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VYSENS'KYJ'S ШЕА OF REFORM 51is no priest. He is an enemy, deceitful, self-deluded, a wolf in sheep's clothing [Mt.7.15] ready to attack the people of God. 57As Father John Meyendorff has noted, "In the neo-platonic tradition goingback to Origen and reinterpreted in the peculiar system of Pseudo-Dionysius, the hierarchy is described in terms of a personal state, notecclesiastical function, and the bishop is seen as a 'deified and divine man',with the implication that the loss of personal holiness involves also the lossof his hierarchical position." 58(2) The path toward purification and the return to God can only takeplace "in the mountains" away from the world, for did not Chrysostomhimself—as did Lot—feel the need "to flee from the worldly fire of Zoar inorder not to be burned by the fire of the sins of the flesh" (213.21 -23)? 59And did not the apostles become the light shining before men "by abidingin the wilderness"? 60In this regard, it is important to bear in mind the close57PG Ш, 1092. The English translation is found in: Pseudo-Dionysius. The Complete Works,trans. С Luibheid (New York, 1987), pp. 274-75.58J. Meyendorff, Byzantium and the Rise of Russia. A Study of Byzantino-Russian Relationsin the Fourteenth Century (Cambridge, 1981), p. 108; cf. Roques, L'univers dionysien, pp.98ff. Meyendorff s reference to Pseudo-Dionysius is placed within the context of EasternChristian monasticism and the numerous examples of its opposition to episcopal and patriarchalinstitutions. In this regard, he cites Symeon the New Theologian—whose popularityamong Byzantine hesychasts was very great—who speaks of " 'true' priests and bishops, meaningcharismatic leaders, and condemn[s] those who desire priesthood for material reasons, andepiscopacy as a source of wealth" (p. 108), and also refers to the Hagioretic Tome written byGregory Palamas as a "theological manifesto, quite independent of any statement of the hierarchy"(p. 109). (Cf. L. Clucas, "Eschatological Theory in Byzantine Hesychasm: A Parallel toJoachim da Fiore," Byzantinische Zeitschrift 70 [1977]: 324-46.) At the same time, we shouldnot forget that in the above-cited Epistle 8, Pseudo-Dionysius also stresses that the exalted stateof the monks is in no way inconsistent with the obligation to honor the clerical orders as theirsuperiors. Responding to a perceived threat to the hierarchy and order on the part of the monkDemophilus, he asserts that the order of hierarchy parallels the angelic "class-ranks." Eachilluminates the next in order: "Now hear what I have to say to you. It is not permitted that apriest should be corrected by the deacons, who are your superiors, nor by the monks.... Evenif disorder and confusion should undermine the most divine ordinances and regulations, thatstill gives no right, even on God's behalf, to overturn the order which God himself has established.God is not divided against himself. Otherwise, how could his kingdom stand [Mt.12.25]?" (PG Ш, 1088С; Pseudo-Dionysius, p. 272). This type of apology for hierarchy andorder could hardly have been supported by Vyfens'kyj.59Cf. Vysens'kyj's plea for purification in his introduction to the Knyika: "Proto, molju vas,spasajtesja obrazom Lota, izbOiśa iz Sodomy vo Sihorî—Sihor í est pokajanie i oći§6enie othrîxa [Gen. 19.1-38]—sicevym obrazom, jako tu poslîdi o oćiSćenii cerkvi reklosja, najdete(7.22-24). Lot's flight from the appalling wickedness of Sodom was a commonplace in anascetic theology that sought to stress the necessity of detachment from the world in the ascenttoward God.6 0The excerpt from homily VI in eclogue XTV, which VySens'kyj cites in his text(214.14-16), exposes the disjunction between the age of the apostles and "this present life"