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of its own natural energy its own properties, and offers its own energy according to nature. For both the extension of the hand and the touch, and the taking hold, and the mixing of the clay with it, and the breaking of the bread; and simply, everything that was accomplished through the hand, or another member, or part of the body, belonged to the natural energy of the humanity of Christ; according to which He Himself, the man, was active, He who is God by nature, also working divine things naturally; so that through each nature each might be confirmed according to nature, showing Himself to be in truth perfect God and perfect man, apart from sin alone.

The Father, therefore, was not ignorant of the exceptional property of each nature, which is inclusive of the other natural properties; I mean both the creative energy, and the vital energy given by the soul to His body; which the incarnate God the Word, preserving in Himself, showed to be distinct and unconfused; the creative energy, in creating substance and quality and quantity; from which, and in which, and which the existence of beings both is and is perceived. For even if the philosophers among the Greeks extend beings into ten categories, yet the whole is contained and encompassed by these: substance, by restoring the missing eyes of the blind man; quality, by changing the water into wine; quantity, by multiplying the loaves; and He showed the vital energy in breathing, speaking, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating and drinking; moving His hands, walking, sleeping, and the rest, as many things as in all who are under nature show the unvarying character of the energy according to nature.

PYRRHUS: Piously and without force you have presented the thought of the Father, not as conflicting, but as agreeing in all things with the two energies. But what do we say about Saint Dionysius, in his epistle to Gaius the attendant, who said, "a certain new, theandric energy, concerning Christ, who lived among us"?

MAXIMUS: Is this newness a quality, or a quantity? PYRRHUS: A quantity. MAXIMUS: Then it also introduces with itself such a nature, since the definition of every nature is constituted by the principle of its essential energy. And not only this, but also when the Apostle says, *Behold, all things have become new*, he says nothing other than, *Behold, all things have become one*; whether you wish to call this by nature, or by energy, let this be within our authority. But if the newness is a quality, it does not signify one energy, but the new and ineffable mode of manifestation of the natural energies of Christ, corresponding to the ineffable mode of the perichoresis of Christ's natures into one another, and His life as a man, being strange and paradoxical, and unknown to the (348) nature of beings, and the mode of the exchange according to the ineffable union.

PYRRHUS: Does not 'theandric' also signify one? MAXIMUS: No; for on the contrary the term periphrastically conveys their energies through the enumeration of the natures

since by the negation of the extremes, there is no mean in Christ. But if it signifies one, Christ as God will have an energy other than that of the Father. Therefore the Son will be of a different energy than the Father, since the Father's is not theandric, while it also characterizes and constitutes a theandric nature. For energy, being natural, is the constitutive and innate character of a nature. And those who have undertaken discussions on these matters said that there is one genus of quantity, and another of quality.

PYRRHUS: The newness is neither quantity, nor quality, but substance. MAXIMUS: I am amazed how you dared to say this. What is contrasted with substance?

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τῆς αὐτοῦ φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας τά οἰκεῖα, καί τήν ἑαυτῆς προσφέρει κατά φύσιν ἐνέργειαν. Ἥ τε γάρ ἔκτασις τῆς χειρός καί ἡ ἁφή, καί ἡ κράτησις, καί ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτήν τοῦ πηλοῦ μίξις καί ἡ τοῦ ἄρτου κλάσις· καί ἁπλῶς, πᾶν ὅ διά τῆς χειρός, ἤ ἑτέρου μέλους, ἤ μέρους τοῦ σώματος ἐτελεῖτο, τἠς φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὑπῆρχε· καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἐνεργής ἦν αὐτός, ὁ φύσει Θεός, καί τά θεῖα φυσικῶς ἐνεργῶν· ὡς ἄν δι᾿ ἑκατέρων ἑκάτερα κατά φύσιν πιστώσηται, Θεόν τέλειον καί ἄνθρωπον τέλειον δίχα μόνης τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἑαυτόν ὄντα κατ' ἀλήθειαν δεικνύς.

Οὐκ ἠγνόησεν οὖν ὁ Πατήρ τήν ἑκάστης φύσεως κατ᾿ ἐξαίρετον ἰδιότητα, καί τῶν ἄλλων φυσικῶν ἰδιωμάτων περιληπτικήν· τήν τε δημιουργικήν φημι, καί τήν ἐκ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐνδιδομένην τῷ σώματι αὐτοῦ, ζωτικήν ἐνέργειαν· ἅς σώζων ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὁ σαρκωθείς θεός Λόγος εὐκρινεῖς καί ἀσυγχύτους ἔδειξε· τήν μέν δημιουργικήν , ἐν τῷ οὐσίαν καί ποιότητα καί ποσότητα δημιουργῆσαι· ἐξ ὧν, καί ἐν οἷς, καί ἅπερ ἡ τῶν ὄντων ὕπαρξις ἔστι τε καί θεωρεῖται. Εἰ γάρ καί οἱ παρ᾿ Ἕλλησι φιλοσοφήσαντες εἰς δέκα κατατείνουσι λόγους τά ὄντα· ἀλλ᾿ οὖν τούτοις τό πᾶν συνέχεται καί περικλείεται· οὐσίαν μέν, τούς λείποντας τοῦ τυφλοῦ ὀφθαλμούς ἀναπληρώσας· ποιότητα δέ, τό ὕδωρ εἰς οἶνον μεταβαλών· ποσότητα δέ, τούς ἄρτους αὐξήσας· τήν δέ ζωτικήν ἐνέργειαν ἔδειξεν ἐν τῷ ἀναπνεῖν, λαλεῖν, ὁρᾷν, ἀκούειν, ἅπτεσθαι, ὀσφραίνεσθαι, ἐσθίειν καί πίνειν· χεῖρας κινεῖν, βαδίζειν, ὑπνοῦν, καί τά λοιπά, ὅσα ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ὑπό τήν φύσιν ἀπαραλλαξίαν τῆς κατά φύσιν ἐνδείκνυται ἐνεργείας.

ΠΥΡ. Εὐσεβῶς καί ἀβιάστως τήν τοῦ Πατρός παρέστησας ἔννοιαν, οὐ μαχομένην, ἀλλά συμβαίνουσαν διά πάντων ταῖς δύο ἐνεργείαις. Τί δέ περί τοῦ ἁγίου ∆ιονυσίου φαμέν, ἐν τῇ πρός Γάϊον τόν θεραπευτήν ἐπιστολῇ, φήσαντος, " Καινήν τινα τήν θεανδρικήν ἐνέργειαν, περί τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἐν ἡμῖν πεπολιτευμένον;"

ΜΑΞ. Ἡ καινότης ποιότης ἐστίν, ἤ ποσότης; ΠΥΡ. Ποσότης. ΜΑΞ. Οὐκοῦν καί φύσιν ἑαυτῇ συνεισάγει τοιαύτην· εἴπερ πάσης φύσεως ὅρος, ὁ τῆς

οὐσιώδους αὐτῆς ἐνεργείας καθέστηκε λόγος. Οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλά καί ὅταν λέγῃ ὁ Ἀπόστολος, Ἰδού γέγοντε τά πάντα καινά, οὐδέν ἕτερον λέγει, ἤ ὅτι, Ἰδού γέγονε τά πάντα ἕν· εἴτε δέ φύσει, εἴτε ἐνεργείᾳ τοῦτο καλεῖν βούλεσθε, τοῦτο τῆς ἡμῶν ἔστω ἐξουσίας. Εἰ δέ ποιότης ἐστίν ἡ καινότης, οὐ μίαν δηλοῖ ἐνέργειαν, ἀλλά τόν καινόν καί ἀπόῤῥητον τρόπον τῆς τῶν φυσικῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐνεργειῶν ἐκφάνσεως, τῷ ἀποῤῥήτῳ τρόπῳ τῆς εἰς ἀλλήλας τῶν Χριστοῦ φύσεων περιχωρήσεως προσφόρως, καί τήν κατά ἄνθρωπον αὐτοῦ πολιτείαν, ξένην οὖσαν καί παράδοξον, καί τῇ (348) φύσει τῶν ὄντων ἄγνωστον, καί τόν τρόπον τῆς κατά τήν ἀπόῤῥητον ἕνωσιν ἀντιδόσεως.

ΠΥΡ. Οὔτε ἡ θεανδρική μίαν δηλοῖ; ΜΑΞ. Οὐχί· τουναντίον γάρ περιφραστικῶς ἡ φωνή διά τῶν ἀριθμουμένων φύσεων

τά αὐτῶν ἐνεργείας παραδέδωκεν· εἴπερ ἀποφάσει τῶν ἄκρων, οὐδέν ἐστι μέσον ἐπί Χριστοῦ. Εἰ δέ μίαν δηλοῖ, ἄλλην παρά τήν τοῦ Πατρός, ὡς Θεός, ὁ Χριστός ἕξει τήν ἐνέργειαν. Ἄλλης οὖν παρά τόν Πατέρα ἐνεργείας ἔσται ὁ Υἱός· εἴπερ ἡ τοῦ Πατρός οὐκ ἔστι θεανδρική· μετά τό καί θεανδρικήν χαρακτηρίζειν φύσιν καί συνιστᾷν. Ἡ γάρ ἐνέργεια, φυική οὖσα, φύσεως ὑπάρχει συστατικός καί ἔμφυτος χαρακτήρ. Καί οἱ τά περί τούτων δέ σκέμματα διαλαβόντες, ἑτερον γένος εἶναι τῆς ποσότητος, καί ἕτερον τῆς ποιότητος εἶπον.

ΠΥΡ. Οὔτε ποσότης, οὔτε ποιότης ἐστίν ἡ καινότης· ἀλλ' οὐσία. ΜΑΞ. Θαυμάζω πῶς τοῦτο εἰπεῖν ἐθάῤῥησας. Τῇ οὐσίᾳ τί ἀντιδιαστέλλεται;