1

De seipso et ad eos qui ipsum cathedram Constantinopolitanam

ORATION 30.

Concerning himself, and to those who say that he desires the chair of Constantinople, and on the zeal of the people, which they showed

toward him.

I. I marvel, what it is that you have felt toward my discourses, and whence you are so overcome by our voice, which is from beyond the border and perhaps small, and has nothing lovely in it, so that you seem to me to have felt toward us the same thing that pieces of iron feel toward the magnetic stone. For you both hang on me, and on each other, one clinging to the other, and all on God, from whom are all things, and to whom are all things. O the wondrous chain, which the Holy Spirit forges, joined together with unbreakable bonds! But the cause, I know nothing wiser than others, as far as I am conscious of my own self; unless someone takes this very thing for my wisdom, to know that I am not wise, nor near the true and first wisdom; which the wise of today are far from supposing about themselves; since it is very easy to deceive oneself, and to think one is something, when one is nothing, being puffed up by empty opinion. Neither was I the first to preach to you the word of orthodoxy, to which you are most attached, but I have followed in the footsteps of others, and these your own; for the truth will be told; since you are disciples of the great Alexander, the great champion and preacher of the Trinity, who by word and deed banished impiety. For you remember that Apostolic prayer, which destroyed the author of impiety in places worthy of the sins of his tongue, so that outrage might avenge outrage, and the unjust death of souls be pilloried by a just death.

II. Therefore, we did not break open a new spring for you, like the one Moses brought forth in a waterless place for those persecuted out of Egypt, but we unstopped one that was hidden and filled in, like the servants of the great Isaac, not only digging wells of living water, but also cleaning out those blocked up by the Philistines. But neither am I one of the elegant and pleasant 36.268 sort, and such as to steal goodwill by flattery; such as I see many of those who now profess to be priests, who have made our simple and artless piety into a thing of art, and a new kind of statecraft transferred from the marketplace into the holy places, and from the theaters to the initiation rite unseen by the many; so that there are two stages, if I may dare to say this, differing from each other so much, that the one is open to all, the other to some; and the one is laughed at, the other is honored; and the one is called theatrical, the other spiritual. You are witnesses, and God also, says the divine Apostle, that we are not of this party, but are such as would sooner accept a charge of awkwardness and boorishness than of fawning and servility; we who even at times and in places appear to be harsh toward those who cling to us too much, if they are thought to be doing anything not according to reason. And this the recent innovation concerning us showed, when you, the people, boiling with zeal and anger, placed us shouting and lamenting upon this throne, which I know not whether to call tyrannical or archepiscopal; but you did place us, transgressing the law through your longing. At which point we showed so much displeasure to some of the more ardent, that they leapt away from us, having turned their affection into enmity. For we do not consider what will please, so much as what will profit.

1

De seipso et ad eos qui ipsum cathedram Constantinopolitanam

ΛΟΓΟΣ Λʹ.

Εἰς ἑαυτὸν, καὶ πρὸς τοὺς λέγοντας ἐπιθυμεῖν αὐτὸν τῆς καθέδρας Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, καὶ εἰς τὴν τοῦ λαοῦ προθυμίαν, ἣν ἐπεδεί-

ξαντο εἰς αὐτόν.

Αʹ. Ἐγὼ θαυμάζω, τί ποτέ ἐστιν ὃ πρὸς τοὺς ἐμοὺς πεπόνθατε λόγους, καὶ πόθεν τοσοῦτον ἥτ τησθε τῆς ἡμετέρας φωνῆς, τῆς ὑπερορίου καὶ μι κρᾶς ἴσως, καὶ οὐδὲν ἐχούσης ἐράσμιον, ὥστε ταυτόν μοι δοκεῖτε πρὸς ἡμᾶς πεπονθέναι, ὃ πρὸς τὴν μα γνῆτιν λίθον τὰ σιδήρια. Ἐμοῦ τε γὰρ κρέ μασθε, καὶ ἀλλήλων εἷς τοῦ ἑνὸς ἐχόμενοι, καὶ Θεοῦ πάντες, ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα, καὶ εἰς ὃν τὰ πάντα. Ὢ τῆς θαυμασίας ἁλύσεως, ἣν πλήκει τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον δεσμοῖς ἀλύτοις συνηρτισμένην! Τὸ δὲ αἴτιον, οὔτε τι οἶδα ἐγὼ τῶν ἄλλων σοφώτερον, ὅσα ἐμαυτῷ συνεπίσταμαι· εἰ μή τις τοῦτο αὐτὸ ἐμὴν σοφίαν ὑπολαμβάνει τὸ εἰδέναι, ὅτι μὴ σο φὸς εἴην, μηδὲ τῆς ἀληθινῆς καὶ πρώτης σοφίας ἐγγύς· ὃ πολλῷ δέουσι περὶ ἑαυτῶν ὑπολαμ βάνειν οἱ νῦν σοφοί· ἐπειδὴ ῥᾷστον ἑαυτὸν ἀπατᾷν, καὶ οἴεσθαι εἶναί τι, οὐδὲν ὄντα, ὑπὸ τῆς κενῆς δόξης φυσώμενον. Οὔτε πρῶτος ὑμῖν τὸν τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας λόγον ἐκήρυξα, οὗ μάλιστα περιέχεσθε, ἴχνεσι δὲ ἀλλοτρίοις ἐπηκολούθησα, καὶ τούτοις ὑμετέ ροις· εἰρήσεται γὰρ τἀληθές· εἴπερ ὑμεῖς Ἀλεξάν δρου μαθηταὶ τοῦ πάνυ, τοῦ μεγάλου τῆς Τρι άδος ἀγωνιστοῦ τε καὶ κήρυκος, καὶ λόγῳ καὶ ἔργῳ τὴν ἀσέβειαν ἐξορίσαντος. Μέμνησθε γὰρ τῆς Ἀπο στολικῆς ἐκείνης εὐχῆς, ἣ τὸν ἀρχηγὸν τῆς ἀσε βείας κατέλυσεν ἐν τόποις ἀξίοις τῶν τῆς γλώσσης ἀμαρευμάτων, ἵν' ὕβρις ὕβριν ἀμύνηται, καὶ στηλιτευθῇ θανάτῳ δικαίῳ θάνατος ψυχῶν ἄδικος.

Βʹ. Οὐ ξένην οὖν πηγὴν ὑμῖν ἐῤῥήξαμεν, ὥσπερ ἣν Μωϋσῆς ἀνέδειξεν ἐν ἀνύδρῳ τοῖς ἀπ' Αἰγύπτου διωκομένοις, κεκρυμμένην δὲ καὶ συγκεχωσμένην ἀνεστομώσαμεν, κατὰ τοὺς παῖδας Ἰσαὰκ τοῦ μεγά λου, μὴ ὀρύσσοντας μόνον φρέατα ζῶντος ὕδα τος, ἀλλὰ καὶ φρασσόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν Φυλιστιαίων ἀνα καθαίροντας. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τῶν κομψῶν τις καὶ ἡδέων 36.268 ἐγὼ, καὶ οἷος κολακείᾳ κλέπτειν τὴν εὔνοιαν· οἵους ὁρῶ πολλοὺς τῶν νῦν ἱερατεύειν ὑπισχνουμένων οἳ τὴν ἁπλῆν καὶ ἄτεχνον ἡμῶν εὐσέβειαν, ἔντεχνον πεποιήκασι, καὶ πολιτικῆς τι καινὸν εἶδος ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγορᾶς εἰς τὰ ἅγια μετενηνεγμένης, καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν θεάτρων ἐπὶ τὴν τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀθέατον μυσταγω γίαν· ὡς εἶναι δύο σκηνὰς, εἰ δεῖ τολμήσαντα τοῦτο εἰπεῖν, τοσοῦτον ἀλλήλων διαφερούσας, ὅσον τὴν μὲν πᾶσιν ἀνεῖσθαι, τὴν δὲ τισί· καὶ τὴν μὲν γελᾶσθαι, τὴν δὲ τιμᾶσθαι· καὶ τὴν μὲν θεατρικὴν, τὴν δὲ πνευματικὴν ὀνομάζεσθαι. Ὑμεῖς μάρτυρες, καὶ ὁ Θεὸς, φησὶν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, ὡς οὐ ταύτης ἡμεῖς τῆς μερίδος, ἀλλ' οἷοι σκαιότητος ἂν θᾶττον καὶ ἀγροικίας, ἢ θωπείας καὶ ἀνελευθερίας ἔγκλημα δέξασθαι· οἵ γε καὶ πρὸς τοὺς λίαν ἀντεχομένους ἡμῶν ἔστιν ὅτε καὶ ὅπου φαινόμεθα τραχυνόμενοι, ἄν τι μὴ κατὰ λόγον ἡμῖν ποιεῖν νομίζωνται. Καὶ τοῦτο ἔδειξεν ἡ πρώην γενομένη περὶ ἡμᾶς καινοτο μία, ἡνίκα ζήλῳ καὶ θυμῷ ζέσαντες ὑμεῖς ὁ λαὸς, βοῶντάς τε καὶ ὀδυρομένους ἐπὶ τὸν θρόνον τοῦτον ἐθήκατε, τὸν οὐκ οἶδ' εἴτε τυραννικὸν χρὴ λέγειν, εἴτε ἀρχιερατικόν· ἐθήκατε δ' οὖν, διὰ τὸν πό θον παρανομήσαντες. Ἔνθα τοσοῦτόν τισι τῶν θερ μοτέρων ἐδυσχεράναμεν, ὥστε ἀπεπήδησαν ἡμῶν, τὸ φίλτρον εἰς ἔχθραν τρέψαντες. Οὐ γὰρ ἐξ ὧν χαριούμεθα σκοποῦμεν μᾶλλον, ἢ ἐξ ὧν ὠφε λήσομεν.