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a character as being completed through both, the principle of divine providence and judgment. According to which, having intertwined the mind with sense through the spirit, you showed truly how God is disposed by nature to make man according to God's image, and you made known the wealth of goodness, magnificently showing in yourself by the beautiful mixture of opposites God being embodied by the virtues, whose height you matched by imitating the emptying, not disdaining to descend to me, seeking those things of which, having suffered, he has knowledge. And there are chapters of Dionysius and Gregory, of those holy, most highly praised (1033) and blessed men, of the truly elect who from the beginning, according to the purpose of the ages, have attached themselves to God, of those who have truly received the entire effusion of wisdom attainable by the saints, and who by the laying aside of the life according to nature have made it the substance of their soul, and for this reason have possessed Christ alone as living, and to say what is greater, having become for them the soul of their soul, and being manifested to all through all their deeds and words and thoughts, so that from this it is to be believed that the things set forth are not theirs, but Christ's, who by grace substituted himself for them. But how can I say Lord Jesus, not yet having received a spirit of holiness? How can I speak of the mighty acts of the Lord, I who speak with difficulty, and have nailed my mind to the relation of perishable things? How shall I make his praises heard even by a few, I who am deaf, and have the hearing of my soul completely turned away from the blessed voice of the word because of my friendship with the passions? How will the word, which is by nature to conquer the world but not to be manifested to the world, become manifest to me, who am conquered by the world, if by a material-loving disposition it is by nature unknowable? How is it not audacious, for the accursed to attempt the things of the saints, and the unclean the things of the pure? Therefore I would have declined the attempt at what was commanded, fearing the censure for rashness, had I not feared more the danger of disobedience. Therefore, being caught between these two, I choose rather the censure for rashness as more tolerable, fleeing the danger of disobedience as unpardonable. And through the mediation of the saints and the help of your prayers, with Christ our great God and Savior supplying pious understanding and proper speech, I shall make the response concerning each chapter as brief as possible ([the word is to a teacher] being able to provide great things in small measure), beginning from Gregory the God-minded, as being closer to us in time.

Of Saint Gregory the Theologian, from the first oration on the Son, on the passage: "For this reason, a monad, having moved from the beginning into a dyad, stood at a triad." And again from the same, from the second (1036) Eirenic Oration, on the passage: "A monad having been moved, because of its richness, and a dyad having been surpassed—for it is beyond matter and form, from which bodies are made—a triad was defined, because of its perfection."

If indeed, O servant of God, having considered the apparent disagreement, the true

harmony you were at a loss for, it is not possible to find a more unified meaning in these expressions. For it is the same thing for the dyad to be surpassed and not to stop at the dyad, and again for the triad to be defined and for the movement of the monad to stop at the triad, if indeed we profess a monarchy that is not without honor, as though circumscribed in one person, or again disordered, as though poured out into infinity, but one which the Triad, of equal honor by nature, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, constitutes, whose richness is their common nature and the one leap of their radiance, neither beyond

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χαρακτήρ ὡς δι᾿ ἀμφοῖν συμπληρούμενος, ὁ τῆς θείας προνοίας καί κρίσεως λόγος. Καθ᾿ ὅν αἰσθήσει τόν νοῦν συμπλέξας διά τοῦ πνεύματος, ἔδειξας ὡς ἀληθῶς πῶς ὁ Θεός κατ᾿ εἰκόνα Θεοῦ ποιεῖν πέφυκε τόν ἄνθρωπον, τόν τε πλοῦτον τῆς ἀγαθότητος κατέστησας γνώριμον, πολυτελῶς τῇ καλῇ μίξει τῶν ἐναντίων ἐν σεαυτῷ δεικνύς τόν Θεόν ταῖς ἀρεταῖς σωματούμενον, οὗ τῷ ὕψει συμμετρήσας μιμήσει τήν κένωσιν ἕως ἐμοῦ κατελθεῖν οὐκ ἀπηξίωσας, ἐκεῖνα ζητῶν ὧν πεπονθώς ἔχει τήν εἴδησιν. Εἰσί δέ ∆ιονυσίου καί Γρηγορίου κεφάλαια τῶν ἁγίων ἐκείνων ὑπερευφήμων τε (1033) καί μακαρίων ἀνδρῶν, τῆς ὄντως ἐκλογῆς τῶν ἀνέκαθεν κατά πρόθεσιν τῶν αἰώνων τῷ Θεῷ προσθεμένων, τῶν πᾶσαν ὡς ἀληθῶς τήν ἐφικτήν τοῖς ἁγίοις χύσιν τῆς σοφίας εἰσδεξαμένων, καί τῇ ἀποθέσει τῆς κατά φύσιν ζωῆς ψυχῆς οὐσίαν πεποιημένων, καί διά τοῦτο ζῶντα μονώτατον τόν Χριστόν ἐσχηκότων, καί τό δή μεῖζον εἰπεῖν, ψυχήν αὐτοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς γεγενημένον καί διά πάντων ἔργων τε καί λόγων καί νοημάτων πᾶσιν ἐμφανιζόμενον ὡς ἐντεῦθεν ἐκείνων μέν οὐκ εἶναι πεπεῖσθαι τά προτεθέντα, Χριστοῦ δέ κατά χάριν αὐτοῖς ἑαυτόν ὑπαλλάξαντος. Ἀλλά πῶς εἴπω Κύριον Ἰησοῦν, μήπω πνεῦμα λαβών ἁγιότητος; Πῶς λαλήσω τάς δυναστείας τοῦ Κυρίου, ὁ μογίλαλος, καί τόν νοῦν τῇ σχέσει προσηλώσας τῶν φθειρομένων; Πῶς ἀκουστάς ποιήσω κἄν τινας αἰνέσεις αὐτοῦ, ὁ κωφός, καί τό τῆς ψυχῆς ἀκουστικόν διά τήν πρός τά πάθη φιλίαν ἔχων παντελῶς ἀπεστραμμένον τοῦ λόγου τήν μακαρίαν φωνήν; Πῶς ἐμφανής ὁ λόγος γενήσεταί μοι, τῷ ἡττημένῳ τῷ κόσμῳ, νικᾷν τόν κόσμον, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐμφανίζεσθαι τῷ κόσμῳ πεφυκώς, εἴπερ φιλύλῳ διαθέσει κατά φύσιν ἐστίν ἀνεπίγνωστος; Πῶς οὐ τολμηρόν, τοῖς ἁγίοις τόν ἐναγῆ, καί τοῖς καθαροῖς ἐγχειρεῖν τόν ἀκάθαρτον; ∆ιό παρῃτησάμην ἄν τήν ἐπί τοῖς κεκελευσμένοις ἐγχείρησιν, τόν τῆς προπετείας ψόγον φοβούμενος, εἰ μή πλέον ἐδεδοίκειν τῆς ἀπειθείας τόν κίνδυνον. ∆υοῖν οὖν τούτων μέσος ληφθείς τῆς προπετείας αἱροῦμαι μᾶλλον ψόγον ὡς ἀνεκτότερον, φεύγων ὡς ἀσύγγνωστον τῆς ἀπειθείας τόν κίνδυνον. Καί τῇ μεσιτείᾳ τῶν ἁγίων καί βοηθείᾳ τῶν ὑμετέρων εὐχῶν, Χριστοῦ τοῦ μεγάλου Θεοῦ καί Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν χορηγοῦντος τό νοεῖν εὐσεβῶς καί λέγειν δεόντως, περί ἑκάστου κεφαλαίου τήν ἀπόκρισιν ὡς οἷόν τε ποιήσομαι σύντομον [πρός διδάσκαλον ὁ λόγος] μικροῖς πορίζεσθαι μεγάλα δυνάμενον), ἀρχόμενος ἀπό Γρηγορίου τοῦ θεόφρονος, ὡς μᾶλλον ἡμῖν ὄντος τῷ χρόνῳ προσεχεστέρου.

Τοῦ ἁγίου Γρηγορίου τοῦ Θεολόγου, ἐκ τοῦ περί Υἱοῦ πρώτου λόγου εἰς τό· "∆ιά τοῦτο μονάς ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς εἰς δυάδα κινηθεῖσα μέχρι Τριάδος ἔστη." Καί πάλιν τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ δευτέρου (1036) Εἰρηνικοῦ εἰς τό· "Μονάδος μέν κινηθείσης, διά τό πλούσιον, δυάδος δέ ὑπερβαθείσης· ὑπέρ γάρ τήν ὕλην καί τό εἶδος, ἐξ ὧν τά σώματα, Τριάδος δέ ὁρισθεῖσης, διά τό τέλειον."

Εἰ μέν τήν δοκοῦσαν εἶναι διαφωνίαν, δοῦλε Θεοῦ, σκοπήσας τήν ἀληθῆ

συμφωνίαν ἠπόρησας, οὐκ ἔστι κατ᾿ ἔννοιαν τούτων τῶν φωνῶν ἑνικωτέραν εὑρεῖν. Ταυτόν γάρ ἐστιν ὑπερβαθῆναι δυάδα καί μή στῆναι μέχρι δυάδος, καί πάλιν ὁρισθῆναι Τριάδα καί μέχρι Τριάδος στῆναι τῆς μονάδος τήν κίνησιν, εἴπερ μοναρχίαν πρεσβεύομεν οὐκ ἀφιλότιμον, ὡς ἑνί προσώπῳ περιγεγραμμένην, ἤ πάλιν ἄτακτον, ὡς εἰς ἄπειρον χεομένην, ἀλλ᾿ ἥν ὁμότιμος φύσει Τριάς Πατήρ καί Υἱός καί Πνεῦμα συνίστησιν ἅγιον, ὧν πλοῦτος ἡ συμφυΐα καί τό ἕν ἔξαλμα τῆς λαμπρότητος, οὔτε ὑπέρ