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He had said these things and more than these sporadically in the work *On Human Perfection and the Acquisition of Wisdom*. Therefore he says our soul requires two purifications, that of the passions and that of ignorance according to disposition, and he says that the observance of the commandments provides only the purification of the passions, and this with difficulty, as he himself says, he grants to the commandments of God, but he says that learning provides the purification of ignorance, not that of the divine Scriptures, for the learning of these is included in the observance of the commandments. Nevertheless, if he meant this, no harm would follow, since even the great Maximus says something of this sort, distinguishing the practice of virtue from the divine dogmas, and we (p. 334) sometimes say that through the divine commandments the soul is purified of passions, but by pure prayer all knowledge is superlatively deposited. But such things are said in this way pre-eminently, as also the angel of the Lord's resurrection said to the myrrh-bearing women: "tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee." As, therefore, Peter is of the company of the disciples, even if, being called pre-eminently, he is distinguished from them, in the same way both prayer and the reading of the holy Scriptures are commandments of God, even if they are pre-eminently distinguished from them, but not also the undertaking of philosophical studies; but if it were said pre-eminently, what an absurdity.

But this man says that it is not the learning of the divine Scriptures that perfectly purifies the soul, but that of the Greek studies; for which reason he also adds the necessity for the one who is to be purified to learn, if anyone professes to know anything, whether he is pious or not, and he declares impure and imperfect the one who has not obtained knowledge of things that are, in order to show that this learning is salvific, both purificatory and perfecting. Therefore, that the one saying these things thinks the opposite of all the fathers and of the God of the fathers, is clear, I think, to all who are of sound mind; but let the God-revealing Dionysius from the Areopagus come forward as a witness for us in the midst of all, with whom, above all others and in all things, this man boasts to agree more perfectly than the divine commandments. For he says in the first chapter of the *Ecclesiastical Hierarchy*: "likeness and union with God, as the divine oracles teach, is perfected only by the love and sacred performance of the most venerable commandments." Is it possible to find anything more perfect than likeness to God? Certainly not, not even to say, nor to conceive. But so that this 'super-perfect' man might agree with us on this point, we will remind him of the beginning of what he wrote (p. 336) in *On Human Perfection*: for there he says, "a perfect man is one who has made his own soul, as far as is possible for a man, like to God."

If, therefore, likeness to God is perfection, and this is perfected only by the sacred work of the divine commandments through love, where is the purification and perfection from knowledge and studies and from the desire to learn throughout life and from hastening to converse with all who profess to know something and contribute to knowledge, whether they be Egyptians or Scythians or Greeks? And how does the one who says that purification comes from these things not openly contradict the divine oracles and the fathers who confess them? And how does the one who says that only dispassion comes from the observance of the commandments, which is not purificatory of ignorance nor illuminative of the truth in existing things, as he himself again thinks, and this with difficulty, but says that the ignorance which is not purified through the commandments of God, which he calls the greatest darkness of the soul, is naturally purified through external education, how then does this man not consider the Greeks and Egyptians and any inventors of rational studies whatsoever to be healers and illuminators and saviors of our soul, no less, if not even more so, than Jesus? But the sickness that came upon the mind of this knowledge-lover's soul was revealed to be so great, and that from the few things concerning it

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Ταῦτα καί πλείω τούτων ἔν τε τῷ Περί τελειότητος ἀνθρωπίνης καί Σοφίας κτήσεως σποράδην εἰρήκει. ∆ύο τοίνυν φησί καθάρσεων τήν ψυχήν ἡμῶν δεῖσθαι, τῆς τῶν παθῶν καί τῆς κατά διάθεσιν ἀγνοίας, καί τήν μέν κάθαρσιν μόνην τῶν παθῶν τήν τήρησιν τῶν ἐντολῶν παρέχειν φησί, καί ταύτην μόγις, ὡς αὐτός λέγει, ταῖς ἐντολαῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ συγχωρεῖ, τήν δέ τῆς ἀγνοίας διδόναι λέγει τήν μάθησιν, οὐ τῶν θείων Γραφῶν, ἡ γάρ τούτων μάθησις ἐμπεριείληπται τῇ τῶν ἐντολῶν τηρήσει. Ὅμως εἰ ταύτην ἔλεγεν, οὐδέν ἄν ἐπηκολούθει βλάβος, ἐπεί καί ὁ μέγας Μάξιμος λέγει τι τοιοῦτον τήν τῆς ἀρετῆς πράξιν τῶν θείων δογμάτων διαιρῶν, καί ἡμεῖς (σελ. 334) ἔστιν ὅτε λέγομεν διά μέν τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν τήν ψυχήν τῶν παθῶν καθαίρεσθαι, τῇ δέ καθαρᾷ προσευχῇ πᾶσαν ὑπεροχικῶς γνῶσιν ἀποτίθεσθαι. Τά τοιαῦτα δ᾿ οὕτω λέγεται κατ᾿ ἐξοχήν, ὡς καί ὁ τῆς δεσποτικῆς ἀναστάσεως ἄγγελος ἔλεγε ταῖς μυροφόροις˙ «εἴπατε τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ καί τῷ Πέτρῳ ὅτι προάγει ὑμᾶς εἰς τήν Γαλιλαίαν». Ὡς οὖν ὁ Πέτρος τοῦ χοροῦ τῶν μαθητῶν ἐστιν, εἰ καί ἐξόχως καλούμενος ἐκείνων διαιρεῖται, τόν αὐτόν τρόπον καί ἡ προσευχή καί ἡ τῶν ἱερῶν Γραφῶν ἀνάγνωσις ἐντολαί εἰσι Θεοῦ, εἰ καί κατ᾿ ἐξοχήν ἐκείνων διαιροῦνται, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί καί ἡ τῶν κατά φιλοσοφίαν μαθημάτων ἀνάληψις˙ εἰ δέ καί ἐξόχως λέγοιτο, τῆς ἀτοπίας.

Οὗτος δέ οὐ τήν τῶν θείων Γραφῶν μάθησιν καθαίρειν λέγει τελείως τήν ψυχήν, ἀλλά τήν τῶν ἑλληνικῶν μαθημάτων˙ διό καί τό δεῖν μανθάνειν τόν καθαρθησόμενον, εἴ τίς τι ἐπαγγέλλεται εἰδέναι, κἄν θεοσεβής ᾖ κἄν μή, προστίθησι, καί ἀκάθαρτον ἀποφαίνεται καί ἀτελῆ τόν μή τήν γνῶσιν ἐσχηκότα τῶν ὄντων, ἵνα δείξῃ σωτηριώδη, καθαρτικήν τε καί τελεστικήν ταύτην οὖσαν τήν μάθησιν. Ὅτι μέν οὖν ὁ ταῦτα λέγων τἀναντίαν φρονεῖ τοῖς πατράσι τε πᾶσι καί τῷ τῶν πατέρων Θεῷ, φανερόν οἶμαι πᾶσιν εἶναι τοῖς εὖ φρονοῦσιν˙ ἡμῖν δέ παρελθέτω μάρτυς εἰς μέσον ὑπέρ ἁπάντων ὁ ἐξ Ἀρείου Πάγου θεοφάντωρ ∆ιονύσιος, ᾧ μάλιστα πάντων διά πάντων ὁ τελεώτερον τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν οὗτος αὐχεῖ συμφωνεῖν. Φησί γοῦν ἐν κεφαλαίῳ πρώτῳ τῆς Ἐκκλησιαστικῆς ἱεραρχίας˙ «ἡ πρός Θεόν ἀφομοίωσίς τε καί ἕνωσις, ὡς τά θεῖα διδάσκει λόγια, ταῖς τῶν σεβασμιωτάτων ἐντολῶν ἀγαπήσεσι καί ἱερουργίαις μόνως τελεῖται». Ἆρ᾿ ἔστιν εὑρεῖν τῆς πρός Θεόν ἀφομοιώσεως τελεώτερον; Οὔμενουν, οὐδ᾿ εἰπεῖν, οὐδ᾿ ἐννοῆσαι. Ἵνα δέ ἡμῖν καί ὁ ὑπερτελής οὗτος κατά τοῦτο συνείποι, τῆς ἀρχῆς τῶν γεγραμμένων (σελ. 336) αὐτῷ Περί τελειότητος ἀνθρωπίνης ἀναμνήσομεν˙ ἐκεῖ γάρ φησι, «τέλειος ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν ὁ τήν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν καθ᾿ ὅσον ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατόν, ὁμοίαν τῷ Θεῷ πεποιηκώς».

Εἰ τοίνυν ἡ πρός τόν Θεόν ἀφομοίωσις τελείωσις, αὕτη δέ μόνῃ τῇ δι᾿ ἀγάπης ἱερᾷ ἐργασίᾳ τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν τελεῖται, ποῦ ἡ ἐκ γνώσεως καί μαθημάτων καί τοῦ διά βίου μανθάνειν ἐθέλειν καί πᾶσι σπεύδειν ὁμιλεῖν ὅσοι εἰδέναι τι ἐπαγγέλλονται καί πρός γνῶσιν συμβάλλονται, κἄν Αἰγύπτιοι κἄν Σκύθαι κἄν Ἕλληνες ὦσι, κάθαρσις καί τελείωσις; Πῶς δ᾿ ὁ λέγων ἐκ τούτων τήν κάθαρσιν, οὐ τοῖς θείοις φανερῶς ἀντιλέγει λογίοις καί τοῖς τούτων ὁμολογηταῖς πατράσι; Πῶς δ᾿ ὁ λέγων ἐκ τῆς τηρήσεως τῶν ἐντολῶν μόνην τήν ἀπάθειαν προσγίνεσθαι, τήν μή καθαρτικήν οὖσαν τῆς ἀγνοίας μηδέ φωτιστικήν τῆς ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ἀληθείας, ὡς αὐτός αὖθις οἴεται, καί ταύτην μόγις, τήν δέ μή διά τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ καθαιρομένην ἄγνοιαν μάλιστα σκότος λέγων τῆς ψυχῆς διά τῆς ἔξω πεφυκός καθαίρεσθαι παιδείς, πῶς οὖν οὗτος, οὐδέν ἧττον ὅτι μή καί μᾶλλον, ἰατρούς καί φωστῆρας καί σωτῆρας τῆς ψυχῆς ἡμῶν Ἕλληνας καί Αἰγυπτίους καί οὑστινασοῦν λογικῶν μαθημάτων εὑρετάς, ἤ τόν Ἰησοῦν ἡγεῖται; Ἀλλ᾿ ἡ μέν ἐπιγενομένη νόσος τῷ φρονοῦντι τῆς τοῦ φιλογνώστου τούτου ψυχῆς ἐξεφάνη τοσαύτη καί ταῦτα δι᾿ ὀλίγων τῶν περί αὐτῆς