Barlaam and Ioasaph 1 part 10/18

"but from a grieved and anxious soul, my heart being in pain, my body has suffered along with it."

"and it would have been folly on my part, being in such a state, not to come as a servant to your majesty, but to wait for your kingship to trouble itself to come to me, your servant."

And when the king inquired what was the cause of his despondency, Zardan replied, saying, "Great danger is upon me;"

"and I have become deserving of great punishments, and guilty of many deaths, because, having been negligent toward your commands, I have become the cause of grief to you such as never before."

And the king again asked, "And what negligence have you been negligent of?"

"and what is the fear that grips you?" "I have been negligent," he said, "in the diligent watch over my lord your son."

"For a wicked man and a sorcerer came and spoke with him about the religion of the Christians."

Then he related to the king in detail what had been said by the old man to his son, and with how much pleasure the latter had received the word, and how he had become wholly Christ's.

And moreover he made known the name of the old man, saying that he was called Barlaam.

For the king had also heard before about Barlaam and his most extreme asceticism.

And when this came to the king's hearing, he was immediately struck with turmoil from the despondency that had befallen him, and was filled with wrath, and was almost frozen with astonishment at what he heard.

And at once he summoned a certain man called Arachēs, who was held in the second rank after the king, and who was first among his counsellors in all secret deliberations;

and the man was also skilled in astrology.

When he had come to him, the king related to him what had happened, with much despondency and distress.

And he, seeing his agitation and the confusion of his soul, said, "Let these things be untroubling and painless to you, O king;"

"for it is not yet hopeless for us that he should change his mind;"

"rather, I know most assuredly that he will very soon both renounce that deceiver's teaching, and agree with your will."

So with these words Arachēs turned the king to better cheer, and they began to take counsel concerning the matter.

"And this," he said, "O king, let us do before all else:"

"let us hasten to seize the dread Barlaam."

"and if we succeed in this, we shall not, I know well, miss our aim, nor shall we be disappointed of our hope."

"but that man himself, being persuaded either by plausible words or by manifold instruments of torture, would against his will confess that he speaks falsehoods and errors, and would persuade my lord your son to hold fast to the ancestral doctrine."

"But if we are unable to seize him, I know another elderly solitary hermit, called Nachor, in all respects like Barlaam, whom it is impossible to distinguish from being that man—he is of our own religion, and has been my teacher in the sciences."

Having instructed him, I will go away by night and relate everything in detail.

Then, having spread the report that Barlaam has been captured, we will present this man;

who, naming himself Barlaam, will pretend to plead the cause of the Christians, and will appear as their advocate;

then, after much disputation, being worsted, he will be utterly and decisively defeated.

And the king's son, seeing this — that Barlaam has been defeated, while our side prevails utterly — will certainly side with the victors;

reckoning it, besides these things, a great matter to revere your majesty and to do what is pleasing to you.

For the one who has assumed the mask of Barlaam will also turn back, and will affirm most positively that he had been deceived.

The king was delighted at what had been said, and thought it the best counsel, resting upon empty hopes.

Hence, having recently learned that Barlaam had withdrawn, he hastened to seize him.

So having stationed companies and their captains at most of the outlets, and one road — the one he suspected above all the rest — he himself pursued at full speed, mounted on horses, resolved by every means to overtake him first.

But having toiled for six whole days, he had labored in vain.

Then he himself remained behind at one of the royal palaces situated in the countryside, and sent Arachus, with not a few horsemen, as far as the very desert of Senaar, in search of Barlaam.

And having reached that place, he threw all the inhabitants of the surrounding area into confusion;

and when these declared that they had never seen the man, the commander went out into the deserts to hunt down the pious.

And having traversed a great expanse of the desert, and having gone around mountains, and having gone on foot through untrodden ravines, and

difficult of passage, having, with the crowds accompanying him, reached a certain mountain peak, and standing upon it, he sees, at the foot of the mountain, a company of hermits walking.

And immediately, at the command of the commander, all rush toward them without pausing for breath, each striving in the race to outstrip the other;

and having reached them, they surrounded them like many dogs, or like certain savage and man-hating beasts;

and they seized the men, who were most venerable in both appearance and demeanor, and who bore upon their faces the marks of the ascetic life of the desert;

and dragging them, they brought them before the commander, the hermits not being at all disturbed, nor showing or uttering anything base or sullen.

And the one leading them, and as it were guiding them, was carrying a haircloth wallet, full of the relics of certain holy Fathers who had already departed this life.

But when Arachus had observed them, since he did not see Barlaam among them (for he knew him), he was thrown into confusion by grief.

"Where is that deceiver, who led the king's son astray?" And the one carrying the wallet answered:

"He is not among us;"

"for he flees from us, being pursued by the grace of Christ;"

"but he has his dwellings among you."

"Do you know him, then?" "Yes," says the hermit;

"I know the one called the deceiver, who is the devil, dwelling in your midst and being worshipped and served by you."

"It is concerning Barlaam that I have my search, and it was about him that I asked you, to learn where he is;"

"And why then," he says, "did you speak in such a confused way, framing your question about the one who deceived the king's son? For if you were seeking Barlaam, you certainly ought to have said:"

"'Where is he who turned the king's son from error and saved him?' For he is our brother and fellow-ascetic;"

"though for many days now we have not seen him."

"Show me his dwelling," he says.

"If he had wished to see you, he would have come out to meet you;"

"so it is not permitted to us to make known his chamber to you."

At this the commander was filled with anger, and said to him, glaring at once wrathfully and savagely:

"I will now put you to death by a strange death, if you do not immediately bring Barlaam before me."

"And what," says the ascetic, "do you see in us, holding fast to which we should be so unwilling to let go of this present life, and should fear the death you would bring upon us? For rather we will give you thanks, that you have led us — who cling to virtue — out of this life."

"For we fear not a little the uncertainty of the end, not knowing in what state it will find us — lest some lapse of judgment, or some demonic assault, should turn aside the firmness of our resolve, and persuade us to think or do other things than what has been professed to God."

"Wherefore, having wholly renounced any hope that you should obtain what you hope for, do not hesitate to do what you wish."

"For neither will we point out the dwelling of our God-beloved brother, even though we know it, nor will we betray to you any other monasteries hidden from you, thereby basely consenting to escape death;"

"but rather we shall die well, having offered to God first the sweat of virtue, and now the blood of manly courage."

The wicked man, unable to bear them speaking with such boldness, but being most sharply provoked by the nobility of their spirit, encompassed them with many blows and torments;

whose magnanimity and nobility even the tyrant himself deemed worthy of wonder.

But when, after many punishments, he was unable to persuade them, nor would any of them consent to point out Barlaam to him, he took them and commanded that they be led to the king, beaten and abused, carrying also the wallet of relics.

(XXIII) After not a few days, he brought them before the king, and made clear to him the matters concerning them.

Then he set them before his face, as he was terribly enraged.

And he, seeing them, boiling over with rage, resembled a madman.

And having ordered them to be beaten mercilessly, when he saw them grievously afflicted by the blows,

cut to pieces, he, scarcely recovering from his great madness, commanded those beating them to stop.

"Why do you carry about these bones of the dead? If it is out of longing for those whose bones they are that you carry them, this very hour I will place you also with them, so that, having obtained what you long for, you may confess your thanks to me."

But the leader and guide of that divine company, counting the king's threats as nothing, as though nothing grievous had befallen him, spoke with a free voice and a most radiant countenance that signified the grace dwelling within his soul, saying:

"O king, we carry about these pure and holy bones, discharging our devotion to the wondrous men whose bones they are, and bringing ourselves to the remembrance of their asceticism and God-beloved manner of life, and stirring ourselves to like zeal, while beholding as in a mirror the rest and delight in which they now abide;"

"and, calling them blessed, and sharpening one another, we hasten to follow in their footsteps."

"Moreover, we thereby procure for ourselves the remembrance of death, which is exceedingly profitable and eagerly spurs us on to the contests of asceticism; and we also draw sanctification from touching them."

And the king again said: "If the remembrance of death is profitable, as you say, why do you not receive this remembrance from the bones in your own bodies — which are your own, and soon to perish — rather than from these bones of strangers, already decayed?" And the monk said: "Though I have stated five reasons for the carrying about of the relics, you, replying only to one of them, seem to be mocking us;"

"but be well assured, the bones of those who have already died present the remembrance of death more vividly than do those of the living."

"But since you know this to be so, and the bones in your own flesh prefigure your death, why do you not also, remembering the end that is soon to come, order your own affairs well? Instead you have surrendered your soul to every transgression, and violently and mercilessly destroy the servants of God and lovers of piety — men who have done you no wrong, nor share in anything of what you possess, nor strive to take anything from you." And the king said:

"I justly punish you, terrible men and deceivers of the people that you are, because you deceive everyone, prescribing abstinence from the delights of life, and, instead of sweet life and most desired desire and pleasure, you compel them by force to choose this harsh, filthy, and squalid way of living, and you proclaim that the honor due the gods should be rendered to Jesus."

"Therefore, lest the people, following your deception, should leave the land desolate, and, having abandoned the ancestral gods, should serve a foreign one, I have judged it just to subject you to punishments and to death."

"If you desire everyone to share in the good things of life, why do you not distribute luxury and wealth equally to all? Instead, the greater number are afflicted by poverty, while you, seizing their possessions besides, add them to your own. You are not, then, caring for the salvation of the many, but fattening your own flesh, preparing matter for the devouring of worms."

"For this reason you have denied the God of all, and have called by the name of gods those who are not — the inventors of every transgression — so that, as you behave licentiously and transgress in imitation of them, there might accrue to you the title of being proclaimed an imitator of your gods."

"For such things as your gods have done, how shall not also the men who devote themselves to them do likewise? You have been led into a great error, then, O king."

"But you fear lest we should persuade some of the people, agreeing with our teachings, to withdraw from your hand and to attach themselves to the hand that holds all things together;"

"for you wish there to be many servants of your greed, so that they should toil, while the profit from them accrues to you."

"In the way that one who rears dogs, or birds tamed for hunting, before the hunt"

"would appear to fawn upon them, but when they have caught something of the prey being hunted, he violently snatches the catch from their mouth;"

"so indeed do you also, wishing to have many bringing you tribute and taxes from land and sea, say that you care for their salvation, while procuring for them eternal ruin, and before all, for yourself — so that for you alone might be heaped up wealth more useless than dung and rotten things — you have, without realizing it, been holding darkness instead of light."

"But awaken from this infernal sleep; open your closed eyes, and behold the glory of our God, shining round about all;"

"and at last become yourself."

For understand, you senseless ones among the people, and you fools, be wise at last, says the prophet.

Understand that there is no god except our God, and there is no salvation except in him.

Cease this foolish babbling of yours, and show me Barlaam at once, or you shall experience instruments of torment, of which you have never yet had any experience.

The great-minded and most noble ascetic, lover of heavenly philosophy, was in no way turned aside by the king's threats;

but standing unshaken, he said:

We have not been commanded, O king, to do what is proclaimed by you, but what has been ordained by our Master and God, who teaches us self-mastery, to rule over all pleasures and desires, and to practice courage, so as to endure every toil and every affliction for the sake of righteousness.

So then, whatever terrible things you inflict upon us for the sake of piety, you will rather be doing us good.

For we will not endure doing anything outside what is fitting, nor will we surrender ourselves to sin.

Do not think this a small sin, that we should betray our fellow-contender and fellow-soldier into your hands.

But you shall not laugh this laugh against us, even should you surround us with countless deaths;

for we are not so unmanly as, out of fear of your torments, to betray our philosophy, and to do anything unworthy of the divine legislation.

Against this, prepare whatever instrument of retribution you know.

For to us, to live is Christ, and to die for him is the best gain.

At this, inflamed with wrath, the ruler ordered that their tongues, which had spoken of God, be cut out, their eyes gouged out, and their hands and feet cut off together.

And when the sentence was given, the shield-bearers and spearmen surrounded them and mutilated them inhumanly and mercilessly;

and having drawn out their tongues from their mouths with small hooks, they cut them off savagely, and gouged out their eyes with iron claws, and with joint-dislocating instruments they disjointed and cut off their hands and their feet.

But those blessed men, reverent and noble in their reasoning, as though summoned to a banquet, approached the tortures with manly courage, encouraging one another and advancing fearlessly toward death for Christ's sake.

In such manifold torments, then, the sacred ascetics committed their steadfast souls to the Lord, being seventeen in number.

It is admittedly the case, then, that pious reasoning is sovereign master of the passions, as one not of our own said, in recounting the contests of an aged priest and seven children together with their like-minded mother, who contended nobly for their ancestral law — of whose endurance and greatness of soul these wondrous fathers, citizens and heirs of the Jerusalem above, fell short in nothing.

Now when these had thus been piously perfected, the king told his chief counselor Arachis to turn to the second plan, since the first had failed, and to summon that Nachor.

So Arachis, having reached his cave in the depth of night (for he dwelt in the deserts, occupying himself with the arts of divination), and having disclosed to him all the...

...that had been planned, having made it clear to him, he returns to the king at daybreak.

And indeed, having again requested horsemen for himself, he made a pretense of going out in search of Barlaam.

And as he went out and was walking about the deserts, a certain man was seen by him coming out of a certain ravine.

When he ordered them to pursue him, they quickly overtook him, and having seized him, brought him to him.

And when he inquired who he was, and of what religion, and what he was called, that man called himself a Christian, and named himself Barlaam, just as he had been instructed.

And Arachis, filled with joy — as he plainly showed — having very quickly taken him, returns to the king;

and indeed, having reported this, he presents him.

And the king says, in the hearing of all who were standing by:

Are you Barlaam, the workman of the demon? And he answered:

I am a workman of God, and not of demons.

For you are indebted to acknowledge many thanks to me, because I taught your son to worship God, having delivered him from all deceit and reconciled him to the true God, and having instructed him in every form of virtue.

And again the king, as though enraged, said:

I ought indeed to have put you to death without any inquiry at all, neither deeming you worthy of speech, nor granting you occasion for a defense;

but I bear with your insolence, for the sake of the humanity befitting me, until on an appointed day I shall examine the matters concerning you.

And if you should be persuaded by me, you shall be deemed worthy of pardon;

having said this, he hands him over to Arachis, charging him to guard him most carefully.

And on the following day, departing from there, he returns to his own palace.

And it was noised abroad that Barlaam had been seized, so that even the king's son, upon hearing it, was grievously pained in soul, and was in no way able to hold back his tears.

With groans and lamentations he besought God, and called upon him for the old man's help.

The Good One, then, did not disregard him as he mourned;

for he is good to those who wait upon him in the day of affliction, and he knows those who fear him;

who also made everything known to the youth through a nighttime vision, and put strength into him, and encouraged him toward the contest of piety.

And having awakened, he found his heart — which shortly before had been grieving and in pain — now full of joy and courage and sweetest light.

The king, having thus acted and thus reasoned, rejoiced, thinking that he had devised well, and rendering the greatest thanks to Arachis.

But, to use the divine David's words, unrighteousness lied to itself, and righteousness conquers lawlessness, casting it down utterly and destroying its memory with a crash, as the account will show in what follows.

So after two days the king came to his son's palace.

And when he came out to meet him, the father did not greet him in the customary manner;

but, resembling one who was grieved and, as it were, angered, entering into the royal bedchamber, he sat down looking sullen.

Then, having summoned his son, he said:

What is this report, child, that resounds in my ears, and melts my soul with despondency? For I do not think any man was ever filled with so great a joy at the birth of a child, as the gladness I partook of in you;

nor again do I think anyone was ever so grieved and so ill-treated by a child, as you have now treated me, dishonoring my gray hairs, taking away the light of my eyes, and cutting off the strength of my sinews;

for the fear that I feared concerning you has come upon me, and what I dreaded has met me.

and you have become a gloating-point for my enemies, and a laughingstock for my adversaries.

With an untrained mind and a childish judgment you have followed the words of deceivers, and preferred the counsel of the evil-minded to my counsel, and having forsaken the worship of our gods, you have served a foreign God.

Why, child, have you done these things? And you, whom I hoped to rear in all safety, and to have as the staff and strength of my old age, and to leave behind as the best successor...

...of the kingdom — were you not ashamed to show yourself an enemy, one of the foes, against me? Ought you not rather to have obeyed me, and followed my decrees, than to yield to the crafty and rotten old man's foolish, empty talk — he who proposed to you a bitter life instead of a sweet one, and urged you to travel the hard and rugged road instead of the most desirable luxury, the road which the Son of Mary bids men walk? Do you not fear the wrath of the greatest gods, lest they strike you with a thunderbolt, or kill you with lightning, or swallow you down in a chasm of the earth — in return for us, who have done you so many benefits, and adorned you with the diadem of kingship, and subjected populous nations to you, and who, beyond all hope, through my prayer and supplication brought about your birth and your sharing in this sweetest light — us you have thrust aside and despised, and clung instead to the crucified one, deceived by the vain hopes of his servants, who fable certain new ages and prattle of a resurrection of dead bodies, and introduce countless other things to deceive the foolish? But now, dearest son, if you will obey me, your father, in anything, bid these long trifles a far-off farewell, and come and sacrifice to the benevolent gods, and let us propitiate them with hecatombs and libations, so that they may grant you forgiveness for your offense;

for they are powerful and able both to do good and to punish, and as an example of what I say, there are we ourselves, who through them have come to this rule, and who render to them thanks for their beneficence — honors to those who worship them, and punishments to those who refuse to sacrifice to them.

When the king had gone through many such vain ramblings, mocking and slandering what belongs to us, and praising and extolling what belongs to the idols, the most divine young man, seeing that the matter no longer needed a corner and concealment, but rather a lampstand and a conspicuous place, so that it might be made manifest to all, being filled with frankness and boldness, said:

What I have done, master, I would not deny;

I have fled the darkness, having run to the light;

and I have forsaken error, having become akin to the truth;

and having renounced the demons, I have ranged myself with Christ, the Son and Word of God the Father, by whose word the universe was brought forth out of things that are not; who also, having fashioned man out of dust, breathed into him the breath of life, and appointed him to dwell in the paradise of delight; and when man transgressed his commandment and became liable to death, and was brought under the authority of the terrible ruler of this world, he did not cease doing everything, wishing to restore him to his former honor.

Wherefore he himself, the maker of all creation and the creator of our race, became man for our sake, and having come upon earth from a holy Virgin, dwelt among men; and for us ungrateful servants the Master accepted death — death by the cross — so that the tyranny of sin might be dissolved, so that the former condemnation might be abolished, so that the gates of heaven might be opened to us again.

For there he raised up our nature and seated it upon a throne of glory, and he granted an unending kingdom to those who love him, and good things that surpass both speech and hearing.

For he himself is the mighty and only Sovereign, the King of those who reign and Lord of those who rule, whose might is invincible and whose dominion is beyond compare, the only Holy One, who rests among the holy, who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit is glorified — into whom I have been baptized.

And I confess, and glorify, and worship one God in three hypostases, consubstantial and unconfused, uncreated and immortal, eternal, infinite, unbounded, incorporeal, impassible, unchangeable, unalterable, indeterminate — a fountain of goodness and righteousness and everlasting light, maker of all creatures visible and invisible, who holds all things together and preserves them, who cares for all, who rules over all and reigns.

for not one thing that exists came into being

apart from him, nor can anything subsist without his providence;

for he himself is the life of all, the subsistence of all, the illumination of all, wholly sweetness and insatiable desire, and the highest point of all things desirable.

So to abandon so good, so wise, so powerful a God, and to serve unclean demons, the makers of all passions, and to render worship to deaf and speechless idols, which neither exist nor ever will exist — how could this not exceed all folly and madness? For when has any speech or word ever been heard from them? When have they given even the slightest answer to those who pray to them? When did they ever walk, or receive any sense-perception? For neither have those who stand ever remembered a seat, nor have those who sit ever been seen to rise up

Having learned from a holy man the loathsomeness and foul odor and insensibility of these things, and further the corruption and weakness of the demons working in them and through them deceiving you, and having spat upon their wickedness, and having hated them with a perfect hatred, I have enlisted myself with the living and true God;

and I will serve him until my last breath, so that my spirit may also come into his hands

Since such indescribable goods have met me, I rejoiced, being freed from the slavery of the wicked demons and recalled from dire captivity, and illumined by the light of the Lord's countenance;

but I grieved and was divided in soul, because you yourself, my lord and father, did not also share in such benefits

but fearing your mind's stubborn refusal to be persuaded, I kept the grief within myself, not wishing to provoke you to anger, but I ceaselessly besought God to draw you to himself and to recall you from the long exile which you yourself procured for yourself, having become, alas, a deserter from piety and a servant of all wickedness and impiety

But since you yourself, O father, have brought my affairs into the open, hear the whole of my resolve:

I will not falsify my covenants with Christ — no, by him who bought me out of slavery with his precious blood — even if I must die ten thousand times for him, I will die

Knowing then these things about me thus, no longer trouble yourself, attempting to persuade me away from my good confession

For just as if you thought to lay hold of heaven with your hand, or to dry up the seas, the attempt would be impracticable and unaccomplishable, so know that this too is such

So then, either do you yourself, having heard my counsel, become akin to Christ, and receive the goods beyond conception, and we shall be partakers of one another, just as in nature, so also in faith;

or I will depart from your sonship, be well assured, and I will serve my God with a clean conscience

Now when the king heard all these things, being moved most sharply and seized with uncontrollable anger, he spoke to him angrily, and gnashed his teeth bitterly, like a madman;