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Contra Severianos

REFUTATION to those who say, "If Christ is two natures, it is necessary to say three natures, of God and of man, and as many energies," as Severus used to say. 95.225 For this wretched Severus, having seized the throne of Antioch, attempted to champion the heresy of Manes and Apollinarius and Eutyches, stirring up, with as much power as he had, the peace of the Churches. But having been driven from Antioch as a seditious man, he descended upon Alexandria like a whirlwind; where also, as another storm blew against the people, a certain Julian, bishop of Halicarnassus in Asia, a most zealous champion of the Eutychian heterodoxy, confused and disturbed all things. For while Severus said that Christ is one nature, and accepted the difference in Christ, Julian, on the other hand, while affirming one nature according to Severus but abolishing the difference, the unholy ones became the cause of all disturbance and storm, "not understanding, as it is said, either what they say or the things about which they make confident assertions;" taking as an example of the divine union the human being composed of soul and body, and they say: Therefore you confess three natures. But let the ignorant and uneducated know that we speak of two natures: not of God and flesh, nor indeed of God and soul; but of God and man. For the nature of the part is not properly the nature of man. For the parts of man are soul and body; and parts of the parts are the divisions and subdivisions concerning them; and the unconfused parts of Christ are divinity and humanity. But soul and body are not parts of Christ, but parts of the part. For parts of the parts of man, in the case of the soul, are rational substance and incorporeal quality having in itself mind, and sensation, and reason; of which the one is the ruling part, the other the spirited part, and the other the appetitive part; and of these, the one is conceptual and discursive, both mnemonic and deliberative, 95.228 another is appetitive and attractive, another defensive, and many others are subdivided from these. But let us for now refrain from investigating whether these are in the soul as parts or as powers; and in the case of the body again a division is made into homogeneous [and heterogeneous] parts; and of these further into head and hands and feet; and these, into bones and flesh and sinews; and these into the four elements; and these into matter and form. And the sons of physicians philosophize about many other things concerning natural powers; of which they name one attractive, another retentive, another alterative, and another secretive; and many things also about sensation and imagination, and about the vital and organic spirit which holds the living being together, being, as they say, different from the rational. Just as, therefore, it is sufficient to represent all these things by saying flesh, or body of man; so it is sufficient for one who has said man, or nature of man, to signify and represent all the things from which he is composed, and in which he is known. But they, not so that they might declare him a perfect man, but so that they might slander the Lord, and alienate him from our nature, and [show] that he either did not take our [nature] in the beginning, or did not preserve whole what he had from us. The book of the holy and blessed John Mandar of Damascus, called the Pandect, has come to an end.

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Contra Severianos

ΕΠΙΛΥΣΙΣ πρὸς τοὺς λέγοντας, "Εἰ δύο φύσεις ὁ Χριστὸς, ἀνάγκη Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπου τρεῖς φύσεις, καὶ τοσαύτας λέγειν ἐνεργείας," ὡς ὁ Σεβῆρος

ἔφασκεν. 95.225 Ὁ γὰρ ἄθλιος οὗτος Σεβῆρος ἁρπάσας τὸν θρόνον Ἀντιοχείας, τὴν κατὰ Μάνην καὶ Ἀπολινάριον καὶ Εὐτυχέα ἐκδικεῖν αἵρεσιν ἐπειρᾶτο, κυκῶν, ὅση δύναμις, τὴν τῶν Ἐκκλησιῶν εἰρήνην. Ἐξελασθεὶς δὲ τῆς Ἀντιοχέων ὡς στασιώδης, τῇ Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ λαίλαπος δίκην ἐνέσκηψεν· ἔνθα καὶ ἑτέρας καταιγίδος ἀντιπνευσάσης τῷ λαῷ συνέχεε πάντα καὶ ἐθορύβησεν Ἰουλιανός τις καλούμενος, Ἁλικαρνασσοῦ τῆς Ἀσίας ἐπίσκοπος, τῆς δὲ Εὐτυχιανῆς κακοδοξίας προστάτης εὐθυμότατος. Σεβήρου γὰρ μίαν φύσιν λέγοντος εἶναι Χριστὸν, καὶ τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ διαφορὰν δεχομένου, Ἰουλιανοῦ δὲ, μίαν μὲν κατὰ Σεβῆρον φάσκοντος φύσιν, ἀναιροῦντος δὲ τὴν διαφορὰν, αἴτιοι πάσης ταραχῆς καὶ ζάλης γεγόνασιν οἱ ἀνόσιοι, «μὴ νοοῦντες, κατὰ τὸ δὴ λεγόμενον, μήτε ἃ λέγουσι μήτε περὶ τίνων διαβεβαιοῦνται·» λαμβάνοντες εἰς παράδειγμα τῆς θείας ἑνώσεως τὸν ἐκ ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος ἄνθρωπον, καί φασιν· Οὐκοῦν τρεῖς ὁμολογεῖτε φύσεις. Ἀλλ' ἴστωσαν οἱ ἀμαθεῖς καὶ ἀπαίδευτοι, ὅτι δύο φύσεις ἡμεῖς λέγομεν· οὐ Θεοῦ καὶ σαρκὸς, οὔτε μὲν Θεοῦ καὶ ψυχῆς· ἀλλὰ Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπου. Οὐδὲ γάρ ἐστι κυρίως ἀνθρώπου φύσις, ἡ τοῦ μέρους φύσις. Μέρη μὲν γὰρ ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴ καὶ σῶμα· μέρη δὲ τῶν μερῶν αἱ περὶ αὐτῶν διαιρέσεις καὶ ὑποδιαιρέσεις· καὶ μέρη μὲν Χριστοῦ ἀσύγχυτα, θεότης καὶ ἀνθρωπότης. Ψυχὴ δὲ καὶ σῶμα, οὐ μέρη Χριστοῦ, ἀλλὰ μέρη τοῦ μέρους. Μέρη γὰρ τῶν μερῶν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ἐπὶ μὲν τῆς ψυχῆς, οὐσία λογικὴ καὶ ποιότης ἀσώματος ἔχουσα ἐν αὐτῇ νοῦν, καὶ αἴσθησιν, καὶ λόγον· ὧν τὸ μὲν ἡγεμονικὸν, τὸ δὲ θυμικὸν, τὸ δὲ ἐπιθυμ[ητ]ικόν· καὶ τούτων, τὸ μὲν ἐννοηματικὸν καὶ διανοητικὸν, μνημονευτικόν τε καὶ βουλευτικὸν, 95.228 τὸ δὲ ὀρεκτικόν τε καὶ ἑλκτικὸν, τὸ δὲ ἀμυντικὸν, καὶ πολλὰ ἕτερα τούτοις ὑποδιαιροῦνται. Ἀφείσθω δὲ τὰ νῦν ζητεῖν, πότερον ὡς μέρη ταῦτά εἰσιν ἐν ψυχῇ, ἢ ὡς δυνάμεις· ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ σώματος πάλιν διαίρεσις γίνεται εἰς ὁμοιομερῆ [καὶ ἀνομοιομερῆ]· καὶ τούτων ἔτι εἰς κεφαλὴν καὶ χεῖρας καὶ πόδας· καὶ ταῦτα, εἰς ὀστέα καὶ σάρκα καὶ νεῦρα· καὶ ταῦτα εἰς τέσσαρα στοιχεῖα· καὶ ταῦτα εἰς ὕλην καὶ εἶδος. Καὶ πολλὰ δὲ ἕτερα φιλοσοφοῦσι ἰατρῶν παῖδες περὶ δυνάμεων φυσικῶν· ὧν τὴν μὲν ἑλκτικὴν, τὴν δὲ καθελκτικὴν, τὴν δὲ ἀλλοιωτικὴν, τὴν δὲ ἀποκριτικὴν ὀνομάζουσι· πολλὰ δὲ καὶ περὶ αἰσθήσεως καὶ φαντασίας, καὶ τοῦ συνέχοντος τὸ ζῶον ζωτικοῦ καὶ ὀργανικοῦ πνεύματος, ἑτέρου παρὰ τὸ λογικὸν, ὥς φασιν, ὑπάρχοντος. Ὥσπερ τοίνυν ἀπόχρη πρὸς τὸ παραστῆσαι ταῦτα πάντα διὰ τοῦ σάρκα εἰπεῖν, ἢ σῶμα ἀνθρώπου· καὶ ἀπόχρη ἄνθρωπον, ἢ φύσιν ἀνθρώπου εἰρηκότα, πάντα δηλῶσαί τε καὶ παραστῆσαι τὰ ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκεν, ἐν οἷς καὶ γνωρίζεται. Οἱ δὲ, οὐχ ἵνα αὐτὸν ἄνθρωπον τέλειον ἀποφήνωσιν, ἀλλ' ἵνα τὸν Κύριον συκοφαντήσωσι, καὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας αὐτὸν ἀλλοτριώσωσι φύσεως, καὶ ἢ μὴ προσειληφότα τὴν ἀρχὴν τὸ ἡμέτερον, ἢ μὴ σῶον φυλάξαντα, ὅπερ ἔσχε παρ' ἡμῶν. Τέλος εἴληφε ἡ βίβλος τοῦ ἁγίου καὶ μακαρίου Ἰωάννου τοῦ Μανδὰρ τοῦ ∆αμασκηνοῦ ἡ λεγομένη Πάνδεκτος.