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who had approached with all joy, he restored to all men and women their own monasteries; having found a reward worthy of his own genius concerning divine things, to be adorned also with apostolic gifts, and to be named a genuine mouth of the Lord, according to the divine saying that states, If you bring forth the precious from the worthless, you shall be as my mouth. Or rather, a prelude to the divine reward awaiting him, and a most faithful pledge of glory with Christ, having received this great and wondrous work.

Not wishing the heretics to be afflicted, nor rejoicing in their ill-treatment, I write these things, may it not be so, but rather rejoicing and exulting in their conversion. For what is more delightful to the faithful than to see the scattered children of God gathered into one? Nor exhorting you to prefer harshness to philanthropy; may I not be so mad; but to do and to work good things for all people with attention and testing, and becoming all things to all, as each of you has need, I beseech you; only with respect to assisting heretics in any way in the establishment of their mind-injuring opinion, I both wish and pray that you be completely hard and unyielding. For I for my part define as misanthropy and a separation from divine love, the attempt to give strength to error for the greater corruption of those already possessed by it.

An Exposition of the orthodox confession. But before all things and above all things, to be sober and to be vigilant and to be on guard against the

assaults of thieves, lest we be plundered by them unawares; but we shall rather guard the great and first medicine of our salvation; I mean the good inheritance of faith, confessing with soul and mouth with boldness, as the Fathers taught us. Who, following those who were from the (468) beginning eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, said that the one of the holy and consubstantial, undefiled and blessed Trinity, the Son of God, God the Word, the radiance of glory and the character of the paternal hypostasis, the creator of all creation, visible and invisible, the infinite, the indefinite, the invisible, the incomprehensible, the inconceivable, who both made and sustains all things by the mere inclination of his will; the immeasurable in goodness, became man for our sake, and was incarnate of the holy, all-glorious, ever-virgin Mary, the one who is properly and truly Theotokos; having united to himself hypostatically flesh from her, which is consubstantial with us, ensouled with a rational and intellectual soul, not having pre-existed even for the twinkling of an eye, but in God the Word himself having received both being and subsistence; and that he, being perfect God, became perfect man; neither putting aside his being God in order to become man, which he was not; nor being prevented from becoming what he was not, man, because he remained what he was and is, God; but being this, he also became that, authenticating each, the divine and the human being confirmed together by divine wonders and human sufferings, and according to his own nature and substance in relation to the Father, uncreated, invisible, uncircumscribed, unchangeable, immutable, impassible, incorruptible, immortal, creator of all things; but according to the nature of his flesh and yours, the same one created, passible, circumscribed, contained, mortal; the same one, but not in the same respect, on account of the things from which and in which he has his being; the same one consubstantial with God the Father according to the Godhead, and the same one consubstantial with us according to the manhood; double in nature, that is, in substance; because, being the mediator of God and men, it was necessary for him to properly preserve the natural affinity towards those for whom he mediates, by the

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μετά πάσης χαρᾶς προσελθούσας, ἀποκατέστησεν πᾶσί τε καί πάσαις τά ἴδια μοναστήρια· μισθόν ἐπάξιον τῆς αὐτοῦ περί τά θεῖα μεγαλοφυΐας εὑράμενος, τό καί ἀποστολικοῖς κοσμηθῆναι χαρίσμασι, καί στόμα Κυρίου γνήσιον χρηματίσαι, κατά τό φάσκον θεῖον λόγιον, Ἐάν ἐξαγάγῃς τίμιον ἐξ ἀναξίου, ὡς στόμα μου ἔσῃ. Μᾶλλον δέ τῆς μενούσης αὐτόν θείας ἀμοιβῆς προοίμιον, καί τῆς σύν Χριστῷ δόξης ἀῤῤαβῶνα πιστότατον, τοῦτο τό μέγα καί θαυμαστόν ἔργον κομισάμενος.

Οὐ θέλων δέ τούς αἱρετικούς θλίβεσθαι, οὐδέ χαίρων τῇ κακώσει αὐτῶν, γράφω ταῦτα, μή γένοιτο, ἀλλά τῇ ἐπιστροφῇ μᾶλλον χαίρων καί συναγαλλόμενος. Τί γάρ τοῖς πιστοῖς τερπνότερον, τοῦ θεᾶσθαι τά τέκνα τοῦ Θεοῦ τά διεσκορπισμένα, συναγόμενα εἰς ἕν. Οὔτε ὑμῖν τοῦ φιλανθρώπου τό ἀπηνές παραινῶν προτιθέναι· μή οὕτω μανείην· ἀλλά μετά προσεχειάς καί δοκιμασίας ποιεῖν τε καί ἐνεργεῖν τά καλά εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους, καί πᾶσι πάντα γινομένους, καθώς ἕκαστος ἐπιδεῖται ὑμῶν, παρακαλῶν· πρός μόνον τό καθοτιοῦν αἱρετικοῖς συνάρασθαι εἰς σύστασιν τῆς φρενοβλαβοῦς αὐτῶν δόξης, σκληρούς παντελῶς εἶναι ὑμᾶς καί ἀμειλίκτους βούλομαί τε καί εὔχομαι. Μισανθρωπίαν γάρ ὁρίζομαι ἔγωγε, καί ἀγάπης θείας χωρισμόν, τό τῇ πλάνῃ πειρᾶσθαι διδόναι ἰσχύν εἰς περισσοτέραν τῶν αὐτῇ προκατειλημμένων φθοράν.

Ἔκθεσις ὀρθῆς ὁμολογίας. Πρό δέ πάντων καί ἐπί πᾶσι, νήφειν τε καί ἀγρυπνεῖν καί παρατηρεῖσθαι τῶν

κλεπτῶν τάς ἐφόδους, ἵνα μή συληθέντες ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν λάθωμεν· φυλάξομεν δέ μᾶλλον τό μέγα καί πρῶτον τῆς σωτηρίας ἡμῶν φάρμακον· τήν καλήν λέγω τῆς πίστεως κληρονομίαν ὁμολογοῦντος ψυχῇ τε καί στόματι μετά παῤῥησίας, ὡς οἱ Πατέρες ἡμᾶς ἐδίδαξαν. Οἵτινες τοῖς ἐξ (468) ἀρχῆς αὐτόπταις καί ὑπηρέταις γενομένοις τοῦ Λόγου ἑπόμενοι, τόν ἕνα τῆς ἁγίας καί ὁμοουσίου, ἀχράντου τε καί μακαρίας Τριάδος τόν Υἱόν τοῦ Θεοῦ Θεόν Λόγον τό ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης καί χαρακτῆρα τῆς πατρικῆς ὑποστάσεως, τόν πάσης ὁρατῆς τε καί ἀοράτου κτίσεως δημιουργόν, τόν ἄπειρον, τόν ἀόριστον, τόν ἀόρατον, τόν ἀκατάληπτον, τόν ἀπερινόητον, τόν πάντα μόνῃ ῥοπῇ τοῦ θελήματος καί ποιήσαντα καί συνέχοντα· τόν ἀγαθότητι ἄμετρον, ἔφασαν ἐνανθρωπῆσαι δι' ἡμᾶς, καί σαρκωθῆναι ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας πανενδόξου ἀειπαρθένου Μαρίας, τῆς κυρίως καί κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν Θεοτόκου· σάρκα ἐξ αὐτῆς ἑνώσαντα ἑαυτῷ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν τήν ἡμῖν ὁμοούσιον, ἐψυχωμένην ψυχῇ λογικῇ τε καί νοερᾷ οὐδ᾿ ὡς ἐν ῥιπῇ ὀφθαλμοῦ προϋποστᾶσαν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ Θεῷ καί Λόγῳ, καί τό εἶναι καί τό ὑποστῆναι λαβοῦσαν· καί τέλειον ὄντα Θεόν γενέσθαι τέλειον ἄνθρωπον· μήτε τό Θεός εἶναι ἀποθέμενον διά τό γενέσθαι ἄνθρωπον, ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν· μήτε κωλυθέντα γενέσθαι ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν, ἄνθρωπον, διά τό μεμενήκαι ὅπερ ἦν καί ἔστι, Θεός· ἀλλά τοῦτο ὄντα, κἀκεῖνο γενέσθαι, ἑκάτερόν τε ἀπαληθεύοντα, τό θεῖον ὁμοῦ καί ἀνθρώπινον πιστοῦσθαι θαύμασι θείοις καί παθήμασιν ἀνθρωπίνοις καί κατά μέν τήν ἑαυτοῦ πρός τόν Πατέραν φύσιν τε καί οὐσίαν, ἄκτιστον, ἀόρατον, ἀπερίγραφον, ἀναλλοίωτον, ἄτρεπτον, ἀπαθῆ, ἄφθαρτον, ἀθάνατον, δημιουργόν τῶν ἁπάντων· κατά δέ τήν τῆς σαρκός αὐτοῦ φύσιν καί ὑμετέραν, τόν αὐτόν κτιστόν, παθητόν, περιγραπτόν, χωρητόν, θνητόν· τόν αὐτόν μέν, οὐ κατά τό αὐτό δέ, διά τά ἐξ ὧν καί ἐν οἷς τό εἶναι ἔχει· ὁμοούσιον τόν αὐτόν τῷ Θεῷ καί Πατρί κατά τήν θεότητα, καί ὁμοούσιον ἡμῖν τόν αὐτόν κατά τήν ἀνθρωπότητα· διπλοῦν τήν φύσιν, ἤτοι τήν οὐσίαν· διά τόν μεσίτην ὄντα Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων, δεῖν κυρίως ἀποσώζειν τήν πρός τά μεσιτευόμενα φυσικήν οἰκειότητα, τῷ