Maria wrote:Please define your terms. What is your definition of the Barlaamite Heresy?
LENTEN TRIODION
SYNODICON OF ORTHODOXY
[THE CHAPTERS AGAINST BARLAAM AND ACINDYNUS]
To Barlaam and Acindynus and to their followers and successors: anathema, anathema, anathema.
To those who at times think and say that the light that shone forth from the Lord at His divine Transfiguration is an apparition, a thing created, and a phantom that appears for an instant and then immediately vanishes, and who at other times think and say that this light is the very essence of God, and thus dementedly cast themselves into entirely contradictory and impossible positions; to such men who, on the one hand, raving with Arius’ madness, sever the one Godhood and the one God into created and uncreated, and who, on the other hand, are entangled in the impiety of the Massalians who assert that the divine essence is visible, and who moreover, do not confess, in accord with the divinely-inspired theologies of the saints and the pious mind of the Church, that that supremely divine light is neither a created thing, nor the essence of God, but is rather uncreated and natural grace, illumination, and energy that everlastingly and inseparably proceeds from the very essence of God: anathema, anathema, anathema.
Again, to those same men who think and say that God has no natural energy, but [that God] is nothing but essence, who suppose the divine essence and the divine energy to be entirely identical and undistinguishable and with no apprehensible difference between them; who call the same thing at times “essence” and at times “energy,” and who senselessly abolish the very essence of God and reduce it to non-being, for, as the teachers of the Church say, “Only non-being is deprived of an energy,” to these men who think as did Sabellius, and who dare now to renew his ancient contraction, confusion, and coalescing of the three Hypostases of the Godhood upon the essence and energy of God by confounding them in an equally impious manner; to these men who do not confess in accord with the divinely-inspired theologies of the saints and the pious mind of the Church, that in God there is both essence and essential, natural energy, as a great many of the saints, and especially all those who gathered at the Sixth Ecumenical Council, have clearly explained with respect to Christ’s two energies, both divine and human, and His two wills; to those then who in nowise wish to comprehend that, even as there is an unconfused union of God’s essence and energy, so is there also an undivided distinction between them, for, among other things, essence is cause while energy is effect, essence suffers no participation, while energy is communicable; to them, therefore, who profess such impieties: anathema, anathema, anathema.
Again, to those same men who think and say that every natural power and energy of the Tri-hypostatic Godhood is created, and thereby are constrained to believe that the very essence of God is also created, since, according to the saints, created energy evidences a created nature, whereas uncreated energy designates an uncreated nature; to these men who, in consequence, are in danger now of falling into complete godlessness, who have affixed the mythology of the Greeks and the worship of creatures to the pure and spotless faith of the Christians and who do not confess, in accord with the divinely-inspired theologies of the saints and the pious mind of the Church, that every natural power and energy of the Tri-hypostatic Godhood is uncreated: anathema, anathema, anathema.
Again, to those same men who think and say that through these pious doctrines a compounding comes to pass in God, for they do not comply with the teaching of the saints, that no compounding occurs in a nature from its natural properties; to such men who thereby lay false accusation not only against us, but against all the saints who, at great length and on many occasions, have most lucidly restated both the doctrine of God’s simplicity and uncompoundedness and the distinction of the divine essence and energy, in such a manner so that this distinction in no way destroys the divine simplicity, for otherwise, they would contradict their own teaching; to such, therefore, as speak these empty words and do not confess in accord with the divinely-inspired theologies of the saints and the pious mind of the Church, that the divine simplicity is most excellently preserved in this God-befitting distinction: anathema, anathema, anathema.
Again, to those same men who think and say that the name “Godhood” can be applied only to the essence of God, but who do not confess in accord with the divinely-inspired theologies of the saints and the pious mind of the Church, that this appellation pertains also to the divine energy, and that thus one Godhood of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is by all means still professed, whether one apply the name “Godhood” to Their essence, or to Their energy, as the divine expounders of the mysteries have instructed us: anathema, anathema, anathema.
Again, to those same men who think and say that the essence of God is communicable, and who thus without shame strive to subtly introduce into our Church the impiety of the Massalians, who of old suffered from the malady of this same opinion, and who thus do not confess in accord with the divinely inspired theologies of the saints and the pious mind of the Church, that the essence of God is wholly inapprehensible and incommunicable, whereas the grace and energy of God are communicable: anathema, anathema, anathema.
To all the impious words and writings of these men: anathema, anathema, anathema.
To Isaac, surnamed Argyrus, who suffered throughout his life with the malady of Barlaam and Acindynus, and though at the end of his life the Church asked, as formerly she had often done, for his return and repentance, he nevertheless remained obdurate in his impiety and in the profession of his heresy, and wretchedly vomited forth his soul: anathema, anathema, anathema.
….
[CHAPTERS PROCLAIMING ETERNAL MEMORY TO GREGORY PALAMAS AND SUPPORTERS]
To Andronicus Palaeologus, our renowned and blessed emperor, who convoked the first council against Barlaam, and who vigorously championed the Church of Christ and that sacred council both by deeds and by words and by marvelous orations to the people with his own mouth; he made steadfast the evangelical and apostolic dogmas, while he both put down and publicly denounced Barlaam together with his heresies, his writings, and his vain words against our Right Faith; he was blessedly translated from this life and passed to that better and blessed state during these, his sacred endeavors and valiant deeds for the sake of piety: eternal memory, eternal memory, eternal memory.
To Gregory, the most holy Metropolitan of Thessalonica, who in the Great Church synodally put down both Barlaam and Acindynus, the leaders and inventors of new heresies, together with their villainous company, men who dared to aver that the natural and inseparable energy and power of God, and in short, all the natural properties of the Holy Trinity, are created, who dared to call the unapproachable light of the Godhood that shone forth from Christ upon the mountain, “created Godhood,” and strive once again to wickedly introduce into the Church of Christ the Platonic ideas and those other Greek myths; to this Gregory, who by means of his writings, words, and arguments, wisely and most gallantly led the fight in defense of the common Church of Christ and of the true, infallible dogmas pertaining to the Godhood, and proclaimed one Godhood and one almighty God of Three Hypostases, possessing both energy and will, and untreated in all His properties, as is in accordance with divine Scripture, and its interpreters the theologians, that is, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory, and John Chrysostom, and Cyril, and together with them, the wise Maximus, and the divinely eloquent Damascene, and moreover all the fathers and teachers of the Church of Christ; to this Gregory, who was manifest by his words and deeds to be the fellow-communicate, companion, ally, emulator, and comrade in arms with all these saints: eternal memory, eternal memory, eternal memory.
To all those men, together with the aforementioned renowned and blessed emperor Andronicus, and indeed, those who ruled after him, who contended for the defense of Orthodoxy in discourse and debates, in writings and teachings, in every word and act, who vigorously championed the Church of Christ, who in the Church confuted and publicly denounced the malicious and multiform heresies of Barlaam and Acindynus and their like, and brilliantly proclaimed the dogmas of piety taught by the apostles and the fathers, and for this very reason were repudiated by the impious, and were defamed and disparaged along with the sacred theologians and our God-bearing fathers and teachers: eternal memory, eternal memory, eternal memory.
To those who confess one Tri-hypostatic and almighty God, Who is not only uncreated with respect to His essence and His Hypostases, but also with respect to His energy; to those who declare that the energy of God proceeds from His divine essence, but proceeds inseparably, and who thus indicate by the term “procession” the ineffable distinction between the divine essence and energy, and by the term “inseparably” their supernatural unity, even as the Holy Sixth Ecumenical Council proclaimed: eternal memory, eternal memory, eternal memory.
To those who confess that even as God is uncreated and unoriginate with respect to His essence, so He is … unoriginate with respect to His energy (unoriginate in the sense that the divine energy is timeless); and to those who declare that God is in every way incommunicable and incomprehensible with respect to His essence, but is communicated to the worthy with respect to His divine and deifying energy, as the theologians of the Church profess and unoriginate with respect to His energy: eternal memory, eternal memory, eternal memory.
To those who confess that the light that shone forth ineffably upon the mountain at the Lord’s Transfiguration is unapproachable light, boundless light, an incomprehensible effusion of the Godhood’s resplendence, unutterable glory, the transcendently perfect … and timeless glory of the Godhood, the glory of the Son, the Kingdom of God, true and lovable beauty that encompasses the divine and blessed nature, the glory natural to God, and the Godhood of the Father and the Spirit flashing forth in the Only-begotten Son, as our divine and God-bearing fathers have said, Athanasius the Great and Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, and moreover John of Damascus, and who therefore maintain this supremely divine light to be uncreated: eternal memory, eternal memory, eternal memory.
To those who affirm the light of the Lord’s Transfiguration to be uncreated, and do not assert that this is the super-essential essence of God, since the divine essence remains in every way unseen and uncommunicated; “No one has seen God at any time,” that is, as the theologians explain, as He is in His nature; but who say rather, that this is the natural glory of the super-essential essence, the glory that proceeds inseparably forth from thence and, by God’s love for men, shines upon those who are purified in mind, with which glory, as the theologians of the Church teach, our Lord and God will appear in His second and dread Coming to judge the living and the dead: eternal memory, eternal memory, eternal memory.
