書信集 第 1 章 第 47/55 段

and since you deny this, and confess that both the judgment and the kingdom of heaven are eternal, it would be well.

Fourth, concerning a certain monk: that he is able to deliver a hundred and fifty of those under judgment from their punishment;

and since you deny this, and say that there is neither repentance after death, nor anyone able to deliver a soul from the punishment allotted to each by God, it would be well.

Fifth, concerning the book called that of Antony: that you say it is acceptable, a book which, as we ourselves discovered upon reading it, contains many blasphemies;

and since you now confess to reject it as foreign to the Church of God, and that neither you nor those with you will any longer possess or read it, it would be well.

And blessed be God, who has effected among you a cleansing of the aforesaid scandals; and blessed be the name of his glory, which persuaded you to say that you are a rustic and unlearned man, and to yield in all things and be persuaded by the word of my lowliness.

But I myself shall neither counsel nor prescribe anything beyond what has been divinely declared to the holy apostles, prophets, and fathers, but this very thing—as you yourself have written—that you believe in the Holy Trinity, undivided in essence, yet distinguished by personal characteristics into Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: one God, one Lord, inasmuch as there is also one faith;

and the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Spirit is God—not three gods (God forbid), but one God, just as also one Lord;

this is the dogma of theology. As for the dogma of the divine dispensation, it is to believe that the One of the Trinity, by the good pleasure of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, was made flesh of the holy Theotokos, the Holy Spirit having first come upon her, and thus the power of the Most High having overshadowed her, according to the Gospel;

and to confess the angels as angels—all men also standing in great need of them—and that the demonic tribe remains utterly unmixed with them unto endless ages, since they abandoned their own dwelling through apostasy and have been condemned by God to just punishments;

to confess also all the saints as servants of God, able to intercede with God for our salvation;

and further to confess the holy icons—of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, of his Mother, of the angels, and of all the saints—to venerate and accept them according to what was decreed by the second Council of Nicaea; and to anathematize all the heretics anathematized by the councils, and to proclaim all the orthodox praised by them.

This is the sincere faith of the Christians; this is the testimony of the confession of Christ;

whoever holds otherwise, let him be anathema from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

just as Paul says: 'even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel other than what we preached to you, let him be accursed.'

As I have said before, so now I say again:

'If anyone preaches to you a gospel other than what you received, let him be accursed.'

Since, then, you yourself have not set these things forth in detail in your letters, it is altogether necessary that you confess that this is what you believe;

But how shall this be done? By your subscribing, at the close of this very letter, according to the enclosed slip.

And thus the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard and grant to us and to you alike, with one spirit and one heart, to believe in and worship the Holy Trinity, unto the salvation both of our own souls and of the people who have been divided into two parts, regarding the lord Ioannikios, our spiritual father, and you, our honored father and brother.

{To Diogenes the Asekretis. Question:

How ought one to name the icon of Christ, and how ought one to venerate it?

Answer.} The question admits of a twofold answer, namely, one concerning the naming;

for that which is named in reference to it is spoken of both properly and improperly.

For properly speaking, his image is called 'the icon of Christ'; but it is not properly speaking when it is called 'Christ'—rather, this is by a loose figure of speech, as is also the case with the life-giving cross and its representation;

the same principle applies likewise also to veneration; the veneration given to it is analogous to that given to the representation of the cross.

for it is relative, as between things that exist in relation to one another—the prototype and the image—according to the word of the great Basil;

'for the honor given to the image passes over to the prototype.'

For the veneration of both is one, neither split nor divided, but existing essentially with regard to the prototype, and relatively with regard to the derivative image—just as also the form of a shape, which is present there naturally, but here by participation.

Therefore, whoever venerates the icon of anyone whatsoever—whether of Christ, or of the Theotokos, or of a saint, or simply of an emperor, or of a ruler, or of an ordinary person—venerates, in that icon, the one whose image it happens to be;

and venerating in this manner, he does not err, but, being firmly grounded in orthodoxy, he justly repels those who fall into error on either side of the truth.

But who are these? Both those who refuse to venerate the sacred icons, and those who claim that in the act of veneration they venerate the very prototypes themselves in a natural, essential manner. The blasphemy of both is equal: of the former, in that they abolish the mystery of the divine dispensation; of the latter, in that they deify—or rather, make of one essence—things that by nature are far removed from the prototypes.

Therefore the icon of Christ is to be venerated—for here is the crown of the argument—relatively, but it is not to be worshiped with the adoration due to God alone;

for this worship of latria belongs, in essence, to Christ himself alone, since the worship due to the Trinity is one;

and not even the Theotokos herself is to be worshiped with such adoration, nor even the life-giving cross itself;

thus, neither is the icon of Christ to be worshiped with such adoration, but it is to be venerated—all acts of veneration being referred, through the mediation of their respective prototypes, to the one and only worship of latria due to the Holy Trinity.

...differing from the subordinate or superior person.

{To John the Grammarian} Your honor has shown the unfeigned sincerity of your love in the corrective notes on the treatise composed by us who are unlearned.

And as for those points, they may indeed be judged one way or another in relation to that treatise.

But since you were perplexed as to how we understand the term 'substrate,' and how it might be understood otherwise by you, as you indicated, we too were perplexed in turn that one so wise in all things should be perplexed.

For the 'substrate,' O admirable one, according to the blessed Leontius—whose scholia are most excellent—is said to be 'substance together with hypostasis.'

Does not the great Basil also say 'not one in the substrate' concerning the Holy Trinity? And indeed the all-wise Dionysius somewhere says this: 'many in respect of the accidents, one in the substrate.'

But accidents are contemplated not in the universal substance, but in the hypostasis, as you know.

So that, in saying 'many in respect of the accidents, one in the substrate,' he has taken the substrate to be substance together with hypostasis.

And this, I think, is not beyond what is reasonable, as it stands in that statement.

For how could that which is not one in the substrate fail to be spoken of theologically as three both in names and in realities, so that the substrate is nothing other than substance together with hypostasis? But if something with sharper insight should be discovered by your holiness, may you not refuse to instruct him whom you so generously commend.

{To the Hegoumenos} God has given a very great gift in our province, most honored brother: the most illustrious curator, mighty in piety—in that, having become an avenger for Christ, he drew under his own hand the man living the life of a brigand among Christians, although he had formerly been an offering consecrated to God through monastic perfection—I mean Ammoun, once our brother, but now placed under your charge through the mediation of that admirable man, by the good pleasure of Christ himself, who rejoices over the salvation of the one who was lost.

What a marvelous work has been accomplished by that God-loving curator, and how worthy of the virtue that is in him! And not his alone, but also yours, O spiritual father, who, like Christ, have taken up the lost one upon your own shoulders.

I therefore, humble as I am, rejoiced and exulted, that what was lost has been found, and what was cast away has been brought home.

And thanks be to the might and mercy of the glory of God, who has had mercy upon that one, and has restored me, humble as I am, from my despondency;

for I had been despondent for many years over the loss of my son.

You, then, have now by God's mercy become his father, through the assistance of that good mediator; and may you present him to God from this time forward.

For behold, I hand him over into your hands as though before the very sight of my own eyes; let him be called your disciple, and he will be your disciple to the end, and you will inherit his reward forever.

And you shall read this letter to him again, so that he may have assurance, just as I have also written to him himself.

And let the word of the apostle be fulfilled: 'Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.'

May he guard you together with your whole God-chosen company, as you pray also concerning us sinners for the better things.

{To Basil the Hegoumenos} Your brotherly honor is always accustomed to write to us things beyond our worth, adorning our nothingness with honors and praises;

but we have been taught not to overstep our own measure, but to regard ourselves as nothing, which indeed we are.

The tardiness of your honored letters has surely not grieved us.

For why, and on what account, should there be any compulsion? What has grieved us—for it is necessary to disclose the matters at hand—is the sojourn in the city, and the accusation and counter-accusation before the ruler, and the departure under command, while we still find ourselves subject to the same practices of being held under the power of the heterodox; and we might add too the mission sent by the steward to the ruler himself, and the shared table-fellowship, and the being led along together with them.

Another matter, [arising] out of friendly custom:

'For why,' he says, 'is my freedom judged by another's conscience?' And since we have adequately managed matters in what has gone before—indeed, as God alone knows, with much goodwill and mercy—it is necessary now also to build up, and not to suffer loss on both sides, neither taking on what belongs to another nor unreasonably casting away what is our own.

'No one can serve two masters'—so Truth itself has declared.

You are lords and masters and superiors of your own monasteries and of your own decisions, but we are humble and dishonored, cast aside somewhere here on account of the persecution.

Grant us this freedom—even the freedom to grieve over our own sins.

And I know that this letter is grievous to your honor, just as it is to us; but nothing is to be preferred above the love of God, for the sake of which we too, together with our holy fathers, on account of the outrage done to Christ, have renounced what we have renounced, and choose what we now propose.

{To the Same} The grief of our soul concerning you, most honored ones, has been somewhat comforted, if indeed matters stand as you have written, and you are withdrawing from your retention of the abbacy;

for there is no fellowship, O friend, between those who are persecuted and those who are not persecuted (and not only not persecuted, but even paying tribute to the persecutors, while still ruling as superiors over the monasteries they hold sway over)—unless indeed some fellowship has been acknowledged between light and darkness.

But that is not possible, as the sacred word has declared.

For our giving ourselves over, up to now, among those who were seized, by way of a medicinal submission, came about in this manner: by our receiving pledges that we should in no way, neither in word nor in deed, be brought again under subjection to the heterodox;

and they stand, as it were, in the middle ground between holding the monasteries and not holding them, and, to say the whole of it, as though the confession could be made lawful through a withdrawal from opponents and a counteraction against those pressing them.

But when the time came for what was sought, that which had been confessed was not accomplished before God and men unto a more precise departure from the former submission; instead there was again a being led away, and again a submission both in word and in deed, as the very facts bear witness and as we have heard from those who know—and again they remain unshaken superiors, through the recent reception and dispatch by the ruling power.

The same holds true for all who have acted in this manner; and now to rebuke them is even laughable—or rather, it is the derangement of those who rebuke, and a stumbling-block to the pious, and confusion and blindness concerning the confession of Christ.

It is necessary to hearken to the apostle, who says that you should withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which they received from us—or rather, from God himself, crying out through the prophet:

'Come out from their midst, and be separated, and touch not the unclean thing;'

'and I will receive you'—that is, clearly, those who thus separate themselves and do not confound the confession of Christ.

For what will they say, most honored one—both the hegoumenos of Komai and the one of Goulaion, together with those likewise recently persecuted for their steadfastness—if they should see you holding the monasteries by betrayal of the truth, and us being led away together with you? And what will those who suffer hardship in the mountains under the pressure of the persecution say? Will they not groan? Will they not lament? Will they not consider the confession of Christ a mere game? And what of those who governed monasteries from the beginning and have been persecuted for Christ's sake along with us? Will they not seal it as certain that what we are suffering is but child's play? 'Be not deceived,' says the apostle, 'God is not mocked.'

The confession of Christ has not been rendered common, even if some think and say otherwise.

Therefore, beloved brother, if you wish to be numbered with us the humble, withdraw from your hold on the monastery, just as you also promised;

for this we also exhort, and to this end we also pray, that, as you are orthodox within, so also you may be orthodox without, saving your honored soul, than which nothing among visible things is of equal worth.

The lord archbishop, together with us, sends you abundant greetings, loving your salvation exceedingly, as do also the rest of the brethren.

{Theodore, on behalf of Eustratios the Hegoumenos} As for the problem of the opinion which seems good to you, my good sir—to pass over the rest of your little phrases, both preceding and following, as impertinent and grammatically faulty—the matter stands as follows, word for word:

'Christ our true God, having two natures, two wills, two energies, but one person of the two natures—whose person shall I depict in the icon?' Since, then, you have asked which person, hear the tuneful answer sung out:

The formed one—since the formless 'character of the hypostasis' of the Father has been given form according to what pertains to us;

the one in time—since the eternal one has taken on a temporal extension;

the one having eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, cheeks—since the shapeless one was found in the shape of a man;

the one kissed—since the uncircumscribable one, having been embraced, was kissed by the betrayer;

the one struck—since the untouchable one, having become touchable, was struck by the officer;

the one seen stretched crosswise on the cross—since the immortal one, having bowed his head, gave up his spirit.

And this is not indicative of two persons (far be such impiety!), but demonstrative of one person, who exists out of two and in two natures, indivisibly and unconfusedly.

Wherefore the sacred apostle says:

'concerning his Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness.'

He has therefore shown you, by saying 'according to the flesh,' that he is circumscribable, that is to say, capable of being depicted in an image; and by saying 'according to the Spirit of holiness,' that this same Jesus Christ is uncircumscribable.

From this, all the God-bearing fathers, having grasped its meaning, most clearly proclaim that he is both circumscribable and uncircumscribable, both visible and invisible, both temporal and eternal.

But if you cannot accept this, your premise is Jewish.

And how is it that, while calling Christ [one] of two natures, you say he is uncircumscribable only? For this pertains only to one of his natures, whereas to speak consistently of the two [natures] means to call him both circumscribable and uncircumscribable.

Therefore you contradict yourself.

For if he seems to you to be uncircumscribable only, this is the very teaching of Mani, who strips the Word of his humanity.

For whoever is bare of this humanity is uncircumscribable and cannot be depicted in an image.

Or again, how is it that you partake of the body and blood of Christ, when he is, according to you, uncircumscribable, while what you partake of is circumscribed? Either do not partake at all, most excellent sir, or, in partaking, confess that you partake of the circumscribed body and blood of the circumscribed Christ, lest you follow Paul of Samosata's heresy, as one partaking of a mere man and not of God made flesh.

It is therefore firmly concluded from the truth that whoever depicts Christ in images is not, as you have babbled in your ignorance, a man-worshiper after Nestorius, nor a creature-worshiper after Arius, but is a truly and steadfastly orthodox Christian; whereas whoever, according to your view, does not depict him, is both a Manichaean and a follower of Paul of Samosata at once—on the one hand, by the term 'uncircumscribable,' introducing a bare God who became man only in appearance, in the manner of Mani; and on the other hand, by that same term 'uncircumscribable,' partaking of the body and blood as of a mere man, in the manner of Paul, and not of the God who truly became man.

{To Theodore the Patrician} This letter comes late in due time, but that is because we ourselves were rather slow in hearing the dreadful news of the calamity that has befallen our lord.

Oh, what a mournful report!

Our beloved lady has departed from us; you have been cut off from your good spouse, you have been torn away from that praiseworthy flesh—if indeed, as the sacred word says, 'the two shall become one flesh.'

But if, as is confessed, they are one flesh, it is clear that the separation inflicts upon those who are parted so great a wound as a sword inflicts when it cuts one man in two.

The cutting is indeed painful, and the blood, as it were, flows before your very eyes, and there is no salve to apply, nor bandage, so far as merely human help is concerned.

Moreover, she who has departed was not just any ordinary wife, but one greatly praiseworthy and admirable: first of all possessing the unshaken piety of faith, and love for her husband, if any woman ever did, which above all things the holy apostle requires in marriages;

of the blessed woman in her nightly vigils, so that thereby too God might be moved to mercy.

And what of her keeping of the household? What of her rearing of children? What of her solicitous care for the servants, the simplicity of her character, her graciousness toward friends, her binding together of the family, her generosity toward those of equal rank, and her dignity and modesty in all things? These things, more than golden braids and pearl adornments and costly garments, truly adorned that celebrated woman, both while she remained at home, and when she went abroad, and when she was seen in the imperial courts.

But nevertheless all these things have gone, and we have become — to speak with deep feeling — half-dead and torn apart; or rather, to speak in the words of the psalm, like a night raven in a ruined house, like a sparrow alone upon a housetop, seeing the house bereft of her who once presided over it, the children before your eyes gathering round and being encircled, having nowhere to rest their hands, from which they might receive a mother's soothing caress, the animating warmth of her nursing.

Gloomy is the hearth, as though the sun itself had left it; no one sings sweetly now in the ears of you, your children, and all your household, since she who was truly sweet-voiced is absent, she who delighted her hearers with her truly melodious speech and address.

All these things are truly pitiable and lamentable, whether taken figuratively or understood in their plain sense.

But what are we to suffer, O master? It is God's ordinance, or rather His decree, sung through the divine David:

'There is no man that shall live and not see death.'

Thus everyone, from Adam our forefather until now, having entered into the world through birth, departs again through dissolution into that world beyond, one higher and more godlike;

'For it is sown,' it says, 'in corruption; it is raised in incorruption;'

'it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory;'

'it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power;'

'it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.'

For we shall be equal to angels and sons of the resurrection, mortality being swallowed up by life.

Do you see, O master, that although our lady has left us, yet she has gone forth into light out of darkness, and from a perishable life into an immortal lot? There you will see her again, a little while later, when you too pass over.

So then, let us not grieve as do the rest, who have no hope, but hope that through the resurrection we shall be made better unto a life free from suffering; rather, I remind you, let us come to ourselves, hold fast to our household, take care of our children, and above all, of our own precious soul, adorning ourselves with virtues after the pattern of that blessed woman, and rejoicing in this, that we have sent forth our spouse as a suppliant to God, who has left behind for us and for all her acquaintances an example of a good life.

{To the wife of the tourmarch of Hellas} As far as the reason of our being unacquainted goes, we were not about to write to your honor, being unknown to one another and unaccustomed to correspondence;

but since the exhortation came from a God-loving person known to us — I mean the most celebrated patrikia who is your kinswoman, and this lady's blessed daughter — and then also, through the very letter-bearer Ignatius, our spiritual son, your address to us, lowly as we are, was made known, we have necessarily come to write a word of consolation to your soul, worn out by the affliction that has befallen it on account of your blessed son who died in war.

But what remedy of consolation could ever be found for the healing of so hard a wound? O calamity, which even in the mere hearing of it declares itself!

He is gone — that honored offspring, the mother's own eye, the heart's inmost affection, the well-grown branch, altogether and entirely the light of the one who bore him, bearing in himself his father's features, and, as far as possible, cutting short the desolation of widowhood, and being the consolation of her whole life, both for her own hearth and for those of her own blood.

And what has happened? He has flown away from his mother's eyes, he has been cut off from the good root, and death did not even take place before her eyes — that death for which those who send off their own kin gather some comfort through the words spoken at the funeral and through holy burial.

We have been deprived even of this consolation, since the good shoot was cut down by the sword of war.

O pitiable tragedy!

O inconsolable calamity!

My mind is now unsteady, as it reconsiders the suffering — where and how it occurred, upon which limb the murderous hand struck, in what place he fell and breathed his last.

Was it quick? Was it from a single blow? Did he say anything before he died? Alas for this tale!

We sent forth our treasure with good hope, and we have reaped inconsolable lamentation.

And what could one say worthy of lament, bewailing this suffering? Perhaps to you even the sun seems gloomy, the air downcast, the sea no longer sweet, the earth no longer desirable, and the sky oppressive, no longer holding your spiritual star.

So many things, and even more than these, shake your soul, grip your heart, pour forth hot tears, send up groans, and bring you to despair even of life itself.

But come now, lady, come, take heart (for it is time for recovery); open your ears, and listen attentively to the divine voices:

'As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so shall he flourish.'

'There is no man that shall live and not see death.'

'If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.'

We have not, then, lost our son forever, but a little while hence, when the last trumpet shall sound, he will rise to meet the Lord in the air, and there we shall see him.

He was struck here with a mortal wound, but there he will not experience eternal grief, having put on Christ through baptism, and having held the orthodox faith, and not yet having had his fill of the pleasures of this life, having tasted them, so to speak, only with the tip of his finger, on account of his youth;

for which reason we believe that, for whatever oversights and faults he committed as a man, he will receive forgiveness on account of such an untimely and unjust death.

For how many evils, lady, would he have been filled with, had he remained in the flesh? Or does it not seem to you that this present life is a place of trial for man — the taking of a spouse, the acquisition of children, the abundance of servants and other things useful for life, and I would add too the pursuit of earthly glory?

Freed from all these things, he will have great freedom of soul, being brought near to God, having had his soul sprinkled but little by the briny billows of this life.

Wherefore, then, relax, let go, O lady, this inconsolable sorrow; set a lasting limit to your suffering;

offer to God a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; say with the blessed Job:

'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;'

'as it seemed good to the Lord, so it has come to pass.'

'Return, my soul, unto thy rest;'

for your son's passing has been as the death of your very own soul.

And looking to your widowhood, cry out:

'The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.'

For by disposing yourself in this way, you will first gladden God, as one who has willingly offered up her son as a sacrifice like Abraham; then you will also grant the best gifts to your most beloved child himself, who sees you bearing this with thanksgiving; and to all others besides you will become an example of good endurance in Christ Jesus our Lord;

whom we pray, having touched your heart with mercy and compassion, to bring about in you a light of good consolation, and to grant that your life continue in peace, and, having taken up here a life devoted to God, to make you worthy of reunion with your son and of eternal shared rejoicing.

{To Niketas the monk} We have read the book sent to us by your holiness through the most God-loving metropolitan;

and the one who wrote it does not think rightly concerning the doctrine of the venerable icons.

He lays down that the ineffable and incomprehensible love of God for us, and the sacred contests of the saints, are to be extolled by us only in sacred writings, taking no delight whatsoever, so far as it depends on us, in any fashioning or pictorial representation;

and that such things are to be learned, in an elementary fashion, only by sight suited to those who need it.

What, then, is to be said regarding these things? First, that he creates a division of our one and perfect faith, which admits neither any addition nor any subtraction whatsoever, assigning to himself the exposition through sacred writings, while relegating the depiction in fashioned form and painting to those who are, so he supposes, simpler and less perfect;

then, he would kindle for himself the perfection of grace, while casting off onto them a Jewish infancy, as though they were in need of some corresponding elevation.

Therefore, according to him, the holy apostle is proved false, who says:

'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female;'

'for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.'

But if he speaks truly — as indeed it has been spoken truly — that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, what is this novel division into two unequal parts? That the holy nation, the royal priesthood, should be separated, and that the one part should belong to the more perfect portion, and the other to the inferior?

Next, since everyone of sound mind aspires to perfection, he will consider what is imperfect blameworthy, and hence, of necessity, the doctrine concerning pictorial representation becomes, on this logic, superfluous.

But he is especially opposed also to the great Basil, not aligning what is set forth as doctrine by him with equal authority;

'For what the account of history presents through hearing,' he says, 'this the silent painting shows through imitation.'