Letter 556: Theodore Studite, Letter 556; Greek heading: Γρηγορίῳ τέκνῳ.

Receive the whole account, beloved brother, as a soldier of Christ, as one shut up in prison together with me, the sinner, on behalf of his Gospel; neither bearing it without feeling (for that would be utterly unreasonable), nor again being grieved beyond what is fitting (for that would be utterly worthless). I received two letters, one from our father and the other from brother Athanasius. Our father reproved my lowliness in reality, yet he also broke my pitiable soul down into compassion; but brother Athanasius blew so hard against my weakness that, had not the Lord helped me, my soul would very nearly have come to dwell in Hades [the abode of the dead]. For you know from whom a man hopes to receive help; and he supposes such a one to be of one soul with him, of equal poise, of the same readiness of will, so that whenever, in time of war, he sees from such a one the opposite turning [a rout], he suffers something deadly. Such a thing, most longed-for one, befell me just now. The second man, with tidings upon grievous tidings - or rather wicked tidings - was striving to drag down my mind and to plunge my pitiable soul into Hades, even if, as he says, with sparing intent. Both of them indeed speak with all their force that there is no heresy [hairesis - a false teaching that severs one from the Church], saying these things especially of the second and the third [matter] (for I understand the words and the dispositions of them both), and thence laying it down and reminding me to examine the things I had written as being mistaken, and that I might not, ashamed to set them right, be cast out of the Church by those who come after, who would find the writings alien to God: the first inscribing me as wrathful and ecstatic [out of my senses], while the second [says] that we are worse than Kendouklas [a name used opprobriously], and that 'none of the brethren keeps your words' (covertly attacking my [writings] composed by way of questions and answers), and that they have been divided into ten thousand opinions, and that the greater number, and indeed of those who are foremost, say these things, even if no one has known that I wrote, bringing forward arguments senseless and monstrous - as that I fall into contradiction with myself in the things written by me - and teaching with all his strength that this is well; since, he says, all the friends and the pious, by not calling it heresy but only a transgression of the commandments of God, call those men tramplers of the divine canons and unconsecrated, 'flee their communion altogether'; and rebuking [me] with yet other things besides what has been said, so that it is not possible to report the letter on account of its length. What then did I, the lowly one, do? Having shaken off my despondency with the help also of brother Euprepianus, and having renounced in my disposition all flesh, and having looked toward God alone, for whose sake these things come upon me and through whom especially comes the help to the weak and rotten one, I wrote back as was fitting, resolving their perplexities and objections with testimonies from Scripture and from the Fathers, in eight quires and a half. Seeing therefore that their not bearing the wrath of the one in power that comes from calling it heresy was the cause of the discord - or [the cause was] in some of them a narrowness of mind, or perhaps also the goad of envy being whetted [against me] - and being at a loss on every side, and fearing the schism among our own selves, which is a joy to the devil and to those inclined to heresy, and [seeing] that to come together with them [the iconoclasts] is an apostasy from the truth, by the counsel also of the brother I came to a [course of] dispensation [oikonomia - a measured accommodation for the sake of the Church's unity], in imitation of our holy fathers, having in it, as I think, nothing harmful or contrary to reason as regards the law of God. And indeed I set it down here, having it thus: 'Since I see you yielding so far that a rupture has come about toward us, this has come to seem good to me, by way of dispensation. If anyone, through narrowness of mind, cannot bear to call it heresy, this is of weakness, even though, against his will, the hearer reckons it so; yet the [silent acceptance of his] utterance is to be conceded for the sake of unity, the other things being preserved - I mean indeed both the complete refusal of communion and, in some other way, the not condescending [to the iconoclasts], even as the friends do, as it seems, praise you for it. And to me, and to those who choose as I do, let it be permitted to call it heresy, even as we have believed in demonstration of the truth; and if those who view this the opposite way slander us as being in disagreement, let it be a care to neither party. For in our silence an agreement is being wrought for us in the realities, since we stand equally apart from communion with them, until God shall give us full assurance - knowing this, that the schism too is nothing less than heresy, as has been said by Chrysostom [John Chrysostom].'

Ἀπάντα τὸν λόγον, ἀδελφὲ ἠγαπημένε, ὡς Χριστοῦ στρατιώτης, ὡς σὺν ἐμοὶ τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ ἀπόκλειστος ὑπὲρ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου αὐτοῦ, μήτε ἀναλγήτως διατιθέμενος (ἀλογώτατον γάρ) μήτ' αὖ πέρα τοῦ δέοντος καταλυπούμενος ([ἀχρ]εώτατον γάρ). Ἐδεξάμην ἐπιστολὰς δύο, μίαν παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ ἑτέραν [παρὰ] τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ Ἀθανασίου, καθαπτομένου μου τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν τῆς ταπεινώσεως τῷ ὄντι, ἀλλὰ καὶ κλῶντός μου τὴν ἐλεεινὴν ψυχὴν εἰς συμπάθειαν, τοῦ δὲ ἀδελφοῦ Ἀθανασίου τοσοῦτον πνεύσαντος κατὰ τῆς ἀσθενείας μου, ὡς εἰ μὴ ὅτι Κύριος ἐβοήθησέ μοι παρὰ βραχὺ παρῴκησε τῷ ᾅδῃ ἡ ψυχή μου· οἶδας γὰρ ἐξ οὗ ἄνθρωπος ἐλπίζει βοηθεῖσθαι· καὶ ὑπολαμβάνει τὸν τοιοῦτον ἰσόψυχον, ἰσόρροπον, ταὐτοπρόθυμον, ὁπόταν ἐν καιρῷ πολέμου παρὰ τοῦ τοιούτου τροπὴν ἐπίδοι τὴν ἐναντίαν, θανάσιμόν τι πανθάνει πάθος. Τοιοῦτό μοι, ποθεινότατε, ὤφθη τανῦν. ὁ δεύτερος ἀγγελίᾳ ἐπὶ ἀγγελίᾳ βαρείᾳ, μᾶλλον δὲ πονηρᾷ κατασπᾶν μου τὸν νοῦν καὶ τὴν ἐλεεινήν μου ψυχὴν εἰς ᾅδην ἐναγωνιζόμενος, κἄν, ὥς φησι, φειδοῖ· ἀμφότεροι μὲν ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν αἵρεσις δυνάμει λαλοῦντες τὰ τοῦ ˉβ καὶ ˉγ μάλιστα (συνίημι γὰρ τοὺς λόγους καὶ τὰς διαθέσεις ἀμφοτέρων) κἀντεῦθεν ὑποτιθέμενοι καὶ ὑπομιμνήσκοντες ἐπισκέψασθαι τὰ συγγραφέντα μοι ὡς ἐσφαλμένα καὶ ὡς ἵνα μὴ αἰσχυνθεὶς διορθώσασθαι ἐκπέσω τῆς ἐκκλησίας ὑπὸ τῶν μεταγενεστέρων, εὑρισκόντων ἀλλότρια θεοῦ τὰ συγγράμματα, θυμώδη με καὶ ἐκστατικὸν ἐπιγράφων ὁ πρῶτος, ὁ δὲ δεύτερος ὡς τὸν Κενδουκλᾶν χεῖρον ἡμᾶς εἶναι καὶ ὅτι "4οὐδεὶς τῶν ἀδελφῶν φυλάττει τοὺς λόγους σου"5 (καθαπτόμενος λεληθότως τῶν δι' ἐρωτήσεων ἀποκρίσεών μου) καὶ ὅτι εἰς μυρίας δόξας διῃρέθησαν καὶ ὅτι οἱ πλείονες καί γε τῶν προεχόντων ταῦτα λέγουσιν, εἰ καὶ μηδεὶς ἔγνω ὅτι ἐπέστειλα, ἐπιχειρήσεις φέρων ἀσυνέτους καὶ ἀλλοκότους, ὡς ὅτι εἰς ἑαυτὸν περιπίπτω ἐν τοῖς γεγραμμένοις μοι, τοῦτο δὲ διδάσκων παντὶ σθένει εὖ ἔχειν· ἐπεί, φησί, ὅτι πάντες οἱ φίλοι καὶ εὐσεβεῖς τῷ μὴ λέγειν αἵρεσιν ἀλλ' ἢ μόνον παράβασιν τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ θεοῦ, καταπατητὰς τῶν θείων κανόνων καὶ ἀνιέρους, "4φεύγετε αὐτῶν τὴν κοινωνίαν παντάπασι"5, καὶ ἕτερα πρὸς τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἐπιπλήττων, ὡς οὐχ οἷόν τε τὸ γράμμα ἀπαγγεῖλαι διὰ τὸ πλῆθος. Τί οὖν ὁ ταπεινὸς ἐγώ; ἀποτιναξάμενος τὴν ἀθυμίαν βοηθείᾳ καὶ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ Εὐπρεπιανοῦ καὶ ἀπαρνησάμενος τῇ διαθέσει πᾶσαν σάρκα, πρὸς μόνον δὲ θεὸν ἀποβλέψας, ὑπὲρ οὗ μοι ταῦτα καὶ δι' οὗ ἡ βοήθεια μάλιστα τῷ ἀσθενεῖ καὶ σαθρῷ, ἀντεπέστειλα δεόντως ἐπιλύων τὰς ἀπορίας αὐτῶν καὶ ἐνστάσεις μαρτυρίαις γραφικαῖς καὶ πατρικαῖς ἐν ὀκτὼ τετραδίοις πρὸς ἥμισυ. ὁρῶν οὖν ὅτι τὸ μὴ φέρειν αὐτοὺς τὴν ἐκ τοῦ λέγειν αἵρεσιν ὀργὴν τοῦ κρατοῦντος αἴτιον τῆς ἀσυμφωνίας ἢ νοὸς ἐν τοῖς μὲν ἀχωρησίαν ἢ τάχα καὶ τοῦ φθόνου ὑποσμηχόμενον τὸ κέντρον καὶ πάντοθεν ἀπορῶν τό τε σχίσμα ἡμῶν αὐτῶν δεδιώς, εἰς χαρὰν ὂν τοῦ διαβόλου καὶ τῶν αἱρετιζόντων, τό τε συνελθεῖν αὐτοῖς ἀποστασίαν εἶναι ἀληθείας, συμβουλίᾳ καὶ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ἐπὶ οἰκονομίαν ἦλθον μιμήσει τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων ἡμῶν, μηδὲν ἔχουσαν, ὡς οἶμαι, τὸ βλάπτον καὶ παρὰ τὸ εἰκὸς εἰς νόμον θεοῦ· καὶ δὴ ταύτην παρατίθημι, ἔχουσαν ὧδε. "4Ἐπεὶ ὁρῶ ὑμᾶς εἰς τοσοῦτον ὑπενδοῦναι ὥστε ἀπορραγὴν γενέσθαι εἰς ἡμᾶς, τοῦτο φρονεῖν γέγονέ μοι εὖ ἔχειν εἰς οἰκονομίας τρόπον. εἰ μὴ φέροι τις λέγειν αἵρεσιν ἀχωρησίᾳ νοός, ἀσθενείας μέν ἐστι, κἂν οὐ βούληται, λογίζεσθαι οὕτως ὁ ἀκούων, συγχωρητέον δὲ ὅμως τὴν φωνὴν χάριν τῆς συναφείας, τῶν ἄλλων σῳζωμένων, λέγω δὴ τῆς τε ἀκοινωνησίας καθόλου καὶ ἄλλης πως οὐ συγκαταβάσεως, καθὰ καὶ οἱ φίλοι δῆθεν ἐπαινοῦσιν ὑμᾶς· κἀμοὶ καὶ τοῖς ὁμοίως μοι αἱρουμένοις ἔστω τὸ λέγειν αὐτὴν αἵρεσιν, καθὼς πεπιστεύκαμεν ἐν ἀποδείξει τῆς ἀληθείας, καὶ εἰ οἱ δι' ἐναντίας τοῦτο ὁρῶντες ἐνδιαβάλλουσιν ἡμᾶς ἀσυμφώνους εἶναι, μηδετέρῳ μέρει μελέτω· ἐν γὰρ τῇ ἀφωνίᾳ συμφωνία ἡμῖν πραγματεύεται τοῖς πράγμασι, ἐξ ἴσου ἀφισταμένοις τῆς κοινωνίας αὐτῶν, ἕως ἂν ὁ θεὸς πληροφορήσῃ ἡμᾶς, τοῦτο εἰδότας, ὡς καὶ τὸ σχίσμα οὐδὲν ἔλαττον αἱρέσεως, ὡς τῷ Χρυσοστόμῳ εἴρηται."5