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I found you were distressed by what has happened. But pray powerfully, as one who is powerful to the One who is powerful to forgive sins, on behalf of Maximus, your servant and disciple, honored Father.

10. By the same, to John the Cubicularius. Since you have commanded that I write to you the reason for which God, having decreed, justified being ruled over by men, though the nature of all is one and the same, and it declares all who partake of it to be of equal honor by its simple principle, I will speak according to my ability, hiding nothing of what I have received from wise and blessed men, trimming many things that might be said about this for the sake of brevity. A true account, as they say, mystically suggests that man, who had received dominion over the whole visible world by the grace of God who made him, through a mode of misuse of the innate powers of his noetic essence, having turned his movements toward things contrary to nature, brought upon himself and this entire world the alteration and corruption now prevailing over them, according to a just judgment of God; so that the immortal power of the soul might not be preserved in him for eternity while moving toward things contrary to nature; which is not only the extreme of evil, and a most evident fall from the true being of man himself, but also a clear denial of the divine goodness.

For this reason, this life of men, full of toil and much lamentation, on account of the great irrationality and disorder of the matter which nurses it, bearing and being borne in one way and another; and to speak more precisely, in being borne, it bears all men, making all of them partakers of its terrors; and it leaves absolutely no one free from its turmoil. And this was fashioned according to the fitting principle of God's wisdom, so that this present life, which is irrationally loved by us by disposition, even if at some late time, by suffering evils from it according to circumstance, having learned how much friendship toward it can harm, we may know that separation from it is much more useful for us than union with it; and that we may rightly confirm our hatred toward it, in accordance with reason; and fleeing the mixture and turmoil of visible things, we may soberly transfer our longing to the stable identity of intelligible things.

(452) But since, even when scourged, and suffering countless terrors, we do not endure to loose the bond of our friendship toward it, according to providence, as one wise and good, God fashioned the law of kingship for men; checking from afar the great madness of evil that he foresaw would exist in life on account of license; so that men might not become, like the fish of the sea, consumed by one another; with no one to supervise and to prevent the unjust impulse of the more powerful against the subordinate. For this reason, it is likely, I think, that the kingship of men was necessarily introduced to the race; having received wisdom from God, and power; and the nature of equal honor was permitted to be divided into ruling and being ruled. So that, on the one hand, it may assign those who lawfully obey the ordinances of nature; and on the other hand, it may justly punish those who do not wish to yield to these ordinances through willfulness of opinion; and from this may grant justice to all, which is awarded through desire and fear; by which the anomaly of each one's opinion is removed, and the tranquil and gentle equality of nature in all is brightly demonstrated. Which would never have happened, if fear did not punish the senseless of the

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δυσχεραίνοντας ὑμᾶς εὗρον πρός τά συμβάντα. Ἀλλ᾿ εὔχου δυνατῶς, ὡς δυνατός πρός τόν δυνατόν ἀφιέναι ἁμαρτίας, ὑπέρ Μαξίμου τοῦ σοῦ καί δούλου καί μαθητοῦ, τίμιε Πάτερ.

Ι´Τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρός Ἰωάννην κουβικουλάριον. Ἐπειδή τήν αἰτίαν δι᾿ ἥν ὑπ᾿ ἀνθρώπων βασιλεύεσθαι ψηφισάμενος ὁ Θεός

ἐδικαίωσε, μιᾶς καί τῆς αὐτῆς πάντων ὑπαρχούσης τῆς φύσεως, καί πάντας τῷ κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἁπλῷ λόγῳ τούς μετέχοντας αὐτῆς ὁμοτίμως ἀποφαινούσης, γραφῆναι ὑμῖν ἐκελεύσατε, ἐρῶ κατά τήν ἐμήν δύναμιν, μηδέν ἀποκρυπτόμενος, ὧν παρά σοφῶν καί μακαρίων ἀνδρῶν παρέλαβον· τά πολλά περικόπτων ὅσα ῥηθῆναι περί τούτου διά τό σύντομον ἐνδέχεται. Λόγος ἀληθής, ὥς φασι, μυστικῶς ὑπαγορεύει, τόν δεσπόζειν κατά χάριν τοῦ πεποιηκότος αὐτόν Θεοῦ, παντός τοῦ ὁρωμένου κόσμου λαχόντα ἄνθρωπον, διά τοῦ κατά παράχρησιν τρόπου, τῶν ἐμφύτων δυνάμεων τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ νοερᾶς οὐσίας, πρός τά παρά φύσιν τρέψαντα τάς κινήσεις, ἑαυτῷ τε καί τῷ παντί τούτῳ κόσμῳ, τήν κρατοῦσαν νῦν αὐτῶν ἀλλοίωσιν καί φθοράν, κατά κρίσιν εἰσενέγκασθαι τοῦ Θεοῦ δικαίαν· ἵνα μή πρός τά παρά φύσιν ἀθάνατος ἐπ᾿ ἄπειρον ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς δύναμις αὐτῷ κινουμένῳ φυλάττοιτο· ὅπερ ἐστίν οὐ μόνον κακίας τό ἔσχατον, καί τῆς αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἀληθοῦ ὀντότης ἀρίδηλος ἔκπτωσις, ἀλλά καί σαφής τῆς θείας ἀγαθότητος ἄρνησις.

∆ιά τοῦτο ὁ πολύμοχθος οὗτος, καί πολυστένακτος τῶν ἀνθρώπων βίος, διά τῆς πολλῆς ἀλογίας καί ἀταξίας τῆς αὐτόν τιθηνούσης ὕλης, ἄλλο τε ἄλλως φέρων τε καί φερόμενος· καί ἀκριβέστερον εἰπεῖν, ἐν τῷ φέρεσθαι φέρων πάντας ἀνθρώπους, τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ δεινῶν μετόχους πάντας καθίστησι· καί οὐδένα παντελῶς ἀφίησι τῆς αὐτοῦ ταραχῆς ἐλεύθερον. Καί τοῦτο κατά τόν πρέποντα τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφίας διετυπώθη λόγον, ἵνα τόν παρόντα βίον παραλόγως κατά διάθεσον ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀγαπώμενον, κἄν ὀψέ ποτε τῷ πάσχειν ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κακῶς κατά περίστασιν, ὅσον βλάπτειν οἶδεν ἡ πρός αὐτόν φιλίαν μεταμαθόντες, γνῶμεν ὅτι πολύ τῆς πρός αὐτόν ἑνώσεως ὁ χωρισμός ἐστιν ἡμῖν χρησιμώτερος· καί τό πρός αὐτόν μῖσος, κατά λόγον ἐνδίκως κυρώσωμεν · καί φυγόντες τήν τῶν ὁρωμένων φύρσιν καί ταραχήν, πρός τήν τῶν νοουμένων εὐσταθῆ ταυτότητα σωφρόνως τόν πόθον μεταθώμαθα.

(452) Ἀλλ᾿ ἐπειδή καί μαστιζόμενοι, καί μυρία πάσχοντες δεινά, τῆς πρός αὐτόν φιλίας τόν δεσμόν λύειν οὐκ ἀνεχόμεθα, κατά πρόνοιαν ὡς σοφός καί ἀγαθός, τόν τῆς βασιλείας τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ὁ Θεός διετύπωσε νόμον· τήν προγνωσθεῖσαν διά τήν ἄνεσιν ἔσεσθαι κατά τόν βίον πολλήν τῆς κακίας λύσσαν ἀναστέλλων πόῤῥωθεν· ἵνα μή γένωνται κατά τούς ἰχθύας τῆς θαλάσσης, ἀλλήλων οἱ ἄνθρωποι παραναλώματα· μηδενός ἐπιστατοῦντος, καί τήν ἄδικον τοῦ δυνατωτέρου κατά τοῦ ὑποβεβηκότος ὁρμήν κωλύοντος. ∆ιά τοῦτο, κατά τό εἰκός, ὡς οἶμαι, βασιλεία τῶν ἀνθρώπων τῷ γένει ἀναγκαίως ἐπεισήχθη· σοφίαν παρά Θεοῦ λαβοῦσα, καί δυναστείαν· καί ἡ ὁμότιμος φύσις εἰς τό ἄρχειν καί ἄρχεσθαι μερισθῆναι συνεχωρήθη. Ὅπως τῇ μέν, τάσσῃ τούς νομίμως τοῖς θεσμοῖς τῆς φύσεως πειθομένοις· τῇ δέ, κολάζῃ δικαίως τούς εἴκειν τούτοις δι᾿ αὐθάδειαν γνώμης μή βουλομένους· καί τήν δικαιοσύνην ἐντεῦθεν πᾶσι χαρίζηται, πόθῳ καί φόβῳ βραβευομένην· δι᾿ ἧς τό ἀνώμαλον τῆς τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον γνώμης ἀπογενόμενον, τό ἐν πᾶσι τῆς φύσεως ἴσον γαληνόν τε καί ἥμερον λαμπρῶς διαδείκνυται. Ὅπερ οὐκ ἄν ἐγεγόνει ποτέ, μή τοῦ φόβου κολάζοντος τήν ἄφρονα τῶν