurately: That only God, who also deifies them, knows

accurately both them and their liturgies, and they themselves know themselves and their own things. For we know nothing accurately concerning them, except what we have been taught from the divine Scripture.

Nine: Note, that there are nine divine orders of the intelligible beings. § 2. Initiator: He is accustomed to call his own Initiator either the most divine

apostle Paul, or the holy Hierotheus, as was said in the On the Divine Names

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Κύριον, πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι αὐτοῦ»· καί ἐν τῷ ἑκατοστῷ τρίτῳ· «ὁ ποιῶν τούς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ πνεύματα», καί τά ἑξῆς. Οὐκ ἀντιστρέφει δέ ὁ λόγος· τά γάρ ὑποβεβηκότα οὐκ ὀνομάζεται τῷ τῶν ἀνωτέρων γνωρίσματι, καί ὅτι διά τῶν ὑπερβεβηκυιῶν δυνάμεων αἱ ὑποβεβηκυῖαι μυσταγωγοῦνται.

Ἀποπερατοῦσαν: Τουτέστι τήν ἐσχάτην τάξιν τῶν ἀγγελικῶν διατάξεων. Φαμέν δέ: Ἐρωτήσειεν ἄν τις· Αὗται αἱ τῶν οὐρανίων τάξεις, (14Ε_246> αἱ

ὑπερβεβηκυῖαι, καί κατώτεραι, καί ἔτι ὑφειμέναι οὗτως ἐγένετο, ὥστε τήν μέν ἀνωτέραν εἶναι, τήν δέ κατωτέραν; Καί λέγομεν, ὅτι καί τά νοητά πάντα αὐτεξούσια ἐδημιούργησεν ὁ Θεός· εἰ γάρ ὁ ἄνθρωπος αὐτεξούσιος ἐγένετο, ἐκ χοϊκοῦ φυράματος καί ψυχῆς ὑπάρχων, πόσῳ μᾶλλον αἱ νοηταί δυνάμεις, αἱ μηδέν ἔχουσι γεῶδες ἤ βαρύ, αὐτεξούσιοι ἐγένοντο; Τοῦτο γάρ καί ἡ θεία παρίστησι Γραφή, λέγουσα, τόν διάβολον ἐξ ἀγγελικῆς ἑκουσίως ἐκπεσεῖν τάξεως· καί οὗτος δέ ὁ θεῖος ἀνήρ πρό δύο φύλλων περί ἀγγελικῶν δυνάμεων· ὅτι νοητῶς γάρ ἐπί τό θεομίμητον ἑαυτάς ἀποτυποῦσαι καί πρός τήν θεαρχικήν ἐμφέρειαν ὑπερκοσμίως ἁρῶσαι καί μορφοῦν ἐφιέμεναι τό νοερόν αὐτῶν εἶδος, ἐξ ὦν πάντων δείκνυται, ὡς αὐτοπροαίρετοι καί αὐτεξούσιοί εἰσιν αἱ νοηταί δυνάμεις. Εἰκότως οὖν φησιν, ὅτι ἑκάστη πρός τήν ἀναλογίαν τῆς ἰδίας τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἐφέσεως ἐλλάμπεται θείας κατανοήσεις· διά τοῦτο καί τάξεις καλοῦνται, βαθμηδόν, ὥσπερ τῆς ἐν αὐταῖς ἐφέσεως οὔσης. ∆ιά τοῦτο ἐνταῦθα, φησίν, οὐκ ἔχει λόγον, τήν τελευταίαν τάξιν σεραφίμ ἤ θρόνους ὀνομάζειν. Σημείωσαι δέ διά τί καλοῦνται πάντα τά τάγματα ἄγγελοι· ὅτι οἱ κυρίως ἄγγελοι ἀνάγουσι τούς ἱερούς ἀνθρώπους ἐπί τάς ἐγνωσμένας αὐτοῖς θείας αὐγάς.

Ἀλλ ' ὥσπερ αὕτη: Ἡ τῶν ἀγγέλων δηλαδή τάξις. Τούς καθ' ἡμᾶς: Τῶν ἐποπτικωτάτων μυστηρίων τούτων ἐμφορηθείς ὁ ἱερός

∆ιονύσιος, ἐκκαλύπτει λέγων, ὡς ἡ μέν τελευταία τάξις, ἡ καλουμένη ἄγγελοι, τούς ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἱεράρχας τῶν Ἐκκλησιῶν παιδαγωγικῶς χειραγωγοῦσιν ἐπί τήν πρός Θεόν ἀναγωγήν, τήν δέ κατωτέραν τάξιν αὐτήν, τήν ἡμῶν παιδαγωγόν, καί τάς βαθμηδόν ὑπερκειμένας αἱ ἀνώτεραι ὡς ὑποβεβηκυίας μυσταγωγοῦσι.

Τῆς ἀποκληρούσης: Τουτέστι τῆς τελευταίας, τῆς τῶν ἀγγέλων φημί. Σημείωσαι δέ, ὅτι δοξάζει κοινάς εἶναι πάσας τάς ὀνομασίας τῶν ἐννέα ταγμάτων, ἑκάστου τάγματος, διά τό κοινῶς (14Ε_248> ἐλλάμπεσθαι ἐκ τοῦ θεοειδοῦς εἰς τήν ἐκ Θεοῦ φωτοδοσίαν, εἰ καί μή ὁμοίως. Ἔστι, φησί, κοινῶς ὀνομάσαι πάσας τάς νοεράς καί ἀσωμάτους τάξεις καί καθ' ἕτερον τρόπον, τουτέστι κατά τό θεοειδές, ὅπερ ἐστί κατά τό τῷ Θεῷ ἐοικέναι· καθ' ὅσον ἐφικτόν ἑκάστῃ αὐτῶν· ὥστε πάσας μέν τάς ὑπέρκοσμίους τάξεις θεοειδεῖς καλεῖσθαι, καί ἑτέραν δέ κοινωνίαν ἔχειν πάσας αὐτάς τήν τῆς φωτεινοτάτης ἐλλάμψεως ἐκ Θεοῦ δωρεάν, κἄν πρός τό ἑκάστη ἐφικτόν ἤ ἐπ' ἕλαττον ἤ ἐπί πλεῖον ἡ ἔλλαμψις δίδωται. Ἐν δέ τῷ Περί θείων ὀνομάτων λόγῳ φησίν, ὅτι θεῖοι μόνοι λέγονται οἱ παντός τάγματος ταξίαρχοι.

Ἰδιότητας: Σημείωσαι πῶς ἰδιότητας λέγει τάς ἑκάστης τάξεως ἀναλογίας.

ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ S' § 1. Μόνην ἀκριβῶς: Ὅτι μόνος ὁ Θεός, ὁ καί θεοποιῶν αὐτούς, οἶδεν

ἀκριβῶς αὐτούς τε καί τάς αὐτῶν λειτουργίας, καί αὐτοί δέ ἴσασιν αὐτούς καί τά ἑαυτῶν. Ἡμεῖς γάρ οὐδέν ἀκριβῶς τῶν κατ' αὐτούς ἐπιστάμεθα, εἰ μή ὅσα ἐκ τῆς θείας ἐδιδάχθημεν Γραφῆς.

Ἐννέα: Σημείωσαι, ὅτι ἐννέα εἰσί τάγματα θεῖα τῶν νοητῶν. § 2. Ἱεροτελεστής: Ἱεροτελεστήν μέν οἰκεῖον εἴωθε καλεῖν ἤ τόν θειότατον

ἀπόστολον Παῦλον, ἤ τόν ἅγιον Ἱερόθεον, ὡς ἐν τῷ Περί θείων ὀνομάτων ἐλέχθη