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are we truly monastically led up to divine wisdom through the unifying commandments and are we sacredly perfected into a most holy monad? For we truly become a henad in the tri-hypostatic monad that is removed from all and is alone altogether incomprehensible, according to the proud and mystical manifestation and synergy for our sake of Him who for us partook in our dyad and did not ineffably depart from His own monad, according to his own unutterable, super-essential power.

What then do we do that is amiss, O most learned one, if we require him who is hastening toward the unitive coiling of the mind according to the promise, having abandoned the study of manifold disciplines, to transcend the divisible and transitive thoughts in these, and the sensible words, and the kinds of knowledge that have their origin from sense-perception? How could the inner man become a monk according to the principle of the transcendent, unified life, if he does not ascend beyond the acquired world and all human (p. 326) learning and does not unitively and monastically stretch himself concisely toward God, which the removing of the adornment of hair from the head also symbolically teaches to those capable of understanding? And perhaps also the not ascending by steps to the divine altar and the building this with uncut stones, on which no tool has been laid, was hinting at this, that the naked nature of the mind itself must be a house of prayer, unattempted by all sorts of deliberation and human methods? But the Lord did not explicitly forbid the study of letters, did he? But neither marriage, nor abstaining from meat, nor cohabiting with those who live in marriage. If, therefore, we demand these things of them, will someone accuse us, saying, according to you who seem to turn everything with turns of phrase, that since He did not forbid it, one must no less hold to it than abstain from it, since He did not permit it? Not at all, unless he himself wishes to be justly accused; for many of the things done without condemnation by the Christian flock are in every way not permitted to monks on account of the distinctiveness of their way of life. And there are some of the fathers who also forbid the use of baths and do not permit themselves when they are sick to use medical aids, as being wholly dedicated to God and entirely dependent on Him and having an undoubting expectation of what is profitable from God. Yet they do not consider repulsive those who do not attain to this measure of faith, although God has often borne witness to that conviction by extraordinary miracles. But paternally they at times even condescend to us who are lowly; one might find them both doing and saying this very thing concerning the education of letters as well. How then did you bring yourself, O monk and philosopher, to class with the transgressor and apostate one who both does and says the same things as the fathers? He undertook to deprive Christians of letters as unworthy (p.328), but I do not deprive monks. For the time before entering this way of life is sufficient for every kind of acquisition of letters for those who are not slothful. Therefore, I neither deprive, and I summon to the good that is beyond reason, urging those who have promised this to hasten, leading those who blessedly follow not deficiently but pre-eminently out of letters; for the sitting before God in prayer is exceedingly higher than the occupation with letters.

But we say that you contradict the fathers and the whole church of God. For how could anyone in such matters shrink from speaking the truth? You, therefore, think the opposite of the fathers, not concerning what you have enumerated by conjecture in the midst of your arguments, but because you say that the evangelical commandments are not sufficient to completely purify the soul of one who has kept them, nor that the perfecting and saving knowledge comes from dispassion to the one who has acquired it, nor that it is possible to be freed from ignorance and falsehoods

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θεοσοφίαν διά τῶν ἑνοποιῶν ἐντολῶν ὄντως μοναστικῶς ἀναγόμεθα καί εἰς ἱερωτάτην ἱερουργικῶς τελεσιουργούμεθα μονάδα; Ἑνάς γάρ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ γινόμεθα ἐν τῇ πάντων ὑπεξῃρημένῃ καί μόνῃ πάντως ἀπερινοήτως τρισυποστάτῳ μονάδι, κατά τήν ὑπέρ ἡμῶν αὐχην καί μυστικήν ἐμφάνειαν καί συνεργίαν τοῦ δι᾿ ἡμᾶς τῇ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς κοινωνήσαντος δυάδι καί τῆς οἰκείας ἀπορρήτως μή ἀποφοιτήσαντος μονάδος καθ᾿ ὑπερούσιον ἑαυτοῦ δύναμιν ἀνεκφοίτητον.

Τί οὖν ἄτοπον ποιοῦμεν, ὦ φιλολογώτατε, εἰ τόν πρός τήν ἑνοειδῆ συνέλιξιν τοῦ νοῦ κατά τήν ἐπαγγελίαν ἐπειγόμενον, ἀφέμενον τῆς κατά τά πολυειδῆ μαθήματα μελέτης, ὑπερβῆναι ἀξιοῦμεν τάς ἐν τούτοις μεριστάς καί μεταβατικάς νοήσεις καί τούς αἰσθητούς λόγους καί τάς ἐξ αἰσθήσεως ἐχούσας γνώσεις τήν ἀρχήν; Πῶς δ᾿ ἄν ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος κατασταίη μοναχός κατά λόγον τῆς ὑπερκειμένης ἑνιαίας ζωῆς, εἰ μή τόν ἐπίκτητον κόσμον ὑπεραναβαίη καί πάσας τάς ἀνθρωπικάς (σελ. 326) μαθήσεις καί ἑνιαίως καί μοναχῶς πρός Θεόν ἀνατείνει συντόμως ἑαυτόν, ὅ καί ὁ τῆς κεφαλῆς ἐκ τριχῶν κόσμος περιαιρούμενος τοῖς ἐπαΐειν ἱκανοῖς συμβολικῶς ἐκδιδάσκει; Τάχα δέ καί τό μή ἀναβαθμίσιν ἀναβαίνειν ἐπί τό θεῖον θυσιαστήριον καί τό λίθοις τοῦτο κτίζειν ἀτμήτοις, ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἐγχειρίδιον οὐκ ἐπιβέβληται, τοῦτ᾿ αἰνιττόμενον ἦν, ὡς αὐτήν χρή γυμνήν τήν τοῦ νοῦ φύσιν οἶκον εἶναι προσευχῆς, περινοίας παντίαις καί ἀνθρωπίναις μεθόδοις ἀνεπιχείρητον; Ἀλλ᾿ ὁ Κύριος οὐ ρητῶς ἀπεῖρξε τήν περί λόγους σπουδήν; Ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ τόν γάμον, οὐδέ τό κρεῶν ἀπέχεσθαι, οὐδέ τό μετά τῶν ἐν συζυγίᾳ ζώντων συνοικεῖν. Εἰ γοῦν ἡμεῖς ταῦτα τούτους ἀπαιτοῦμεν, κατηγορήσει τις ἡμῶν λέγων κατά σέ τόν πάντα στρέφειν δοκοῦντα τοῖς τῶν λόγων στροφαῖς ὡς οὐδέν ἧττον, ἐπεί οὐκ ἐκώλυσεν, ἔχεσθαι δεῖ ἤ ἀπέχεσθαι, ἐπί οὐκ ἐπέτρεψεν; Οὔμενουν, εἰ μή κατηγορημένος αὐτός ἐθέλει δικαίως εἶναι˙ πολλά γάρ τῶν ἀκατακρίτως ἐνεργουμένων τῷ χριστωνύμῳ πληρώματι, τρόπῳ παντί τοῖς μοναχοῖς οὐκ ἐφεῖται διά τό τῆς πολιτείας ἐξηλλαγμέονον. Εἰσί δ᾿ οἵ τῶν πατέρων καί λουτρῶν θεραπείας ἀπείργουσι καί νοσοῦσιν αὐτοῖς ταῖς ἐξ ἰατρικῆς χρῆσθαι βοηθείας οὐκ ἐπιτρέπουσιν, ὡς ὅλους ἀνακειμένους Θεῷ καί τό πᾶν ἐξηρτημένους ἐκεῖθεν καί τό συνοῖσον ἀνενδοιάστως προσδόκιμον θεόθεν ἔχοντας. Οὐ μήν τούς μή πρός τό μέτρον τοῦτο τῆς πίστεως φθάνοντας ἀποτροπαίους ἡγοῦνται, καίτοι τοῦ Θεοῦ πολλάκις δι᾿ ἐξαισίων θαυμάτων ἐπιμαρτυρήσαντος ἐκείνῃ τῇ γνώμῃ. Πατρικῶς δ᾿ ἔσθ᾿ ὅτε καί συγκαταβαίνουσι τοῖς ταπεινοῖς ἡμῖν˙ τοῦτο δή καί περί τήν τοῦ λόγου παιδείαν εὕροι τις ἄν καί ποιοῦντας καί λέγοντας. Πῶς οὖν τόν ταὐτά τοῖς πατράσι καί ποιοῦντα καί λέγοντα τῷ παραβάτῃ καί ἀποστάτῃ συντάττειν ὑπέμεινας, ὁ μοναχός καί φιλόσοφος; Ἐκεῖνος χριστιανούς ὡς ἀναξίους τῶν λόγων ἀποστερεῖν (σελ.328) ἐπεχείρησεν, ἐγώ δ᾿ οὐκ ἀποστερεῖν μοναχούς. Ἱκανός γάρ ὁ πρό τοῦ τήν πολιτείαν ταύτην ὑπελθεῖν χρόνος πρός λόγου κτῆσιν παντοίαν τοῖς οὐ ρᾳθύμοις. Οὔτ᾿ οὖν ἀποστερῶ, καί παρακαλῶ πρός τό ὑπέρ λόγον ἀγαθόν, ὡς ἐπαγγειλαμένους πρός τοῦτο σπεύδειν, οὐκ ἐλλεπτικῶς ἀλλ᾿ ὑπεροχικῶς ἐξάγων τῶν λόγων τούς μακαριστῶς ἑπομένους˙ τῆς γάρ περί λόγους τριβῆς καθ᾿ ὑπερβολήν ὑψηλοτέρα ἐστίν ἡ πρός Θεόν ἐν προσευχῇ προσεδρεία.

Σέ δ᾿ ἡμεῖς ἀντιλέγειν τοῖς πατράσι φαμέν καί πάσῃ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Πῶς γάρ ἄν τις ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις ὑποσταλείη φάναι τἀληθές; Σύ τοίνυν τἀναντία τοῖς πατράσι φρονεῖς, οὐκ ἐφ᾿ οἷς μεταξύ τῶν λόγων ἐξ ὑπονοίας κατέλεξας, ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι τάς εὐαγγελικάς ἐντολάς οὐχ ἱκανάς εἶναι λέγεις τελείως καθᾶραι τήν ψυχήν τοῦ ταύτας τηρήσαντος, οὐδ᾿ ἐξ ἀπαθείας τήν τελεστικήν καί σωτήριον γῶνσιν περιγίνεσθαι τῷ ταύτην κτησαμένῳ, οὐδ᾿ ἐνόν ἀγνοίας καί ψευδῶν ἀπαλλαγῆναι