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were led away with heretics? And the things that happened in the time of Saint Stephen the Younger, were they not of a most heavy and grievous persecution? Or do you not consider the winter that then occurred and the exceeding agitation of the monks? But why do I attempt to go through everything? For when, before these things, I recall the events in the time of Basil the Great, as Gregory the Great recounts, and those in the time of John Chrysostom and of the succeeding holy fathers, I both declare myself wretched and pity those who do not consider these things. For they do not know precisely that all past time was more terrible and openly filled with the tares of the evil one.

(376) Nevertheless, although the things that have passed were terrible, yet even now life has many heretics, many wolves, asps and serpents associating with us, but not having any authority over us, but such are as if under the night of their wickedness; and those who come together and are under their darkness they seize and devour, but those who walk in the light of the divine Scriptures and journey on the path of God's commandments, they do not even dare to meet, but seeing them pass by, they flee from their face as from a fire.

Who then do you suppose I mean by heretics? Those who deny the Son of God? Those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and say that this is not God? Those who say the Father is greater than the Son? Those who confuse the Trinity into a monad or divide the one God into three gods? Those who say Christ is the Son of God, but do not believe that he took flesh from a woman? Those who prattle that he took on flesh, but soulless flesh? Those who say this flesh was ensouled, as a whole man, but do not say that the Son of God, who was also called the Son of the Theotokos Mary, is one in hypostasis, but divide the one Christ into two sons? But what of those who ascribe a beginning to the beginningless Father and say, "There was, when he was not"? Or those who wickedly both think and dogmatize that the Father is without beginning, but that the Son, as one born from him, received a beginning after some time, as a creature?

(377) For there was never a time, he says, when the Father existed without the Son being with him; and how shall he who is childless be called Father? But what of those who preach that one suffered, and another rose again? Away with it! I mean none of these impious and godless ones to you, nor any of the other heresies, which appeared as darkness, but were made to vanish by the holy fathers who shone at that time. For the grace of the All-Holy Spirit shone so much through them and drove away the darkness of the aforementioned heresies, that even until now their divinely inspired writings shine brighter than the rays of the sun, so that no one dares to speak against them.

But I speak about and I name as heretics those who say that there is no one in our times and in our midst who is able to keep the evangelical commandments and become like the holy fathers; first of all, faithful and practical—for faith is shown by works, as the likeness of a face is by a mirror—then at once most contemplative and a seer of God, that is, in being enlightened and receiving the Holy Spirit and through Him beholding the Son with the Father. Those, therefore, who say this is impossible do not possess some partial heresy, but all of them, if one may say so, as this one surpasses and covers all those others in its impiety and excess of blasphemy. He who says this subverts all the divine Scriptures. In vain, I think, does the vain one say that the holy Gospel is now being spoken; he protests that it is in vain that the writings of Basil the Great and of the rest of our priests and holy fathers are read or even were written.

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αἱρετικοῖς συναπήχθησαν; Τά δέ ἐπί τοῦ ἁγίου Στεφάνου τοῦ Νέου γεγονότα, τί οὐ διωγμοῦ βαρυτάτου καί χαλεποῦ ὑπῆρχον; Ἤ οὐκ ἐννοεῖτε τόν τότε γεγονότα χειμῶνα καί τόν ὑπερβάλλοντα σάλον τῶν μοναχῶν; Τί δέ πειρῶμαι τά πάντα διεξελθεῖν; Ὅταν γάρ πρό τούτων ἀναμνημονεύσω τῶν ἐπί τοῦ μεγάλου Βασιλείου γεγονότων, ὡς ὁ μέγας διηγεῖται Γρηγόριος, καί τῶν ἐπί τοῦ χρυσορρήμονος Ἰωάννου καί τῶν καθεξῆς πατέρων ἁγίων, αὐτός τε ἐγώ ἐμαυτόν ταλανίζω καί τούς ταῦτα μή ἀναλογιζομένους κατελεῶ. Οὐ γάρ ἀκριβῶς ἐπίστανται ὅτι ἅπας ὁ παρελθών χρόνος δεινότερος ἦν καί τῶν ζιζανίων τοῦ πονηροῦ πεπλησμένος ἀναφανδόν.

(376) Ὅμως οὖν, εἰ καί δεινά τά παρεληλυθότα, ἀλλά καί νῦν ἔχει πολλούς ὁ βίος αἱρετικούς, πολλούς λύκους, ἀσπίδας καί ὄφεις συναναστρεφομένους ἡμῖν, πλήν οὐκ ἔχοντας ἐξουσίαν τινά καθ᾿ ἡμῶν, ἀλλ᾿ οἷον ὑπό νύκτα εἰσίν οἱ τοιοῦτοι τῆς πονηρίας αὐτῶν· καί τούς μέν συνερχομένους καί ὑπό τό σκότος γινομένους αὐτῶν ἁρπάζουσί τε καί κατεσθίουσι, τοῖς δέ ἐν τῷ γωτί περιπατοῦσι τῶν θείων Γραφῶν καί τῇ ὁδῷ πορευομένοις τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐδέ προσυπαντῆσαι τολμῶσιν, ἀλλά καί διερχομένους ἰδόντες ἀπό τοῦ προσώπου αὐτῶν ὡς ἀπό πυρός φεύγουσι.

Τίνας οὖν ἄρα ὑπενοήσατε εἰπεῖν με αἱρετικούς; Μή τούς ἀρνουμένους τόν Υἱόν τοῦ Θεοῦ; Μή τούς βλασφημοῦντας εἰς τό ἅγιον Πνεῦμα καί λέγοντας μή εἶναι τοῦτο Θεόν; Μή τούς μείζονα λέγοντας τοῦ Υἱοῦ τόν Πατέρα; Μή τούς τήν Τριάδα εἰς ἑνάδα συγχέοντας ἤ τόν ἕνα Θεόν εἰς τρεῖς θεούς διατέμνοντας; Μή τούς Υἱόν μέν εἶναι τοῦ Θεοῦ τόν Χριστόν λέγοντας, ἐκ γυναικός δέ λαβεῖν τήν σάρκα τοῦτον μή πιστεύοντας; Μή τούς σάρκα μέν αὐτόν ἀναλαβεῖν, ἀλλά ἄψυχον φλυαροῦντας; Μή τούς ἔμψυχον μέν ταύτην, ὡς ὅλον ἄνθρωπον, οὐχ ἕνα δέ κατά τήν ὑπόστασιν τόν Υἱόν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τόν καί Υἱόν τῆς Θεοτόκου Μαρίας χρηματίσαντα, Θεόν εἶναι λέγοντας, ἀλλ᾿ εἰς δύο υἱούς τόν ἕνα Χριστόν διατέμνοντας; Ἀλλά μή τούς τῷ ἀνάρχῳ Πατρί ἀρχήν περιγράφοντας καί τό "Ἦν, ὅτε οὐκ ἦν" λέγοντας; Ἤ τούς τόν Πατέρα μέν ἄναρχον, τόν δέ Υἱόν, ὡς ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεννηθέντα, ἀρχήν μετά τινα χρόνον λαβεῖν ὡς κτίσμα, κακῶς καί νοοῦντας καί δογματίζοντας;

(377) Οὐκ ἦν γάρ ποτε, φησίν, ὁ Πατήρ μή συνόντος αὐτῷ τοῦ Υἱοῦ· καί πῶς Πατήρ ὁ ἄπαις ὀνομασθήσεται; Ἀλλά μή τούς ἄλλον μέν τόν παθόντα, ἄλλον δέ εἶναι τόν ἀναστάντα κηρύττοντας; Ἄπαγε! Οὐδένα τούτων σοι τῶν ἀσεβῶν καί ἀθέων, οὐδέ τῶν ἄλλων αἱρέσεών τινα λέγω, τῶν ὡς σκότος μέν φανέντων, ὑπό δέ τῶν τότε λαμψάντων ἁγίων πατέρων ἐξαφανισθέντων. Ἐπί τοσοῦτον γάρ ἡ χάρις τοῦ Παναγίου Πνεύματος ἔλαμψε δι᾿ αὐτῶν καί τῶν εἰρημένων αἱρέσεων τό σκότος ἐδίωξεν, ὅτι καί μέχρι τοῦ νῦν τά θεόπνευστα αὐτῶν συγγράμματα λάμπουσιν ὑπέρ ἡλίου αὐγάς, ὡς μηδέ τολμᾶν αὐτοῖς τινα ἀντιφθέγγεσθαι.

Ἀλλά περί ἐκείνων λέγω καί ἐκείνους ὀνομάζω αἱρετικούς, τούς λέγοντας μή εἶναί τινα ἐν τοῖς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς χρόνοις καί ἐν μέσῳ ἡμῶν τόν δυνάμενον φυλάξαι τάς εὐαγγελικάς ἐντολάς καί κατά τούς ἁγίους γενέσθαι πατέρας· πρῶτον μέν πάντων πιστόν καί πρακτικόν - διά γάρ τῶν ἔργων ἡ πίστις δείκνυται, ὡς διά τοῦ ἐσόπτρου ἡ τοῦ προσώπου ἐμφέρεια, ἔπειτα θεωρητικώτατόν τε ὁμοῦ καί θεόπτην, ἐν τῷ φωτισθῆναι δηλαδή καί λαβεῖν Πνεῦμα Ἅγιον καί δι᾿ αὐτοῦ τόν Υἱόν σύν τῷ Πατρί κατιδεῖν. Οἱ τοίνυν τοῦτο ἀδύνατον εἶναι λέγοντες οὐ μερικήν τινα αἵρεσιν κέκτηνται, ἀλλά πάσας, εἰ οἷόν τε εἰπεῖν, ὡς ταύτης πάσας ἐκείνας τῇ ἀσεβείᾳ καί τῇ τῆς βλασφημίας ὑπερβολῇ ὑπεραιρούσης καί καλυπτούσης. Ὁ τοῦτο λέγων ἀνατρέπει πάσας τάς θείας Γραφάς. Εἰς μάτην, οἶμαι, λέγει ὁ μάταιος τό ἅγιον ἄρτι λέγεσθαι Εὐαγγέλιον, εἰς μάτην τάς τοῦ Μεγάλου Βασιλείου καί τῶν λοιπῶν ἱερέων καί ὁσίων πατέρων ἡμῶν γραφάς ἀναγινώσκεσθαι ἤ καί γραφῆναι διαμαρτύρεται.