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being united to those who have come into being, He makes the whole His own through goodness.” This then is the deifying gift, which the most brilliant luminary from the Areopagus of Athens, having called it divinity, says God is beyond. Where then for you is the knowledge and the imitation and the abstraction, through which you hasten to take away from the many even the knowledge from faith of what is beyond us and is truly the imitation of God?

“But has he not said God is also beyond that which transcendently is not,” he says, “even if he also addressed Him as beyond this divinity.” To you, at least, he has not said it, I know well; for he speaks not to (p. 720) your ears, but into the ears of those who hear; for he is blessed. For when he says that God supra-essentially possesses the supra-essential, what else does he say than that since that which transcendently is not is supra-essential, God is beyond this, supra-essentially possessing the supra-essential? And what of him who says, or rather those who say, "for they are one" according to the Lord's prayer, and through one we bring forward all the saints—what then of those who say that God is infinitely removed from the deification according to supra-essentiality? And what of him who said that the transcendence of God is beyond all affirmation and negation? Do they not say that God is beyond that which transcendently is not, and beyond the uncreated immortality and life and goodness, even if you, unable to gaze at the height of their sound theology—alas for the audacity, alas for the deceit which you have suffered—have plainly called all of them impious and renounced them? But they, taking no account of you and your groveling opinion and your all-daring tongue, added "infinitely many times infinitely" to all such things with respect to the divine transcendence, knowing it to be ineffable by all concepts and all words in common. But enough of these things.

How this man also made virtue into vice must be shown in brief. He says that dispassion is the mortification, as a state, of the passionate part of the soul. “For its energies,” he says, “more than anything blind and bury the divine eye; it is necessary, then, to leave this active according to none of its own power.” Good heavens! How does hatred for evil things and love for God and neighbor bury the divine eye? For these too are energies of the passionate part; for by this power of the soul we both love and are averse, we are both drawn to and alienated. The lovers of what is good, therefore, (p. 722) effect a transformation of this power, but not a mortification, not shutting it up inactive within themselves, but showing it active in love for God and neighbor, on which two commandments, according to the Lord's word, “hang all the law and the prophets.” And if these things bury the divine eye and make the one living according to them passionate, which of the other virtues is not a vice? We have shown each of these things, then, both through our former treatises and in those now set before us, having enumerated and refuted also whatever he has set forth in his own treatises against us and the fathers after us, taking pride in becoming sharers of the insolence toward the saints; for in every way we shall also share in the blessing with them.

However, it is fitting to consider this, that if someone should wish to name the wicked heresies from the beginning of time until now a sort of satanic composition, divided by chapters into those sprouting from his suggestions at different times in different ways, this very book of the Latin-Greek is the epilogue of them all. For neither having falsified the Old Testament of God did he spare the New, nor having sinned against the divine nature did he leave the advent of God in the flesh unscathed, nor having been insolent toward spiritual contemplation did he leave the practice of virtue unassailed, nor having attacked the life of the blessed men in the present age, did he not to those of the age to come

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γενομένοις ἑνούμενος, τό πᾶν ἑαυτοῦ ποιεῖται δι᾿ ἀγαθότητα». Τοῦτ᾿ ἄρα τό θεοποιόν ἐστι δῶρον, ὅ θεότητα καλέσας ὁ ἐξ Ἀρείου Πάγου τῶν Ἀθηνῶν φανότατος φωστήρ ἐπέκεινα ταύτης εἶναι λέγει τόν Θεόν. Ποῦ δή σοι ἡ γνῶσις καί ἡ μίμησις καί ἡ ἀφαίρεσις, δι᾿ ὧν σύ σπεύδεις ἀφαιρεὶσθαι τῶν πολλῶν καί τήν ἐκ πίστεως γνῶσιν τῆς ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς καί ὄντως θεομιμησίας;

«Ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί καί ὑπέρ τό καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν μή ὄν τόν Θεόν εἴρηκε», φησίν, «εἰ καί ὑπέρ ταύτην τήν θεότητα προσεῖπε τοῦτον». Σοί γε οὐκ εἴρηκεν, εὖ οἶδα˙ λαλεῖ γάρ οὐκ εἰς (σελ. 720) τά σά, ἀλλ᾿ εἰς ὦτα ἀκουόντων˙ ἔστι γάρ μακάριος. Ὅταν γάρ λέγῃ τόν Θεόν ὑπερουσίως ἔχειν τό ὑπερούσιον, τί γε ἄλλο λέγει ἤ ὅτι ἐπεί ὑπερούσιόν ἐτι τό καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν μή ὄν, ὑπέρ τοῦτο ὁ Θεός ἐστιν, ὑπερουσίως ἔχων τό ὑπερούσιον; Τί δέ ὁ λέγων, μᾶλλον δέ οἱ λέγοντες, "ἕν γάρ εἰσι" κατά τήν δεσποτικήν εὐχήν καί δι᾿ ἑνός τούς ἁγίους ἅπαντας προάγομεν, τί οὖν οἱ λέγοντες τῆς καθ᾿ ὑπερουσιότητα θέωσεως ἀπείρως ἐξῃρημένον εἶναι τόν Θεόν; Τί δέ ὁ εἰπών πάσης θέσεως καί ἀφαιρέσεως ἐπέκεινα εἶναι τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑπεροχήν; Ἆρ᾿ οὐχ ὑπέρ τό καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν μή ὄν, καί ὑπέρ τήν ἄκτιστον ἀθανασίαν καί ζωήν καί ἀγαθότητά φασιν εἶναι τόν Θεόν, εἰ καί σύ τούς τοῦτο λέγοντας, πρός τό τῆς αὐτῶν ἀσφαλοῦς θεολογίας ὕψος ἀτενίζειν οὐ δυνάμενος, φεῦ τῆς τόλμης, φεῦ τῆς ἀπάτης ἥν ἐπεπόνθεις, ἀσεβεῖς τρανῶς προσείρηκας καί ἀπεκήρυξας ἅπαντας; Ἀλλ᾿ ἐκεῖνοι σοῦ καί τῆς σῆς χαμαιζήλου γνώμης καί τῆς πάντα τολμώσης γλώττης μηδένα λόγον ποιούμενοι, καί τό "ἀπειράκις ἀπείρως" ἐπί τῶν τοιούτων πάντων τῇ θείᾳ προσέθηκαν ὑπεροχῇ, κοινῇ πάσαις ἐννοίαις καί πᾶσι ρήμασιν ἄφραστον εἰδότες αὐτήν. Ἀλλά τούτων μέν ἅλις.

Ὅπως δέ καί τήν ἀρετήν κακίαν οὗτος ἐποίησεν, ὡς ἐν βραχεῖ δεικτέον. Ἀπάθειαν εἶναι λέγει τήν τοῦ παθητικοῦ καθ᾿ ἕξιν νέκρωσιν. «Αἱ γάρ τούτου», φησίν, «ἐνέργειαι μάλιστα πάντων ἐκτυφλοῦσι καί κατορύττουσι τό θεῖον ὄμμα˙ δεῖ δή κατά μηδεμίαν ἑαυτοῦ δύναμιν τοῦτο ἐνεργόν ἐᾶν». Βαβαί˙ πῶς κατορύττει τό θεῖον ὄμμα τά πρός τά πονηρά μῖσος καί ἡ πρός τόν Θεόν καί τόν πλησίον ἀγάπη; Καί ταῦτα γάρ τοῦ παθητικοῦ εἰσιν ἐνέργειαι˙ ταύτῃ γάρ τῇ δυνάμει τῆς ψυχῆς ἀγαπῶμέν τε καί ἀποτρεπόμεθα, οἰκειούμεθά τε καί ἀλλοτριούμεθα˙ μετάθεσιν τοίνυν οἱ ἐρασταί τῶν καλῶν (σελ. 722) ποιοῦται τῆς δυνάμεως ταύτης ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί νέκρωσιν, οὐκ ἀκίνητον κατακλείσαντες ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, ἀλλ᾿ ἐνεργόν δείξαντες ἐν τῇ πρός τόν Θεόν καί τόν πλησίον ἀγάπῃ, αἷς δυσίν ἐντολαῖς κατά τόν τοῦ Κυρίου λόγον «ἅπας ὁ νόμος καί οἱ προφῆται κρέμανται». Εἰ δ᾿ αὕται τό θεῖον ὄμμα κατορύττουσι καί τόν κατ᾿ αὐτάς ζῶντα ἐμπαθῆ ποιοῦσι, τίς τῶν ἄλλων ἀρετῶν οὐ κακία; Τούτων μέν οὖν ἕκαστον διά τε τῶν προτέρων ἡμετέρων λόγων κἀν τοῖς νῦν ἡμῖν προτεθειμένοις ἐδείξαμεν, καταλέξαντες καί ἐξελέγξαντες καί ὅσα καθ᾿ ἡμῶν καί τῶν ἐφ᾿ ἡμῶν πατέρων ἐντεκών τοῖς οἰκείοις λόγοις προὔθηκεν, ἐγκαλλωπιζόμενοι τῷ κοινωνοί γενέσθαι τῆς πρός τούς ἁγίους ὕβρεως˙ πάντως γάρ καί τῆς εὐλογίας κοινωνήσομεν αὐτοῖς.

Ἐκεῖνο μέντοι προσήκει συνιδεῖν, ὡς εἴ τις ἐθελήσειε σατανικόν οἷον σύγγραμμα τάς ἀπ᾿ αἰῶνος ἄχρι νῦν πονηράς αἱρέσεις ὀνομάσαι, κατά κεφάλαια διῃρημένον εἰς τάς ἄλλοτε ἄλλως ὑποβολαῖς ἐκείνου φυομένας, ἐπίλογον εἶναι τούτων ἁπασῶν τό τοῦ λατινέλληλος τουτί βιβλίον. Οὐδέ γάρ τῆς παλαιᾶς διαθήκης τοῦ Θεοῦ καταψευσάμενος, τῆς καινῆς ἐφείσατο, οὐδέ εἰς τήν θείαν φύσιν ἁμαρτών, τήν διά σαρκός τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπιδημίαν εἴασεν ἀνεπηρέαστον, οὐδ᾿ εἰς τήν πνευματικήν ὑβρίσας θεωρίαν, τήν τῆς ἀρετῆς πρᾶξιν ἀδιάβλητον κατέλιπεν, οὐδέ τῷ τῶν μακαρίων ἀνδρῶν κατά τόν νῦν αἰῶνα ἐπιθέμενος ζωῇ, τοῖς τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος οὐκ