Letter 723

To Gregory the Deacon. There are times when one demon is reckoned to undo another, as the demon of fornication undoes the demon of vainglory [kenodoxia, empty self-importance] - that most subtle one, hard to detect, and all aflutter toward delusion, the one that readily skips about and is irrationally borne aloft.

Ἔστιν ὅτε δαίμων δαίμονα καταλύειν νενομίσται, ὥσπερ ὁ τῆς πορνείας τὸν τῆς κενοδοξίας, τὸν μάλιστα λεπτότατον, καὶ δυσφανῆ, καὶ διεπτοημένον πρὸς τὴν πλάνην, τὸν ῥᾳδίως σκιρτῶντα, καὶ ἀλόγως ἀναπτερούμενον.