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a witness of hearing is more credible? How from the voices of saints? because somewhere the chief of the apostles, Peter, says: bring out the icon of our Lord Jesus Christ and set it up in the little tower, so that the peoples may see what form the son of God took up; and somewhere Basil the Great declares: let Christ, the judge of the contests, also be inscribed on the panel. With whom, it is clear indeed, all the saints agree. How from a synodical declaration? because the one assembled after the sixth ecumenical council says these things: we decree, therefore, from now on, instead of the ancient lamb, that the icon of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ be set up. But if the iconoclasts also were to say that they strengthen their own dogma with these same four propositions, let them show how this is so, for example on the first point. Do they say such a body as the truth has shown, or not? If such a one, even unwillingly they will confess that Christ is depicted in an icon; but if not such a one, it remains for them by all means to say it is both intangible and colorless; for there is nothing between these, just as there is not between material and immaterial, visible and invisible. But to say that Christ assumed such a body belongs to the Manichaeans, who trifle that the saving economy of Christ happened in appearance and fantasy. On the second point, even if they themselves are silent about the truth, the stones will cry out that the world under the sun is illumined by the icon of Christ. On the third, those who oppose the chief Peter and Basil the Great are altogether alien to the court of Christ. On the fourth, the synod said by them to be in Blachernae against the icon of Christ is much later than the one assembled after the sixth in favor of the icon of Christ; and the one was accepted by the five patriarchs, while the other was anathematized by the four as fighting against Christ. Then also the second in Nicaea, as being of one mind with the synod after the sixth, is acceptable to the five, but the one now assembled for the confirmation of the one in Blachernae against the icon of Christ is rejected just as that one was. This, therefore, is a concise statement of the truth and a refutation of the opponents. 417 {1To Naukratios, child}1 The sacred scripture says: A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted; but I, the wretched one, adapting the voice, might fittingly say that: good tidings of joy have been heard by us from your honor, at which not this city or that can leap for joy, but, one might almost say, the whole world under heaven, because the Lord has cast down not Sihon king of the Amorites nor Og king of Bashan, small kings oppressing a small part of the world, but the newly-appeared and great dragon who plunders much of the world, the crooked serpent who hisses blasphemies, the abomination of desolation, the vessel of wrath, the son of Tabeel, that I may not say of Kaballinos, the descendant of Ahab, the exemplar of Julian, the fulfillment of the evil one, the insulter of Christ, the enemy of the Theotokos, the adversary of all the saints. For of whom he both persecuted and obliterated the revered images, it is clear that of these he has become an utter enemy and persecutor. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice, let the mountains drip sweetness and the hills righteousness. The enemy has fallen, he who strikes us is crushed. The mouth speaking unjust things has been stopped, the hand of Absalom has been restrained, the hard-hearted Pharaoh is gone. And I do not yet have the time and place to express the things worth hearing about the most-evil dragon. And I would add this to what has been said, that it was necessary for the apostate to break off his life in such a way, as you have written; it was necessary for death to overtake the son of darkness in the night, it was necessary for him who had desolated the divine temples to see the swords drawn against him in the temple of the Lord, it was necessary for him who fled to the divine altar not to be saved, who had made it disappear, for a cutting to be inflicted upon the hand that was stretched out against the holy things, against the

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μάρτυς ἀκοῆς ἀξιοπιστότερος; Πῶς ἀπὸ φωνῶν ἁγίων; ὅτι που μὲν ὁ κορυφαῖος τῶν ἀποστόλων Πέτρος λέγει· ἐξένεγκον τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χρι-στοῦ καὶ ἐντύπωσον αὐτὴν ἐν τῷ πυργίσκῳ, ἵνα ἴδωσιν οἱ λαοὶ οἵαν μορφὴν ἀνέλαβεν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ· ποὺ δὲ ὁ Μέγας Βασίλειος φάσκει· ἐγγραφέσθω τῷ πίνακι καὶ ὁ τῶν παλαισμάτων ἀγωνοθέτης Χριστός. οἷς συνομοφρονοῦσι δῆλα δὴ πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι. Πῶς ἀπὸ συνοδικῆς ἐκφωνήσεως; ὅτι ἡ μετὰ τὴν ἕκτην οἰκουμενικὴν σύνοδον συναθροισθεῖσα τάδε φησίν· ὁρίζομεν τοίνυν ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἀντὶ τοῦ παλαιοῦ ἀμνοῦ ἀναστηλοῦσθαι τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Εἰ δὲ λέγοιεν καὶ οἱ εἰκονομάχοι ταῖς αὐταῖς τέσσαρσιν ὑποθέσεσιν τὸ ἑαυτῶν κρατύνειν δόγμα, δειξάτωσαν οἷον ἐπὶ τοῦ πρώτου κεφαλαίου ὅπως τοῦτο. πότερον, σῶμα τοιοῦτον λέγουσιν οἷον ὑπέδειξεν ἡ ἀλήθεια ἢ οὔ; εἰ μὲν τοιοῦτον, καὶ μὴ βουλόμενοι συνομολογήσουσιν ἐξεικονίζεσθαι Χριστόν· εἰ δὲ οὐ τοιοῦτον, λειπόμενόν ἐστι πάντως λέγειν αὐτοὺς ἀναφές τε καὶ ἄχροιον· τούτων γὰρ μέσον οὐδέν, ὡς οὐδὲ ἐνύλου καὶ ἀύλου, ὁρωμένου τε καὶ ἀοράτου. τὸ δὲ τοιοῦτον ἀνειληφέναι τὸν Χριστὸν σῶμα λέγειν Μανιχαίων, δοκήσει καὶ φαντασίᾳ τὴν σωτήριον Χριστοῦ οἰκονομίαν φληναφούντων γεγενῆσθαι. ἐπὶ τοῦ δευτέρου, κἂν αὐτοὶ σιωπῶσιν τὴν ἀλήθειαν, οἱ λίθοι κεκράξονται τὴν ὑφ' ἡλίῳ τῇ εἰκόνι Χριστοῦ περιαστράπτε σθαι. ἐπὶ τοῦ τρίτου, οἱ τῷ κορυφαίῳ Πέτρῳ καὶ τῷ Μεγάλῳ Βασιλείῳ ἀντιδιατιθέμενοι τῆς αὐλῆς Χριστοῦ παντάπασιν ἀλλότριοι. ἐπὶ τοῦ τετάρτου, ἡ ἐν Βλαχέρναις παρ' αὐτοῖς λεγομένη σύνοδος κατὰ τῆς εἰκόνος Χριστοῦ πολὺ μεταγενεστέρα τῆς μετὰ τὴν ἕκτην συναθροισθείσης ὑπὲρ τῆς εἰκόνος Χριστοῦ· καὶ ἡ μὲν ἀποδεδεγμένη παρὰ τοῖς πέντε πατριάρχαις, ἡ δὲ ἀναθεματιζομένη παρὰ τοῖς τέσσαρσιν ὡς χριστομάχος. ἔπειτα καὶ ἡ ἐν Νικαίᾳ τὸ δεύτερον ὡς ὁμόφρων τῇ μετὰ τὴν ἕκτην συνόδῳ εὐπρόσιτος παρὰ τοῖς πέντε, ἡ δὲ νῦν ἀθροισθεῖσα ἐπὶ βεβαιώσει τῆς ἐν Βλαχέρναις κατὰ τῆς εἰκόνος Χριστοῦ ἀπόπτυστος ὡς κἀκείνη. Αὕτη τοιγαροῦν σύντομος ἀπόδοσις τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ ἔλεγχος τῶν ἐναντίων. 417 {1Ναυκρατίῳ τέκνῳ}1 Τὸ μὲν ἱερὸν γράμμα φησί· φωνὴ ἐν Ῥαμᾷ ἠκούσθη, θρῆνος καὶ ὀδυρμὸς πολύς, Ῥαχιὴλ κλαίουσα τὰ τέκνα αὐτῆς, καὶ οὐκ ἤθελε παρακληθῆναι· ἐγὼ δὲ ὁ τάλας μεθαρμόσας τὴν φωνὴν ἐκεῖνο εἰκότως φράσαιμι· χαρᾶς εὐαγγέλια ἠκουτίσθη ἡμῖν παρὰ τῆς τιμιότητός σου, ἐφ' ᾧ σκιρτᾶν ἔστιν οὐ τὴν πόλιν τήνδε ἢ τήνδε, ἀλλὰ σχεδὸν εἰπεῖν ἅπασαν τὴν ὑπ' οὐρανόν, ὅτι καθεῖλεν Κύριος οὐ τὸν Σηὼν βασιλέα τῶν Ἀμορραίων οὐδὲ τὸν Ὢγ βασιλέα τῆς Βασάν,βασιλεῖς μικροὺς καὶ μικρὸν μέρος τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐκθλίβοντας, ἀλλὰ τὸν νεοφανῆ καὶ μέγαν δράκοντα καὶ πολλὴν οἰκουμένην ληίζοντα, τὸν σκολιὸν ὄφιν καὶ συρίζοντα βλάσφημα, τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως, τὸ σκεῦος τῆς ὀργῆς, τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Ταβεήλ, ἵνα μὴ λέγω Καβαλλίνου, τὸν ἀπόγονον τοῦ Ἀχαάβ, τὸ ἐξεμπλάριον Ἰου-λιανοῦ, τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ πονηροῦ, τὸν ὑβριστὴν Χριστοῦ, τὸν ἐχθρὸν τῆς Θεοτόκου, τὸν ἀντίπαλον τῶν ἁπάντων ἁγίων. ὧν γὰρ τοὺς σεπτοὺς χαρακτῆρας ἐδίωξέ τε καὶ ἐξηφάνισεν, δῆλον ὅτι τούτων ὁλοτελῶς ἐχθρὸς καὶ διώκτης ἐχρημάτισεν. εὐφραινέσθωσαν οἱ οὐρανοὶ καὶ ἀγαλλιάσθω ἡ γῆ, ῥανάτωσαν τὰ ὄρη γλυκασμὸν καὶ οἱ βουνοὶ δικαιοσύνην. πέπτωκεν ὁ ἐχθρός, συνετρίβη ὁ κόπτων ἡμᾶς. ἐνεφράγη στόμα λαλοῦν ἄδικα, ἐπεσχέθη χεὶρ Ἀβεσσαλώμ, οἴχεται ὁ σκληροκάρδιος Φαραώ. καὶ οὔπω μοι καιρὸς καὶ τόπος ἐκφράσαι τὰ ἀκοῆς ἄξια τοῦ παγκακίστου δράκοντος. Ἐκεῖνο δὲ προσθείην τοῖς εἰρημένοις, ὅτι ἐχρῆν τὸν ἀποστάτην τοιούτῳ τρόπῳ, καθὰ γέγραφας, ἀπορρῆξαι τὴν ζωήν· ἔδει ἐν νυκτὶ τὸν τοῦ σκότους υἱὸν ἐπικαταλαβεῖν θάνατον, ἔδει τὸν τοὺς θείους ναοὺς ἐρημώσαντα ἐν ναῷ Κυρίου ἰδεῖν τὰ κατ' αὐτοῦ ξίφη γυμνούμενα, ἔδει προσφυγόντα τῷ θείῳ θυσιαστηρίῳ μὴ σωθῆναι τὸν τοῦτο ἀφανίσαντα, κατὰ τῆς εἰς τὰ ἅγια ἐκταθείσης χειρὸς τομὴν ἐπαχθῆναι, κατὰ τοῦ