ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

CAPUT

To

I.

NY FELLOW PRESBYTER TIMOTHY.

DIONYSIUS THE PRESBYTER.

What is tlu traditional fJitfIJ of tlu Ecclesiastical Hierarchy,

and what is its scope f
E must, then, demonstrate, most pious of pious sons,
that ours is a Hierarchy of the inspired and Divine
and Deifying science, and energy and perfection.
This we will do, from the celestial and most sacred
oracles-for those who have been initiated with the initiation of
the sacred revelation derived from the hierarchical mysteries and
traditions. But see that you do not put to scorn the things the
most holy. Take good heed, and you will then guard the honour
of the hidden things of God by intellectual and obscure definitions,
carefully guarding them from the participation and defilement of
the profane, and communicating them reverently only to persons
the most holy. For thus, as the Word of God has taught us who
feast at His Banquet, even Jesus Himself-the supremely Divine
and superessential Mind, the Head and Being, and most supremely
Divine Power of every Hierarchy and Sanctification and Divine
operation-illuminates the blessed Beings who are superior to us,
in a manner more clear, and at the same time more fresh, and
assimilates them to His own Light in proportion to their ability
to receive. As for ourselves, by the love of things beautiful,
elevated to Himself, and elevating us, He folds together our many
diversities, and by making them into an unified and Divine life,
suitable to a sacred vocation both as to habit and action, He
Himself bequeaths the power of the Divine Priesthood, from
which, by approaching to the holy exercise of the priestly office,
we become nearer to the Beings above us, by assimilation,
according to our power, to the stability and unchangeableness of
their steadfastness in holy things. Hence, by looking upwards to
the blessed and supremely Divine Glory of Jesus, and reverently
gazing upon whatever we are permitted to se~, and being illuminated with the knowledge of the visions, we shall be able to
become, as regards the science of Divine mysteries, both purified
and purirying-images of Light, and workers with God, perfected
and perfecting.

li

ECCLESIASTICA.L HIERARCHY.

51

What. then, is the Hierarchy of the Angels 1 and Archangels,

and supermundane Principalities and Authorities, Powers and
Lordships, Divine Thrones, or Beings of the same ranks as the
Thrones-which the Word of God describes as being near, and
always about God. and with II God, naming them in the Hebrew
tonli!ue Cherubin and Seraphin-what pertains to the sacred
Orders and divisions of their ranks and Hierarchies you will find
in the books we have written-not as befits their dignity, but to
the best of our ability-in which we have followed the Word of
God as it describes their Hierarchy in the Holy Scriptures.
Nevertheless, it is necessary to say this, that both that and every
Hierarchy which we are now celebrating has one and the same
power throughout the whole of its hierarchical functions, and that
the Hierarch himself, according to his nature, and aptitude, and
rank, is initiated in Divine things, and deified and imparts to his
subordinates according to the meetness of each, the sacred deification which comes to himself from God. Likewise, that the
subordinates follow the superior, but elevate the inferior towards
things in advance; and that some go before, and, as far as possible,
give the lead to others; and that each, as far as may be, participates in Him Who is the truly Beautiful, and Wise, and Good,
through -this Divine and sacerdotal harmony.
But the Beings and ranks above us, of whom we have already
made a reverent mention, are both incorporeal and their Hierarchy
is intellectual and supermundane. But we observe that our
hierarchy, conformably to our nature, abounds in a manifold
variety of material symbols, from which, in proportion to our
capacity, we are conducted by sacerdotal functions to the onelike
deification-God and Divine Virtue. They indeed, as being
minds, perceive, according to laws laid down for themselves. But
we are led by sensible figures to Divine contemplations as is
possible to us. And to speak truly, there is One to Whom all
the Godlike aspire. But they do not partake of this One and the
Same in one manner, but as the Divine ordinance distributes to
each a meet inheritance. Now tbese things have been treated
more systematically in the Treatise concerning .. Intellectual and
Sensible." But now I will attempt to describe our Hierarchy, and
its head and substance as best I can; invoking Jesus the Head
and Perfection of all Hierarchies. Every Hierarchy, then, is,
according to our august tradition, the whole description of the
sacred things falling under it-a most complete summary of the
sacred rites of this or that Hierarchy, as the case may be. Our
Hierarchy, then, is called and is the systematic account of the
whole sacred rites included within it; according to which the
divine Hierarch, being initiated, will have within himself the
1

See Epistle to Trallians.

John i.

t.

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

'participation of the most sacred things, as chief l of Hierarchy.

For as he who llpeaks of Hierarchy speaks of the order of the
who~e sacred rites collectively, so he who mentions Hierarch
denotes the inspired and godly man-one who understands
accurately aU sacred knowledge, in whom is completed and
recognized, in its purity, the whole Hierarchy.
Of this Hierarchy, as supreme Head, is the
Fountain of Life-the Essence of Goodness-the One ('..ause of
things that be-from Whom both being and well-being come to
things that are-through goodness. Of this supremely Divine
blessedness-exalted above aU-the threefold One-the really
existing-the will-inscrutable to us, but known to itself-is the
rational salvation of Beings amongllt us and above UII. But that
salvation cannot otherwise take place, than upon the condition
that those who are being saved become deified. But the deification is the assimilation and oneness towards
as far as
permissible. Now this is the common end of every Hieral'dly-the clinging love towards God and Divine thingll; a love divinely
sanctified into oneness with Him; and for the sake of thill, the
complete and unswerving removal of things contrary-the knowledge of things as they are in themselves-the vision and clear
knowledge ofsacred truth-the Divine participation of the uniform
perfection, the One itself, as far as permissible; the banquet of
contemplation, nourishing intellectually and deifying every man
who elevates himself towards it.
Let us affirm, then, tbat the Divine Blessedness" the self-existent
Godhead, Source of deification, from Whom comes the deification
of those deified, bequeathed by Divine Goodness the Hierarchy, for
the salvation and deification of aU rational and intellectual Beings.
To the supermundane and blessed inheritors it is bequeathed in a
manner more immaterial and intellectual (for God does not move
them to Divine things from without. but intellectually, and they
are illuminated as to tbe Divine will from within, with a pure and
unearthly brilliancy), but to us-that which is given to them
simply, and uniformly, and enveloped-is given (rom the Divinely
transmitted oracles, in a variety and multitude of divisible
symbols, as we are able to receive it. For the Divinely transmitted oracles are the very Being o( our Hierarchy. But we
affirm that these oracles are most august--all such as were given
from our inspired initiators in Divinely written letters of the Word
of God. And further, whatever our leaders have revealed to us
from the same holy men, by a less earthly instruction, very similar
to the Heavenly Hierarchy, (rom mind to mind; through the
medium of speech. and so corporeal, but nevertheless more

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

immaterial-without writing. Nor did the inspired Hierarchs

transmit 1 these things in conceptions clear to the commonalty of
the Divine Service, but in sacred symbols. For it is not every
one that is holy, nor as the orades affirm does knowledge belong
to all. lI
Of necessity, then, the first leaders of our Hierarchy, after they
had themselves been filled with the sacred Kift from the superessential Godhead, and sent by the Divine Goodness to extend
the same gift to those without; and they themselves as godly,
delsiring the instruction and deification of those after them, without
grudging imparted to us-by written and unwritten revelationsin accordance with sacred injunctions, things supercelestial in
sensible images-the simple and enfolded, in the variegated and
multiform; the things Divine, in things human, things immaterial
in things material; the superessential in things earthly. Nor did
they do this on account merely of the unholy, to whom it is not
permitted even to touch the symbols, but because our Hierarchy
is, as I said, a kind of symbol adapted to our condition, which
needs things material for our more Divine elevation from these
to things spiritual. The reasons, however, of the symbols have
been revealed to the Divine initiators, which it is not permitted
to explain to those who are yet being initiated; as knowing that
the Lawgivers for rites Divinely taught deliberately arranged the
Hierarchy in well-established and unconfused ranks, and in proportionate and sacred distributions of that which was convenient
to each according to capacity. Wherefore, trusting in those Thy
sacred promises, for it is well to recall them to your recollection,
that, since every Hierarchical doctrine is of supreme importance,
you will not commit them to any other but those Godlike initiators
of the same rank with yourself, and will persuade them to promise,
according to the regulation of our Hierarchy, to touch pure things
purely, and to communicate the things of God to the godly alone,
and things perfect to those who are perfecting, and the most holy
things to the holy; I have entrusted this Divine gift to thee, in
addition to many other Hierarchical gifts.

CAPUT II.
CQ1Ut17/.ing tlum 'WM are 6tillg initiated in illumillatiQ1I.
We have, then, reverently affirmed that the scope of our Hierarchy is this-the assimilation and oneness with God as far as
permissible. But as the Divine orades teach, we shall attain this
only by the love and the religious performance of the worshipful
1

Mark iv, n.

ECCLBSlA.STICA.L HIERA.RCHY.

Commandments. For He says: II He 1 that loveth Me will keep

My Commandments, and My Father will love him, and will come
unto him, and make Our abode with him/' What, then, is tbe
belitinning of the religious performance of the most august commandments? The teaching of the sacred and most Divine
regeneration, which forms an aptitude in the habits of our soul for
the reception of the otber Divine sayings and doings!; the preparation of the way for our ascent to the supercelestial resLa For, as
our illustrious Leader was used to say, the very first movement of
the mind towards Divine tbings is the love of God, but tbe very
earliest approach towards the religious performance of the Divine
commandments is the unutterable creation of our being in God.
For if our 4 being in God is the Divine engendering, never would
he know, and certainly not perform any of the Divine instructions,
who had not first his beginning to be in God. To speak after the
manner of men, is it not necessary that we should first begin to
be, and then to do what belongs to us? For he who doea not
exist at all has neither movement nor even beginniqg. But he
who actually exists doea or suffers only those things suitable
to his own condition. This, then, as I think, is clear. Let us
next contemplate the Divine symbols of the birth in God. And
I pray, let no uninitiated person approach the sight; for neither
is it without danger to gaze upon the glorious rays of the sun
with weak eyes, nor is it without peril to put our band to things
above us. For right was the priesthood of the Law when rejecting
Osias,5 because he put his hand to sacred things; and Korah,ll to
things above his capacity; and Nadab'l and Abihu, because they
treated things within their own province unholily.

H.-Mystery of Illumination.
The Hierarch, then, wishing II that aU men whatsoever should
be saved by their assimilation towards God, and come to a recognition of truth, proclaims to all the veritable Gospel-that God
being compassionate towards men upon earth, from His own proper
and inherent goodness, Himself deigned to come to us with outstretched arms, on account of loving kindness towards men; and,
by union with Himself, like as by fire, to assimilate things that
have been made one, in proportion to their aptitude for deification.
"For as many as received Him, to them gave He power ll to
become sons of God-to those believing on His Name, who were
begotten, not from bloods, nor from will of fiesh, but from God."
He who has felt a religious longing to possess these truly
xiv. 23.
2 John i. 13.
8 John iii. 5.
4 See Baptismal OffiCC$~
ebron. xxvi. 16-21.
Num. xvi. 1-33.
1 Num. iii. 4.
8 I Tim. Ii. 4.
9 John i. 12, 13-

1 John
G2

ECCLESIA.STICAL HIERA.RCHY.

55

celestial gifts, comes to some one of the initiated. and persuades

bim to act as his conductor to the Hierarch. He then promises
wholly to follow the teaching that shall be given to him, and prays
him to undertake the superintendence of his introduction, and of
all his life afterwards. But he.. though religiously lonl{ing for his
salvation, when he measures human infirmity against the loftiness of
tbe undertaking, is seized with a shivering and sense of incapacity.
Nevertheless, at last, be promises, with a good grace, to do what
is requested, and takes and leads him to the chief Hierarch. He
then benevolently receives the man, as a sheep upon his shoulders.
and admits the fwo men, and worships and glorifies, with a mental
thanksgiving and bodily prostration, the One Author 1 and Finisher
of Good; from Whom those who are being called are called, and
those who are being saved are saved.
He then collects the whole religious Order into the holy Choir
for co-operation and common rejoicing over the man's salvation;
but also for thanksgirJing to the Divine Goodness. At the commencement he chants a certain hymn found in the oracles,
accompanied by the whole body of the Church. And after this,
when he has kissed the holy table. he advances to the man
standing before him, and demands of him. what has brought him
here? When the man, out of love to God, has confessed, accordinK to the instruction of his sponsor, his ungodliness,!' his ignorance
of the truly beautiful, his insufficiency for the Divine life, and
demands through his holy mediation to attain to God and Divine
thin~s, he testifies to him that his approach ought to be entire. as
to God Who is All Perfect. and without blemish. When he has
expounded to him fully the Divine course of life. and has demanded
of him, if he would thus live; after his promise he places his right
hand upon his head, and when he has sealed him, he commands
the priests to register the man and his sponsor.
When these have enrolled lhe names, he offers a holy prayer,
and when the whole Church have completed this with him, he
unlooses his sandals and removes his clothing by means of the
Deacons. Then when he has placed him. facing the west, and
whilst he bealS with aversion his hands towards the same quarter,
he thrice commands him to breathe scorn upon Satan, and
further, to profess the words of the renunciation. When he bas
witnessed his threefold renunciation, he turns him to the east,
after he has confessed this three times, and has looked up to
heaven and extended his hands thitherward, he commands him
to be subject to Christ, and to aU the Divinely transmitted oracles
of God. When the man has done this, he witnesses again for
him his threefold confession, and again, when he has thrice
1

Phil. ii.

13-

B QiJ.c!nrra;

Matt. vi. 24; Eph. iv. 5.

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

confessed, after prayer, he gives thanks and lays his hand upon
him. When the Deacons have entirely unclothed him, the Priests
bring the holy oil of the chrism. Then he begins the chrism,
through the threefold sealing, and assigns the man to the Priests
for the anointing of his whole body, while he himself advances to
the mother of filial adoption, and dedicates the water within it by
the sacred invocations, and consecrates it by three cruciform
affusions of the holy myrrh. And when he has invoked three
times, as in the injection of the myrrh, the holy melody of the
inspiration of the Divinely rapt Prophets, he orders the man to be
brought forward. When one of the Priests, from the register, has
announced the name of himself and his surety, be is conducted
by the Priests over the water to the hand of the Hierarch, being
led by the hand to him. Then the Hierarch, standing above,
when the Priests have again called aloud, near the Hierarch,
within the water, the name of the initiated, the Hierarch dips him
three times, invoking the threefold 1 Subsistence of the Divine
Blessedness at the three immersions and emersions of the initiated.
The Priests then take him and entrust him to the Sponsor and
guide of his introduction.
And when they, in conjunction with him, have cast over the
initiated appropriate clothing, they lead him again to the Hierarch,
who, when he has sealed the man with the most Divinely operating
myrrh, declares him henceforward a partaker of the most Divinely
initiating Eucharist.
When he has finished these things, he elevates himself from his
progression to things secondary, to the contemplation of the first;
as one who at no time or manner turns himself to any other office
than those which are peculiarly his own, but who, by gradual
advance in Divine things, is persistently and always ranging himself under the banner of the supremely Divine Spirit.

III.- Contemplation.
This initiation, then, of the holy birth in God, as in symbols,
bas nothing unbecoming or irreverent, nor anything of sensible
imagery, but enigmas of a contemplation worthy of God, bearing
a likeness to natural images suitable to men. For should it
appear in any particular misleading (even though the more Divine
account of the religious ceremonies were passed over in silence),
its Divine institution might persuade, dili/.l;ently pursuing, as it
does, the good life o( the candidate; announcing to him, in a
bodily form, the purification from every kind of evil, through a
virtuous and Divine life, by the physical cleansinjlt through the

BCCLBSIASTIC.A.L HIBR.A.RCHY.

5'1

agency of water. Tbis tbim, even if tbe symbolic teaching of the

religious rites bad nothing more divine, would not be witbout
religious value, as I think-introducing a discipline of a well
regulated life, whilst suggesting through the bodily purification by
water, the complete purification from an evil life. Let this, then,
be for the uninitiated an introductive leading of the soul; separating, as is fit, things sacred and unified from multiplicity, and
apportioning our harmonious restoration to the Orders in due
degree. But we who have ascended by just gradations to the
contemplation of the highest mysteries, and have been religiously
taught their hidden meanings, shall recognize of wbat moulds they
are the reliefs, and of what invisible things they are the likenesses.
For, as is distinctly shewn in the Treatise concerning" Intelligible
and Sensible," sensible sacred things are reliefs of things
intelligible, to which they lead and shew the way. But things
intelligible are an archetype and explanation of sacred things,
cognizable by the senses. Let us affirm, then, that the goodness
of the Divine Blessedness is always the same in condition and
object, unfolding the beneficent rays of its own light upon all the
intellectual visions without grudging. Either, then, the self-chosen
freedom of action might turn away from spiritual light, by closing,
through love of evil, the faculties for enlightenment, which'
naturally reside within it, and might be separated from the light
present to it, and not turned from it-but illuminating it, whilst
closing itself in darkness-and which generously runs to that
which moves itself away. Or should anyone overstep the bounds
of the vision given to itself, in due proportion, and rashly undertake to gaze upon the rays superior to its own vision, the light
indeed does nothing beyond its own proper functions. But this,
as imperfectly approaching the perfect, would not attain to things
inappropriate to its condition, but by stupidly disregarding the
due proportion, would fail through its own fault.
But as I said, the Divine Light is always unfolded for beneficent
purposes to intellectual visions, and it is possible for them to seize
it when it is present, and is always most ready for the distribution
of its own gift, in a manner becoming the Deity. To the imitation
of this, the divine Hierarch is fashioned, unfolding to all, without
grudging, the luminous rays of his own divine teaching, and after
the Divine example being most ready to enlighten him who comes
to him, not using malice or an unholy wrath, for former back
slidings or excess; but, after the example of God, always
enlightening those who approach him, as becomes a Hierarch, in
fitness, and order, and proportion to the aptitude of each for
things Divine.
But inasmuch as the Deity is Origin of that sacred order,
within which move the holy Minds who know themselves, he
H

BCCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

who recl1l'l1 to the proper view of nature will see his proper self
in what he was originally, and will acquire this as the first sacred
gift from his recovery to light. Now he, who has wen looked
upon his own proper condition with unbiased eyes, will depart
from the gloomy recesses of ignorance; yet, whilst being unitiated,
he will not of his own accord at once desire the most perfect
Oneness and participation of God, but little by little, through
things present advancing to things more forward, and through
these to things foremost; and having been perfected, he will be
carried in order and in a heavenly manner to the Divinely supreme
height. An image of this good order is the modesty of tbe
person approaching, and his recognition of bis own internal
condition in providing tbe sponsor as leader in bis approach to
the Hierarch. Tbe Divine Blessedness receives tbe man thus
conducted into communion with itsel~ and imparts to him his
own light, as a kind of sign, making bim also a godly sharer of tbe
inberitance and sacred order of godly men, of which the Hierarcb's
seal, given to the proselyte, is a sacred symbol; and the enrolment
of the priests, as an image of salvation, registering him amongst
those who are in a state of. salvation, and placing in the sacred
memorials his sponsor and himself-the one indeed. as a true
lover and follower of a godly guide in the life-giving journey
towards truth; and the other, as an unerring conductor of his
neophyte to tbe Divinely taught directions.
But it is not possible to bold conjointly qualities thoroughly
opposed, nor that a man who' has had a certain fellowship with
tbe One, should have divided lives, if he clings to the firm participation in the One. But he must be resistless and persistent
as regards all separations from the uniform. Tbis it is which tbe
teaching of tbe symbols reverently intimates, by stripping the
neophyte, as it were, of his former life, and unloosing to the very
extremities all bis habits within that life. It places him naked
and barefoot, looking towards tbe west, and spurning, by the
aversion of the hands, the participations in the gloomy evil, and
breathing out, as it were, the dissimilar habit which he had
acquired, and proclaiming the entire renunciation as regards
everything contrary to tbe Divine likeness. When the man bas
thus become completely indomitable and separate from evi~ be
leads him towards the east, declaring dearly tbat his position
and recovery will be in the Divine LiKht, in the complete separation from evil, receiving his sacred promises of his entire leaning
towards the One, 11iiOf a man who has acquired the image of the
One, through love of the truth. But it is pretty evident, as I
think, to those versed in Hierarchical matters, tbat tbe spiritual
acquire the unchangeableness of the Godlike habit by continuous
and persistent struggles towards one; and by the entire destruction
and annihilation of things contrary. For it is necessary that a

ECCLESlA.STICAL HIERARCHY.

man should not only depart from every kind of evil, but he
must be bravely obdurate and ever disdainful against the baneful
submission to it. Nor must be at any time become remiss in bis
sacred love of the truth. but he must, with aU bis power, persistently and perpetually aspire towards it" always religiously pursuing
his upward course to tbe more perfect mysteries of tbe supreme
Godhead.
Now you may perceive the distinct images of these tbings in
the religious rites performed by tbe Hierarch. For the Godlike
Hierarch starts with the holy anointing, but the Priests under bim
complete the Divine service of the Chrism, summoning the
initiated, in type, to the holy contests within wbich he is placed
under Christ as Umpire (since as God He is Framer of the laws
of contest) ; as wise, He placed its laws; but as generous, He fixed
the awards suitable to the victors.1 And this is yet more Divine,
inasmuch as being generous, He entered the lists with them, contending, on behalf of their freedom I and victory against the power
of death 8 and destruction,4 he who is initiated will enter tbe
contests as those of God rejoicing. But he will remain fixed in
the regulations of tbe Wise. and will contend, according to them,
without transgression, holding fast the hope of the beautiful
rewards, as being enrolled under a good Lord and Leader of the
contest. But when he has followed in the Divine footsteps of
tbe first of Athletes as regards goodness, and has overthrown, in
bis struggles after the Divine example, the energies and impulses
opposed to his deification, he dies with Christ-to speak mystically-to sin in his Baptism.
But consider this attentively, I pray, with what appropriateness
the holy symbols are presented. For since death is with .os, not
an annihilation of being, according to the opinion of others, but
the separation of things united. leading to our being invisible (the
soul becoming invisible through being deprived of the body; but
the body as being buried in earth, in consequence of one of its
various changes, becomes invisible to the sight of man) ;-appropriately, then, the whole covering by water is taken as an image
of death and the darkness of the tomb. The symbolical teaching,
then, reveals that the man, baptized according to religious rites,
imitates, 10 far as Divine imitation is permissible to man, by the
threefold immersions in the water, the supremely Divine death of
the Life-giving Jesus, Who spent three days Ii and three nights in
the tomb, in whom, according to the mystical and secret teaching
of the sacred text, the Prince of tbis world found nothing.s
Next, they throw garments, white as light, over the initiated.
1I

Cor. ii. 9I Ps. luxviii. 50

1I Tim. i. 10.
'f'I'UJ/MP01Ntr:roV 'f'lIl#Rjr.
Jobn xiv.

PI. xvi.

sa.

10.

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

For by his manly and Godlike insensibility to contrary passions,

and by his persistent inclination towards the One. the unadorned
is adorned, and the shapeless acquires shape. being made brilliant
by a life entirely reflecting the light.
But the most perfecting unction of the myrrh makes the man
wbo has been perfected of good odour, for the boly perfection of
the Divine birth unifies those who have been perfected with the
supremely Divine Spirit. Now the spiritual indwelling whicb
makes perfect, and of a good savour, as being unutterable. I leave
to the spiritual consciousness of those who are deemed worthy of
the sacred and deifying participation of the Holy Spirit within
their mind.
At the conclusion of all, the Hierarch invites him who has
been perfected to the most Holy Eucharist, and imparts to him
the communion of the most perfecting mysteries.

CAPUT III.
Co",,"",,, IMII filM an lJeilig initi4t,d ill llu Sy"tUis.

Courage, then, because we bave made mention ofthis (Eucharist)

we may not pass over it to celebrate any otber Hierarchical
functions in preference to this. For according to our illustrious
Leader, it is U initiation of initiations," and one must first give the
Divine description of this. before the rest, from tbe inspired and
sacred science of tbe oracles, and then be borne by tbe supremely
Divine Spirit to its sacred contemplation. First. let us reverently
consider this. For wbat reason tbat whicb is common to the
other Hierarchical initiations, is pre-eminently attributed to tbis,
beyond tbe rest. And why it is uniquely called, "Communion
and Synaxis!' For each consecrating function collects our
divided lives into uniform deification, and gives communion and
oneness with the One, by the Godlike folding together of our
diversities. Now we affirm that the Perfection, which comes
from the participation of the other Hierarchical symbols, springs
from the supremely Divine and perfecting gifts of this Sacrament.
For it scarcely ever bappens that any Hierarchical initiation is
celebrated witbout the most Divine Eucharist, at the head of the
rites celebrated in each, Divinely accomplishing tbe collecting of
the person initiated to the One, and completing his communion
with God by the Divinely transmitted gift of tbe perfecting
mysteries. If, then, each of the Hierarchical initiations, u being
incomplete, will not complete our communion and our gathering
to the One. even its being initiation is taken away. on account of
the lack of initiation. For as the impartation of tbe supremely

BCCLESIASTICAL HIBRARCHY.

61

Divine mysteries to the penon being initiated is the completion

and head of each initiation, naturally the Hierarchical judgment
hit upon an appellation peculiar to it, from the truth of the facts.
Thus, for instance, with regard to the holy initiation of the Divine
birth; since it imparts first-Light, and is supreme head of all the
Divine illuminations, we celebrate the true appellation, from the
enligbtenment conferred. For though it be common to all
Hierarchical functions to impart the
of sacred light to those
who are being initiated, yet this gave to me the power of first
sight:, and through the primal light of this, I was conducted to the
view of the other religious rites. Having said this, let us minutely
investigate and examine, as becomes the Hierarchy, the perfect
administration and contemplation of the most holy initiation.
n.-M)'steryl

of Syna$l"s, lkat is, Communion.

The Hierarch havin~ completed a reverent prayer, near the

Divine Altar, begins with the incense and proceeds to every part
of the enclosure of the sacred place; he then returns to the
Divine Altar and begins the sacred chanting of the Psalms-the
whole ecclesiastical Order chanting with him the sacred language
of the Psalter. Next follows the reading of the Holy Scriptures
by the Leitourgoi. After these readings, the catechumens quit
the sacred enclosure, as well as the energumenoi and the
penitents. But those who are deemed worthy of the view and
participation of the Divine Mysteries remain. Of the Leitourgoi,
some stand near the closed gates of the sanctuary, whilst others
perform some duty or other of their proper function. But chosen
members of the diaconal Order, with the Priests, place the sacred
Bread upon the Divine Altar, and the Cup of Blessing, whilst the
universal Song i of Praise is sung by the whole body of the Church.
Afterwards the Divine Hierarch offers a sacred prayer, and
proclaims the holy Peace to all. When all have greeted each
other, the mystical proclamation of the holy tablets is performed.
When the Hierarch and the Priests have washed their hands in
water, the Hierarch places himself in the midst of the Divine
Altar. But the chosen Deacons alone, after the Priests, stand
around. The Hierarch, when he has celebrated the sacred works
of God, consecrates the most Divine gifts and brings to view the
things celebrated, through the symbols reverently exposed.1I When
he has shown the free gifts of the works of God, be himself
proceeds to the sacred participation of the same, and turns and
exhorts the others. When he has received and distributed the
See Traict6 de la Liturgie ou So Messe selon I'usage et la forme des apostres,
de leur disciple Sainct Denys, Apostre des Franpois, par Gilb. GenebrlU'd,
archeve5que d' Aix.
S See Appendix.
S As in Denmark.
1

et

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

supremely Divine Communion, he terminates with a holy thanksgiving. Whilst the multitude have merely glanced at the Divine
symbols alone, he himself is ever conducted by the Divine Spirit,
as becomes a Hierarch, in the purity of a Godlike condition, to
the holy archetypes of the rites performed, in blessed and
intellectual visions.
I I I.-Contemplation.
After the images, I come now, most excellent son, in due order
and reverence, to the Divine reality of the archetypes. To those
yet being initiated, I would say this, for the harmonious guidance
of their souls, that the varied and sacred composition of the
symbols is not without spiritual instruction even to them, when it
is merely presented superficially. For the most sacred chants and
readings of the oracles teach them a discipline of a virtuous life,
and what is more than this, the complete purification from
destructive evil. But the most Divine, and general, and peaceful
distribution of one and the same both Bread and Cup, enjoins
upon them a fellowship in character as well as a fellowship in
food, and recalls to their memory the most Divine Supper, and
arch-symbol of the rites performed, agreeably with which the
Founder of the symbols himself excludes, most justly, him who
had joined in the feast of the heavenly things, not piously,l and in
a manner dissimilar to himself; teaching at once, clearly and
Divinely, that the approach to Divine mysteries with a sincere
mind, confers on those who draw nigh, the participation in a gift
similar to their own character. Let us, then, as I said, leave
behind these things, beautifully depicted upon the propylea of the
innermost shrine, as being sufficient for those who are yet unfit for
contemplation, and let us proceed from the effects to the cause;
and then, Jesus lighting the way,let us view our holy Synaxis and
the comely contemplation of the spiritual mysteries. which makes
manifest the blessed beauty of tbe archetypes. But, oh. most
Divine and holy initiation, uncover the folds of the dark mysteries.
enveloping thee in symbols. Be manifest to us in thy bright
glory, and fill our intellectual visions with unique and uncon
cealed light.
We must, then, in my opinion, pass within the All Holy
Mysteries, after we have laid bare the spiritual conception of the
first of the images, to gaze upon its Godlike beauty, and contemplate with a godly mind the Hierarch, as he goes with
fragrance from the Divine Altar to the furthermost bounds of the
holy place, and is again, at the end, restored to the same. For
the Blessedness, supremely Divine above all, although through
1 John xiii. It. 81. Cyprian thought Judu was excluded; 81. Augustine not.
See Cornelillll a Lapide on John xiii. II.

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

Divine goodness it goes forth to the communion of those who

participate in itself, yet it never goes outside its essential unmoved
position and.steadfastness.
Further, it gives to all, according to their capacity, its Godlike
illuminations; always self-centred, and in no wise moved from its
own proper identity. In the same manner the Divine initiation
of the Synaxis, although it has an unique and simple and enfolded
origin, is multiplied, out of love towards man, into the boly variety
of the symbols, and travels through the whole ranKe of Divine
imagery; yet uniformly it is again collected from these into its
own proper Oneness, and unifies those who are being reverently
conducted towards it. In the same Godlike manner the Divine
Hierarch, even when he benignly deputes to his subordinates his
own unique Hierarchical science, by using tbe multiplicity of
Divine enigmas; yet again, as absolute, and not to be held in
check by smaller things, he is restored to his own supreme dignity
without diminution. And when he has himself made the spiritual
entry to the Oneness of himself, he sees clearly the uniform
reasons of the religious rites, as he makes the goal of his philanthropic progress to things secondary, the more Divine return to
things first. The chanting of the Psalms, which is co-essential to
almost all the Hierarchical mysteries, was not likely to be separated
from the chief of all. For all holy and inspired Scriptures set
forth for those meet for deification, either the originated Begin7
ning 1 and Order from God of things created; or the Priesthood I
and polity of the Law; or the distributions II and possessions of
the inheritance of the people of God; or the understanding of
sacred judges, or wise kings, or inspired Priests; or philosophy Ii
of men of old time, indomitable 6 in the endurance of evils springing
up in multitude and measure; or the treasures of wisdom for the
conduct of life ; or odes or inspired 7 images of Divine Loves or
the prophetical predictions 8 of things to come; or II the
Incarnate works of Jesus 10; or the administrations 11 and sacred
doctrines of His Apostles given by God for the imitation of God;
or the hidden III and mystic range of view of the beloved and
Divinely sweet disciple; or the supennundane theology of Jesus.
These, too, are embedded in the holy and Godlike instructions
of the initiations_ But the sacred representations of the Divine
odes, whose purpose is to celebrate the words and works of God
throughout, and to praise the holy words and works of godly men,
forms an universal Hymn Narrative of things Divine; which
Genesis i.
~ Leviticus alld Deut.
8 Numbers.
Judges and Kings.
& Proverbs and Wisdom.
8 Job.
'Canticles.
8 Propbets.
ris dl'apt"clS Iquol/ e~mlP'Yias. 10 Gospels. U Acts and Epistles.
111 Either Gospel or Apocalypse of St. Jobn. If latter, it was added in revision
of works. A. D. 96-98.
1

ECCLESIASTICA.L HIERA.RCHY.

makes in those who reverently recite it a habit suitable for the

reception and distribution of every Hierarchical mystery.
When, then, the universal melody of the holy Psalms has harmonized the spiritual condition of our souls to the things which are
presently to be celebrated, and by the unison of the Divine odes,
as one and concordant chorus of things Divine, has established
concord towards things Divine, and ourselves 1 and one another,
the things more compounded and obscure in the spirilual language
of the mystic Psalms are expanded by the most holy lections of
the inspired compositions. through more full and distinct images
and narratives. He who devoutly contemplates these will perceive
the uniform and one concordant breathing as being moved by
One, the supremely Divine Spirit. Hence, naturally, in the
history of the world, after the more ancient 1I tradition-the new
Covenant is proclaimed. This inspired order of tbe Hierarcby
teaches this-that the One affirmed the Divine works of Jesus as
to come; the other accomplished them, in fact. And as that
described the truth in figures, this, on the other hand, shewed it
present. For the accomplishment, in fact, of this established the
truth of the predictions of that, and the work of God is a consummation ofthe Word of God.
Those who in every respect have no ear for the sacred initiations
do not even recognize their images-unblushingly rejecting the
saving revelation of tbe Divine Birth, and realizing to their
destruction the words, "Thy ways I do not wish to know." a
Now the custom of the holy Hierarchy permits the catechumens
and the penitents to hear the sacred chanting of the Psalms, and
the inspired reading of the all Holy Scriptures; but it does not
invite tbese to the next religious services and contemplations, but
only the perfect visions of the perfected. For the Divine-like
Hierarchy is full of reverent justice, and distributes savingly to
each, according to their due, the harmonious participation of each
in things Divine, in measure and proportion and due time. The
lowest rank, then. is assigned to th~ catechull1ens, for they are
without participation and instruction, in any of the Hierarchical
functions; not even having the existence in God after Divine
Birth, but are being brought to 4 Birth by the paternal instructions,
and moulded by life-giving formations towards the blessed acquisition of their first life and first light, from Birth in God. As,
then, children after the flesh, if whilst immature and unformed
they should anticipate their proper delivery, as untimely born and
abortions, would faU to the earth without life and without light;
and no one, in his senses, wou.ld say from what he saw, that they
1

Republic. Iibel' iv. ad finem. Dulac. p. 4lI6-7.

4 See Plato. Theel. i. 114. lIS.

1I The Law.
Dulac 429-

Job xxi.

14-

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

were brought to the light, relelUled from the darkness of the womb
(for the medical authority learned in the functions of the body
would say that light operates on things receptive of light), thus
also science, which knows aU about religious rites, brings these
first to delivery by the preparatory nourishment of the formative
and life-giving instructions. But when it hlUl made their condition
ripe for Divine Birth, it gives to them savingly, in due order, the
participation in things luminous and perfecting. But at present
it separates things perfect from things imperfect, consulting the
good order of Divine things. and the delivery and life of the
catechumens in a Godlike order of the sacred rites.
As for the multitude of the energumenoi, that indeed is unholy,
but it is second above the catechumens, which is lowest. Nor is
that on a par, as I think, with the altogether uninstructed and
entirely uncommunicated in the Divine initiations, for it has
received a certain participation in the most holy functions, but is
yet held in chains by contrary qualities, whether enchantments or
terrors. Now, as regards these, the sight and participation in the
holy mysteries is withdrawn, and very properly. For if it be true
that the altogether godly man, the worthy partaker of the Divine
mysteries, who is carried to the very summit of the Divine likeness, to the best of his powers, in complete and most perfect
deification, who does not foUow the things of the Oesh, beyond
the most necessary requirements of nature, nor these, if it should
happen to be superfluous; who will be, at the same time, a temple
and a follower, according to his ability, of the supremely Divine
Spirit, in the highest deification, labouring to add like to like.
Such an one as this, would not be possessed by opposing
phantoms or fears, but will laugh them to scorn, and when they
approach will throw them and put Ihem to Oight, and will act
rather than persuade. And besides this, by the passionless and
indomitableness of his own character, he will be seen to be a
physician to others for similar possessions'! But I think further,
yea, rather, I know certainly, that the most dear decision of the
Hierarchy holds that they are rather possessed with a most
detestable possession, whoever, by departing from the Godlike
life, become of one mind and one condition with destructive
demons; turning themselves from thin~s that really are; and undying possessions, and everlasting pleasures, for the sake of the
most base folly, destructive to themselves, by desiring and
pursuing the earthly variableness, vexed by many passions, and
the perishable and corrupting pleasures, and the unstable comfort
in things foreign to their nature, not real but seeming. These
first, then, and more properly than those, were shut out by the
discriminating authority of the Deacon, for it is not permitted to

BCCLBSlASTICA.L HIBRA.RCHY.

them to have part in any other holy function, than the teaching
of the oracles, in order to tnrn them to better things. For if the
Divine Service of the heavenly mysteries excludes from view tbe
penitents and those who have already approached it, not,permitting
anything not completely perfect to draw nigh, but proclaims this,
in aU sincerity, that ,e I am invisible, and incommunicable to
those who are in any respect imperfectly weak as regards the
attainment of the highest degree of the Divine Likeness" (for that
most impartial voice scares away also those who cannot be
associated with the worthy partakers of the Divine mysteries),
how much more then will the multitude of those who are under
the sway of their passions. be unholy and alien from every view of,
and participation In, the holy mysteries. After the uninstructed
and uninitiated in the mysteries have been put outside the Divine
Temple, and tbe holy service above their capacity, and with them
the apostates from the religious life, and next, those who through
want of manliness are easily affected by the fears and fancies of
contrary influences, as not having reached the stability and activity
of a Godlike condition, throup;b the persistent and indomitable
inclination towards godliness; then in addition to these, those
who have separated indeed from tbe contrary life, but have not
yet been cleansed from its imaginations by a habit and love, godly
and pure; and next, those who are not altogether uniform. and
to use an expression of the Law, U entirely without spot and
blemish;" then the sacred ministers of sacred things, wbo love to
gaze upon sacred rites, contemplate in all purity the most holy
mystery, and celebrate in an universal Hymn of Praise the Author
and Giver of aU p;ood, from Whom the mysteries were exhibited
to us, as images of salvation, wbich divinely work the sacred
deification of the initiated. Now that Hymn some indeed call a
Hymn of Praise, others the symbol of worship, but others, as I
think more Divinely, a Hierarchical thanksgiving, as giving II.
summary of the holy gifts which come to us from God. For it
seems to me a systematic record 1 of aU the works of God, on our
behalf, celebrated in song, which, after it had fixed our being and
life after the pattern of Divine goodness, and moulded the Divine
likeness in ourselves to beautiful archetypes, placed us in
possession of a more Divine condition and elevation. But when
it witnessed the dearth of Divine gifts, which came upon us by
our heedlessness, deigned to call us back to our original
condition by the restoration of our blessings, and by the complete
assumption of ours. to make good the most perfect impartation of
His own. and thus to give to us a participation in God and
Divine things.
.
When the Divine goodness has thus been religiously celebrated,
1

Note. Appendix, Liturgy of DionysiWl.

ECCLESlA.STICAL HIERARCHY.

the Divine Bread is presenteds veiled, and likewise the Cup of

Blessing. The most Divine salutation is devoutly performed, and
the instructive and heavenly proclamation of the holy names
written on the tablets. For it is not possible to be collected to
the One, and to partake of the peaceful Oneness of the One, when
people are diYided amongst themselves. For if being illuminated
by the contemplation and knowledge of the One, we would be
united to an uniform and Divine agreement, we must not permit
ourselves to descend to divided lusts, from which are formed
earthly enmities, envious and passionate, against that which is
according to nature. This unified and undivided life is, in my
opinion, established by the Divine Service of the salutation of
peace, which roots like to like, and separates the Divine and
unified visions from things divided. The reading of the boly
tablets, after the salutation, proclaims those who have passed
through life homy and have reached the term of a virtuous life
without faltering, urging and conducting us to their blessed
condition and Divine inheritance through their example. Further,
it announces them as living, and, as the Word of God says, Unot
dead, but as having passed from death to a most divine life!' 1
But observe that they are enrolled in the holy memorials, not as
though the Divine memory were represented under the fiRure of a
memorial, after the manner of men; but, as one might say, with
reverence towards God, within the cherished and unfailing
knowledge in God of those who have been perfected in the likeness of God. For U He knoweth," say the oracles, U those that
are His,'" and, "dear, in the sight of the Lord. is the death of
His saints/'ll "Death of saints" being said, instead of perfection
in holiness. And bear this religiously in mind, that after the
august symbols, through which Christ is signified and partaken,
have been placed on the Divine Altar, the reading of the register
of the holy persons immediately follows. signifying their inseparable
conjunction with His celestial and sacred Oneness. When these
things have been religiously performed, according to the regulations prescribed, the Hierarch, standing before the most holy
symbols, washes his hands with water, together with the reverend
order of the Priests.
as the oracles testify, when a man
has been washed, he needs no other washing, except that of his
extremities.' Through this extreme cleansing, in a sanctified
habit of the Divine
whilst advancing in a goodly
manner to things secondary,
will be resistless and free. as
altogether uniform, and by turning himself uniquely to the One,
he will make his return without spot and blemish, as preserving
the fulness and entirety of the Divine likeness. There was even
the sacred
as we have said, in the Hierarchy of the Law. 1
1 I

John iii.

14-

a Tim. ii.

19-

IPs.

ari. IS.

4 Jo.

:mi.

10.

Deut. xxi. 6.

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

But now the cleansing of the hands of the Hierarch and the
Priests suggests that. For it behoves those who approach the
most hallowed service to be purified even to the remotest imaginations of the soul, and to approach, as far as possible, through likeness to itself. For thus they will shed more visibly the glory of
the Divine manifestations, since the celestial rays permit their own
splendour to pass more thoroughly and brilliantly into the brightness of mirrors like themselves. Further, the cleansing of the
Hierarch and the Priests to tbeir very extremities, takes place
before the most holy symbols, as in tbe presence of Christ, Who
surveys our innermost thoughts, and because the utmost purification is enjoined under bis most penetrating scrutiny and just and
unflinching judgment. Thus the Hierarch becomes one with
things Divine, and when be has celebrated the holy works of God,
he consecrates the most Divine symbols, and brings them to view
whilst their praises are sung.
We will now explain, to the best of our ability, the works of
God, of which we have spoken. For we are not competent to
extol tbe praises of all, much less to know accurately and to reveal
their mysteries to others. But whatever has been sung and
religiously performed by godly Hierarchs, after the oracles, this
we will say, as far as permissible, invoking the Hierarchical
inspiration to our aid. Immediately after our human nature had
thoughtlessly fallen from the good things of God, it was seized by
a life vexed with many passions, and, at last, a ruinous death.
For, as a natural consequence, the pernicious departure from
genuine goodness, and the transgression of the sacred Law laid
down in Paradise, delivered him, when fretted with the life-giving
yoke, to bis own downward inclinations, and the enticing and
hostile wiles of the adversary-the adversaries of the good things
of God. Hence, he pitiably exchanged for the eternal, the mortal.
As then the human race had its own origin in corrupted generations, the end naturally corresponded with the beginning. Now
as mankind had willingly fallen from the Divine and conducted
life, they were carried to the opposite extremity-the variableness
of many passions. Whilst going astray, and turned aside from
the strait way leading to the true God, and being subject to a
destructive and evil-working diversity, they naturally forgot that
they were worshipping, not gods, or friends, but enemies. , Now
when these had used the human race harshly, according to their
own cruelty, it fell into danger of annihilation and destruction.
But the boundless lovingkindness of the supremely Divine goodness towards man, did not, in its benevolence, withdraw from us
its spontaneous forethought, but taking upon itself a real participation of our entire nature, without sin,l and having made itself one
1 Heb. iv. %5.

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

with our infirmity, with the unconfused possession of its own

properties, entirely without flaw, it gave to us, as members of the
same family, communion with itself henceforward, and proclaimed
us partakers of his own good things; having, as the secret teaching
holds, loosed the power 1 of the rebellious diversity which was
against us; not by force, as having the upper band, but according
to the Divine saying, mystically transmitted to us, IC in judgment
and righteousness."s
Our condition, then, he benevolently changed to the contrary.
For the darkness of our mind he filled with perfect and most
Divine light, and adorned that which was without likeness with
Godlike beauties. The tabernacle S of our soul, which was all
but (allen down, he liberated from most damnable passions and
destructive stains through a perfected salvation, and exhibited to
us a supermundane elevation, and a Divine course of life in our
assimilation to his own holiness, as far as permissible. But how
could the Divine imitation otherwise become ours unless the
memory of the most holy works of God were perpetually
renewed by the holy teaching and service of the Hierarchy.
This, then, we do, as the oracles say, .. for its remembrance." "
Wherefore the Divine
standing before the Divine Altar,
celebrates the holy works
God, which proceed from the
most godly forethought of Jesus on our behalf, which He completed for the salvation of our race, by the good pleasure of the
most Holy Father in the Holy Spirit, as the Divine Word
affirms.!" When he has celebrated their majesty, and gazed, with
intellectual vision, upon the spiritual contemplation, he proceeds
to the Divine service symbolical of them-and this, as transmitted
from God. Hence, after the sacred praise of the works of God,
he deprecates his own unworthiness for a service above his merits.
First, reverently saying aloud, .. Thou hast said, Do this for My
remembrance" lI-then,'1 having asked to become meet for this
holy office of Divine imitation, and to consecrate the Divine
symbols, by being made like to Christ Himself, and to distribute
them in perfect holiness; and that those who shall partake of those
holy mysteries may receive them religiously, he consecrates the
most Divine symbols, and brings the mysteries to view tbrough
the reverent exposition of the symbols, while their praises are
being sung. For when he has unveiled the veiled and undivided
Bread, and divided it into many, and has apportioned the Oneness of the Cup to all, he symbolically multiplies and distributes
the unity-completing in these a most holy Divine Service. For
the unity and simplicity and hiddenness of Jesus, the Divinely
supreme Word, by His becominK Man amongst us, came forth,
1

Ps. 1xJdv.

14-

'

PlI. xl 6-8.

Ps. xcviii. 2.
Plato erato i. 295.
4 Luke xxii.
Luke xxii. 19.
7 Prayer of bumble access.

19-

70

ECCLESIASTICA.L HIERA.RCHY.

out of goodness and love towards man, to the compound and

visible. and benevolently devised the communion which makes
us one with Himself, having united in the highest degree our
lowliness to His own Godhead; if indeed we have been fitted to
Him, as members to a body, after the identity of a blameless and
Divine life; and have not, by being killed through destructive
passions, become unsuited and unattached and unyoked, as
the godly and healthy members. For if we aspire to
communion with Him, we must keep our eye fixed upon His
most godly Life in the flesh, and we must retrace our path to the
Godlike and blameless habit of mind by being made like It in
its holy sinlessness. For thus He will communicate to us an
harmonious likeness to Himself.
The Hierarch makes known these things to those who are living
reliKiously by bringing the veiled Kifts to view, by dividing their
unity into multiplicity, and making the recipients partakers in
them, by the utmost Oneness of the things distributed, with ahose
who receive them. For he depicts in these things, visibly, by
bringing to Jesus, the Christ. our spiritual life. as in images.
coming as He does from the Hiddenness of the Divine Father;
and out of love to man. moulded into our likeness from us, by
the perfect and unconfused incarnation in our race, and advancing
to the divided condition of ourselves without divergence from His
essential unity; and calling the human race. through this beneficent
love of man, into communion with Himself and His own good
things, provided we are united to His most Divine Life by
assimilation to it, as far as permissible. Thus in very truth we
shan have been completed as partakers of God and Divine things.
Having received and distributed the Divine Communion, he
terminates with the singing of the holy thanksgiving, in which the
whole body of the Church take part. For the communion
precedes the distribution-and tbe reception of the mysteries the
mystical impartation. For this is the regulation and order of the
Divine Mysteries, that the reverend Leader should first partake
and be filled with the gifts to be imparted through him, from God,
to others, and that thus he should impart to others also. Wherefore, those who rashly content themselves with Divine instructions
in preference to a life and condition agreeable to thfl same are
profane and entirely alien from the sacred regulation established.
For, as in the case of the bright shining of the sun, the more
delicate and luminous substances being first filled with the brilliancy
flowing into them, impart their overflowing light to things near.
them; thus it is not tolerable that one who has not become
altogether Godlike in his whole character, and who has not been
proved to govern by the Divine influence and judgment, should
become a Leader to others in what is altogether Divine. When
the whole order of the Priests have been collected together in

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

'11

sacerdotal order, and have communicated in tbe most Divine

mysteries, they finish with II. holy thanksgiving, after they have
of the works of God, according
recognized and celebrated the
to their degree. So that those who have not partaken or recognized the Divine mysteries would not come to thanksgiving;
although the most Divine gifts are, in their essential nature,
worthy of thanksgiving. But, as I said, not having wished even
to look at the Divine gifts from their inclination to evil, they have
remained throughout unblessed, as regards the boundless gifts of
the works of God. "Taste and see," say the oracles, for, by the
sacred instruction in Divine things, the instructed recognize their
munificent gifts; and by gazing upon their most Divine height
and breadth in the participation, they extol the supercelestial
beneficent works of the Godhead.

CAPUT IV.

CONeffling tlte initiatory rites in My"", aNi tkose 'llIko an

perfected in tlte same.
So great and so beautiful are the spiritual visions of the most
holy Synaxis, which, as we have often said, accomplish by religious
rites our participation in and collection towards the One. But
there is another perfecting Service that occupies the same rank as
this, which our Leaders name Initiation of Myrrh. By contemplating its parts in due order, after the rule of sacred images,
we shall thus be borne, by religious contemplations, to its Oneness
through its parts.

H.-Mystery 0/ Cunsecratiun 0/ Myrrh.

In the same way as in the Synaxis, the orders of the imperfect
are dismissed, that is, after the Bishop has made the whole circuit
of the temple, attended with fragrant incense, and the chanting of
the Psalms, and the reading of the most Divine Lections. Then
tbe Hierarch takes the Myrrh and places it upon the Divine
Altar, veiled under twelve sacred wings, whilst all cry aloud, with
a devout voice, the sacred melody o( the inspiration of the Godrapt Prophets. Wben the Bishop bas finished the prayer offered
over it, he uses it in the most holy perfectin~s of things that are
hallowed, forahe completion of almost every Hierarchical function.

III.-Contemplation.
The introductory teaching, then. oftbis most perfecting function,
through the rites performed respecting the Divine Myrrh, shews
tbis, in my judgment, that that which is holy and of sweet savour

ECCLESUSTICAL HIERARCHY.

in the minds of devout men, is covered, lUI witb III. veil, since it is
Divinely enjoined upon holy men, to keep their beautiful and
well-savoured likeness to the virtue of the hidden God, not made
known for the purpose of vain glory. For the hidden and sweetsavoured comeliness of God is undefiled, and is spiritually
manifested to the spiritual contemplators only, desiring to keep
the unsullied images of virtue in the soul like unto itself: For
when a man gazes, with undistracted vision, upon that spiritual
and fragrant beauty, the unportrayed and well imitated image of
Godlike virtue moulds and fashions itself to a most glorious
if the artist look without
imitation. And, as in material
distraction upon the archetypal form, not drawn aside to any other
sight, or in any way distracted, he will duplicate, if I may so
speak, the very thing that is being engraved, whatever it may be,
and will shew the reality in the likeness, and the archetype in the
image-each in each, except as regards ditrerence of substance.
In the same way, to copyists who love the beautiful :in mind, the
persistent and unflinching contemplation of the sweet-savoured
and hidden beauty, will confer the unerring and most Godlike
appearance'! Naturally, then, the divine copyists, who unflinchingly mould their own spiritual image after the celestial sweet
savour and spiritual comeliness, perform none of their Divinely
imitated virtues" to be seen of men,"l1 as the Divine text expresses
it. But they reverently contemplate the most holy things of the
Church, veiled in the holy Myrrh, as .in a figure. Wherefore,
whilst religiously concealing that which is holy and most Divine
in virtue, within their Godlike and God-engraved mind, they look
to the archetypal conception alone. For not only are they blind
to things dissimilar, but neither do they condescend themselves
to gaze upon them. Wherefore, as becomes their character, they
do not love things which merely seem to be good and just, but
such as really are so. Nor do they look to a mere appearance,
upon which the multitude unreasonably congratulate themselves;
but, after the Divine example, distinguishing the good or evil as
it is in. itself, they are Divine images of the Supremely Divine
Suavity, which, having its true savour within itself, does not turn
itself, to the anomalously seeming of the multitude, but moulds
its genuineness to true images of itself.
Come, then, since we have viewed the exterior comeliness of
this Divine Service, beautiful throughout, let us look to its more
godly beauty. Whilst itself, by itself, has uncovered the veils
thrown around it, let us contemplate its blessed radiance, shedding
its bright beams openly around, and filling us with its fragrance
revealed to spiritual men. For the open consecration of the
Myrrh is neither shut out from, nor invisible to, those who surround
1

Plato, Rep. i. 6-ii. n6.

Matt. xxiii .s.

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

the Hierarch-but on the contrary is extended to them. But as

its contemplation is above the reach of the many, they reverently
conceal it; and by Hierarchical direction, it is kept from the gaze
of the multitude.
For the splendour of things all holy sheds its light clearly and
without symbol to men inspired, as being congenial to the
spiritual, and perfumes their intellectual perceptions without
concealment. But it does not advance in the same way to the
inferior. Further, the deep contemplators of the spiritual conceal
it under the enigmas of the wings, without ostentation, so that it
may not be defiled by the impure. Through these sacred enigmas
the well-ordered ranks of the subordinate are conducted to the
degree of holiness compatible with their powers. The holy conas I said, of the
secration, then, which we are now extolling,
most perfecting order and capacity of the Hierarchical functions.
Wherefore our Divine Leaders arranged this as being of the same
rank and effect, with the holy perfecting of the Synaxis, with the
same ligures, for the most part, and mystical regulations and
lectioml. And you may see in like manner the Hierarch bearing
forward the sweet perfume from the more holy place into the
sacred precincts beyond-and teaching, by the return to the
same, that the participation in things Divine comes to all holy
persons according to their fitness, but that it remains undiminished
and altogether unmoved, and stands unchangeably in its identity
with a Divine fixity. In the same way the hymns and readings
of the lections bring to birth those not yet perfect for the life
bringing adoption of sons. They also form a religious inclination
in those who are possessed with accursed spirits. They dispel
the opposing fear and effeminacy from those possessed by a spirit
of unmanliness; shewing to them, according to their capacity, the
highest pinnacle of the Godlike habit and power, by following
which they will, the rather, scare away the opposing forces, and
will take the lead in healing others; and, following the example
of God, whilst unmoved from their own proper gifts, they will
not only be active against those opposing fears, but will themselves
j:;ive activity to others. They also impart to those who have
departed from evil to a religious mind, a sacred persistence, so
that they should not be again enslaved by evil. They purify
completely those who need to become altogether pure. They
lead the holy to their own Divine likeness, and contemplation,
and communion. They also establish those who are entirely
holy in blessed and spiritual visions, completing their uniform
likeness of the One, and making them One. What, tben, shall
I say further? Is it not those orders that we have mentioned,
which are not entirely pure, that the present religious service
excludes without distinction, in the same way as the Synaxis,
so that it is viewed by the holy alone, in figures, and is conK

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

templated and ministered by the perfectly hoi, alonet without

symbols t through instructions given by the Hierarchy? Now this
has already been 110 often mentioned that it is superftuou~ as I
think, to recur to the same statements. Those, then t who see
with a Divine vision may appropriately contemplate the Hierarch.
bolding the Divine Myrrh, veiled under twelve wingSt and devoutly
completing the holy service of consecration. Let us then affirm
that the composition of the Myrrh is iii. combination of sweet
smelling materials, which has in itself abundantly fragrant qualities,
with which those who partake become perfumed, in proportion to
the degree in which they partake of its sweet savour. Now we
are persuaded that the Supremely Divine Jesus is superessentially
of good savour, filling the spiritual part of ourselves with a Divine
sweetnesSt by spiritual bequests. For if the reception of the
sensible odours makes us feel joyous, and nourishest with much
sweetness, the sensitive organs of our nostrils-.at lessl, if they be
sound and well apportioned to the sweet savour-in the same
way, anyone might say that our spiritual facultieSt being soundly
disposed with regard to the subjection to evil, in the strength of
the distinguishing faculty implanted in us by nature, receive the
sweet savour from God, and are filled with a holy comfort and
most Divine nourishment, in accordance with Divinely fixed
proportions and the suitable turning of the mind towards the
Divine. Wherefore, the symbolical composition of the Myrrh, as
expressing in form things that are formlesSt depicts to us Jesus
Himself, as being a well-spring of the wealth of the Divine sweetness,! distributing in degrees fixed by God, to the most Godlike
of spiritual persons, the most Divine perfumes; from which the
minds, satiated with a most comforting joy, and filled with holy
receptions, enjoy a spiritual nourishment, by the entrance of the
savoury II gifls into their spiritual nature, according to a Divine
participation. But it is evident, as I think, that the distribution
of the primal perfume to the Beings above ourselves, as being
more Divine, is, as it were, nearer, and manifests and distributes
itself better to their luminous transparency, and overfiows without
stint the healthy capacity of their minds for its reception, and
enters them much more abundantly. But as regards the subor
dinate minds, which are not so receptive, it piously conceals the
highest vision and participation, and is distributed in a Divinely
fixed proportion, in fragrance corresponding to the recipients.
Amongst the holy BeinKs, then, who are above us, the highest
exalted order of the Seraphin is represented under the figure of
the twelve wings, as established and fixed around Jesus, giving
itself to the most blessed contemplation as far as permissible, and
filled with spiritual distributions through holy receptions, and, to
lCanL i. 3.

la

Cor. ii.

I ....

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

75

speak after the manner of men, crying aloud, with never silent
lips, the frequent Hymn of Praise.!
For the sacred knowledge of the celestial minds is both untiring and possesses the Divine love without intermission, and is
at the same time superior to all baseness and forgetfulness.
Whence, as I think, that phrase, U unceasing cry," suggests their
perpetual and persistent science, and conception of things Divine,
with full determination and thanksgiving. Now we have, as I
think, sufficiently contemplated, in the description of the Heavenly
Hierarchy, the distinctive features of the incorporeal Seraphin,
Divinely described in the Scriptures, under sensible figures,
explanatory of the spiritual Beings; and we have made them
evident to your intellectual vision. Nevertheless, as they who
stand reverently around the Hierarch, reflect that same order, the
highest of all in science, we will now view their most Godlike
glory with unearthly visions.
Their numberless faces then, and many feet, demonstrate, as I
think, their property of viewing the Divine illumination fro/D many
sides, and their conception of the good things of God, as ever
active and abundantly receptive. But the sixfold arrangement of
the wings, of which the Scripture speaks. does not, as I think,
denote a sacred number, but that the first, and second, and last
of the spiritual and Godlike powers of the highest existence and
Order around God are elevating, and entirely free, and supermundane. Hence the most holy wisdom of the Scriptures. when
Divinely describing the formation of the wings, places the wings
around the heads,'l and the middle, and their feet, suggesting their
complete covering with wings, and their faculty of leading to the
Truly Existing.
But if tbey cover their beads and their feet, and fly by their
middle wings only; bear this religiously in mind, tbat the Order,
so far exalted above the highest Beings, is circumspect respecting
tbe more lofty and deep of its conceptions, and raises itself, in
due proportion by its middle wings, to the vision of God; placing
its own proper life under the Divine yokes, and by these is well
directed to the knowledge of itself. But as regards the statement
of Holy Scripture, that "one cried out to the other," that shows,
I think, that they impart to each other ungrudgingly their own
visions of God. And this we should deem worthy of religious
recollection, that the Hebrew word in the Holy Scriptures names
the most holy Seraphin, by an explanatory appellation sill:nifying
their glowing and seething, in a Divine and ever moving life.
If, then, as those who have leamed Hebrew say, the most
1

Isaiah vi. 3-

a Isaiah vi.

2.

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

76

Divine Seraphin are named by the Word of God, cc glowing" and

.. heating," by a name expressive of their essential condition. they
possess, according to the symbolical description of the Divine
Myrrh, ever moving powers, calling into evidence its distribution
of exhilarating perfumes. For the incomprehensible, benign Being
loves to be moved by the glowing and most pure minds into
manifestation. and imparts its most Divine breathings in cheerful
distributions to those who thus devoutly call it forth. Thus the
most exalted Order of celestial Beings did not fail to recognize 1
the supremely Divine Jesus when He descended for the purpose
of being sanctified. but contemplates Him lowering Himself in
our nature through Divine and inexpressible goodness; and when
it had seen Him sanctified in a manner befitting man, from the
Father II and Himself II and the Holy Spirit,4 recognized their own
supreme Head all being essentially unchanged in whatever He
did. according to Hill supreme Deity. Hence the teaching of
the sacred symbols places the Seraphin near the Divine Myrrh
when it is being consecrated, recognizing and describing the
Christ as unchanged in the complete incarnation amongst us in
the truth of our lIature. And what is still more Divine, it uses
the Divine Myrrh for the perfecting of every religious function,
distinctly shewing, according to the Divine saying, the sanctified
Sanctifier as always the same in Himself throughout the whole
course of His Divine Beneficence. Wherefore the completing
gift and grace of the Divine regeneration ill completed in the
Divine perfecting of the Myrrh. Hence, as I think, the Hierarch
pouring the Myrrh upon the purifying font. in the form of a cross,
brings to view for contemplative eyes the Jesus descending to
death itself through the croslI,G for our birth in God, and drawing
up from the jaws of a destructive death, by the same Divine and
resistless descent, those who, according to the mysterious saying,
.. are baptized into His death," 6 from the former gulf of a destructive" death, and renewing them to a godly and eternal existence. s
But further, the perfecting unction of the Myrrh gives to him
who has been initiated in the most sacred initiation of the birth in
God, the indwelling of the supremely Divine Spirit; the sacred
imagery of the symbols suggesting, as I think, the gift of the
Divine Spirit, by Him Who for our sakes has been sanctified as
man, by the Divine Spirit. in an unaltered condition of His
essential Godhead. And bear this also most religiously in mind,
that the Law of the most holy completion completes the sacred
consecration of the Divine Altar by pure effusions of the most
holy Myrrh. But the work of God, at once supercelestial and
1 1

Tim.

m. 16.
6

I John x. 36. 8 John xvii.

Rom. vi. 3.
1 Rom viii. a.

19.

4
ij

Rom. i.
ROID.

vi.

+
+

Phil. ii. 8.

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

77

supernatural, is head and being and perfecting power of all the

deifying holiness within ourselves. For if our most Divine Altar
is Jesus-the supremely Divine sanctification of the godly mindsin Whom, according to the saying, ., bein~ sanctified and mystically
offered as a whole burnt offering, we have access,"l let us gaze
with celestial eyes upon the self-same Altar (in Whom things being
perfected are perfected and sanctified), as being perfected from
the self-same most Divine Myrrh. For the all-pure Jesus sanctifies
Himself on our behalf and fills us with every purification, since
the things completed 2 in Him during the Divine economy, pass
afterwards in their beneficent effects to us, as children of God.
Hence, as I think, the Divine Leaders of our Hierarchy in
conformity with an Hierarchical conception received from God,
have wisely named this august service, completing of Myrrhfrom" being completed." As one might say, completing of Godcelebrating its Divine completing work in both senses. For His
completion is both the sanctification of Himself as Man, on our
behalf, and the completing and sanctifying of all things, by His
power as God. As for the sacred melody of the inspiration of
the God-rapt Prophets, it is called by those who know Hebrew,
., Praise of God," or .. Praise ye the Lord." Since then, every
Divine manifestation and work of God is religiously portrayed in the
varied composition of the Hierarchical symbols, it is not unhefiuing
to mention the Divinely moved song of the Prophets, for it teaches
at once, distinctly and reverently, that the beneficent works of the
Divine Goodness are worthy of devout praise.

CAPUT V.

Concerning sacerdotal consecrations.

Such, then, is the most Divine perfecting work of the Myrrh.
But it may be opportune, after these Divine (unctions, to set forth
the sacerdotal Orders and elections themselves; their powers, and
energies, and consecrations, and the triad of the superior Orders
under them ; in order that the harmonious Order of our Hierarchy may be demonstated as entirely rejecting and excluding the
disordered. the unregulated, and the confused; and, at tbe same
time, manifesting the regulated, and ordered, and well-established
in the gradations of the sacred orders within itself. Now we have
shewn, as I think, in the Hierarchy already celebrated by us, the
threefold division of every Hierarchy-when we affirmed, as our
sacred tradition holds, that every Hierarchical function is divided
1

Eph. iii.

Ill.

Observe tbe doctrine of tbe Atonement.

ECCLESI..... STICAL HIERARCHY.

'18

into (I) the most Divine initiations, and (2) the inspired experts
and teachers of them, (3) and tbose who are being religiously
initiated by them.
Therefore the most Divine Hierarchy of the heavenly Beings
has for its initiation its own proper and most immaterial conception
of God and things Divine, according to its capacity, and a complete likeness to God, and a persistent habit of imitating God, as
far as permissible. But its illuminators and leaders to this sacred
consecration are the very first Beings around God. For these
generously and proportionately transmit to the sacred ranks,
subordinate to themselves, the knowledge given to themselves,
and always deifying, by tbe seIf~subsisting and supreme Deity,
who governs the Divine minds that impart wisdom to man. But
the ranks who are subordinate to the first Beings are, and are
truly called, the initiated orders, as being religiously conducted
through those to the deifying illumination of the supreme Deity.
After this tbe heavenly and supermundane Hierarchy, the supreme
Deity gave the Hierarchy under the Law, for the purpose of
imparting its most holy gifts, for tbe benefit of our race, as it
were, to children,1 giving an apportioned light, so as not to wound
weak visions; and copies,ill far from the Archetypes, and hard to
understand II ; and types, whose hidden meaning was not
discerned.4 Now the initiation of the Hierarchy under the Law
is the restitution to spiritual worship.5 Our conductors to this
were men religiously instructed as to the holy tabernacle 6 by
Moses, the first initiator and Leader of the Hierarchs under the
Law. Now, in reference to this tabernacle, when describing, for
purposes of instruction, the Hierarchy under the Law, he called
all the sacred services of the Law an image of the type shewn to
him in Mount Sinai." But" initiated" are tbose wbo are being
conducted from the symbols of tbe Law, in proportion to their
capacity, to a more perfect revelation. The Word of God calls
our Hierarchy the more perfect revelation, naming it a fulfilment 8
of that, and a holy inheritance. It is both celestial and legal,
participating in commOIl, as a mean between extremes-with the
former by spiritual contemplations, and with tbe latter, because it
is variegated by sensible signs, and througb these is reverently led
to the Divine. There is likewise a threefold division of the
Hierarchy, which is divided into the most holy services of the
initiations, and into tbe Godlike ministers of holy things, and
those who are being conducted by tbem, according to their
capacity, to the holy rites.
But each of the threefold divisions of our Hierarchy, like that
1 Gal.

iv. 3-

Reb. :II. I.
a Num. xii. 8.
Rolli. ii. lIO.
a Reb. ix. u.
7 Ex. xxv.4Q.
8 MatI. v. 17.

II

6 John

iv. 23-

BCCLBSIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

of the Law, and of the Hierarchy which is more Divine than oun,
is arranged as first, middle, and last in rank, each carefully
guarding the proportion of religious rites, and the well-ordered
fellowship which keeps in harmonious order and binds all things
together. The most holy service of the initiations. regards the
sacred cleansing of the imperfect as a first Godlike rank-the
iIluminat1ng instruction of those who have been purified as the
middle-the perfecting of those who have been instructed in an
exact knowledge of their own revdations as the last, which is a
summary of the two former. The Order of Ministers, in the first
rank, cleanses the uninitiated through the initiations. In the
middle rank, it imparts light to those who have been cleansed;
and in the last, and highest of the ministering ranks, it completes
those who have been made partaken of the light, by the perfect
skill in the illuminations contemplated The fint rank 1 of those
who are being initiated is that of those who are being purified;
the next is that of those who are being illuminated after purification, who contemplate some sacred mysteries 2; but the last,
which is more Divine than the others, is that which is being
illuminated with the most perfecting science of the sacred
illuminations contemplated. The threefold rank of the holy
service of the initiations is celebrated, since the Birth in God is
exhibited in the oracles, as a purification and Iill:ht-giving illumination; and the initiation of the Synuis and the Myrrh, as a
perfecting knowledge and scic:nce of the works of God, through
which the unifying elevation and most blessed communion towards
the Godhead is reverently perfected. But now let us next examine
the sacerdotal order, which is divided into a purifying, and
illuminating, and perfecting discipline. This, then, is the sacred
Law of the Deity-that, through the first, the second are conducted to its most Divine Light. Do we not see the material
substances of the elements, first approaching, by preference, things
which are more congenial to themselves, and through these
diffusing their own energy to other things. Naturally, then, the
head and foundation of all good order, invisible. and visible,
causes the Divinely wrought rays to approach first the more
Divine Beings, and through them, as being more transparent
minds, and more properly adapted for reception and transmission
of Light, transmits his light and manifestations to those who are
subordinate, in proportions suitable to them.
It is, then, the function of these, the first contemplators, to
exhibit ungrudgingl)' to the next order, in proportion to their
capacity, the Divine visions reverently gazed upon by themselves,
and to reveal the things relating to the Hierarchy (since they have
been abundantly instructed with a complete science in all matters
1

Plato, Pbed. i. 52.

, Plato. Pbed. i. 54.

80

BCCLBStASTICAL HIBRARCHY.

relating to their own Hierarchy, and have received the effectual

power of instruction), and to impart sacred gifts according to
capacity of reception, since they possess Hierarchical completeness in the highest degree of knowledge and attainment. The
Divine order of the Hierarchs, then, is the first of the contemplative orders; but it is, at the same time, highest and lowest;
inasmuch as every order of our Hierarchy is summed "up and
fulfilled in it. For as we see every Hierarchy is terminated in
Jesus, thus we see each order summed up in its own godly
Hierarch. Now the power of the Hierarchical order permeates
the whole sacred body, and through everyone of the sacred
Orders performs the mysteries of its proper Hierarchy. But
pre-eminently to this, the Divine institution assigned the more
Divine Services of the Sanctuary, rather than to the other Orders,
for his special work. For these are the perfecting images of the
supremely Divine Power, completing aU the most Divine symbols
and aU the sacred orders. For though some of the august
symbols are consecrated by the Priests, yet never will the Priest
effect the Divine Birth without the most Divine Myrrh; nor will
he consecrate the mysteries of the Divine Communion, unless the
symbols of Communion have been placed upon the most Divine
Altar. But neither will he be Priest himself, unless he has been
designated to this by the Hierarchical consecrations. Hence the
Divine Institution has uniquely assigned the dedication of the
Hierarchical orders, and the consecration of the Divine Myrrh,
and the complete consecration of the Altar, to the perfecting
powers of the inspired Hierarchs. It is, then, the Hierarchical
Order which is furnished with the perfecting faculty, which preeminently completes the perfecting functions of the Hierarchy,
and reveals lucidly the sciences of the holy mysteries, and teaches
their proportions, and sacred conditions and powers. The
illuminated order of the Priests, however, conducts those who are
bein~ initiated, under the direction of the inspired Hierarch, to
the Divine visions of the initiations, and in co-operation with this,
reverently ministers its own religious ministrations. Whatever
this order may do, in shewing the works of God, through the
most holy symbols, and in perfectin~ those who draw nigh, in the
Divine contemplations, and in the participation in the hallowed
initiations, it yet sends to the Hierarch those who crave the exact
knowledge of the religious service which they have witnessed.
The Order of the Leitourgoi, that which purifies, whose function
it is to separclte the unfit, previous to the Divine Service of the
Priests,. purifies those who are drawing nigh, making them entirely
pure from opposing fashions, and suitable for the sanctifying
vision and communion. For which reason, dunnR the service of
Regeneration, the Leitourgoi
him who draws nigh of his old
clothing, and even take off his sandals, and make him stand

ECCLESIASTICAL HIBRARCHY.

81

towards the west for renunciation. And again. they lead him
back to the east (for they are of the purifying order and function).

commanding those who approach to entirely cast any the

coverings of their former life; and. showing the darkness of their
former conduct, and teaching those who have said farewell to
darkness, to transfer their allegiance to the Light. The Order of
the Leitourgoi, then, is for purification, leading those who have
been purified to the bright services of the Priests, both purifying
and bringing to the Birth the uninitiated. by the purifying
illuminations and teachings of the oracles, and further, sending
away from the Priests tbe unholy, without respect of persons.
Wherefore the Hierarchical institution places them over the holy
gates, suggesting that the approach of those who come to holy
things must be with complete purification, and conducting the
approach to their reverent vision and communion, through the
purifyin~ functions, and admittinR them throu~h these without spot.
We have shewn, then, that the order of the Hierarchs is perfecting and completing-that of the Priests illuminating and
conducting to the light-that of the Leitourgoi purifying and
discriminating; that is to say, the Hierarchical order is appointed
not only to perfect but at the same time to enlighten and to
purify. The rank of the Priests has within itself, alonR with the
illuminating, the purifying science. For the inferior cannot step
over to the superior functions, and in addition to this it is not
permitted for them to undertake such quackery as that. But the
more Divine Orders, in conjunction with their own, possess also
the sacred science of the subordinate orders. Nevertheless, since
the sacerdotal orders are
of Divine Energies, they are
arranged in Hierarchical distinctions, shewing in themselves the
regulated illuminations into the first and middle and last sacred
energies and orders of the well regulated and unconfused order of
the Divine Energies; manifesting, as I have said, in themselves
the well ordered and uncollfused character of the Divine Energies.
For since the supreme Deity first cleanses the Minds which He
may enter, then enlightens, anll when enlightened, perfects them
to a Godlike perfection; naturally the Hierarchical image of the
Divine divides itself into well defined orders and {unctions, shewing
clearly the Divine EnerRies firmly established without confusion
in most hallowed and unmixed ranks. Now, since we have
spoken as permitted to us, of the sacerdotal orders and completeness, their powers and energies, Jet us now contemplate their
most holy consecrations as well as we can.
H.-Mystery of sa(crtlotal (onsc(rat;om.
The Hierarch, being led to the Hierarchical consecration after
he bas bent both his 1 knees before the Altar, has upon his head

111,4_
L

'rib

0&.

If

ECCLESIASTICAL HIBRARCHY.

the God-transmitted oracles, and the Hierarch's right band, and

in this manner is consecrated 1 by the Hierarch who consecrates
him with all holy invocations. The Priest, after he hu bent both
his knees before the Divine Altar, hu the Hierarch's right hand
upon his head, and in this manner is dedicated 1I by the Hierarch
ordaining him with 'hallowing invocations. But the Leitourgos,
after he hu bent the one of two knees before the Divine Altar,
ball upon his head the right hand of the Hierarch who ordains
bim, being ordained IS by him with the consecrating invocations
used in the ordination of the Leitourgoi. Upon each of them the
and at
cruciform seal '" of the ordaining Hierarcb is
place, and
each ordination the sacred proclamation of name
the concluding salutation, since every sacerdotal person present,
and tbe Hierarch who ordained, salute bim who has been consecrated to any of the aforenamed Hierarchical orders.

III. -Contemplation.
and to the
These tbing., then, are common to the
Priests, and .to the Leitourgoi-the conductinR to the Divine
imposition of tbe Hierarch's right hand
Altar and
-the cruciform seal-tbe announcement of name-tbe completing
salutation.
But tbe special and select rite for the Hierarchs is the placing
of the oracles upon the head, since the subordinate orders have
not this-but for tbe Priests the bending of both knees, since tbe
consecration of the Leitourgoi has not this-for the Leitourgoi,
as bas been said, bend the one of two knees only. The conducting
and kneeling before the Divine Altar suggests to those who are
being sacerdotally consecrated that their own life is entirely placed
under God as Author of consecration, and that their whole
intellectual self approaches to Him all pure and hallowed, and
that it is of one likeness; and, as far as possible, meet for the
Divine and most hallowed Victim Ii and Altar, which purifies
througb religious ministrations the Godlike mind. But the
imposition of the Hierarch's right hand signifies at once the
protection of the primal consecrator, by whom, as holy children,
they are cherished paternally, whilst it gives them the sacerdotal
habit and function, and drives away their opposing powers. But
it teaches at the same time also that all sacerdotal operations are
effectual in so far as those who have been consecrated are acting
under God, and have Him as Leader in every respect of their
own life. But the signing with the sign of the Cross manifests
the inaction of all the impulses of the ftesh, and the life of Divine
imitation which looks unflinchingly to the life of Jesus, at once

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

manly and most godly, Who has come even to the Cross and
death, with a supremely Divine sinlessness, and stamps those who
thus live as of the same likeness by the cruciform image of his
own sinlessness.
But the Hierarch calls aloud the name of the consecrations and
of the consecrated. The mysterious meaning of which is, that
the holy consecrator, beloved of God, makes manifest the
supremely Divine choice-not of his own accord, or by his own
favour, leading those who are consecrated to the sacerdotal
consecration, but as being moved by God to all the Hierarchical
dedications. Thus Moses, the consecrator under the Law, does
not lead Aaron, his brother, to sacerdotal consecration, though
thinking him both beloved of God and hallowed, until moved by
God to this, in submission to God as chief consecrator, he
completed by Hierarchical rites the sacerdotal consecration'! But
our supremely Divine and lirst consecrator (for Jesus, out of His
love ~o mao, became even this), did" not glorify Himself,"
as tbe Scriptures say, but He Who said to Him, .. Thou I art
Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. II Wherefore also
He Himself, when leading the disciples to sacerdotal consecration, although, being as God, chief consecrator, nevertheless refers
the Hierarchical completion of the work of consecration to His
most holy Father, and the supremely Divine Spirit, by admonish
ing the disciples not to depart from Jerusalem, but to" await the
promise of the Father, which ye heard of me, that ye shall be
baptized in the Holy Ghost."ll And indeed, the coryphreus of
the disciples himself, with the ten, of the same rank and Hierarchy
with himself, when he proceeded to the sacerdotal completion of
the number of the disciples to twelve, reverently left the selection
to the Supreme Deity, saying, .. Shew' whom Thou hast chosen,"
and received him, who was Divinely designated by the Divine
choice, into the number of the twelve Hierarchs. Now concerning
the Divine lot, which fell as a Divine intimation upon Matthias,
others have expressed another view, not correctly, as I think, but
I will express my own sentiment. For it seems to me that tbe
Scriptures name "Iot " as a certain gift from God, pointing out to
that Hierarchical Choir, him who was designed by the Divine
election. More particularly because the Divine Hierarch must
not perform the sacerdotal consecration of his own motion; but,
as subject to God, moving him to accomplish these consecrations,
with religious rites and heavenly intimations.
Now the salutation attl\e end of the consecration has a religious
significance. For aU the members of the sacerdotal orders
present, as weU as the Hierarch who has consecrated them, salute
----------- -------1

Ex. xxix.

.. Acts i. 4. S.

--------'Acts i. 2+

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ECCLESIASTICAL HIBRARCHY.

the men ordained. For when by sacerdotal habits and dispositions, and by Divine call and dedication, a religious mind has
attained to sacerdotal consecration, he is dearly loved by the most
holy orders of the same rank; elevated, as he is, to a most Godlike comeliness; loving the minds similar to himself, and
religiously loved by them in return. Hence it is that the mutual
sacerdotal salutation is performed, proclaiming the reliRious
communion of minds of like character, and their loving benignity
towards each other, which keeps, by sacerdotal training, their
most Godlike comeliness in complete perfection.
These things, as I said, are common to the whole sacerdotal
consecration. The Hierarch, however, as a distinctive mark, has
the oracles most reverently placed upon his head. For since the
perfecting function and science of the whole Priesthood is conferred
upon the inspired Hierarchs by the supremely Divine and perfecting goodness, naturally the Divinely transmitted oracles are placed
upon the heads of the Hierarchs-oracles which explain completely and scientifically all theology-work of God, manifestation
of God, sacred word, sacred work: in one word, all the Divine
and sacred works and words bequeathed to our Hierarchy by the
beneficent Deity. Since the Godlike Hierarch, having partaken
entirely of the whole Hierarchical power, will not only be illuminated in the true and Godtransmitted science of aU the holy words
and works committed to the Hierarchy, but will also transmit
them to others by Hierarchical teaching, and will perfect in most
Divine knowledge and the highest instruction, through his power
as Hierarch, all the most perfecting functions of the whole Priesthood. But the distinctive feature oC the ordination of Priests, as
contrasted with the ordination of the Leitourgoi, is the bending
of the two knees, as that order bends only the one, and is consecrated by this religious symbol. The bending denotes the submissive approach of the man who draws nigh. ",ho places under
God that which is religiously presented. But since, as we have
often said, the three orders of the consecrators, through the three
most holy initiations and Cunctions, preside over the three orders
of the initiated, and accomplish or religiously perform their saving
approach under the Divine yoke, naturally the order of Deacons,
as being merely puritive, religiously performs the one approach
of those who are being purified, placing it under the Divine
Altar, as though the minds who are being purified were being
transcendently hallowed in himself. But the Priests bend both
their
because those who are religiously brought nigh by
them are not only being purified, but have been religiously perfected by their most luminous instructions into a contemplative
habit and power. But the Hierarch, bending both his knees, has
upon his head the God-transmitted oracles, as leading, through
his office of Hierarch, those" who have been purified by the

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

Leitourgoi, and enlightened by the Priests, to the exact knowledge

of the things contemplated by them, in proportion to their
capacities; and through this knowledge perfecting thOlie who are
brought nigh, into the most complete holiness of which they are
capable.

CAPUT VI.

ConcerninK' flu Ranks of llu Initialtd.

These, then, are the sacerdotal ranks and vocations, their
powers, and functions, and consecrations. We must next explain
the Triad of the ranks initiated, which are subordinate to them.
We affirm then that the multitudes who are dismissed from the
Divine Services and Consecrations, which we have mentioned, are
Orders undergoing a course of purification; for one is being
moulded and fashioned to a living existence, by the Deacons
through the oracles which bring to birth; another is already called
back to the holy life, from which it had departed, by the wholesome discipline of the good oracles; another, as being already
terrorized through want of manliness by opposing fears, is being
fortified by the strengthening oracles; another, as being led back
from evil counsels to holy efforts; and another as having been led
back, indeed, but not yet having a chaste fixedness in more Godlike habits and tranquillity. For these are the Orders under
purification, by the nursing and purifying powers of the Leitourgoi.
These, the Leitourgoi perfect, by their sacred powers, for the purpose of their being brought, after their complete cleansing, to the
contemplation and participation in the most luminous Divine
Services. The middle is the contemplative order, which participates in certain Divine Offices in all purity, according to its
capacity, and is assigned to the Priests for its enlightenment. For
it is evident, in my opinion, that this order, after having been
cleansed from all unholy impurity, and when it has acquired the
immovable steadfastness of its own mind in perfect purity, is led
back, through priestly functions, to the habit and power of contemplation. and communicates in the mOlit Divine symbols, fined
with all holy joy in their contemplations and communions,
mounting to the Divine love of their highest knowledge, through
their instructions and functions, as far as their capacity admits.
This, I say, is the order of the holy people, which, as having
passed through complete purification, is deemed worthy, as far as
permissible, both of the reverent vision. and participation of the
most luminous Sacraments. But, the order higher than all the
initiated is the sacred order of the Monks, which, as regards an
entirely
purification, with aU its power and completely

86

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

purified energies, has acquired a spiritual cODtemplation and

participation in every Divine Service, which it is permissible for it
to contemplate; and is being conducted by the mOlilt perfecting
functions of the Hierarchs, and taught by their inspired illuminations and hierarchical traditions respecting the Divine Services of
the holy Sacraments, viewed by tbem, according to their capacity,
and elevated by their sacred science, to the most perfecting
which they are capable. Hence our Divine leaders
them worthy of sacred appellations. Some, indeed,
can them .. Therapeutae," but otbers .. Monks," from their pure
service and fervid devotion to the true God; and from the
undivided and unified life, as making them one, by folding
. divided
into a God-like isolation, and
ection.
e the Divine institution accorded
ing grace, and deemed them worthy of a certain
their consecration-not hierarchical-for that is
confined to the sacerdotal orders alone, but hallowing,! as being
hallowed, by the pious
by the hierarchical consecration in
the second degree.
II.-MvSTERloN.

Mystery tif Monasti& Conser:ralio1l.

The Priest stands before the Divine Altar and religiously
pronounces the invocation for Monks. The Monk stands behind
tbe Priest. neither bends both knees, nor one of them, nor has
transmitted oracles; but only stands
upon his head the
near the Priest, whilst be pronounces upon him the mystical
Benediction. When the Priest bas finished this, he approaches
the man being consecrated, and asks bim first, if he bids farewell
to all distractions-not of life only, but also of imagination. Then
he sets before bim the most perfect
and warns him that it is
his bounden duty to surpass the ordinary life. When th-e initiated
has promised steadfastly all these things, and the Priest has
signed him with the sign of the Cross, be crops his hair. After
an invocation to the threefold subsistence of the Divine Beatitude,
he strips off all his clothing, and clothes him anew, and with aU
the holy men present salutes him, and administers to him the
supremely Divine Mysteries.

III.-Contemplatitm.
The fact that he bends neither knee, nor has upon his head
the Divinely transmitted oracles, but stands by the Priest, whilst

BCCLBSIASTICAL HIBRARCHY.

87

pronouncing the benediction for Monks, signifies that the

monastic order is not for the leading of others, but stands by
itself, in an isolated and holy state, after the sacerdotal orders,
and is readily conducted by them as a follower to the Divine
science of sacred things, according to its capacity. The remmcia
tion of the divided, not only lives, but even imaginations, shews
the most perfect love of wisdom in the Monks, which exercises
itself in the exact knowledge of the unifying commandments.
For it is not, as I said, of the middle order of those who are
initiated, but of the higher than all. Therefore many of the
things which are done without reproach by the middle order, are
forhidden in every way to the unified Monks -inasmuch as they
are under obligation to be unified to the One, and to be collected
to a sacred isolation, anti to be transformed to the sacerdotal life,
as far as permissible, as possessing an affinity to it in many
things, and as being nearer to it, as compared with the rest of
the ranks of the initiated. But the sealing with the sign of
the Cross, as we have already said, denotes the inaction of
almost aU the desires of the flesh. The cropping of the hair
shews the pure and unpretentious life, which does not beautify
the darkness within the mind by overlarding it with smeared
pretence, but shews it leads by itself to the highest likeness of
God, not by buman attractions, but by single and monastic.
The casting aside of the former c1otbinK, and taking another,
seems to show a transition from a middle sort of religious life to
the more perfect one; just as, in the holy Birth from God, the
exchange of the clothing denoted the elevation of a purified life
to a contemplative and enlightened condition. But if even now
the Priest and all the religious present salute him who has been
consecrated, bear in mind the holy fellowship or those who carry
the likeness of God, who congratulate each other in a Divine
rejoicing. But, as consummation of aU, the Priest invites him
who has been consecrated to the supremely Divine Communion,
shewing through religious ordinance that the consecrated, if he
would really attain to the monastic and uniform elevation, he will
not merely be contemplative of the sacred mysteries in their
essential nature, nor will he come to the communion of the most
holy symbols, after the fashion of the middle rank; but with a
Divine knowledge of the mysteries received by himself, he will
come in a manner different from that of the holy
to the
reception of the supremely Divine Communion.
the
Communion of the most holy Eucharist is also given to the sacerdotal l Orders, in their dedication to the Priesthood at the conclusion
of their most sacred consecrations by the Hierarch who has consecrated them; not only because the reception of the supremely
1

See Ordina.l.

88

BCCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

Divine Mysteries is the consummation of each Hierarchical

reception, but because all the sacred Orders, in accordance with
their capacity, partake of the common and most godly gift,
according to their own elevation and perfection in deification.
We conclude, then, that the holy initiations are, purification, and
illumination, and consecration. The Leitourgoi are a purifying
Order, the Priests an illuminating, and the Godlike Hierarchs a
perfecting Order. The Order which is excluded (rom the sacred
contemplation and communion, as being already under course of
purification, is an Order bein~ purified. But the Order of the
unified Monks is II. purified Order. For thus our Hierarchy,
reverently arranged in ranks fixed by God, is like the Heavenly
Hierarchies, preserving, so far as man can do, its Godlike characteristics and Divine imitation.
But you will say that the Orders undergoing purification utterly
fall short of the Heavenly Hierarchies (for it is neither permissible
nor true to say that any celestial Order is impure), and I would
altogether affirm myself that they are entirely without blemish, and
possess a purity above this world, unless I had completely fallen
away from a religiolls mind. For if any of them should have
become captive to evil, and have fallen from the heavenly,
undefiled harmony of the celestial minds, he would be brought to
the gloomy fall of the rebellious multitudes. But one may
reverently say, with regard to the Heavenly Hierarchy, that the
revelation from God, of things hitherto unknown, is a purification
to the subordinate Beings, leading them to a more perfect science
of the God-derived communications, purifying them from the
ignorance of those things of which they had not hitherto the exact
knowledge, conducted as they are, through the first and more
Divine BeinKs, to the higher and more luminous splendours of the
visions of God. Thus there are ranks being illuminated, and
being initiated and purified, and purifying and illuminating, and
perfecting, after the example of the Heavenly Hierarchy; as
though the highest and more Divine minds were purifying the
subordinate, holy, and reverent ranks from all ignorance (in ranks
and proportions of the Heavenly Hierarchies), but fitting them
with the most Divine illuminations and perfections, in the most
pure science of the supremely Divine conceptions. For we have
already said, and the oracles Divinely demonstrate that all the
heavenly Orders are not alike, in the sacred knowledge of all the
illuminations that come from God. But, from God immediately,
the first are illuminated; then through these, but again from God,
the subordinate, in proportion to their powers, are illuminated
with the most luminous glories of the Divine rays.

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

89

CAPUT VII.
COfUentinl tM Rites aleorated (JfJU tMse flJM Rave fallen aslup.
Having defined these things, I think it necessary to describe the
religious rites celebrated over those who have fallen asleep. For
there is a difference here also between the sacred and the profane.
For, as the form of life is different in each, so also, when approaching death, they differ. Those who have had a religious life, when
they look to the unfailing promises of the Deity, inasmuch as they
have observed their proof, in the resurrection proclaimed by it,
come to the goal of death, with a firm and unfailing hope, in
godly rejoicing, as at the conclusion of holy contests-knowing
that their rewards will be in a perfect and endless life and
salvation, through their future entire resurrection.1 For the holy
souls, which may possibly faU, during this present life, to a change
for the worse, in the regeneration will have the most Godlike
transition to an unchangeable t condition. Now, the pure bodies
of the holy souls, which are enrolled together as yoke-fellows and
companions, and fellow-comhatants within their Divine struggles,
in the unchanged steadfastness of their souls throughout the divine
life, will jointly receive their own resurrection. s For, having
been made one with the holy souls to which they were united in
this present life, as having become members" of Christ, they will
receive the Godlike and imperishable immortality, and a blessed
repose. s In this respect, then, the sleep of the just is in comfort and
unshaken hope as it draws nigh the goal of the Divine contests.s
Now, amongst the profane, some 7 illogically think to go to II. nonexistence; others,S that the yoke binding the body to its own
proper soul will be severed once for all, not deeming it suitable
to them in II. Divine liCe and blessed repose, inasmuch as they
have not been sufficiently instructed in the knowledge of Divine
things, which teaches that our most Godlike liCe in Christ has
already begun. 9 But others 10 assign to souls unions with other
bodies, committing, as I suppose, this injustice to them, that,
after they have laboured together with the godly souls, they unjustly deprive them, when they have reached the goal of the
Divine course, of their righteous retribution. But others,ll I do
not know how they have strayed to conceptions of such earthly
tendency, say, that the most holy and blessed inheritance,
promised to the devout, is similar to our life in tbis world, and
unlawfully reject, for those who are equal to the Angels, nourisbment appropriate to another kind of life. But no one would ever
first-body afterwards. I I Jabo iii.:I. 8 I Cor. xv .52. ' I Cor. vi. IS.
Heb. iv. n.
8 a Tim. iv. 6-8.
1 Plato, Pbed. i. 548 Pbed. i. 6:1-3 Col. iii. 3-410 Pbed. i. 64.
11 Malt. uii. lI8.

1 Soul
i

ECCLESlJiSTICA.L HIERA.RCHY.

90

forsake molt reverent men. for such vagaries as these. But

knowing that their wbole selves will receive the Christlike inberitance, when they bave come to the goal of this present life,
they see more clearly their road to incorruption as already become
nearer, and praise the Rifts of the supreme Godhead and are filled
with a Divine satisfaction. no longer fearing the fan to a worse
condition, but well knowing that they will hold firmly and everlastingly the good things already acquired. But those who are
full of blemishes, full of stains, even though they have attained to
some instruction, yet, of their own accord, have to their own
destruction rejected this from their mind, and have rashly followed
destructive lusts, when they have approached the end of their life
here, the Divine regulation of the oracles will no longer appear to
them as before, a subject of scorn,1 but when they have looked
with other eyes upon the pleasures of their passions destroyed,
and have pronounced blessed the holy life from which they
thoughtlessly had fallen away, they are, piteously and against their
will, separated from this present life. conducted to no blessed
hope, in consequence of their shamefullife.lI But, whilst none of
these attain the rest of holy men, the holy man himself, who
comes to the end of his struggles, is filled with a holy consolation,
and with much satisfaction draws nigh to the path of the holy
regeneration. The familiar friends of him who has fallen asleep,
as befits their Divine familiarity and fellowship, pronounce him
blessed, whoever he is, as approaching, in answer to his prayers,
the end crowned with victory. They send up odes of thanksgivinR to the Author of victory, praying also that they themselves
may come to the same inheritance. Then they take him and
bring him to the Hierarch, as to a bequest of holy CrOwns. He
right gladly receives him, and celebrates the rites fixed by reverend
men, to be celebrated over those who have piously fallen asleep.
II.-M'ysteriotl 8 OfJer tMse WM

jaN

religiously fallen aslp.

The Divine Hierarch collects the reverend Choir. If the

person who has fallen asleep were of the sacerdotal rank, he
places him low before the Holy Altar, and offers the prayer and
thanksgiving to God. But if he belonged to the rank of the
chaste Monks, he places him near the hallowed sanctuary, before
the sacerdotal entrance. Then the Hierarch finishes the prayer
of thanksgiving to God. Next, the Leitourgoi read the faithful
promises concerning our resurrection, which are contained in the
Divine Lections, and chant the odes of the same teaching and
power, from the Lections contained in the Psalter.4 Then the
1

Republic, lib. i., P. 9- Cousin, Paris, 1833t Ps. cxii.

I IllJItructive Function.
, See Burial. Office.

10.

BCCLBSIASTICAL HIBRARCHY.

91

first Deacon dismisses the catechumens, and caUs aloud the

names of the holy people who have already fallen asleep, amongst
whom he deems the man who has just terminated his life worthy
of registration, as being of the same rank, and urges all to seek
the blessed consummation in Christ. Then tbe Divine Hierarch
advances, and offers a most boly prayer over him, and after the
prayer he salutes the defunct, and after him aU wbo are P~=llilo
When all bave saluted, the Hierarcb pours the oil upon the
defunct, and when he has offered the prayer for aU, be places the
body in a worthy grave, with other holy bodies of the same rank.

I H...... etmfemplatiun.
Now, if the profane should see or hear that these rites were
celebrated by us, they will, I suppose, split with laughter, and
compassionate us for our folly. But we need not wonder at this.
For, as the Scripture saith, .. If they will not believe, neither shall
they understand!'l Now, let us who have contemplated the
spiritnal meaning of the rites celebrated, say-Whilst Jesus leads
us to the light, that not without reason does the Hierarch conduct
to, and place the defunct in the place with tbose of the same
rank. For it shows spiritually that, in the regeneration, aU will be
in that inheritance for which tbey have chosen their own life bere.
For example, if anyone here had a Godlike and most holy life
(so far as the imitation of God is attainable by man), he will be
throughout the age to come in a divine and blessed lot. But if
he lead a life inferior to the divine likeness in its perfection, but,
nevertheless, a boly life, even this man will receive the holy
retributions of the same kind. The Hierarch, having given thanks
for this Divine righteousness, offers a sacred prayer, and celebrates
the worshipful Deity, as subjugating the unjust and tyrannical
power against us all, but conducting us to our own most just
judgments.
Now, the Chants and Readings of the Divine promises are
explanatory of the most blessed inheritances into which those who
have attained a Divine perfection shall be appointed. But the
inheritances which await the defunct, stimulate those who are still
living to a similar perfection. But observe, that not all classes of
those who are under purification are dismissed, but only the
catechumens are put out of the holy place, for this class is entirely
uninstructed in every holy initiation, and is not permitted to view
any of the religious celebrations, great or sman, inasmuch as they
have not received the faculty of contemplating the holy mysteries,
through the Birth from God, which is Source and gift of light.
But the other classes of tbose who are being purified have already
been under instruction in sacred tradition; but, as they have
lWl5ll.omiii9

ECCLESIASTICAL HiBRARCHY.

foolishly returned to an evil coune (it being necessary to complete

their training to better things), they are reasonably dismissed from
Divine visions and communions, even under symbols, for tbey
would be injured, as partaking of tbem unhomy, and would come
to a R1'eater contempt of the Divine Mysteries and themselves.
But it is not unbecoming that they should be present at the
ceremonies now celebrated, liS they are clearly taught and see the
uncertainty of death amongst us, and the glories of the saints
chante.d from the unfailing oracles, and that the sufferings reserved
to the unholy like themselves will be without end. For it will
perhaps be profitable for them to see him who has religiously
finished his course reverently proclaimed by the public declaration
of the Leitourgoi, as being numbered amongst the saints for ever.1
And, perchance, tbey also will come to the lik.e condition, and will
learn, from tbe instruction of the Deacons, that the consummation
in Cbrist is blessed indeed. Then the Hierarch, advancing, offers
a sacred prayer over the defunct. After the prayer, both the
Hierarch himselC salutes him, and next, all who are present. As
for the prayer, it beseeches tbe supremely Divine Goodness to
remit to the defunct all the failings committed throu~h human
infirmity, and to plllce him in tbe light II and land of the living II; in
the bosom of Abraham,' and'Isaac, and Jacob; in a place where
grief and sorrow and sighing are no more. It is evident, tben, as
I think, tbat tbese, the rewards of the holy, are most blessed. For
wbat can be compared to an immortality, entirely witbout grief,
and luminous with light. Especially, if all the promises wbich
pass man's understanding, and which are signified to us by signs
adapted to our capacity, faU short in their description of the actual
truth. For we must remember that that saying is true, that ., Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart
of man to conceive, the things God hath prepared for them that
love 15 him." .. Bosoms" of the blessed Patriarchs, and of the
other holy men are in my judgment the most divine and blessed
inheritance which awaits all godly men, in that consummation 8
wbich grows not old, and is fuU of blessedness.
But you may, ~rhaps, say that these things are correctly
affirmed by us, but you want to know for what reason the
Hierarch beseeches the supremely Divine Goodness, asking
remission of the faults committed by the defunct, and his
admission into the brightest inheritance amongst godly men of
the same rank. For, if everyone shall receive. by judgment of
God. equivalents for what he has done in the present life, whether
it be good or otherwise, and the defunct has finished his activity
within this present life, how, from any prayer offered by the
1

Luke i.

70.

I PlI. ivL 13Cor. iL 9.

II

, Luke m. u.

PI. ClCri. 9.
8 Malt.

vi.

10.

BCCLESIASTICAL HlBRARCHY.

93

Hierarch, will he be transferred to another lot, besides that

suitable to him, as an equivalent for his life here. Now, well do
I know, as following the Oracles, that each one will have the
inheritance which is like for like, for the Lord, he says, hath
concluded respecting him, and each one " shall receive the things
done in his body accordinR to that he hath done, whether it be
good, or whether it be bad." 1 Yea, the sure tradition of the
Oracles teaches us that the prayers, even of the just, avail only for
those who are worthy of pious prayers during this present life,
much less 1I after death. Did the prayers of Samuel procure
anything for Saul? 8 or did the intercession of the Prophet 4 bring
any advantage to the people of Israel? For it is as if, when the
sun is shedding its own splendour upon eyes that are sound,
anyone should seek to enjoy the meridian splendour, whilst
obliterating his own powers of vision. Thus does he cling to
impossible and extravagant expectations, who, whilst beseeching
the prayers of holy men, diminishes the holy efforts essential to
the same, and departs from the most luminous and beneficent
commandments through heedlessness of the Divine gifts.
Nevertheless, I affirm, on the authority of the oracles, that the
prayers of the just l> are in every respect profitable in this life,
after the following fashion. If anyone, longing for holy gifts
and having a religious disposition for their reception, approaches
some one of the pious men, as being conscious of his own insufficiency. and should prevail upon him to become his fellow-helper,
and fellow-suppliant, he will be benefitted in every respect. in this
way, with a benefit superior to aU. For he will attain the most
Divine gifts he prays for, since the supremely Divine Goodness
assists him, as well as his pious self-knowledge, and his reverence
for devout men, and his craving for the relikious gifts requested.
and his brotherly and Godlike disposition. For this has been
firmly fixed by the supremely Divine decrees-that the Divine
gifts are given in an order most befitting God to those who are
meet to receive them, through those who are meet to distribute
them.
If anyone then should despise this sacred regulation, and betake
himself to a wretched self-conceit, and should deem bimself
sufficient for the Divine Converse, and look down upon piOllS
men, and if 'he should further request requests unworthy of God,
and not holy, and if he should have a disposition which is not
concordant with the Divine, and similar to himself, he will fail in
his inexperienced request through his own fault. Now, with
reference to the prayer mentioned, which the Hierarch prays over
111 Cor. v. 10.

I
4

"""''l'f

Jer. vii.

16.

I'onll 8&..111"011.
6 James

v.

BI Sam. xvi. I.
16.

BCCLBSIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

tbe defunct, we think it necessary to mention the tradition wbieb

has come to us from our inspired leaders. The Divine Hierarch,
as the oracles say, is the interpreter of the supremely divine
judgments. For he is messenger 1 of the Lord God Omnipotent.
He has learned then, from the Godtransmitted oracles, that to
those who have passed their life in piety, tbe most bright and
divine II life is recompensed according to their deserts, by the
most just measures, whilst the Divine Love towards man overlooks, through its goodness, the blemishes which have come to
them, through human infirmity (since no one, as the oracles say,
is pure and without spot).
Now, the Hierarch knew these things to have been promised
by the sure oracles. He asks, then, that these things may come
to pass, and that the righteous returns may be given to those who
have lived piously. At the same time, as being moulded as an
image of goodness to the Divine imitation, he beseeches Rifts for
others as favours to himself. BUl, at the same time, he knows
that the promises will be surely fulfilled, and manifests clearly to
those present that the things asked by him, according to Divine
law, win be entirely realized, for those who have been perfected in
a Divine life. For the Hierarch, the expounder of the supremely
Divine Justice, would never seek things whicb are not most
pleasing to the Most Supreme God, and which were not divinely
promised to be
by Him. Wherefore, he does not offer
these prayers over the unholy departed; not only because in this
he would deviate from his office of interpreter, and would presumptuously arrogate, on his own authority, a function of the
Hierarch" without being moved by the Supreme Legislator, but,
because also, he would fail to obtain his abominable request. and
would, not unnaturally, hear respecting himself, from the Divine
Oracle, .. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss."" Therefore, the Divine Hierarch beseeches things divinely promised, and
dear to God, and which will, in every respect, be given, and
demonstrates bis own likeness to the good loving God, and
declares, as the interpreter of God, the gifts which will be received
by the devout. Thus, the Hierarchs have discriminating powers,
as interpreters of the Divine Judgments. Not, as though the
All-Wise Deity, to put it mildly, were slavishly following their
irrational impulses, but, as though they, as interpreters of God,
were deciding by the motion of the supremely judging Spirit,
those who have already been judged by God according to their
deserts. For receive, he says, tbe Holy Spirit, .. whose [\ sins ye
may have remitted, they are remitted; whose ye may retain, they
1 Malachi it 7.
4

James ill'. 3-

I I

John v. liS.
I John xx.

I
lIIl1.

Job xiv. 4lI3.

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

95

are retained." And to him who was illuminated with the Divine
revelations of the most Holy Father, the Oracles say," Whatsoever
thou shalt have bound upon the earth shall be bound in the
heavens; and whatsoever thou shalt have loosed on earth. shall
be loosed in heaven," inasmuch as He, and every Hierarch who
is like Him, receives those who are dear to God, according to the
revelations of the Father's judgments resting upon him, as
announcing and interpreting the Divine Will, and rejects those
who are without God. Further, as the Oracles affirm, He uttered
that sacred and divine saying, not as self-moved,l nor as though
flesh and blood had revealed it, but as one who had been
spiritually taught Divine things by God. The inspired Hierarchs
then, must so exercise their determinations and all their Hierarch
ical powers as the Godhead, the Supreme Initiator, may move
them. As for the rest, they must so cling to the Hierarchs in
their sacerdotal functions as men moved by God. .. For he that
despises you," He says, "despiseth Me." 2
Let us now proceed to that which follows the prayer mentioned.
When the Hierarcb has finished this, he first salutes the defunct,
and next, all who are present. For dear and honoured, to all
Godlike men, is he who has been perfected in a Divine life.
After the salutation the Hierarch pours the oil upon the defunct.
But remember, that in course of the Birth from God, before the
most Divine Baptism, the oil of Chrism, as a first participation of
the holy symbol. is given to the neophyte, after the entire removal
of the former clothing. But now, at the conclusion of all that is
done, the oil is poured upon the defunct. The first anoin~ing
with the oil summons the initiated to the holy contests; but the
pouring of the oil now shows the defunct to have struggled
through those same contests, and to have been made perfect.
When the Hierarch has finished these things he places the body
in an honourable chamber, with other bodies of holy men of the
same rank. For if, in soul and body, the man has passed a life
dear to God, there will be honoured with the devout soul also
the body which contended with it throughout the devout struggles.
Hence, the Divine justice gives to it, together with its own body,
the reciprocal inheritances, as companions and participators in
the devout or the contrary life. Wherefore, the Divine institution
of sacred things bequeaths the supremely Divine participations to
them both-to the soul, indeed, in a pure contemplation and in
an exact knowledge of the rites celebrated; to the body, by
sanctifying the whole man, as in a figure, with the most Divine
Myrrh, and the most holy symbols of the Divine Communion,
effecting his complete salvation, and announcing that his resurrec2 Matt.

xvi. 17.

s Luke x. 16.

98

ECCLESIASTICAL HIBRARCHY.

tion will be most complete by entire IUlctification. Now, as

regards the consecrating inYocations, it is not permitted to
explain them in writing, nor may we bring their mysterious
meaning, nor the powers working in them from God, from their
secrecy to publicity. But, as our sacred tradition holds, by leaming these, through quiet instructions, and by being perfected to a
more Godlike condition and eleYation, through Diyine loye and
holy duties, you will be bome by the most perfect illumination to
the most exalted knowledge of them.
Now the fact that eyen children, not yet able to understand the
Divine mysteries, should become recipients of the holy Birth from
God, and of the most holy symbols of the supremely Divine
Communion, seems, as you say, to the profane, a fit subject for
reasonable laughter, upon the supposition that the Hierarchs
teach Divine things to those not able to hear, and vainly transmit
the sacred traditions to those who do not understand. And this
is still more laughable-that others, on their behalf, repeat the
abjurations and the sacred compacts. But your Hierarchical
judgment must not be too hard upon those who are led astray,
but you should persuasively, and for the purpose of leading them
to the light, reply affectionately to the positions alleged by them.
When you have brought forward this fact, in accordance with sacred
rule, that not all Divine things are comprehended in our knowledge, but many of the things unknown by us have causes worthy
of God, which, although unknown to us, are yet well known to the
Orders above 11S. Many things also escape even the most exalted
Beings, and are known distinctly by the All-Wise and WisdomGiving Deity. Further, also, concerning this, we affirm what our
God-like instructors conveyed to us, what they had learned from
the early 1 tradition. For they say, what is also a fact, that infants
being brought up according to a Divine institution will attain a
religious disposition exempt from all error, and inexperienced in
an unholy life. When our Divine leaders came to this conclusion,
it was determined to admit infants upon the following conditions,
viz. :-that the parents of the child to be presented should transfer
him to some one of the instructed, who is a faithful teacher of
children in Divine things, so that the child should lead the rest
of his life under his instruction, as under a godfather, and security
for his religious safe-keeping. The Hierarch requires him who
promised to bring up the child according to the religious life, to
pronounce the renunciations and the religious confessious. Not.
as they would jokingly say, as instructing one instead of another
in Divine things. For he does not say this, "on behalf of this
child, I make myself the renunciation and the sacred profession,"
IdpxalM. See Acts xv. 7. 21. 16; and Arcbbp. Trench. Yet even Dupin
ignoranlly alleged that word IllI proof Post-Apostolic. Nov. Bib. p. 106.

BCCLESlASTICAL HIERARCHY.

but that the child renounces and consents itself; i.e., I promise
to persuade the child, when he has come to a frame of mind
capable of religious impressions, through my instructions in
Divine things, to renounce entirely contrary things, and to promise
and perform the Divine confessions. There is nothing absurd,
then, in my judgment, if the child is brought up in a religious
training, in his having a guide and religious surety, who implants
in him a disposition for Divine things, and
bim inexperienced
in things contrary.
The Hierarch imparts to the child the sacred symbols in order
that he may be nourished by them, and may not have any other
life, besides that of always contemplating Divine things; and that,
being made partaker of them, in a religious progress, he may have
a religious disposition in these matters, and may be devoutly
brought up by his Godlike surety. So great, my son, and so
beautiful, are the uniform visions of our Hierarchy, which have
been presented to my view. But from others, perhaps, of a more
clear-sighted mind, these things have been viewed, not only more
clearly, but also more divinely. And to you, as I fancy, more
brilliant and divine beauties will shine forth, whilst you use the
foregoing as stepping stones to a higher ray. Impart then, my
friend, yourself also, to me, a more perfect illumination, and
show to my eyes the more comely and uniform beauties that you
may have been able to see, for I am confident tbat, by what
has been said, I shall strike the sparks 1 of the Divine Fire
which lie dormant in you.
THANKS BE TO GOD.

JOHN PARKER.

Bacon. Advancement of Learning. p.

2.

W MRS by same If I4t1l0l'.

CBIUSTIANITY CHRONOLOGICALLY CONFIRMED.
WRY AM

A CHRISTIAN?

3d.

Sermon preached ill Paris. 1/-.

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My

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CONVEIlSION TO RITUAL.