Letter 419: Theodore Studite, Letter 419; Greek heading: Στεφάνῳ ἀδσηκρῆτισ.

You, my 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 is exceedingly breathing out threat and wrath against the pious, with bonds and imprisonments, maltreating and ravaging the churches of God with every blasphemy and drunken outrage, as I do not know that any other of those condemned for impiety has done); but I, for my part, praise your love of wisdom, and very rightly so. For it was a philosopher's act that you broke forth in speech before the ruling power [the emperor], as you know, together with the rest of your discourses and your zealous efforts on behalf of the recall of the Church that has, in our case, fallen. And truly it was fitting that a wise man, one distinguished in piety, should do this, for both his own benefit and that of the whole body of Christ, which the great dragon has cut asunder: the apostate, the crooked serpent, the forerunner of the Antichrist, the foul and blasphemous tongue, he who exalts himself above every temple of God, the Assyrian mind, the barbarian abortion, the hand like Rabshakeh's [the Assyrian envoy who blasphemed God before Jerusalem, 2 Kings 18], the God-accursed heart, the wholly bodily minion of Satan, and I do not know what I shall say worthy of this scoundrel's mummery, on account of the many-named impiety of this accursed man. But to go through these matters belongs to another time. For now tell me this, thrice-longed-for one: how is it that, the winter having passed, there is not full spring, but only a certain fair season and a gleam of fair sailing? The fire has been quenched; why does something smoky still remain? Bestir yourself yet more, my beloved; contend rather, member of Christ. Do you [pl.] not see how the burner of the pious has fallen, in what an extraordinary manner, spoken of and heard of by all? If the destruction of this man does not bring us to our senses, says the Golden-Mouthed [John Chrysostom], who then will pity us hereafter? Shall we not come to our senses again? Shall we not consider that, had Christ not been denied when His holy icon [eikon: the sacred image, here of Christ] was set at naught, He would not have so destroyed the man who outraged that image? Hear all this, you nations; give ear, all you who inhabit the inhabited world, what has come to pass among the Greeks: before the Antichrist, an Antichrist. The sign of the kingship of Christ has been taken away from us. For if this -- which is the representation of His bodily likeness -- were displayed among us bearing on its head the figure of the cross, but instead the one is cast out while the other is taken up, then Christ is divided; or rather the King who slew the devil has been spat upon, and the spear by which He slaughtered the enemy has bound upon itself the diadem of dominion, having, by an equal victory over the slain one, subjected as an enemy the one who did the slaughtering. Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth [Isaiah 1:2]: what is this ecstasy by which the people of God has been driven out of their wits? Hear, O East and West, how Byzantis [Constantinople] has been blinded, how she has been deafened, not hearing your reproving voice, not looking upon your instructive testimony, but rather upon that of Jannes and Jambres [Exodus magicians, the opponents of Moses; here the iconoclast leaders], the adversaries of Christ, the destructive pair, which I well know the Trinity will swiftly destroy, so that, together with the two impious ones who perished before, this pair too may be led away -- the four-headed chariot of the devil. Come now, come, brother, lay down still further struggles, the Lord commands it; speak good words into the honored ears of our pious emperor. Let him imitate the renowned Josiah [the reforming king of Judah]; let him become a new David, whether as Saul or as Amon, spurning the deeds of the accursed Leo [Leo V the Armenian, the iconoclast emperor] and thereby propitiating God, and by the crown of peaceful rule securing the dominion of his reign unconquered.