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union. For it is characteristic of true faith to confess what we have been taught to believe. If, therefore, the things from which Christ is constituted are preserved according to nature after the union, it is entirely just to believe that they exist in Christ after the union. But if it is just to believe that the things from which Christ is constituted are preserved after the union, it would be much more most just and most fitting, and most important for all who care for salvation, to confess them; if indeed an unfailing confession according to it is an indication of true faith. And so much for these things. For there is no need to say more, addressing my discourse to you, who through grace are ignorant of nothing of what pertains to the right faith of Christ.

Concerning the things you have written to me, most honored ones, I have reported to the blessed servant of God, the all-laudable prefect, including our honorable missives; and he readily promised (15Β_340> to fulfill your every command. And I do not cease reminding him, until he brings your command completely to fulfillment. But the Lord and God of all and Savior Jesus Christ, who willingly accepted death for our sake, and by his own blood redeemed us from the power of darkness, and gave us the new commandment that we love one another as much as we have also been loved; may he himself hold your right hand, and guide you to every good work, and direct your steps according to him; bearing you in the fullness of the fruits of righteousness to the wondrous place of his tabernacle, where is the dwelling of all who rejoice.

LETTER XVIII. ... TO ASCETIC WOMEN WHO HAVE DEPARTED FROM THE CATHOLIC

CHURCH ... XVIII. By the same, from the person of George, the all-laudable prefect of Africa,

to ascetic women who have departed from the Catholic Church in Alexandria. (15Β_342> I indeed thought that you were truly well-established, and

that you held the foundations of your soul unmovable from the right and pious confession and hope of the blameless and unerring faith of Christ, reverencing the grace of God that called you, and united you to the living and complete and blameless 0585 body of the holy catholic and apostolic Church; and healed you who were already wasting away with the consumptive disease of both error and ignorance, and made you a useful member of the common body of the Church; in which the pious, and right and true and salvific word of the apostolic faith is proclaimed in its vigor, making all that is under heaven to be within itself; and always bringing and adding what is lacking to what has already been gathered; and showing that all, from the ends of the earth to its ends, are one soul and tongue in the spirit according to the concord and harmony of the faith; which faith God the Word, the creator of men—who ineffably from men, for men, as a man truly became man by the assumption of flesh having a rational and intellectual soul, and not by a change of his divinity, that is, without sin—taught us men to confess and to embrace, denying none of his natures at all after the union, that is, after the incarnation; (15Β_344> neither the divine, according to which he is God forever, both through himself and consubstantial with the Father, and so he is and remains; nor the human, according to which the same one truly became man for our sake, as a lover of mankind, and is consubstantial with us. For he was neither changed from what he was and is, and forever shall be, God by nature; nor indeed did he change the nature of what he became, man, through the inseparable union of an ensouled flesh, being one and the same, both God and man; not being God and man by name and title only, but in reality and

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ἕνωσιν. Ἀληθοῦς γάρ πίστεως καθέστηκεν ἴδιον, ὁμολογεῖν ὅπερ φρονεῖν ἐδιδάχθημεν. Εἰ τοίνυν σώζεται κατά φύσιν τά ἐξ ὧν ὁ Χριστός μετά τήν ἕνωσιν, καί φρονεῖν αὐτά πάντως εἶναι δίκαιον ἐστιν ἐν Χριστῷ μετά τήν ἕνωσιν. Εἰ δέ φρονεῖν σώζεσθαι τά ἐξ ὧν ὁ Χριστός δίκαιόν ἐστι μετά τήν ἕνωσιν, καί ὁμολογεῖν αὐτά πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἄν εἴη δικαιότατον τε ὁμοῦ καί πρεπωδέστατον, καί πᾶσι τοῖς σωτηρίας φροντίζουσι σπουδαιότατον· εἴπερ ἔνδειξις πίστεως καθέστηκεν ἀληθοῦς, ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἀνελλιπής ὁμολογία. Καί ταῦτα μέν περί τούτων. Οὕτε γάρ πλείονα λέγειν ἀνάγκη, πρός ὑμᾶς γε ποιούμενον τόν λόγον, καί τούς μηδέν διά τῆς χάριτος τῶν εἰς τήν ὀρθήν τοῦ Χριστοῦ πίστιν ὁρώντων ἀγνοοῦντας.

Περί δέ ὧν γεγράφατέ μοι, τιμιώτατοι, ἀνήγαγον τῷ εὐλογημένῳ δούλῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τῷ πανεύφημῳ ἐπάρχῳ καί τάς τιμίας ἡμῶν συλλαβάς· καί ὑπέσχετο προθύμως (15Β_340> πᾶσαν ὑμῶν πληρῶσαι κέλευσιν. Καί οὐ παύομαι ὑπομιμνήσκων αὐτόν, ἕως ἄν πάντως εἰς πέρας ἀγάγοι τήν ὑμετέραν κέλευσιν. Ὁ Κύριος δέ καί Θεός τῶν ὅλων καί Σωτήρ Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, ὁ τόν ὑπέρ ἡμῶν ἑκουσίως καταδεξάμενος θάνατον, καί τῷ οἰκείῳ αἵματι λυτρωσάμενος ἡμᾶς τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ σκότους, καί δούς ἡμῖν τήν ἐντολήν καινήν ἐν τῷ τοσοῦτον ἡμᾶς ἀλήλους ἀγαπᾷν, ὅσον καί ἠγαπήμεθα· αὐτός κρατήσαι τῆς χειρός ὑμῶν τῆς δεξιᾶς, καί ὁδηγήσαι ὑμᾶς εἰς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθόν, καί κατευθήναι ὑμῶν τά κατ' αὐτόν διαβήματα· φέρων ὑμᾶς ἐν πληρώματι καρπῶν δικαιοσύνης εἰς τόν θαυμαστόν τόπον τῆς σκηνῆς αὐτοῦ, ἔνθα πάντων εὐφραινομένων ἡ κατοικία.

ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ ΙΗ'. ... ΠΡΟΣ ΑΣΚΗΤΡΙΑΣ ΑΠΟΣΤΑΣΑΣ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΗΣ

ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΣ ... ΙΗ´Τοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἐκ προσώπου Γεωργίου τοῦ πανευφήμου ἐπάρχου Ἀφρικῆς,

πρός ἀσκητρίας ἀποστάσας τῆς καθολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ. (15Β_342> Ἐγώ μέν ᾤμην ὑμᾶς ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐστηρίχθαι καλῶς, καί

ἀμεταθέτους ἔχειν τάς τῆς ψυχῆς βάσεις ἀπό τῆς κατά τήν ἀμώμητον καί ἄπταιστον πίστιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὀρθῆς καί εὐσεβοῦς ὁμολογίας τε καί ἐλπίδος, τήν καλέσασαν ὑμᾶς τοῦ Θεοῦ χάριν αἰδουμένας, καί τῷ ζῶντι καί ἀρτίῳ καί ἀμωμήτῳ 0585 σώματι τῆς ἁγίας καθολικῆς καί ἀποστολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας ἑνώσασαν· καί ἤδη καταῤῥυείσας φθινάδι νόσῳ πλάνης τε καί ἀγνοίας ῥώσασαν, καί μέλος εὔχρηστον τοῦ κοινοῦ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας σώματος ποιησαμένην· καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ εὐσεβής, καί ὀρθός καί ἀληθής καί σωτήριος τῆς ἀποστολικῆς πίστεως ἀκμάζων κηρύττεται λόγος, πᾶσαν ἐντός ἑαυτοῦ ποιούμενος τήν ὑπ᾿ οὐρανόν· καί τό λεῖπον ἀεί τῷ ἤδη συνειλημμένῳ προσάγων καί προστιθέμενος· καί μίαν ἀπάντων τῶν ἀπό περάτων τῆς γῆς ἕως τῶν περάτων αὐτῆς, καί ψυχήν καί γλῶσσαν εἶναι δεικνύς τῷ πνεύματι κατά τήν ὁμόνοιαν καί ὁμοφωνίαν τῆς πίστεως· ἥν ἀῤῥήτως ἐξ ἀνθρώπων, ὑπέρ ἀνθρώπων, κατ᾿ ἀνθρώπους ἀληθῶς προσλήψει σαρκός ψυχήν ἐχούσης λογικήν τε καί νοεράν, καί οὐ τροπῇ θεότητος ἄνθρωπος γενόμενος, δηλονότι χωρίς ἁμαρτίας, ὁ τῶν ἀνθρώπων δημιουργός τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, ἡμᾶς τούς ἀνθρώπους ἐδίδαξεν ὁμολογεῖν καί ἀσπάζεσθαι, μηδεμίαν αὐτοῦ καθάπαξ ἀρνουμένους φύσιν μετά τήν ἕνωσιν, ἤγουν μετά τήν ἐνανθρώπησιν· (15Β_344> μήτε τήν θείαν, καθ᾿ ἥν Θεός ἀεί τε δι᾿ ἑαυτόν καί τῷ Πατρί ὁμοούσιος ἔστι τε καί διαμένει· μήτε τήν ἀνθρωπίνην, καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ αὐτός ἄνθρωπος ἀληθῶς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς γέγονεν, ὡς φιλάνθρωπος, καί ἡμῖν ἐστιν ὁμοούσιος. Οὔτε γάρ ἐτράπη τοῦ ὅπερ ἦν καί ἔστιν, καί εἰς ἀεί ἔσται κατά φύσιν Θεός· οὔτε μήν τοῦ ὅπερ γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν ἀδιάσπαστον σαρκός ἐψυχωμένης τήν φύσιν μετέβαλεν, εἷς ὤν καί ὁ αὐτός Θεός τε καί ἄνθρωπος· οὐ κλήσει μόνον καί προσηγορίᾳ Θεός ὑπάρχων καί ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλά πράγματι καί