Maximus the Confessor, Life

AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF CONSTANTINOPLE p. 201 Vol. 2. On behalf of our holy Father Maximus, an invective by a certain monk, from

a bitter heart written. Those who do not understand the truth, as is right, the falsehood forsooth instead of the aforementioned

embrace. For when a soul is unworthy of God's illumination on account of its own laziness, it is filled with ignorance and darkness; (204) and sees the light as darkness, and the darkness as light. And in the same way that an archer who misses the mark, and in addition to this stretches a yielding bowstring, shoots his shot missing the mark and unskillfully; so also it, putting forth words and deeds, proposes these things as crooked and slanting and incoherent; and especially to those who have been deemed worthy to receive a heavenly drop. Which indeed the most irrational and most maddened emperor has suffered, and those around Epiphanius, or rather Apophanius the fire-burnt, but not a patrician; and Theodosius the spy, but not a bishop, who were the ones who had the holy Maximus, the third theologian, deprived of his tongue and right hand; and who decreed the same judgment for his two disciples from of old, the Anastasii.

For what, O you, that I may converse a little with you out of vexation (grief), and no ordinary distress, impious thing in his (their) choice and theological and soul-profiting doctrines, and in his moral, and gnostic, and God-befitting thoughts did you find, like an absurdity of scripture, that with such an inhuman punishment you should cut off the just man as one ill-disposed to Christ? Wicked seeds, unformed abortions, night-faring birds, bowels of the earth, idle bellies, table-giants and woman-hawks. Behold, in the hands of the poor is his book, which all nature marveled at and marvels, and will yet be marveled at. See the two plus the four centuries, which I do not say to you unworthy ones, but even to the very elect they appeared precious. But let the codex of the chapters be honored in silence. For things that are established beyond the power inherent in nature, suffer outrage even when praised. Your right hand ought to have been cut off, as it is maddened in its touch, as it leads, that I not say it because of its ill-omen, utterly defiled, as a receptacle of the second idolatry. It was necessary to gouge out your eyes, as a most ready instrument of the devil, as a forerunner of licentiousness, as signals of rabid lust. It was fitting to cut out your tongue from within, as having been raised to heaven, and from there cast down, as nurturing trouble and toil and pushing pleasure through the throat, and exciting blasphemy; and plotting idle and poor-slaying things. Your back should have been torn asunder, and your little breast full of wrath, as a chariot of demons, as a serpent's crawling-place, as a jumping-ground of demons, as an archive of impiety.

Such are your boasts, O seven-hilled Babylon; such great unholy and world-devouring offspring you suckle. You take pride in the blood of saints; you leap for joy in the gore of the holy ones. You have unjustly shed all righteous blood, and you will not cower? every righteous person has been persecuted by you, and you do not blush? you are boastful, and do not acknowledge it? You limp, and you do not tremble? You lie in ambush, and you make speeches? You slaughter, and you philosophize? You cut out tongues, and you receive communion? (205) A right hand, the truth of God I say, you cut off, and "The holy things for the holy" you insensibly cry out? But you, and yours, the inescapable justice of God teaches; but the confessors and no less martyrs, the eternal kingdom of Christ will receive; which may we too, though it is bold to say, attain through their well-pleasing intercessions. Amen.

ΚΑΤΑ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ Σελ. 201 Τόμ. β'. Ὑπέρ τοῦ ἁγίου Πατρός ἡμῶν Μαξίμου, στηλιτευκτικόν ὑπό τινος μοναχοῦ, ἐκ

δριμύξεως καρδίας συγγραφέν. Οἱ μή τήν ἀλήθειαν συνιέντες, ὡς θέμις, τό ψεῦδος δήποθεν ἀντί τῆς εἰρημένης

ἀσπάζονται. Ὅταν γάρ ψυχή ἀναξία ᾗ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ διά τήν οἰκείαν ῥᾳθυμίαν ἐλλάμψεως, ἀγνωσίας πληροῦται καί σκότους· (204) καί βλέπει τό φῶς σκότος, καί τό σκότος φῶς. Καί ὅν τρόπον τοξότης ἄσκοπος, καί πρός τούτῳ καί νευράν τείνων εὔεικτον, τήν βολήν ἀστόχως βάλλει καί ἀτέχνως· οὕτως καί αὐτή λόγους καί ἔργα προβαλλομένη, καμπύλα καί λοξώδη καί ἀσυνάρτητα ταῦτα προτείνεται· καί μάλιστα τοῖς σταγόνα οὐράνιον καταξιωθεῖσιν ὑποδέξασθαι. Ὅπερ δή πέπονθεν ὁ ἀλογώτατος καί ἐννεώτατος βασιλεύς, καί οἱ περί Ἐπιφάνιον, μᾶλλον δέ Ἀποφάνιον τόν πυρίκαον, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ πατρίκιον· καί Θεοδόσιον τόν ὑπόσκοπον, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐπίσκοπον, τῶν τόν ἅγιον Μάξιμον καί τρίτον θεολόγον γλωσσοδεξιότμητον δρασάντων· καί τοῖς δυοῖν Ἀναστασίοιν τῶν αὐτοῦ ἄνωθεν φοιτητῶν, τῷ αὐτῷ κρίματι ψηφισάντων.

Τί γάρ, ὦ οὗτοι, ἵνα μικρά πρός ὑμᾶς διαλέξωμαι ἐξ ἀνίας (λύπης), καί ἀλύκης οὐ τῆς τυχούσης, ἀσεβές ἐν τοῖς ἐγκρίτοις καί θεολογικοῖς καί ψυχωφελέσιν αὐτοῖς (αὐτῶν) δόγμασι, καί ἐν τοῖς ἠθικοῖς, καί γνωστικοῖς, καί θεοπρεπέσι νοήμασιν ἐξηύρατε, ὡς γραφῆς ἄτοπον, ἵνα τοιαύτῃ ἀπανθρώπῳ τιμωρίᾳ τόν δίκαιον ὡς δύσχριστον ἀποκόψητε; Σπέρματα πονηρά, ἀμβλωθρίδια ἀτέλεστα, πτηνά νυκτοπορινά, γῆς ἔντερα, κοιλίαι ἀργαί, τραπεζογίγαντες καί γυναικοϊέρακες. Ἰδού μετά χεῖρας τῶν ἀπόρων ἡ βίβλος αὐτοῦ, ἥν πᾶσα φύσις ἐθαύμασε καί θαυμάζει, καί ἔτι θαυματωθήσεται. Ἴδε αἱ δύο πρός ταῖς τέσαρσιν ἑκαντοντάδες, ἅς οὐ λέγω τούς ἀναξίους ὑμᾶς, ἀλλά καί τοῖς ἄγαν ἐγκρίτοις ἐφάνησαν τίμιαι. Ὁ δέ τῶν ψήφων κώδηξ σιγῇ τιμάσθω. Τά γάρ ὑπέρ τήν ἐνοῦσαν τῇ φύσει δύναμιν καθιστάμενα, ὕβριν ὑπομένει καί ἐπαινούμενα. Ἡ ὑμῶν ὤφειλε τμηθῆναι δεξιά, ὡς ἀφῇ λυσσῶσα, ὡς ἄγει, ἵνα μή λέγω διά τό δύσφημον, πάντη μεμολυσμένη, ὡς ὑπόδοχος τῆς δευτέρας εἰδωλολατρείας. Ἐχρῆν τούς ὑμῶν ἐξορύξαι ὀφθαλμούς, ὡς προχειρότατον τοῦ διαβόλου ὄργανον, ὡς ἀσελγείας πρόδρομον, ὡς λυσσώδους λαγνείας διανεύματα. Τήν ὑμῶν καθῆκεν ἔνδοθεν γλῶτταν τεμεῖν, ὡς εἰς οὐρανόν ἀναχθεῖσαν, κἀκεῖθεν ἀποῤῥιφεῖσαν, ὡς τρέφουσαν πόνον καί κόπον καί ἡδονήν ἐν λάρυγγι διωθοῦσαν, καί γλασφημίαν ἐγκισσῶσαν· καί ἀργά καί πτωχοκτόνα διαλοχοῦσαν. Τόν νῶτον ὑμῶν ἐχρῆν διασπαραχθῆναι, καί τό θυμοῦ γέμον στηθήνιον, ὡς ὄχημα δαιμόνων, ὡς ὄφεως ἑρπιστήριον, ὡς δαιμόνων σκιρήντριον (σκιριτήριον), ὡς ἀσεβείας χαρτοφυλακεῖον.

Τοιαῦτά σου, ἑπτάλοφε Βαβυλών, τά αὐχήματα· τηλικαῦτα ἀνόσια καί κοσμοβόρα θηλάζεις ἔγγονα. Αἵμασιν ἁγίοις κομᾷς· τῷ λύθρῳ τῶν ὁσίων ἀνασκιρτᾷς. Πᾶν αἷμα δίκαιον ἀδίκως ἐκένωσας, καί οὐ καταπτήσεις; πᾶς ὅστις δίκαιος παρά σοῦ ἐδιώχθη, καί οὐκ ἐρυθριᾷς; ἀλαζονεύῃ, καί οὐκ ἐπιγινώσκεις; Σκάζεις, καί οὐ τρομεῖς; Λοχᾷς, καί ῥητορεύεις; Σφάζεις, καί φιλοσοφεῖς; Γλωττοτομεῖς, καί κοινωνεῖς; (205) ∆εξιάν, Θεοῦ ἀλήθειαν λέγω, ἐκτέμνεις, καί Τά ἅγια τοῖς ἁγίοις ἀνεπαισθήτως κράζεις; Ἀλλά σέ μέν, καί τούς σούς ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀδιάδραστος διδάσκει δίκη· τούς δέ ὁμολογητάς καί οὐκ ἔλαττον μάρτυρας, ἡ αἰώνιος Χριστοῦ ὑποδέξεται βασιλεία· ἧς καί ἡμεῖς, εἰ καί τολμηρόν εἰπεῖν, ἐπιτύχοιμεν διά τῶν εὐπροσδέκτων αὐτῶν παρακλήσεων. Ἀμήν.