Psellos defended himself at length against the charge of Ioannes Xiphilinos that he followed Plato more than Christ, with references to Ioannes' (lost) accusation and earlier letters, which leave some passages obscure. He reminded Ioannes of the fulfilment of their plans to be tonsured and their time together on Olympos. He attacked Ioannes' ignorance, stressed the role of Platonism in the formation of Christian doctrine but finally declared all the ancients inferior to the Bible