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heaven from the apostolic preaching itself, as sight witnesses through pictures and hearing through written accounts, it carries and venerates the holy icon of Christ, of the Theotokos, of the angels (since they too are depicted in bodily form by divine command, although they are bodiless), of the saints of each age, both in the divine temples and on sacred vessels, even if our church, torn from the four patriarchs, has now acted lawlessly in vain. But now is an acceptable time, most Christ-loving master, now is a day of salvation, for us to be reconciled to Christ through the mediation and good will of your peace-ruling reign, for us to be united to the head of the churches of God, Rome, and through her to the three patriarchs, so that with one accord and one voice we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Son and the Holy Spirit, magnifying also your most pious and much-prayed-for reign. 419 {1To Stephen the asekretis}1 You indeed, O dear friend, addressed us long ago through the voice of our guard (from whose madness may we both be delivered, since he is exceedingly breathing threats and anger against the pious, of bonds and guards, torturing and sacking the churches of God with all blasphemy and drunken violence as I know not if any other of those condemned for impiety has done), but I praise your philosophical spirit, and very rightly so; for it is philosophical for you to have uttered the voice you know for the state, and your other words and efforts for the restoration of our fallen church. And truly it was fitting for a wise man, distinguished in piety, to do this both for his own benefit and that of the whole body of Christ; which the great dragon, the apostate, the crooked serpent has torn asunder, the prelude to the Antichrist, the defiled and blasphemous tongue, he who exalts himself above every temple of God, the Assyrian mind, the barbaric monster, the Rabshakeh-like hand, the God-accursed heart, the whole-bodied servant of Satan, and I do not know what I might say as a fitting mockery of the sinner for the many-named impiety of the most accursed one. But to go through these things is for another time. But now tell me this, O thrice-desired one, how is it that with the winter past, it is not full spring but only a certain good weather and a glimmer of fair sailing. The fire is quenched, what smoky remnant is still left behind? Be moved yet again, my desired one, strive further, limb of Christ; do you not see how the burner of the pious has fallen, an extraordinary thing both spoken of and heard of? If this man's destruction does not chasten us, says the golden-tongued one, who then will have mercy on us? Shall we not return to our senses? Shall we not understand that, if Christ had not been denied by the setting aside of his holy icon, he would not have so utterly destroyed its insulter? Hear these things, all you nations, give ear, all you who inhabit the world, to what has happened among the Greeks. an Antichrist before the Antichrist, the sign of Christ's kingdom was taken from us; for if this, which is the image of his bodily form, did not appear among us, bearing on its head the type of the cross, but the one was cast out, and the other has been adopted, Christ has been divided, or rather the king who killed the devil has been rejected, and the spear, by which he slaughtered the enemy, has bound on the diadem of power, in an equal victory of the one slaughtered, having subjected as an enemy the one who slaughtered him. Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth: what is this madness, with which the people of God have gone mad? Hear, East and West, how Byzantium has been blinded, how she has become deaf, not hearing your rebuking voice, not looking upon your demonstrative testimony, but of Jannes and Jambres, the opponents of Christ, of the pernicious dyad, which I know well that the Trinity will quickly destroy, so that along with the two previously destroyed impious ones, this dyad might also be led away, the four-headed chariot of the devil. Come now, come, brother, undertake yet more struggles, the Lord commands, speak good things into the precious ears of our pious emperor; let him imitate

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οὐρανὸν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἀποστολικοῦ κηρύγματος, ὡς μαρτυρεῖ καὶ ἡ ὄψις δι' ἱστορίας καὶ ἡ ἀκοὴ διὰ λογογραφίας, τὴν ἁγίαν εἰκόνα Χριστοῦ, τῆς Θεοτόκου, τῶν ἀγγέλων (ἐπειδὴ σωματογραφοῦνται καὶ οὗτοι θεοκελεύστως, καίπερ ὄντες ἀσώματοι), τῶν κατὰ καιρὸν ἁγίων ἔν τε τοῖς θείοις ναοῖς καὶ ἱεροῖς σκεύεσι φέρουσά ἐστιν καὶ προσκυνοῦσα, κἂν ἄρτι ἡ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐκκλησία, διαρραγεῖσα τῶν τεσσάρων πατριαρχῶν, ἠνόμησεν διακενῆς. Ἀλλὰ νῦν καιρὸς εὐπρόσδεκτος, δέσποτα φιλοχριστότατε, νῦν ἡμέρα σωτηρίας, καταλλαγῆναι ἡμᾶς Χριστῷ τῇ μεσιτείᾳ καὶ εὐδοκίᾳ τῆς εἰρηνάρχου σου βασιλείας, ἑνωθῆναι ἡμᾶς τῇ κορυφῇ τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν τοῦ θεοῦ Ῥώμῃ καὶ δι' αὐτῆς τοῖς τρισὶ πατριάρχαις, ἵνα ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἐν ἑνὶ στόματι δοξάζωμεν τὸν θεὸν καὶ πατέρα τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ σὺν τῷ υἱῷ καὶ Πνεύματι Ἁγίῳ, μεγαλύνοντες καὶ τὴν ὑμετέραν εὐσεβεστάτην καὶ πολύευκτον βασιλείαν. 419 {1Στεφάνῳ ἀδσηκρῆτισ}1 Σὺ μέν, ὦ φιλότης, προσηγόρευσας ἡμᾶς πάλαι διὰ φωνῆς τοῦ φρουροῦντος ἡμᾶς (οὗ ῥυσθείημεν ἀμφότεροι τῆς μανίας, ἐπείπερ ἐστὶν ὑπερβαλλόντως πνέων ἀπειλῆς καὶ θυμοῦ εἰς τοὺς εὐσεβεῖς, δεσμῶν τε καὶ φρουρῶν, αἰκίζων τε καὶ πορθῶν τὰς ἐκκλησίας τοῦ θεοῦ σὺν πάσῃ βλασφημίᾳ καὶ παροινίᾳ ὡς οὐκ οἶδ' εἴ τις τ' ἄλλος τῶν ἐν ἀσεβείᾳ κατεγνωσμένων), ἐγὼ δέ σου ἐπαινῶ τὸ φιλόσοφον, καὶ μάλα εἰκότως· φιλόσοφον γὰρ τὸ ῥῆξαί σε φωνὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ κράτους ἣν οἶδας τά τε λοιπά σου λαλήματά τε καὶ σπουδάσματα ὑπὲρ ἀνακλήσεως τῆς πεπτωκυίας καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐκκλησίας. καὶ ὄντως ἔδει τὸν σοφὸν ἄνδρα καὶ διεγνωσμένον ἐν εὐσεβείᾳ τοῦτο δρᾶν πρός τε τὸ οἰκεῖον συμφέρον καὶ τοῦ ὅλου σώματος Χριστοῦ· ὃ διέτεμεν ὁ δράκων ὁ μέγας, ὁ ἀποστάτης, ὁ σκολιὸς ὄφις, τὸ προεισόδιον τοῦ Ἀντιχρίστου, ἡ μιαρὰ καὶ βλάσφημος γλῶσσα, ὁ ὑπεραιρόμενος ἐπὶ πάντα ναὸν θεοῦ, ὁ νοῦς ὁ Ἀσσύριος, τὸ βαρβαρικὸν ἔκτρωμα, ἡ Ῥαψακοειδὴς χείρ, ἡ θεοκατάρατος καρδία, ὁ ὁλόσωμος τοῦ σατανᾶ ὑπηρέτης, καὶ οὐκ οἶδ' ὅ τι φράσω ἐπάξιον τοῦ ἀλιτηρίου κωμῴδημα διὰ τὴν πολυώνυμον τοῦ ἐξαγίστου ἀσέβειαν. Πλὴν ἄλλου χρόνου τὸ ταῦτα διαστείχειν. νῦν δέ μοι τοῦτο λέξον, ὦ τριπόθητε, πῶς τοῦ χειμῶνος παρελθόντος οὐ τέλεον ἔαρ ἀλλ' ἢ μόνον καλλιωρία τις καὶ ἀπαυγασμὸς εὐπλοήσεως. τὸ πῦρ ἔσβεσται, τί ἔτι καπνῶδες ὑπολέλειπται; κινήθητι ἔτι, πόθημα ἐμόν, διαγώνισαι μᾶλλον, μέλος Χριστοῦ· οὐχ ὁρᾶτε τὸν ἀσεβοκαύστην οἷον πέπτωκεν ἐξαίσιον καὶ λαλούμενον καὶ ἀκουόμενον; ἐὰν ὁ τοῦδε ὄλεθρος οὐ σωφρονίσῃ ἡμᾶς, φησὶν ὁ χρυσορρήμων, τίς λοιπὸν ἐλεήσει ἡμᾶς; οὐκ ἀνανήψομεν; οὐκ ἐννοήσομεν ὅτι, εἰ μὴ Χριστὸς ἤρνητο ἀθετουμένης αὐτοῦ τῆς ἁγίας εἰκόνος, οὐκ ἂν τὸν ταύτης ὑβριστὴν οὕτως ὠλεθρίωσεν; Ἀκούσατε ταῦτα πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, ἐνωτίσασθε πάντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες τὴν οἰκουμένην τί γέγονεν ἐν Γραικοῖς. πρὸ τοῦ Ἀντιχρίστου Ἀντίχριστος, ἤρθη ἀφ' ἡμῶν τὸ σημεῖον τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ Χριστοῦ· εἰ γὰρ μὴ τοῦτο, ὅπερ ἐστὶ τὸ ἴνδαλμα τοῦ σωματικοῦ αὐτοῦ χαρακτῆρος, ἐμφανίζοιτο ἐν ἡμῖν καρηφοροῦν τὸν τύπον τοῦ σταυροῦ, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν ἐκρίπτοιτο, τὸ δὲ προσείληπται, μεμέρισται Χριστὸς ἢ μᾶλλον ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀπέπτυσται ὁ κτείνας τὸν διάβολον, τὸ δόρυ δέ, δι' οὗ τὸν ἐχθρὸν ἔσφαξεν, τὸ τοῦ κράτους ἀνεδήσατο διάδημα, ἐφ' ἴσῃ νίκῃ τοῦ σφαγέντος ὑποτάξαν ὡς ἐχθρὸν τὸν κατασφάξαντα. ἄκουε, οὐρανέ, καὶ ἐνωτίζου, γῆ· τί ἡ ἔκστασις αὕτη, ἣν ἐξέστη ὁ λαὸς τοῦ θεοῦ; ἄκουε, ἀνατολὴ καὶ δύσις, ὅπως ἐξετυφλώθη ἡ Βυζαντίς, ὅπως κεκώφευται, φωνῆς ὑμῶν ἐλεγκτικῆς οὐκ ἀκούσασα, ὑποδεικτικῆς ὑμῶν μαρτυρίας οὐκ ἐμβλέπουσα, ἀλλ' Ἰαννοῦ καὶ Ἰαμβροῦ, τῶν ἀντιστατῶν Χριστοῦ, τῆς ὀλεθρίου δυάδος, ἣν εὖ οἶδ' ὅτι ἡ Τριὰς ἐν τάχει καταλύσειεν, ὡς ἂν σὺν τοῖς προολεσθεῖσι δυσὶν ἀσεβέσιν ἀπαχθεῖεν καὶ αὕτη ἡ δυάς, τὸ τετρακέφαλον τοῦ διαβόλου ἅρμα. ∆εῦρο δή, δεῦρο, ἀδελφέ, καταβαλοῦ ἔτι ἀγῶνας, Κύριος κελεύει, λάλησον ἀγαθὰ εἰς τὰς τιμίας ἀκοὰς τοῦ εὐσεβοῦς βασιλέως ἡμῶν· μιμησάσθω