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when compared with each other, it has unity as a subject, not being at all dispersed by the subject. And a true witness of these things is the true theologian, the great and holy Dionysius (1313) the Areopagite, in the chapter concerning the perfect and the one of his treatise *On the Divine Names*, saying thus: "For there is no multitude that does not somehow partake of the one, but what is many in its parts is one in the whole, and what is many in its accidents is one in its subject, and what is many in number or in powers is one in its species, and what is many in its species is one in its genus, and what is many in its processions is one in its principle, and there is nothing among beings which does not in some way partake of the one." And simply, to speak concisely, the principles of all divided and particular things are contained, as they say, in the principles of the universal and general, and the principles of the more general and more universal things are held together by wisdom, while those of the particular things, variously formed in those of the general, are encompassed by prudence, through which, being first simplified, and casting off the symbolic diversity in the underlying realities, they are unified by wisdom, having received a connaturality into identity with the more general principles. And the Wisdom and Prudence of God the Father is the Lord Jesus Christ, who both holds together all beings universally by the power of wisdom, and encompasses their complementary parts by the prudence of understanding, as by nature the Creator and Provider for all things, and through himself leading to unity things that are divided, and abolishing the war among beings, and binding all things into a peaceful friendship and indivisible concord, things in the heavens and things on the earth, as the divine Apostle says.

Another contemplation on the same difficulty. Again the natures are made new, the divine nature on the one hand, through immeasurable goodness and love for humanity

supernaturally enduring a voluntary birth in the flesh according to our nature, in accordance with its will, while ours on the other hand paradoxically produces, for the incarnate God, without seed and by a law strange and contrary to nature, flesh animated with a rational soul, which is in all things the same as ours and identical, without sin; and what is more paradoxical, the law of the virginity of her who became a mother was not diminished at all through the birth. And an innovation, properly speaking, is not only that God the Word, who had already been ineffably begotten without beginning from God the Father, was born in time according to the flesh, but also that our nature gave flesh without seed, and that a virgin gave birth without corruption. For each of these things, having a manifest innovation, at the same time is completely hidden and demonstrates the ineffable and unknowable principle according to which it happened; the one by its mode that is beyond nature and knowledge, the other by the principle of faith, by which all things beyond nature and knowledge are wont to be apprehended. (1316) Thus then, in my opinion, the difficulty has been resolved as far as possible, and I do not know how else one should go through it. But it would be for your philosophy either to approve what has been said, or to discover and state more wisely better things from yourself, and to share with me the fruit of a lofty knowledge that has nothing of the earth.

Of the same, from the second homily on baptism, on the text "The Word knows for us a threefold birth: that from bodies, that from baptism, that from resurrection;" then, after saying certain things about these and interpreting the births, he says, "But my Christ is seen to have honored all these births from himself, the one, by the first and life-giving inbreathing, the next, by the incarnation and the baptism with which he himself was baptized, and the next by the

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ὑποκείμενον ἀλλήλοις συγκριθέντα τό ἑνιαῖον ἔχει, τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ παντελῶς μή σκεδαννύμενον. Καί μάρτυς τούτων ἀψευδής ὁ ἀληθής θεηγόρος, ὁ μέγας καί ἅγιος ∆ιονύσιος (1313) ὁ Ἀρεοπαγίτης, ἐν τῷ περί τελείου καί ἑνός κεφαλαίῳ τῆς Περί θείων ὀνομάτων πραγματείας οὑτωσί φάσκων· "Οὐδέ γάρ ἐστι πλῆθος ἀμέτοχόν πη τοῦ ἑνός, ἀλλά τό μέν πολλά τοῖς μέρεσιν ἕν τῷ ὅλῳ, καί τό πολλά τοῖς συμβεβηκόσιν ἕν τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ, καί τά πολλά τῷ ἀριθμῷ ἤ ταῖς δυνάμεσιν ἕν τῷ εἴδει, καί τό πολλά τοῖς εἴδεσιν ἕν τῷ γένει, καί τό πολλά τοῖς προόδοις ἕν τῇ ἀρχῇ, καί οὐδέν ἐστι τῶν ὄντων ὅ μή μετέχει πη τοῦ ἑνός." Καί ἁπλῶς, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, πάντων τῶν διῃρημένων καί μερικῶν οἱ λόγοι τοῖς τῶν καθόλου καί γενικῶν, ὥς φασι, περιέχονται λόγοις, καί τούς μέν τῶν γενικωτέρων καί καθολικωτέρων λόγους ὑπό τῆς σοφίας συνέχεσθαι, τούς δέ μερικῶν ποικίλως τοῖς τῶν γενικῶν ἐνισχημένους ὑπό τῆς φρονήσεως περιέχεσθαι, καθ᾿ ἥν ἁπλούμενοι πρότερον, καί τήν ἐν τοῖς πράγμασι τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις ἀπολύοντες συμβολικήν ποικιλίαν, ὑπό τῆς σοφίας ἑνίζονται, τήν εἰς ταὐτότητα τοῖς γενικωτέροις συμφυΐαν δεξάμενοι. Σοφία δέ τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός καί φρόνησίς ἐστιν ὁ Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, ὁ καί καθόλου τῶν ὄντων συνέχων τῇ δυνάμει τῆς σοφίας, καί τά συμπληρωτικά τούτων μέρη περιέχων τῇ φρονήσει τῆς συνέσεως ὡς πάντων φύσει δημιουργός καί προνοητής, καί εἰς ἕν ἄγων τά διεστῶτα δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ, καί τόν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι καταλύων πόλεμον, καί πρός εἰρηνικήν φιλίαν τά πάντα καί ἀδιαίρετον συνδέων ὁμόνοιαν, τά ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καί τά ἐπί τῆς γῆς, καθώς φησιν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος.

Ἄλλη εἰς τό αὐτό ἄπορον θεωρία. Καινοτομοῦνται πάλιν αἱ φύσεις, τῆς μέν θείας δι᾿ ἀγαθότητα καί φιλανθρωπίαν

ἄμετρον τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς κατά θέλησιν ἑκούσιον σαρκικῆς ὑπερφυῶς ἀνεχομένης γεννήσεως, τῆς ἡμετέρας δέ παραδόξως ἄσπορον τῷ σαρκωθέντι Θεῷ ξένῳ παρά τήν φύσιν θεσμῷ τήν λογικῶς ἐψυχωμένην γεωργούσης σάρκα, κατά πάντα τήν αὐτήν ἡμῖν οὖσαν καί ἀπαράλλακτον χωρίς ἁμαρτίας, καί τό δή παραδοξότερον, μηδέν τοῦ νόμου τῆς παρθενίας τῆς γενομένης μητρός διά τῆς γεννήσεως τό σύνολον μειωθέντος. Καινοτομία δέ κυρίως οὐ μόνον τό γεννηθῆναι χρονικῶς κατά σάρκα τόν ἀνάρχως ἤδη γεγεννημένον ἀφράστως ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός Θεόν Λόγον, ἀλλά καί τό δοῦναι σάρκα τήν ἡμετέραν φύσιν ἄνευ σπορᾶς, καί τό τεκεῖν παρθένου ἄνευ φθορᾶς. Τούτων γάρ ἕκαστον φανεράν ἔχον τήν καινοτομίαν τόν καθ᾿ ὅν γέγονεν ἄῤῥητόν τε καί ἄγνωστον λόγον παντελῶς ἀποκρύπτεται κατά ταὐτόν καί ἀποδείκνυσι, τό μέν τῷ ὑπέρ φύσιν καί γνῶσιν τρόπῳ, τό δέ τῷ λόγῳ τῆς πίστεως, ᾧ πάντα τά ὑπέρ φύσιν καί γνῶσιν ἁλίσκεσθαι πέφυκεν. (1316) Οὕτω μέν οὖν, κατ᾿ ἐμέ φάναι, τό ἄπορον ὡς δυνατόν ἐπιλέλυται, καί οὐκ οἶδ᾿ ὅπως ἑτέρως αὐτό χρή διεξελθεῖν. Τῆς σῆς δ᾿ ἄν εἴη φιλοσοφίας ἤ ἐγκρίναι τά εἰρημένα, ἤ τά κρείττω παρ᾿ ἑαυτῆς σοφώτερον ἐξευρεῖν τε καί φράσαι, καί μεταδοῦναί μοι καρπόν γνώσεως ὑψηλῆς καί μηδέν ἐχούσης ἐπίγειον.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἐκ τοῦ εἰς τό βάπτισμα β´ λόγου, εἰς τό "Τρισσήν γέννησιν ἡμῖν οἶδεν ὁ Λόγος, τήν ἐκ σωμάτων, τήν ἐκ βαπτίσματος, τήν ἐξ ἀναστάσεως·" εἶτα ἐπειπόντος τούτοις τινά, καί τά γεννήσεις ἑρμηνεύοντος, φῆσαι, " Ταύτας δέ τάς γεννήσεις ἁπάσας παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ τιμήσας ὁ ἑμός Χριστός φαίνεται, τήν μέν τῷ ἐμφυσήματι τῷ πρώτῳ καί ζωτικῷ, τήν δέ τῇ σαρκώσει καί τῷ βαπτίσματι ὅπερ αὐτός ἐβαπτίσατο, τήν δέ τῇ