Letters 1 part 38/55

For indeed to believe in Christ is nothing other than this: that the Son of God the Father, having become a perfect man, is depicted in an image after our likeness, so that he might not be something other than us — while remaining, all the same, uncircumscribable together with the Father and the Spirit, insofar as he is true God.

Thus, then, he is to be understood as mediator between God and men, possessing both the properties of both natures and lacking nothing whatsoever in either, as the whole choir of the God-bearing fathers proclaims.

And just as, in the case of your majesty, the acceptance of your image when it is stamped is an acknowledgment that you reign — and likewise the reverse — so also in the case of Christ the King of all the earth the same principle holds, and all the more so, since of his kingdom there shall be no end.

If, then, it has been demonstrated with full truth that in denying the icon of Christ one denies Christ himself, it is clear that in rejecting veneration of that icon, Christ himself is thereby refused veneration.

...heaven, from the apostolic preaching itself — as sight bears witness through history, and hearing through written record — has been bearing and venerating the holy icon of Christ, of the Theotokos, of the angels (since these too, though bodiless, are depicted in bodily form by God's own command), and of the saints of every age, in the divine churches and sacred vessels; even though our own Church at present, torn apart from the four patriarchates, has vainly acted contrary to law.

But now is the acceptable time, most Christ-loving sovereign, now is the day of salvation, that we be reconciled to Christ through the mediation and good pleasure of your peace-bringing reign, that we be united to Rome, the summit of the churches of God, and through her to the three patriarchates, so that with one accord and with one mouth we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, magnifying also your most pious and much-prayed-for reign.

{To Stephen, Asekretis} You, my dear friend, addressed us some time ago through the voice of the man who guards us — from whose madness may we both be delivered, since he breathes out threat and fury beyond measure against the pious, binding and guarding them, maltreating and ravaging the churches of God with every kind of blasphemy and drunken insolence, such as I know not whether any other of those condemned in impiety has equaled — but I for my part praise your philosophic spirit, and quite rightly so;

for it is the mark of a philosophic spirit that you raised your voice before the imperial power, as you know, and likewise your other words and efforts on behalf of the recall of our fallen church.

And indeed it was fitting for the wise man, distinguished in piety, to do this both for his own benefit and for that of the whole body of Christ.

which the great dragon tore asunder — the apostate, the crooked serpent, the forerunner of Antichrist, the foul and blasphemous tongue, the one who exalts himself above every temple of God, the Assyrian mind, the barbaric abortion, the Rabshakeh-like hand, the god-accursed heart, the servant wholly given over to Satan — and I know not what I should say worthy of the farce of this criminal, on account of the manifold impiety of the accursed one.

But it belongs to another time to go through these matters in detail.

But now tell me this, O thrice-beloved one: how is it that, though the winter has passed, it is not yet full spring, but only a certain fair season and a gleam of favorable sailing?

The fire has been quenched; why does something still smoky remain? Bestir yourself still, my beloved, contend all the more, member of Christ.

Do you not see the impious incendiary, what an extraordinary fall he has had, spoken of and heard of by all? 'If the destruction of this man does not bring us to our senses,' says the golden-mouthed one, 'who then will have mercy on us? Shall we not sober up? Shall we not consider that, if Christ had not been denied by the setting aside of his holy icon, he would not have thus destroyed the one who insulted it?' Hear this, all you nations; give ear, all you who dwell in the world, to what has happened among the Greeks.

An Antichrist before the Antichrist — the sign of the kingdom of Christ has been taken away from us.

For if this — the likeness of his bodily form, bearing upon it the figure of the cross — should not be manifest among us, but instead the one [the icon] is cast aside while the other [the cross alone] is retained, then Christ is divided; or rather, the King who slew the devil is spurned, while the spear by which he slaughtered the enemy has bound upon itself the diadem of dominion — as though, by a victory equal to that of the one who was slain, it had subjected as an enemy the very one who did the slaying.

Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth.

What is this astonishment into which the people of God have fallen? Hear, O East and West, how Byzantium has been blinded, how it has been made deaf, not hearing your reproving voice, not beholding your demonstrative testimony, but instead [heeding] Jannes and Jambres, the adversaries of Christ, that ruinous pair, whom I well know the Trinity will soon destroy, so that, together with the two impious ones already destroyed before, this pair too may be led away — the four-headed chariot of the devil.

Come now, come, brother, engage still in the contests; the Lord commands it: speak good things into the honored ears of our pious emperor.

[Speak of] Josiah of blessed memory: may he — whether he was formerly like Saul or like Amon — become a new David, spitting upon the deeds of the accursed Leo, and thereby propitiating God, and with the crown of peaceable rule securing the invincible power of his kingdom.

{To Stephen the Magistros} I know, my lord, that one ought to be reticent before eminent persons, and especially before your unsurpassable eminence.

But nevertheless, your approachability and the moderation of your disposition have given us the confidence both to write to you once before, and now to do the same, since the occasion calls for it and we sinners have been released from our confinement for the Lord's sake, now that the persecutor has ceased.

which news, when heard, resounded in both ears of every man — not simply because it happened, but because of the manner in which it happened.

This, then, is the occasion of the letter.

But before turning to the matter that impelled me to write, I would first make known this: that I did not bear without groaning and unmoved the news of the death of your good and ever-memorable wife, considering how great a blow your honored soul received at the separation.

for the blessed one was, as far as I have heard from outside report, among the truly praiseworthy women — of whom I, in my lowliness, had some small experience, but my blessed father had rather more; yet you yourself, my lord, know all things in every respect.

May her memory, then, be with the righteous.

For I conjecture that, along with her other virtue, she was also very right-minded.

But the purpose for which this letter is written is quite evident to your magnanimous authority.

The chorus of the persecuted seeks you; the word of truth calls upon you — the one, as a lover of piety and of monks, the other, as its bold-spoken lover.

Not that you have not been active until now, championing both causes, since we have heard what things, moved by God, you have both done and said, but so that you may continue also for what lies ahead.

Do you see, my lord, what a great evil heresy is? For if it were not so great, there would not be so many who suffer, nor so many torments and afflictions, which have run through even to the ends of the inhabited world.

Do you also see the death of the persecutor? Be comforted, O you who are easily comforted; be moved along with us, O you who are moved by God.

Stretch out a hand, as far as possible, to our church which lies prostrate on the ground; as far as you have strength, speak good things still into the ears of our pious emperor.

Your struggle is for Christ, for the Theotokos, for all the saints.

For if someone, holding fast to the emperor's image, says or does something, he grants that favor to none other than the emperor himself.

And even if this discourse concerned but one saint, your reward would be very great.

But where Christ is concerned, and the deed is done on behalf of Christ, is it not, then, a joy for you, a glory and exultation, to give yourself wholly to it with much eagerness? Yes, my ever-beloved lord, I too, wretched as I am, beseech you — and also because, in caring for the common cause, we benefit ourselves as well, since we are jointly afflicted, even if not with a perverse mind, yet nonetheless defiled by heretical communion.

This is our humble petition, this our reminder — that even for a merely good word, no small rewards are laid up for you, let alone for one who has given himself to such labor, as we have heard you have.

May the mighty hand of God preserve you, who are truly admirable and foremost in rank of the senate.

{To the holy confessor fathers and brothers} Now is the time to cry out with David and say:

Rejoice in the Lord, O righteous ones; praise is fitting for the upright.

Sing to him and make melody to him, for the Lord has heard, together with all your companions of equal glory, your fervent supplication.

And what has happened? The impious one has perished; the one cutting us down has been shattered.

You have conquered the son of wickedness; you have cast down the beast of wrath, the crooked-minded intellect.

O, O thrice-beloved ones, how powerful is your blood!

This is what struck down the accursed tormentor; this is what poured out the polluted blood of the murderer — since indeed the truthful One promised to hearken to those who cry out to him night and day, as the oracles say.

Learn, O reviler of Christ, how powerful was the outcry of those whose flesh you tore.

Know, O chief of abominations, what a consequence has come upon you for your deeds against Christ.

Blood in three wounds — as though for having offended the Trinity through the outrage against the holy icon of Christ.

Depart with Judas, O you of Judaizing mind, and go meet your father Ouralyphios Kaballonymos.

Drink this first, as the prophet says, and the more bitter draught at the last.

O the frenzied madness of that man against Christ, and your confession!

You are Christ-bearing men, nurslings of piety, fragrant ointments of immortality, monuments of shame set up against the enemy.

You are the sinews of the church, the foundation of the faith, glory to the world under heaven.

Your memory is auspicious, which even the ages to come shall receive; your crown is heavenly, fittingly interwoven with the flowers of song.

What, then, remains? God must be praised, thanks must be given to the pious emperor, because he has for now released us from imprisonments and pains; and we must hope that God, who gave a good beginning, will bring the end to match the beginning, that the horn of peace-diffusing orthodoxy may rise.

I ask only that you remember me more fervently in your prayers, and that you always pay heed to yourselves, because, as long as we draw breath, the tempter is present.

Your brother Nicholas greets you as usual.

{To Niketas the Hegoumenos} As I have learned, your holiness wrote to my lowliness, but I did not receive it on account of some mishap.

But I, as though I had received it, write to you this humble letter of mine, bringing you a greeting and uttering 'Hail.'

Why? Because the one who was cutting us down has been shattered, or rather, cut to pieces; because the Lord has shown, before the eyes of all, that the one who rejected his holy icon is a denier of him.

For just as a ray is not separated from the sun, so too the image is not separated from its prototype, except only in the difference of substance — I mean, of course, with respect to things made by art.

But nevertheless, though the truth has thus flashed forth, there is no perception, nowhere any return to sobriety.

And who would not groan? And who would not weep — not for those who have won the prize of the contest (let no one suppose this at all!

for how could those blessed by God be objects of weeping?) — but rather for those who are blind and lean upon that same gloom of impiety. I, then, wretched as I am, both think in this way and weep in this way.

But you, O sacred head, friend of my nothingness, do not cease praying that reconciliation from above may reach the people of God, and then also that we, the unworthy, who follow behind you the saints, may be preserved.

The brother who is with me sends greetings.

I greet the brothers who are with your holiness, and especially the sacred Arsenios.

{To Nikephoros, the most holy Patriarch} I wrote once before, wretch that I am, not looking for an exchange of letters in return, since servants owe no such obligation from their masters, but desiring to disclose my own disposition, since both longing and the occasion compelled me — not unreasonably.

But you yourself, O divine and highest summit of sacred heads, deigned not only to write back to the unworthy one, clearly moved after the manner of God's own imitation, but even from the very superscription itself you showed us so great a divine height of your humility that it struck our pitiable mind with amazement.

If one so great and of such rank, whose virtue, flashing forth in measure equal to his dignity, as the very facts testify, called himself the son of a nobody, what should the nobody and obscure one call himself? And if the lamp of holiness should subscribe himself a sinner, what should the sinner, already at a loss, answer? Indeed, even if nothing else had been written in the letter, this alone would have sufficed to astonish the mind of the recipient and to proclaim in triumph the unsurpassable excellence in virtue of the sender.

But when we, in our lowliness, came to know the whole style of the sacred letter, then we rejoiced all the more, having found the whole body of the discourse fittingly completed in accord with its heading.

You know, O holy one of God, what things you uttered, moved by the Spirit — how you strengthened our weak mind with the medicine of praises, how you rooted us firmly to endure and not lose heart in afflictions, and whatever else was suggested, adorned with divine wisdom.

[God] has bestowed upon his own church a helmsman — unshaken, unshakeable, holding forth the word of life, kindling for the world under heaven the light of confession.

But if the winter has not yet quite passed, even though some small clear sky has flashed forth, we must not lose heart, O thrice-blessed one.

For the Lord, who gave the small spark of peace, is able, being moved by your God-inclined prayers, to unfold also the whole spring of orthodoxy — and this will clearly come to pass then, when the cloud of wrath has been wholly transformed, and the longing of those beloved by God has been tested and made more radiant.

These things I have now dared to utter, like some little dog barking, to my truly good chief shepherd, who has received the venerable manual with overflowing joy.

To John the Logothete. The season has opened a door of boldness for us to speak out to good men who are at the same time friends.

Of such men, who could be greater than your piety — you who, precisely on account of this piety of yours, endured not a few afflictions and ill-treatments at the hands of him who both gave offense to God and destroyed the world through impiety, and who cut short a life equal in weight to his apostasy — not in a holy place, even though the saying may sound alarming (since, as the Great Basil says, a temple of God profaned by heretics is not holy, but a common house), because the angel set over it, as over every church, had withdrawn on account of the impiety.

Therefore not even the sacrifice offered in it is acceptable to God.

And hear him saying:

'The impious man who sacrifices a calf to me is as one who kills a dog.'

But if you should take it that the impious man died as it were in a temple, this manner too would fit.

For it was necessary — necessary — that he who had set himself against the temples of God should, in a temple, see swords bared against him; that he who had made the divine altar to disappear should himself be made to disappear at an altar; that a cutting stroke should be brought against the hand that had been stretched out to insult Christ; that a sword should be driven fatally through the head that had been set in motion for destruction; that a mortal blow should come upon the shoulder that had been raised to maltreat the pious; that he who had dishonored the holy icon of Christ, of the Mother of God, and of any of the saints whatsoever, should be sent forth in dishonor from the imperial courts.

Why then have I thus dramatically described to you, my lord, the death of this accursed man? Because it is necessary from this that not only the pious emperor should recognize the outcome corresponding to the impiety of the impious man, but every man as well.

And I greatly admire how our good master, though knowing this, does not make a public triumph of the murderer's impiety, but instead grants to himself and to his subjects the atonement of orthodoxy, as an emperor of peace, in a manner that imitates Christ.

For this reason I, the humble one, ask and beg that you, the most pious, hasten — just as I have also heard that you have been moved to do — to give yourself wholly to the restoration of the faith, in which lies the salvation of both the state and every subject.

To Pantoleon the Logothete. The virtue of others has become known to us by hearsay, but yours, my most honored lord, was known to us formerly by sight, and now by hearsay too, having reached even to the remote place in which we are.

And what is the reason? That your Spirit-moved mouth spoke boldly the wisdom of God, words of truth for the benefit and salvation both of your own soul and of our whole church.

And blessed are you, and blessed is your name, and may all the pious who have heard of it praise you.

And may a crown of graces be upon your honored head, and a golden collar upon your sacred neck, O son of obedience, child of light, nursling of piety.

'Open your mouth, and I will fill it' — because you obeyed my voice.

For it is the Lord's commandment not to be silent in a time when the faith is in danger.

'Speak,' he says, 'and do not be silent.'

'And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.'

'And if these are silent, the stones will cry out.'

So that, when the matter concerns the faith, one cannot say:

'Who am I? A priest? By no means.'

'A soldier? Not at all. A farmer? Not even that.'

'I am but a poor man, procuring only my daily food.'

'I have no concern or care about the matter at hand.'

Stones cry out, and are you silent and unconcerned? Insensate nature has heard God — and are you like a senseless storm? That which is not even ensouled, nor accountable before any tribunal, as though fearing the command, gives voice; and yet you, who are about to be held to account by God at the time of examination even for an idle word, and must give an answer though you are but a beggar, say — irrationally — 'What concern is this to me?' 'These things, O master,' as Paul says, 'I have applied to myself and to Apollos for your sake, that in us you might learn not to think beyond what is written.'

So that even the poor man himself is deprived of any defense on the day of judgment if he does not speak now, since he is going to be judged — and for this reason alone; let alone anyone else in the succession of rank, up to the very one who wears the diadem, for whom the judgment will be all the more inescapable.

'For the mighty will be mightily examined,' it says, 'and judgment falls sternly upon those in high places.'

Speak, then, my lord, speak.

For this reason I too, wretched as I am, fearing the tribunal, speak.

Speak out, reaching even to the God-resounding ears of our pious emperor, since you are one of those in high position.

None of the heresies that have boiled up out of the church is more terrible than this iconoclast heresy.

It has denied Christ; it strikes him on the face, raging both in deed and in reasoning.

On the one hand, it babbles nonsense that Christ is not circumscribed according to the character of his body — which is destructive of the fact that the Word became flesh (for if he is flesh, he would certainly also be circumscribed, since otherwise what is proclaimed in the Gospel would be a phantom, in accordance with the Manichaean mindset); and on the other hand, it scrapes away, breaks, tears down, and burns with fire every divine shrine, every sacred dedicated object, on which is the image of Christ, of the Mother of God, or of any of the saints whatsoever.

Let us come before the face of Christ in confession; let us embrace Christ, whom, through the rejection of his holy icon, we deny.

To Demochares, General Logothete. Encounter with good men gives boldness even to those unacquainted with them to hasten toward them, let alone those who are acquainted and have had experience of their good conduct.

For this reason we, the lowly, taking courage, write to your extraordinary and most pious greatness, praising it as is fitting: that it is a good shoot of a well-formed root, that it is a sacred product of right-handed prudence, that it is a highly sought-after ornament of manifold education.

Hence you are also welcomed by emperors and spoken of by all.

And from this, exchanging office after office, you have risen up to the very highest of those in authority — well done, and quite deservedly so.

But that you are, on account of virtue itself, also desired by us who are insignificant, is not at all among the admirable things, because of our worthlessness.

Except that the occasion prompts that an exhortation be brought to you even from insignificant persons.

And it is this: that you extend a hand to the church among us, which has fallen through the fall of impiety.

Indeed we have heard that you have done this, and we, as sinners, have prayed for you and blessed you from a laboring heart, because you also rebuked with just reproof the arch-impious John, saying as much as was fitting for that abominable man to hear — things which, I think, have already been made known both to us and to many others.

Since there is nothing hidden that will not be known, as the sacred sayings declare; and moreover, because the leaders of impiety are most justly revealed as guilty of such deeds.

Do not, then, O my lord, cease from your good struggle, but contribute, in proportion to your very great eminence, a corresponding help, as one called by God to this task by the necessity of the present time.

For thus you will be all the more glorified before God, who has been well pleased, and before the emperor, who has begun to be pious, and before all who champion the right word of truth; moreover, you will also thereby grant to yourself a protective remedy against the defilement incurred through heretical communion.

To Theodore the monk. I exhorted your piety to give up your praises of me and rather to pray that I not be entirely removed from God; yet you yourself, carried along I know not whence, have broken out into even greater words of praise.

Have I been deemed worthy to continue in it? Hence I also fear lest, upon visiting at the wedding feast of confession now being celebrated, he should see me not clothed in a wedding garment, that is, in purity, and should say to the ministering angels:

'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him out, and throw him into the outer darkness,' as one who has unworthily thrust himself in among my confessors.

So, knowing this, weep for me all the more, father, and pray that this may not happen to me.

As for the things said by the Great Basil with the prepositions δια and ἀνά, since these prepositions concerning the icon are found in variant usage, it seems to me that it was not the saint himself who uttered it both ways, but that the error arose from a copying mistake.

Nevertheless, both lead to the same sense.

'The honor paid to the icon passes over to the prototype.'

And this is true both of a natural icon and of an artificial one, the 'passing over' signifying nothing other than that the honor is the same — apart from the difference of substance in the case of artificial images, while in the case of natural images the substance itself is also the same for both.

And indeed the Truth itself has said:

'He who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.'

The Son, then, is the natural image of God the Father, while we are the artificial image of the Son, as also of the Father — that is, a made image.

For God might also be called the maker and craftsman of all things.

'The artificial' has been used by St Basil in reference to the icons on panels; and we ought to take in the same way both ourselves, who have been made according to the image of God, and the icon crafted by us on a panel, under the category of 'the artificial.'

And there is a more secure identification, in respect of likeness, between our own image and ourselves — just as between Christ's image and himself — than between ourselves and God, since the distance between God and men is infinite.

For he is uncreated, incomprehensible, uncircumscribed, and whatever else belongs to that same series; whereas men are creatures, bodily, circumscribed, and whatever else belongs to that same series. But man and the image of man are both alike creatures, even though, as regards one of the two, there is a difference of creation in respect of substance.

And well put is your question, for it has shown us, from that very God-spoken utterance, that in the rejection of the icon he himself is rejected, and in the rejection of Christ himself, the Father who sent him is rejected.

And thus the iconoclasts are found to be not only deniers of Christ, but indeed three-fold deniers.

As for 'passes across,' the 'crossing over' leads to the same sense as the 'passing over.'

'I ascend to my Father.'

For both, the motion is similar in appearance, and neither is circular in relation to the other, nor spiral, but, even if different, it is different in position, not in relation.

For he says there are seven kinds of motion:

The ascent, then, to give it a schematic form as well, is this: [an upward line].

Both, then, as has been said, are of like appearance.

For, philosophically speaking, a line is the illustration.

The relation, then, which 'up' has to 'down,' the same relation 'right' has to 'left.'

So that 'going up' and 'crossing over' amount to the same thing.

And if the argument is sound, thanks be to God and to the Word;

but if not, then teach me, best of men, ignorant as I am.

{To Athanasius, his son} How is it, you ask, that the icon of Christ does not receive adoration, but rather the Christ who is venerated in it—though the veneration in both cases is one and the same? Because upon Christ himself the veneration is indeed one of adoration;

for in venerating him, I co-venerate the Father and the Holy Spirit together, which is our Trinitarian veneration and adoration.

But in the case of the icon, it is the same veneration (for how could it not be? for those whose power is one and glory is one, clearly of these the reverence is one and the veneration is one), yet it is nevertheless relative, that is, homonymous;

for in venerating it, I did not co-venerate the Trinity, but I venerated Christ—not as divided in hypostasis, but as differentiated according to the principle of essence.

which is relative veneration, not adorative, even though it is the same veneration—there it is understood and called thus, insofar as it is Trinitarian, that is, natural; but here the opposite, insofar as it is relative, that is, hypostatic;

for if you were to say it is adorative, you would signify that the Father and the Spirit had become incarnate just as the Son did, which is absurd.

'I venerate the Godhead,' as some say (for this signifies the Trinity;

and the Trinity has not become incarnate—God forbid);

but what then? Christ himself, relatively;

for he alone is the incarnate God the Word.

and in venerating Christ himself, it is clear that I co-venerated the Father together with the Spirit.

so that in the case of the icon it would reasonably be understood and called relative, but in the case of Christ himself, adorative, since the Father and the Spirit are together conceived of and co-venerated with him.

{Letter on behalf of all the abbots to the Emperor Michael} We, the least of bishops and abbots, having assembled together at the command of your God-crowned majesty, utter this first word before your God-appointed power—a word of thanksgiving and praise—because we, the rejected, have been recalled; because we, the afflicted, have been shown mercy; because we, the exhausted, have been refreshed, passing from winter to spring, from storm to calm, from despondency to good cheer, having seen certain strange and unexpected things;

for such is your just reign: joyous, gladdening, much-desired, peace-establishing, justice-loving, worthy of many other titles, joining together what was divided in imitation of Christ our true God, healing what had fallen sick, turning what was grievous into joy—an exceptional reign, equal in weight to those of old accounted blessed;

which no human tongue could easily suffice to extol with praises.

But since this is so, we the unworthy entreat and beseech that we may be deemed worthy of your sacred sight itself and to hear the sweetest voice of your all-honored and God-wise mouth, so that, having seen with our eyes what we hear with our ears, we might leap for joy in spirit, exchanging our dejection, as it were a mourning garment, for the exultation of gladness.