45. Edacitas in Graecas gula est, in Gallis natura (Dialog.
i. c. 4, p. 521). Cassian fairly owns that the perfect model
of abstinence cannot be imitated in Gaul, on account of the
aerum temperies, and the qualitas nostrae fragilitatis
(Institut. iv. 11). Among the Western rules, that of
Columbanus is the most austere: he had been educated amidst
the poverty of Ireland, as rigid, perhaps, and inflexible as
the abstemious virtue of Egypt. The rule of Isidore of
Seville is the mildest: on holidays he allows the use of
flesh.