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questions; the four hundred chapters on love to Elpidius; the two hundred on theology and the incarnate economy; and the five hundred on virtues and vices; and to his various epistles, and other such works; through which each one who reads with attention becomes superior to sympathy with matter, and is, as it were, given wings toward the possible comprehension and love of the Divine. Let others, who are more critical than we, judge the sacred man's excellence in external wisdom, the practical in theory, the theoretical in practice, a truly beautiful correspondence, and a pair of virtues most worthy of love for every God-loving soul; by all of which he is shown to be not only an exact dogmatist and theologian, but also indeed a philosopher. Of such a kind is also the present composition, the treatise concerning, Of What Things are the Rites Performed in the Holy Church at the Divine Synaxis Symbols, a work truly for all Christians, and especially for those occupied with the sacred rites, and those entrusted to teach the people of God, most profitable and at the same time most necessary; in which he has become so much superior to himself, inasmuch as such contemplation has been established as higher than the others, imparting to us a comprehensible knowledge of the mysteries performed in the Church of Christ and preparing us to imitate the heavenly hierarchy. Therefore, having accepted these things with your whole soul, O ardent lovers of piety, and in the meantime enjoying the good things in them, in return for these things, may you beseech grace from God for those who have granted them, since you are soon to encounter his other all-wise writings. Farewell in Christ the Savior.

In Venice, on the fourth day of the waning of Anthesterion, in the salvific year 1519.

OF SAINT MAXIMUS, MYSTAGOGY, p. 657 CONCERNING OF WHAT THINGS THE RITES IN THE HOLY CHURCH AT THE SYNAXIS

ARE SYMBOLS.

PROEM. How a wise man who has received an occasion becomes wiser; and a just man who has understood will increase in receptivity, according to the divine Proverb; you yourself, most honored of all to me, have clearly shown this by experience; teaching by deed what the divine word wisely suggests. For having once heard me summarily and in passing, as was possible, relating to another great elder, one truly wise in divine things, those things contemplated well and mystically concerning both the holy Church and the holy synaxis accomplished in it; and, as much as possible, in a didactic way; you immediately pressed (661) and demanded that I make for you a written account of these things; wishing to have the writing as a remedy for forgetfulness and an aid to memory, saying that time naturally dominates it; and is able imperceptibly through forgetfulness to plunder and to utterly erase the types and images of the good things stored within; and that for this reason it is altogether in need of a renewing method, by which the power of the word, ever flourishing, is by nature able to preserve the memory unaffected and undiminished. How much wiser it is not merely to hear, but also to seek an indestructible permanence for the things that have been heard, is surely known by everyone who cares even a little for rational nobility, and is not entirely a stranger to intimacy with reason.

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ζητήμασι· τοῖς πρός Ἐλπίδιον περί ἀγάπης τετρακοσίοις κεφαλαίοις· τοῖς περί θεολογίας καί τῆς ἐνσάρκου οἰκονομίας, διακοσίοις· καί τοῖς περί ἀρετῶν καί κακίας πεντακοσίοις· καί ταῖς πρός διαφόρους αὐτοῦ ἐπιστολαῖς, καί ἄλλοις τοιούτοις· δι᾿ ὧν ἕκαστος τῶν μετά προσοχῆς ἀναγινωσκόντων, τῆς πρός τήν ὕλην συμπαθείας ἀνώτερος γίγνεται, καί οἷον ἀναπτεροῦται πρός τήν τοῦ Θείου δυνατήν κατανόησιν καί ἀγάπησιν. Κρινόντων ἄλλοι, οἵ γε ἡμῶν κριτικώτεροι, τό περί τήν ἔξω σοφίαν τοῦ ἱεροῦ ἀνδρός περιττόν, τό πρακτικόν ἐν θεωρίᾳ, τό ἐν πράξει θεωρητικόν, τήν καλήν ὄντως ἀντιστροφήν, καί πάσῃ θεοφιλεῖ ψυχῇ ἀξιέραστον ξυνωρίδα· οἷς πᾶσιν οὐ μόνον δογματιστής ἀκριβής καί θεολόγος, ἀλλά δή καί φιλόσοφος ἀναδείκνυται. Τοιούτου δέ γένους, καί τό παρόν ἐστι σύγγραμμα, τό περί τοῦ, Τίνων σύμβολα τά κατά τήν ἁγίαν Ἐκκλησίαν ἐπί τῆς θείας Συνάξεως τελούμενα, πραγματεία, τῷ ὄντι πᾶσι Χριστιανοῖς, καί μάλιστα τοῖς περί τάς ἱερᾶς τελετάς κατασχολουμένοις, καί τόν τοῦ Θεοῦ λαόν διδάσκειν ἐμπεπιστευμένοις, λυσιτελεστάτη τε ἅμα καί ἀναγκαιοτάτη· ἐν ᾗ τοσοῦτον ἀνώτερος γέγονεν ἑαυτοῦ, ὅσῳ γε τῶν ἄλλων ἡ τοιαύτη θεωρία ὑψηλοτέρα καθέστηκε, τήν χωρητήν ἡμῖν τῶν κατά τήν τοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἐκκλησίαν τελουμένων μυστηρίων γνῶσιν ἐμποιοῦσα καί τήν ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἱεραρχίαν ἐκμιμεῖσθαι παρασκευάζουσα. Ταῦτ' οὖν ὁλοψύχως ἀποδεξάμενοι, ὦ τῆς εὐσεβείας διάπυροι ἐρασταί, καί τῶν ἐν τούτοις καλῶν ἔν γε τῷ μεταξύ ἀπολαύοντες, ἀντί τούτων τοῖς χαρισαμένοις τήν πρός Θεοῦ χάριν ἐκλιπαροίητε, ὅσον οὔπω καί τοῖς ἄλλοις τούτου πανσόφοις συγγράμμασιν ἐντευξόμενοι. Ἔῤῥωσθε ἐν Χριστῷ Σωτῆρι.

Ἐνετίῃσιν, Ἀνθεστηριῶνος τετάρτῃ φθίνοντος, κατά τό αφιθ´ ἔτος τό σωτήριον.

ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΞΙΜΟΥ ΜΥΣΤΑΓΩΓΙΑ, Σελ. 657 ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΤΙΝΩΝ ΣΥΜΒΟΛΑ ΤΑ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΗΝ ΑΓΙΑΝ ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΝ ΕΠΙ ΤΗΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΕΩΣ

ΤΕΛΟΥΜΕΝΑ ΚΑΘΕΣΤΗΚΕ.

ΠΡΟΟΙΜΙΟΝ. Πῶς σοφώτερος γίνεται λαβών ἀφορμήν ὁ σοφός· καί δίκαιος γνούς, προσθήσει τοῦ

δέχεσθαι, κατά τήν θείαν Παροιμίαν· σαφῶς αὐτός, πάντων μοι τιμιώτατε, κατ' αὐτήν ἔδειξας τήν πεῖραν· ἔργῳ διδάξας ὅπερ ὁ θεῖος σοφῶς ὑπαινίσσεται λόγος. Ἅπαξ γάρ ἀκούσας μου κατ' ἐπιδρομήν ἐπιτόμως, ὡς οἷόν τε ἦν, ἀφηγουμένου τά ἄλλῳ τινί μεγάλῳ γέροντι, καί ὄντως τά θεῖα σοφῷ περί τε τῆς ἁγίας Ἐκκλησίας, καί τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ ἐπιτελουμένης ἁγίας συνάξεως, καλῶς τε καί μυσικῶς θεωρηθέντα· καί, ὡς ἐνῆν μάλιστα διδασκαλικῶς· ἀπῄτεις με (661) κατεπείγων ἐξαυτῆς, ἔγγραφόν σοι ποιεῖσθαι τήν τούτων διήγησιν· λήθης φάρμακον καί βοήθειαν μνήμης ἔχειν τό γράμμα βεβουλημένος, φυσικῶς τόν χρόνον ἐχούσης φάσκων δαμάζοντα· καί ἀνεπαισθήτως διά λήθης τῶν ἐναποκειμένων καλῶν συλᾷν τε καί ἀφανίζειν παντελῶς τούς τύπους καί τάς εἰκόνας δυνάμενον· καί διά τοῦτο πάντως δεομένης τοῦ ἀνακαινίζοντος τρόπου, καθ᾿ ὅν ἡ τοῦ λόγου δύναμις διά παντός ἀκμάζουσα συντηρεῖν πέφυκε τήν μνήμην ἀπαθῆ καί ἀμείωτον. Ὅσον δέ τοῦ ἁπλῶς ἀκούειν, τό καί διαμονήν ἀκαθαίρετον τῶν ἀκουσθέντων ἐπιζητεῖν, ἐστί σοφώτερον, ἐπίσταται πάντως πᾶς ὁ καί μικρόν εὐγενείας λογικῆς ἐπιμελούμενος, καί μή πάντη τῆς πρός τόν λόγον οἰκειότητος ὑπάρχων ἀλλότριος.