185

your love to open to the letter-bearer the bowels of compassion both for approaching and venerating the holy head and for whatever else your brotherly love should be tested; for he also brings other letters to other persons, and indeed also a writing of us the unlearned. As, therefore, fellow members of the same body and partakers of our lowliness, or rather as servants of God and guardians of the common good, deign to look upon the brother and to receive him and to bear with his ways in every way, so that, if God is well-pleased, he may be sent back to us again. And we received the letter sent to us by you and learned for what reason, after departing from Constantinople, you did not succeed in going to the west. 280 {1To Nicetas the Abbot}1 Having previously learned what things befell your holiness on account of my sins, I did not groan a little, but rather greatly lamented, shedding a tear of love and, wretched man that I am, singing mournful utterances. For what is more grievous than a friend's misfortune? But when I heard again what followed by the good pleasure of God, who did not allow your former struggles to come to nothing through your most noble renewed contest, I became inspired, giving thanks to the Lord who turned the lamentation into joy for all the pious; for not even for a short time was it grievous, from which I expected strength on account of your inherent virtue, to have found a stumbling block from this. But well done, noble one, because you are making the victory more glorious than the defeat, through which the church of God has recognized you again as her own foster-child, having enrolled you in the catalogue of her confessors; for such is the loving-kindness of God, both bestowing gifts on those who run well and strengthening those who turn back. Alas for the evil council, or rather synod; for from there I know that you were captured, my most honored one. And indeed I foretold the scandal, conjecturing from what had happened before; for such is the one who is pre-eminent over all. For he who long ago considered the evangelical transgressions as 'economies', and this with persecutions, he himself also considered the present communion with the heretics, and that in plain sight, from which comes the denial of Christ, and of the Theotokos and of any saint through their own icons, as none of the deadly things, capturing and being captured through his own example always those who are unstable. And reasonably so; for how could he who did not condemn himself for his first impieties be about to present himself to God unshaken and as not having been impious in his later struggles? Therefore I ask and entreat you, my father, in a confession of renunciation of the things then done in many ways, accomplish now the divine confession, praying for me, the sinner. 281 {1To Arsenius the monk}1 I received the letters of your love, and having understood them well I groaned at the drama that had occurred, or rather the fall of those who seemed to be something, by which your father also was captured, who is my like-minded brother; whose former defeat pained me more than others, just as his renewed struggle has now greatly gladdened me. And I greatly praised your diligent labor, brother, concerning the same abbot, because the heartfelt and fiery words of your account are truly the affections of a true disciple and the lamentations of a genuine child; for in reality the concurrent fall and embodiment of the Christ-fighting heresy and the one-time communion with it is death for the soul of the one captured, and this after a noble resistance, and that in the rank of both a priest and an abbot. Reasonably, therefore, all-wise one, you lamented, you compassionately deplored, as if seeing the paternal misfortune as a blood-stained garment, or rather as a spiritual devouring by a wild beast, uttering things like these, "4a wicked beast has seized not Joseph, whom Jacob once mourned, sold by his brothers with the fabrication of the presented tunic, but my father, a beast in human form, Joseph, who customarily preys on those who agree with his impieties, but not with his 'economies'"5. That one, brother, also long ago captured in the of the gospel

185

ἀγάπην ἀνοῖξαι τῷ γραμματηφόρῳ σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμοῦ εἴς τε προσέλευσιν καὶ προσκύνησιν τῆς ἁγίας κορυφῆς καὶ εἰς ὅ τι ἄλλο χρὴ τὸ φιλάδελφον ὑμῶν δοκιμάζειν· ἐπιφέρεται γὰρ καὶ ἑτέρας ἐπιστολὰς πρὸς ἕτερα πρόσωπα, καὶ μέντοι καὶ σύγγραμμα ἡμῶν τῶν ἀμαθῶν. ὡς οὖν σύσσωμοι καὶ συμμέτοχοι τῆς ταπεινώσεως ἡμῶν, μᾶλλον δὲ ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ θεραπευταὶ καὶ τοῦ κοινοῦ κηδεμόνες καὶ προσβλέψαι καταξιώσατε τὸν ἀδελφὸν καὶ εἰσδέξασθαι καὶ τροποφορῆσαι ἐν παντὶ τρόπῳ, ὡς ἂν θεοῦ εὐδοκοῦντος πάλιν ἀναπεμφθείη πρὸς ἡμᾶς. τὸ δὲ ἀποσταλὲν ἡμῖν γράμμα ὑμῶν ἀπεδεξάμεθα καὶ ἔγνωμεν δι' ἣν αἰτίαν ἀπάραντες ἐκ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως οὐκ εὐωδώθητε ἀπελθεῖν εἰς δύσιν. 280 {1Νικήτᾳ ἡγουμένῳ}1 Οἷα τὰ συμβεβηκότα τῇ ἁγιωσύνῃ σου κατὰ τὰς ἐμὰς ἁμαρτίας τὸ πρὶν ἐγνωκὼς οὐ μικρὸν ἐστέναξα, ἀλλὰ καὶ μεγάλως ἀπωδυράμην, δάκρυον ἀγάπης ἀποστάξας ἀποφθέγματά τε θρηνητικὰ μελῳδήσας ὁ τάλας. τί γὰρ φίλου συμφορᾶς ἀνιαρώτερον; ὁποῖα δὲ τὰ δεύτερα εὐδοκίᾳ θεοῦ, τοῦ μὴ ἐάσαντος φροῦδα γενέσθαι σου τὰ πάλαι ἀγωνίσματα διὰ τῆς καλλίστης ἀναπαλαίσεως, αὖθις ἀκουτισθεὶς ἔνθους γέγονα, εὐχαριστήσας Κυρίῳ τῷ στρέψαντι τὸν κοπετὸν εἰς χαρὰν πᾶσι τοῖς εὐσεβοῦσιν· οὐδὲ γὰρ εἰς βραχὺ τὸ λυπηρόν, ἐξ οὗ ἤλπιζον κράτος διὰ τὴν ἐνοῦσαν ἀρετήν, ἐντεῦθεν πρόσκομμα εὑρηκέναι. Ἀλλ' εὖγε, γενναῖε, ὅτι τῆς ἥττης περιφανεστέραν ἐργάζῃ τὴν νίκην, δι' ἧς ἐγνώρισέν σε τρόφιμον αὖθις ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησία, ἐγκαταριθμήσασά σε τῷ καταλόγῳ τῶν ἑαυτῆς ὁμολογητῶν· τοιαύτη γὰρ ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ φιλανθρωπία, καὶ τοῖς εὐδρομοῦσι φιλοδωροῦσα καὶ τοὺς παλινδρομοῦντας καταστηριζομένη. φεῦ τῆς κακῆς συνεδρίας εἴτουν συνοδίας· ἐντεῦθεν γὰρ οἶδ' ὅτι εἵλω, τιμιώτατέ μοι. καί γε προύλεγον τὸν σκινδαλμὸν ἐκ τῶν προγεγονότων στοχαζόμενος· τοιοῦτος γὰρ ὁ τῶν πάντων προύχων. ὁ γὰρ πάλαι τὰς εὐαγγελικὰς παραβάσεις οἰκονομίας τιθέμενος, καὶ ταῦτα μετὰ διωγμῶν, αὐτὸς καὶ τὴν νῦν κοινωνίαν τῶν αἱρετικῶν, καί γε ἐν προύπτῳ, ἐξ ἧς ἡ κατὰ ἄρνησιν Χριστοῦ, τῆς τε Θεοτόκου καὶ οὑτινοσοῦν ἁγίου διὰ τῶν οἰκείων εἰκόνων ἐν οὐδενὶ τῶν ὀλεθρίων ἔθετο, συλλαβὼν καὶ συλλαμβανόμενος διὰ τοῦ κατ' αὐτὸν ὑποδείγματος ἀεὶ τοὺς ἀστυφελίκτους. καὶ εἰκότως· πῶς γὰρ ὁ ἐπὶ τοῖς πρώτοις ἀσεβήμασι μὴ καταγνοὺς ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τοῖς μεταγενεστέροις ἀγωνίσμασιν ἔμελλε θεῷ παριστᾶν ἑαυτὸν ἀκατάσειστον καὶ μὴ ἠσεβηκέναι; ∆ιὸ ἐρωτῶ σε καὶ παρακαλῶ, πάτερ μου, ἐν ὁμολογίᾳ ἀθετήσεως τῶν τότε πολυτρόπως πραχθέντων τὴν ἄρτι θείαν ὁμολογίαν διάνυε, εὐχόμενος ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ. 281 {1Ἀρσενίῳ μοναχῷ}1 Ἐδεξάμην τὰ γράμματα τῆς ἀγάπης σου, ἃ κατανοήσας ἐμμελῶς ἐστέναξα μὲν ἐπὶ τῇ γεγενημένῃ δραματουργίᾳ, μᾶλλον δὲ ὑποπτώσει τῶν δοκούντων εἶναί τι, ὑφ' ἧς εἵλω καὶ ὁ σὸς πατήρ, ἐμὸς δὲ ὁμόψυχος ἀδελφός· οὗ καὶ ὑπὲρ τοὺς ἄλλους ἤλγυνέν με ἡ πρὶν ἧττα ὡς νῦν ηὔφρανεν ἡ ἀναμάχησις μάλα. ἐπῄνεσα δὲ λίαν τὸ διαπονητικόν σου, ἀδελφέ, περὶ τὸν αὐτὸν καθηγεμόνα, ὅτι ὡς ἀληθῶς μαθητοῦ ἀληθινοῦ ἀγαπήματα καὶ τέκνου ἀψευδοῦς ἀποκλαύματα τὰ ἐγκάρδια καὶ ἔμπυρα ῥήματα τῆς ἐξηγορίας σου· καὶ γὰρ τῷ ὄντι θάνατος ψυχῆς ἡ σύμπτωσις καὶ σωματοποίησις τῆς χριστομάχου αἱρέσεως καὶ ἡ ἅπαξ κοινωνία αὐτῆς τῷ ἑαλωκότι καὶ ταῦτα μετὰ ἔνστασιν γενναίαν, καὶ τοῦτο ἐν βαθμῷ καί γε ἱερατικῷ καὶ ἡγουμενικῷ. Εἰκότως οὖν, πανσύνετε, ἀπεκλαύσω, εὐεπιγνώστως ἐλεεινολογήσω, ὡς ᾑμαγμένην ἐσθῆτα ὁρῶν τὴν πατρῴαν δυσημερίαν, μᾶλλον δὲ θηριοβρωσίαν νοητήν, ἐκεῖνα οἷον φθεγγόμενος, "4θηρίον πονηρὸν ἥρπασεν οὐ τὸν Ἰωσήφ, ὃν πάλαι θρηνῶν ἦν Ἰακώβ, ἀπεμ-ποληθέντα ὑπὸ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἐν πλάσματι τοῦ ὑποδειχθέντος χιτῶνος, ἀλλὰ τὸν ἐμὸν πατέρα, θηρίον ἀνθρωπόμορφον Ἰωσήφ, ὁ εἰθισμένως θηρεύων τοὺς ὁμογνωμονοῦντας ταῖς ἐκείνου ἀσεβείαις, ἀλλ' οὐκ οἰκονομίαις"5. ἐκεῖνος, ἀδελφέ, καὶ τὰ πάλαι εἷλεν ἐν ταῖς τοῦ εὐαγγελίου