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Is this not then openly the very opinion of the Latins, for which they have been driven from the precincts of our Church, that not the grace, but the Holy Spirit itself is sent from the Son and poured forth through the Son? Do you see his deep, veiled intention and the deceitful and wicked nature of his undertaking?

Why would he not have hastened to this in every way and employed every device and made his attack with excessive curiosity, since he openly could not, who last year was sent as ambassador by our most divine emperor to Italy and upper Gaul, as if to rouse that man against the Persians as spring was approaching, but he, having forgotten the purpose of the embassy, as later became clear from his actions, and having gone over to the pope and having said that his prayers would be salvific for him on the journey, which he himself says, he stretched himself out before him, then having pressed his lips to that man and having kissed his knee with pleasure, as it seems, and reverence, and having placed his head under his hands and having received the seal from there with joy? For if not truly rejoicing but pretending, by what will he prove his sincerity toward us? By the words brought forth to them, one might say. But the last prayer added to these shows the instability of his soul (p. 576): "Consign," he says, "such words to utter oblivion, O pre-eternal Word, if indeed Your Spirit is from You, which brings it about that You and Your Father are one cause and one principle, so that I might not become the cause of such great evil to anyone through them, and deliver me from such false opinion before the end." And now for what reason, immediately after his return from them, had he painstakingly composed writings which, as has been shown, supported the Italians, and this when he was moved to write *Against the Messalians* from Italy, as he himself writes in the preface, unless this too is hypocrisy, which he himself also claims?

Therefore every word of his is a stage-play, making a comedy of and mocking our affairs, and the Church which he calls there a holy and sacred synod, he seems to mean that of the Latins. For one might infer that he thinks rather in all things according to that one, also from the fact that he has received practically no sanctification whatsoever from our Church, wiping away the stains from there, and, to pass over the other things, for such a long time since he came to live among us, no one has seen him partaking of the most holy Eucharist; what must one say of a prayer or a sacred invocation or the cross-shaped seal in the tonsure and all the other symbols of monastic perfection, without which it is not considered among us to be a monk, by those who obey the ordinances of the holy fathers? For this man did not seek even a sacred prayer for his introduction into the monastic mystery, but is a self-made monk, and it is not too much to say, a counterfeit one; "for from its fruits," he says, "the tree is known." As for his mystical words about future punishment, let those who have heard them speak. But I, from these and similar things, supposed that not from ignorance (p. 578) but from malice he declares the deifying grace of the Spirit to be created; but if it is indeed from ignorance, since he writes catalogues of those who know, having joined folly with his ignorance concerning such things, the charge is worse, in my opinion; for every strange dogma has burst forth from such a spring, from which he has now also emerged as a champion of wicked and numerous heresies, as the discourse will show as it proceeds.

For indeed Maximos, wise in divine things, in harmony with the great Macarius and with all the other saints, just as we have set forth previously in our discourses *On the Divine Light*, says that the pledge of the future promise, the grace of adoption, the deifying gift of the Spirit is a light of ineffable glory for the saints

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οὖν οὐ τοῦτ᾿ αὐτό ἐστιν ἄντικρυς τό τῶν Λατίνων φρόνημα, δι᾿ ὅ τῶν τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς Ἐκκλησίας ἀπελήλανται περιβόλων, ὅτι οὐχ ἡ χάρις, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτό τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον κἀκ τοῦ Υἱοῦ πέμπεται καί διά τοῦ Υἱοῦ προχεῖται; Ὁρᾶτε τήν βαθεῖαν αὐτοῦ συνεσκιασμένην βουλήν καί τό δολερόν καί κακοῦργον τοῦ ἐγχειρήματος;

Τί δ᾿ οὐκ ἔμελλεν ἐπί τοῦτο παντί τρόπῳ σπεύδειν καί πᾶσαν μηχανήν κινεῖν καί περιέργως προσβάλλειν, ἐπειδή φανερῶς οὐκ εἶχεν ὁ πέρυσι παρά τοῦ θειοτάτου βασιλέως ἡμῶν πρεσβευτής εἰς Ἰταλίαν καί τάς ἄνω Γαλλίας ἀπεσταλμένος ὡς ἐπί Πέρσας ἐκείνου ἐγεῖραι στείλασθαι προσελαύνοντος ἦρος, αὐτός δέ τοῦ μέν σκοποῦ τῆς πρεσβείας ἐπιλαθόμενος, ὡς ὕστερον ἐκ τῶν ἔργων ἐφάνη, προσχωρήσας δέ τῷ πάπᾳ καί τάς εὐχάς ἐκείνου σωτηρίους αὐτῷ γενέσθαι κατά τήν ὁδόν ἐπειπών, ἅς αὐτός φησιν, ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ διετείνατο, εἶτα καί προσφύσας μέν ἐκείνῳ τά χείλη καί τό γόνυ μεθ᾿ ἡδονῆς, ὡς ἔοικε, καί σεβάσματος ἀσπασάμενος, τήν δέ κεφαλήν ὑποθείς ταῖς ἐκείνου χερσί καί τήν ἐκεῖθεν σφραγῖδα χαίρων δεξάμενος; Εἰ γάρ μή χαίρων ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀλλ᾿ ὑποκρινόμενος, τίνι πιστώσεται τό πρός ἡμᾶς ἀνυπόκριτον; Τοῖς πρός ἐκείνους ἐξενηνεγμένοις λόγοις, φαίη τις ἄν. Ἀλλ᾿ ἡ προσγεγραμμένη τελευταία τούτοις εὐχή δείκνυσι αὐτοῦ (σελ. 576) τό τῆς ψυχῆς ἀβέβαιον˙ «παράδος» γάρ, φησίν, «ἀφανισμῷ παντελεῖ τούς τοιούτους λόγους, λέγε προάναρχε, εἴπερ καί ἐκ σοῦ ἐστι τό σόν Πνεῦμα, ἕν αἴτιον καί μίαν ἀρχήν σέ τε καί τόν σόν Πατέρα ἐπαγόμενον, ὅπως μηδενί δι᾿ αὐτῶν τηλικούτου κακοῦ αἴτιος γένωμαι κἀμέ τῆς τοιαύτης κακοδοξίας πρό τοῦ τέλους ἀπάλλαξον». Ποίῳ δέ καί νῦν λόγῳ μετά τήν ἀπ᾿ ἐκείνων ἐπάνοδον εὐθύς τά τοῖς Ἰταλοῖς, ὡς ἀποδέδεικται, συνηγοροῦντα περιέργως συντεθείκει συγγράμματα, καί ταῦτ᾿ ἐξ Ἰταλίας, ὡς αὐτός ἐν προοιμίῳ γράφει, πρός τό Κατά Μασσαλιανῶν γράφειν κεκινημένος, εἰ μή καί τοῦτο ὑπόκρισις, ὅ καί αὐτός ἰσχυρίζεται;

Τοιγαροῦν σκηνή πᾶς λόγος αὐτῷ, κωμῳδοῦσα καί παίζουσα τά ἡμέτερα, καί ἥν Ἐκκλησίαν ἐκεῖ καί σύνοδον ἱεράν καί ἁγίαν φησί, τήν τῶν Λατίνων ἔοικε λέγειν. Ὅτι γάρ ἐν πᾶσι μᾶλλον κατ᾿ ἐκείνην φρονεῖν, τεκμηριώσαιτ᾿ ἄν τις καί τῷ μηδ᾿ ὁντινοῦν σχεδόν ἁγιασμόν ἀπό τῆς ἡμετέρας Ἐκκλησίας προσήκασθαι, τούς ἐκεῖθεν ἀπομάττοντα σπίλους, καί ἵνα τἄλλα παρῶ, τοσοῦτον ἤδη χρόνον ἀφ᾿ οὗπερ ἐπεδήμησεν ἡμῖν οὐδείς ἑώρακεν αὐτόν τῆς ἁγιωτάτης εὐχαριστίας ἐν μεθέξει γενόμενον˙ τί χρή λέγειν εὐχήν ἤ ἐπίκλησιν ἱεράν ἤ τήν ἐν θριξί σταυροειδῆ σφραγῖδα καί τἄλλ᾿ ὅσα σύμβολα μοναχικῆς τελειώσεως, ὧν ἄνευ μοναχόν εἶναι παρ᾿ ἡμῖν οὐ νομίζεται τοῖς τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων θεσμοθεσίας ὑπείκουσιν; Οὗτος γάρ οὐδ᾿ ἐπ᾿ εἰσαγωγῇ μοναχικοῦ μυστηρίου εὐχήν γοῦν ἱεράν ἐπεζήτησεν, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτόπλαστός ἐστι μοναχός, οὐ πολύ δ᾿ εἰπεῖν καί ἐπίπλαστος˙ «ἐκ τῶν καρπῶν γάρ, φησί, «τό δένδρον ἐπιγινώσκεται». Τούς γε μήν περί μελλούσης κολάσεως μυστικούς αὐτῷ λόγους λεγέτωσαν οἱ αὐτήκοσι. Ἐγώ δ᾿ ἐκ τῶν τούτων καί τῶν τοιούτων οὐχ ἐπ᾿ ἀγνοίας, (σελ. 578) ἀλλ᾿ ὑπό κακονοίας, κτιστήν αὐτόν ἀποφαίνεσθαι τήν θεοποιόν ὑπενόησα χάριν τοῦ Πνεύματος˙ εἰ δ᾿ ἄρ᾿ ὑπ᾿ ἀγνοίας, ἐπεί καταλογογραφεῖ τῶν εἰδότων, ἀπόνοιαν τῇ περί τά τοιαῦτα συζεύξας ἀγνοίᾳ, χεῖρον, ὡς ἐγὦμαι, τό ἔγκλημα˙ δόγμα γάρ ἀποτόπαιον ἅπαν ἐκ τοιαύτης ἀνερράγη πηγῆς, ἀφ᾿ ἧς καί νῦν οὗτος προστάτης πονηρῶν τε καί πολλῶν αἱρέσεων ἀναπέφηκεν, ὡς ὁ λόγος δείξει προϊών.

Ὁ μέν γάρ σοφός τά θεῖα Μάξιμος, συνῳδά τῷ μεγάλῳ Μακαρίῳ καί τοῖς ἄλλοις ἅπασιν ἁγίοις, καθάπερ ἐν τοῖς Περί φωτός θείου ἐξενηνεγμένοις ἡμῖν λόγοις προεξεθέμεθα, τόν ἀρραβῶνα τῆς μελλούσης ἐπαγγελίας, τήν χάριν τῆς υἱοθεσίας, τόν θεοποιόν δωρεάν τοῦ Πνεύματος φῶς εἶναί φησιν ὑπεραρήτου δόξης τοῖς ἁγίοις