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(15Γ_296> established them in the faith, and he taught and advised them exceedingly how they might escape the grips of their opponents and how to evade their sophistical arguments. For the wise man knew that we need much experience and dialectic skill, if we are to strike down our adversaries, and demolish every high thing of theirs, raised up against the true knowledge. For this reason, he sharpened them in every way; he assembled them, he anointed them with words for courage, he filled them with a nobler spirit. For 0084 even if they were superior in their throne, yet in wisdom and understanding, they were inferior and wanting; not to mention his other virtue, and the man's renown in all things. Therefore they both yielded to his words, and to his other exhortations and counsels which were so very profitable, obeying without objection. For they saw in the man a life that was sublime and supernatural, an abundant and copious speech, flowing not in some drops, but like rivers; and an understanding and other state of soul, equal to none at all. Because of all these things, not only those among the priests and bishops, but also all who were leaders of the people and the multitude, were entirely and wholly dependent on him, and hung from him as from a magnet; having experienced the same thing toward the blessed man, as they say pieces of iron do toward that stone; or even as those held by their melodies do toward the mythical Sirens. But when these men learned that the bishop of Rome at that time had gathered an assembly of bishops, so that he might with them jointly subject the outlandish dogma to curses and anathema, they themselves also were moved to do this same thing by the exhortation and counsel of the divine Maximus; not only Africa and its surrounding area, but also any on the other islands there, having been induced to the task, and having eagerly done the good deed; because indeed all of these had him as both teacher and guide, and as a helper in what was being done.

15. Not a long time went by after that, and John, (15Γ_298> the

president of Rome, departed to the Lord; Theodore ascended to his throne, a successor no less to his presidency than to his orthodoxy. Meanwhile Pyrrhus, having been driven from the capital city, reaches Africa, and meets with the divine Maximus, putting forward to him his own arguments, and receiving those from him; and as both of them proceeded to questions and refutations, how can I at present worthily set forth either the solution of the saint, with its persuasiveness and truth, in each problem, or the defeat and concession of Pyrrhus to each of the things said? For the one, as something irrefutable and unassailable, proposed that the will also is one for the one Christ, and said that true comprehension could not be otherwise; but the other subtly introduced that this one is one in hypostasis; but he also distinguished the duality of the natures, with which the wills were also co-distinguished, and this he showed very strongly and irrefutably. And the one again brought together the willers with the wills, connecting absurdity with absurdity; but the holy man turned this away as extremely irrational and refuted it from its consequence. "For if it be granted," he says, "that the willers are co-introduced with the wills (for I will use the very words of that blessed tongue), then surely by a logical conversion the wills also will be co-introduced with the willers; 0085 and it will be found, according to you, that of the super-essential and supremely good and most sovereign Godhead, because of its one will, there is also one hypostasis, according to Sabellius; and because of the three persons, there are also three wills; and for this reason three natures, according to Arius; if, according to the patristic definitions and canons, a difference of wills introduces a difference of natures as well."

16.

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(15Γ_296> τε περί τήν πίστιν καθίστα, καί ὅπως ἄν ἔχοιεν τάς τῶν ἐναντίων διαδιδράσκειν λαβάς, καλόγους αὐτῶν τούς σοφιστικούς ὑπεκβαίνειν, ἐδίδασκε μάλα καί ὑπετίθει. Ἤδει γάρ ὁ εὐσύνετος, ὅτι πολλῆς ἡμῖν δεῖ τῆς ἐμπειρίας καί τῆς διαλέξεως, εἴγε μέλλοιμεν βάλλειν τούς ἀντιτεταγμένους, καί πᾶν αὐτῶν καθαιρεῖν ὕψωμα, κατά τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἐπαιρόμενον γνώσεως. ∆ιά τοῦτο παντί τρόπῳ ἐκείνους παρέθηγε· συνεκρότει, λόγοις ἤλειφε πρός ἀνδρείαν,γενναιοτέρου ἐνεπίπλα φρονήματος. Εἰ 0084 γάρ καί τῷ θρόνῳ ὑπερεῖχον, ἀλλά τήν γε σοφίαν καί σύνεσιν, ἐλλάτους ἦσαν καί ἀποδέοντες· ἵνα μή τήν ἄλλην ἀρετήν λέγω, καί τήν ἐν ἅπασι τοῦ ἀνδρός εὔκλειαν. Ὅθεν καί λόγοις τε ἦσαν τοῖς ἐκείνου ὑπείκοντες, καί παραινέσεσιν ἄλλαις καί συβουλαῖς οὕτω πολύ ὠφέλιμον ἐχούσαις, ἀναντιῤῥήτως πειθόμενοι.Ἑώρων γάρ ἐν τῷ ἀνδρί βίον μέν ἀνῳκισμένον καί ὑπερφυῆ, λόγον δέ ἄφθονον καί πολύν, καί οὐ κατά τινας ψεκάδας, ἀλλά κατά ποταμούς ῥέοντα· σύνεσιν δέ καί τήν ἄλλην κατάστασιν ἐν ψυχῇ, οὐδενί οὐδ' ὅλως παρισουμένην. ∆ι' ἅ πάντα, οὐχ ὅσον ἐν ἱερεῦσι καί ἐπισκόποις, ἀλλά καί ὅσοι τοῦ λαοῦ καί ὅσοι τοῦ πλήθους προτεταγμένοι, ἐκείνου τε ἦσαν ὅλοι δι' ὅλων ἐξηρτημένοι, καί αὐτοῦ οἷα μαγνήτιδος ἐκκρεμάμενοι· ταυτόν πεπονθότες πρός τόν μακάριον, ὅ φασι πρός τήν λίθον ἐκείνην τά σιδήρια· ἤ καί ὅ πρός τάς μυθευομένας Σειρῆνας, οἱ τούτων τοῖς μέλεσιν ἐνισχημένοι. Ἐπεί δ' οὗτοι ἐπύθοντο τηνικαῦτα συνέλευσιν ἐπισκόπων τόνῬώμης ἀθροίσαντα, ὡς ἄν κοινῇ σύν αὐτοῖς τό ἔκτοπον δόγμα ἀραῖς ὑποβάλῃ καί ἀναθέματι τοῦτο δή καί αὐτοί προτροπῇ καί εἰσηγήσει τοῦ θείου Μαξίμου πρᾶξαι προήχθησαν· οὐκ Ἀφρική μόνον καί ὅσον περί ταύτην, ἀλλά καί εἴ τινες ἐν ἄλλαις ταῖς ἐκεῖ νήσοις, πρός τό ἔργον ἐπαχθέντες, καί σπουδῇ τό καλόν δράσαντες· ὅτι δή καί ἅπαντες οὗτοι, ἐκεῖνον εἶχον καί διδάσκαλον καί καθηγητήν, καί τῶν πραττομένων συλλήπτορα.

ΙΕ´. Χρόνος τό ἀπ' ἐκείνου διῄει οὐχί συχνός, καί Ἰωάννης (15Γ_298> ὁ

τῆςῬώμης πρόεδρος πρός κύριον ἐκδημεῖ· ἄνεισι δέ πρός τόν ἐκείνου θρόνον Θεόδωρος, οὐχ ἧττον τῆς προεδρείας, ἤ τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας διάδοχος. Ἐν τοσούτῳ δέ καί Πύῤῥος, οἷα τῆς βασιλίδος ἀπελαθείς, καταλαμβάνει τήν Ἀφρικήν, καί τῷ θείῳ Μαξίμῳ συγγίνεται, λόγους τούς οἰκείους αὐτῷ προβαλλλόμενος, καί τούς παρ' ἐκείνου δεχόμενος· ὧν καί ἀμφοτέρων πρός πεύσεις καί ἀντιῤῥήσεις ἰόντων, πῶς ἄν ἐπί τοῦ παρόντος ἀξίως, ἤ τήν τοῦ ἁγίου μετά τοῦ πιθανοῦ καί τῆς ἀληθείας ἐν ἐκάστῶ προβλήματι παραστήσαιμι λύσιν, ἤ τήν τοῦ Πύῤῥου πρός ἕκαστον τῶν λεγομένων ἧτταν καί συγκατάθεσιν; Ὁ μέν γάρ, ὥς τι τῶν ἀμάχων καί δυσεκλύτων, ἕν εἶναι τῷ ἑνί Χριστῷ προὐβάλλετο καί τό θέλημα, καί οὐκ ἄν φησιν ἄλλως ἔχειν τήν ἐπ' ἀληθείας κατάληψιν· ὁ δέ, καί ἕνα τοῦτον καθ' ὑπόστασιν ἐνθυπέφερεν· ἀλλά γε καί τό διπλοῦν διῄρει τῶν φύσεων, αἷς συνδιῃρεῖτο καί τά θελήματα καί τοῦσο ἰσχυρῶς ἄγαν καί ἀναντιῤῥήτως ἐδείκνυ. Καί ὁ μέν αὖθις τοῖς θελήμασι καί τούς θέλοντας συνῆγεν, ἀτόπῳ συνδέων τό ἄτοπον· ὁ δ' ὅσιος, τοῦτο μέν ὡς ἐκτόπως παράλογον ἀπέτρεπεν ἐκ τοῦ ἀκολούθου καί ἤλεγχεν. "Εἰ γάρ δοθῇ, φησί, τοῖς θελήμασι συνεισάγεσθαι καί τούς θέλοντας (αὐτοῖς γάρ τοῖς τῆς μακαρίας γλώσσης χρήσομαι λόγοις), πάντως καί τοῖς θέλουσι τά θελήματα κατά τήν εὔλογον ἀντιστροφήν συνεισαχθήσεται· 0085 καί εὑρεθήσεται, καθ' ὑμᾶς, τῆς ὑπερουσίου καί ὑπεραγάθου καί ἀρχικωτάτης θεότητος, διά μέν τό ἕν αὐτῆς θέλημα, μία καί ὑπόστασις, κατά Σεβέλλιον· διά δέ τά τρία πρόσωπα, τρία καί τά θελήματα· καί διά τοῦτο τρεῖς φύσεις, κατά Ἄρειον· εἴπερ, κατά τούς πατρικούς ὅρους καί κανόνας, ἡ διαφορά τῶν θελημάτων, καί φύσεων εἰσάγει διαφοράν."

Ιστ´.