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he also accuses him of setting aside the ancestral doctrines. For these reasons, he does not think he ought to accept the judgment judged by him, as it was decided by arbitration because that man was attached to Palamas and had chosen the same perversion in doctrines. When the emperor read these things, for they came into his hands, he said he would make no statement about the tome of accusation, since he was most capable of defending himself. For if the clear proof of his orthodoxy and truth is to speak in harmony with the holy theologians and with what was previously confirmed by the divine synods concerning the orthodox faith, and this is always his concern and he takes much care for this part, he would not need another proof concerning himself, the one at hand being sufficient. And the accuser himself would be a credible witness, who in his other writings vilified the most corrupt doctrines of Barlaam and launched his whole tongue, when, composing a monody for the deceased young emperor Andronikos, he added this to his other praises: "O sacred leaders of the Church, seek the most ardent student and defender of the doctrines; you who are in 3.175 mountains and caves, seek the bulwark and champion of your renown and glory; O leaders of the divine hermitages, seek the acropolis of your strength. Remember his final struggles on your behalf, how, when his body was already utterly worn out both from battle wounds and from medical cauterizations, and was being driven from there toward death, he despised his body and, sparing not his own life, came eagerly to the tribunal and the hierarchs, and did not depart from there before he had shattered the insolent men against you and their corrupt doctrines and the spurious shipwrecks of the Church, and given them over wholly to the depths and waves of destruction and perdition." He himself also held such opinions concerning the doctrines before his views were corrupted. For it is not possible to say that the doctrines which the emperor condemned when he judged and voted a corruption and deviation from the truth were one thing, and that the tome composed in my time drove another set of doctrines from the Church, against which he showed admirable zeal, but they were entirely the same. And likewise also concerning the saints on Athos, of whom he falsely alleges drunkenness and gluttony, while their life, brighter than any light, makes their virtue and intimacy with God manifest. For they abstained from drunkenness and revelry throughout their lives as much as their accuser has abstained from the truth. The Greeks, then, say in their myths that a certain Atlas, when the gods with Cronus were overthrown, was condemned by the rulers to this punishment of holding up the 3.176 pillars of the earth, so that he might be pressed by so great a weight. But I would say of these men, with truth itself bearing me witness, that they received this honor in their life from God on account of their great philosophy, to hold up the earth, propitiating the divine for it with their prayers. But that I myself, being among them while the emperor was still alive, asked them to prophesy concerning the Roman empire, whether it would come to me, he clearly lies. And of this there is a most manifest proof, not least this very fact that he says such things falsely, as he does for the most part also concerning other things, just as indeed concerning this. And especially the empress Anna could bear witness to the truth, who above all is privy with me to such matters. For no less than the emperor, she herself was then most responsible for my postponing what had been decided. For not as he falsely claimed, did I come then for prophecy and the outcomes of future events to the monks on Athos, but rather to ask them to pray for the emperor's health, than which nothing was better or more precious to me in life, and then to make the divine propitious to me with prayers, having stumbled much in my life and fearing the accounting there for the things lived here. And in addition to this, since it seemed good to withdraw from the tumults of life, having enjoyed to the full human glory and prosperity and luxury, I was considering in which of the monasteries 3.177 it would be better to live and the rest of my life in tranquility

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κατηγορεῖ καὶ τῶν πατρίων ἀθέτησιν δογμάτων. δι' ἃ οὐδὲ τὴν δίκην οἴεται δεῖν στέργειν τὴν παρ' ἐκείνου δικασθεῖσαν, ὡς ἐκδεδιῃτημένην διὰ τὸ ἐκεῖνον Παλαμᾷ προσκεῖσθαι καὶ τὴν ἴσην ἐν τοῖς δόγμασι διαστροφὴν ᾑρῆσθαι. ἃ ἐπεὶ ἀνέγνω βασιλεὺς, ἧκε γὰρ αὐτῷ εἰς χεῖρας, περὶ μὲν τοῦ τόμου τῆς κατηγορίας οὐδένα ποιήσεσθαι λόγον εἶπεν, ὑπὲρ ἑαυτοῦ ἀπολογεῖσθαι δυναμένου μάλιστα. εἰ γὰρ ἐκείνου τῆς ὀρθότητος καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας σαφὴς ἀπόδειξις τὸ τοῖς ἁγίοις σύμφωνα λέγειν θεολόγοις καὶ τοῖς ὑπὸ τῶν θείων πρότερον συνόδων περὶ τῆς ὀρθῆς πίστεως κεκυρωμένοις, τοῦτο δ' ἐκείνῳ σπουδάζεται διαπαντὸς καὶ πολλὴν τούτου τοῦ μέρους πρόνοιαν ποιεῖται, ἑτέρας ἀποδείξεως οὐκ ἂν δεηθείη περὶ ἑαυτοῦ, τῆς προσούσης ἐξαρκούσης. ἀξιόχρεως δ' ἂν εἴη καὶ ὁ κατηγορῶν αὐτὸς, ἐν ἄλλοις αὐτοῦ συγγράμμασι τὰ Βαρλαὰμ διεφθορότα δόγματα κακίζων καὶ ὅλην γλῶτταν ἐπαφιεὶς, ἡνίκα βασιλέα τὸν νέον Ἀνδρόνικον τετελευτηκότα μονῳδῶν, πρὸς τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐγκωμίοις καὶ τοῦτο τέθεικεν· «οἱ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἱεροὶ προστάται, ζητήσατε τὸν διάπυρον σπουδαστὴν καὶ συλλήπτορα τῶν δογμάτων, οἱ ἐν 3.175 ὄρεσι καὶ σπηλαίοις, τὸν πρόβολον καὶ προασπιστὴν τῆς ὑμετέρας εὐκλείας καὶ δόξης, οἱ τῶν θείων ἀσκητηρίων ἡγήτορες, τὴν τῆς ὑμετέρας ἰσχύος ἀκρόπολιν. μνήσθητε τοὺς ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν τελευταίους ἀγῶνας αὐτοῦ, πῶς, πεπονηκότος ἤδη καθάπαξ τοῦ σώματος ἔκ τε τῶν πολεμικῶν τραυμάτων, ἔκ τε τῶν ἰατρικῶν καυτήρων, καὶ πρὸς θάνατον ἐντεῦθεν ἐλαυνόμενος, κατεφρόνησέ τε τοῦ σώματος, καὶ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ζωῆς ἀφειδήσας, προθύμως ἐπὶ τὸ βῆμα καὶ τοὺς ἱεροφάντας ἧκε, καὶ οὐ πρότερον ἐκεῖθεν ἀπήλλαξε, πρὶν τοὺς ὑμῶν ὑβριστὰς καὶ τὰ ἐκείνων διεφθορότα δόγματα καὶ παρέγγραπτα τῆς ἐκκλησίας ναυάγια συντρίψαι τε καὶ ὅλοις δοῦναι φθορᾶς καὶ ἀπωλείας βυθοῖς τε καὶ κύμασι.» τοιαύτας καὶ αὐτὸς πρὶν διαφθαρῆναι τὰς δόξας εἶχε περὶ τῶν δογμάτων. οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, ὡς ἕτερα μὲν ἦσαν, ὧν κατέγνω βασιλεὺς δικάζων καὶ διαφθορὰν κατεψηφίσατο καὶ παρατροπὴν τῆς ἀληθείας, ἕτερα δ' ὁ ἐπ' ἐμοῦ γεγενημένος τόμος ἐξήλασε τῆς ἐκκλησίας, καθ' οὗ τὴν θαυμαστὴν ἐπεδείξατο σπουδὴν, ἀλλὰ ταὐτὰ παντάπασιν. ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ περὶ τῶν ἐν Ἄθῳ ἁγίων, ὧν μέθας καὶ ἀδδηφαγίας καταψεύδεται, τοῦ βίου λαμπρότερον παντὸς φωτὸς τὴν ἐκείνων ἀρετὴν καὶ οἰκειότητα πρὸς θεὸν ποιοῦντος ἐναργῆ. τοσοῦτον γὰρ ἀπέσχοντο μέθης καὶ κραιπάλης διὰ βίου, ὅσον ἀληθείας ὁ κατηγορῶν. Ἕλληνες μὲν οὖν φασιν ἐν μύθοις, Ἄτλαντά τινα, τῶν μετὰ Κρόνου θεῶν καθῃρημένων, ταύτην ὑπὸ τῶν ἀρξάντων τὴν δίκην κατεψηφίσθαι τοὺς τῆς γῆς ἀνέχειν 3.176 κίονας, ὡς ἂν πιέζοιτο τοσούτῳ βάρει. ἐγὼ δὲ τούτους φαίην ἂν, καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐμοὶ συμμαρτυρούσης, ταύτην τὴν τιμὴν λαχεῖν τοῦ βίου τῆς πολλῆς φιλοσοφίας ἕνεκα παρὰ θεοῦ τὸ τὴν γῆν ἀνέχειν, εὐχαῖς ἱλεουμένους αὐτῇ τὸ θεῖον. ὅτι δ' αὐτὸς ἐν αὐτοῖς γενόμενος, ἔτι βασιλέως περιόντος, περὶ τῆς Ῥωμαίων βασιλείας προφητεύειν ἐδεόμην, εἰ ἥξει πρὸς ἐμὲ, ψεύδεται σαφῶς. καὶ τούτου γε ἀπόδειξις ἐναργεστάτη, οὐχ ἧττον μὲν καὶ τοῦτ' αὐτὸ τὸ ἐκεῖνον τοιαῦτα λέγειν ψευδόμενον, ὡς τὰ πολλὰ καὶ περὶ τἄλλα, ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ περὶ τοῦτο. μάλιστα δὲ καὶ Ἄννα ἡ βασιλὶς τἀληθῆ συμμαρτυρήσειε πάντων μάλιστα ἐμοὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα συνειδυῖα. οὐχ ἧττον γὰρ ἢ βασιλεὺς καὶ αὐτὴ τότε τοῦ τὰ βεβουλευμένα ὑπερθέσθαι μοι ἐγένετο αἰτιωτάτη. οὐ γὰρ ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος κατεψεύσατο, ἐπὶ προφητείας ἧκον ἐγὼ τότε καὶ μελλόντων ἀποβάσεις ἐπὶ τοὺς ἐν Ἄθῳ μοναχοὺς, ἀλλὰ μάλιστα μὲν δεησόμενος ἐκείνων ὑπὲρ τῆς βασιλέως ὑγιείας, ἧς οὐδὲν ἐμοὶ βέλτιον, οὔτε τιμιώτερον ἐν βίῳ ἦν, ἔπειτα καὶ τὸ θεῖον ἵλεων εὐχαῖς ἐμοὶ ποιεῖν πολλὰ προσκεκρουκότι ἐν τῷ βίῳ καὶ τὴν ἐκεῖσε τῶν ἐνθάδε βεβιωμένων εὐθύνην δεδοικότι. πρὸς τούτοις δὲ ἐπεὶ ἐδόκει καὶ τῶν τοῦ βίου θορύβων ἀναχωρεῖν, εἰς κόρον ἀπολαύσαντι καὶ δόξης ἀνθρωπίνης καὶ εὐημερίας καὶ τρυφῆς, ἐσκεπτόμην, ἐν τίνι τῶν φροντιστηρίων 3.177 βέλτιον οἰκεῖν καὶ τὸν ἐπίλοιπον βίον ἐν ἀταραξίᾳ