to those who would not believe, brought forward as a reproach: "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe." But they, even though they see signs and powers and gifts of healings through this great one now wondrously working Christ, do not believe; for he says that he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, and indeed, having eyes they do not see, and having ears they do not hear. But let those things regarding them be deferred for the time being. For we have already reasoned enough with them both by words and in writing concerning these same matters; perhaps, one day, they themselves will believe, if not by [our] words, [then] by these great and continuous powers and works. B If, however, they do not, they certainly will when they see this great one, along with the angels and god-like men, rising together with Christ and being glorified together, and caught up with them from the earth into the air in clouds, according to the blessed Paul, for the meeting of the Lord, as they shine supernaturally, along with them, in the communion and deification of the Sun of Righteousness—according to the word of that great Sun himself, I mean; for he says, "Then the righteous shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father"—and thus they shall always be with the Lord. If indeed we might grant this for now, that they too will be spectators there of the divine and supernatural. But they will surely have that extent of knowledge, at least, of the things they now refuse to believe; since I plainly hear the divine Scripture saying concerning those who crucified Christ, "They shall look on him whom they pierced."
But you, O thrice-blessed and truly venerable and most-desired head, the fortress of stillness, the glory of monastics, the common ornament of theologians and Fathers and teachers, the fellow-combatant of the apostles; the bloodless zealot and crowned victor of confessors and martyrs both in word and deed, and the athlete and general and champion of piety; the sublime interpreter and teacher of divine dogmas; the most sharp destroyer of the godless and polytheistic error of these many various heresies—C you, O protector and guardian and savior of the common Church of Christ after the first and only Savior; and I call you also the mouth and tongue and soul and mind of this [Church], not the mind called so by the Greeks, I mean that philosopher Anaxagoras, but a mind most holy and most high and godlike and truly divine, and the head after the supernatural and common head of all, Christ, and the hearth of all kinds of words, and the flow of wonderful graces, and instructor in the height of virtue, and the canon of theology and rule of dogmas, and the exceptional honor of God toward men, and a sort of common ornament of human nature, and whatever is divine and high and venerable—you, therefore, even having departed to Christ, watch over your own flock now and the common [Church] of Christ more clearly from above, curing all kinds of diseases, and perfecting [us] with your words, and driving away heresies, and delivering [us] from all kinds of passions. For you will never forget that sacred knowledge and the greatest struggles and sweats for our sake, with which you, having been nourished and grown together with us beyond expectation, have been glorified together, having been perfected supernaturally. Receive also this our discourse favorably, tyrannized by the overflowing longing for you, and having attempted things beyond our strength. And you will surely receive, as I know, both friendship and praise according to my ability, and as not untimely for now, nor in any way superfluous for speaking and writing, even if we were moved at another time, perhaps, as you yourself would have said. And having loosened the storm of these all-various passions and temptations, which has been culminating for so long and rousing a terrible swell and turmoil every day, [save us] from those currently upon us, along with the good hopes from there, and the expected blessed relief and rest in Christ Jesus our Lord; to whom [be] glory and power with the unoriginate Father and the life-creating Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.
ENCOMIUM BY THE MOST HOLY PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, LORD NEILOS, ON OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS GREGORY PALAMAS, ARCHBISHOP OF THESSALONICA
D Nothing is so burdensome and full of such unspeakable difficulty as to speak about certain great and wonderful men, if one happens to have said [these things] not perfunctorily, but with as much study as possible to avoid repeating what has been said by others, and for such wonderful men, [to write] in such a way that one does not rely only on divine wisdom, but with great measure also on secular wisdom, differing from all that has been said by them.
A And the one who would compose a discourse [about them] and attempt to raise their worth as much as possible, if he were to bring forward the discourse—even if not highly artistic nor flowery with stylistic flourishes, as if in tricks of the craft, but simply unadorned and free from all ambition—out of zeal, they would praise and crown him, as one who has undertaken the labor for the sake of the good alone and not for ambition. But so that it might not be profitless even to those who encounter it, but rather very useful and adapting its benefit to the most opportune matters; for it is the habit of most of the admired things to entice the souls of the hearers toward imitation, and as if by natural necessity to provoke them to some progress. B Therefore, I have especially placed myself among the discourses concerning the great Gregory, not because I place great trust in myself, as if I were capable of uttering anything worthy of his greatness of mind and the brilliance of his life and discourse, but because I am urged from both sides, trusting that I shall receive not ignoble, nor small, but even very ambitious rewards for my labors, or at any rate, that the lesser will be received from the other; for I shall gratify both him and myself by uttering something timely, and the exchange for our own love and the worthy zeal for him will not certainly fail to be a hope of no small account for us, as we know well that He will not look to the worth of what has been said, but will measure out the reward by the zeal and the affection for him. C For the fact that one has to preserve what has been said before, and to discover other things suitable to the glory of the one being praised, prepares for him a double struggle; but also because his own power in words and his glory fall far short of those who have spoken before, he approaches the things set before him not very eagerly, nor possessing desire for the production of the discourse, his impulse, as it were, withering away from the very clear knowledge that nothing will be gained for him even if he were to be very eager, but it is entirely necessary to come after those who have arrived before him, and to bring defeat plainly into view. Not, however, that this itself is the thing that has most moved me to this discourse, that the contest for us is not only about greatness, but also toward great men, not in the sense of being able to reckon the glory of the words as standing against the power of the others, but that an excuse for us in the face of defeat will not be ignoble before fair-minded judges, who judge not by worth concerning the wonderful, but judge the small things spoken about such men—that it is not by nature of that kind, but by comparison with the greater that they seem small, so that the opposite happens to us than to the pedants; for they, even if they say great things about small matters, do not escape blame; but we, even if we appear to be saying things commensurate about those who excel, are freed from the charge. And not in this alone, as we said, does an excuse for defeat remain for us, but that we have not entered upon this struggle of discourse out of any stubbornness and lack of judgment of calculations, but because we are persuaded by those very men who have come before, or to speak more truly, even commanded, since they obtained such honor from God, to be guides—which is to say, of the great Church of the faithful, and of the whole inhabited world, by the indwelling grace of the Spirit—of those under their hand in sacred and spiritual struggles and bouts. D Now, for a certain nation or city, which has many sources for encomia, and having left no place idle for those wishing to praise, to increase the glory from [their] deeds with words, and to try to render [them] more brilliant with encomia, just as those who wrap outer embellishment around those things that are beautiful by nature, this does not seem small to those who are obsessed with words, considering this the end of their zeal, the applause of the hearers; and they gape at this insatiably, and think they have received a worthy reward for their labors if they happen to be admired by the many, or even by the wiser; but not so for those who are truly wise and who have discerned the worthlessness of the present things, and have been trained well. What is it that one ought to admire? And how does it seem like a great thing to disregard such things? It is indeed of a small-minded soul and of one who loves empty glory, and as the children of the Greeks say in their myths, like someone among those being punished in Hades, drawing into a perforated jar. But if someone, for the sake of virtue and piety and many such things, sweats... C And to go through all his points, as if guarding the laws of encomia in a composition, and as if [describing] a statue of his good deeds and his manifestness in both words and actions, to add the discourse for those who come after, besides being difficult and requiring great intelligence, and even before us worthy of the one who has spoken and for whom these things have been said and written, [is a task that] possesses much brilliance from the deeds of the one who did them, but [which] from the power of the speaker has gained no less strength, so that the discourse neither otherwise nor at all fails in supreme ambition, but having brought together the power of words and a life that is in all things perfect, it works out a deed that falls short of nothing of those now or those before that have been aided by greatness and beauty. But nonetheless, since everything of his, as has been said, has been composed, and lies before those who wish [it] as a pastime no less delightful than it is useful, we must also, just as if it were some necessary contribution and a common offering, bring forward this discourse, which is owed to the common father and teacher. We shall refrain from many and individual narratives, and those that do not tend toward him himself, nor bring clear and pure ambition to him; but we shall compose the discourse only from the things accomplished by him, and of these, such as, if passed over, would injure the narrative, so that it might be not only few [in number], but dear, not only to those who hear, but also to the one being praised. For just as with him while he was alive, of the power that was present in his words...
A and the elegance of his character, and of the excellence and magnanimity of all living virtue, it was possible to obtain clear proofs from even a brief association; so too now, for those who have chosen to admire what was his, it is possible through a few [examples] to make manifest and clear to those who hear the entirety of his character, the grace that blossomed upon him, and the convergence of all good things into one. Thus, as if describing to those who were present a riddle of his circumstances, neither do those who tell everything possess more than those who have spoken but a few things, nor have those who spoke but a few things been unable to instill wonder in the souls of their hearers.
He, therefore, having been born a good man from good parents, as is just, and having come forth as a noble shoot from a noble root, did not diminish the reputation of those who begat him. For not only did he not diminish it, but if it is not envious to say so, he rendered back to them rewards many times greater than the light of his own manifestation, having become an ornament to them and to the whole race. For all things—as if by a predetermined sign of one good constitution—rushed together in him for the common honor of nature, such as to show to all from his earliest youth, as if tracing a line, clear proofs of what manner of man he would be as his life advanced. For even though he was surrendered, as it were, to orphanhood and its hardships from his earliest age—for when he was seven years old, his father had left him of life—not even so was he hindered from any of the good things. But since he was not yet able, because of his age, to attain to B the things beyond sense and those which lead toward God and the blessedness that comes from thence, he delivered himself to the learning of the best things in this life—that through which, after the first creation, man alone excels all other things—that is, the wisdom of speech and science. Having combined the greatness of his nature with [his] zeal, and having entirely abandoned the neglect that [characterizes] those who, having common sense, consider all worldly things to be just, he occupied his mind with the things he longed for; and he was so wonderful in so short a time, and praised in the mouths of all, that he surpassed all those of his age at that time, and disputed the prizes even with those who were wiser and at the peak, with all yielding to him and admiring the power of his words as something invincible, and appropriate only to his nature.
And it is possible for anyone who wishes to obtain clear testimony of this, not [that of] the words which he himself later, by the power of the Spirit and the experience and knowledge of true and primary wisdom, composed most brilliantly—as no one else of all men has done—nor [that directed] against those who spoke evil of these things, and who danced badly upon matters most holy and august—which words, indeed, would justly be grieved, being called children of the lower and trodden earth, and not of that which is above and free, and a citizen of the heavens—it is not these that one should take as witnesses of what has been said, but rather the reputation which from the beginning had gathered around him for wisdom and had grown with him, which someone from of old has said of those admired for their wisdom, that it cannot ever be entirely lost.
Yet, even while he was so dominant in words C and in these things, he did not choose to expend his nobility on them; but rather, he did not judge it necessary to pay attention to this worldly wisdom, and to hunt the knowledge of beings from it, in order to stand on nothing secure (for the knowledge of beings in the words of those who excel in this worldly way is shaken and unstable); but further, having considered that there was something higher and more divine than things that are not contemplated at all, he himself desired to be raised above these things, and to pass beyond nature, and to conceive of being united to the source of wisdom, so that he might have it immutably and truly know from thence the principles of beings. Scorning all things as if they were nothing, he chooses the philosophy that exists in the things themselves, not only appearing to be, but actually being, a philosopher; and having reached the mountain D that bears the title of holiness, so that he might have raised up not only his mind far above bodily and earthly things, but his very body itself, having prepared it to be ready for communion with God, he gave himself over entirely to the acquisition of virtue.
And, first, by keeping company with the best of those who were then on Athos, so that he might not have performed anything unphilosophical or base even in this, but might subject this worldly and servile [philosophy] to the first and best philosophy, he was enrolled in the choir of those who were monks under him, and was taught the most perfect of their sacred mysteries. But since the one whom he longed for God had departed this life, in order that he might receive the rewards worthy of his labors, Gregory, still clinging to the humility that had been his friend and companion from childhood, and for this reason not yet confident in himself, even though he was capable of leading many others because of the grey hair [that had come prematurely] in his youth and his experience in all spiritual matters, brought and surrendered himself to the Great Lavra of Athanasius. And having set this for himself as if in a contest, and having contended to surpass everyone in these labors out of a healthy insatiability, he so astounded everyone in a short time that they all admired his [deeds], but while wishing to imitate him, they considered it impossible, seeing the magnitude and the intensity of his actions. For he did not attend to those who were carrying themselves toward perfection with diligence, and to others casually and slothfully; nor [was he thus] at one time and not at another, but he had ordered his life through all good things, having chiseled himself, as if into an image and a pillar of all goodness, into beauty.
And since he had sufficient time in the Lavra, and was already contending excellently not only against authorities and powers, but by now against the very necessities of the body, he went out to the beloved hesychia, as if armed with those prior labors as weapons. Now, the superabundance of his labors there, and how he set this as a struggle for himself—the extent to which he had surpassed the others and himself before in the labors for virtue—it is possible to see from that very fact; for hesychia, for those who are wise in divine things, and these...
A parts of virtue, they say, are to be assigned the status of an end, and for this reason, they are said to be more laborious, in as much as they are also a higher work, requiring much intensity and diligence. Especially for those who already see it manifest and evident to all, from the fruits of the Spirit—that is, the divine gifts—which were bestowed upon him in such great abundance. Paul, who had suffered for divine things and had been taught by the Spirit, said the fruits were love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, and goodness, and all those numbered by him. For who brought forth more proofs of his love for God and for his neighbor to all who were present? Who was seen rejoicing in all things as he was, and clearly fulfilling the commandment of the Apostle by his deeds? "Rejoicing evermore," and being well-pleased in trials and afflictions, as his later life showed, accomplished in the midst of many difficulties and things that seemed grievous from the outside. In all these, he was not only rejoicing in his soul, but was also showing forth that inward joy upon his face, with a certain solemn smile and the decorum of his character, communicating in like manner with all, whether in times of relaxation or in the opposite.
B as a matter for approbation, which the Word of God Himself established for Peter, the chief of the apostles, as a manifest sign and testimony of his love for Him, seeking the oversight of His own sheep. Since the common vote, both of him who led all those on Athos and of those who were renowned for virtue and authority, called him to the guardianship of the monks, two hundred in number; and he, both revering the dignity of those who had voted and considering their request to be appropriate and just, and knowing that the gain is great and the rewards brilliant with Christ, the Judge and Awarder of such things, willingly accepts the ministry with great zeal. Although he was not inexperienced or ignorant of such things beforehand, even if he had led this spiritual rule, which leads to God, with fewer rather than more—for if he was constantly at leisure for himself, and occupied in communion with God, yet he lived with ten like-minded brethren, and had them placed under him, and arranging spiritual matters, and showing them the path that leads to heaven, using them as participants and fellow-workers, and founded an infirmary for souls, appropriate to the multitude of those who were with him. These things he did before; but then, for the guardianship of the many, as the discourse has already shown, being called by the common vote, or rather, if one must tell the truth, being called by God Himself, what of the necessary things did he not speak? What of those things which C he knew how to guide towards the unerring path of salvation did he leave undone, even for a short time; he who had surpassed the practitioners in words, and in deeds had excelled those who live by books? Or rather, having conquered the practitioners in his works, and having outstripped those who pride themselves in wisdom in his speaking, and having placed the attainment of both perfectly behind him, he was anointing them for virtue with his words, admonishing, exhorting, supporting those who were falling; setting himself as a model in his deeds, becoming all things to all men, so that no one, having neglected the proposed prizes, might fail to attain the crowns promised to those who have struggled well.
But as for his gentleness towards those who, through ignorance or sloth, had strayed from the straight path, and then, from a commendable conversion, had run to God and His compassion; and his firmness and steadfastness and, as it were, his immovability towards those who persisted in the worse path through the soul’s lack of instruction and through stubbornness, so that he might combine from two opposites one medicine of salvation; and his guardianship of those in need—and all the other, the manifold care and the succor provided to each one, both to those inside and those coming from outside—who could praise these things according to their worth? Thus, he was leading the flock apostolically through all things, of which he was not without the grace and the working of wonders, which are still cried aloud by those who were then well-pastured upon the grass of piety, in no way inferior to those who have ever been marveled at. Not indeed, although so many...
A spiritual resources for reaching the heights of approval had been gathered from that initial starting point, was he capable of enduring for a long time the care of rational flocks, nor did he easily bear the severance from the one who had nurtured him and who had led him to the perfect measure of spiritual maturity—his stillness. Yet, always turning his mind toward it, and wounded by his love for it, indeed—who, being tossed about in the midst of crowds, could have managed as he did to keep his mind immovable and fixed upon God? Speedily, he broke his bonds and, casting aside everything that held him, he once again subjected himself to its wings, whispering the words of David, "In the shelter of your wings I will hide" (Ps. LX, 5). He again approached the holy laura of Athanasius, withdrawing from men as much as possible, and attending to himself and to God; for he did not, as before, endure living within the enclosure with the others, but was outside the walls, avoiding the noise of the many. B
Now up to this point, for him, the course of life proceeded more easily and with the current, and for us, the account [proceeds] smoothly, creating little or no difficulty; but what is one to make use of from this point forward? Or which of the paths should one choose as safe? For to recount all of his matters—both the words and the deeds and the struggles and dangers for the sake of piety—would be the task of his tongue and mind alone, which sufficed for the narration of such great works. To select a few of these, and then to pass over the rest in silence, would be to expose ourselves to the charge of laziness, because we would be depriving pious ears of such great and wonderful stories. We, therefore, proceeding along the middle path, so as not to fall short of what is required, by attempting beyond our power, nor to be condemned for laziness by omitting the most vital things, shall compose the account in this way, setting him forth as a helper and [invoking] his boldness before God; so that, just as in his deeds he was seen to have spoken and acted and endured more than human capacity, so also he might guide our speech toward what is necessary, and that I might not altogether fail of what is proper. C
He had, as we said, the laura of the great Athanasius withdrawn from every material attachment, and in stillness he was laboring more diligently at the honey of virtue. But for our testing, it was necessary that the destroyer be brought against us—not one ravaging and reaping the fertile earth, nor one overturning and razing inhabited cities, but one besieging the Church of Christ, and attempting to overthrow it with engines and trenches and in every way. I am speaking to those who know the evil from Calabria, [a man] whom one might call a typhoon or a thunderbolt, embittering and destroying everything he encountered; or a storm cloud confounding and disturbing everything; or I know not what name one might properly apply to him. This evil, introduced for the ruin and destruction of the world of our time, and—on account of his own wickedness—setting alight the flame of impiety, D and initiating such a brilliant and manifest war, as not only to confound our matters and fill us with much distress and confusion, but also to carry his wickedness as far as the lands beyond the sea; and to corrupt and overthrow entire islands with the fire of impiety, and to extend [it] even to eastern and western climates, and to leave almost no part of the world untried by his own ruin.
Whence, then, was the beginning? And consider how base it was, and worthy of his petty and groveling intellect. He imagined that there was nothing greater or higher than Hellenic philosophy, and the syllogisms of necessity, and the truth that is, as it were, hunted from these; nor was there anything in the nature of things that one could have a better understanding of. But what is even more foolish than this, and leaves no room for any further impropriety, is that not even God himself could have any communion with anyone, unless one first came by this path, and having communed with Pythagoras, Aristotle, and Plato, and having learned from them the necessities of nature, and creation, and the sequence of the corruption of existing things, thus came to the grasping of the truth. For if God, he claimed, is truth and is so named, and to be ignorant of the truth is to be ignorant of God, and everyone who has not been instructed in the outward philosophy—which has been discovered by the wise men of the Hellenes regarding the motion of the heavenly bodies and nature—is ignorant of the truth, then nothing remains but that the one not so instructed is ignorant of God; and ignorance is nothing else but the darkness of the soul, just as, on the contrary, the illumination of the soul is to know all such things. If these things must of necessity be this way, no one can be enlightened unless he be one who has practiced this philosophy—that is to say, the wisdom from outside. And such folly, or more truthfully, distraction, was at that time esteemed not only by him, but has been so deeply ingrained in the entire Latin race for so long a time until now, that even among those who philosophize about divine things and have chosen for themselves the monastic life, there is nothing more to be sought after, nor does anything seem more conducive to perfection than to heed this folly and to be most excellent in these matters. And you might see something ridiculous, or rather, worthy of tears, happening to those youths in the schools who remain in their age, and even if one should encounter an older man being instructed in the outside philosophy, and they insult the dignity of the life that is truly [excellent], while they themselves are puffed up with folly, and thinking they are doing some useful work, they neglect the things that are truly good and that unite one to God and are able to illuminate the soul.
He, then, was thinking such petty things about such great matters; but when he heard that among us there were those living in stillness, most of whom were altogether untasted in reason and the outside wisdom, but who were masters of their passions and were practicing every virtue accurately, and were united to God by the purity of the mind...
and by the illumination of the first and most clear light, and were instructed in the reasons of existing things, and became wise in divine and human things, he grieved deeply, seeing the glory of the wisdom honored by him in everything falling away, and he could not be at rest, being overcome by envy. He strove with all his might to slander them, insisting that they were not only living in quietude, but that they had fabricated a deception for those who were being led into their trap; nor indeed was it A permitted for the mind to be illuminated, as it was surrounded by so much ignorance. For he argued that one must not be ignorant of anything that had been discovered by all the wise men of old, and that one must learn everything from those who were able to teach even the best things—even if they were Hellenes, even if they were Scythians, even if they were barbarians—if one intended to have a mind that was illuminated and possessed the knowledge of both divine and human matters. He did not speak these things only to the youths who were studying with him, but he was also a writer of discourses, and as if giving a demonstration, he was even correcting that portion of those who were living in quietude, and was attempting with every device to persuade all to depart from quietude, but for the wise among the Hellenes to attend to the mind, and through such means to attempt to cleanse it of ignorance.
B He took up these matters—the waging of war against quietude—not as a secondary task; nor indeed did those who had been reared in it, and who knew by experience that it was the only release from the passions and the only ascent to God, neglect to defend it when it was being attacked. They were lacking in no zeal or eagerness, for they possessed the great Gregory among themselves. For the war received its beginning in Thessalonica, in his *laura*, as the discourse has already clearly stated, while he was sojourning there. When, therefore, they saw him—whom they knew alone to be worthy and capable, by the power of his words and the grace of the Spirit, to stand against such a varied and heavy war—they sent an embassy to him by letter: this, on the one hand, declaring clearly everything that Barlaam said and wrote against the holy quietude and those who attend to it; and this, on the other hand, beseeching him to rise up for defense and not to overlook what was now insulting quietude, and in a little while, if it were corrupted, would also ravage the good of the Church. What then of him? Through the grace of the Spirit indwelling in him, foreseeing the things to come, he predicted the harm that would result, how it would be great and grievous, and how the Church, previously led well by the breeze of the Spirit and enjoying for no small time a deep peace, was about to be stirred by a no small and grievous wave of tumult, and that the ancient prophecy of the holy ones was already reaching its fulfillment, who had said that in the last times a grievous heresy would befall the Church.
For the intellect being divided, and being unable to be rid of disturbances and to live in lack of busyness, and being deprived of the stillness of soul and the serenity that is honored above everything, and of the defense of piety, and to stem the already sprouting heresy, he considered it extremely beneficial and necessary to prefer the common good to his own, and leaving the workshop of virtue, Mount Athos, and quietude, he went straight to Thessalonica. Having appeared to his friends who were longing for him, having clearly learned all that had been said and done against them and quietude by the one who had taken up the war against them, he condemned his silliness, and the great arrogance of his ways, and the lack of judgment in his reasoning—things of which he was entirely ignorant, yet which he thought he ought to dispute with those who were deeply occupied with these things and had practiced them throughout their whole life; and not only to come to words, and with sophistical glances to try to persuade others to depart from the things handed down from above by the God-bearing men, but if they did not obey, to subject them to many slanders and abuses and insults. Yet he was not eager to wage war against that man, knowing that he ought to be attending to quietude and the serenity in his soul; and having departed from the exultation that comes from thence, to attend to arguments and to be filled with the unpleasantness and confusion of the many. For this reason, he sought in every way to calm the aroused strife, and to persuade the one who had provided the cause for this flame to lay down the war that had been moved, and to refrain from the blasphemies against quietude, and to be reconciled with those who had been attacked unjustly, and to attend to that external wisdom of which he was considered a master, and to try with that to reap the praise of the many or of the wiser men, and not to engage in a struggle over nothing useful to him. But he—for it was necessary for the heavy swell to be raised against us—was even less attentive when being treated, and when urged toward peace, he did not obey. Thence also Gregory employed his words, and was setting the wisdom of the Spirit against the wisdom that is "being brought to nothing," according to Paul, and was dissolving easily the constraints of his syllogisms and his sophisms; proving that while word and this wisdom were good things, they were not such as to be able to make one kin to God. Rather, indeed, it even puffs one up, and casts one far from God, if one does not use it as is fitting, nor as is proper, but is attending to it continuously, consuming one's life in vain and senseless leisure, and contributing nothing to the beatitude from thence, where the wisdom of words and power has no more weight than ignorance, but rather the keeping of the saving commandments of Christ, and the working according to them, and the cleansing of the soul from the most shameful passions and its keeping, and so far as is possible, the inclination toward God and the appropriation of the inescapable beatitude and the everlasting happiness, which becomes the occasion. For those, at any rate, who have taken up the monastic life, he sets measures and certain boundaries as to how much one ought, and as they attend to this discipline, or rather, if before coming to this state, they happened to have participated in it, how they ought not to occupy their mind with these vain things, but just as with all other material striving, so to this one too [as a] useful...
A exercise, [to be used] by those who are purifying the eye of their soul to look continually unto God, and making it receptive to divine radiance; and even as they pass B from the humbler contests and struggles—namely, those of praxis—to contemplation, in which, as they make progress, it happens that not only do their senses remain idle, but the intellect itself puts aside every concept and motion, to be led whithersoever it may be led, and to be filled from thence with divine illuminations and enlightenments, and to be instructed in the reasons of creation, and, having become a partaker of ineffable mysteries, to return to its original beauty, and for all those things which are by nature God to become so by participation. These are things set forth as C common contests and prizes, not only for those who have participated in [formal] discourse and outside learning, but even for those who are utterly ignorant of these things, for they are in no way hindered from the acquisition of those ineffable goods. Nay, if one must say something astonishing, they arrive more easily at the perfection of spiritual maturity, seeing that they are very well disposed toward being unassuming and humble, since God also mostly likes to manifest Himself to such as these. For the divine David said that the proud D transgres exceedingly; from which it is concluded that the wisdom of this world, which is being brought to nothing, cannot enlighten the soul that possesses it, nor unite it to God, but rather the philosophy that is through works, which can both purify and enlighten, and render those who attend to it friends of God and similar to the bodiless hosts. Furthermore, he has made the argument concerning sacred hesychasm so clear and pure, and it has reached such heights of precision and experience regarding it, that no one at all, among the God-bearing men of the past who have applied themselves to this task, has set forth a teaching so suited and applicable to all—to the perfect, the imperfect, and those in between—nor has left anything out of the contemplations that are appropriate and fitting for each.
The discourses of the great Gregory concerning hesychasm, though it was being slandered and suffering the ultimate injustices, were thus brilliant, and left no room for any hyperbole, whether of spiritual or of secular wisdom; concerning which, even if we wished to, it would not be permitted us not only to praise them as they deserve, but not even to simply outline in our discourse the tension, the beauty, and the depth of the thoughts, of which, if anyone wishes to grasp the excellence found in all good things, it will be possible to obtain it—not from anywhere else, but from those very things themselves which are so desired. Thus, with great zeal and eagerness, he stood in defense against those who were attacking piety verbally; but since he bore the zeal for it in his soul, as it were, and needed to make it manifest in deeds, and not to fall short in this aspect either, like the many who have labored for piety, what happens? Barlaam, having despaired of fighting against so noble an antagonist—for already from the very start he had been completely defeated and disgraced—went to the great city, not relying so much on the power of his arguments as on his ability to prevail through slanders and accusations against the great Gregory; but also, since there were many here who had participated in Hellenic education, and for this reason were strongly attached to him, he rested his enmity toward him upon such rotten foundations. For the war had already broken out against him. He was again, as before, declaiming against his error, and accusing hesychasm as being [the source of] this error of his; he was bringing charges of duality and the subversion of right dogmas, and was endeavoring to rouse everything and everyone against him, and was contriving a vote so that he, as one who did not think rightly, might be cast out in his absence. And even if it happened that all but a few were carried away by his deceits and his sophistic tricks and intrigues—the God of the great combatant of piety having so wisely permitted this, so that he might be proclaimed all the more, and be shown to be more brilliant through his deeds, inasmuch as he alone was able to extinguish the flame of impiety that had been raised to such an airy height, had he not appeared quickly and overturned and dissolved everything—yet, as he seemed to be summoning him to trial, while those who had not yet agreed to the impiety but were acting rightly in these matters, and who deemed that one ought not to cast a vote against anyone before having had the opportunity to receive an apology and to stand face-to-face against the accuser, he himself, by stalling, by no means arrived quickly. But all the difficult things retreated more easily than the darkness is dissolved by the presence of light, and the truth received the boldness that was due to it, and falsehood was put to shame and fled. For there was no one who, upon receiving a taste of his theologian’s tongue and his lofty mind and heavenly intelligence, was not immediately led to the apostolic and patristic faith, and did not bear witness to the clear agreement of the things said by him with the God-bearing theologians and the teachers of the faithful of the Church. Thus, before even coming to blows, he had already routed the enemy, with all of them having condemned his great impiety and thinking that he should be removed from the midst along with his blasphemous tongue, and not leave a pretext for perdition for the simpler ones.
Since, however, it was fitting that the athlete be proclaimed brilliantly in the theater, and that impiety be the more put to shame by being triumphed over, this also comes to pass with as much boldness and brilliance as one could say. For, with the emperor—who had just returned from his campaign, having captured the West with many trophies—present, and conducting himself in a manner worthy of himself regarding these matters, the council was assembled, with not only the notables of the Church, and he who was then entrusted with the sacred office, and all those in authority and otherwise prominent, but also nearly the whole city eagerly flocking together, each counting it no small loss to be left out of such a celebration. Now the zeal of the great Gregory at that time, and his skill in speaking, or rather, the spiritual wisdom and the power from on high which...
was imparted, and whereby he burned up the arguments of his adversaries, is not easy or simple for me, at least, to recount. But this much it is necessary to say, that he struck everyone with astonishment, friends and foes alike; the latter he throttled, overpowering them with firm constraints, while A the former he surpassed, even those who had ever been admired for their wisdom, by a wide margin of glory.
The struggle for piety thus reached its end for him, having raised such a brilliant trophy from his foes, and having compelled the man who was formerly a persecutor and an insolent reviler to settle with piety, even if the things he said were for the sake of deception and deceit, craftily adapted to the occasion and the circumstances. Yet the enemy and adversary of the good did not leave the originator of those evils to be untried by struggle for a long time after he had departed—that man who, having gone over to the Latins, seemed to have had the flame of impiety well B extinguished. Suddenly, a much more savage war broke out; for the one among his associates and disciples who had most partaken of the contagion, immediately appeared as the heir not only of the struggle against piety, but also of the great war against him. And again there was a beginning of other struggles and arenas, far more grievous than the former; for the second one strove to surpass in wickedness the one before him, and to take his stand for impiety with as much zeal as was possible. He discovered arguments for impiety that were greater and more grievous than the former man’s, and made many others partakers in this blasphemy. But the champion of piety, Gregory, did not neglect these things, but was all-encompassing, striving by deeds and words to extinguish the flared-up flame; and first of all he brought much treatment to Acindynus, refuting, C demonstrating, reproaching him with the communion of impiety, doing everything so that he might see him converted to piety. But since he was ailing with incurable diseases, and was a man who had drained the cup of impiety to the dregs, he used his words like darts, piercing the evil group, writing down the theology, and setting forth for all who wished it the mysteries of theology with precision, and with the Spirit exploring the depths of the Spirit, and throughout all things showing himself to be of one mind and spirit with the teachers of the Church who had struggled on behalf of the truth; but he was a true enemy to the false words of those who had devised things against the truth, and was breaking apart like weak and rotten nets everything they had devised. And when it was necessary for a synod to be gathered again for the discovery of the truth, a great and populous one was quickly assembled; D but the champion of the truth and firm athlete, Gregory, who was great in wisdom and even greater in piety, had no need of many words for the refutation of the wickedness, but it sufficed only to show the opponents and those of contrary opinion to be of one mind with the former [heretics], and he had passed through all things most easily, proving them to be corrupters of the orthodox dogmas and adversaries of the truth, by demonstrating the adversaries to be such; for all [the people] were passing judgment on them as if with one voice, one mind, and one disposition, condemning the impiety of those ones, and bringing upon them the same penalties as [they brought upon] the one who had first begun this heresy, unless they should repent and embrace the right faith. Gregory, however, they proclaimed with both words and writings, and bore witness to all his excellence, and deemed him worthy of great praise, and applause, and crowns.
For in the struggles on behalf of piety, he was thus fervent and boiling in spirit, and in the deeds according to virtue he was radiant and manifest, having a sharp mind and being illuminated by the Holy Spirit, setting those who were in that time, and I believe also those who were to be later, beneath the experience of the Scriptures, because the tempest of temptations had attacked, and the great surge and roaring of terrible things had surrounded him; was he seen to have done or even to have practiced anything mean-spirited or ignoble? Not at all; rather, quite the contrary. He endured the onsets of the terrible things with much gentleness and long-suffering; because he knew that those things too would procure for him esteem, and much more, that he was conscious within himself that he was enduring these things for the sake of the glory of God and for the truth according to piety.
For just as the war between fellow-tribesmen against one another is wretched, and—as it should not be—consumed the common prosperity and destroyed the Romans, and brought them to the most extreme evils, and yet they kindled it nonetheless—for why is it necessary to go through things known to all, wearing out the ears of the readers? The one who at that time was entrusted with the leadership of the great Church of the believers was being moved, one might say, and was acting senselessly against his own interests, becoming a wolf instead of a shepherd, through and through, and kindling the flame of war vehemently, and proceeding against all in ways that were daily proclaiming peace, and as if having forgotten his own dignity, and [the dignity] of the One who had reconciled the world to Himself by His own blood—for he was believed to be a disciple, but then he would do the exact opposite to the detriment of his own head and to the detriment of those being persuaded—how great a magnitude [of evil]! He was being dragged toward fighting, some he was persuading, others he was forcing as much as he could.
And since the altogether admirable Gregory saw this splendor of his in deeds and words and in all things, and thought that he would obtain much influence [*] from this for the thing being pursued, he was moving, as they say, every stone, and by all means he was attempting to take that man, wishing to bring him along as a partner and zealous helper in his own evil counsel. But having been repulsed at the first trial, like a wave striking a rock, and having been taught what was beneficial in common and what was appropriate to his own character and appearance, being in need of abstaining from the absurd deeds and of showing gratitude for the correction to the one who had spoken to him for his freedom, he was the exact opposite, and repaid with evils the one who had brought him to that turning point from the depths of wickedness; and with all zeal he was leading the way to envelop him in the most extreme evils; nor did he refrain from any of the meddlesome deeds.
A For since he could bring against him no public charges—for he knew that he had kept himself no less aloof from the turmoils and affairs of life than those who had long ago died—he turned his gaze toward [falsifying] his piety and slandering it. And more quickly than one would have thought possible, he changed, holding those who were excommunicated and enemies of the truth among his most beloved, and granting everything—rather, he sacrificed his own head—to the prejudice of piety. But those whom previously he had admired with both words and writings, and whom he called heralds of the truth and protectors of the Orthodox faith, these same people, because they held to the very doctrines they had held before and had accepted no deviation, he rendered liable to charges of impiety. From this, what form of wickedness was lacking? Or rather, what did he not demonstrate to excess? He organized unlawful assemblies and wicked councils, and he published letters full of impiety, and Gregory—that firm protector of the truth—was driven away along with the truth, and was treated evilly, and lived in a prison, and suffered through every sort of machination. But the flame of impiety was rising, and its zealous partisans and defenders were deemed worthy of much concern and honor from the one who was ostensibly the shepherd of the Church; and those whose hands and souls were profane were enrolled in the lists of priests, and every most terrible thing was dared.
B But since it was time for the truth also to attain the freedom of speech it deserved, and for falsehood to be driven away like a disease that retreats from health upon its arrival, the political war and the civil strife ceased after that great amount of suffering and the outpouring of unutterable evils; and for him [Gregory], that of the Church was also extinguished, since he too had been the cause, and [the cause] against the truth as a strong shield-bearer and ally. The evils of Gregory were thus resolved. And he was once again in his former state, and was applauded and admired by all, and he was led with all honor by the good shepherd of the Church who succeeded the persecutor, since he well knew how to assign to God and to those who serve Him, and to the protectors of the Orthodox dogmas, the appropriate respect and honor. And to the emperors, and to those in authority, and to all together, he was beloved and pleasant to see and to meet; and [the people] were hanging upon his words. They revered him and proclaimed him as a standard and measure of theology and as a peak of Orthodox dogmas, similar [in stature] to the most renowned [figures] in piety and the teachers of the Church.
They did not, however, stop at mere words, nor did they merely carry within themselves the wonder they felt toward him; but, well knowing that they would not be depriving him as much as they would be depriving the common Church of the faithful, if they were to hide that lamp of wisdom and pure dwelling-place of the Spirit under a bushel—having consigned him to the abyss of silence and oblivion—they managed, with difficulty and with much entreaty and persuasion, to convince that renowned Thessalonica, sacredly and as it was dear to God, to bring him forward. C And just as, after the first, there abounds a great wealth of virtues—as with greatness and beauty and other gifts of goods—so too did he, adorned with a flow of virtues in life, and word, and in all things together, as if he had been allotted them from above from the very beginning, not only beautifying himself with those that were homegrown and with fruits native and nurtured and grown by him, but also, if any other place had produced anything noble, he would receive it, embrace it, and adorn himself with it, and be adorned in return, abundantly and magnanimously. But again, the beginnings of other contests and the incitements for crowns arise, and tokens of long-suffering and endurance [appear] to the holy man, as if endowed by nature to wrestle with grievous things throughout his life, yet to be proclaimed the victor through them all.
For he was present in Thessalonica, truly proclaiming peace and a swarm of good things, and bringing everything that was best; yet remnants of the Roman [political] strife still plagued the city from the beginning. Although the fire had been extinguished, the coals remained; and the rebels appeared to submit while resisting the emperors. In one way they caused trouble for the city and created grievous dangers, while in another way they enriched themselves from the miseries of the fatherland. The great shepherd suffered from this wickedness of those who were in charge for the evil of the city; and he is not permitted to enter the city, but [is pressured] to participate in its disorder and to help incite the sedition.
A He was compelled both to pray for and to remember the emperors, and yet also not to [remember] them, so that there might be an excuse for faction and war for the citizens—either a forced provider of others' goods for them, or else to be driven out along with the peace and to endure deceptions, and to be cast among pirates and surges and everything painful. The decent and temperate citizens, then, understanding of what goods they were being deprived by the wickedness of some, were deeply grieved, and were not at all able to bear the magnitude of the loss, nor were they able to defend themselves; and before all this, [they could not stand] by the right, for the populace, like the sea, not where it ought, but however the wind blowing upon it might disturb it, being borne about in disorder and tumult, provided the seditious with great momentum to bring their own wickedness to its completion.
But what of the disciple of the meek and philanthropic Christ, who had been taught to bear all things meekly from Him? So that he might provide rest not only to his own soul but also to the souls of others, his heart was pained and stirred, seeing the ruin of those who had concocted these things, and the loss of the innocent, as being great and leading toward the soul’s destruction. But as for his own magnanimity, applying it to himself like a remedy and a fortitude in the face of terrible things, he did not appear burdensome to those who were driving him out even as far as words or gestures, but with the peace that was his companion and friend, and with a becoming composure, he kept his distance. And for a certain time he lived in exile on islands, and, as though he were a general, went about to those who were laboring diligently at the leisure of virtue in the deserts and mountains, stirring up the inner war in the soul, and inciting them against the spirits of wickedness, and teaching them ways of victory and battle-array, so that his withdrawal might in no way be unprofitable, but might bring to God a fruitfulness through the error [of others] and his own departure.
B And of the other lavishness and splendor of the festival, I think I shall pass over it now as necessary; not only because we will need much zeal and intensity in order to suffice for such a magnitude of narrative, but also because, insofar as it is possible, we must prune the length of the account and spend time only on the necessary things; yet it is necessary to say only this, that nothing would have reached the worthiness of him. But the city, even though it was so brilliant and renowned, and in all things in which a city might exult was most strong, did not leave undone anything of that which came to it. Was it then demonstrated that for the city it was something greater than human to be honored, but in deeds [the emperor] was proven to have been honored more than was fitting? On the contrary, everything seemed to fall far short of his worthiness. Thus did he order things according to his own calling well, and worthy of the Spirit who dwelt within him, and as it was permitted to no other, but to him alone.
C Yet he did not completely escape the tide of temptations, nor was the tempter satisfied with what had transpired before, but he was stirred up again, as the evil spirit blew against him. For as those who thought evilly of the Church in the manner of Acindynus were again attempting to stir up and were not ceasing from creating tumults, and were providing troubles for the emperors—challenging the Church to a trial and naming the situation an injustice if their side did not chance upon an examination and precise trial—it seemed to the emperor, and to him who was at that time at the helm of the Great Church, that a synod needed to be convened. And the archpriests were present, having been summoned as many as were able, and along with all, or rather before these, the great Gregory, who was a master of divine things, was staying in the city of Constantine, since the struggle looked mostly, or rather entirely, to him as the champion of the Word and the noble combatant for the truth. A great and populous assembly was therefore gathered in the palaces, and it surpassed all those that had preceded it; and the emperor graced it by his presence, and the shepherd and patriarch of the Great Church, and a not inconsiderable multitude of archpriests, and as many as were choice and distinguished in rank among those in the palaces; for voluntarily did I pass over the multitude and all the populace, who made the houses in the palaces, though they were very brilliant and renowned, and in size and beauty surpassing those anywhere else by far, appear narrow, and not sufficient for the multitude of those gathered. D Then indeed, for the third time, Gregory, the thrice-victorious, having engaged with his opponents after the manner of the noble athletes, was victorious by a great margin, and did not endure the first assault; and the lie was shamed by his strength, and the truth had the boldness that befits it, and Gregory the Great was acclaimed in the mouths of all, and they proclaimed him both by deeds themselves and by words.
And since it was necessary to return as quickly as possible to the flock that had fallen to his care, he was returning, well knowing how the good [shepherd should act]...
and having taken much care for the flock, he falls again into no small difficulties, and is driven from the city, and partakes of the disease of the public troubles, of the sedition stirred up at that time. If anyone knows the contention and dissension of the emperors among themselves, and how they warred against one another, having seized as much of the rule as they could, he knows what I am saying; and he searches out deserts again, and calls those who live alone with God to an advancement in philosophy, and that season of temptations he makes a season of spiritual trade and profit. Thus he knew how to use even those who seemed to be adversaries for [his] benefit and profit, just as they say the bee uses all it encounters for the manufacture of honey.
A But the winter of temptations seemed to have dissipated again, God orchestrating his affairs in this way, and weaving his life through things both grievous and more pleasant, so that at the end of the struggles He might proclaim the athlete, and reward his patience and endurance generously; just as indeed He had done, having adorned him with many miracles even after his departure from the flesh, and he is recalled to his own city, and enjoys the chair for a little while, and other struggles and labors succeed him. And he sets the flock in order, teaching [them] with words, and nourishing [them] spiritually day by day with doctrines, and being in good health towards God, and very rich, and showing himself as one well following the Chief Shepherd, Christ. It seemed then, as I said, that the winter of temptations had dissipated for him; but it was receiving a beginning rather, the evil one having not spared his flesh, but having sought [to bring him] into greater trial, [driven] by much wickedness and his innate, undiluted hatred for him, but God having permitted it, so that he might show his servant blameless before all and through all, according to the great athlete of patience. For he is indeed sent to Byzantium again, to resolve the differences among the emperors; but he meets barbarian pirates, and is led as a captive by them to Asia, so that there too he might release many from long-standing bonds, bound by the inescapable chains of sin; and the true citizen of the Jerusalem above, the free one, makes trial of the evils of captivity and slavery, and as far as it is possible for a man, having preserved the dignity of adoption, and having kept the image and likeness of God uncorrupted to the end.
How then, in his misfortunes, he used the seasons to purpose, as the best of generals do with their teachings, and how there too, having proclaimed the word of truth and spoken with boldness for piety, he put to shame the absurdity of the Persian worship, having struck with awe the wise men among them, and exalted our own [faith], disregarding the Persian cruelty, and [showing] how he fell nothing short of the struggles and contest-grounds of the martyrs, as far as the readiness of the soul goes, being prepared to suffer everything for the confession of Christ—for if he [was one] of others’...
B ...for the sake of [his own] salvation, which God always prepares and brings about through all things, and He snatched even him from the dangers, so that he might be a trainer of the paths to salvation for many, and a guide to those who are wandering and a leader to those sitting in the darkness of ignorance? These, surely, are great things and worthy of his soul, and tokens of the boldness he had towards God, to hear [them] recounted by that noble tongue would be right; since he was sufficient even to act single-handedly, and to recount [it] to those happening afterwards in a way that corresponds to the deed. But it is necessary for us to say only this much: that by other deeds according to life he prevailed over those of any land whatsoever, and as for himself, in the times of captivity he surpassed the others as much as he did in the former times; for everything was seen then by the faithful living in Asia: a teacher of piety, a guide of an upright life, an interpreter of divine oracles, a true theologian of the upright dogmas of the Trinity; and the greatest thing: an athlete of Christ without blood, and one crowned without torments.
The captivity, then, he managed well, just as he had done the error before, so that nothing of the things that had befallen him in life might be inglorious for him, but just as he had prepared for himself wreaths and proclamation before the good Trainer and Judge of our struggles, Christ, so likewise he might offer opportunities to those who lived later from every side. But since the evil one, having been put to shame in all things, was retreating, and having been defeated in both the war against him and the manifold onslaughts, profited nothing—for he only incurred ridicule, or rather, the other [the saint] was secretly in no less [of a state], even if he did not come into a greater trial of sorrows—the man of God and steward of His mysteries is released from the barbarian cruelty and the unjust bonds, God having moved on the furthest ends of the earth those who were to release [them], having laid down the ransoms lavishly and generously, and—to speak evangelically—having bought back the precious pearl that they had. And the athlete returns from abroad, or [rather] from his good trade, for thus I call his oversight or sojourn towards Asia, or the visitation of the faithful there, which took place for the sake of the Trinity. And so gladly he falls upon those in the city, or rather on all the surrounding people, both Greeks and barbarians assembled together in the same place, that those there found nothing of the delights of life more pleasant to have, or to think upon, or to recount, than that joy.
Therefore he did not cease doing them good both in words and deeds, teaching, admonishing, legislating, turning every mind towards himself, supporting [them] with the upright dogmas of the Trinity; and for those who were standing well he became an unshakeable foundation, and for those who were reeling and seditious he fulfilled the nature of the magnet—not dragging [them] by the violence of nature as that [magnet] does the iron, but [drawing them] with the words of truth, and making them his own by the grace of the Spirit dwelling within, until he convinced everyone, having cast off the venom of impiety, if any of them had happened to be defiled by the heterodox, to worship God blamelessly and purely. And
A similarly, for his approval—as if it were a reward for his piety and his many hardships—he now receives his portion, bringing his life to an end in the very state he longed for and was longed for in return; and having followed in the footsteps of the Fathers and Patriarchs who had acquired their citizenship in the heavens, and who had struggled surpassingly for the truth, he, in his righteous intention, followed them. And so that we might dwell for a little while in our speech upon his departure to God: while the Church of the firstborn, along with the assembly of Fathers and prophets and the choir of angels, received him, the city for its part set before itself a struggle, to make the entrance of the shepherd to his rest far more honorable and wonderful than his departure. And gathering together, every rank and age of men and women alike, many tears flowed from their eyes, and many were the voices they sent forth with lamentations, calling upon the good shepherd, the father, the teacher, and implanting in the minds of those who saw or heard what was then being accomplished a glory concerning him that was greater than human. And when his dead body had to be committed to the earth, having barely escaped the hands of those who held it, he was escorted by the whole multitude with many torches, and myrrh, and odes, and spiritual hymns; and when all things that the law prescribes had been fulfilled, thus he was delivered to the B coffin, brightly and sumptuously—he who was a non-fee-charging physician for diverse passions and psychic pains and bodily sicknesses, and an inexhaustible treasury of every good thing.
But O you who have labored much in ascetic toils, and labored much for the sake of piety, having struggled not for two or three years, but through your whole life, and having left behind for us a beautiful example not only of piety, but also of manliness and endurance, and who knew the measures of speech and silence along with other virtues—do you receive this our speech, which, even if it falls far short of your worth, is in no way lacking in power. May you still the storm of the passions that is terribly whirling and disturbing us; may you calmly grant us to run through the surging sea of this life, and when we have departed from here, do you receive us into your own tabernacles, even if what is requested is somehow great and beyond our worth; for, measuring not our toil, but our longing, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might, together with His beginningless Father and the life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
THREE SYNODICAL TOMES CONCERNING THE CAUSE OF THE PALAMITES
(From the book entitled: *The Tome of Love, collected and printed by Dositheus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, under the reign of the most pious and most illustrious master and ruler, Lord Ioannes Antiochus Constantinus, Voivode of all Moldovlachia. It reads at the end: We have printed the present tome in Iasi of Moldovlachia, by the copper-plate printing and at the expense of the Holy Sepulchre through the monk Dionysius, who was the proofreader for the most learned teacher Jeremias Kakkabelas. If there are errors in some letters or words, this has happened because the engraver was of another tongue and did not know Greek letters; and for the rest, let there be forgiveness. In the year of salvation 1698, in the month of March.)
SYNODICAL TOME WRITTEN CONCERNING THE GREAT SYNODS WHICH HAVE EXAMINED AND CAST OUT THE IMPIETY OF BARLAAM AND ACINDYNUS
In which there were present not only the Church, but also the senate and the universal judges of the Romans, with the most divine emperor presiding as long as he lived.
A α'. Truly praiseworthy is he who said that humility is the knowledge of the truth that is able to attain to [a state which is] a rejected soul-philosophy. For this is the grasp of one’s own measures, and through it we harvest both peace with God and [peace] towards our neighbor, through which we obtain rest in the present and in the age to come, according to that divine and hortatory voice of the Lord toward this: "Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." This persuades the one who possesses it to pay attention to himself and to pay attention to God, and to avoid all evil by the fear of the Lord, according to the saying of the wise Solomon, and to behave piously and sensibly regarding matters superior to himself, not removing the eternal boundaries of the Fathers, and turning away from deviations on either side—I mean excesses and deficiencies—to walk the royal and middle path, which leads directly and safely to the heavens and to God.
β'. But the monk Barlaam, originating from Calabria, having cast himself into the sea of conceit entirely out of folly and self-will, and thinking much of the secular science of philosophy, moved against the supernatural and truly [divine] philosophy, warring against the teaching of the Spirit, B which is not even able to contain the things of the Spirit at all, A nor is it able to contain the soul-philosophy [that is] tested [by God]. For, feigning to be a disciple, he once approached with guile some of our monks, who had chosen the life of stillness, and having bid farewell to all other things, devoted themselves to God. And he attended not to any of the more learned ones, but purposely to the simpler ones, strictly for fear of being detected. A little later, however, having departed from them, he wrote a hateful accusation of their opinion, as if it were supposedly practiced by them. For having heard them saying that, as those who have it from the traditions of the holy Fathers, when those who have purified their hearts through the commandments of God receive divine illuminations occurring to them mystically and ineffably, he accused them of calling these the essence of God.
γ'. But concerning those defending themselves—that it was not the essence, but the uncreated and eternal and god-making grace of the Spirit—he attempted to smear them with the charge of duality arising from this. Not only this, but having entered the Church of God and having brought these matters before our humility, accusing especially the most honored among monastics, Lord Gregory Palamas, he requested that they also be summoned to our sacred and divine synod.
δ'. Having been summoned, therefore, Barlaam [began] another...
A turn, evading and not being persuaded at all, but rather being found out; avoiding appearing at the synod, and [refusing] to enter into words with the monks accused by him and to confront them regarding the things he wrote against them, using as a pretext for his evasion at that time his departure on imperial business, but in truth condemning himself, and fearing the exposure that would result from [appearing].
ε'. Thereafter, a synod having been convened in the presence of the divinely-favored, of blessed and sainted memory, the Emperor, in the renowned temple of the Wisdom of the Word of God, and with the Senate and no small number of the most venerable archimandrites and superiors and those gathered from the civil administration present, the same Barlaam was summoned and was urged to speak and prove if he had anything to say against the monks who lived in stillness. B Though they were already present at the synod, he himself seemed as if he had forgotten the matter at hand, and seeking above all to confuse the points of the case, he proceeded to dogmatic questions and problems and sought the solutions to those difficulties. Standing firm in this, and insisting on saying nothing beforehand until he should receive the reply and resolution to these questions—since he was rebuffed once and twice and with some severity, and did not yield from this insistence, nor was he persuaded to speak about the examination of those matters before the synod, that is to say, about the written accusation against the monks [which he had authored].
ς'. Our humility permitted the reading to the hearing of the synod of the holy and divine canons, through which it is forbidden and by no means permitted, not only to those of his own rank but to all others as well, to disturb anything regarding dogmas, and to impose on others the necessity of apologizing for such things, nor [is it permitted] to assume for themselves a teaching authority [to] discourse on certain ecclesiastical matters. For to the bishops of God alone was this given by grace from above. For the rule of the 6th synod says: "It is not fitting for a layman to move a public discourse or to teach, thereby assuming a teaching authority, but to yield to the order handed down by the Lord, and to open [his ears] to those who have received the grace of the teaching word, and to be taught the divine things by them." For in the one Church, God has made different members, according to the voice of the Apostle which Gregory the Theologian, interpreting it, clearly sets forth, the order among them, saying: "Let us respect this order, brothers; let us preserve it. Let one be hearing, another tongue, another hand, another something else. Let one teach and let another learn; and let the learner [do so] in docility, and the one who imparts, in cheerfulness, and the minister, in eagerness. Let us not all be tongue—this is more ready—not all apostles, not all prophets, not all interpreters." And after a while: "Why do you make yourself a shepherd when you are a sheep? Why do you become a head when you happen to be a foot? Why do you take up the command when you have been assigned among the soldiers?" And elsewhere Wisdom commands: "Be not quick in words; stretch not out [your discourse] C beyond your understanding." But if anyone is caught overturning the present canon, let him be excommunicated for forty days. And again, the nineteenth canon of that in Chalcedon: "It is necessary for those presiding over the churches, on every day, but especially on the Lord’s Days, to teach all the clergy and the people the words of piety, drawing forth the meanings and words of truth from the Holy Scripture and not transgressing the already established boundaries, or the tradition of the God-bearing Fathers. But if also an scriptural word should be brought up, let them not interpret it otherwise than as the luminaries and teachers of the Church have set forth through their own writings. And let them be approved in these, rather than composing their own words, lest at some point, being at a loss toward this, they fall from what is proper." For through the instruction of the aforementioned Fathers, the peoples, gaining knowledge of both the noble and the choice, and of the unsuitable and to be rejected, reshape their life toward the better, and are not caught by the passion of ignorance, but, heeding the instruction, they strengthen themselves toward not suffering evil, and work out their own salvation through fear of the punishments that hang over them.
ζ'. After, however, the reading of these same holy and divine canons, those petitions which Barlaam had previously made against the monks were brought into the midst. And when such petitions had been read, the aforementioned hieromonk, Lord Gregory Palamas, was urged to make the defense D regarding them, as they were directed most of all against him; who, having spoken in a preliminary word, and having defended himself as was reasonable, then related also how the matters of their difference had come about, with the same Barlaam having earlier written and accused them of the things which have been said above, and as proved, having set forth things contrary to the divine words of the Fathers, and how he himself of necessity was moved to the defense and refutation.
η'. Thereafter it was decided to bring forward the writings of Barlaam, which he inscribed against the Massalians for the deception of those hearing. In which writings he spoke also concerning the inaccessible light of the Transfiguration of our Master and Savior Jesus Christ, and of the chief of his disciples and apostles who were deemed worthy of the vision of this light, in these very words: "The light of the Godhead which shone on Tabor was not inaccessible, nor did it exist as light of the Godhead in truth, nor was it at all holier or more divine than the angels, but was even inferior and lower than even our own understanding. For all thoughts and objects of thought are more venerable than that light, as it falls upon the sight through the air, and falls under the power of sense, and shows only sensible things to those who see, being material and shaped, and appearing in place and in time, and coloring the air, and now..."
being dissolved and into non-existence, since it is a phantom, fragmentary and limited. Therefore, it was an object of vision for those suffering from the privation of intellectual activities, or rather, for those who had not yet acquired them at all and were not yet purified, but were incomplete, even while on that very vision on the mountain, as they had not yet been deemed worthy of the contemplation of those things which are god-like. We are led up from such light to intellectual concepts and contemplations, which are clearly superior to that light. Wherefore, those who say that it is above understanding, and true, and inaccessible, and suchlike, are altogether led astray, and knowing nothing higher than the sensible, beautiful things, they are for this reason impious, and are introducing most destructive dogmas into the Church. Thus far, Barlaam, whose views are clearly heterodox and contrary to what has been said about this divine light by the saints.
B O'. For the monks, being firmly persuaded that they should believe and say things in accordance with these utterances, put these forward. The divine John of Damascus says, therefore: "Today an abyss of inaccessible light, today a limitless pouring forth of divine radiance, shines upon the apostles on Mount Tabor. Now what was invisible to human eyes has been seen. A terrestrial body radiates divine splendor. A mortal body sends forth the glory of the Godhead. For the Word became flesh, and the flesh became Word, even if each did not depart from its own nature—O the miracle!" The glory did not accrue to the body from without, but from within, from the Godhead of the God-Word, who is above all divinity, united to it in an ineffable union C according to hypostasis.
I'. For in that [Godhead], in which the angels are unable to fix their gaze, in this, the foremost of the apostles see the glory of His own kingdom shining forth.
IA'. Hence, He takes the foremost of the apostles as witnesses both to His own glory and Godhead, and reveals to them His own Godhead. And it is fitting that those who behold the divine glory should be perfect, the glory which is beyond all things, the only one which is truly supreme and pre-perfect.
IB'. For the truly divine and God-speaking Dionysius says: "Thus the Master will appear to His own perfect servants, in the way He appeared to the apostles on Mount Tabor." He takes John, as the virgin of theology and a most pure instrument, in order that, having beheld the timeless glory of the Son, D "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," he might thunder forth.
IΓ'. For stillness is the mother of prayer. And prayer is a manifestation of divine glory. For when we close our senses, and become aligned with ourselves and with God, having been freed from the external spinning of the world, and have become inward to ourselves, then we shall clearly behold the kingdom of God within ourselves. For "the kingdom of heaven," which is the kingdom of God, "is within us," Jesus the God declared.
IΔ'. Before the disciples He is transfigured, always in the same way glorified and shining with the lightning of the Godhead.
IE'. For being begotten eternally from the Father, He possesses the natural, eternal ray of the Godhead, and the glory of the Godhead becomes the glory of the body, existing and appearing, but now being dissolved and passing into non-existence, as it was a phantom, fragmentary and limited. Therefore, it was invisible to those who are bound with the chains of the flesh, being what was hidden—the glory existing in the appearing body to those who could not contain even what is invisible to angels. He is transfigured, therefore, not by taking on what He was not, B nor by being changed into what He was not, but by appearing as He was to His own disciples, opening their eyes, and making them see from being blind. And this is, "He was transfigured before them." For remaining Himself in identity, apart from what he appeared before, another [mode] was now seen by the disciples, and He shone, he says, as the sun. Not that He was not brighter than the sun—for it is impossible for the uncreated to be imaged in creation without being diminished—but as much as those who were seeing were able to contain in their contemplation.
IΖ'. For no one has ever seen God, as He is by nature. And whoever has seen, has seen this in the Spirit. This is the change worked by the right hand of the Most High. These are the things which "eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and did not arise in the heart of man." Thus in the age to come we shall always be with God, seeing Christ shining with the light of the Godhead. This light has the victory over every nature; this is the life that has conquered the world. But Peter [says], "It is good for us to be here." And from thence a cloud, not of darkness, but of light, overshadowed them; for the mystery hidden from the ages and from the generations is being revealed. A voice of the Father came from the cloud of the Spirit, and a perpetual and eternal glory is shown.
IH'. And the divinely-inspired Andrew of Crete says, "The Savior leads the disciples up to the high mountain, to do what? Or to teach what? To show forth the super-shining glory and splendor of His own Godhead."
IΘ'. Therefore, we celebrate today this deification of nature, the change to the better, the ecstasy and ascent to that which is above nature, according to which even the victory of the better [takes place], or to speak more accurately, the ineffable deification.
K'. This the angels wonder at. This the archangels glorify.
KA'. This the intellectual hierarchy of the super-celestial [beings], feasting immaterially, sets as a most manifest and most truthful proof of the philanthropy of the Word toward us.
KB'. There is nothing of those things seen in creation that can contain the superabundance of His splendor. For the One who is beyond being, having been made substantial in our substance, has lived among us through the flesh, who indeed also shone forth in excess on the mountain.
KΓ'. Not then becoming more radiant or higher than Himself—far be it!—but as He was also before, He was truly contemplated by the disciples who were being initiated into the higher mysteries. For outside of flesh...
having become participants in the world according to what was attainable, they already experienced the things of the future state from the things in which they were instructed. A κδ’. For if the good is not uncommunicable to any of all things, but not in its entirety whatever it is, but only as much and in such a way as it becomes acceptable to those who participate in it. And this, by reason of extreme goodness, flows forth in infinite-giving illuminations B towards all things. The proof of these things that are uttered would be the blessed passion and much-hymned experience which the apostles suffered on the mount. When the inaccessible and timeless light transformed His own flesh through the superlative excess of His transcendent brightness, B O the transport!—they fell into a heavy sleep and, seized by fear, completely detached every intellectual movement and sensation from themselves. Thus, in that divine and super-radiant and invisible darkness, they were gathered to God; not at all seeing, they received the seeing, and by suffering an ignorance C that is higher than every intellectual apprehension, they were initiated while having become outside of all things that are seen and known, and even outside of themselves, having gone beyond all deification and removal, D according to the transcendent, super-essential [nature] in the manifestation of the Word, and in the overshadowing of the Spirit, and in the voice of the Begetter borne from above out of the cloud—by which they were disciplined in the mystery of ignorance and blindness.
κε’. Regarding this divine light, the great Theologian A says: "The divinity that was revealed on the mount was light to the disciples, a little stronger than their visual capacity." And again, "He will come as my Word," (I. Cor. 1:17) [in the manner] in which He was seen by the disciples and shown, surpassing the flesh of the divinity.
κς’. The holy Maximus says, "This is the Gospel of God, the intercession of God and the consolation toward human beings through the Son who became flesh, and the reward of the reconciliation of the Father being gifted to those who obey Him—the unbegotten deification." By unbegotten, I mean the deification that is according to the essential, hypostatic B illumination, which has no beginning, but is an inconceivable manifestation to the worthy. And again, "It does not appear to all always with glory," says he, "but to those standing by Him, to some being initiated in the form of a servant, but to those able to follow Him, ascending on high, C it appears in the form of God of His transfiguration, in which He existed before the world was."
κζ’. And the same again: "The light," says he, "of the face of the Lord, which conquered the energy of human nature, described the manner to the blessed apostles, according to the apophatic mystical theology, wherein the blessed and holy divinity is by essence D unspeakable and super-unknown, and infinite times removed from every apprehension, having left behind not even a trace to those after it."
κη’. κθ’. For those who exist, says the same, [He is] not existing according to essence, but [He is] communicable, willing to be participated in by those who are able according to another manner, [but] He does not depart at all from that which is hidden according to essence; since even the very manner according to which He is participated in voluntarily, remains eternally unmanifest to all.
λ’. And the great Basil also says: "The Holy Spirit is inaccessible by nature, but communicable through goodness, filling all things with power, but is communicable only to those who are worthy; not being participated in by one measure, but dividing the energy according to the proportion of faith, simple in essence, various in powers."
λα’. "Being whole present to each, and whole everywhere, being participated in without passion and in its entirety, according to the image of the solar ray; and to each of those capable, as if present to him alone, it bestows the grace lastingly and entire upon all."
λβ’. The energies are various, but the essence is simple. We say that we know God from the energies; we do not promise to approach Him according to essence. For His energies descend to us, but His essence remains inaccessible.
λγ’. For thus also the great Athanasius says, that no human being is able to see God's essence nakedly anywhere. Whence it is manifest that it was not the essence of God that the saints saw, but the glory, just as it is written concerning the apostles, that having stayed awake, A they saw His glory.
λδ’. And again the same: "Passionless," says he, "even in the sufferings of the flesh, Christ, as God, having conquered death and having risen on the third day and having ascended into heaven, in natural glory and not in grace, coming in His own divinity, and manifestly shining forth from His body borne of Mary His own holy, ineffable glory, as He also showed in part on the mount, teaching us that B both before and now He is the same, being always unchangeable and having no alteration regarding His divinity."
λε’. Thus also the great Dionysius: "When we become incorruptible," says he, "and immortal, and attain the Christ-like and most blessed state, we shall be always with the Lord according to the promise, C being fulfilled in all-holy contemplations of His visible manifestation, encircling us with most luminous rays, as the disciples [were] in that most divine transfiguration; and participating in His intellectual illumination, with an impassive and selfless mind, and in the union beyond mind, in the unknown and blessed D touches of the super-celestial rays, in a more divine imitation of the super-celestial beings."
λς’. And the great Basil says: "The prize of virtue is to become God, and to be illuminated by the most pure light, having become a son of that day, which is not interrupted by darkness." For another makes this
sun, which is the true light, shine upon us [687A] once and for all—and when it has once shone upon us, it no longer hides in the sunset, but, embracing all things with its illuminating power, it produces that light continuously and unceasingly for those who are worthy, and makes those who partake of that light into other suns themselves. "For then," he says, "the righteous will shine forth as the sun."
37. And the divine Maximus: "The soul becomes God through the participation of divine grace, with all the activities of both mind and sense ceasing in it, and the natural activities of the body also ceasing, and being co-deified with it according to the participation in deification that corresponds to it; so that only God is then seen throughout the soul and the body, these having been overcome by the superabundance of the glory of their natural characteristics."
38. And the great Dionysius: "We see no deification or life which is exactly similar to the Cause that transcends all."
39. The same, when asked how He who is beyond all things is above Godhead and above Goodness, says: "If you conceive of Godhead and Goodness as the very thing of the beneficent gift, and as an inimitable imitation of the Super-divine and Super-good, according to which we are deified and made good—for indeed if this becomes the beginning of being deified and being made good for those who are being deified and made good, He who is the supra-archic of every beginning, even of the so-called Godhead and Goodness, is beyond them as God-head and Good-hood."
40. And the divine Gregory of Nyssa: "If His judgments, he says, cannot be searched out, and His ways are unsearchable, and the promise of good things is above every conjecture of speculation, how much more is the Divine Itself, according to its ineffable and inaccessible measure, above and higher than the things conceived concerning it?"
41. But also the divine John of Damascus again in the sacred hymns: "That you might show [687B] clearly your ineffable second descent, how the most high God would be seen standing in the midst of gods to the apostles on Tabor, having shone ineffably together with Moses and Elijah."
[688A] ...was put forward precisely to show the apostles this. And the light, appearing to them at that time as a display of humility—the most divine and glorious king, having his mind thoroughly illuminated by such a light at that time—said, "There is also a fear, not of those being initiated, but of those who are perfect." Concerning which the Prophet says: "The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever and ever." And elsewhere again: "Fear the Lord, all you His saints." And as a proof that the apostles then had not the introductory, but the perfect fear, was their request to remain forever at that ineffable vision. "For let us make here," he says, "three tabernacles," and, "It is good for us to be here." For he who has a fear of another sort from that one is eager to flee from whom he fears. For Peter, the summit of the apostles, thinking that this temporal and finite age had passed away, and that that other [688B] endless and unceasing light had appeared, said, "It is good for us to be here," speaking from the disposition of his soul in an inspired way. For he certainly saw there that which human nature could not possibly see, unless it were tempered toward the grace of the Holy Spirit. For they were deemed worthy at that time to as great an extent as human nature could contain, with the Spirit assisting it.
42. And in another hymn: "And having slightly hidden the taking of flesh, he was transfigured before them, showing forth the radiance of the archetypal beauty. And this [he showed] not wholly, at once reassuring them and sparing them, lest they perish along with the sight, but as they were able to contain it, turning their bodily eyes."
43. And the great Dionysius again: "The divine darkness, he says, is the inaccessible light. In which God is said to dwell, and which is invisible because of its superabundant visibility, and inaccessible by reason of the excess of its superessential outpourings of light."
44. And the Chrysostom Father says: "It is not God who is poured out, but rather grace."
45. And since he falsely accuses the apostles of the fear that came upon them at that most divine vision—and [688C] accuses the Fathers, as if they had held the same view previously—"O bewildered and little ones, has any of the [...]
wonders you deliver been named as a 'watch' or a 'custody' of the heart?" He claims that this man has ordained for the mystics to utilize a prayer at all times, as follows: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me." From this, therefore, one can discern what sort of person the inventor of these breath-drawn prayers was. For indeed, he does not legislate the "Our Father," which the Bogomils use in a distinct manner; for he thought that by this means he would become manifest. To those, however, whom he suggests should attend exclusively to this short prayer throughout their whole life, he reckons that all other prayers should be abandoned as mere babbling. And to those who, of all Christians, call upon our Lord Jesus Christ, our God, in this prayer, he has taken "our God" and transformed it into "Son of God"—in this, he has revealed the totality of his own heresy. For, in accordance with the dogma of the Bogomils, he also changes in the aforementioned prayer the phrase "our God" into "Son of God." For no one could name any other reason for which he has made such a change. And so much for the most godless Barlaam.
B The divine Diadochus says, "The mind demands, by all means, that whenever we block up all its outlets by the memory of God, we should also provide it with work to fulfill its activity. It is necessary, therefore, to give it the prayer: 'Lord Jesus Christ,' as a total occupation of its goal." For, as he says, "No one says 'Lord Jesus' except in the Holy Spirit." For those who meditate on this holy and glorious name in the depths of their heart unceasingly, they and their mind are able to see the light at some point. For it burns up all the filth that is prevalent in the soul in a sensible way. For our God, he says, is a "consuming fire." Hence, the Lord henceforth draws the soul into great love for His own glory. For the lingering of that glorious and most-desired name through the remembrance of the mind, with the warmth of the heart, engenders in us a habit of loving His goodness above all things. For this is the precious pearl, which one who has sold all his property is able to find and possess unspeakable joy in finding. And it would be a long task to recount the instructions and exhortations regarding this from the God-bearing Fathers. Since, therefore, the monks assert that this prayer is a delightful and divine practice of the God-bearing, Spirit-moved intellect from the beginning, and they also wish to weave together in succession all that lies regarding it in the writings of the saints—such as that which is contained in the aforementioned work by him who constructed the ladder of spiritual ascent in words—"For the remembrance of Jesus," he says, "must be fastened to your breath, and then you will know the profit of stillness."
C But these things are completely in opposition to the blessed voice of the foundation of the faith, the chief of the disciples, and to the Lord’s beatitude upon him. For he said to Him, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," and the Lord said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father who is in heaven." But we also say in the Symbol of Faith: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, born of the Father before all ages." Do we, therefore, not declare Christ to be God, since we say we believe in the Son of God? And the golden-tongued and divine teacher, John, writes to the monks regarding such holy prayer: "Have leisure at all times and remain with the Lord our God, until He has mercy on us, and seek nothing else except only mercy from the Lord of glory. And seeking mercy, seek it in a humble and pitiable heart, and cry out from morning until evening, and if possible, even the whole night, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us.' I urge you, therefore, use force upon your minds for this work even unto death. For this work requires much force, for narrow is the gate and afflicted is the way that leads to life, and those who use force enter into it. For the kingdom of heaven is for the violent. I urge you, therefore, do not separate your hearts from God, but wait and keep it with the remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ always, until the name of the Lord is implanted deep within the heart, and do not think of anything else, but that Christ may be magnified in you. I urge you, therefore, never cease or despise the rule of this prayer; but whether you eat, or whether you drink, or whether you travel, or whatever you do, cry out unceasingly: Lord Jesus Christ."
D As the monks were desiring to say such things in sequence, that wonderful king in all things, and now one who has brought his life to a blessed end, having as Christ the Lord taken up again the argument on behalf of Him who anointed him, says: "But let it be granted, and let it be conceded, that for some of the heretics to say this at the beginning, 'There is no charge against us from God, as we are making good use of what was understood poorly by them.' For we shall not say wrongly, just because the Persians call Abraham the 'God of heaven,' that we worship the 'God of heaven.' Nor because the Greeks say that the mind is the world-maker, will we not call this one the Creator of the world." By saying this, we would be justly faulted, as thinking according to them. For the Greeks, while claiming that matter is unbegotten and co-eternal with God, even if they say the Creator is God, they do not speak of Him as the producer of that which was not previously existing in any way, but as the decorator of that which exists, adding only order, form, and harmonious position to the beings, attributing almost nothing more to the power of God than to human craft. We, however, believing that all things received their procession into being from God out of nothing, know him precisely as the Creator of heaven and earth and of those things in between.
A And if one be found thus committing himself to such views, to the same condemnation by our mediocrity he shall be submitted.
[nγ'] 53. He shall be declared an outcaste and severed from the holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ and from the orthodox community of the Christians.
[nδ'] 54. We state, however, with gravity and spiritual severity and upon due reflection, that no one at all shall henceforth dogmatize, stirring up discourse about these matters or other dogmatic questions, neither in writing, that is to say, nor orally, since from this no small amount of scandal, confusion, disturbance, uproar, and storm arises in the souls of the hearers, especially those who are more simple. For the sake of this, the holy canons set forth above were certainly decreed by the God-bearing and holy Fathers. For, having concern that no one should henceforth fall into similar errors, and setting forth the present document for security, we have signed it with our own signatures, in the month of August of the ninth indiction. It also bore the signature, through the patriarchal and divine hand, of: John, by the mercy of God, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch.
[The text continues, resuming from the upper portion:] We praise and invoke him as the true God, and confess the Godhead of the Son, and bear witness to the Cause of the Godhead of the Son. But they say that the Massalians and Bogomils also invoke the prayer given by the Lord to his holy disciples and apostles. What then? Shall we, on this account, abstain from this? Shall we betray our own things to those who have badly bent them? And shall we, because of those who simulate piety in their words, withdraw from the voices of those who are truly pious? Away with such foul malice! But since we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins, we shall call upon his name with hope. And we shall obtain salvation from such an invocation, according to what was said by the Prophet: "And it shall be, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." And since there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved, and no one can say the Lord Jesus except in the Holy Spirit, and "At the name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and of things on earth, and of things under the earth," blessed is he who, through the unceasing meditation of this much-hymned name, has God dwelling within him. For he says, "They exult forever, and thou wilt tabernacle in them, and those who love thy name shall boast in thee." And how could he not become full of the Holy Spirit who hastens to hold this divine and super-glorified name in his heart day and night, since the Lord says in the Gospels that he will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him day and night?
[nε'] 55. Barlaam was therefore exposed and convicted by these things as speaking blasphemously and heterodoxically regarding the divine light on Tabor, and concerning those things which he wrote against the monks regarding the sacred prayer that they practiced and frequently professed. The monks, however, were shown to be above his accusation, as adhering to and remaining firm in the interpretations and traditions of the holy Fathers concerning these matters, just as they themselves clearly confessed and affirmed. Hence, with a common synodical vote, the same Barlaam, as has been said, having been condemned because he attacked the divine truths maliciously and dangerously, supposedly asked for forgiveness for these things. We therefore declare that if he truly shows repentance, and corrects himself, and is not found henceforth speaking and writing about such things, it shall be well; but if not, he shall be declared an outcaste and severed from the holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ and B from the orthodox community of the Christians.
[n'] 56. But if anyone else should appear to be speaking or writing blasphemously and heterodoxically against the monks, or rather against the Church herself, concerning the things pronounced or written by that man, he shall again be an accuser of the monks...
[The text moves to the right column:] [nε'] 55. Behind the signature of Cyzicus there was also written: "I was not summoned at the beginning to hear the case before the synod, but even when I was summoned to the synod and brought forward some writings to be read, they were not read. And after the judgment I was again not called to the consultation on the written Tome; for this reason I wished to sign the Tome in my place. But it also happened that I brought forward some parts from the writings of the most honorable Hieromonk, sir Gregory Palamas, which were corrupted, which later, having seen and read his writings, I studied and learned the truth, and I learned that in all things they are exactly in accord with the holy Fathers in every respect; and having heard his words, I also found them in accord with the holy Fathers in every respect. For this reason, privately, for the testimony and security of the truth of the things spoken and written by both the most honorable Hieromonk, sir Gregory Palamas, and the rest of the monks, I signed with my own hand: The humble Metropolitan of Cyzicus, C Hypertimos and Exarch of All the Hellespont, Athanasios." There were also the signatures of other bishops who were found: of Sardis, of Dyrrhachium, of Lacedaemon, of Madytos, of Methymna, of Bithynia. From this copy the present Tome was transcribed for the sake of security so that it might not be suspected as not being true, and it was found to be a copy in every respect to the original. There was also inscribed: "The present copy of the synodical Tome was collated, and having been found to be in every respect equal to its original, it was signed by me for the sake of security. The humble Metropolitan of Cyzicus, Athanasios."
II.
SYNODICAL TOME AGAINST PROCHORUS THE HIEROMONK OF CYDONES, WHO ADOPTED THE VIEWS OF BARLAAM AND ACINDYNUS, from which it is shown not only the holiness of Palamas, but also that his commemoration was established synodically to occur annually in the Church.
There is nothing worse than pride and conceit. A This began by being found in the holy and great Lavra on Mount Athos, where he was made a monk from childhood. And it was his duty to be educated there in a sacred education, since he was also considered worthy of the rank of priesthood in it, as well as being considered worthy of the rest of the virtues, and especially of the faith regarding the right and sound doctrine and piety—for such is the nature of that holy institution regarding these things. But he, imitating Judas in this as well, moves against all the teachers at once, or rather against God Himself, and falls into countless impious opinions and strange heresies. When the war of the Calabrian Barlaam and of that Acindynus was stirred up against the Church, the genuine children of the Church, considering the peace and concord of the immaculate faith of the Christians, returned their gratitude to the One who delivered the Church from such beasts and workers of iniquity, as if from a reversal. On the contrary, those who were addicted to the vanity of the Greek, Manichaean branches of learning, and were richly filled with their evil heresy, were being sawn asunder. Of these, the aforementioned Prochorus was the first and greatest, B in that, though he came later in time, he appeared so much superior in impiety to the ringleaders of the wickedness. For he added to their absurdities things much worse and more absurd. Therefore, because of such new-fangled expressions of his, and his spurious, strange, and impious mindset, and the effort he showed toward those who had been expelled by the Church, he was unable to remain in tranquility, being suspected by the monks in the venerable Lavra. Whence, having heard him many times advocating for the views of Barlaam and Acindynus, and speaking against the right dogmas of the Church, and having troubled them much in this, they brought him into the midst, seeking a confession of faith from him, so that they might have the boldness to glorify with one mouth, without condemnation, the one, trinitarian, and omnipotent God. But he, fearing the deposition that follows the heretics, feigned piety with his tongue in the midst of them, and insisted that he cherished the things of the Church, but his heart was far from the straight path. For what he used to feign before, when they happened to be gathered and were demanding an account of the words he had privately spoken to them many times, he was seen [opposing] them with all his might.
A For he was only concerned with not declaring his opinion openly and with boldness even in a synod, because of the testimony; but he was not idle in privately arguing against our people to everyone, one by one. Consequently, he caused much confusion for everyone, and he rent that sacred body of monks asunder, so that many of those who laid claim to piety and virtue, not only within the holy laura but also in all the Holy Mountain, began little by little to withdraw from the ecclesiastical communion of those who were in communion with him; just as they also reported in written petitions to our humility, putting forward what is contained in the holy synodal Tome, namely, that we hold those who are in knowing communion with them as excommunicated. Furthermore, that blessed man, the protector and hegumen of this holy assembly, Lord Jacob—a man having the primacy over all those [others] in power of speech and spirit, and being wise in both divine and human wisdom, and laying claim to the blameless and orthodox dogmas of the Church as much as possible—seeing this confusion among the monks, and simultaneously taking thought for the peace of all, and at the same time for their return and repentance, did not cease at all times from urging and exhorting him to put away the most evil and impious error which he carried within his soul, and to agree with the truths of the Church, and to be a partaker himself of those [truths] which are sacredly laid claim to by her. But he, having the devil quietly conversing with him alone inside, cared little for those speaking and teaching from the outside; wherefore that blessed man, having become desperate of him, writes and reports about this to our humility, informing us of everything concerning them; or rather, before he wrote, all the hesychasts gathered together and wrote and reported to our humility through the most reverend hieromonk Lord Joseph, making known to us those matters. Then, some little time having passed, the hegumen and the priests of the monastery reported through their own written petition, in which all of them signed, and before all, the hegumen. And they sent this through the most honorable among hieromonks, Lord Malachias, and the most honorable monk, Lord Joasaph. B Since, however, the chapters written synodically against Barlaam and Acindynus, and placed in the holy synodal [Tome] which is read annually on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, in which they are anathematized—both they and all who are like-minded and those who defend them—while those who have mightily defeated them, and all who by word and deed and by every possible means confirm and support the things of the Church, are proclaimed—it was necessary that this also be sent to the holy laura by our humility, so that it might likewise be written in the synodal text read there, and in the same way, according to the same A time of being read, as a kind of relief to the monks, as a support and correction for the wavering, they compelled Prochorus to read these things in the assembly and confirm them with his own signature. But he appeared annoyed and proud. Fearing the strength of the majority, B and at the same time possessing that instability which the original troublemakers were proved to have, he signed those things which he did not cherish; but he contradicted later what he had signed, and was on the whole like a crab walking sideways, bringing the variations of the Euripus, and changing the shapes of a chameleon. But He who catches the wise in their craftiness, He Himself made even this man to be caught in his own wings. For he was found to have in his cell the writings of these heretics and evil-thinkers, which, having fallen into the hands of the holy and of the monks, stirred up a violent war against him. For thence, filled with zeal and fervor, they sever him from their own communion; and they also send these things to our humility along with their petitions, crying out and entreating us not to overlook the truth in danger.
C As it was not possible for him to hide these things, being in the same assembly, he himself also writes and reports, claiming that everything that had been done against him was injustice and slander. He goes so far as to refrain not only from expounding dogma, but even from theologizing at all, [claiming] that he prefers simplicity, and seems to the many to be a rustic rather than to theologize even in the slightest degree. The reason (he said) is that the great mystery of theology is inaccessible, God wishing to make it so to men, [and that] this sensible heaven, which peddlers and cooks and those from the stage have mocked—the "new dogmatizers" who appeared a little while ago, as he calls our people, precisely as the truth has revealed. Because of which he chooses simplicity and silence, [as] an excess of piety toward theologizing. He also added this: that "since I am sending my writings thither, from these very things my own mind will be revealed, and how I think about the orthodox faith," adding also that he submits these things to the judgment and assessment of our humility, in order that what we approve may be confirmed, and what we disapprove may be rejected and cast out—speaking these things deceitfully and with hypocrisy.
D After a short interval, and not bearing the harassment of such a multitude of monks, and the blame from the separation from their communion, he comes to our humility, saying the same things as he had also written before. But upon being asked by it for the writings which he declared in his petition, he brings and hands them over to it. Having then received these, and not having yet had the leisure to read through them as she had wished, since the same Prochorus approached again, there being present with me [also] the most holy metropolitan of Ephesus, the super-honorable and exarch of all Asia, the one in the holy
A spirit of a beloved brother and concelebrant, and especially the zeal for God. For if, by the considerations of our mediocrity, he was asked how he is disposed toward the doctrines of the Church, and how he holds regarding the destruction of Barlaam and Acindynus, and the rejection and anathema of their heterodoxy and their writings, and what opinion he has concerning the holy Synodical Tome, and the mind of the common Church of Christ according to it, he did indeed confess in his soul that he had doubt and hesitation regarding such things, yet he said he did not wish to trust in himself, but rather to follow and agree with the Church of Christ; and to follow, either clearly having been taught regarding those things which, as he said, I wrote about while doubting, or having received the things of the Church by faith alone and submission with simplicity, so that our mediocrity might discern, as might the Church of Christ, as he himself said.
Such, then, were the inscription and the prologue. The following parts, however, crossing over into an excess of impiety, place in the midst the most evil writings of Barlaam and Acindynus. For indeed, he who has entered into the depth of theology, who shames the veil of heaven, showed first whom he called hucksters and cooks, but he did not fail the B excess of every piety; for by accusing us of the misuse of the divine expressions, he escaped himself by the standard he saw fit to use for interpreting them logically, not against us, but against the holy ones themselves he waged the war. For having proposed the expressions of the God-bearing Fathers, he did not hold to our interpretation of these, but shamelessly, in this way, fought openly against the mind of the holy ones. For the God-bearing Father John of Damascus saying thus, "It must be known that essence is one thing, and the potential entity another, and the act something else, and the agent another," he says that in the case of existing things it is true to distinguish one thing and another, not because they are simply one thing and another, but because they happen to be another and another in reality; for indeed, if anything is another and another according to definition, it is not also another and another according to reality—just as if man and knowable are another and another according to definition, if it happens that being is the same, both man and knowable, it is not therefore the same according to reality another and another. Therefore, even in the case of God, if essence C and the potential entity, and the act and the agent are another and another according to definition, [it does not follow] that they are also another and another according to reality. For God does not proceed from potentiality to actuality, so that the potential entity according to reality and the agent are another. For He changes and proceeds from the imperfect to the perfect.
And again, in another passage, wishing to show that God has no natural and essential activity, but is only essence, after many things he says this: that as if the essence of the Spirit did not suffice for all things, but there was need for this of certain lesser activities for the genesis of existing things. And elsewhere, in no way arranging for men to participate in God, he says such things: "Neither therefore do the expressions proposed by them show the communion of the Spirit in itself, nor that we participate in anything uncreated, nor that essence is one thing and energy another." From which follows the myriad swarm of blasphemies, and the [division] cutting the divinity into infinite unequal parts, and composing it from myriad unequals, and some to be participated in, and others unparticipable. And that from which God [is composed]—some are existing, others are over-existing, and some are comprehensible, others incomprehensible, and whatever nurses would blush to discuss with small children. And of the divine Chrysostom
A interpreting the passage in which he treats the evangelical saying that says, "Lord, show us the Father? and it suffices for us," he says: "Let us see what Philip seeks to behold; is it the wisdom of the Father? Is it the goodness? No, but God Himself, whatever He may be—the essence itself." First, he says, "I say this: that the knowledge of the wisdom of God is the same as the knowledge of the essence. For he who knows His wisdom knows His essence, in as much as the wisdom of God is the comprehension of His essence." I say, moreover, that neither is the knowledge of the Good something other than the knowledge of the essence of God. For the Good—in which God is Good—is not some quality in Him, but it is His essence. Proceeding further, he puts forward headings for the chapters, such as these:
"That the intellectual activity of God is His essence. That the intellectual power of God is His essence. That the wisdom of God is His essence. That the truth of God is His essence. That the will of God is His essence." And these he proves not from the divine Scriptures, nor by bringing forward sayings of the saints, but by his own reasonings, using, as if they were proofs, Aristotelian syllogisms. B Regarding the most divine light that shone from Christ upon the mountain, when he theologizes—or rather, when he fights against God—he puts forward the heading that the light on Tabor is created; then, having set forth many and most excellent testimonies from the saints, through which they theologize that it is an uncreated Light, a deity, a natural and inaccessible glory of the tri-hypostatic Godhead, an unbegotten radiance, an unapproachable light, a pouring forth of divine splendor that is limitless, and a light pre-cosmic and supra-cosmic, and such things; and having himself constructed, through these, that that light is uncreated because of the things already mentioned, he then attacks all the saints together and, openly contradicting them, he introduces it expressly thus: "But it is the contrary." And this he proves through many of Aristotle's syllogisms, and he says and concludes many other blasphemous and impious things, opposing in all things the Tome of the divine Synod, or rather, the theologians themselves upon whom that man relies. C For he says, "If, then, that light were a symbol of the truth that is beyond mind and word, it would be neither the first truth, nor beyond mind and word, but merely beyond sensation. But that which is not beyond mind and word is not truth, nor is it uncreated; therefore, that light is created. If it were truth beyond mind and word, how do we know what it is? Such as light, and what kind of light? Just as white. And where? Such as on Tabor. And when? Before the Passion, clearly, six days earlier. For we believe that the truth beyond mind and word exists, but regarding the 'what' and 'how' and 'what kind' and 'when,' we do not dare to examine, nor do we endure to conceive of them, rejecting the impiety. Thus, those who say they saw and understood that truth which is in God, and who put forward 'what' and 'what kind' and 'when,' attempt impious things." And again: "Nothing prevents a brighter D light at that time being the Lord, and showing what He was before the world was, yet that light was not in the essence of God, and uncreated. For indeed from other theophanies it was shown what He was before, but the visible appearances were not for the demonstration of what was in the essence of God." But he who charges us with polytheism and slanders the Church of God along with his mystagogues, Barlaam and Akindynos, is shown forth as venerating many godheads and many created gods. For he speaks thus: "Some, having perceived the aforementioned absurdities, thought the light on Tabor to be the essence of God, in as much as they considered it absurd that some light should exist in the essence of God other than Him; but they did not understand that there are certain sensible and intelligible lights called by analogy, of which perhaps it is possible that the light on Tabor is one. But they are most deceived by the name 'deity' being applied to the theophany, and by not thinking it possible for there to be a created deity." And after a few words: "For since secondary holinesses, and kingdoms, and deities, and lordships, by partaking through the first, multiply the simplicity of their distribution in regard to their own differences, it is clear that they do not partake of the kingdom of God, and lordship, and deity, and holiness, in themselves, but by another holiness they become holy, and by another kingdom, kingly, and by another deity and lordship, gods and lords." And after a little: "Therefore, there is nothing absurd, just as we say there are many created gods, and saints, and kings, and lords, even though there is one true Holy One, and King, and God, and uncreated Lord, so also to say there are many holinesses and lordships, even though there is one kingdom of that same, and holy, and lordship, and deity uncreated—that of the super-essential Godhead." And elsewhere again he says thus: "Since the end and goal and fulfillment of every hierarchy is theosis, which is the assimilation to God as far as is possible, and the immediate causes of our theosis are created, such as those who govern the hierarchy, the sciences by which they govern, and the energies and powers; it is clear that our theoses also, as created effects, are created and are subordinated to those who deify." And for this reason, just as there are many created gods, so also there are deities and theoses, subordinated and over-existing, and general and particular, and with each its own corresponding one. Wherefore, having so many gods and deities and theoses beyond us that are created, of which we can partake of neither the nature, nor the power, nor the energy, or the passion, and of the knowledge—otherwise it would be to say we partake of the uncreated God, or of the theosis, or of the deity, or of any energy of His and power. And it would be long to say in order and to set forth the rest, which are filled to overflowing with every impiety and exceed by a wide margin those wicked writings of Barlaam and Akindynos into the reasoning of impiety; for only the devil himself could have said these things with him, he who is the guide of this man toward these things and his teacher.
From the many and almost innumerable [citations], those which have been set forth for the manifestation of his
A impiety and ungodliness—that they are indeed impious products of our God and Savior Jesus Christ and of the author of evil, spoken through his own tongue and making use of his hand—I think no one of all those of our own fold is ignorant. But if any also desire to have the words of the holy Fathers for the destruction of these things, we refer them to the sacred tome of the synod, which contains many utterances of the God-bearing Fathers, and is firmly based upon them from beginning to end. And we, in addition to the things already mentioned, shall also add others of his impious writings, in which he insults the leaders of Christ’s Church. B For he says word for word as follows:
"If that which was said by Paul concerning the Lord is true, that he made Him who knew no sin to be sin for our sake, and that He came in the likeness of sin and concerning sin; and sin is called darkness, because it is the privation of the good—then it is self-evident that Christ came in the likeness of darkness and concerning the true darkness, so as to expel it from men. And for this reason, the body of the Lord was not at all without sin, but was other than our bodies. For just as it was united to His life, yet was mortal, as the divine Word humbled Himself and lowered Himself, and was by hypostatic union C united to impassibility, yet remained passible: so also the light, united by hypostasis, was not yet transformed into light before the resurrection. For if He had taken on a luminous body at that very generation—the way He showed in the Transfiguration, as I heard from certain detractors—and if He showed it only to whom He willed, casting a shadow upon the eyes of others, first He introduces a suspicion lest that which appeared luminous was some phantasm, and lest that which appeared was not [real]. Then, what is the need of the second generation, the greater and more perfect one—I mean from the resurrection—according to which He is called the firstborn from the dead, unless it is because 'it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body'? For if He perfected the author of our life through sufferings, it is clear that Christ did not take on a perfect body D [at first]. Hence, also, that which is said by John, 'The light shines in the darkness,' and interpreted by Gregory as referring to this life and this fleshly state—lest it be said regarding the Lordly body—is spoken of, and of [His] life, which also shows His divinity through the fact of His being both passible and of humble estate. For what is surprising about the body of the Lord being called darkness by Scripture because of the humility in which He appeared, when the divine Scripture even says that He put on the principalities and powers? For if He stripped them off in Christ, He had first put them on. Whence we neither say, to the insult of Christianity, that the body of Christ is transparent or ethereal, or that He took it on from His holy mother already luminous, as He showed at that time and will be after the resurrection; nor that this light is essential to the divinity."
These things, and things much worse and more absurd than these—my modesty, having seen and judged them to be full of all ungodliness and offspring of the devil, summoned him once again; and with the most sacred Metropolitan of Ephesus and superior present with me, said to him thus: "I have encountered certain parts of your writings, and I found them filled with all ungodliness. For as for the definition of the faith—I mean the sacred tome of the synod—which our Church cherishes along with the holy Creed, as being composed from the divine Scriptures and the synodical and patristic words, and being an unfolding of the divine Creed: whereas you [treat it] as a subversion of that [Creed], and because also that which shone in
A the mountain, the light of the tri-hypostatic divinity, in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, is openly said by them to be a creature, rejecting entirely the voices of the holy Fathers and teachers, which teach that it is an uncreated divinity, and its natural glory and radiance, and eternal and beginningless grace—for this reason I called these things full of all impiety and alien to the orthodox Church of Christ. And he, while pretending in his speeches to be compliant again with those things which seem right to the holy Church of Christ—speaking this guilefully and craftily, and not from an upright soul—asserted, while lying, that he did not know at all that the God-bearing Fathers and teachers of the Church explicitly say so, that that light is uncreated. To which he heard from me again that either, knowing this, he is feigning ignorance on purpose, or if he happens to be ignorant, as he says, he is ignorant willingly. For if he had wished, he could have found this openly written in the writings of the saints everywhere. And it is not the act of an upright man, and one wishing to learn the truth, to pass by and overlook the sayings of the saints in which they say this openly, and to bring forward others, which perhaps admit of also being interpreted in another way. But rather, if he wished to convince B us in all things, he must also sign the sacred Tome, as we have, and overturn what has been wrongly written by him, not by mere words, but also by writings. Since it is fitting that a word be undone by a word, and writings by writings. But since he retorted that, "I cannot write other things for the subversion of what I have written; for I wrote what I believed, and I cannot write the contrary again; I say what the Church says, and I do not overturn them by words"—saying this falsely and guilefully, and not truthfully, as subsequently appeared—our humility said that it was necessary and unavoidable for him to undo and overturn his former writings by a new, small writing, using the words of the God-bearing Fathers and teachers of the Church; for he will not immediately return to the Holy Mountain, but must pass the winter here. For which reasons I instructed him also to read the sacred books, which could provide him with much benefit, and especially the Acts of the holy and ecumenical Sixth Council, the dialogue against Pyrrhus by the divine Maximus, and the dogmatic book of the God-bearing Father John of Damascus. But my whole purpose was that, having read these, and having come to a knowledge of the sacred dogmas of our sound faith, he might then also gladly accept the words from us, and remove every doubt from his own soul, and proceed to the undoing of his own impious writings by other contrary ones. And he appeared to us to accept these things well, and as we wished, and as if he had entrusted his whole will to us, and to our judgment and discernment; but to those outside he C gave them, saying, "The patriarch told me to read the books, as if I had not seen them. I have read these well and with great care, and I know what is contained in them." But he does not solve my writings and the questions [raised] in them, but tells me to read the books of the saints. And many other such things and more than these he said, which I, hearing from many, pretended not to understand. In these circumstances, then, he wrote a missive to the most holy hegumen of the sacred Lavra, which, having been read there, all were at once disturbed, both the hesychasts and the clergy, and all the monks. And having gathered together with the God-beloved bishop of Perissos and the Holy Mountain, they anathematized him, as one irredeemable and incorrigible. Then they sent the most devout hieromonk lord Joseph to our humility along with written petitions from the aforementioned God-beloved bishop, the most holy hegumen of the hesychasts, and the priests, begging and entreating through the aforementioned petitions to accept the authority and [confirm] this anathema from us, and that he be cast out and deposed, and not be received at all. Since they themselves did not do what they have done out of their own [initiative], but rather following the catholic Church of Christ and the sacred Tome of the synod, which declares that those who are found to think, say, and write the same things as Barlaam and Akindynos are to suffer the same [fate]. They also sent the missive written by him to the most holy hegumen, as a demonstration of his impiety. All of which our humility having seen, it had the necessity to show these things to the holy and great synod [gathered] around it. Because even though so much time had passed since he came here, he did not make known to it the things concerning him, due to hearing from him that our humility holds what the Church of Christ holds, and overturns his writings, as he himself said. For these reasons, then, until now, it did not communicate these things to the holy and great synod [gathered] around it, waiting for his sincere repentance. But since it received the letters from the Holy Mountain, it had to communicate these things to it as well. And indeed, the most reverend archbishops and metropolitans having been gathered—[those] of Caesarea, of Ephesus, of Cyzicus, by opinion [shared] with our humility, of Chalcedon, of Bizye, and of Brysis; but also the God-beloved bishops found in the Queen of cities, [those] of Ephesus, of Borea, and of Metamias, and [those] of Heraclea, of Panium, and of Peristasis, with the presence also of certain archimandrites and hegumens of this Queen of cities, that of the most honorable archimandrite of the revered monastery of Stoudios, the hieromonk lord Macarius, and others, and monks from the select ones—he was summoned by our humility and D Pro-
Achorus, so that he might speak before the holy and great synod those things which, as it seemed, he had personally and often said to me, namely, that he follows the Church of Christ and holds to what she thinks, and that he rejects his own writings. Therefore, having come, he was received by our humility with kindness and gentleness, and was encouraged to say what he wished. But he, beginning to speak, first blamed the envy of the Lavriotes against him, as he himself said; then, proceeding, he showed that all the things he had said to me privately were falsehood, hypocrisy, and deceit. For it was necessary that now, before the holy synod, he should say this, and anathematize his own impious and unlawful writings, and approach the Church of Christ and ask for forgiveness, and cherish what she herself cherishes, thinks, and teaches. But he did the exact opposite, seeking to have his own writings brought into the midst of the synod and read, and to call "new dogmas" those things which the Church teaches, saying that: "These things which have been written by me are what I cherish, and whoever wishes to speak against them, let him come forward and solve the difficulties in them." Therefore, at the encouragement of our humility, these writings were brought forward, and certain parts were read—which were set forth above in detail—and other similar things. As these were being read, he was vehemently disposed toward them, seeking a solution to the difficulties in them according to his own teacher, Barlaam. Since he was saying such things, he was utterly rejected by the synod that had been gathered against him at that time, as the sacred canons were read, by which it is forbidden and nowise permitted for those like him, and for all others, to move anything at all regarding dogmas or to impose a necessity upon others to apologize for such things. For this has been given only to the archiereis by God. Therefore, in accordance with that, he too, speaking similar things, heard from our humility that as long as he is thus disposed regarding the correct dogmas of the Church and openly speaks against them, he shall hear no apology or solution from us. For how could we provide a solution to things which are not cherished by him, but rather are being destroyed as far as he is concerned, from the sacred teachers of the Church? But when he asks for forgiveness, and anathematizes his own writings, and his most wicked and impious opinion, and overturns them with another writing, and becomes in all things obedient to the Church as a disciple, then, even if he has questions, we are ready to supply the solution easily from the divine Scriptures and our God-bearing Fathers and teachers. But he, hearing this, did not even accept it, but strongly resisted, seeking a solution and demanding that these things be read. As they were being read, and were clearly shown to be full of every impiety, and were being continuously anathematized by the holy synod, he was himself fiercely defending them and was stung by their being overturned. Regarding the most divine light of the Transfiguration, then, as he was fighting against God and wishing to show it to be created, he said to the others that this too is of such a character, as that which B appeared on the face of Moses. For it says that the glory and brightness which is being abolished and ceasing is what Paul calls such. Concerning this, when asked by our humility to say what he thinks, he said: "It happened and appeared on the face of Moses; then it ceased, and was dissolved, and went into non-being, and now it is nothing; just as was the light that shone on the face of Christ; for it was not a brightness established in the essence of God, but one kindled by the divinity through the divine soul."
To these things, our humility replied that even if the divine Paul says that this is being abolished, it is not such as to be dissolved and go into non-being. For being divine grace and illumination, and a natural energy of the almighty divinity, it shone C in Moses, so that the sons of Israel were unable to gaze upon his face without a veil; so much did it illuminate that face. But it remains and exists unto eternity; the face in which it appeared ceased, but that [light] itself does not cease. For it has ceased in that it does not appear there, but not so as to be dissolved into non-being. But Christ did not have that ineffable glory and most divine light from without. For the divine John Damascene says: "Today an abyss of unapproachable light, today a pouring forth of divine radiance, is shining upon the apostles on Mount Tabor. Now has been seen by human eyes—earthly body beaming forth divine brightness, mortal body pouring forth a glory of divinity. For the Word became flesh, and the flesh became Word, even if neither departed from its own nature. O the miracle! The glory did not come to the body from without, but from within, from the ineffable divinity of the God-Word, which in ineffable manner had become united to him hypostatically." And again: "But Moses is glorified by the glory coming from without, while the Lord Jesus did not have the adornment of glory as something acquired, but from the indwelling brightness of the divine glory." And the divine Chrysostom, in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, speaks thus: "But we, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." And a little later: "'And what is, *beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image*?' This was shown more clearly when he worked the gifts of the signs; but not even now is it difficult to see it, for one who has faithful eyes. For we are baptized, and the soul shines brighter than the sun, being purified by the Spirit. And not only do we look into the glory of God, but we also receive from thence a certain radiance. For just as if clean silver were laid against the rays, it too would send forth rays, not from its own nature alone, but also from the solar brilliance, so too the soul, being purified and becoming brighter than silver, receives a beam from the glory of the Spirit, and this
A is, as it were, a reflection of the image we are being transformed from glory to glory of the Spirit into our own glory, which is being produced within us, and is such as it is fitting to be from the Lord the Spirit. And again from the same homily: “Do you wish to see it shining also through the body? Having gazed,” he says, “into the face of Stephen, they saw it as the face of an angel,” but this is nothing compared to the splendor shining within. For what Moses had upon his face, this man carried upon his soul, or rather, even by much more. And furthermore, while his writings were being read, he was found saying that the light of the Transfiguration is not that which the righteous are to enjoy, but that this is what the wicked shall also see. And he brings forward Augustine as an alleged witness, misinterpreting that dictum of his which says that since both the good and the wicked see the Judge of the living and the dead, beyond all doubt, the wicked could not otherwise see him, except in the form in which he is Son of Man; though it is in his glory that he will judge, and not in his humiliation in which he has been judged. And when asked how he understands “in his glory,” he said it is the glory of the only-begotten Son of God, which he has with the Father and the Spirit, being by nature created, which also appeared in the face of Christ on the mount, in which the wicked shall see him. But our humility has not said that these things are so; rather, this is what the divine Augustine says: that the wicked shall not see the Lord in his humiliation, as condemned, in B abuse and mockery, in dishonor and lack of glory, but in his glory and honor, that is to say, as the Judge of all. For he himself also adds this, saying: “In his glory in which he will judge, and not in his humiliation in which he has been judged,” which glory is not that common glory of the tri-hypostatic divinity, which then appeared in the face of Christ, but another kind of his glory, in which, it is clear, he shall come to judge the living and the dead. For not even the Father, he says, judges anyone, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. But he was an asp toward these things, deafening his ears so as not to hear the voice of those who were applying the divine oracles. Regarding these things then, and the other things that were read, in which he does not speak of a difference at all between the divine essence and the divine operation, but even speaks of many created divinities, slandering also the holy Dionysius as supposedly saying this: from all these things, or rather from the mere title of his writings, it was necessary in any case to excommunicate him and consign him to the anathema as an alien to the Church of Christ. But our humility, and the holy and great Synod around it, using the usual philanthropy of the Church, and still awaiting his conversion, have given him an opportunity for apology, and we have allowed such things to be said in the Synod. By the urging of our humility...
[Column 708] Concerning which he was hearing from me that they are most wicked, and he himself was supposedly attributing them to the Church. And after a little: “And concerning the Tome and the accusations of the Lavriots, we were thus easily rid; but when the patriarch requested that we say if we had anything to take issue with in the writings of Palamas, I gave him two treatises, and he has had them now for two months, but has not yet offered any apology. Yet even so, he deems us worthy of the highest honor and love, and marvels at my wisdom, and shows the writings to the wise men in the Church, seeking a common defense of the doctrines of Palamas.” Therefore they also anathematize and excommunicate everyone who urged me to write, as if because of them the Church has come into the ultimate dangers; but they ask me to resolve the contradiction, and to relieve the Church of grievous troubles. If, even though I did not give in, they, having taken up a common collection, have given me for the present… C that I might endure the winter here, the Emperor Kantakouzenos and the patriarch having made many requests to this effect, so that they might securely supply an apology with leisure; for up to this point they have asked me to wait here; he was speaking verbatim the opposite of all that he was saying to me, and false and groundless things. We were therefore going to add more, but from these things that are clearly false and groundless, and [which] have the proof, one must understand the rest. Continuing further he says: “But you say and accuse me because of the [doctrines] of Akindynos, and I believe that the patriarch is much greater than your holiness, and I speak against him even now in writing, and again he does not revile me as you represent yourself [to do], saying false things in this as well; rather, he indeed gave me his writings, as he said, so that they might be burned.” And after little: “You have accused me, and yet up until this day I am unjudged; but we are being accused of unspeakable heresies; for the confession which you demanded of my brother, I brought to those [who are] here, and it was found by the Synod only that he holds four heresies; one, that he said that humans become actually and truly gods, just as Christ [is] actually and truly human. A second heresy it contained, that he said that the prophets saw God actually and truly, and not typically and symbolically. For if God appeared to men as a leopard, and a lion, and a lamb, and a pearl, and [one] sitting, and [the] Ancient of Days, and these were not type and symbols, but actually and truly D God is One
A third, that the light on Tabor is not created and uncreated, mortal and immortal, temporal and eternal. For you are ignorant, as it seems, of the duality of the nature of Christ and the unity of the hypostasis.
In the fourth [point], where you said that the energy of God is seen as light, everyone laughed. For they did not even understand what you said, but the matter was boorish and senseless. Because of these things, my lord, your Holiness defines you as a heretic, and the whole monastery, not because of me, but may you fall into the pit you dug for me. But as for all these things, he brought a false accusation against the divine synod. For he neither saw it ever assembled, nor heard such things ever from it, unless perhaps he calls "synod" those who are of the same mind and the same dogma as himself. For they perhaps said these things—those who also always rejoice in such things and say such things. We, however, regard those dwelling in the Holy Mountain as orthodox, and as defenders of the right dogmas, and as pursuers of heretics; and as he says that he has that confession, he put these things forward, not as it relates them. But he also badly tore these things away from it. For when it was read before the holy synod, it was found to be orthodox and having nothing worthy of accusation. B For the things he accuses it of, [the words] read as follows: "Those who believe that the participation in God comes about in reality and truth in the Spirit, through whom the prophets, and children of God, and men become gods, just as also God in reality and truth became man, I cherish and accept. But those who say that God is to be perceived and imagined only by way of relation and imitation and by analogy to the wisdom seen in created things, as in a riddle, I anathematize. Further, those who say that the human heart is cleansed by divine grace and through the practice of the commandments, and that thus the indwelling of God according to energy comes about in it, and that it is seen by those who are worthy as light, which indeed is called the kingdom of heaven and divine illumination, I cherish and accept. But those who revile and mock these people as enthusiasts, and belly-soulers, and worshipers of a new light, I anathematize. Because I believe and confess that the visions that occurred from time to time in the saints in the Spirit have happened in reality and truth—like that of Isaiah, that of Habakkuk, and that true illumination in the way of the divine Paul—but those who say that these happened according to fantasy, I anathematize. Furthermore, I believe and confess that the light on Tabor at the transfiguration of Christ is uncreated and eternal, beginningless and unending, divinity, natural ray, essential and divine energy, and an illumination, splendor, and lovely beauty of the divinity of God the Word. But those who call it created and uncreated, visible and invisible, mortal and immortal, and further a sensible symbol, a phantom, and a dream more feeble than thoughts, I anathematize."
Regarding this divine light then, when Prochoros was asked how he says it is the same and one [thing], created and uncreated, since Christ C he said, is uncreated and created. "For just as he is there, being double, God and man clearly, as God he is uncreated, and as man he is created; so also that light which shone from Christ, being by nature created and uncreated, could be created and uncreated."
"But Christ," my humility has said, "is composite of divinity and humanity, and because of this, with both properties being preserved, he is created and uncreated; but that light would have been also an effulgence and illumination of the divinity of Christ—or rather, of the tri-hypostatic divinity—and not of the flesh; for the flesh itself does not have light of its own, so how is it possible for it to be both uncreated and created?" Against which he, objecting, says, "But I," he says, "call the light the very Mind, Christ, the only-begotten Son of God with the taking on of our human [nature], and because of this I call him uncreated and created." My humility, "Finally," [I] said, "in your writings which were read a little while ago, while making out that light to be created only, you were saying that Christ himself, the only-begotten Son of God, who for our sake became man, is created only according to your suppositions—and not created and uncreated—and why then do we drive out Arius alone, while you are also blaspheming the same things as him, or rather even much worse and more absurd [things]? For you have nothing to object that you did not say this; for the writings themselves clearly show this." He, however, answered nothing to these things. For he did not even wish to hear of the divine Father John of Damascus, clearly saying that "before the disciples, he is transfigured, always being glorified in the same way and shining with the lightning of divinity; for being born beginninglessly from the Father, he possesses the natural beginningless ray of divinity; and the glory of the divinity becomes the glory of the body." And again, "And the sun illuminated," he says; "not that it is brighter than the sun, for it is impossible for the uncreated to be depicted in creation, but as much as those who saw were capable of beholding." Nor of the great Athanasius, saying, "No one of men is able to see the bare essence of God anywhere." Whence it is manifest that the saints did not see the essence of God, but the glory, as it is written also concerning the apostles, that "Peter and those with him, having kept awake, saw his glory." D
And since, among other things, he also said this in his [letter] to the most holy hegumen Pittakios concerning the Thessalonian, the sacred Gregory, namely, that my humility supposedly did not write to the Holy Mountain of Athos that it should celebrate [him], nor indeed does it celebrate him here, wherefore he did not permit this either to be judged, synodically, together with those sent from there—both the most honorable hieromonk kyr Malachias and the most honorable monk kyr Job—while maintaining the honor of the holy lavra, so that it might not be dishonored as acting outside the canons, because of these things my humility deemed it necessary to say something regarding this. He said, therefore, that that holy man I and our...
mean Gregory, and from the time of that miraculous and angelic life of his, and the great struggles which he waged against both the passions and the demons—things which I, who have tested him, know most especially—and furthermore from the things for which he fought nobly on behalf of the holy Church of Christ, and presided over it, and through writings and discourses and arguments and [by] everything capable of strengthening it, I hold him to be holy, and in no way lacking compared to those great teachers of the Church, the God-bearing Fathers. And my praises for him, composed by me through canons and hymns, as well as the life of him written by me, and parts of certain panegyrics bear witness to this word. But I am most accurately convinced of this, and I cherish and honor him as a saint from his miracles, which he wrought after his departure from here to God, proving his own tomb to be a fountain of healings. B Desiring to be assured of these things—not as if I were doubting them, for I know that his life was worthy of doing such things, but for the sake of those who doubt and those who disbelieve them—I signaled to my brother, the great oikonomos of that Church, so that he might investigate and find some of his miracles, and write these things to me. He, however, was not willing to do this before he had seen the ones healed themselves, and those who had immediately received the benefit of the miracles, and had taken witness from them that the things said are true, and thus he wrote to me and sent these things, having taken trustworthy witnesses. But even the patriarch before me, hearing these things, wrote to the bishops of Thessalonica and to the ecclesiastics, so that having gathered together they might find the acknowledged and manifest miracles and write [them down], and subscribe [to them], and send them to him; which they themselves also did in like manner, having gathered by the knowledge and decree of that blessed and holy lady, the mother of our most powerful and holy emperor, and calling those very people who were healed, and safely taking from them the testimony that the things said about these matters are true. Those who also wrote these things and subscribed to them sent them to the patriarch before me, as the letters currently with us also testify. For this reason, I too, while sitting in the monastery of the Akataleptos and living in seclusion, celebrated a manifest and great festival for this saint, and having with me the cantors of this great Church, and many of the clergy, and now having returned again to this high throne, since the members of the Lavra wrote and reported to me concerning this, I wrote to them so that everyone who wishes may celebrate him privately. And now I say this, that everyone who wishes to celebrate a festival for him may do so without hindrance. Yet in the great Church we were not doing this, and generally in the other churches everywhere, because I had not yet communicated about this with the holy synod. But now we have given our decision and common opinion, so that C it is celebrated. This, however, is a customary thing occurring regarding saints whom God glorifies; as has happened also in the case of the holy Athanasius, the ecumenical patriarch. For since God glorified him through miracles, and the Church had not yet declared him [a saint], the monks of his monastery were celebrating a manifest festival, and were carrying his holy icon in the great Church on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, and in the other processions through the middle of the city for many years. But later, the holy synod having said this, it is celebrated also in the great Church; and it has happened also regarding many other holy men and women, whose precious relics lie in many of the pious monasteries throughout this queen of cities, and they are celebrated by everyone who wishes, although the Church has not yet declared this. Such a thing, therefore, has happened also regarding the holy Gregory; for how could we not hold him to be a holy and God-bearing man whom God has so glorified through miracles, so that many celebrate him manifestly in other cities, and especially in Thessalonica, and have even raised a temple in his name in Kastoria, and elsewhere many perform public festivals for him? I therefore hold him to be holy, and a teacher of the Church, and one of those great God-bearing Fathers and teachers, whom the divine synod has both accepted and praised. Thus, therefore, as the matter proceeded and Prochoros stood firm [in his opposition] concerning his writings, and defended them with all his might, and struggled with much contentiousness, the holy synod was under the necessity of declaring what opinion it holds concerning him. And having been asked, each of the most reverend metropolitans and the most God-beloved bishops all said that since his writings, and he himself also while present, appear to hold, think, speak, and write many impieties and illegalities, and not only following the most wicked opinions of Barlaam and Akindynos, but also others, and having become a father and inventor of many heresies, if he were to repent sincerely, by anathematizing his own writings and writing others on behalf of our right faith, we receive him not as a priest—since he is a leader and inventor of many absurd heresies—but simply as a Christian; but should he turn out to be unrepentant and uncorrected, we hold him to be deposed from every priestly act, and we subject him to anathema, according to the judgment and decision of the Synodical Tome concerning these matters. For it appears that he is suffering from something worse and more absurd than Barlaam and Akindynos, inasmuch as he himself on his own initiative brought his own writings and gave them to the Church, not so that they might be destroyed by it or [he might be] deprived [of them]—for he was saying this falsely and deceitfully—but being thus shameless against the Church, and for this reason he deserves all the more to experience the judgment. On all these matters our humility, being obliged to bring to bear the authority of the decision of the holy synod, was of the same mind then as it is now regarding him, and was saying: Akindynos...
A wishing for his return and correction, having been asked by it what he had to say against the things set forth by the holy synod, petitioned for a lapse of a day, so that after reflection he might give his answer on the following day; using this as a pretext to escape the synod, he did not declare his opinion at that time. But after it had departed, he spoke more expansively to the synod regarding our right faith and the most wicked writings of that man; and concerning what he says, that we are not taught by revelation, the divine synod has said: "We were not taught the faith by revelation, but having learned it from our divine Fathers and teachers, who possessed it from the beginning, and through it we hope to attain salvation." Concerning, however, the Aristotelian syllogisms, upon which he prides himself greatly, and which he calls "light," we consider them to be of no account, nor do we admit their intrusion. Since also the holy and ecumenical synod, the Sixth, I mean, the divine Fathers who composed that assembly having merely appeared, drove these men out at once, saying nothing in common with them and the evangelical and apostolic discourses. B
And the divine and holy synod having been dissolved at that time, since on the following day Prochoros did not come according to his promise, after three days he was notified by our humility through the most honorable notaries of our most holy Great Church, namely, kyr Georgios Mourtzoukatos and kyr Demetrios O Megistos; yet he did not wish to appear, but in the same way he kept arguing, just as in the synod, content with what he had written and holding the same views, saying that "Whatever the patriarch and the synod wish to do concerning me, let them do it." After these things, the holy synod having been convened again for other ecclesiastical business, and there being an inquiry into the aforesaid matters, those things which he had written badly against the prelates of the Church were read, in which he calls them traffickers and cooks, trafficking in the divine oracles; whereupon the holy synod brought forth its decree against him again, just as before, and anathematized him, and wished to anathematize him openly from the ambo. For the time being, it refrained from this, C having declared that if he should later repent, then this too would come to pass. And our humility rendered a concordant decree and judgment against him, as one unrepentant and incorrigible. It also anathematized him and condemned him many times. Again, providing for his repentance, it sent word to him through the most honorable skeuophylax and dikaiophylax of our most holy Great Church, the most God-beloved bishop of Boreias Potamias, kyr Georgios ho Perdikes, and the most honorable hieromonk kyr Gregorios. But he once again sent back the same words as before. For these reasons, therefore, our humility, together with the holy and great synod of most honorable metropolitans and God-beloved bishops, holds this said Prochoros, as being disposed no less than Barlaam and Akindynos, and as holding the same views and writing the same things, or rather, things far worse, more absurd, and more impious than theirs, as idle and deposed in perpetuity from every priestly function, and subjects him to anathema D according to the ordinance of the holy synodal tome, which decrees word for word: "But if anyone else among all people should ever be found either thinking, or saying, or writing the same things against the most honorable metropolitan of Thessaloniki, or rather against the holy theologians and the Church herself, we pass the same vote against him, and subject him to the same condemnation and to the same anathema, whether he be one of the clergy or of the laity."
According, therefore, to such an ordinance, since we found him thus disposed, we hold him to be deposed and subject him to anathema, and all those like-minded and of the same dogma as him, and those who shall follow, or who follow him in the things for which he blasphemes, and those who defend him and his writings, we hold as excommunicated.
If, however, he should genuinely repent, as has been said, by overturning in another treatise his own most wicked writings, and by anathematizing them, we will receive him as a priest, indeed—since he is a guide and inventor of new and very strange heresies—but we will deem him worthy of our fellowship as a Christian, according to the ordinance of the holy tome even in this regard. Yet as for the holy synodal tome itself, which he has attempted to overturn, he has rather moved it against his own head; we hold it as a pillar of Orthodoxy, and an unerring canon of the dogmas of our holy faith, and an unfolding and explanation of the holy Gospels and of the divine Symbol, and we pray to follow the dogmas contained in it. Those, however, who dwell in the Holy Mountain, the Athos, we consider not only superior to those opposed to them, or rather to those who make quibbles against the Church of Christ, but we declare them to be the most secure defenders and champions and helpers of the Church and of piety, and pursuers of the heretics, and we hold the writings sent by them to us to be sound and orthodox in every respect.
In addition to all these things, our humility commands synodically that no one should ever be found defending him at all, nor sending letters to him wherever he may happen to be living, nor receiving them from him; for if anyone of all people should be found, in whatever rank, order, or state he may happen to be, whether clerical or monastic, or lay, both thinking, saying, and writing the same things as this man against the Athonites, or rather against the Church herself, and blaspheming and holding the same views, or even defending him entirely, and sharing in his condemnation (not through fellow-feeling, but through being carried away by his most wicked and impious dogmas), we pass the same vote against him, and subject him to his condemnation and to anathema.
A However, as for this Prochorus, who has often been mentioned, being disposed in such a way, and having blasphemed in such a manner that he even dared to say that the flesh which God the Word assumed was not in any way without sin, nor was it perfect from the very moment of its assumption, but [was] to be perfected, we hold him to be excommunicated once for all from the entire Church of the faithful, as one who has given birth to new and strange heresies, which no heretic after the bodily presence of Christ has dared to declare. For these reasons, his condemnation by these [decrees] is ratified, unless he should repent, and the matters recently examined by us in synod shall hold fast and secure in all respects. And the present tome, being in every way consistent with the synodical tomes before it, shall have its validity and security. And this lawful and canonical vote, through all things, having been recently written and signed, shall be kept immovable for all time by the all-powerful energy and grace of our almighty God and Savior, in the year 6876, in the month of April of the current sixth indiction.
Philotheos, by the mercy of God, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch. The humble Metropolitan of Caesarea of Cappadocia, pre-eminent and Exarch of all the East, Methodios. The humble Metropolitan of Ephesus, pre-eminent and Exarch of all Asia, Theodoretos. The humble Metropolitan of Cyzicus, pre-eminent and Exarch of all the Hellespont, Arsenios. The humble Metropolitan of Chalcedon, pre-eminent and Exarch of all Bithynia, Iakovos. The humble Metropolitan of Bizye, and holding the place of Stavropolis, Neophytos. The humble Metropolitan of Brysis, Theodoretos. The humble Bishop of Boreia Potamia, Theophylaktos. The humble Bishop of Panion, Ignatios. The humble Bishop of Peristasis, Dionysios. It also had, on the reverse side, the signatures of the two patriarchs.
B We, even if we were present in this imperial city, yet because of a certain circumstance and obstacle were not present with the most holy master, the ecumenical patriarch, our most beloved brother and concelebrant in the Holy Spirit, and with the holy and great synod around him, when the matters declared herein were being discussed in synod, yet afterward we saw and read accurately this present tome, which was drafted and signed by them; and seeing that it is consistent and in harmony with the healthy dogmas of the Church of Christ, and with the venerable and holy synodical tome previously issued against the heresies of Barlaam and Akindynos, in which we also signed earlier, we consent to it in everything it contains. We hold it to be in harmony with the orthodox dogmas of the Church and with the previous synodical tome, and we hold the heretic Prochorus Kydones, who was declared such by them, to be deposed and un-ordained for his entire life, and if he should not repent, we also subject him to anathema. For this reason, we also sign the present tome for security.
Niphon, by the mercy of God, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria, Pentapolis, Libya, Ethiopia, and judge of the world. Lazaros, by the mercy of God, Patriarch of Jerusalem, of holy Sion, of all Palestine, Syria, Arabia, beyond the Jordan, and Cana of Galilee.
C It also had, on the same reverse side, these signatures of the ecclesiastical dignitaries: The Great Sakellarios of the most holy Great Church of God, teacher of teachers, and archdeacon of the pious imperial clergy, Theodoretos the Melitiniotes. The Great Skeuophylax and Dikaiophylax, deacon Georgios Perdikes. The Great Ekklesiarch and Dikaiophylax, presbyter Ioannes the Chartophylax. The Protekdikos of the most holy Great Church of God, presbyter Theodosios the Matzoukatos. It also had the signatures of the remaining ecclesiastical dignitaries in order.
AGAINST THE BARLAAMITES AND ACINDYNIANS
III. SYNODAL TOME
Promulgated by the holy and sacred synod convened against those of the mind of Barlaam and Acindynus during the reign of our pious and orthodox emperors, Cantacuzenus and Palaeologus.
A That no one is unaware of the common war waged against the Church, we are persuaded—even as we are not unaware of the inclination of the Savior, by which, after ten thousand evils have surged against her, she does not succumb to their darts, but is shown instead to be clear and luminous. The proof of that man’s madness is the blood of God, and the voluntary passion and cross, while the divine succor is shown by the martyrdom of those who pursue the Church, a precise martyrdom; for those who were transformed into evangelists, those who became the trophy of God’s power, are not they through whom the dead were raised? But rather, those through whom those who fell were proclaimed. Such was the case, and it was not possible to remain quiet regarding the common enemy; but, as if condemning himself—for not having acted properly—he brings the war against the Church to bear, not against a small nation, as the Jews did of old, but he arms the entire world bitterly against her. Commanders like Diocletian and Maximian and Decius, and whoever stood with them, perished as shamefully as they had determined to make war. For the memory of some has vanished with a sound, while the voice of the Church of God has gone out into all the earth; and the most irrefutable proof of her power is the dead bodies of the martyrs, driving away demons. Thus, the power of God is both supreme and revealed through these calamities.
But the wicked one, even having suffered, did not understand; and though he was still in his infancy, he turned to another path and attacked the Church. For he knew well that to wage war openly and brazenly was to his own manifest shame and disgust; so, wearing the mask of Sabellius and Arius and those who follow them, and pretending to wish to remove polytheism from the midst of us, he persuades the foolish on the pretext that they are honoring the One, whereas in the least they are not honoring the true God. But this very thing was seen to recoil upon him. This spoil of war, the equality of honor of the Trinity, belongs to the Church. And this wicked man, moving from circle to circle, B now retreating, now attacking, sometimes with doctrines that possess nothing sound, at other times with the pleasures in which he is accustomed to delight—the end of which is separation from God—took on the role of Barlaam at last and made war upon the truth. This man, being a monk and hailing from Calabria, and having become deeply learned in the education of the Greeks, and having attached himself wholly to that, moves against the truth and against those who hold fast to it in a holy manner. Having accused them of a double crime, not only of saying that the trihypostatic essence of God, which is unparticipable by all, is uncreated, but also that the eternal and deifying grace of the Spirit, which is participated in by the worthy, is uncreated, he was convicted and anathematized by the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of Christ. This was done through the theological writings composed for the holy Fathers by those who stand at the head of the word of truth, including the most sacred Metropolitan of Thessalonica, Palamas, and the monks.
After a short time, Acindynus, having become a follower of his wicked opinion, was neither corrected by the condemnation of his teacher, nor did he become any better; but he attempted to accuse the same people again of the same things. While he was craftily denying his teacher and uttering the most terrible curses against him, and insisting that he never thought or said the same things as Barlaam—so that from this position he might be permitted to speak—in what he did say, he was pointing to the hidden Barlaam, holding, speaking, and writing the same wicked opinion as he. For this reason, a second synod was convened, over which our now mighty and holy emperor, the lord John Cantacuzenus, presided. Acindynus was convicted of holding and speaking the same things as Barlaam and of accusing the monks; for which reason he also drew upon himself the same condemnation as Barlaam, as a synodal Tome was issued against those blasphemies of Barlaam, through which the entire Christian fullness C
of the Catholic Church is cut off. But if someone, it says, anyone at all, should be found, whether thinking or saying or writing the same things against the most reverend hieromonk Lord Gregory Palamas and the monks with him, or rather against the holy theologians and the Church herself, we decree the same things against him, and subject him to the same condemnation, whether he be of the clergy or of the laity. As for the most reverend hieromonk Lord Gregory Palamas, B who has been spoken of many times, and the monks who sing with him, we have, after an accurate examination, found them writing and thinking nothing discordant with the divine oracles. Rather, we declare them to be not only totally superior to those who slander them—or rather, slander the Church of God itself, just as the former synodal Tome contains—but we also proclaim them to be the most secure defenders, champions, and helpers of the Church. For this is what the Tome issued at those councils sets forth, just as it contains what is secure and certain.
Synodic Volume III.
C But as the one who works among the sons of disobedience, according to what is written, the adversary and primordial dragon, saw that he could not achieve his desired goal through those who were attacking piety and those who securely held onto it, having used men not judged by their dignity, he subverts John, who at that time was performing the role of patriarch—a vessel clearly receptable of that man's malice. He, having shared the same mind as Acindynus, and having written, acted, and plotted many things against piety and those who defend it—or rather against himself—(for this was the man who brought the written condemnation against that excommunicated Barlaam), while simultaneously seizing upon the civil war as a windfall, he too found the rewards worthy of his own zeal and wicked counsels. For having been exposed, he is deposed, and after his removal by synodal judgment, a holy Tome is set forth by the council, at once demonstrating that he held the bad doctrine of Acindynus, and at the same time his madness against the orthodox, which was devoid of any reason. D This Tome, which has the security of the signatures of thirty archpriests, to which the most holy Patriarch of Jerusalem later added his own signature, does not merely cast out Acindynus and the one who served as patriarch.
But he who always rejoices in our misfortunes did not intend to dwell in peace, nor, being at no loss for instruments, did he go around seeking them. Instead, having still certain ones who had attended the schools of Barlaam and Acindynus and were suffering from the final stages of their disease, he draws them under himself: those who held the titles of Ephesius and Gannon, Gregoras and Dexos; who, having formed a system and having enticed other insignificant men who never thought anything sound, raise an uproar against the Church of God, making it their study to mislead the many and to cut them off pitiably from the Church, thinking that they might derive fame for themselves from these actions. Therefore, it became necessary for a great council to be convoked, as our most serene emperor took pity on the perishing souls. Wherefore, sent for by his powerful and holy imperial authority before God, and by the most holy and ecumenical Patriarch Lord Kallistos, the most reverend archpriests and hypertimoi—those of Heraclea, Thessaloniki, Cyzicus, Philadelphia, Chalcedon, Melenikos, Amaseia, and others, the exarchs of the provinces who were present—[index: entries preserved]
and with them the most divine bishops of Paniou, of Karioupolis, of Pamphylos, of Adra, of Campaniana, of Synaon, of Eleutheroupolis, having as president our most serene and most excellent and holy emperor and king, lord John Cantacuzenus, in the hall of the sacred Blachernae palace which is so named, seated together with his holy imperial majesty and the most holy and ecumenical patriarch, lord Callistus; and further the well-beloved B brother of his holy imperial majesty, lord Asanes; and further the well-beloved brother of his holy imperial majesty, the most fortunate sebastokrator, lord Manuel Asanes; and furthermore the well-beloved nephew of his holy imperial majesty, the most A panhypersebastos, lord Andronicus Asanes; together with the senate seated beside them, along with the archons and ecclesiastical officials, and the assembled hegumens and archimandrites of this fortunate city, and in addition not a few hieromonks, priests, and monks, and also certain of the church’s lords; and there being also a surrounding crowd, as many of these as were receptive to the word: these were summoned—the ones causing the disturbance and cutting up the Church—and were asked, "For what reason, while the emperor is piously alive, do you dare such things against piety?" They blamed a certain addition made in the ordination of those being ordained as archpriests, and they made this a source of grievance, as well as [the content of] the books written by him contra Barlaam and Acindynus. The bishop of Thessaloniki said, "You then, too, hold the things of those men." They, in imitation of Acindynus, just as he had become a denier of Barlaam, who had been his tutor in heresy, so too did these deny both of them. The bishop of Thessaloniki, countering, said: "And yet, the majority of those who have set themselves against us have openly stood by the evil doctrine of Barlaam and Acindynus, and remain unrepentant to this day. To these, the rest who are also arrayed [with them] are clearly manifest to you all, fixing their eyes upon those men as a standard, for the sake of the dogmas themselves."
Regarding these points, the holy synod says: "To that addition at which you say you take offense—an addition which would not even rightly be called an addition, being rather an exposition of the Sixth Ecumenical Synod—it is nothing other than the rejection of Barlaam and Acindynus. And those who find fault with this are clearly manifest, at least to those who understand in any way, as being supporters of Barlaam and Acindynus." They, however, again denied that they followed those men’s teachings. And as they began to speak about the expressions in which they were scandalized, they were blaming the very words which both Barlaam and Acindynus had previously set forth against the bishop of Thessaloniki and the monks. And when it had become clear from these things as well that they were incurably infected with those men’s [errors], it pleased the most divine and holy emperor, with the agreement of the most holy and ecumenical patriarch and the whole holy synod, that the inquiry concerning the matters of dogma having been examined from beginning to end, the truth might be discerned in these things. When the bishop of Thessaloniki praised this as well, they C utterly refused. But also, being required to set forth their own open [position] concerning the matters proposed, they were—
[alt-version omitted]
(4) *The addition in the ordination of archpriests.* This was something new in the profession of those to be ordained bishops, occurring on the occasion of the questions recently stirred up, as usually happens when a dogma becomes widespread and, having been newly assailed, finally attains full credibility. To this the synod responds that this addition is nothing other than an explanation of the Sixth Synod, from which it seems to have been received, in that a dual operation is defined in Christ, namely human and divine; and that no thing is devoid of operation or virtue; and that God is not, as they so unskillfully interpreted, as if in God—as in created things—the operation or virtue were something else in actual reality than the essence, and not the very [essence] itself as will and agent, on account of the supreme simplicity of God.
(5) *They utterly refused.* The words are almost the same in their formation and meaning.
A They did not wish to give an appearance of causing offense by doing the things aforementioned. But as many words were stirred up during this first assembly, the matters of this controversy were dissolved; and it was ratified in writing, so that in the second assembly those who were dissenters against the Church might begin wherever they wished, and then, after them, the Thessalonian [Metropolitan] might begin, wherever he wished, to say everything that was in his mind.
When the second assembly was convened, they too arrived, and beginning, they spoke against the Thessalonian whatever they wished. But when the Thessalonian also began to respond word for word to those [propositions] put forward by them, they kept cutting off his speech and rushed toward flight; and though urged greatly, they could not bear to remain. And having given promises to attend another assembly, they fled again while no one was pursuing them, before the appointed time.
The Thessalonian, being prompted by both our God-given Emperor and the holy Church of God, spoke with boldness and more fully to all concerning the doctrines presented for investigation by the Church, and all both praised and agreed. And since he added this, saying: "The contradiction on behalf of piety (β) is one thing, and the confession of faith is another; and in the case of the contradiction, there is no necessity for the one contradicting to be pedantic about the words, as the great Basil also says; but in the case of the confession, accuracy is observed and sought in all things; and for this reason I have composed the refutatory discourses against B Barlaam and Acindynus, and the confession of faith which I received from the saints, so that those encountering my works might learn from the confession the purpose of the contradiction," the most powerful Emperor sought such a confession; and upon its being brought forward, he ordered it to be read. This having been done, everyone was asked what opinion he had regarding it. And there was no one who did not mention it with praise while declaring his judgment, both admiring the Thessalonian and wishing for himself to depart with the doctrines of that confession, and to appear with it before the Judge of the living and the dead on the day of the final accounting. And so the second assembly ended with these things.
A third [assembly] is convened after it. They arrived and asked that their own confession be read. This having been done, at the end this also was appended: "Regarding Barlaam and Acindynus, we hold such an opinion about them as the holy Church of God also thinks concerning them." As many words were stirred up between them, they began the accusation against the Thessalonian; and it was as follows: that he writes in some of his treatises frequently of two and many divinities, and these super-existent and hypostatic. And when they had said this word many times and had clamored, and were blaming these very utterances, the most pious Emperor ordered that on these points it be made clear to us: "Are you finding fault in the causes with the words themselves, or with the things signified by the words, or [with] both? If indeed the war is against the things, why do you fight against the shadow of the thing, C being busy with the word? For the things themselves must be examined as they are, naked, and the truth in these must be sought from the theologians; but if you continue in agreement with the things, why do you blame the word? But as for us..."
A we have gathered here for the sake of words; for not even regarding names, according to the Theologian, will we wage war—not knowing any danger in the words, as long as the mind be thought to be sound.
The fourth assembly having taken place, the dissenters began again to find fault with certain words appearing in the writings of the Bishop of Thessalonica, abandoning the matters themselves. As the most divine emperor and the synod were examining the matters, and asking the theologians of the Church for proofs of the points raised, the Synodic Tomos issued against Barlaam was brought forward. This, having been read by the divine command of our most serene emperor, proved the dissenters to be partners in all things with the heresy of Barlaam. For they could not endure not to contend to the end against what was written there regarding other matters, and especially regarding the most divine light of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Nevertheless, when the Bishop of Thessalonica and the dissenters were questioned by the Church as to what opinion they held regarding the most divine light, the former, through what he said and what he read into the hearing of all from his own writings, appeared through all things to be securely attached to the mind of the theologians; the latter, however, through both what they said and the writings they had authored, were exposed as dividing the one Godhead of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit into created and uncreated, by saying that the essence of God is an uncreated Godhead, deprived of every divine power and energy; and by setting aside and denying every power and energy of God, and in short His omnipotence, they were pulling God down into the category of created things, and saying that He has two Godheads, an uncreated and a created, effectively one superior and one inferior. For they even said that the light of the Godhead that shone on Tabor was at times the essence of God, and at times a phantom, a veil, an image, and a creature; so that, according to them, the same thing was both a creature and the essence of God. The letters of those men, written by their own hands, were also brought forward by the Bishop of Thessalonica, in which they accused him of saying that that most divine light and radiance was uncreated, but not the essence of God. B But also through the very things by which they accused the Bishop of Thessalonica of speaking of many Godheads, because he maintains that all the divine and common powers and energies of the three hypostases are uncreated, they were revealed to be such that their conflict is not with the words; rather, they do not hold that there is any distinction between the divine essence and the divine energy, nor that the divine and omnipotent energy is uncreated.
Upon these things being set forth by the theologians of the Church, many other things—and indeed these very things—were read from the great Basil: "For if Eunomius perceives absolutely nothing by conception C in God, so as not to seem to honor God with human titles, he will confess that all things attributed to God are likewise essence. How then is it not ridiculous to say that the creative power is essence; that providential power again is essence; that the foreknowing power is likewise, and in short to posit every energy as essence?"
At these things the Bishop of Thessalonica said: "My discourse on words is short; for our truth and piety, according to the Theologian Gregory, lie not in words, but in things. I make the struggle regarding dogmas and things. And if anyone is in agreement regarding the things, I do not differ regarding the words. But against the accusation made by those who speak thus, I say this: I have neither thought, nor do I think, nor will I ever think—by the grace of Christ—of two or many different Godheads in the holy Trinity, such that one is of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit; nay, I even subject those who think such things to anathema. But neither do I speak of any other Godhead D outside the tri-hypostatic Godhead; nor essence divine or angelic, nor hypostasis, according to the great Dionysius, but divine energies and properties which have, by nature, belonged to God and have existed eternally, I have addressed by the name of Godhead, thinking I spoke in accordance with the saints. But I would not even have said these things had I not been forced by my opponent, and in the nature of a counter-argument and in struggling against him, as he said that only the essence of God is uncreated Godhead, and was dragging down into created things every divine power and energy, which differs from the essence. Furthermore, I said this not gathering from it many Godheads, as they falsely accuse me of doing; and this is clear from my writings, both the others and the confession of faith. For in all these things it is set forth by me as something spoken by my opponents, but not approved by me; for I know one Godhead, the same tri-hypostatic, and omnipotent, and energetic. However, my goal was not then, nor is it now, to contend over words and syllables, but over matters; and since the matters have been piously proclaimed, by the grace of Christ I am prepared to accept and welcome whatever the divine synod may judge regarding the words."
Upon this, both the most pious and serene emperor and D the divine synod, having approved the Bishop of Thessalonica in all things because of the pious mind which he continued to exercise concerning divine things, and having praised him particularly for his gratitude, determined that neither two or many Godheads, nor absolutely any numerical count of Godheads, should be spoken of or even thought of—for indeed this had not been expressly said by the theologians; they did, however, exhort him to hold and to speak of the distinction between the divine essence and the divine energy, or rather divine energies, as this doctrine had been expressly proclaimed by the Church, as will also be shown below. The Bishop of Thessalonica accepted this readily and very gladly; and the third assembly finished with these things.
A From the Theologian Damascene, in the parts where he teaches concerning the two energies in our Lord Jesus Christ, saying: "It must be known that energy is one thing, and the energetic, and the energema, and the energizer is another. Energy is the active and essential motion of the nature; the energetic is the nature from which the energy proceeds; the energema is the result of the energy; the energizer is he who makes use of the energy, that is, the hypostasis."
The divine Maximus, in the chapter entitled, "From the discussion held in the secretum," says: "There is by all means a necessity in Christ for wills and energies to be spoken of, and every necessity; for nothing that exists subsists without a natural energy. For the holy Fathers clearly say that any nature whatsoever neither exists nor is known without its essential energy."
B Since, however, they were not only fighting against the holy [Fathers] one by one, but were also attempting to overturn and destroy the very holy and ecumenical Sixth Synod itself—the goal of which was none other than the whole purpose concerning the two natural wills and the two natural energies in our Lord and God Jesus Christ—and it was necessary on account of this for the Acts of such a synod to be brought forward, and to be read, and the pious [truth] to be proclaimed from them, some parts were set out in the midst. But they immediately, upon their being set out, cried out: "Do not read the Acts of the synod, but only the Definition." As the divine synod was in doubt as to what such a voice might mean, and why they were rejecting and not accepting the Acts, they, even thus, did not in the least depart from that same inquisitive malice and perverted opinion, not at all admitting the reading of the Acts. In these matters, by the divine decree of our most serene Emperor, a reading was performed from the Synodical [document] that is customarily read from the ambo on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, which also runs as follows in its wording: "To those who reject the voices of the holy Fathers which were uttered for the establishment of the right dogmas of the Church of God—[those] of Athanasius, Cyril, Ambrose, Amphilochius, Pope Leo of most holy memory, the Archbishop of elder Rome, and the rest—and, furthermore, who do not embrace the Acts of the ecumenical synods, I mean the fourth and the sixth, anathema." Upon these, a reading from the Acts was also performed, which in its wording holds as follows: "For who, even if he were slow to understand, would not see, as is apparent to all, that it is impossible and contrary to the order of nature for there to be a nature and it not to have the energy of that nature—a thing that was never dared to be approved to be said even by heretics, who found all human wickedness and crooked questions against the correctness of the faith, and [formed] gatherings conducive to their baseness. How..." C
And again, from the same Acts, another passage was brought forward, holding in its wording thus: "Of each nature we know an energy of each, I mean the essential and natural and proper one; proceeding indivisibly from each essence and nature, D according to the natural and essential quality inborn in it, and the energy that is at once undivided and unconfused, which follows from the other essence. For this is what makes what is different in the energies in Christ, just as also the being of the natures [is what makes] the natures [different]."
But also the Definition sought by them having been read, it held in its wording thus: "The present and ecumenical synod, having faithfully received and with open hands embracing the Report made by the most holy and most blessed Pope Agatho of elder Rome to our most pious Emperor. And after some things [following]: Following the holy and ecumenical five synods, and the holy and eminent Fathers, and defining in harmony, it confesses our Lord Jesus Christ, the true God of ours, the one of the holy and consubstantial and life-creating Trinity, perfect in divinity and the same perfect in humanity, in all things like unto us
A without sin; begotten of the Father before the ages according to his divinity; and in the last days the same for us and for our salvation, from the Holy Spirit and Mary the Virgin, who is properly and in truth Theotokos according to his humanity. We acknowledge him as one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-Begotten, in two natures, without confusion, without change, without separation, without division, the difference of the natures being in no way destroyed because of the union. Rather, the property of each nature is preserved, and they concur into one person and one subsistence; not divided or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son, only-begotten, God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ, just as the prophets formerly taught us concerning him, and Christ himself taught us, and the Symbol of our holy Fathers taught us. And we proclaim him likewise to have two natural wills, that is, volitions in him, and two natural energies, undivided, unchanging, indivisible, unconfused, according to the teaching of the holy Fathers. And these two natural wills are not contrary—God forbid, as those impious heretics claimed—but his human will is following, B and not resisting or struggling against, but rather submitting to his divine and almighty will.
When these things had been read, those who stood at the head of the heresy seemed to be deaf, even though they were shouting and insisting on the divine and uncreated essence and its divine and uncreated energy. They put forward sayings, some of which were from the divine confessor Maximus, others from the confessor among the saints Theodore the Studite, distorting and misinterpreting them toward their own impiety. For how could the divine Maximus ever have intended to war against the energy of God C—he who, on behalf of the two energies in Christ, namely the divine and the human, was driven over such great distances, had his tongue, that divine trumpet, cut out, and his hand severed, and was condemned to eternal exile, and bravely embraced a martyr’s death?
But for those who still contradicted, and who brought forward objections to the one who said that the divine energy is the divinity of the Thessalonian, sayings of the holy fathers were read: first, those of Great Basil, in his letter to Eustathius the physician, where he writes: "I do not know how those who fabricate everything can apply the title of 'divinity' to a manifestation of nature, as if they had not heard from Scripture that a nature is not made by appointment (9). But Moses was appointed a 'god' to the Egyptians, as it was said to him by the One addressing him: 'I have made you a god to Pharaoh.' Therefore, the title brings with it a manifestation of some authority, whether it be of oversight or of activity. But the divine nature, in all the concepts we form of the names, remains, as it is, signifies nothing, as our argument holds."
And that of Nyssen, from his work *On the Divinity of the Son and Spirit*, saying: "The Pneumatomachi say that 'divinity' is indicative of nature. But we say that either the divine nature has no name that is indicative of it, or it has none for us. Yet, whatever is said, whether from human custom or from divine Scripture, refers to things surrounding it. But the divine nature itself remains unutterable and unpronounceable, surpassing all the meaning of speech. Let them take the serpent as their accuser in their senseless signifying, D who shows that the name of 'divinity' has the meaning of an investigative and visual energy. For in advising them to touch the forbidden things, he promises this: 'Your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods.' Do you see that he bears witness to the visual energy in the term 'divinity'? For it is not possible to see anything unless the eyes are opened. Therefore, the term 'divinity' does not represent a nature, but the visual power. And again, the same author, writing to Ablabius, says: 'God, he says, denotes the One who acts; divinity denotes the energy.' And neither of the three is an energy, but rather each of them is the One who acts."
[index: entries preserved]
A Thus, having been examined by all these means, they were invited by the Church to repentance, after our most serene emperor had earlier strongly exhorted them with words that carried much persuasion and grace, so that they might not fall away from the good medicine of repentance. But they did not accept this, saying outright: 'I do not wish to know your ways.' For they persisted in what they had wrongly decided from the beginning.
For this reason, by the divine command of our most powerful emperor and of the most holy and ecumenical patriarch, a Tome was read, having advanced even before a certain time toward the deposition of the bishop of Ephesus, of Gannos, and of others, as having been infected by the doctrines of Barlaam and Akindynos; but it had not yet proceeded to execution, in order that he might await their conversion and repentance, and call them back with all manner of ways and contrivances, with complete eagerness and zeal. And when it was read, the most honorable great chartophylax and hypatos of the philosophers began, according to the ecclesiastical custom, to ask each one what opinion he held concerning the dogmatic chapters that had been discussed and examined in detail. And all with one mouth, as if moved by one Spirit, confessed openly, alongside the unified and God-befitting distinction and difference between the divine essence and energy, following the theologians, that the divine energy is uncreated, and not indeed the essence. And having heard from the same theologians that this divine energy is also called divinity, they accepted it gladly.
C Upon these things, the most holy and ecumenical patriarch was also asked to express his own opinion, and having first set forth a discourse concerning the difference between the divine essence and the divine energy, and having clarified in a good and detailed manner all the modes of difference spoken of by the saints, and having moreover demonstrated the unified and inseparable nature of this [energy] in relation to the divine essence, in which he also declared that the uncreated energy and Deity had been spoken of by the saints, he then gave himself over entirely to the work of reconciliation with those who were in dispute, exhorting, admonishing, and reproving; calling them back in every way to repentance, and urging them with yet more zeal and eagerness, in a manner pleasing to God, toward harmony with the saints and the holy synod. But when he saw that they were even so in an incurable state, holding firmly to their former blasphemies D and completely casting off repentance, having taken up a zeal worthy of himself and of his virtue from childhood, and worthy of the throne, he stripped the bishop of Ephesus and the bishop of Gannos of their priestly symbols and of all priesthood—this being done also by the holy synod that voted with him; and the others with them, both those who were the leaders of the heresy and those who were following them in their error, were dismissed, bearing with them their condemnation, although some asked for forgiveness and obtained it through this repentance. And this gathering ended there.
A few days passed since that time, our most serene and holy emperor having ordered thus, wisely opening the door of repentance to those who were in error; but for those who were still in an incurable state, it seemed just that another synod should be assembled again, so that through examination the truth of piety might become more manifest from the things theologized by the saints. And just as it took place, since the heterodox did not wish to appear, but rather entirely refused, the most pious emperor ordered—many dogmatic chapters having been proposed for investigation—first, if there is in God a God-befitting distinction of essence and energy; then, if the distinction has appeared, whether this energy is created or uncreated; thirdly, if this God-befitting energy should be demonstrated to be uncreated, how one might avoid the opinion that God is therefore composite, which the heterodox dare to cast upon the Church of God. Fourthly, if the term 'divinity' is rightly celebrated by the theologians not only of the essence but also of the divine energy. For from this, the enemies of the Church pour upon her the deformity of ditheism. Fifthly, whether the theologians say that the essence is in some way superior to the energy, since this also falls under censure by those who oppose it. And finally, considering that God is participated in, is it participation according to the essence, or according to the energy?
So many questions having been proposed to us just now, it is not necessary for us to make our discourse about all of them at once. For the comprehension of the thing sought would not thus be accurate in any way, nor according to our intention; but let us speak of each one separately, making use of the holy theologians who are free from error.
And first, if it seems good, let us speak about the first point: Is there a God-befitting distinction in God between essence and energy, which for the disputants is forbidden, as they think that it brings into play many other absurdities and polytheism, or is it completely one and the same and without difference?
When the most powerful emperor commanded these things, the holy synod, attending to what was said, replied: 'We know no other path, most divine emperor, that leads more easily to the truth than this which you have just now pointed out to us.' And the opinions of the theologians concerning these matters having been read to the hearing of all, it was shown that those who do not profess the distinction of the divine essence and energy, along with their unity, are both godless and cloak themselves in many other absurdities. For, according to the great Dionysius, that which has no power or energy neither is, nor is it anything; nor is there any affirmation or negation of it at all. But that which does have [them], differs in some way from what it has. If, therefore, there is no difference between the divine essence and energy, it is not possible for the essence of God to have an energy. And what does not have an energy is inactive, and that which is inactive is also non-existent. And the God-bearing Damascene writes: 'An act of the divine nature is the pre-eternal generation; an act...
A of the divine will is the creation,' and blessed Cyril [saying]: 'The activity pertains to operation; indeed, generation pertains to the nature.' But nature and energy are not the same. Those who say that the divine essence and the divine energy are not different—since, according to him, generation belongs to the nature, and according to them, energy is not different from the nature—it will follow, according to them, that generation also pertains to the energy; and thus the things created will be eternal offspring, as being from the divine nature. But since, again, creation belongs to the energy, and nature is indifferent to the energy, according to them, creation will belong to the nature. And thus, according to them, things originating from the nature will be created things.
And again, the same author writing in the second of the dialogues *To Hermias*: 'Furthermore, we say that besides all these, fire has been made by the energy of God to be burning, and indeed water to be cooling.' Those who say that essence and energy are the same and not different, will be compelled to say that fire and water are from the essence of God; and thus the present false belief has become worse than the error of the Greeks, since they supposed only the rational soul to be from the essence of God, but these men B suppose even these material and sensible bodies [to be so].
The true lamp was the Lordly flesh, which showed the illuminations of the Holy Spirit with sevenfold grace. For, says Isaiah, 'There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise out of it, and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him.' What kind? That which is manifold in energies, and abundant in nature: 'The Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and piety; the spirit of the fear of God.' The seven graces of the Holy Spirit, which rested upon the Lordly body, these it represents in the figure of the seven-branched lampstand. And again, the same divine Chrysostom in the homily *On the Holy Spirit*: 'Not all, he says, receive all the gifts, so that no one might think the grace to be nature.'
But also the holy martyr and philosopher Justin, writing that since God has essence for existence, but will for creation, he who discards the difference between essence and will, discards also the existence and the creation of God. Is it not manifest that those who deny the difference, these also prove themselves to be denying God and honoring mere chance? For according to the divine John of Damascus, 'Will is also an energy,' as he clarifies in the thirty-sixth of the dogmatic chapters *On Energy*. For having spoken earlier about other things, and indeed about human and divine will, he adds directly at the beginning of the next chapter in these words: 'One must know that all the aforementioned powers, both the cognitive, and the vital, and the natural, and the technical, are called energies. For an energy is the natural power and movement of each essence, of which only that which is not-being is destitute.'
And also, the Lord and our God in the Gospel according to John having said, 'I and the Father are one,' the divine Chrysostom in C his sixtieth homily interpreting the Gospel, clarifying this statement, says that it was spoken there according to power. For indeed the whole discourse was to him about this. And if the power is the same, it is evident that the essence is also [the same]. And after a little: 'For it is not possible to learn the one through the other, neither essence nor power.' And again in the same Gospel, when the apostle Philip said, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us,' this divine Chrysostom in the same homily says: 'Let us see, he says, what Philip seeks to see: Is it the wisdom of the Father? Is it the goodness? No, but that which God is: the essence itself.' And again the same author, explaining the apostolic scripture of the Epistle to the Romans, which says: 'For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.' 'Mind,' he said, 'of the flesh,' he says, 'is wickedness; and mind of the Spirit is the grace that is given, and the energy that is mingled with the good faculty of choice,' nowhere discussing here about hypostasis and essence. And again the same Chrysostom in the discourse in which he explains 'Put your hand under my thigh (10), and swear,' says this word for word:
These things, therefore, having been so clearly distinguished, and the difference having been proven most manifestly, and as there was no other way, not in persuasive words of human wisdom, according to the sublime Paul, but in the teachings of the Holy Spirit, D to the theologies of the Fathers—which are surely God-inspired—the divine synod said that it was necessary for those who attempted to dispute about this, now at least, even if not before, to have piously driven out the disease of contentiousness from their own minds, and to wish to be persuaded most eagerly by our common guides and teachers of piety, who send forth almost brighter voices than any trumpet concerning the difference between divine essence and divine energy; and to attempt in no way at all to resist them, and to try to busy oneself further, as to what the energy...
A is, and of what kind its difference is, and how this difference might come about.
For they have not, as it seems, heard St. Chrysostom the Father, in the places where he expounds the divine Gospel according to John, teaching that the divine energy is ineffable, incomprehensible, and above the laws of nature. "For if," he says, "you do not know how to interpret this wind, whose perception you receive by hearing and by touch, nor its path, how do you busy yourself with the energy from the divine Spirit, not knowing that of the wind, even though you hear its voice?" And the text, "Where it wills, it blows," was stated to demonstrate the power of the Paraclete. For if no one holds that, but it is carried where it wills, much more will the laws of nature be unable to contain the energy of the Spirit; nor are terms of bodily generation or anything else of that sort able to do so. Nor yet have they heeded the great Basil, when he contradicts Eunomius and discourses on theology: "As therefore if we were to intend to measure all things by comprehension, and to assume that what is incomprehensible to our logic does not exist at all, the reward of faith will be gone, and the reward of hope will be gone. And how would we still be worthy of the beatitudes, which are set upon faith in things unseen, if we were persuaded only by things evident to logic? Whence did the nations become vain, and their senseless heart was darkened? Was it not because, following those things visible to logic, they disobeyed the preaching of the Spirit?" And whom does Isaiah lament as having perished? Is it not those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight? Yes, such as these.
These things they ought to have heard from the holy theologians, and at once gladly to have obeyed, so as to have attended to them most sweetly, and without B examination to have submitted to their divine utterances signifying the difference, cherishing and accepting this in pious silence. But if they wished to count themselves among those who seem to be piously inclined at all, they should have added the "how" either nowhere at all, or not in such a way as to destroy the difference. But since they have arrived at such a degree of insolence and shamelessness, or rather of madness, as to rave even against the holy and ecumenical councils themselves, and, one can say, against all the holy theologians; and daring even to bring them to account, and to say—alas!—that some of them reek of Hellenic doctrines that are even native to them, while accusing others of the greatest ignorance, even though they are a whole council, and saying that some were dragged into this theology by necessity, even though they C were ready to suffer the death of a martyr for it—to write these things (for who could endure to hear, point by point, their blasphemies?)—come now, we, because we do not accept the hearing of the Christ-loving, as one of the Fathers rejected by them somewhere said, shall attempt to set forth briefly whatever has been said by the saints concerning divine dogma, trusting in the God worshipped by them, concerning the manner of union and separation of the divine essence and energy. We do not attempt to invent reasons of our own for the advocacy of those things that were long ago piously theologized by them; but observing the law which we have been zealous to keep everywhere—that the things of the Church be certified through the teachers of the Church, and that we add nothing of our own D nor subtract from what has been dogmatized by these—and using this same rule here, having heard the saints expressly crying out that the divine energy is from the divine essence, we do not think that it is "from God" in the sense that all things are from God, as it seems to those who dispute this, along with many other absurdities. For the phrase "from God" is said even of created things, but the phrase "from the essence of God" is never said of any creatures. Most of all, this has even been entirely forbidden by the saints. For the great Basil says, "That which is made is not from the essence of the Maker." And the divine Damascene says, "Creation, even if it came into being afterward, is not from the essence of God." And again, "Creation and making, in that it came into being from without, and not from the essence of the creator and maker, is completely unlike the thing created and made." Nevertheless, we have not imagined it to be outside the divine essence, as those who are of the opposite camp have foolishly—or rather, not so much impiously as ignorantly—approached it; let no one ever be so far out of their mind. But knowing it, according to the theologians, to be a substantial and natural motion of God, we say that it proceeds and springs forth from the divine essence as from an ever-flowing fountain, and is never perceived apart from it; but it always remains indivisible from it, and from eternity coexists with the divine essence, and is inseparably united, not able at any time to be separated from the divine essence by any aeon, or chronological or spatial interval; but it is timelessly and pre-eternally proceeding from it and inseparably accompanying it. For the great Athanasius says, "When, however, all things are energized by God through the Word in the Holy Spirit..."
A And, he says, there is a human example: the fire, and the radiance from it; two indeed by the fact of being and being seen, but one by the fact that the radiance is from it and inseparable. So, just as in the case of the fire and the light from it—the one being nature and cause, the other natural and caused—he has spoken of the 'one' on account of being inseparable, and the 'different' again on account of the cause and the caused; so too in the case of the divine nature and the energy from it, the 'one' and the 'different' must be understood by us: the one in terms of that which is united and indivisible, the other in terms of the cause and that which is from the cause. For neither does the 'one' drive away the difference, nor does the difference entirely overturn the 'one'; but each, when piously contemplated according to the saints, will be unable to subsist at all apart from the other."
B The divine Anastasius, whom the holy and ecumenical council [(12)] also mentions and has called "the Great," says in his second book *Concerning the Uncircumscribed*: "Let us see," he says, "what the heretics dare to say about God." He says: "God is in all things by energy, but nowhere by essence," calling the output resulting from the energy—an energy. I, for my part, would say that His energy is inseparable from the nature of God. And after a while: "Wherever one might say there is energy, the essence from which it proceeds is also contemplated with it." For each is uncircumscribed, and for this reason they are absolutely inseparable from one another. For the energy proclaims the hidden essence, yet it is contemplated as co-present with the energy, not being able to exist without it. And again: "The energy is around all things; but the essence is inseparable from it."
But Gregory of Nyssa, too, well knowing the difference in these causes and caused beings—a difference that pertains to the truth and in no way harms the nature by virtue of the difference—writing to Ablabius, said: C "While confessing the unchangeability of the nature, we do not deny the difference according to cause and caused, in which alone we grasp that one thing is distinguished from another, in that we believe the one is the cause, and the other is from the cause." But his brother, the great Basil, appears to assign so absolutely such a difference to these causes and caused, that he even dogmatizes about an order based on natural sequence, and speaks of a 'prior' and a 'secondary' in the case of cause and caused—so explicitly, that he deems it absurd and irrational not to confess this, but rather to try to deny it; and he said that Eunomius either did not perceive this difference or else deliberately hid it, writing: "Eunomius either does not know this, or he deliberately hid it: that there is a certain kind of order, not consisting in our theoretical contemplation, but occurring by the very natural sequence, as is the case of light in relation to fire: it is from the fire. For in these we call the cause 'prior,' and that which is from it 'second'; not separating them from one another by an interval, but by reasoning, D fore-conceiving the cause before the caused."
But indeed, just as we proclaim the divine and eternal energy not only by its being inseparable, but by many other things, and especially by the community of the uncreated and uncircumscribed according to the theology of the saints, so we have also resolved to venerate the difference in them, according to the saints, as befitting God; not setting them thereby into a total disruption and division, nor thinking of any innate difference or natural estrangement or separating them by an interval—far from it—but, as we have been instructed by the saints, accepting it as natural causes and caused admit, distinguishing the things united and indivisible by nature only by reasoning, in a way befitting God. For Athanasius the Great, in his fifth book against the Arians, says: "It is one thing to be 'from' something, and another to be 'that from which' it is [(14)]. According to this, then, there are two. But if they were not two, but were said of the same thing, the same thing would be cause and caused, begetting and begotten, which has been shown to be absurd in the case of Sabellius." Therefore, the energy too is from the essence, and they are two, and have thus differed from one another, distinctly, according to the "from which" and "from something"—that is, the cause and the caused, as this great man teaches while theologizing on divine matters. And after a while: "Let it [E] be..." [index: entries preserved]
A understood, then, how it is consistent to deny the order in cases where it is—and is called and conceived—as prior and posterior, not according to our own placement, but from the succession naturally inherent in them?" It is therefore possible for all those who are able to reason, even in the slightest, to perceive from these things how the holy man took care for truth and piety in equal measure. For he showed that to say [the distinction] does not consist of our own contemplation, but comes about by that very natural succession, is a matter of inescapable and great and natural necessity and manifest truth, namely, that the distinction between the caused and the causes in this order is such that it could never be otherwise, but is always necessarily contemplated in them. By attributing these things not to an interval, but rather to the intellect as it separates them, and by discerning the difference between prior and posterior by the mind alone, he appears, of course, to have piously safeguarded the matter of union B and to have introduced no harm to it from this distinction, but rather to be theologizing that the union is unconfused and teaching that the distinction is in every way indivisible.
Again, when Eunomius attempts to abolish such a distinction, this great man says: "How, he says, do you leave no distinction, not even that which naturally subsists in the causes relative to those things that are from them?" Thus, the opinion that there is no distinction at all regarding causes and the caused is a manifest fruit of the madness of Arius and Eunomius. For those men, having exerted themselves in every way to abolish the homoousion, having heard in the Gospels the Lord saying that the Father is greater than Himself, immediately dared to introduce therein a distinction according to nature. C But that which is according to cause and the caused, they denied entirely, knowing that it could introduce no natural alienation or division anywhere, but even so always maintained the union of the nature as indissoluble. Against these, our three holy fathers carried on the struggle for the Trinity courageously, as this was the impiety of those [heretics], which would destroy the great and supernatural mystery of the Trinity, and they drove it from our Church as far as possible.
Therefore, those who currently reject this distinction are rightly caught having participated in the false belief of those [heretics]; while those who willingly confess to cherish and embrace the piety and theology of these holy men—or rather, the lot of Christ—continue to be of those who, in a united way, distinguish the divine things according to them, and in a distinguished way, unite them. One might say this is indeed one, and primarily so, of the sort of distinction between the divine essence and the energy; D clearly, from its effects, that the essence is unparticipable and indivisible and nameless, as being of course beyond name and utterly beyond understanding.
After this, we sought to have it proven by the saints whether this energy is uncreated, which, though inseparable, yet differs from the divine nature—a thing which those who oppose the Church did not accept at all. And this too was demonstrated as clearly proclaimed by the saints, the summary of whom is the holy and ecumenical Sixth Council, just as it has been sufficiently proven above through the passages quoted from it portion by portion.
It was also demonstrated as a consequence that those who do not accept as uncreated the energy that is inseparable from yet different from the divine essence—as has been said—thereby make even the very essence of God a creature. For according to Saint Maximus, "The nature of each thing is characterized from its energy," the uncreated energy showing an uncreated nature, and the created [energy] a created one. Furthermore, according to the divine Damascene, John, stating: "The created energy will indicate a created nature, but the uncreated [energy] characterizes an uncreated essence." Those, then, who say that the divine energy from which the divine nature is characterized is created, necessarily make the divine nature created as well.
Moreover, they are also Monothelites, worse and more absurd than those former ones, and they hold that there are pre-eternal creatures. For since we confess two natures in our Lord Jesus Christ, the one uncreated and the other created, those who do not say that the divine nature has an uncreated will and energy, but hold to one will and one energy in Christ—which the Sixth Council proclaimed and anathematized—thereby show themselves to be Monothelites as well; but much worse than those [earlier ones], in that they indeed spoke of one will and one energy in Christ, but they meant an uncreated one, thereby indeed doing away with the created; whereas these [current people] speak of one will and one energy, but a created one, openly not accepting the uncreated one.
But also, in the writings of the Great Basil to Amphilochius: "The names of the Spirit are indeed such, supernatural and great, but do they have some excess of glory? And what are the energies? Ineffable due to their greatness, and innumerable due to their multitude; for how shall we conceive of those things beyond the ages? What were His energies toward the intelligible creation?" Those who say that the divine energies are created openly hold them to be creatures beyond the ages. It was also shown that the common and natural divine energies of the tri-hypostatic nature are uncreated.
A It was further asked, by the saints, if one might entertain any composition in God because of the difference between divine essence and energy. For those who argue against us maintain this. It was therefore demonstrated, by the proclamation of all the saints, that one must not suppose any composition in God on account of this. For the divine Maximus, in those things where he discourses against Pyrrhus, very clearly shows that no composition arises from energy. “You see,” he says to Pyrrhus, “that you are misled by this, because you utterly fail to know that the compositions of things that exist in substance, and not those viewed in something else (18), are what they are; and this is the common view of all, both of external philosophers and of the theosophical mystagogues of the Church. But if you speak of a composition of wills, you will be compelled to speak of a composition of the other natural things as well.”
But also Gregory of Nyssa, in the sixth chapter of his *Supplement to the Hexaemeron*, discourses as follows word for word: “If, then, in man—even though the organs prepared by nature for the senses happen to be different—the mind, acting and moving through all, and appropriately using each for the purpose at hand, is one and the same, not changing its nature together with the differences of its energies, how could one even suspect that the things of God’s essence are composite through His manifold powers?”
B Furthermore, it was shown that there are many things which belong to Him alone, and to no one else of all things. And the divine Chrysostom says: “Scripture sometimes calls the grace of the Spirit fire, and sometimes water, showing that these are not names of essence, but of energy; for the Spirit is not composed of diverse essences, being invisible and of one form.” And also he of Nyssa, speaking against Eunomius: “Who is he who says that God is two-fold, except you, who graft the notion of the name onto the essence of the Father, and say that nothing accrues from without, but graft each of the divine names onto the essence of God?”
After this, it was asked whether the divine and uncreated energy is called divinity by the saints. For those who now argue against us did not accept even this. And this, too, was shown to be proclaimed by the theologians. For at once the great Basil, in his writings *Against Eunomius*, says: “And even the name of Divinity itself, whether it signifies the overseeing or the providential power, had a natural relation to the human.” And again, the same, in his letter to Eustathius the physician: “Therefore,” he says, “the sameness of energy in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit shows clearly the unchangeableness of the nature. So that, even if the name of Divinity signifies nature, the community of essence does not compose the substance by adapting this appellation in the proper sense also to the Holy Spirit.” But I do not know how those who construct everything in this way bring forward the appellation of Divinity as an indication of the nature. And after some things: “Therefore, the appellation carries an indication of some power, whether overseeing or energetic. But the divine nature, in all thoughts and names, as it is, remains nameless, as our word suggests. For we are taught the differences of energies, having learned of a Benefactor, a Judge, one who is Good and Just, and whatever other such things there are. But we are not, by the realization of the energies, any the more able to know the nature of the one who energizes.
C For whenever one gives an account of each of the names, and of the nature itself about which the names are, he will not provide the same account for both. D But if the account is different, then the nature of these is also different. Therefore, essence is one thing, the account of which has not yet been discovered, and the meaning of the names concerning it is another, arising from some energy or merit.
But this also was shown together with the rest, that those who—according to the objectors—do not accept the difference of the divine energy, and of all things simply and naturally considered regarding the nature and essence, these actually make God composite, since the great Basil clearly says: “If, bringing all the divine names, we shall posit them as pertaining to the essence, we shall prove God not only composite, but also composed of heterogeneous things, because of the fact that something else is signified by each of the names.” And the great Gregory the Theologian writes: “Or is the Undying, and the Guileless, and the Unchanging the essence of God? But if this is so, there are many essences of God, and not one; or the divine is composite from these. For these are not uncomposed, if they are essences.” And also the divine Cyril: “For the Unbegotten, or the Incorruptible, or the Undying, or the Invisible is not an essence. For if each of these signifies an essence, He is composed of so many essences.”
A And again, the same great Basil, in his second epistle, says that Godhead is the designation in that same epistle: “Whether the name ‘Godhead’ signifies an operation, as we say that there is one operation of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and thus one Godhead; or whether the name of Godhead is indicative of nature according to the opinions of the many, because we find no variation in nature, not unreasonably do we define the holy Trinity as one Godhead.” And holy Anastasius says: “The appellation ‘God’ is clearly seen to be active; for it does not represent the very essence of God—for it is impossible to know this—but the name ‘God’ represents and signifies His contemplative operation.” And again the same: “The name ‘God’ does not signify the essence of the Godhead, for this is incomprehensible and unnameable; but it is called ‘God’ from His contemplative operation,” as holy Dionysius says, “or from *theein* (running/being) that is, running through, or from *aithein*, which is to set aflame.” And the same great Dionysius says: “If we should name the supersubstantial concealment ‘God,’ or ‘Life,’ or ‘Essence,’ or ‘Light,’ or ‘Word,’ we mean nothing other than the powers brought forth from Him unto us, which are deifying, or essence-making, or life-giving, or wisdom-bestowing. But we apply this to Him in accordance with the release [or transcendence] of all intellectual operations, seeing no deification, or life, or essence that is similar to the Cause which is separated from all things in every preeminence.”
And again he says, “Godhead is the providence which observes all things.” And that providence is an operation is known from others as well, and especially from what the great Athanasius writes, saying: “The Father and the Son do not work through one providence and then another, but through one and the same essential operation of the Godhead.” But also the great Dionysius, again in his letter to Gaius, B speaks of the deifying gift, and the unimitated imitation of the One above God and above goodness, by which we are deified and made good.
Upon these things, seeing that those who contradict the prelate of Thessalonica call such a gift and operation of the Spirit—that is, the deification by which the saints are deified, which is termed ‘Godhead’ by the saints—a created godhead, constructing this from the fact that God is said by the great Dionysius to be His own apostate, and that He called this an imitation, and also a relation of those who participate, the holy synod declared them to speak impiously; but yet, this having been inquired into by the holy synod, “If one of the saints said that deification is uncreated, and if ‘relation’ and ‘imitation’ and ‘subsisted’ are also used regarding uncreated things,” the sayings of the saints were brought forward to show that these terms are not always used of created things. For the great Basil says in his *Antirrhetics*: “He who brought forth the drops [lumps] of dew (19) did not cause the lumps and the Son to subsist in the same way.” And in the first book of his *Hexaemeron*: “In order that it might be shown,” he says, “that the world is a crafted work, set before all for contemplation, so that through it the wisdom of the Maker might be recognized, the wise Moses did not use any other voice concerning it, but said, ‘In the beginning He made,’ not ‘He operated,’ nor ‘He caused to subsist,’ but ‘He made,’ in order that the many who imagined the world to coexist from eternity with God might not concede that it was not begotten by Him.” And it was demonstrated from this C that both “to operate” and “to be operated” can be said not only of created things, but also of eternal and uncreated things; for when those who are in dispute hear that grace is also operated, they immediately think it must be created. For the great Gregory in his *Theology* says: “Let it be, if so it seems, even an operation; not even thus,” D [alt-version omitted]
A nor would it for this reason be a created thing, or possess that consubstantiality which is intrinsic to them by nature. But he also writes in his *Letter to Amphilochius*: “What then are the operations of the Spirit? Ineffable in their magnitude, and countless in their multitude. For how shall we conceive of those things beyond the ages? What were His operations before the intelligible creation? And how many were the graces from Him regarding creation? What is the power towards the ages to come? For it was preexisting and coexisting with the Son and with the Father before the ages.” Thus, if you conceive of anything beyond the ages, even this is beneath the Spirit; for he declares the pre-eternal operations of the Spirit to be beneath the Spirit. And in his discourse *On the Divinity of the Son and Spirit*, the divine Gregory of Nyssa says: “The divine nature remains ineffable and unutterable, transcending every signification of speech. Therefore, it is not the nature, but the contemplative power of the Spirit, that the designation of Divinity represents.” B And the great Athanasius in his second discourse *Against the Arians*, regarding the heretics who say the Son is of the will and not of the nature of the Father, says: “If they grant that ‘to will’ refers to things that are not, why do they not recognize that which transcends the will of God?” And in the third discourse against the same, “The heretics have seen the thing opposed to the will, but they have not beheld the greater and transcendent thing. For just as that which is against one’s will is opposed to the will, so that which is according to nature transcends and precedes willing.” And the same author, writing *Against Macedonius*, says: “Know that ‘to be God’ is a second thing; for indeed we too, if we become imitators of God, according to Paul, become gods; but we cannot become of the same nature.” And the divine Maximus says: “God is infinitely exalted above all beings, both partakers and things participated.” And the divine Gregory of Nyssa says: “We cannot call them three Gods, who work the divine and contemplative operation jointly and undistinguishably in us and in all creation.” And concerning the copy, the Thessalonian said that the great Dionysius added the “inimitability” to the copy; so that the divinizing gift is not a copy any more than it is an inimitability. The Theologian Gregory also says that the Son is a copy of the Father, writing in the second of his discourses *On the Son*: “Icon of the Father as consubstantial, and that this is from there, but not Father from this.” For this is the nature of an icon, to be a copy of the archetype, and not that of which it is said. Thus, being a copy does not hinder theosis from being uncreated. Relation is also the providence of God toward those who are provided for; and His foreknowledge toward those who are foreknown; and the eternal predeterminations in God toward those being predetermined. But for each of these, being a relation does not hinder it from being toward the uncreated. C Thus, neither is the divinizing gift of the Spirit, that very theosis, created, because it is a relation toward those who are being divinized. For as to why it is uncreated, the divine Maximus will also clearly and concisely set it forth, writing: “Divine grace, even if it gives enjoyment to those who partake in it by grace, does not give comprehension. For it remains incomprehensible even in the participation of those who enjoy it, because it possesses infinity by nature as unbegotten.” And again: “This is the Gospel of God, the embassy of God to men, and of the Son who was incarnate and who bestows as a reward to those who obey Him the unbegotten theosis.”
Having seen the divine operation also called Divinity, we sought to be shown by the theologians what it is concerning which God transcends this divine operation and those things contemplated essentially around it; and this also appeared as proclaimed by all the saints. It was also shown that those who do not accept this are polytheists, claiming many principles, since they do not refer those things contemplated essentially around God to one cause and one principle. For the great Basil says in his *Antirrhetics*: “There is a kind of order, not constituted by our positioning, but happening by the very sequence according to nature, as with fire in relation to the light that is from it. For in such things we speak of the cause as prior, and that which is from it as second; not separating these by an interval, but by reasoning intending the cause prior to the caused.” How then is it reasonable to deny the order where there is first and second, not according to our positioning, D but according to nature?
And the divine Dionysius also says in the twelfth chapter *On the Divine Names*: “Inasmuch as existing things are superior to non-existing, and holy or divine or sovereign or royal things, and those self-participations [archetypes] are superior even to the things participating in them; to that extent is He who is above all things established above all beings; and of all things partaking and all participations, He is the unparticipated Cause.” And in the second *Letter to Gaius*: “How,” he says, “is He who is beyond all things and above divinarchies and above bonarchies? If you understand divinity and goodness, it is the very reality of the good-making and divinizing gift, according to which we are divinized and made good; for if this becomes the principle of being divinized and made good for those who are divinized and made good, He is above every principle, and above the so-called divinity and goodness.”
A We know, he said, the divine essence and the divine natural energy to be the best of things; for energy could never exist apart from its own essence. Regarding, however, those things created by God from the beginning, he said, if one does not know—unless he wanders from the truth according to those who contradict—that every creature partakes of the energy of the Creator, but not of the essence? For a house does not partake of the essence of the builder, nor a ship of the shipwright, but of his art and his energy, according to the Theologian of Nyssa. B That even the saints, being divinized by the union with God, partake not of the divine essence, but of His divine energy, the great Gregory in theology demonstrates, writing concerning our Lord Jesus Christ: "That He is called Christ because of His divinity; for this is the anointing of His humanity; not sanctifying by energy, as in the cases of other christs, but by the presence of the whole Anointer." And the great Basil: "The Holy Spirit, indeed, fills all things with power, but is communicable only C to the worthy, not partaken of in one measure, but distributing the energy according to the analogy of faith." And in another place again: "Just as the reflections of faces do not occur in all things, but only in those possessing a certain smoothness and transparency, so the energy of the Spirit is not in all souls, but in those having nothing crooked or twisted." And Saint Maximus says: "All things, he says, that God is, and he who is divinized through grace will be, except for the identity of essence." And the great Dionysius says: "The divine minds move circularly, united to the unoriginate and unending illuminations of the Good and Beautiful." By bringing them forth in the plural, he showed they are not the essence of God—for that is never expressed in the plural—but by calling them illuminations, and declaring them unoriginate and unending, he showed them to be divine and uncreated energies. D Our Lord and God in the holy Gospel according to John says: "He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, rivers out of his belly..."
Following this, it was asked by us, since those who drive the Church say that all things partake of the essence of God, as if the divine essence and the divine energy were indistinct, and there is nothing else of God according to them except essence alone; while we have been taught by the holy Scriptures that God has both essence and power and energy, which is different from the divine essence, or rather, even powers and energies—for thus He will be not only three-hypostatic, but also all-powerful—it was asked, then, of what do all things partake: of the divine essence, or of the divine energy of God? The holy synod... [index: entries preserved]
of living water. He said this concerning the Spirit, which those who believe in Him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet [given], because Jesus was not yet glorified. A Explaining this, the divine Chrysostom says: "Rivers, he says, shall flow out of his belly," hinting at the abundant and unfailing nature of grace; which he says elsewhere: "A spring of living water leaping up into eternal life," that is, he shall have much grace. Elsewhere, then, he calls it eternal life, but here, living water. And he calls that which is always active "living." For the grace of the Spirit, when it comes into the mind and is established B, bubbles up more than any spring, and does not cease, nor exhaust itself, nor stand still. And at the same time, showing both the inexhaustible nature of the supply and the ineffable nature of the energy, he called it both fountain and river; not that there is one river, but that they are ineffable; and there also he represents the flood through the leaping up. And after some time, the same [author says]: "The prophet was no longer among them, nor did grace oversee their holy things; since, therefore, the Holy Spirit had been held back, yet was destined to be poured out abundantly hereafter, and the beginning of this distribution took place after the cross: not only of abundance, but of greater gifts—for the gift was more wondrous, as when he says, 'You do not know of what spirit you are.' And again, 'For you have not received the spirit of bondage, but you have received the Spirit of adoption.' And indeed, the ancients had the Spirit, but did not provide it to others. But the apostles filled myriads." C Since they were about to receive this grace, but it had not yet been given, for this reason he says, "The Holy Spirit was not yet [given]," that is, given, since Jesus was not yet glorified, the cross being the glory of the Lord, and theirs. For since we were enemies and sinners, and lacking the gift of God, and godless, grace was the proof of reconciliation; but a gift is given not to enemies, nor to those who are hated, but to friends and to those who have pleased [God]. It was necessary first for the sacrifice on our behalf to be offered, and for the enmity in the flesh to be destroyed, and for us to become friends of God, and then to receive the gift. For if this happened in the case of the promise to Abraham, much more [so] in the case of grace. And again the same [author], in the thirty-sixth homily of the same work, says: "It does not work the water simply, but when it receives the grace of the Spirit, then it dissolves all sins." And after a little: "But even if the whole world comes, the grace is not consumed, nor is the energy spent, but it remains the same, and [is] such as it was before. And just as solar rays light up the day, and are not consumed, nor does the light become less for them because of the great supply; so also, by much more, the energy of the Spirit is in no way diminished by those who partake of it." And again, the same author, in the fifth homily of the same work, interpreting "All things were made through him," says: "Having spoken about creation, John adds the word concerning Providence: D 'In him was life,' he says. For indeed, so that no one might disbelieve how such great and such many things were made through him, he added that in him was life. Just as, therefore, in the case of a fountain that gives birth to abysses, however much you draw from it, you have not diminished the fountain; so also in the case of the energy of the Only-Begotten, as much as you believe to have been brought forth and made through it, it has not become any less." And again, the Gospel having said, "Of his fullness we have all received," the word should be taken thus for the time being: "It does not possess the gift in a communicable mode," he says, "but it is a self-fountain and a self-root of good things; it is self-life and self-power and self-truth; not containing in himself the wealth of good things, but overflowing it also to all others; and after the overflowing, remaining full, and being diminished by no one from the supply given to others, but always bubbling forth, and bestowing these good things upon all, he remains at the same perfection. But that which I carry is communicable; for I received it from another, and it is a small part of the whole, and like a paltry drop compared to an ineffable abyss and an infinite sea. Or rather, not even this analogy could represent what we attempt to say. For if you take a drop from the sea, by this very fact you have diminished the sea, even if the diminution is ineffable; but in the case of that fountain, this cannot be said, but as much as one drinks from it, it remains without being diminished. Therefore, it is necessary to go to another analogy, weak indeed, and itself not able to represent what we seek; but rather guiding us from the former." And again the same [author] in the thirty-sixth homily of the same work: "And in our case," he says, "not... established..."
in regard to the concept set before us now. A Let us suppose, for example, that there is a source of fire, and then from that source ten thousand lamps are kindled, and twice as many, and three times, and often more. Does the fire not remain in the same fullness even after sharing its energy with so many? To everyone, surely, it is manifest that it does. And if, in the case of bodies, which are divisible and diminished by subtraction, something of this sort has been found—which, even after providing to others from its own, is harmed in nothing—how much more will this happen in the case of that incorporeal and unblemished power! For if where substances are involved, and body, and it is divided and yet not divided, how much more so when the discourse is about energy, and the energy of that incorporeal substance—nothing of the sort is likely to occur. For this reason, John also said: "From his fullness we have all received." We have all received. We, the twelve, the three hundred, B the five hundred, the three thousand, the five thousand, the many myriads of the Jews, the entire fullness of the faithful, both of those then, and of those now, and of those who shall be hereafter—we have all received from his fullness. And what have we received? "Grace upon grace," he says.
[God’s grace is given] to the worthy, so that one would be ignorant that the crown of the righteous is the grace of the Spirit, provided more abundantly and more perfectly then? But also the holy Cyril, in the third of his works *Against Hermias*, when this very Hermias asked him about the divine indwelling and participation in us, and said, "Nevertheless, I would most gladly inquire of you how the fullness of both the Father and the Son might be understood and operate within us, being one and not diverse," this holy Cyril answered: "And yet," he says, "there is nothing at all difficult or unattainable in this. For how could it be otherwise than through the holy Spirit, who fills us with divine gifts through himself and declares us participants of the ineffable nature?" And again the same [author] in the *Thesaurus*: "But if the holy Spirit were a creature, according to the madness of the heterodox, how would he possess the entire energy of God? For C no one, I suppose, would stray so far from thinking correctly as to dare—and that only—to say that the divine essence, by means of certain instruments brought in from without, ministers toward an energy [(25)], which proceeds naturally from it to those who are capable of receiving it."
And great Basil, explaining the forty-eighth Psalm, says: "God made man from the earth, and his ministers flames of fire; yet the power to know and understand their own Creator and Maker exists also in men. For he breathed into his face, that is to say, he deposited a portion of his own grace within man, D so that by the similar he might recognize the similar." And again the same [author] in his works *To Amphilochius* concerning the holy Spirit: "Renewing," he says, "the man, the Lord—and restoring the grace which he had lost from his in-breathing, breathing again into the face of the disciples—what does he say? 'Receive the holy Spirit.'" And the divine Damascene in his *Theological Chapters* concerning foreknowledge and predestination: "This man," he says, "the Creator fashioned male, having imparted of his own divine grace, and having made him partaker of himself through this." And again the great Basil in his works *To Amphilochius*: "Who," he says, "would deny that the energy that proceeds naturally from him...
And the great Athanasius in his *Epistle to Serapion*: "All things," he says, "that belong to the Father are the Son's; therefore, the gifts given by the Son in the Spirit are the Father's gifts, and the Spirit being in us; and the Word, who gives this, is in us, and in the Word is the Father; and thus it is, 'I and the Father will come, and we will make our abode with him,' as it has been said. For where there is light, there is also the radiance; and where the radiance is, there also is the energy and the light-bearing grace of this." And Paul, again teaching this, wrote to the Corinthians in his second epistle, saying: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the holy Spirit be with you all." For the grace and gift given is given in the Trinity by the Father through the Son in the holy Spirit. For just as the grace given is from the Father through the Son, so there could be no communion of the gift among us if it were not in the holy Spirit. For partakers of this...
then, it is shown that there is one energy of the Trinity.
Moreover, holy Athanasius, in his discourse on the Spirit, says, "Agreeably, and also the things said by the divine Paul regarding the Spirit." For he called those who have believed temples of God, having as an inhabitant the grace of the Spirit: "Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" And again, "Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?" These things teach plainly that the all-holy Spirit is of the divine nature. For if those who have believed are called temples of God because they received the grace of the Spirit, then the Holy Spirit is from God. For having received His grace as an inhabitant, they were named temples of God.
And holy Chrysostom, in the fourth of his expositions on the Acts, A regarding, "And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire," B amplifying, says, "Well did he say 'divided'; for they were from one root, that you might learn that it is an energy sent from the Paraclete." And again, the same, in the same place, "And they were all filled," he says; they did not signify that they simply received the grace of the Spirit, but that they were filled.
But since the Messalians also say that those who have been purified among them are established in a participation in the essence of God, and cite that evangelical saying, "I and the Father will come, and we will make our abode with him," and very foolishly distort this for their own impiety: the synod that gathered against these very Messalians, repelling their wicked notion, says, "There occurs a certain visitation of the Paraclete, and God dwells in the worthy, but not as the Godhead exists by nature."
After this, it was sought that it be shown by the saints that the light of the Lord's Transfiguration is uncreated, and that this is not the essence of God. And almost all said that this was demonstrated during the fourth session, in which those who spoke against the Church were present; C who today insanely, blasphemously saying it is created, a phantom, a veil, and a shadow, said: and now, even this they impiously called uncreated and the essence of God. For there was brought forward in that assembly Gregory, whose name is synonymous with theology, writing, "No one stood in the subsistence and essence of the Lord, according as it is written, nor has anyone known or declared the nature of God."
And holy Maximus, writing in the seventh chapter of his *Centuries of Theology*, "To those who are, He who exists not by essence is participable; but willing to be participated in by those who are able in another way, He does not depart entirely from the hiddenness of His essence." And holy Chrysostom, writing on the same feast, says, "On the mountain, the Savior having been transfigured, in a small way, as Master, showed to His own disciples the glory of His invisible divine kingdom." But immediately those who carry about a free and predatory tongue will say: "Yes, if His divine glory is invisible, how did He show it to the apostles? For if it is visible, it is not invisible; if it is invisible, it is not visible." Therefore, hear intelligently. D Here the Master Christ showed to His own disciples the glory of His invisible kingdom, and yet did not show it; that is, He opened the Godhead a little, and not completely; on the one hand granting assurance, on the other hand sparing them; for granting assurance He showed them the divine glory of the invisible kingdom, not as much as it was, but as much as they who carried about bodily eyes were able to see; and sparing them, and not out of envy, He did not show them all His divine glory of the invisible kingdom, so that they might not, along with the sight, lose their life. But all the saints also speak of it as an illumination, and brightness, and grace, and deification and Godhead shown forth—a little more bearable than vision—and inaccessible light, and the natural ray of the Son, an unoriginate bolt of the Godhead, lightning of the Godhead, and such like things.
And there was brought forward in that assembly also the first Synodal Tome regarding these things, which demonstrated this piously and firmly, as uncreated and not essence, through many testimonies from divine Scripture, and through the words and God-fearing decrees of that thrice-blessed and renowned king of ours, Lord Andronikos Palaiologos, consistent with the saints; looking at which then, we rejected those who were opposed to that holy and divine Tome, and who were opposed to the most holy [Metropolitan] of Thessalonica; as they now claim the light of the Lord's Transfiguration is created, and now, very foolishly, that this is the essence of God; and as though they do not suffer that the essence of God and His power and energy be uncreated, but foolishly dragging all the common powers and energies of the Father and the Son and the holy Spirit into a creature, and deeming them polytheists, those who declare God to be uncreated, not by essence only, but also according to the subsistences, and according to the common divine powers and energies of the three subsistences. Regarding all these things, the book of Acindynus [is brought] into...
our midst and read, wherein he appeared to be dogmatizing ancient and new heresies; he insisted besides that no uncreated energy common to the tri-subsistent Godhead is venerated, except only the Son and the Holy Spirit. But the divine synod, A having well and God-pleasingly recognized this impiety of the ancient heretics Marcellus, Photinus, and Sophronius, immediately set the divine Chrysostom against this false doctrine, like a thunderbolt sent from heaven by them, so as to burn up the brush-like nonsense of Acindynus. For he, interpreting the Epistle to the Philippians, says: "Marcellus, Photinus, and Sophronius say that the Logos is an energy, and that this energy dwelt in him who was from the seed of David, not an enhypostatic essence. Arius confesses the Son, but only in name; he says he is a creature, and much inferior to the Father. Others say he does not possess a soul. Do you see the chariots standing? Contemplate then also their corpses, how he strikes and defeats them all at once, and with one blow levels them all together. How, then, does he cast them down? 'For let this mind be in you,' he says, 'which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God.' From this point, Paul of Samosata also fell, and Marcellus and Sabellius. For, he says, 'being in the form of God.' How then do you say, 'O petty man, he began from Mary, and before this he did not exist'? And how do you say, 'It was an energy'? For 'being in the form of God,' he says, 'he took the form of a servant.' Is the form of a servant the energy of a servant, or the nature of a servant? Undoubtedly, it is the nature of a servant; therefore, the form of God is also the nature of God; it is not, then, an energy."
[Continuing from the top of the column for the second time, referring to the text following the first paragraph, which begins "the essence and the power..."]
...the essence and the power and the energy, and whatever else is considered and hymned concerning the essence at the level of theology. And that we may give a standard to the discourse, and have the theological matters as a collection or fullness B in order, let us hear that the uncreated, the incorporeal, the timeless, the eternal (anarchon), the everlasting (aidion), the endless, the infinite, the unknown, the unfigured, the ineffable, the unsearchable, that he is called God of gods, Lord of lords, King of kings, the Almighty, the Maker, the Creator, the Light, the Holy, the Life, the Good, the Strong, the Omnipotent, and whatever others [are used] by way of excellence and cause—each one is not called an essence, but [is said] concerning the essence; which is also called the collection and fullness of Godhead according to Scripture, being equally contemplated and theologized concerning each of the holy three subsistences. "For all that the Father has is mine; and I have been glorified in them." Otherwise, the Son of the Father is also called power, as is the Holy Spirit, and for other causes which the theologians have handed down, but especially because the whole of the Father's power is rested in the Son, as the great Basil explicitly writes this to Eunomius of old. How then is it just to abolish the natural and common power of the tri-subsistent Godhead, by which the Son and the Holy Spirit are also hymned by the theologians as the power of the Father? C But also the divine Gregory of Nyssa in the discourse to Ablabius says: "God signifies act; but Godhead signifies energy." And none of the three is an energy, but rather each of them is an active agent.
From these things the divine synod says, "It is proven that he who says that only the Son and the Holy Spirit are the uncreated energies of God, as though not acknowledging the common natural energy of the three subsistences, is the one whom Acindynus, in annulling the heresy of Marcellus, Photinus, and Sophronius—long since dead and condemned—dares to bring into the Church of God." But if to some of the saints the Son or the Holy Spirit has been called power or energy, it is yet [the power or energy] of the Father; and thus each one is as a perfect subsistence and possessing energy and power; and this is a common name, according to the divine Dionysius, of the absolute and super-full Godhead; in accordance with which meaning the Father also is called power. But as for us, it is not concerning this energy and power [that we speak], but concerning the common [energy and power] of the tri-subsistent Godhead, which is not a subsistence, but by nature and supernaturally is present to each of the thearchic subsistences, according to the tradition of the theologians. For we theologize one God in three subsistences, according to the great Athanasius, having one... D Regarding these things, upon the decree of our mighty and holy emperor and king, an inquiry was made by the great chartophylax and consul of the philosophers of the archpriests, and of each of the senators and ecclesiastical officials, as to what opinion each held regarding all the matters spoken of and examined now at the divine and holy synod. And one by one, all declared without doubt that they held [the same thing] regarding these matters, and they said they owed much gratitude to the most holy metropolitan of Thessalonica, as one who had spoken and written in harmony with all the saints, and who had labored so much for the defense of the truth according to piety, and had endured so many insults, slanders, and other outrages for the sake of refuting that Barlaam, and Acindynus, and those who have appeared since then in agreement with them, and who were striving to remove the Church of Christ from the faith and piety towards God handed down by the fathers. But after all, last of all, the most magnanimous indeed and divinely wise, serene, most powerful and holy emperor and king of ours, lord John Kantakouzenos, pronounced his opinion, all the most brilliant senators and most holy archpriests rising from their seats, as is the custom in such matters, having determined: "That injustice is a great evil, even in these earthly and base things, as it is able to corrupt and pull down a whole nation; since the opposite of this, justice, according to what is written, 'exalts a nation.' If injustice is such a great evil in lower things, how much more so when the Truth which is in God is spoken against by those who think evilly...
and when those who cherish and proclaim it, and furthermore defend it to the best of their ability, are harassed, plotted against, and slandered by those who endeavor to lead the crowds astray with a perverse intent? For my part, I see such great agreement with the saints in the words spoken by the most holy Metropolitan of Thessalonica, and in his writings which have now been read for the defense of piety; and the saints have bestowed such great care in their own writings for the divine dogmas recently set forth, that no one who desires to live with right-mindedness would desire to seek anything more than this. As for the things concerning which the blessed disciples and apostles of Christ, and the holy and ecumenical councils, and the holy Fathers have spoken theology, my eagerness is so great, through the grace of Christ within me, that I am ready, if I had but one cup of blood, to pour it forth willingly on their behalf. I also give thanks to God who is over all, the Master and our Lord Jesus Christ, that He has wrought great mercy with us, having been well-pleased that the truth of piety be manifested and established today, and that it has not been allowed to be turned aside in any way, nor shaken by those who for fourteen years have already been endeavoring by many attempts, deceits, and machinations to distort and overturn it. These things, then, are also from the most divine Emperor.
Since a divine and venerable ordinance of his was issued also to the Holy Mountain, so that those there who excel in wisdom and virtue might come to the synod convened in this blessed great city; but they, owing to the length of the journey and the severity of the season, were unable to come, they sent two of the ordained monks who are honored for their virtue and learning, and a report to our mighty and holy Emperor and king declaring that they had also sent in writing their own opinion to the synod. The sent hieromonks therefore arose and delivered to the synod words as if from the entire Holy Mountain, which the most holy Metropolitan of Heraclea, Lord Philotheus, who was still staying there with them, also wrote down (27). They also brought forward the written opinion of all, which had been sent from there, which also, having been read in the hearing of all, continued to be in harmony with and to bear witness to the most holy Metropolitan of Thessalonica in all things according to the truth of piety. These things are also from the whole Holy Mountain.
We, however, the entire divine and holy synod gathered in the Triclinium by the grace of Christ, and now defending piety, and having made an accurate and proper inquiry and examination concerning the things set forth, and confirming the previous synodal tomes on these matters as most pious, and rather following these as well, do justly subject to the anathema from Christ that Barlaam and that Acindynus, as those who have raged against the very foundations of piety and who have not in any way repented while still living in this life; and those who have now appeared and have been synodically convicted as being of the same mind as those men, and simply all who belong to their faction, we hold to be excommunicated and cast out of the catholic and apostolic Church of Christ, if they do not repent, and we subject them to the anathema from Christ, and we hold those who are in communion with them with knowledge to be excluded from communion; and we strip those who hold them of all priestly ministry. As for those who were snatched away and led astray by them, and are not the ringleaders of the heresy, though they remain unrepentant, we subject them to like penalties; but those who repent sincerely and anathematize both such an opinion and those who have persisted in it to the end, we most willingly receive, not only into communion according to piety, but also into the priesthood, in no way demoting them, in accordance with the diagnosis and decision of the holy and seventh ecumenical council designated for such persons: That we do not receive into the priesthood at all those who were the ringleaders and the principal instigators and defenders of the impiety, even if they repent; but those who were forced, or snatched away and led astray, who repent truly and sincerely, we receive into the priesthood according to the rank each one holds. A And if any other person among all might ever be found to be thinking, saying, or writing the same things against the most holy Metropolitan of Thessalonica, or rather against the holy theologians and the Church herself, we decree the same against him, and we subject him to the same condemnation, whether he be one of the ordained or of the laity. As for the most holy Metropolitan himself, who has been frequently mentioned, having investigated and found that he writes and thinks nothing apart from the divine oracles, but rather defends them as is proper, and the common piety of us all, we hold him not only superior to those who engage in trifling talk against him, or rather against the Church of Christ, as the former synodal tomes also have set forth, but also as a most secure champion and defender of piety and… B C D
the truth of Christ, by the grace of which they proceeded. A And as for those things by which they attempted to distort in writing and to accuse, they fall into many and great heresies. For they persisted in openly contradicting what had been expressly spoken by the theologians, and they dared to call the deification [(28)] of the Lord's assumption a created thing; and because it had been said by the saints that the essence of God is unapproachable and incommunicable, they dared to declare that those who think thus concerning it [(29)]—impious daring!—consider it to be corruptible. And this, even though God said to Moses: "No one shall see my face and live." But also the seven spirits—that is to say, the energies of the Holy Spirit, according to the holy theologians—which, according to the prophecy, rested upon the flower from the root of Jesse, B clearly our Lord Jesus Christ, as the holy Zechariah hymned the seven eyes of Christ looking upon all the earth, and the divine Maximus [(30)] theologically defined these as naturally belonging to the Son of God—they ranked these with created things; and…
Fr. Combefisius’s note. [(28)] Truly, the Catholic men seem to speak of the Taboric light, and of no other deification of the body assumed by the Lord, as the Palamites, whom they themselves incorrectly define as some created and divine thing that is coeternal with God (namely, his secret power [τὴν ἐνέργειαν]): for of the anointing of the Godhead, and the substantial presence of the Person of the Word and of the whole ointment, by which man existed personally as God [ὁμόθεος], the enemies of Palamas have never thought in this way, whatever they may cast against the Palamites: while they acknowledge one power of God, the Son, namely subsistent, and distinct from God (that is, the Father), as from whom he truly proceeds: from whom they [say] the essential power, and what God himself is, is distinct only virtually and eminently, and for that reason is said to be from essence, and not otherwise, which they do not deny. [(29)] ...to think it the author of corruption and destruction, not of being and life: well did the enemies of Palamas collect this, and our Kalekas rightly vexes them, and shows that from that denial of all commerce of the essence of the Godhead with creatures C on the part of the Palamites' error, the mystery of the incarnation is destroyed, and not otherwise than by the [ἐνέργεια] error of Nestorius, which the Palamites themselves wrongly cast against them: namely by the common inhabitation of the Word in Christ through the gift and operation, just as in the remaining saints and prophets. The passage of Exodus means only this, that for the state of mortal life the divine essence is not seen, nor unless in those translated to a more divine state, by which in an exceptional way we shall be similar to God, seeing him just as he is, as the beloved disciple is the author. While I write these things, the anniversary day of his martyrdom is celebrated. [(30)] ...of God. The Catholic opponents of this Palamitic error especially recognize this, that they would have the [ἐνέργεια] (namely the effects and gifts of the divine Spirit) to be uncreated and coeternal with God; and the most foolish of men thus impiously condemned the opposite of the heresy. As regards Maximus, it is pleasing to bring forward here a scholium from the Royal Cyparissiota codex, by which he is vindicated from that calumny of the Palamites: "It is unclear whether it is written anywhere by the great Maximus that the [ἐνέργεια] according to the will of the all-holy Spirit naturally belong to the Son of God. For besides saying the contrary to Scripture, he also sins against the Son of God; for his nature would be, according to its natural properties, an effect of will, and the very essence itself: which clearly D demonstrates it to be a creature. For by the will of God all creation was produced. And how is the impiety not manifest? Either the saint has not written this at all, or, someone having taken his word in a different sense, these men, according to their own custom, have slandered others and divulged it. For it is possible to say piously that they naturally belong to the Son of God according to his own humanity. For the seven spirits shall not rest in his superessential Godhead; for this is infinite and all-perfect; and it needs nothing in order to rest in itself; but it is clear that in the temple constructed by him, the spirits produced by his will rested, as he immediately from the beginning rendered it holy and spiritual." It is uncertain whether it is written in any place in the great Maximus that the effects produced by the will of the most holy Spirit are in the Son of God by nature. For not only does this oppose Scripture, but it also exists as an injury to the Son of God. For his nature would be, like those things which are natural to him, an effect of will, and therefore an effect of essence: by which it is openly proved that it is a creature. For every creature has been produced by the will and counsel of God. And how is this not manifest impiety? Either, therefore, the saint did not write this at all, or he has expressed it with another meaning, which they, after their own habit, have through calumny attributed to others. For it can be said that they are in the Son of God by reason of his humanity. For the seven spirits will not rest in his Godhead, which transcends all essence: for this is infinite and perfect in every way; nor does it need anything in order to rest in it: but it is plain that they rested in the temple which he himself constructed for himself, while he immediately from the beginning made that holy and spiritual. To which other solution we must stand; just as Maximus speaks very formally (so to speak) and precisely and properly. For this, that flower from the root of Jesse, is not the Word and Son of God himself according to himself, as Maximus would have had to understand it concerning him, or the Palamites to draw it to him. I was seeking, for the sake of the holy Maximus, and who is one, as the Lydian stone of all theology and the plumb line of the Fathers, though he may seem to his own Greeks, because of the majesty with which I began, the elegance of the type, the purity of the paper, and the diligence of both the author's and the printer's labor, that I could not finish it through my own weakness, in this fleeing age. But their generosity, by which they favor him, wiped away the complaint, and inclined the mind more amply.
A more than these, and no less leading to impiety, it is not even easy to enumerate. Therefore, the condemnation of these men—unless they should repent—was confirmed by these things; and what has been newly examined and discerned by us synodically, together with the God-crowned empire, and by all the holy Fathers, and by the holy and divine synods previously held for this sake, and by the Synodal Tomes issued upon them; and this lawful and canonical vote, having been written and signed just now, shall be preserved immutable for all eternity by the all-powerful energy and grace of the almighty and great God and our Savior, for whom and through whom the present struggle has been completed for us.
The original contained the signatures, by means of vermilion letters, of both most divine emperors:
JOHN IN CHRIST GOD FAITHFUL KING AND EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS, THE KANTAKOUZENOS.
JOHN IN CHRIST GOD faithful king and emperor of the Romans Palaiologos.
And by the venerable and patriarchal hand, Kallistos, by the mercy of God archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and ecumenical patriarch.
The humble metropolitan of Herakleia, president of the Hypertimoi and exarch of all Thrace and Macedonia, Philotheos.
The humble metropolitan of Thessalonica, Hypertimos and exarch of all Thessaly, Gregorios.
The humble metropolitan of Kyzikos, and exarch of all the Hellespont, Arsenios. B
The metropolitan of Philadelphia, Hypertimos and exarch of all Lydia and universal judge of the Romans, Makarios.
The humble metropolitan of Chalcedon, Hypertimos and exarch of all Bithynia, Iakovos.
The metropolitan of Melanikon, Hypertimos and universal judge of the Romans, Metrophanes.
The humble metropolitan of Amaseia and Hypertimos.
The humble metropolitan of Pontoherakleia and Hypertimos, Methodios.
The humble metropolitan of Pegai and Parion, Hypertimos, Georgios.
The humble metropolitan of Beroia, Hypertimos and holding the place of Tyana, Dionysios.
The humble metropolitan of Trebizond and Hypertimos, Niphon.
The humble metropolitan of Traianoupolis, Hypertimos and exarch of all Rhodope, Germanos.
The humble metropolitan of Selymbria, Hypertimos and holding the place of Kotyaion, Isaias. C
The humble metropolitan of Eupro, Hypertimos and holding the place of Euchaita, Gabriel.
The humble metropolitan of Amastris and Hypertimos, Kallinikos.
The humble metropolitan of Sougdala and Hypertimos, Eusebios.
The humble metropolitan of Ainos and Hypertimos, Daniel.
The humble metropolitan of Brysis and Hypertimos, Theodoritos.
The humble metropolitan of Madytos and Hypertimos, Iakovos.