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another of the friendly and customary things; for why, he says, is my freedom judged by another's conscience? And since we have sufficiently managed things in the preceding matters and, as God alone knows, with much disposition and mercy, it is necessary now to build up and not to be damaged on both sides, neither by taking on what is foreign nor by irrationally abandoning what is our own. The word is for those who know; the Truth has declared, 'No one can serve two masters.' You are lords and masters and leaders of your own monasteries and counsels, but we are humble and dishonored, cast aside somewhere here because of the persecution. Grant us this freedom and to mourn for our own sins. And I know that this letter is grievous to your honor as it is to us, but nothing is more precious than the love of God, for which we also, with our holy fathers, on account of the outrage against Christ, have renounced what we have renounced and choose what we have put forward. 495 {1To the same}1 The sorrow of our soul concerning you, most honored ones, was a little consoled, if indeed it is as you have written and you are withdrawing from holding the abbacy; for there is no communion, O beloved, between the persecuted and the unpersecuted (and not only unpersecuted, but even subject to the persecutors, leading the monasteries over which they have authority), unless some communion has been confessed for light with darkness. But it is not possible, as the sacred word has declared; for until now, our giving ourselves over to those caught in a lapse occurred in this way, for the sake of a medicinal remedy, in that we received guarantees that neither by word nor by deed in any way whatsoever would we be subjected again to the heterodox; and they stand as if on a battle-line between holding and not holding the monasteries and, to put it simply, that the confession should become legitimate through the withdrawal of the opponents and the counter-action of those who resist. But when the time came for what was sought, what had been agreed upon was not accomplished before God and men for a more exact atonement of the former lapse, but again a leading away and again a lapse both in words and in deeds, as the facts themselves testify and we have heard from those who know, and again abbots unshaken through the recent reception and sending by the state. But the argument applies to all who have acted thus, and it is ridiculous now to rebuke, or rather it is madness on the part of those who rebuke and a scandal to the pious, and confusion and blindness concerning the confession of Christ. It is necessary to hear the Apostle, who says that you should withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which they received from us, or rather from God himself, crying out through the prophet: ‘Come out from their midst and be separate, and touch no unclean thing;’ ‘and I will receive you,’ that is, those who thus separate themselves and do not confound the confession of Christ. For what will they say, O most honored one, both the abbot of Komai and the one of Goulaios, along with those similarly persecuted recently in the resistance, if they see you, who hold the monasteries by betrayal of the truth, and us being led away with you? What of those suffering hardship in the mountains according to the constraint of the persecution? Will they not groan? Will they not lament? Will they not consider the confession of Christ a game? And what of those who were abbots of the monasteries from the beginning and were persecuted for Christ's sake with us? Will they not be sealed shut, as if we were suffering something trivial? 'Do not be deceived,' says the Apostle, 'God is not mocked'; the confession of Christ is not common, even if some think and speak otherwise. Therefore, if you wish, beloved brother, to be ranked with us the humble, withdraw from the possession of the monastery, as you also promised; for this we exhort, for this we also pray, that, as you are orthodox within, so also may you be orthodox without, saving your precious soul, than which nothing of the things seen is of equal value. The lord archbishop with us greets you many times, loving your salvation exceedingly, as do the rest of the brothers. 496

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ἄλλο τῶν φιλικῶν καὶ ἐξ ἔθους· ἱνατί γάρ, φησίν, ἡ ἐλευθερία μου κρίνεται ὑπὸ ἄλλης συνειδήσεως; καὶ ἐπειδὴ ἱκανῶς ᾠκονομήσαμεν ἐν τοῖς προλαβοῦσιν καί, ὡς θεὸς μόνος οἶδεν, σὺν πολλῇ διαθέσει καὶ ἐλεημοσύνῃ, δεῖν ἄρτι καὶ οἰκοδομῆσαι καὶ μὴ ἀμφοτέρωθεν ζημιοῦσθαι μήτε τὸ ἀλλότριον προσλαμβανομένους καὶ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἀλόγως προέσθαι. εἰδόσιν ὁ λόγος· οὐδεὶς δύναται δυσὶ κυρίοις δουλεύειν ἡ ἀλήθεια ἀπεφήνατο. κύριοί ἐστε καὶ δεσπόται καὶ καθηγούμενοι τῶν ἰδίων μονῶν καὶ βουλευμάτων, ἡμεῖς δὲ ταπεινοὶ καὶ ἀλίτιμοι, ὧδέ που παραρρεριμμένοι διὰ τὸν διωγμόν. χαρίσασθε ἡμῖν τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ταύτην καὶ τὸ τοῖς οἰκείοις ἐπιστυγνάζειν ἁμαρτήμασιν. καὶ οἶδα μὲν ὅτι λυπηρὸν τὸ γράμμα τῇ τιμιότητί σου ὥσπερ καὶ ἡμῖν, ἀλλὰ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἀγάπης οὐδὲν προτιμότερον, δι' ἣν καὶ ἡμεῖς σὺν τοῖς ἁγίοις πατράσιν ἡμῶν ἐπὶ τῇ ὕβρει Χριστοῦ ἠρνησάμεθα ἃ ἠρνησάμεθα καὶ προαιρούμεθα ἃ προϊσχόμεθα. 495 {1Τῷ αὐτῷ}1 Βραχύ τι παρεμυθήθη τὸ περὶ ὑμᾶς τοὺς τιμιωτάτους λυπηρὸν τῆς ψυχῆς ἡμῶν, εἴ γε ὡς γεγράφατε ἔχει καὶ ὑποχωρεῖτε τῆς ἡγουμενικῆς διακρατήσεως· οὐδεμία γὰρ κοινωνία, ὦ φιλότης, δεδιωγμένοις καὶ ἀδιώκτοις (καὶ οὐ μόνον ἀδιώκτοις, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑποτελοῦσι τοῖς διώκταις, καθηγεμονιώντων ὧνπερ ἐξουσιάζουσι μοναστηρίων), εἰ μὴ ἄρα τις κοινωνία ὡμολόγηται φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος. ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐνδέχεται, ὡς ὁ ἱερὸς λόγος ἀπεφήνατο· τὸ γὰρ ἕως τοῦ παρόντος ἐπιδοῦναι ἑαυτοὺς ἐν τοῖς ἁλοῦσι δι' ὑποπτώσεως ἰατρικῆς κατὰ τόνδε τὸν τρόπον γέγονε, τῷ λαβεῖν ἡμᾶς ἐγγύας μήτε λόγῳ μήτε ἔργῳ καθ' οἱονδήποτε τρόπον ὑπαχθῆναι πάλιν τοῖς ἑτεροδόξοις· καὶ οἷον ἐν μεταιχμίῳ ἑστᾶσι κρατήσεως καὶ οὐ κρατήσεως τῶν μονῶν καί, τὸ ὅλον εἰπεῖν, ὡς νόμιμον γενέσθαι τὴν ὁμολογίαν διὰ τῆς τῶν ἐναν τίων ὑφελκύσεως καὶ τῶν ἐνισταμένων ἀντιπράξεως. ἐπὰν δὲ καιρὸς ἧκε τοῦ ζητουμένου, καὶ τὸ ὁμολογηθὲν οὐκ ἐξηνύσθη ἐνώπιον θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων πρὸς ἀκριβεστέραν τῆς προτέρας ὑποπτώσεως ἐξίασιν, ἀλλὰ πάλιν ἀπαγωγὴ καὶ πάλιν ὑπόπτωσις ἔν τε λόγοις καὶ ἔργοις, ὡς αὐτὰ τὰ πράγματα μαρτυρεῖ κἀκ τῶν εἰδότων ἀκηκόαμεν, καὶ πάλιν καθηγεμόνες ἀπαρασάλευτοι διὰ τῆς ἄρτι ὑπὸ τοῦ κράτους ὑποδοχῆς καὶ ἀποστολῆς. ὁ λόγος δὲ ἐπὶ πάντων τῶν οὕτως πεπραχότων καὶ γελοῖόν ἐστιν ἄρτι τὸ ἐπιτιμᾶν, μᾶλλον δὲ φρενοβλάβεια τῶν ἐπιτιμώντων καὶ σκινδαλμὸς τῶν εὐσεβούντων, σύγχυσίς τε καὶ ἀβλεψία ἐπὶ τῇ Χριστοῦ ὁμολογίᾳ. δεῖν τοῦ ἀποστόλου ἀκοῦσαι, λέγοντος στέλλεσθαι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ παντὸς ἀδελφοῦ, ἀτάκτως περιπατοῦντος καὶ μὴ κατὰ τὴν παράδοσιν, ἣν παρέλαβον παρ' ἡμῶν, μᾶλλον δὲ αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ, διὰ τοῦ προφήτου βοῶντος· ἐξέλθετε ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν καὶ ἀφορίσθητε καὶ ἀκαθάρτου μὴ ἅπτεσθε· κἀγὼ εἰσδέξομαι ὑμᾶς, τοὺς οὕτως διαστελλομένους δηλονότι καὶ μὴ συγχέοντας τὴν Χριστοῦ ὁμολογίαν. Τί γὰρ φήσουσιν, ὦ τιμιώτατε, ὅ τε τῶν Κωμῶν ἡγούμενος καὶ ὁ τοῦ Γουλαίου σὺν τοῖς ὁμοίως ἄρτι διωχθεῖσιν ἐν τῇ ἐνστάσει, εἴπερ ὁρῶσιν ὑμᾶς, τοὺς προδοσίᾳ τῆς ἀληθείας κατέχοντας τὰ μοναστήρια, καὶ ἡμᾶς ὑμῖν συναπαγομένους; τί δὲ οἱ ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσι τληπαθοῦντες κατὰ τὸ τοῦ διωγμοῦ στενοχωρητικόν; οὐ στενάξουσιν; οὐκ οἰμώξουσιν; οὐχ ἡγήσονται παιδιὰν τὴν ὁμολογίαν τοῦ Χριστοῦ; τί δὲ οἱ ἡγουμενεύσαντες τῶν μοναστηρίων ἀπ' ἀρχῆς καὶ διὰ Χριστὸν δεδιωγμένοι σὺν ἡμῖν; οὐ κατασφραγίσονται, ὡς παιγνιῶδές τι πασχόντων ἡμῶν; μὴ πλανᾶσθε, φησὶν ὁ ἀπόστολος, θεὸς οὐ μυκτηρίζεται· ἡ ὁμολογία Χριστοῦ οὐ κεκοίνωται, κἄν τινες οἴωνται ἄλλως φρονεῖν καὶ λέγειν. Ὥστε, εἰ βούλει, ἀδελφὲ ἠγαπημένε, μεθ' ἡμῶν τῶν ταπεινῶν τετάχθαι, ὑποχώρησον τῆς κατοχῆς τοῦ μοναστηρίου, καθὼς καὶ ὑπέσχου· τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν, εἰς τοῦτο καὶ προσευχόμεθα, ἵνα, ὡς τὸ ἐντός, οὕτως καὶ τὸ ἐκτὸς ὀρθόδοξος ὑπάρχῃς, τὴν τιμίαν σου ψυχὴν σῴζων, ἧς οὐδὲν ἀντάξιον τῶν ὁρωμένων. ὁ κύριος ἀρχιεπίσκοπος σὺν ἡμῖν πλεῖστα προσαγορεύει σε, φιλῶν τὴν σωτηρίαν σου ἄγαν, ἐπεὶ καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ ἀδελφοί. 496