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the complete deviation of the man; but let the power of the things dogmatized orthodoxly against him be confirmed with us.

You have, holy Fathers, the account of the full assurance through our defense; but be courageous, and be strong in spirit, not turning aside to the right or to the left, towards the opposing men and doctrines; but being established and guided in the royal way by Him who said, I am the way, and the life, and the truth, being of one soul, thinking the same thing, and the God of peace shall be with all of you, always piously proclaimed, and holily worshipped by you; and at the end of the blessed life and confession here, He Himself providing for you there a more blessed inheritance and rest; with whom to the Father with the holy Spirit, be glory, honor, power, worship, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

OF SAINT MAXIMUS

(193) A copy of the letter to the lord Marinus the presbyter of Cyprus. Guided by the divine law according to God, God-honored father, you have overlooked human law,

by your self-emptying having exalted my moderate [effort], and by your poverty having magnified the complete [nature] of my inexperience both in thought and speech, or rashness, to speak more properly; for I am not ashamed to duly declare my own passions and those of my weakness, and to reveal them with all the more eagerness, than you have been eager to cover them with philanthropy. For who would ever so have received the word of an irrational person, and accepted the mind of a frenzied intellect, not to mention that you utterly dignified mine, God-honored father, not only did you, through love overlooking the uneducated, honor it to the utmost; which is indeed the greatest thing for the unadorned toward good repute, but also insofar as through grace you cast upon it the reverence with which you are accustomed to adorn your own thought most beautifully, you brightened it excessively; from which both the word and the manner of true nobility are composed, or of kinship with God, to speak more truly or even more properly; which does not know how to be puffed up, for it is not its nature; rather it causes one to be moderate; for it is somehow accustomed to be immovably established towards humility, by the excess of things not belonging to it revealing more its deficiency, and making known its nakedness; and by the display of things beyond one's worth, sending in a more austere perception of things according to one's worth, whenever, having mastered the depth of the soul, it might make one see uncovered the magnitude of the unseemly thing; having especially suffered this, by the clarification of your prayers, I have grasped divine statutes, which the word of the economy beyond thought saw fit to providentially preserve and to set forth for those like me who need and require guidance.

And after a short while. Therefore, indeed, of the synodical letters of the now most holy Pope, in as many chapters as (136) you have written, those of the queen of cities took exception; but to only two, of which, the one is concerning theology, in that he says that he said, "The holy Spirit proceeds also from the Son;" the other, concerning the divine incarnation; in that he wrote: "The Lord as man is without the ancestral sin." And for the first, they brought forward concordant testimonies of the Roman Fathers; and yet further also of Cyril of Alexandria, from the sacred treatise composed by him on the holy evangelist John; from which they showed that they do not make the Son the cause of the Spirit; for they know one cause of the Son and of the Spirit, the Father; of the one according to the

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τελείαν τἀνδρός ἐκτροπήν· κυρούσθω δέ σύν ἡμῖν τῶν πρός αὐτόν ὀρθοδόξως δογματισθέντων ἡ δύναμις.

Ἔχετε, Πατέρες ἅγιοι, τῆς πληροφορίας διά τῆς ἡμετέρας ἀπολογίας τόν λόγον· ἀλλ᾿ ἀνδρίζεσθε, καί κραταιοῦσθε πνεύματι, μή παρακλινόμενοι δεξιά ἤ ἀριστερά, πρός τῶν ἐναντίων ἀνδρῶν καί δογμάτων· ἀλλ᾿ ὁδῷ βασιλικῇ στεριζόμενοί τε καί ποδηγούμενοι παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ τοῦ εἰπόντος, Ἐγώ εἰμί ἡ ὁδός, καί ἡ ζωή, καί ἀλήθεια,σύμψυχοι, τό αὐτό φρονοῦντες,καί ὁ Θεός τῆς εἰρήνης ἔσται μετά πάντων ὑμῶν, εὐσεβῶς ἀεί κηρυττόμενος, καί ὁσίως παρ᾿ ὑμῶν λατρευόμενος· καί πέρας τῆς ἐνταῦθα μακαρίας πολιτείας τε καί ὁμολογίας, ἑαυτόν ἐκεῖσε μακαριωτέραν παρεχόμενος ὑμῖν κληροδοσίαν τε καί ἀνάπαυσιν· μεθ᾿ οὗ τῷ Πατρί σύν τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, δόξα, τιμή, κράτος, προσκύνησις, νῦν καί ἀεί, καί εἰς τούς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.

ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΞΙΜΟΥ

(193) Ἴσον ἐπιστολῆς πρός τόν κύριον Μαρῖνον τόν πρεσβύτερον τῆς Κύπρου. Νόμῳ θείῳ κατά Θεόν εὐθυνόμενος, θεοτίμητε πάτερ, νόμον ὑπερεῖδες ἀνθρώπινον,

κενώσει τό μέτριον ὑπεράρας, καί πτωχείᾳ τό ἐντελές μεγαλύνας τῆς ἐμῆς περί τε τό νοεῖν καί λέγειν ἀπειρίας, ἤ προπετείας, εἰπεῖν οἰκειότερον· οὐ γάρ αἰσχύνομαι τά ἐμά καί τῆς ἐμῆς ἀσθενείας, πάθη δεόντως ἐξαγορεύειν, καί τόσῳ προθυμίᾳ μᾶλλον ἀποκαλύπτειν, ἤ ὅσον φιλανθρωπίᾳ ἐπικαλύπτειν ἐσπούδασας. Τίς γάρ ποτ᾿ ἄν ἀλόγου λόγον οὕτω προσήκατο, καί φρενίτιδος νοῦν διανοίας ἐδέξατο, μή τί γε παντελῶς εἰπεῖν, ἀπεσέμνυνεν ὡς σύ τό ἐμόν, θεοτίμητε πάτερ, οὐχ ὅσον μόνον δι᾿ ἀγάπην παραδραμών τό ἀπαίδευτον, κατ᾿ ἄκρον ἐτίμησας· ὅ δή μέγιστον τῷ ἀκόσμῳ πρός εὐδοξίαν, ἀλλά καί ὅσον διά χάριν ἐπιβαλών τό αἰσέσιμον, ᾧ τήν οἰκείαν παγκαλῶς εἴωθας ὡραΐζειν διάνοιαν, ὑπερβολῇ κατεφαίδρυνας· ἐξ ὧν ὅ τε λόγος καί τρόπος συνίσταται τῆς ἀληθοῦς εὐγενείας, ἤ Θεοῦ συγγενείας, εἰπεῖν ἀληθέστερον ἤ καί οἰκειότερον· οὐ μᾶλλον μετεωρίζειν εἰδώς· οὐ γάρ πέφυκεν ἤ μετριάζειν ποιῶν· καί γάρ εἴωθέ πως ἀμεταβόλως ἑδράζειν πρός ὕφεσιν, τῇ ὑπερβολῇ τῶν οὐ προσόντων πλεῖον ἀποκαλύπτων τήν ἔνδειαν, καί γνωρίζων τήν γύμνωσιν· καί τῆ παραδείξει τῶν ὑπέρ ἀξίαν, αὐστηρότεραν ἐνιείς τῶν κατ' ἀξίαν τήν αἴσθησιν, ἡνίκα τοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς βάθους κατακρατήσας, τό μέγεθος τοῦ ἀπεμφαίνοντος ἰδεῖν, ἀπαρακαλύπτως ποιήσειεν· ὅ δή μάλιστα πεπονθώς, τῇ τῶν ὑμετέρων εὐχῶν διατρανώσει, θείων ἡψάμην θεσμῶν, οὕς λόγος οἰκονομίας τῆς ὑπέρ ἔννοιαν εἶδε προνοητικῶς συντηρεῖν καί προβάλλεσθαι τοῖς κατ᾿ ἐμέ χειραγωγίας προσδεομένοις καί χρήζουσιν.

Καί μετά βραχέα. Ἀμέλει τοι γοῦν τῶν τοῦ νῦν ἁγιοτάτου, Πάπα συνοδικῶν, ἐν τοσούτοις, ὅσοις (136) γεγράφατε, κεφαλαίοις, οἱ τῆς βασιλίδος τῶν πόλεων ἐπελάβοντο· δυσί δέ μόνοις, ὤν, τό μέν ὑπάρχει περί θεολογίας, ὅτι τε φησίν εἶπεν, " Ἐκπορεύσθαι κἀκ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον·" τό δέ ἄλλο, περί τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως· ὅτιπερ γέγραφε· "∆ίχα τόν Κύριον εἶναι τῆς προπατορικῆς ἁμαρτίας ὡς ἄνθρωπον." Καί τό μέν πρῶτος, συμφώνους παρήγαγον χρήσεις τῶνῬωμαίων Πατέρων· ἔτι γε μήν καί Κυρίλλου Ἀλεξανδρείας, ἐκ τῆς πονηθείσης αὐτῷ εἰς τόν εὐαγγελιστήν ἅγιον Ἰωάννην ἱερᾶς πραγματείας· ἐξ ὧν, οὐκ αἰτίαν τόν Υἱόν ποιοῦντας τοῦ Πνεύματος, σφᾶς αὐτούς ἀπέδειξαν· μίαν γάρ ἴσασιν Υἱοῦ καί Πνεύματος τόν Πατέρα αἰτίαν· τοῦ μέν κατά τήν