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to drink up. For what reason was the anathema against those not accepting the economies of the saints notoriously proclaimed, and I, along with my father and Kalogeros, was removed from our midst by an official hand, while the archbishop was left behind and, because he only celebrated the liturgy at my request at Stoudios, was deposed by them as a common presbyter? For they acquitted the adulterer who had been deposed by Christ himself and by the divine canons, declaring him blameless in every respect and a concelebrant with them, as he was before, but they subjected to deposition one who is undeposable by the canons, confirming their word by their deed, that hierarchs have the authority to use the canons as they see fit. This they do forever, not even willing to see that, if this is so, in deposing a hierarch, it is possible for they themselves to be deposed by the one they depose, fulfilling the oracle of the apostles: Let these things concerning the canons also be commanded to you by us, O bishops; and you, by remaining in them, will be saved and will have peace, but if you disobey, you will be punished and will have eternal war with one another, paying the fitting penalty for your disobedience. For what reason were the events after the synod, both the interrogation of all the brothers by the emperor, who said that we were deposed, but the synod was holy, sealed by him on the grounds that the adulterous union was an economy of the saints and that the one who had perpetrated these things was not to be condemned? And, since they did not accept it, the confinement of each one, or of two or three or even more together, in the monasteries and the fortresses, and for some also floggings and beatings, with these things being noised about everywhere on land and sea? For what reason, then, were all these things, to put it concisely? Was it not for not accepting to call or to assent to the transgression of the Gospel an economy, which our adversaries proclaimed to the world as salutary and equal to the holy, both in deed and in word, and still, and for as long as they persist in speaking and acting this way, because of the persecution? How then do they say that, "4if no one resists and teaches, we will call them heretics"5? Are the things said before a fantasy and dreams, or are they true? And since they are true, how is it that they do not teach and proclaim at all times in deed and in word? Or how is it that you, obeying them, do not almost stand with those who say these things (but even if we are silent, the ends of the earth cry out the truth), drawing down upon yourselves the terrible judgment of silence? For which reason I, the humble one, am forced not to be silent, both in writing and unwritten, according to the power that is in me, with fear and trembling, with preparation for death, even if one of you perhaps thinks that I do these things unnecessarily, and I might say, even excessively. But to the matter at hand. You said, "4if no one resists and teaches against committing adultery and absolving the unholy, how can we reasonably call them heretics?"5 Therefore, to commit adultery and to absolve the unholy in word, it is true, they do not teach, since not even the gentiles who do not have the law teach to commit adultery. And neither did we set forth that they proclaim this plainly, but rather that, having ratified the adulterous union and the other transgressions of the Gospel with it and through it, along with the annulments of the divine canons, to be a salutary economy under anathema, and avenging this every day through the aforementioned exiles and imprisonments, they have annulled the Gospel according to the voice of the saints and in effect they suppose that an economy can occur for every transgression, having altered the unalterable commandments of God and proving them to be mutable. And how would they not be alterable and mutable, if indeed salutary economies that are transgressed are dogmatized synodically in deed and in word? For let them not advance to such falsehood as to say that they did not hold a synod or did not name the adulterous union an economy equal to those of the saints or did not anathematize those who do not accept it. But if they say they did not anathematize, for what reason did they cry out, "4against those who do not accept the economies of the

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ῥοφῆσαι. ὑπὲρ τίνος τὸ ἀνάθεμα τοῖς μὴ δεχομένοις τὰς οἰκονομίας τῶν ἁγίων διαβοήτως ἀνακραχθέν, καὶ ἐγὼ σὺν τῷ πατρί μου καὶ Καλογήρῳ ὑπ' ἀρχοντικῆς χειρὸς ἀφορισθεὶς ἐκ μέσου, ὁ δὲ ἀρχιεπίσκοπος ἐναπολειφθεὶς καί, διότι μόνον ἐλειτούργησεν ὑπ' ἐμοῦ παρακληθεὶς εἰς τὰ Στουδίου, ὡς κοινὸς πρεσβύτερος καθαιρεθεὶς κατ' αὐτούς; τὸν γὰρ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ Χριστοῦ καθαιρεθέντα καὶ τῶν θείων κανόνων μοιχοζεύκτην ἠθώωσαν, ἀνένοχον ἀποφηνάμενοι κατὰ πάντα καὶ συνιερουργὸν αὐτοῖς ὄντα καὶ πρότερον, τὸν δὲ ἀκαθαίρετον ἐκ κανόνων καθαιρέσει ὑπέβαλον, ἔργῳ τὸν λόγον αὐτῶν βεβαιούμενοι, ὡς ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν τοὺς ἱεράρχας κατὰ τὸ αὐτοῖς δοκοῦν κεχρῆσθαι τοῖς κανόσιν. ὅπερ ἐνεργοῦσιν εἰς τὸ ἀεί, οὐδὲ ἐκεῖνο συνιδεῖν βουλόμενοι, ὅτι, εἰ τοῦτο ἔστιν, ἱεράρχην καθαίροντες, ὑπ' αὐτοῦ οὗ καθαίρουσι δυνατὸν αὐτοὺς ἐκείνους καθαιρεθῆναι, πληρουμένου τοῦ τῶν ἀποστόλων λογίου· ταῦτα καὶ περὶ κανόνων διατετάχθω ὑμῖν παρ' ἡμῶν, ὦ ἐπίσκοποι· ὑμεῖς δὲ ἐμμένοντες αὐτοῖς σωθήσεσθε καὶ εἰρήνην ἕξετε, ἀπειθοῦντες δὲ κολασθήσεσθε καὶ πόλεμον μετ' ἀλλήλων ἀίδιον ἕξετε, δίκην τῆς ἀνηκοΐας τὴν προσήκουσαν τιννύντες. ὑπὲρ τίνος τὰ μετὰ τὴν σύνοδον, ἥ τε πάντων τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἀνάκρισις ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλέως, λέγοντος ἡμᾶς μὲν καθῃρημένους, τὴν δὲ σύνοδον ἁγίαν, ἐπισφραγισθεῖσαν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ὡς οἰκονομίας οὔσης ἁγίων τῆς μοιχοζευξίας καὶ ἀκαταγνώστου τοῦ ταῦτα τετελεκότος; καί, ἐπειδὴ οὐ προσεδέξαντο, ἡ ἑνὸς ἑκάστου ἢ καὶ ὁμοῦ δύο ἢ τριῶν ἢ καὶ πλειόνων ἔν τε τοῖς μοναστηρίοις καὶ τοῖς κάστροις κατάκλεισις, τινῶν δὲ καὶ μαστιγώσεις καὶ κουσπισμοί, πανταχοῦ γῆς τε καὶ θαλάττης διατεθρυλλημένων τούτων; Ὑπὲρ τίνος οὖν ταῦτα πάντα, ἵνα συνελὼν εἴπω; οὐχ ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ καταδέχεσθαι εἰπεῖν ἢ συγκαταθέσθαι τὴν παράβασιν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου οἰκονομίαν, ἣν ὡς σωτήριον καὶ ἰσάγιον οἱ ἐναντίοι ἐξεβόησαν ἐμπράκτως καὶ τῷ λόγῳ εἰς τὸν κόσμον καὶ εἰσέτι καὶ ἕως ἂν ἐπιμένωσιν οὕτως λέγοντες καὶ πράττοντες διὰ τὸν διωγμόν; πῶς οὖν φασιν ὅτι "4μηδενὸς ἀνθισταμένου καὶ διδάσκοντος καλέσομεν αὐτοὺς αἱρετικούς"5; φαντασία τὰ προλεχθέντα καὶ ὄνειροι ἢ ἀληθῆ; ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἀληθῆ, πῶς οὐχὶ διδάσκουσιν ἑκάστοτε καὶ κηρύττουσιν ἔργῳ καὶ λόγῳ; ἢ πῶς οὐχ ὑμεῖς πειθόμενοι αὐτοῖς μικροῦ δεῖν μετ' αὐτῶν τῶν λεγόντων ἵστασθε (ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐὰν ἡμεῖς σιωπῶμεν, τὰ πέρατα βοᾷ τὴν ἀλήθειαν), τὸ φοβερὸν τῆς σιωπῆς κρίμα ἐφ' ἑαυτοῖς ἐπισπώμενοι; δι' ἣν αἰτίαν ἐγὼ ὁ ταπεινὸς τοῦ μὴ σιγᾶν ἀναγκάζομαι ἐγγράφως τε καὶ ἀγράφως κατὰ τὴν ἐνοῦσάν μοι δύναμιν, μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου, μετὰ παρασκευῆς θανάτου, κἄν τις ὑμῶν ἴσως οὐκ ἀναγκαίως, εἴπω δ' ὅτι καὶ περιττολόγως, οἴεται ταῦτα ἐνεργεῖν με. Ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τὸ προκείμενον ὁ λόγος. ἔφης, "4μηδενὸς ἀνθισταμένου καὶ διδάσκοντος τοῦ μοιχεύειν καὶ λύειν τοὺς ἀνιέρους, πῶς εὐλόγως καλέσομεν αὐτοὺς αἱρετικούς;"5 μοιχεύειν οὖν καὶ λύειν τοὺς ἀνιέρους τῷ λόγῳ, ἀληθές, οὐ διδάσκουσιν, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ τὰ ἔθνη τὰ μὴ νόμον ἔχοντα μοιχεύειν διδάσκει. καὶ οὐδὲ ἡμεῖς γυμνῶς τοῦτο ἐκφωνεῖν αὐτοὺς ἐξεθέμεθα ἢ ὅτι, τὴν μοιχοζευξίαν κυρώσαντες καὶ τὰ σὺν αὐτῇ καὶ δι' αὐτῆς ἑτέρας παραβάσεις τοῦ εὐαγγελίου σὺν ταῖς τῶν θείων κανόνων λύσεσιν οἰκονομίαν εἶναι σωτήριον ὑπ' ἀναθέματι καὶ τοῦτο καθ' ἑκάστην ἐκδικοῦντες διὰ τῶν προλεχθέντων ἐξοριῶν καὶ φυλακῶν, τὸ εὐαγγέλιον λελύκασιν κατὰ τὴν φωνὴν τῶν ἁγίων καὶ δυνάμει ἐπὶ πάσης παραβάσεως οἰκονομίαν γίνεσθαι ὑποτίθενται, τὰς ἀναλλοιώτους ἐντολὰς τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλοιώσαντες καὶ τρεπτὰς ἀποδεικνύοντες. καὶ πῶς δ' ἂν οὐκ εἶεν ἀλλοιωταὶ καὶ τρεπταί, εἴ γε παραβαινόμεναι οἰκονομίαι σωτήριοι ἔργῳ καὶ λόγῳ συνοδικῶς δογματίζονται; μὴ γὰρ εἰς τοσοῦτον ψεῦδος προκόψωσιν, ὥστε μὴ λέγειν αὐτοὺς πεποιηκέναι σύνοδον ἢ μὴ τὴν μοιχοζευξίαν ὀνομάσαι οἰκονομίαν ἰσόρροπον ἁγίων ἢ μὴ ἀναθεματίσαι τοὺς μὴ προσιεμένους αὐτήν. εἰ δὲ λέγουσιν μὴ ἀναθεματίσαι, ὑπὲρ τίνος ἀνεβόησαν "4τοῖς μὴ δεχομένοις τὰς οἰκονομίας τῶν