172

a contrite and humbled heart, which God did not despise; but becoming merciful and compassionate, tender-hearted and sympathetic, imitate the one who for our sake willingly deigned to die for love of mankind; and deem it worthy to receive her and embrace her, and bear to confirm your love for her. And strengthen her with words and deeds of loving-kindness and gentleness, and snatch her from the hands of the tyrant, and compassionately bind up the fractures that have happened to her; lest, being greatly weighed down by grief, she be pierced by the thorn of despair; and the blood of a soul corrupted by us be required of us; or to speak more truly, betrayed to the enemy of our life, to have it as a web for whatever he wishes; which ought to have lived through our long-suffering and gentleness; and we be justly accused, as having neglected the divine wills and passions. For likewise, even if the saying is harsh, yet it is true, they dishonor the good will of God, and despise his loving self-emptying for our sake, as much as it is in their power, both those who are unwilling to repent, and those who do not receive the repentant; because they ought to make the misfortunes of one another their own, on account of the equal honor of our nature; not even reverencing the goodness of God toward us; unless we were shown to have imitated something else concerning our kind.

Knowing therefore, O blessed handmaid of God, that divine justice is duly applied to the dispositions of our souls, becoming to us such as we have made ourselves to one another; and establishing God for us to be such as we, having hastened, have disposed ourselves toward those of like passions, do not delay to receive with open hands your supplicant and handmaid; but without delay, in imitation of God, with all haste place the sheep upon your shoulders, and bring it together to the safe fold, and guard it hereafter from being consumed by the wolves; so that you yourself may obtain such a loving God and Savior Christ and judge of all, at his fearful and most glorious epiphany, who will render to you the eternal fruits of what you have sown. May we also obtain his mercy by his grace and loving-kindness; through the prayers and intercessions of our Lady, the all-glorious Theotokos, and of all his saints. Amen.

(460) XII. By the same, to John the Cubicularius, Concerning the correct dogmas of the Church of God; and against Severus the heretic.

Having reckoned it good, O God-guarded ones, to shrink from reporting to you nothing of the things that come to me concerning you yourselves; for this our law of true love and lawgiver and love-itself, Christ, commands; teaching us to make one another our own through ourselves; I have made the present letter of this epistle; declaring that, in the month of November of the present fifteenth indiction, a certain Theodore, a cancellarius by name, arrived here; truly noble, and not lacking in freedom of manners, as it is possible for me at least to conjecture from what is seen, carrying a letter from our common mistress, the God-guarded Patricia, inscribed as he said, to the blessed servant of God, the all-honorable prefect here; for the sake of releasing the nuns dwelling here; both of the monastery of Amma Joannia, from Alexandria, and of the so-called monastery of Sacerdos, which is of the heresy of Severus; who used so great a madness of falsehood and abundance against the truth, as to be sufficient to disturb the holy Church of God even to this day. And to no one else, from anyone else at all of those appointed to minister there to the God-guarded

172

καρδίαν συντετριμμένην καί τεταπεινωμένην, ἥν ὁ Θεός οὐκ ἐξουδένωσεν· ἀλλ᾿ οἰκτίρμων καί ἐλεήμων, εὔσπλαχνός τε καί συμπαθής γενομένη, μίμησαι τόν δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἑκουσίως ὑπέρ φιλανθρωπίας ἀποθανεῖν καταδεξάμενον· καί προσδέξασθαι αὐτήν καί ἀσπάσασθαι ἀξίωσον, καί κυρῶσαι πρός αὐτήν ἀγάπην ἀνάσχου. Καί στήριξον αὐτήν λόγοις καί ἔργοις φιλανθρωπίας καί ἡμερότητος, καί ἅρπασον τῶν χειρῶν τοῦ τυράννου, καί τά γενόμενα αὐτῇ συντρίμματα κατάδησον συμπαθῶς· ἵνα μή πολύ καταβαρηθεῖσα τῇ λύπῃ, τῷ τῆς ἀπογνώσεως ἐμπαρῇ σκόλοπι· καί ἀπαιτηθῶμεν αἷμα ψυχῆς ἐξ ἡμῶν παραφθείσης· ἤ τόγε ἀληθέστερον εἰπεῖν, προδοθείσης τῷ ἐχθρῷ τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν, πρός τό ἔχειν ὑφήνιον εἰς ὅπερ ἄν καί βούλεται· ἥν ἔδει ζῇν διά τῆς ἡμῶν μακροθυμίας καί ἠπιότητος· καί ἐγκληθῶμεν δικαίως, ὡς τῶν θείων ἀμελήσαντες καί θελημάτων καί παθημάτων. Ὁμοίως γάρ, κἄν εἰ σκληρός ὁ λόγος, ἀλλ' οὖν ἀληθής, τό ἀγαθόν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀτιμάζουσι θέλημα, καί τήν ὑπέρ ἡμῶν αὐτοῦ φιλάνθρωπον κένωσιν ἐξουδενοῦσιν, ὅσον τό ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς, οἵ τε μετανοεῖν οὐκ ἐθέλοντες, καί τούς μετανοοῦντας μή προσδεχόμενοι· ὅτι ἀλλήλων ὀφείλοντες οἰκειοῦσθαι τάς συμφοράς, διά τήν ὁμοτιμίαν τῆς φύσεως· οὐδ᾿ αὐτήν τήν περί ἡμᾶς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀγαθότητα αἰδεσθέντες· εἰ μή τι ἀλλο περί τό ὁμόφυλον μιμησάμενοι, διεδείχθημεν.

Ὡς οὖν γινώσκουσα, δούλη τοῦ Θεοῦ εὐλογημένη, ὅτι ταῖς τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν διαθέσεσιν ἡ θεία δεόντως ἐφαρμόζεται δικαιοσύνη, τοιαύτη ἡμῖν γινομένη, οἵους ἀλλήλοις ἑαυτούς πεποιήμεθα· καί τοιοῦτον ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς τόν Θεόν καθιστῶσα, οἵους θάσαντες τοῖς ὁμοιοπαθέσιν ἑαυτούς διεθήκαμεν, μή ἀναβάλῃ προσδέξασθαι ὑπτίαις χερσί τήν σήν ἱκέτην καί δούλην· ἀλλ᾿ ἀμελλητί θεομιμήτως διά πάσης σπουδῆς ἐπίθες τοῖς ὤμοις τό πρόβατον, καί πρός τήν ἀσφαλῆ μάνδραν συγκόμισον, καί τοῖς λύκοις ἀνάλωτον πρός τό ἑξῆς διαφύλαξον· ἵνα καί αὐτή τοιούτου τύχοις τοῦ φιλανθρώπου Θεοῦ καί Σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ καί κριτοῦ τῶν ὅλων, κατά τήν αὐτοῦ φοβεράν καί ὑπερένδοξον ἐπιφάνειαν, ἀποδώσοντός σοι ὧν ἔσπειρας τούς αἰωνίου καρπούς. Οὗ καί ἡμεῖς τύχοιμεν ἵλεω τῇ αὐτοῦ χάριτι καί φιλανθρωπίᾳ· εὐχαῖς καί πρεσβείαις τῆς ∆εσποίνης ἡμῶν, τῆς πανενδόξου Θεοτόκου, καί πάντων τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ. Ἀμήν.

(460) ΙΒ´. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ, πρός Ἰωάννην κουβικουλάριον, Περί τῶν ὀρθῶν τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τοῦ Θεοῦ δογμάτων· καί κατά Σευήρου τοῦ αἱρετικοῦ.

Καλῶς ἔχειν λογισάμενος, μηδέν ὑμῖν τῶν εἰς ἐμέ ἐρχομένων περί ὑμῶν αὐτῶν, θεοφύλακτοι, ἀναγγεῖλαι ὑποστείλασθαι· τοῦτο γάρ κελεύει ὁ ἡμέτερος τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἀγάπης νόμος καί νομοθέτης καί αὐτοαγάπη Χριστός· δι᾿ ἑαυτῶν ἀλλήλους ἡμᾶς οἰκειοῦσθαι διδάσκων· τό παρόν τῆς ἐπιστολῆς γράμμα πεποίημαι· δηλῶν, ὡς κατά τόν Νοέμβριον μῆνα τῆς ἐνεστώσης πεντεκαιδεκάτης ἐπινεμήσεως, κατέλαβε τά ἐνταῦθα Θεόδωρός τις τοὔνομα καγκελλάριος· εὐγενής ὄντως, καί τρόπων ἐλευθερίας οὐκ ἀμοιρῶν, ὡς ἐμέ γε ἐκ τῶν ὁρωμένων στοχάσασθαι δυνατόν, γράμμα ἐπιφερόμενος παρά τῆς κοινῆς ἡμῶν δεσποίνης τῆς θεοφυλάκτου Πατρικίας, ὡς ἔλεγε κεχαραγμένον, πρός τόν εὐλογημένον δοῦλον τοῦ Θεοῦ, τόν ἐνταῦθα πανεύφημον ἔπαρχον· χάριν τοῦ ἀπολυθῆναι τάς οἰκούσας ἐνταῦθα μοναζούσας· τῆς τε μονῆς τῆς ἀμμᾶς Ἰωαννίας, τῆς ἀπό Ἀλεξανδρείας, καί τῆς ἐπιλεγόμενης μονῆς τῶν Σακερδῶτος, τῆς Σευήρου οὔσας αἱρέσεως· τοῦ τοσαύτῃ χρησαμένου κατά τῆς ἀληθείας μανίᾳ τε ψεύδους καί περιουσίᾳ, ὡς καί μέχρι τῆς σήμερον τῇ ἁγίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησίᾳ διοχλῆσαι ἀρκεῖν. Οὐδενί δέ ἄλλῳ ἀπ᾿ οὐδενός ἑτέρου τό σύνολον τῶν ὑπουργεῖν ἐκεῖσε ἀποταγέντων τῇ θεοφυλάκτ·ω