I would therefore declined to take in
hand the execution of your directives, fearing the reproach of impetuosity, had
I not feared still more the danger [1033C] of disobedience. Being caught
between these two, I prefer the reproach of impetuosity, which is more tolerable,
to the danger of disobedience, which is unforgivable. By the intercession of
the saints, then, and with the help of your own prayers, and with Christ our
great God and Savior [GK: Χριστου
του μεγαλου
Θεου και
Σωτηρος ημων] granting me
reverent thoughts and suitable speech, I will set forth a response as concise
as is possible to teach heading (for my treatise is addressed to a teacher who
can infer great things from small). I begin with Gregory of godly mind, since
he is rather close to us in time. [1033D] (Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua to Thomas:
Prologue, in On Difficulties in the Church Fathers: The Ambigua, 2 vols.
[trans. Nicholas Constas; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library; Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 2014], 1:7, italics in original, comment in square
brackets added for clarification)