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generation; of the other, according to the procession; but in order that they might declare what proceeds through him; and by this, establish the coherence and immutability of the essence.
For the second, they need no defense at all. For what dispute is there in this, even if it is thought to be so by those making excuses on account of their perversity. Nevertheless, they did yield, saying, "To have neither the sin according to the mind, by which Adam seems somehow to have first suffered, nor the deed and energy of evil proceeding from it through the body."
These men, then, said these things, about which they were not reasonably recalled; but those, about which they were very justly recalled, have made no defense up to now, because they have not even expelled what was introduced by them. And I have asked the Romans to translate their own writings, in order to escape the surreptitious insertions of those who submit to your command; however, since it is their clamorous custom to do and to send things this way, I do not know if they might be trusted. Besides, there is also the fact that they cannot articulate their own mind with such precision in another language and tongue as in their own native one, just as we, indeed, can do with ours in our own. But in any case, this concern will also come to them, once they have learned of the insolence by experience.
As for the section concerning essence and nature, and indeed hypostasis and person, and the subsequent chapters, I came across a treatise of Theodore of Pharan; and as a kind of introduction, they are perhaps not unhelpful; but in the discourse concerning person and hypostasis, he seems somehow to have followed not so much the canons on these matters as himself, when he speaks of the energy as hypostatic; him whom those of the contrary opinion put forward as a teacher and advocate of their own doctrine; having formulated and dictated the entire *Ekthesis* almost from him and his own sayings. For in these matters he has somehow obscured and darkened the account, by having given to the person, as a person, the energy that characterizes the nature; not the manner of how and of what kind its (137) outcome is; according to which the difference of those who act and of what is done is known, being according to nature or contrary to nature. For each of us acts primarily as being something, but not as being someone; that is, as a human being; but as someone, for example Paul or Peter, one shapes the mode of the energy, perhaps by remission or intensification, being formed by it in this way or that, according to one's will. Whence, in the mode, the variation of the persons according to the action is known; but in the principle, the immutability of the natural energy. For one is not more and another less active or rational; but equally we all have both reason and its energy according to nature. But one is more or less, and in this way or that, just or unjust, by the fact that one follows what is according to nature more, while the other turns away from it. But one must observe with precision those who have been accused of something. Since they somehow force and drag both the definitions of things and the canons towards what they think, transferring them as if by command, so that they may supposedly establish their own things by deviation.
Regarding the tetrads that were sent, although I am not going through them at my leisure—I mean those concerning the soul and the other chapters—I am making known what I think about them. For the haste of the one departing did not allow me to go through them; because also, many days after arriving in Byzacium, he came to my nothingness in Carthage. And what is more, I was also hindered by the existing, so to speak, inactivity of my eyes; since I also wished to fulfill your command concerning these matters as quickly as possible, I have sent it. The arrangement for the transcription of the wall, judged by you most holy ones, of him who has the interpretation of the Evangelist John, has appeared exceedingly pleasing also to me, your servant, so as not to be of a cursory attack
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γέννησιν· τοῦ δέ, κατά τήν ἐκπόρευσιν· ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα τό δι᾿ αὐτοῦ προϊέναι δηλώσωσι· καί ταύτῃ τό συναφές τῆς οὐσίας καί ἀπαράλλακτον παραστήσωσι.
Τῷ δέ δευτέρῳ, μηδεμιᾶς χρήζουσι τό παράπαν ἀπολογίας. Ποίᾳ γάρ ἐν τούτῳ ἀμφισβήτησις· εἰ καί τοῖς προφασιζομένοις νομίζεται διά τό δύστροπον. Ὅμως δ᾿ οὖν ἐξεδυσώπησαν, εἰπόντες "Μήτε τήν κατά νοῦν ἔχειν ἁμαρτίαν, καθ᾿ ἥν πρωτοπαθήσας φαίνεταί πως ὁ Ἀδάμ, μήτε τήν ἐξ αὐτῆς προϊοῦσαν διά σώματος πρᾶξιν τοῦ κακοῦ καί ἐνέργειαν."
Οὕτοι μέν οὖν ταῦτα, περί ὧν οὐκ εὐλόγως ἀνεκλήθησαν· ἐκεῖνοι δέ περί ὧν καί μάλα δικαίως, οὐδεμίαν μέχρι καί νῦν πεποίηνται τήν ἀπολογίαν, ὅτι μηδέ τήν παρεισαχθέντων τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν ἐκβολήν. Μεθερμηνεύειν δέ τά οἰκεῖα, τοῦ τάς ὑποκλοπάς χάριν διαφυγεῖν τῶν ὑποπιπτόντων κατά τήν ὑμετέραν κέλευσιν, παρεκάλεσα τούςῬωμαίους· πλήν ἔθους κεκρακηκότος οὕτω ποιεῖν καί στέλλειν, οὐκ οἶδα τυχόν εἰ πιστεῖεν. Ἄλλως τε καί τό μή οὕτως δύνασθαι διακριβοῦν ἐν ἄλλῃ λέξει σέ καί φωνῇ τόν ἑαυτῶν νοῦν ὥσπερ ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ καί θρεψαμένῃ, καθάπερ οὖν καί ἡμεῖς ἐν τῇ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς τόν ἡμέτερον. Γενήσεται δέ πάντως αὐτοῖς, πείρᾳ τήν ἐπήρειαν μαθοῦσι, καί ἡ περί τούτου φροντίς.
Τῷ δέ περί οὐσίας καί φύσεως, ὑποστάσεώς τε δή καί προσώπου, καί τῶν καθεξῆς κεφαλαίων, ἐνέτυχον σχέδει Θεοδώρου τοῦ τῆς Φαράν· καί ὡς ἐν εἰσαγωγῆς τρόπῳ τυχόν οὐκ ἀσυντελοῦσιν· ἐν δέ τῷ περί προσώπου καί τῆς ὑποστάσεως λόγῳ, οὐ τοῖς περί τούτων κανόσι μᾶλλον, ἤ ἑαυτῷ φαίνεται στοιχήσας πως, ὑποστατικήν λέγοντι τήν ἐνέργειαν· ὅν καί τῆς οἰκείας δόξης καθηγητήν καί συνήγορον, οἱ τῆς ἐναντίας προβάλλονται· τήν πᾶσαν ἐξ αὐτοῦ καί τῶν αὐτοῦ ῥημάτων σχεδόν τυπώσαντές τε καί ὑπαγορεύσαντες Ἔκθεσιν. Καί γάρ κατά ταῦτα λόγον συνεσκίασέ πως καί ἡμαύρωσε, τῷ προσώπῳ δεδωκώς ὡς προσώπῳ τήν χαρακτηρίζουσαν τήν φύσιν ἐνέργειαν· οὐχί τόν πῶς καί ὁποῖον τῆς (137) κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἐκβάσεως τρόπον· καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ διαφορότης τῶν τε πραττόντων καί τῶν πραττομένων γνωρίζεται, κατά φύσιν, ἤ παρά φύσιν ἐχόντων. Ὡς γάρ τι ὤν προηγουμένως, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὥς τις ἕκαστος ἡμῶν ἐνεργεῖ· τουτέστιν, ὡς ἄνθρωπος· ὡς δέ τις, οἷον Παῦλος ἤ Πέτρος, τόν τῆς ἐνεργείας σχηματίζει τρόπον, ἐνδόσει τυχόν ἤ ἐπιδόσει, οὕτως ἤ ἐκείνως ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κατά γνώμην τυπούμενος. Ὅθεν ἐν μέν τῷ τρόπῳ τό παρηλλαγμένον τῶν προσώπων κατά τήν πρᾶξιν γνωρίζεται· ἐν δέ τῷ λόγῳ, τό τῆς φυσικῆς ἀπαράλλακτον ἐνεργείας. Οὐ γάρ ὁ μέν μᾶλλον, ὁ δέ ἧττόν ἐστιν ἐνεργής ἤ λογικός· ἀλλ᾿ ἐπίσης ἅπαντες τόν τε λόγον ἔχομεν καί τήν τούτου κατά φύσιν ἐνέργειαν. Μᾶλλον δέ καί ἧττον· καί οὕτως ἤ ἐκείνως δίκαιος ἤ ἄδικος, τῷ τόν μέν τοῖς κατά φύσιν ἕψεσθαι πλέον· τόν δέ τούτων ἀφέψεσθαι. Τηρητέον δέ δι᾿ ἀκριβείας τούς περί τι παρεγκληθέντας. Ἐπειδή βιάζονταί πως καί ἕλκουσι τούς τε τῶν πραγμάτων ὅρους, καί τούς κανόνας πρός τό δοκοῦν, ὥσπερ ἐξ ἐπιτάγματος μεταφέροντες, ἵνα τά οἰκεῖα δῆθεν ἐκ παρατροπῆς ὑποστήσωσι.
Τάς σταλείσας τετράδας, καίτοι μή κατά σχολήν μετιών, λέγω δή τάς περί ψυχῆς καί τῶν λοιπῶν κεφαλαίων, τό δοκοῦν περί αὐτῶν γνωρίζω. Τό γάρ τάχος τοῦ ἐξορμῶντος, οὐ συνεχώρει ταύτας διελθεῖν· ὅτι καί μετά πλείους ἡμέρας τοῦ καταλαβεῖν ἐν τῷ Βυζακίῳ, πρός τήν ἐμήν γέγονεν οὐδενίαν ἐν Καρθαγένῃ. Λοιπόν δέ καί εἰργομένῳ μοι κἀκ τῆς προσούσης μοι τῶν ὀμμάτων ὡς εἰπεῖν ἀδρανείας· ἐπεί καί τήν περί τούτων κέλευσιν ὑμῶν, ὡς τάχος ἠβουλόμην πληρῶσαι, πέπομφα. Ἡ κριθεῖσα τῆς μεταγραφῆς χάριν τοῦ τείχους οἰκονομία, τοῖς ἁγιωτάτοις ὑμῖν, τοῦ τήν ἑρμηνείαν ἔχοντος τοῦ εὐαγγελιστοῦ Ἰωάννου, κἀμοί τῷ ἡμετέρῳ λίαν πέφανται προσηνής, ὡς μή καταδρομῆς