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bringing forward, through one, as they say, introducing to themselves the one, they proceeded against the two energies; and sometimes ignorance against the wills, as if the will thereby resulting was reckoned among external things. Sometimes the complete denial of all natural things, through appropriation, and of the mystery, as I said, the whole subversion; with all these things being taken by them in a bare relation to Him, and not being known naturally as of a man, of the incarnate God according to union; it being necessary not to depart from the truth; but rather to consent to it through all things and to advocate for it, according to the inalienable natures of the same and one Christ our God, and the sincere confirmation and most firm confession of the properties belonging to the natures; to whom be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the endless ages. Amen.

OF MAXIMUS THE MOST HOLY MONK AND CONFESSOR

A DOGMATIC TOME TO MARINUS THE PRESBYTER. P. 228. Those whose speech is adorned with virtues, their mind is illumined with gnostic graces,

which remove it from all forgetfulness, just as those [virtues remove] him from deceit, and lead to an initiation of the hidden so much as they restore to imitation him who was manifested for our sake. This you have shown in the Holy Spirit, you who, contending with the harmony of holy ways and holier deeds, God-honored Father, surpass praise as much as you are able to apply vigor, making your goal in running the stretching forward, and in speech the ever-moving ascent to the Logos, so that you might both transcend nature, and break through all types, and converse purely with the most pure, according to your drawing back from all things and toward all things, and your perfect crossing-over in relation; which procures an indefinite good flow, circumscribing by grace every definite thing and transcending it, and preparing one to enter into the Holy of Holies, where Jesus, who is for us, entered as a forerunner for us, that which is according to us, unswervingly (229), one ascending with him practically from glory to glory through virtue, and traversing the heavens scientifically from knowledge to knowledge, and encountering unknowingly the Father of spirits in the secretly mystical and most polyphonous silence, according to a complete noetic cessation of energy, to whom, having been supernaturally led up through grace and the blessed zeal for sacred rites, you lead up those lying below like myself, both sympathetically stretching out a hand through the letter, and a word through the understanding hidden in it, and persuading with zeal to withdraw from things which separate from God, and only, without relation, (to honor, to practice, to prefer) His unitive love for Him with the whole heart, according to which, as it is simple and formless, you urge to reject all duplicity and veiling of form, both of thought itself and of what appears, and to achieve the truly blessed virtue, which manifests the blessed, that I, being supported by your most holy prayers, might be able to accomplish it, having left behind the easily besetting sin.

But since you have again roused my reasoning to work and, wishing to cleanse the capacity of my soul from all ignorance, you commanded me to investigate the work of the most divine and great Teacher of the holy Church of the Theopolitans, aptly named from the Resurrection, which is to say, of the whole world, his discourse against the Arbiter; or rather the Divider, to speak properly, inasmuch as he completely separates both God and us through an extreme change

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προσκομίζοντες, δι᾿ ἑνός, ᾗ φασιν, ἑαυτοῖς συνεισάγοντες τήν μίαν, κατά τῶν δύο μετῆλθον ἐνέργειαν· ποτέ δέ τήν ἄγνοιαν κατά τῶν θελημάτων, ὡς ταύτῃ συναποβαίνοντος τοῦ θελήματος, τῶν ἐκτός εἶναι λογιζομένου. Ποτέ τήν πάντων τῶν φυσικῶν τελείαν ἀπόφασιν, διά τῆς οἰκειώσεως, καί τοῦ μυστηρίου, καθώς ἔφην, τήν ὅλην ἀνατροπήν· ἐν σχέσι ψιλῇ τούτων αὐτοῖς ἁπάντων ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ λαμβανομένων, καί οὐ φυσικῶς ὡς ἀνθρώπου τοῦ σαρκωθέντος Θεοῦ καθ᾿ ἔνωσιν γνωριζομένων· δέον μή τῆς ἀληθείας ἐξίστασθαι· συννεύειν δέ μᾶλλον αὐτῇ διά πάντων καί συνηγορεῖν, κατά τήν ἀπαράλειπτον τῶν τοῦ αὐτοῦ καί ἑνός Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν φύσεων, καί τῶν προσόντων ταῖς φύσεσι πίστωσιν εἰλικρινῆ καί βεβαιωτάτην ὁμολογίαν· ᾧ ἡ δόξα σύν Πατρί καί ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, εἰς τούς ἀπεράντους αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.

ΜΑΞΙΜΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΩΤΑΤΟΥ ΜΟΝΑΧΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΟΜΟΛΟΓΗΤΟΥ

ΤΟΜΟΣ ∆ΟΓΜΑΤΙΚΟΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΟΝ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΟΝ. Σελ. 228. Ὧν ὁ λόγος ἀρεταῖς ὡραΐζεται, τούτων ὁ νοῦς γνωστικαῖς ἐπιλάμπεται χάρισιν,

ἐξιστώσαις λήθης ἁπάσης αὐτόν, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνον ἀπάτης ἐκεῖναι, καί πρός μύησιν ἀγούσαις τοῦ κρυφίου τοσοῦτον, ὅσον αὐτοῦ δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐκφανθέντος πρός μίμησιν ἐπανάγουσι. Τοῦτο ἐν Πνεύματι ἁγίῳ παρέδειξας, οἷς αὐτός ἁμιλλώμενος ἐμμελείᾳ τρόπων ἱερῶν καί ἱερωτέρων πράξεων, θεοτίμητε Πάτερ, ὑπερέχεις τοσοῦτον τήν εὐφημίαν, ὅσον καί ἱκανός προσβαλεῖν τήν εὐτονία, πέρας μέν δρόμου ποιούμενος τήν ἐπέκτασιν, καί λόγου τήν ἐπί τόν Λόγον ἀεικίνητον ἄνοδον, ἵνα καί φύσιν ὑπερβῇς, καί τύπους ἅπαντας διαῤῥήψῃς, καί καθαρῶς τῷ καθαρωτάτῳ προσομιλήσῃς, κατά τήν ἐκ πάντων καί πρός ἅπαντας ὑποστολήν ἑαυτοῦ, καί τελείαν ἐν σχέσει διάβασιν· ἥτις τήν ἀόριστον εὔροιαν προξενεῖ κατά χάριν πειγράφουσάν τε πᾶν ὁριστόν καί ὑπερβαίνουσαν, καί εἰς τά Ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων, ἔνθα πρόδρομος ὑπέρ ἡμῶν εἰσῆλθε τό καθ' ἡμᾶς ὁ ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς Ἰησοῦς ἀπρίξ χωρῆσαι (229) παρασκευάζουσαν, τόν ἀπό δόξης εἰς δόξαν πρακτικῶς αὐτῷ δι᾿ ἀρετῆς συναναβαίνοντα, καί τούς οὐρανούς ἀπό γνώσεως εἰς γνῶσιν ἐπιστημονικῶς διερχόμενον, καί τῇ κρυφιομύστῳ καί πολυφωνοτάτῳ σιγῇ, κατά πᾶσαν νοερῶς ἐνεργείας ἀπόλειψιν, ἀγνώστως ἐντυγχάνοντα τῷ Πατρί τῶν πνευμάτων, ᾧ διά χάριτος καί τῆς περί τά ἱερουργά μακαρίας σπουδῆς ὑπερφυῶς ἀναχθείς, ἀνάγεις τούς κατ᾿ ἐμέ κάτω κειμένους, χεῖρά τε συμπαθῶς ὀρέγων διά τοῦ γράμματος, καί λόγον διά τῆς ἐν τούτῳ κρυπτομένης νοήσεως, πείθων τε διά σπουδῆς ὑπεξίστασθαι τῶν ἐξιστάντων Θεοῦ, καί μόνην ἀσχέτως τήν αὐτοῦ καί πρός αὐτόν ἑνωτικήν ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας (τιμᾷν, ἀσκεῖν, προτιμᾷν,) ἀγάπην, καθ᾿ ἥν, ὡς ἁπλῆν καί ἀνείδεον, πᾶσαν διπλόην, καί σχήματος ἐπικάλυψον αὐτῆς τε διανοίας, καί τοῦ φαινομένου διακρούσασθαι παρακελεύῃ, καί τήν μακαρίαν ὄντως, καί τῶν μακαρίων ἐκφαντορικήν ἀρετήν κατορθοῦν, ἥνα ταῖς σαῖς ἱερωτάταις στηριζόμενος προσευχαῖς δυνηθείην ἐξανύσαι, εὐπερίστατον ἁμαρτίαν ἀπολιπών.

Ἐπεί δέ μοι καί πρός ἐργασίαν αὖθις ἐγείρων τό λογισμόν καί τό χώρημα τῆς ψυχῆς πάσης ἀγνοίας διακαθάραι βουλόμενος, ἐκέλευσάς μοι διερευνῆσαι τοῦ τῆς ἀναστάσεως φερωνύμως θειοτάτου καί μεγάλου Καθηγητοῦ τῆς ἁγίας Θεουπολιτῶν Ἐκκλησίας, ταὐτόν δέ φαναι τῆς οἰκουμένης ἁπάσης, τόν κατά τοῦ ∆ιαιτητοῦ λόγον· μᾶλλον δέ ∆ιαιρέτου, κυρίως εἰπεῖν, ὅσῳ καί Θεοῦ καί ἡμῶν τελείως χωρίζει δι᾿ ἄκρας μεταβολῆς