THE TWELVE BOOKS
OF
JOHN CASSIAN
ON THE
INSTITUTES OF THE COENOBIA,
AND THE
REMEDIES FOR THE EIGHT PRINCIPAL FAULTS.
TRANSLATION AND NOTES BY
EDGAR C. S. GIBSON
From: A Select Library of Nicene and
Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series,
Volume 11
New York, 1894
Contents.
Other version available: text [470K].
Preface and Books 1-6, text.
[266K].
Books 7-12, text. [204K].
PREFACE.
The history of the Old Testament tells us that the most wise Solomon
received from heaven "wisdom and understanding exceeding much,
and largeness of heart even as the sand that is on the seashore cannot
be counted;"[1] so that by the
Lord's testimony we may say that no one either has arisen in time past
equal to him or will arise after him: and afterward, when wishing to
raise that magnificent temple to the Lord, we are told that he asked
the help of a foreigner, the king of Tyre. And when there was sent to
him one Hiram, the son of a widow woman,[2] it was by his means and ministration
that he executed all the glorious things which he devised by the
suggestion of the Divine wisdom either for the temple of the Lord or
for the sacred vessels. If, then, that power that was higher than all
the kingdoms of the earth, and that noble and illustrious scion of the
race of Israel, and that divinely inspired wisdom which excelled the
training and customs of all the Easterns and Egyptians, by no means
disdained the advice of a poor man and a foreigner, rightly also do
you, most blessed Pope[3] Castor, taught
by these examples, deign to call in me, a worthless creature though I
am, and in every respect as poor as possible, to share in so great a
work. When you are planning to build a true and reasonable temple to
God, not with inanimate stones but with a congregation of saints, and
no temporal or corruptible building, but one that is eternal and
cannot be shaken; and desiring also to consecrate to the Lord most
precious vessels not forged of dumb[4]
metal, of gold or silver, which a Babylonish monarch may afterwards
take and devote to the pleasures of his concubines and princes,[5] but fashioned of holy souls which shine
with the uprightness of innocence, righteousness, and purity, and bear
about Christ abiding in themselves as King;--since, then, you are
anxious that the institutions of the East and especially of Egypt
should be established in your province, which is at present without
monasteries,[6] although you are
yourself perfect in all virtues and knowledge and so filled with all
spiritual riches that not only your talk but even your life alone is
amply sufficient for an example to those who are seeking
perfection,--yet you ask me, not knowing what to say, and feeble in
speech and knowledge, to contribute something from the scanty supply
of my thoughts toward the satisfaction of your desire; and you charge
me to declare, although with inexpert pen, the customs of the
monasteries which we have seen observed throughout Egypt and
Palestine, as they were delivered to us by the Fathers; not looking
for graceful speech, in which you yourself are especially skilled, but
wanting the simple life of holy men to be told in simple language to
the brethren in your new monastery. But in proportion as a dutiful
desire of granting your request urges me to obey, so do manifold
difficulties and embarrassments deter me when wishing to comply.
First, because my merits are not so proportioned to my age as for me
to trust that I can worthily comprehend with my mind and heart matters
so difficult, so obscure, and so sacred. Secondly, because that which
we either tried to do or learnt or saw when from our earliest youth we
lived among them and were urged on by their daily exhortations and
examples,--this we can scarcely retain in its entirety when we have
been for so many years withdrawn from intercourse with them and from
following their mode of life; especially as the method of these things
cannot possibly be taught or understood or kept in the memory by idle
meditation and verbal teaching, for it depends entirely upon
experience and practice. And, as these things cannot be taught save
by one who has had experience of them, so they cannot even be learnt
or understood except by one who has tried with equal care and pains to
grasp them; while, unless they are often discussed and well worn in
frequent conferences with spiritual men, they quickly fade away
through carelessness of mind. Thirdly, because a discourse that is
lacking in skill cannot properly expound those things which we can
recall to mind, not as the things themselves deserve, but as our
condition allows us. To this it must be added that on this very
subject men who were noble in life and eminent for speech and
knowledge have already put forth several little books, I mean Basil
and Jerome, and some others, the former of whom, when the brethren
asked about various rules and questions, replied in language that was
not only eloquent but rich in testimonies from Holy Scripture; while
the latter not only published works that were the offspring of his own
genius, but also translated into Latin works that had been written in
Greek.[7] And, after such abundant
streams of eloquence, I might not unfairly be accused of presumption
for trying to produce this feeble rill, were it not that the
confidence of your holiness encouraged me, and the assurance that
these trifles would be acceptable to you, whatever they were like, and
that you would send them to the congregation of the brethren dwelling
in your newly founded monastery. And if by chance I have said
anything without sufficient care, may they kindly overlook it and
endure it with a somewhat indulgent pardon, asking rather for
trustworthiness of speech than for grace of style on my part.
Wherefore, most blessed Pope, remarkable example of religion and
humility, encouraged by your prayers, I will to the best of my ability
approach the work which you enjoin; and those matters which were
altogether left untouched by those who preceded us, since they
endeavoured to describe what they had heard rather than what they had
experienced, these things I will tell as to an inexperienced
monastery, and to men who are indeed[8]
athirst. Nor certainly shall I try to weave a tale of God's miracles
and signs, although we have not only heard of many such among our
elders, and those past belief, but have also seen them fulfilled under
our very eyes; yet, leaving out all these things which minister to the
reader nothing but astonishment and no instruction in the perfect
life, I shall try, so far as I can, with the help of God, faithfully
to explain only their institutions and the rules of their monasteries,
and especially the origins and causes of the principal faults, of
which they reckon eight, and the remedies for them according to their
traditions,--since my purpose is to say a few words not about God's
miracles, but about the way to improve our character, and the
attainment of the perfect life, in accordance with that which we
received from our elders. In this, too, I will try to satisfy your
directions, so that, if I happen to find that anything has been either
withdrawn or added in those countries not in accordance with the
example of the elders established by ancient custom, but according to
the fancy of any one who has founded a monastery, I will faithfully
add it or omit it, in accordance with the rule which I have seen
followed in the monasteries anciently founded throughout Egypt and
Palestine, as I do not believe that a new establishment in the West,
in the parts of Gaul could find anything more reasonable or more
perfect than are those customs, in observance of which the monasteries
that have been founded by holy and spiritually minded fathers since
the rise of apostolic preaching endure even to our own times. I
shall, however, venture to exercise this discretion in my work,--that
where I find anything in the rule of the Egyptians which, either
because of the severity of the climate, or owing to some difficulty or
diversity of habits, is impossible in these countries, or hard and
difficult, I shall to some extent balance it by the customs of the
monasteries which are found throughout Pontus and Mesopotamia;
because, if due regard be paid to what things are possible, there is
the same perfection in the observance although the power may be
unequal.
BOOK I.
OF THE DRESS OF THE MONKS.
CHAPTER I.
Of the Monk's Girdle.[9]
AS we are going to speak of the customs and rules of the monasteries,
how by God's grace can we better begin than with the actual dress of
the monks, for we shall then be able to expound in due course their
interior life when we have set their outward man before your eyes. A
monk, then, as a soldier of Christ ever ready for battle, ought always
to walk with his loins girded. For in this fashion, too, the
authority of Holy Scripture shows that they walked who in the Old
Testament started the original of this life,--I mean Elijah and
Elisha; and, moreover, we know that the leaders and authors of the New
Testament, viz., John, Peter, and Paul, and the others of the same
rank, walked in the same manner. And of these the first-mentioned,
who even in the Old Testament displayed the flowers of a virgin life
and an example of chastity and continence, when he had been sent by
the Lord to rebuke the messengers of Ahaziah, the wicked king of
Israel, because when confined by sickness he had intended to consult
Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, on the state of his health, and thereupon
the said prophet had met them and said that he should not come down
from the bed on which he lay,--this man was made known to the
bed-ridden king by the description of the character of his clothing.
For when the messengers returned to him and brought back the prophet's
message, he asked what the man who had met them and spoken such words
was like and how he was dressed. "An hairy man," they said,
"and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins;" and by
this dress the king at once saw that it was the man of God, and said:
"It is Elijah the Tishbite:"[10] i.e., by the evidence of the girdle
and the look of the hairy and unkempt body he recognized without the
slightest doubt the man of God, because this was always attached to
him as he dwelt among so many thousands of Israelites, as if it were
impressed as some special sign of his own particular style. Of John
also, who came as a sort of sacred boundary between the Old and New
Testament, being both a beginning and an ending, we know by the
testimony of the Evangelist that "the same John had his raiment
of camel's hair and a girdle of skin about his loins."[11] When Peter also had been put in
prison by Herod and was to be brought forth to be slain on the next
day, when the angel stood by him he was charged: "Gird thyself
and put on thy shoes."[12] And
the angel of the Lord would certainly not have charged him to do this
had he not seen that for the sake of his night's rest he had for a
while freed his wearied limbs from the girdle usually tied round them.
Paul also, going up to Jerusalem and soon to be put in chains by the
Jews, was met at Cæsarea by the prophet Agabus, who took his
girdle and bound his hands and feet to show by his bodily actions the
injuries which he was to suffer, and said: "So shall the Jews in
Jerusalem bind the man whose girdle this is, and deliver him into the
hands of the Gentiles."[13] And
surely the prophet would never have brought this forward, or have said
"the man whose girdle this is," unless Paul had always been
accustomed to fasten it round his loins.
CHAPTER II.
Of the Monk's Robe.
LET the robe also of the monk be such as may merely cover the body and
prevent the disgrace of nudity, and keep off harm from cold, not such
as may foster the seeds of vanity and pride; for the same apostle
tells us: "Having food and covering, with these let us be
content."[14]
"Covering," he says, not "raiment," as is wrongly
found in some Latin copies: that is, what may merely cover the body,
not what may please the fancy by the splendour of the attire;
commonplace, so that it may not be thought remarkable for novelty of
colour or fashion among other men of the same profession; and quite
free from anxious carefulness, yet not discoloured by stains acquired
through neglect. Lastly, let them be so far removed from this world's
fashions as to remain altogether common property for the use of the
servants of God. For whatever is claimed by one or a few among the
servants of God and is not the common property of the whole body of
the brethren alike is either superfluous or vain, and for that reason
to be considered harmful, and affording an appearance of vanity rather
than virtue. And, therefore, whatever models we see were not taught
either by the saints of old who laid the foundations of the monastic
life, or by the fathers of our own time who in their turn keep up at
the present day their customs, these we also should reject as
superfluous and useless: wherefore they utterly disapproved of a robe
of sackcloth as being visible to all and conspicuous, and what from
this very fact will not only confer no benefit on the soul but rather
minister to vanity and pride, and as being inconvenient and unsuitable
for the performance of necessary work for which a monk ought always to
go ready and unimpeded. But even if we hear of some respectable
persons who have been dressed in this garb, a rule for the monasteries
is not, therefore, to be passed by us, nor should the ancient decrees
of the holy fathers be upset because we do not think that a few men,
presuming on the possession of other virtues, are to be blamed even in
regard of those things which they have practised not in accordance
with the Catholic rule. For the opinion of a few ought not to be
preferred to or to interfere with the general rule for all. For we
ought to give unhesitating allegiance and unquestioning obedience, not
to those customs and rules which the will of a few have introduced,
but to those which a long standing antiquity and numbers of the holy
fathers have passed on by an unanimous decision to those that come
after. Nor, indeed, ought this to influence us as a precedent for our
daily life, that Joram, the wicked king of Israel, when surrounded by
bands of his foes, rent his clothes, and is said to have had sackcloth
inside them;[15] or that the Ninevites,
in order to mitigate the sentence of God, which had been pronounced
against them by the prophet, were clothed in rough sackcloth.[16] The former is shown to have been
clothed with it secretly underneath, so that unless the upper garment
had been rent it could not possibly have been known by any one, and
the latter tolerated a covering of sackcloth at a time when, since all
were mourning over the approaching destruction of the city and were
clothed with the same garments, none could be accused of ostentation.
For where there is no special difference and all are alike no harm is
done.[17]
CHAPTER III.
Of the Hoods of the Egyptians.
THERE are some things besides in the dress of the Egyptians which
concern not the care of the body so much as the regulation of the
character, that the observance of simplicity and innocence may be
preserved by the very character of the clothing. For they constantly
use both by day and by night very small hoods coming down to the end
of the neck and shoulders, which only cover the head, in order that
they may constantly be moved to preserve the simplicity and innocence
of little children by imitating their actual dress.[18] And these men have returned to
childhood in Christ and sing at all hours with heart and soul:
"Lord, my heart is not exalted nor are mine eyes lofty. Neither
have I walked in great matters nor in wonderful things above me. If I
was not humbly minded, but exalted my soul: as a child that is weaned
is towards his mother."[19]
CHAPTER IV.
Of the Tunics of the Egyptians.
THEY wear also linen tunics[20] which
scarcely reach to the elbows, and for the rest leave their hands bare,
that the cutting off of the sleeves may suggest that they have cut off
all the deeds and works of this world, and the garment of linen teach
that they are dead to all earthly conversation, and that hereby they
may hear the Apostle saying day by day to them: "Mortify your
members which are upon the earth;" their very dress also
declaring this: "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with
Christ in God;" and again: "And I live, yet now not I but
Christ liveth in me. To me indeed the world is crucified, and I to
the world."[21]
CHAPTER V.
Of their Cords.[22]
THEY also wear double scarves[23] woven
of woollen yarn which the Greeks call
analaboi, but which we should name girdles[24] or strings,[25] or more properly cords.[26] These falling down over the top of
the neck and divided on either side of the throat go round the folds
(of the robe) at the armpits and gather them up on either side, so
that they can draw up and tuck in close to the body the wide folds of
the dress, and so with their arms girt they are made active and ready
for all kinds of work, endeavouring with all their might to fulfil the
Apostle's charge: "For these hands have ministered not only to me
but to those also who are with me," "Neither have we eaten
any man's bread for nought, but with labour and toil working night and
day that we should not be burdensome to any of you." And:
"If any will not work neither let him eat."[27]
CHAPTER VI.
Of their Capes.[28]
NEXT they cover their necks and shoulders with a narrow cape, aiming
at modesty of dress as well as cheapness and economy; and this is
called in our language as well as theirs mafors; and so they
avoid both the expense and the display of cloaks and great coats.
CHAPTER VII.
Of the Sheepskin and the Goatskin.[29]
THE last article of their dress is the goat-skin, which is called
melotes, or pera,[30]
and a staff, which they carry in imitation of those who foreshadowed
the lines of the monastic life in the Old Testament, of whom the
Apostle says: "They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins,
being in want, distressed, afflicted; of whom the world was not
worthy; wandering in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and in
caves of the earth."[31] And this
garment of goatskin signifies that having destroyed all wantonness of
carnal passions they ought to continue in the utmost sobriety of
virtue, and that nothing of the wantonness or heat of youth, or of
their old lightmindedness, should remain in their bodies.
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the Staff of the Egyptians.
FOR Elisha, himself one of them, teaches that the same men used to
carry a staff; as he says to Gehazi, his servant, when sending him to
raise the woman's son to life: "Take my staff and run and go and
place it on the lad's face that he may live."[32] And the prophet would certainly not
have given it to him to take unless he had been in the habit of
constantly carrying it about in his hand. And the carrying of the
staff spiritually teaches that they ought never to walk unarmed among
so many barking dogs of faults and invisible beasts of spiritual
wickedness (from which the blessed David, in his longing to be free,
says: "Deliver not, O Lord, to the beasts the soul that trusteth
in Thee"),[33] but when they
attack them they ought to beat them off with the sign of the cross and
drive them far away; and when they rage furiously against them they
should annihilate them by the constant recollection of the Lord's
passion and by following the example of His mortified life.
CHAPTER IX.
Of their Shoes.
BUT refusing shoes, as forbidden by the command of the gospel, if
bodily weakness or the morning cold in winter or the scorching heat of
midday compels them, they merely protect their feet with sandals,
explaining that by the use of them and the Lord's permission it is
implied that if, while we are still in this world we cannot be
completely set free from care and anxiety about the flesh, nor can we
be altogether released from it, we should at least provide for the
wants of the body with as little fuss and as slight an entanglement as
possible: and as for the feet of our soul which ought to be ready for
our spiritual race and always prepared for preaching the peace of the
gospel (with which feet we run after the odour of the ointments of
Christ, and of which David says: "I ran in thirst," and
Jeremiah: "But I am not troubled, following Thee"),[34] we ought not to suffer them to be
entangled in the deadly cares of this world, filling our thoughts with
those things which concern not the supply of the wants of nature, but
unnecessary and harmful pleasures. And this we shall thus fulfil if,
as the Apostle advises, we "make not provision for the flesh with
its lusts."[35] But though
lawfully enough they make use of these sandals, as permitted by the
Lord's command, yet they never suffer them to remain on their feet
when they approach to celebrate or to receive the holy mysteries, as
they think that they ought to observe in the letter that which was
said to Moses and to Joshua, the son of Nun: "Loose the latchet
of thy shoe: for the place whereon thou standest is holy
ground."[36]
Of the modification in the observances which may be
permitted in accordance with the character of the climate or the
custom of the district.
SO much may be said, that we may not appear to have left out any
article of the dress of the Egyptians. But we need only keep to those
which the situation of the place and the customs of the district
permit. For the severity of the winter does not allow us to be
satisfied with slippers[38] or tunics
or a single frock; and the covering of tiny hoods or the wearing of a
sheepskin would afford a subject for derision instead of edifying the
spectators. Wherefore we hold that we ought to introduce only those
things which we have described above, and which are adapted to the
humble character of our profession and the nature of the climate, that
the chief thing about our dress maybe not the novelty of the garb,
which might give some offence to men of the world, but its honourable
simplicity.
CHAPTER XI.
Of the Spiritual Girdle and its Mystical
Meaning.[39]
CLAD, therefore, in these vestments, the soldier of Christ should know
first of all that he is protected by the girdle tied round him, not
only that he may be ready in mind for all the work and business of the
monastery, but also that he may always go without being hindered by
his dress. For he will be proved to be the more ardent in purity of
heart for spiritual progress and the knowledge of Divine things in
proportion as he is the more earnest in his zeal for obedience and
work. Secondly, he should realize that in the actual wearing of the
girdle there is no small mystery declaring what is demanded of him.
For the girding of the loins and binding them round with a dead skin
signifies that he bears about the mortification of those members in
which are contained the seeds of lust and lasciviousness, always
knowing that the command of the gospel, which says, "Let your
loins be girt about,"[40] is
applied to him by the Apostle's interpretation; to wit, "Mortify
your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, lust,
evil concupiscence."[41] And so
we find in Holy Scripture that only those were girt with the girdle in
whom the seeds of carnal lust are found to be destroyed, and who sing
with might and main this utterance of the blessed David: "For I
am become like a bottle in the frost,"[42] because when the sinful flesh is
destroyed in the inmost parts they can distend by the power of the
spirit the dead skin of the outward man. And therefore he
significantly adds "in the frost," because they are never
satisfied merely with the mortification of the heart, but also have
the motions of the outward man and the incentives of nature itself
frozen by the approach of the frost of continence from without, if
only, as the Apostle says, they no longer allow any reign of sin in
their mortal body, nor wear a flesh that resists the spirit.[43]
BOOK II.
OF THE CANONICAL SYSTEM OF THE NOCTURNAL PRAYERS
AND PSALMS.
CHAPTER I.
Of the Canonical System of the Nocturnal Prayers
and Psalms.
GIRT, therefore, with this twofold girdle of which we have spoken,[44] the soldier of Christ should next
learn the system of the canonical prayers and Psalms which was long
ago arranged by the holy fathers in the East. Of their character,
however, and of the way in which we can pray, as the Apostle directs,
"without ceasing,"[45] we
shall treat, as the Lord may enable us, in the proper place, when we
begin to relate the Conferences of the Elders.
CHAPTER II.
Of the difference of the number of Psalms appointed
to be sung in all the provinces.
FOR we have found that many in different countries, according to the
fancy of their mind (having, indeed, as the Apostle says, "a
zeal, for God but not according to knowledge"[46]), have made for themselves different
rules and arrangements in this matter. For some have appointed that
each night twenty or thirty Psalms should be said, and that these
should be prolonged by the music of antiphonal singing,[47] and by the addition of some
modulations as well. Others have even tried to go beyond this number.
Some use eighteen. And in this way we have found different rules
appointed in different places, and the system and regulations that we
have seen are almost as many in number as the monasteries and cells
which we have visited. There are some, too, to whom it has seemed
good that in the day offices of prayer, viz., Tierce, Sext, and
Nones,[48] the number of Psalms and
prayers should be made to correspond exactly to the number of the
hours at which the services are offered up to the Lord.[49] Some have thought fit that six Psalms
should be assigned to each service of the day. And so I think it best
to set forth the most ancient system of the fathers which is still
observed by the servants of God throughout the whole of Egypt, so that
your new monastery in its untrained infancy in Christ[50] may be instructed in the most ancient
institutions of the earliest fathers.
CHAPTER III.
Of the observance of one uniform rule throughout
the whole of Egypt, and of the election of those who are set over the
brethren.
AND so throughout the whole of Egypt and the Thebaid, where
monasteries are not founded at the fancy of every man who renounces
the world, but through a succession of fathers and their traditions
last even to the present day, or are founded so to last, in these we
have noticed that a prescribed system of prayers is observed in their
evening assemblies and nocturnal vigils. For no one is allowed to
preside over the assembly of the brethren, or even over himself,
before he has not only deprived himself of all his property but has
also learnt the fact that he is not his own maker and has no authority
over his own actions. For one who renounces the world, whatever
property or riches he may possess, must seek the common dwelling of a
Coenobium, that he may not flatter himself in any way with what he has
forsaken or what he has brought into the monastery. He must also be
obedient to all, so as to learn that he must, as the Lord says,[51] become again a little child,
arrogating nothing to himself on the score of his age and the number
of the years which he now counts as lost while they were spent to no
purpose in the world and, as he is only a beginner, and because of the
novelty of the apprenticeship, which he knows he is serving in
Christ's service, he should not hesitate to submit himself even to his
juniors. Further, he is obliged to habituate himself to work and
toil, so as to prepare with his own hands; in accordance with theApostle's command,[52] daily supply of
food, either for his own use or for the wants of strangers; and that
he may also forget the pride and luxury of his past life, and gain by
grinding toil humility of heart. And so no one is chosen to be set
over a congregation of brethren before that he who is to be placed in
authority has learnt by obedience what he ought to enjoin on those who
are to submit to him, and has discovered from the rules of the Elders
what he ought to teach to his juniors. For they say that to rule or
to be ruled well needs a wise man, and they call it the greatest gift
and grace of the Holy Spirit, since no one can enjoin salutary
precepts on those who submit to him but one who has previously been
trained in all the rules of virtue; nor can any one obey an EIder but
one who has been filled with the love of God and perfected in the
virtue of humility. And so we see that there is a variety of rules
and regulations in use throughout other districts, because we often
have the audacity to preside over a monastery without even having
learnt the system of the Elders, and appoint ourselves Abbots before
we have, as we ought, professed ourselves disciples, and are readier
to require the observance of our own inventions than to preserve the
well-tried teaching of our predecessors. But, while we meant to
explain the best system of prayers to be observed, we have in our
eagerness for the institutions of the fathers anticipated by a hasty
digression the account which we were keeping back for its proper
place. And so let us now return to the subject before us.
CHAPTER IV.
How throughout the whole of Egypt and the Thebaid
the number of Psalms is fixed at twelve.
SO, as we said, throughout the whole of Egypt and the Thebaid the
number of Psalms is fixed at twelve both at Vespers and in the office
of Nocturns,[53] in such a way that at
the close two lessons follow, one from the Old and the other from the
New Testament.[54] And this
arrangement, fixed ever so long ago, has continued unbroken to the
present day throughout so many ages, in all the monasteries of those
districts, because it is said that it was no appointment of man's
invention, but was brought down from heaven to the fathers by the
ministry of an angel.
CHAPTER V.
How the fact that the number of the Psalms was to
be twelve was received from the teaching of an angel.
FOR in the early days of the faith when only a few, and those the best
of men, were known by the name of monks, who, as they received that
mode of life from the Evangelist Mark of blessed memory, the first to
preside over the Church of Alexandria as Bishop, not only preserved
those grand characteristics for which we read, in the Acts of the
Apostles, that the Church and multitude of believers in primitive
times was famous ("The multitude of believers had one heart and
one soul. Nor did any of them say that any of the things which he
possessed was his own: but they had all things common; for as many as
were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the price of the
things which they sold, and laid it at the feet of the Apostles, and
distribution was made to every man as he had need"),[55] but they added to these
characteristics others still more sublime. For withdrawing into more
secluded spots outside the cities they led a life marked by such
rigorous abstinence that even to those of another creed the exalted
character of their life was a standing marvel. For they gave
themselves up to the reading of Holy Scripture and to prayers and to
manual labour night and day with such fervour that they had no desire
or thoughts of food--unless on the second or third day bodily
hunger[56] reminded them, and they took
their meat and drink not so much because they wished for it as because
it was necessary for life; and even then they took it not before
sunset, in order that they might connect the hours of daylight with
the practice of spiritual meditations, and the care of the body with
the night, and might perform other things much more exalted than
these. And about these matters, one who has never heard anything from
one who is at home in such things, may learn from ecclesiastical
history.[57] At that time, therefore,
when the perfection of the primitive Church remained unbroken, and was
still preserved fresh in the memory by their followers and successors,
and when the fervent faith of the few had not yet grown lukewarm by
being dispersed among the many, the venerable fathers with watchful
care made provision for those to come after them, and met together to
discuss what plan should be adopted for the daily worship throughout
the whole body of the brethren; that they might hand on to those who
should succeed them a legacy of piety and peace that was free from all
dispute and dissension, for they were afraid that in regard of the
daily services some difference or dispute might arise among those who
joined together in the same worship, and at some time or other it
might send forth a poisonous root of error or jealousy or schism among
those who came after. And when each man in proportion to his own
fervour--and unmindful of the weakness of others--thought that
that should be appointed which he judged was quite easy by
considering his own faith and strength, taking too little account of
what would be possible for the great mass of the brethren in general
(wherein a very large proportion of weak ones is sure to be found);
and when in different degrees they strove, each according to his own
powers, to fix an enormous number of Psalms, and some were for fifty,
others sixty, and some, not content with this number, thought that
they actually ought to go beyond it,--there was such a holy difference
of opinion in their pious discussion on the rule of their religion
that the time for their Vesper office came before the sacred question
was decided; and, as they were going to celebrate their daily rites
and prayers, one rose up in the midst to chant the Psalms to the Lord.
And while they were all sitting (as is still the custom in Egypt[58]), with their minds intently fixed on
the words of the chanter, when he had sung eleven Psalms, separated by
prayers introduced between them, verse after verse being evenly
enunciated,[59] he finished the twelfth
with a response of Alleluia,[60] and
then, by his sudden disappearance from the eyes of all, put an end at
once to their discussion and their service.[61]
CHAPTER VI.
Of the Custom of having Twelve Prayers.
WHEREUPON the venerable assembly of the Fathers understood that by
Divine Providence a general rule had been fixed for the congregations
of the brethren through the angel's direction, and so decreed that
this number should be preserved both in their evening and in their
nocturnal services; and when they added to these two lessons, one from
the Old and one from the New Testament, they added them simply as
extras and of their own appointment, only for those who liked, and who
were eager to gain by constant study a mind well stored with Holy
Scripture. But on Saturday and Sunday they read them both from the
New Testament; viz., one from the Epistles[62] or the Acts of the Apostles, and one
from the Gospel.[63] And this also
those do whose concern is the reading and the recollection of the
Scriptures, from Easter to Whitsuntide.[64]
CHAPTER VII.
Of their Method of Praying.
THESE aforesaid prayers, then, they begin and finish in such a way
that when the Psalm is ended they do not hurry at once to kneel down,
as some of us do in this country, who, before the Psalm is fairly
ended, make haste to prostrate themselves for prayer, in their hurry
to finish the service[65] as quickly as
possible. For though we have chosen to exceed the limit which was
anciently fixed by our predecessors, supplying the number of the
remaining Psalms, we are anxious to get to the end of the service,
thinking of the refreshment of the wearied body rather than looking
for profit and benefit from the prayer. Among them, therefore, it is
not so, but before they bend their knees they pray for a few moments,
and while they are standing up spend the greater part of the time in
prayer. And so after this, for the briefest space of time, they
prostrate themselves to the ground, as if but adoring the Divine
Mercy, and as soon as possible rise up, and again standing erect with
outspread hands--just as they had been standing to pray before--remain
with thoughts intent upon their prayers. For when you lie prostrate
for any length of time upon the ground you are more open to an attack,
they say, not only of wandering thoughts but also slumber. And would
that we too did not know the truth of this by experience and daily
practice--we who when prostrating ourselves on the ground too often
wish for this attitude to be prolonged for some time, not for the sake
of our prayer so much as for the sake of resting. But when he who is
to "collect" the prayer[66]
rises from the ground they all start up at once, so that no one would
venture to bend the knee before he bows down, nor to delay
when he has risen from the ground, lest it should be thought
that he has offered his own prayer independently instead of following
the leader to the close.
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the Prayer which follows the Psalm.
THAT practice too which we have observed in this country--viz., that
while one sings to the end of the Psalm, all standing up sing together
with a loud voice, "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to
the Holy Ghost"--we have never heard anywhere throughout the
East, but there, while all keep silence when the Psalm is finished,
the prayer that follows is offered up by the singer. But with this
hymn in honour of the Trinity only the whole Psalmody[67] is usually ended.[68]
CHAPTER IX.
Of the characteristics of the prayer, the fuller
treatment of which is reserved for the Conferences of the EIders.
AND as the plan of these Institutes leads us to the system of the
canonical prayers, the fuller treatment of which we will however
reserve for the Conferences of the Elders (where we shall speak of
them at greater length when we have begun to tell in their own words
of the character of their prayers, and how continuous they are), still
I think it well, as far as the place and my narrative permit, as the
occasion offers itself, to glance briefly for the present at a few
points, so that by picturing in the meanwhile the movements of the
outer man, and by now laying the foundations, as it were, of the
prayer, we may afterwards, when we come to speak of the inner man,
with less labour build up the complete edifice of his prayers;
providing, above all for this, that if the end of life should overtake
us and cut us off from finishing the narration which we are anxious
(D.V.) fitly to compose, we may at least leave in this work the
beginnings of so necessary a matter to you, to whom
everything seems a delay, by reason of the fervour of your desire: so
that, if a few more years of life are granted to us, we may at least
mark out for you some outlines of their prayers, that those above all
who live in monasteries may have some information about them;
providing also, at the same time, that those who perhaps may meet only
with this book, and be unable to procure the other, may find that they
are supplied with some sort of information about the nature of their
prayers; and as they are instructed about the dress and clothing of
the outer man, so too they may not be ignorant what his behaviour
ought to be in offering spiritual sacrifices. Since, though
these books, which we are now arranging with the Lord's help
to write, are mainly taken up with what belongs to the outer man and
the customs of the Coenobia, yet those will rather be concerned with
the training of the inner man and the perfection of the heart, and the
life and doctrine of the Anchorites.
CHAPTER X.
Of the silence and conciseness with which the
Collects are offered up by the Egyptians.
WHEN, then, they meet together to celebrate the aforementioned rites,
which they term synaxes,[69]
they are all so perfectly silent that, though so large a number of the
brethren is assembled together, you would not think a single person
was present except the one who stands up and chants the Psalm in the
midst; and especially is this the case when the prayer is offered
up,[70] for then there is no spitting,
no clearing of the throat, or noise of coughing, no sleepy yawning
with open mouths, and gaping, and no groans or sighs are uttered,
likely to distract those standing near. No voice is heard save that
of the priest concluding the prayer, except perhaps one that escapes
the lips through aberration of mind and unconsciously takes the heart
by surprise, inflamed as it is with an uncontrollable and
irrepressible fervour of spirit, while that which the glowing mind is
unable to keep to itself strives through a sort of unutterable
groaning to make its escape from the inmost chambers of the breast.
But if any one infected with coldness of mind prays out loud or emits
any of those sounds we have mentioned, or is overcome by a fit of
yawning, they declare that he is guilty of a double fault.
He is blameworthy, first, as regards his own prayer because he offers
it to God in a careless way; and, secondly, because by his unmannerly
noise he disturbs the thoughts of another who would otherwise perhaps
have been able to pray with greater attention. And so their rule is
that the prayer ought to be brought to an end with a speedy
conclusion, lest while we are lingering over it some superfluity of
spittle or phlegm should interfere with the close of our prayer. And,
therefore, while it is still glowing the prayer is to be snatched as
speedily as possible out of the jaws of the enemy, who, although he is
indeed always hostile to us, is yet never more hostile than when he
sees that we are anxious to offer up prayers to God against his
attacks; and by exciting wandering thoughts and all sorts of rheums he
endeavours to distract our minds from attending to our prayers, and by
this means tries to make it grow cold, though begun with fervour.
Wherefore they think it best for the prayers to be short and offered
up very frequently:[71] on the one hand
that by so often praying to the Lord we may be able to cleave to Him
continually; on the other, that when the devil is lying in wait for
us, we may by their terse brevity avoid the darts with which he
endeavours to wound us especially when we are saying our prayers.
CHAPTER XI.
Of the system according to which the Psalms are
said among the Egyptians.
AND, therefore, they do not even attempt to finish the Psalms, which
they sing in the service, by an unbroken and continuous recitation.
But they repeat them separately and bit by bit, divided into two or
three sections, according to the number of verses, with prayers in
between.[72] For they do not care
about the quantity of verses, but about the intelligence of the mind;
aiming with all their might at this: "I will sing with the
spirit: I will sing also with the understanding."[73] And so they consider it better for
ten verses to be sung with understanding and thought[74] than for a whole Psalm to be poured
forth with a bewildered mind. And this is sometimes caused by the
hurry of the speaker, when, thinking of the character and number of
the remaining Psalms to be sung, he takes no pains to make the meaning
clear to his hearers, but hastens on to get to the end of the service.
Lastly, if any of the younger monks, either through fervour of spirit
or because he has not yet been properly taught, goes beyond the proper
limit of what is to be sung, the one who is singing the Psalm is
stopped by the senior clapping his hands where he sits in his stall,
and making them all rise for prayer. Thus they take every possible
care that no weariness may creep in among them as they sit through the
length of the Psalms, as thereby not only would the singer himself
lose the fruits of understanding, but also loss would be incurred by
those whom he made to feel the service a weariness by going on so
long. They also observe this with the greatest care; viz., that no
Psalm should be said with the response of Alleluia except those which
are marked with the inscription of Alleluia in their title.[75] But the aforesaid number of twelve
Psalms they divide in such a way that if there are two brethren they
each sing six; if there are three, then four; and if four, three each.
A smaller number than this they never sing in the congregation, and
accordingly, however large a congregation is assembled, not more than
four brethren sing in the service.[76]
CHAPTER XII.
Of the reason why while one sings the Psalms the
rest sit down during the service; and of the zeal with which they
afterwards prolong their vigils in their cells till daybreak.
THIS canonical system of twelve Psalms, of which we have spoken, they
render easier by such bodily rest that when, after their custom, they
celebrate these services, they all, except the one who stands up in
the midst to recite the Psalms, sit in very low stalls and follow the
voice of the singer with the utmost attention of heart. For they are
so worn out with fasting and working all day and night that, unless
they were helped by some such indulgence, they could not possibly get
through this number standing up. For they allow no time to pass idly
without the performance of some work, because not only do they strive
with all earnestness to do with their hands those things which can be
done in daylight, but also with anxious minds they examine into those
sorts of work which not even the darkness of night can put a stop to,
as they hold that they will gain a far deeper insight into subjects of
spiritual contemplation with purity of heart, the more earnestly that
they devote themselves to work and labour. And therefore they
consider that a moderate allowance of canonical prayers was divinely
arranged in order that for those who are very ardent in faith room
might be left in which their never-tiring flow of virtue might spend
itself, and notwithstanding no loathing arise in their wearied and
weak bodies from too large a quantity. And so, when the offices of
the canonical prayers have been duly finished, every one returns to
his own cell (which he inhabits alone, or is allowed to share with
only one other whom partnership in work or training in discipleship
and learning has joined with him, or perhaps similarity of character
has made his companion), and again they offer with greater earnestness
the same service of prayer, as their special private sacrifice, as it
were; nor do any of them give themselves up any further to rest and
sleep till when the brightness of day comes on the labours of the day
succeed the labours and meditations of the night.
CHAPTER XIII.
The reason why they are not allowed to go to sleep
after the night service.[77]
AND these labours they keep up for two reasons, besides this
consideration,--that they believe that when they are diligently
exerting themselves they are offering to God a sacrifice of the fruit
of their hands. And, if we are aiming at perfection; we also ought to
observe this with the same diligence. First, lest our envious
adversary, jealous of our purity against which he is always plotting,
and ceaselessly hostile to us, should by some illusion in a dream
pollute the purity which has been gained by the Psalms and prayers of
the night: for after that satisfaction which we have offered for our
negligence and ignorance, and the absolution implored with profuse
sighs in our confession, he anxiously tries, if he finds some time
given to repose, to defile us; then above all endeavouring to
overthrow and weaken our trust in God when he sees by the purity of
our prayers that we are making most fervent efforts towards God: so
that sometimes, when he has been unable to injure some the whole night
long, he does his utmost to disgrace them in that short hour.
Secondly, because, even if no such dreaded illusion of the devil
arises, even a pure sleep in the interval produces laziness in the
case of the monk who ought soon to wake up; and, bringing on a
sluggish torpor in the mind, it dulls his vigour throughout the whole
day, and deadens that keenness of perception and exhausts that
energy[78] of heart which would be
capable of keeping us all day long more watchful against all the
snares of the enemy and more robust. Wherefore to the Canonical
Vigils there are added these private watchings, and they submit to
them with the greater care, both in order that the purity which has
been gained by Psalms and prayers may not be lost, and also that a
more intense carefulness to guard us diligently through the day may be
secured beforehand by the meditation of the night.
CHAPTER XIV.
Of the way in which they devote themselves in their
cells equally to manual labour and to prayer.
AND therefore they supplement their prayer by the addition of labour,
lest slumber might steal upon them as idlers. For as they scarcely
enjoy any time of leisure, so there is no limit put to their spiritual
meditations. For practising equally the virtues of the body and of
the soul, they balance what is due to the outer by what is profitable
to the inner man;[79] steadying the
slippery motions of the heart and the shifting fluctuations of the
thoughts by the weight of labour, like some strong and
immoveable anchor, by which the changeableness and wanderings of the
heart, fastened within the barriers of the cell, may be shut up in
some perfectly secure harbour, and so, intent only on spiritual
meditation and watchfulness over the thoughts, may not only forbid the
watchful mind to give a hasty consent to any evil suggestions, but may
also keep it safe from any unnecessary and idle thoughts: so that it
is not easy to say which depends on the other--I mean, whether they
practise their incessant manual labour for the sake of spiritual
meditation, or whether it is for the sake of their continuous labours
that they acquire such remarkable spiritual proficiency and light of
knowledge.
CHAPTER XV.
Of the discreet rule by which every one must retire
to his cell after the close of the prayers; and[80] of the rebuke to which any one who
does otherwise is subject.
AND so, when the Psalms are finished, and the daily assembly, as we
said above, is broken up, none of them dares to loiter ever so little
or to gossip with another: nor does he presume even to leave his cell
throughout the whole day, or to forsake the work which he is wont to
carry on in it, except when they happen to be called out for the
performance of some necessary duty, which they fulfil by going out of
doors so that there may not be any chattering at all among them. But
every one does the work assigned to him in such a way that, by
repeating by heart some Psalm or passage of Scripture, he gives no
opportunity or time for dangerous schemes or evil designs, or even for
idle talk, as both mouth and heart are incessantly taken up with
spiritual meditations. For they are most particular in observing this
rule, that none of them, and especially of the younger ones, may be
caught stopping even for a moment or going anywhere together with
another, or holding his hands in his. But, if they discover any who
in defiance of the discipline of this rule have perpetrated any of
these forbidden things, they pronounce them guilty of no slight fault,
as contumacious and disobedient to the rules; nor are they free from
suspicion of plotting and nefarious designs. And, unless they expiate
their fault by public penance when all the brethren are gathered
together, none of them is allowed to be present at the prayers of the
brethren.
CHAPTER XVI.
How no one is allowed to pray with one who has been
suspended from prayer.
FURTHER, if one of them has been suspended from prayer for some fault
which he has committed, no one has any liberty of praying with him
before he performs his penance on the ground,[81] and reconciliation and pardon for his
offence has been publicly granted to him by the Abbot before all the
brethren. For by a plan of this kind they separate and cut themselves
off from fellowship with him in prayer for this reason--because they
believe that one who is suspended from prayer is, as the Apostle says,
"delivered unto Satan:"[82]
and if any one, moved by an ill-considered affection, dares to hold
communion with him in prayer before he has been received by the EIder,
he makes himself partaker of his damnation, and delivers himself up of
his own free will to Satan, to whom the other had been consigned for
the correction of his guilt. And in this he falls into a more
grievous offence because, by uniting with him in fellowship either in
talk or in prayer, he gives him grounds for still greater arrogance,
and only encourages and makes worse the obstinacy of the offender.
For, by giving him a consolation that is only hurtful, he will make
his heart still harder, and not let him humble himself for the fault
for which he was excommunicated; and through this he will make him
hold the Elder's rebuke as of no consequence, and harbour deceitful
thoughts about satisfaction and absolution.
CHAPTER XVII.
How he who rouses them for prayer ought to call
them at the usual time.
BUT he who has been entrusted with the office of summoning the
religious assembly and with the care of the service should not presume
to rouse the brethren for their daily vigils irregularly, as he
pleases, or as he may wake up in the night, or as the accident of his
own sleep or sleeplessness may incline him. But, although daily habit
may constrain him to wake at the usual hour, yet by often and
anxiously ascertaining by the course of the stars the right hour for
service, he should summon them to the office of prayer, lest he be
found careless in one of two ways: either if, overcome with sleep, he
lets the proper hour of the night go by, or if, wanting to go to bed
and impatient for his sleep, he anticipates it, and so may be thought
to have secured his own repose instead of attending to the spiritual
office and the rest of all the others.[83]
CHAPTER XVIII.
How they do not kneel from the evening of Saturday
till the evening of Sunday.
THIS, too, we ought to know,--that from the evening of Saturday which
precedes the Sunday,[84] up to the
following evening, among the Egyptians they never kneel, nor from
Easter to Whitsuntide;[85] nor do they
at these times observe a rule of fasting,[86] the reason for which shall be
explained in its proper place in the Conferences of the Elders,[87] if the Lord permits. At present we
only propose to run through the causes very briefly, lest our book
exceed its due limits and prove tiresome or burdensome to the
reader.
BOOK III.
OF THE CANONICAL SYSTEM OF THE DAILY PRAYERS AND
PSALMS.
CHAPTER I.
Of the services of the third, sixth, and ninth
hours, which are observed in the regions of Syria.
THE nocturnal system of prayers and Psalms as observed throughout
Egypt has been, I think, by God's help, explained so far as our
slender ability was able; and now we must speak of the services of
Tierce, Sext, and None, according to the rule of the monasteries of
Palestine and Mesopotamia,[88] as we
said in the Preface, and must moderate by the customs of these the
perfection and inimitable rigour of the discipline of the
Egyptians.
CHAPTER II.
How among the Egyptians they apply themselves all
day long to prayer and Psalms continually, with the addition of work,
without distinction of hours.
FOR among them (viz., the Egyptians) these offices which we are taught
to render to the Lord at separate hours and at intervals of time, with
a reminder from the convener, are celebrated continuously throughout
the whole day, with the addition of work, and that of their own free
will. For manual labour is incessantly practised by them in their
cells in such a way that meditation on the Psalms and the rest of the
Scriptures is never entirely omitted. And as with it at every moment
they mingle suffrages and prayers, they spend the whole day in those
offices which we celebrate at fixed times. Wherefore, except Vespers
and Nocturns, there are no public services among them in the day
except on Saturday and Sunday, when they meet together at the third
hour for the purpose of Holy Communion.[89] For that which is continuously
offered is more than what is rendered at intervals of time; and more
acceptable as a free gift than the duties which are performed by the
compulsion of a rule: as David for this rejoices somewhat exultingly
when he says, "Freely will I sacrifice unto Thee;" and,
"Let the free will offerings of my mouth be pleasing to Thee, O
Lord."[90]
CHAPTER III.
How throughout all the East the services of Tierce,
Sext, and None are ended with only three Psalms and prayers each; and
the reason why these spiritual offices are assigned more particularly
to those hours.
AND so in the monasteries of Palestine and Mesopotamia and all the
East the services of the above-mentioned hours are ended each day with
three Psalms apiece, so that constant prayers may be offered to God at
the appointed times, and yet, the spiritual duties being completed
with due moderation, the necessary offices of work may not be in any
way interfered with: for at these three seasons we know that Daniel
the prophet also poured forth his prayers to God day by day in his
chamber with the windows open.[91] Nor
is it without good reasons that these times are more particularly
assigned to religious offices, since at them what completed the
promises and summed up our salvation was fulfilled. For we can show
that at the third hour the Holy Spirit, who had been of old promised
by the prophets, descended in the first instance on the Apostles
assembled together for prayer. For when in their astonishment at the
speaking with tongues, which proceeded from them through the
outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon them, the unbelieving people of the
Jews mocked and said that they were full of new wine, then Peter,
standing up in the midst of them, said: "Men of Israel, and all
ye who dwell at Jerusalem, let this be known unto you, and consider my
words. For these men are not, as ye imagine, drunk, since it is the
third hour of the day; but this is that which was spoken by the
prophet Joel: and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the
Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions
and your old men shall dream dreams. And indeed upon my servants and
my handmaids in those days I will pour out of my Spirit, and they
shall prophesy."[92] And all of
this was fulfilled at the third hour, when the Holy Spirit, announced
before by the prophets, came at that hour and abode upon the Apostles.
But at the sixth hour the spotless Sacrifice, our Lord and Saviour,
was offered up to the Father, and, ascending the cross for the
salvation of the whole world, made atonement for the sins of mankind,
and, despoiling principalities and powers, led them away openly; and
all of us who were liable to death and bound by the debt of the
handwriting that could not be paid, He freed, by taking it away out of
the midst and affixing it to His cross for a trophy.[93] At the same hour, too, to Peter, in
an ecstasy of mind, there was divinely revealed both the calling of
the Gentiles by the letting down of the Gospel vessel from heaven, and
also the cleansing of all the living creatures contained in it, when a
voice came to him and said to him: "Rise, Peter; kill and
eat;"[94] which vessel, let down
from heaven by the four corners, is plainly seen to signify nothing
else than the Gospel. For although, as it is divided by the fourfold
narrative of the Evangelists, it seems to have "four
corners" (or beginnings), yet the body of the Gospel is but one;
embracing, as it does, the birth as well as the Godhead, and the
miracles a well as the passion of one and the same Christ.
Excellently, too, it says not "of linen" but
"as if of linen." For linen signifies death.
Since, then, our Lord's death and passion were not undergone by the
law of human nature, but of His own free will, it says "as if of
linen." For when dead according to the flesh He was not dead
according to the spirit, because "His soul was not left in hell,
neither did His flesh see corruption."[95] And again He says: "No man
taketh My life from Me but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to
lay it down, and I have power to take it again."[96] And so in this vessel of the Gospels
let down from heaven, that is written by the Holy Ghost, all the
nations which were formerly outside the observance of the law and
reckoned as unclean now flow together through belief in the faith that
they may to their salvation be turned away from the worship of idols
and be serviceable for health-giving food, and are brought to Peter
and cleansed by the voice of the Lord. But at the ninth hour,
penetrating to hades, He there by the brightness of His splendour
extinguished the indescribable darkness of hell, and, bursting its
brazen gates and breaking the iron bars brought away with Him to the
skies the captive band of saints which was there shut up and detained
in the darkness of inexorable hell,[97]
and, by taking away the fiery sword, restored to paradise its original
inhabitants by his pious confession. At the same hour, too,
Cornelius, the centurion, continuing with his customary devotion in
his prayers, is made aware through the converse of the angel with him
that his prayers and alms are remembered before the Lord, and at the
ninth hour the mystery[98] of the
calling of the Gentiles is clearly shown to him, which had been
revealed to Peter in his ecstasy of mind at the sixth hour. In
another passage, too, in the Acts of the Apostles, we are told as
follows about the same time: "But Peter and John went up into the
temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour."[99] And by these notices it is clearly
proved that these hours were not without good reason consecrated with
religious services by holy and apostolic men, and ought to be observed
in like manner by us, who, unless we are compelled, as it were, by
some rule to discharge these pious offices at least at stated times,
either through sloth or through forgetfulness, or being absorbed in
business, spend the whole day without engaging in prayer. But
concerning the evening sacrifices what is to be said, since even in
the Old Testament these are ordered to be offered continually by the
law of Moses? For that the morning whole-burnt offerings and evening
sacrifices were offered every day continually in the temple, although
with figurative offerings, we can show from that which is sung by
David: "Let my prayer be set forth in Thy sight as the incense,
and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice,"[100] in which place we can understand it
in a still higher sense of that true evening sacrifice which was given
by the Lord our Saviour in the evening to the Apostles at the Supper,
when He instituted the holy mysteries of the Church, and of that
evening sacrifice which He Himself, on the following day, in the end
of the ages, offered up to the Father by the lifting up of His hands
for the salvation of the whole world; which spreading forth of His
hands on the Cross is quite correctly called a "lifting up."
For when we were all lying in hades He raised us to heaven, according
to the word of His own promise when He says: "When I am lifted up
from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me."[101] But concerning Mattins, that also
teaches us which it is customary every day to sing at it: "O God,
my God, to Thee do I watch at break of day;" and "I will
meditate on Thee in the morning;" and "I prevented the
dawning of the day and cried;" and again, "Mine eyes to Thee
have prevented the morning, that I might meditate on Thy
words."[102] At these hours too
that householder in the Gospel hired labourers into his vineyard. For
thus also is he described as having hired them in the early morning,
which time denotes the Mattin office; then at the third hour; then at
the sixth; after this, at the ninth; and last of all, at the
eleventh,[103] by which the hour of
the lamps[104] is denoted.[105]
CHAPTER IV.
How the Mattin office was not appointed by an
ancient tradition but was started in our own day for a definite
reason.
BUT you must know that this Mattins, which is now very generally
observed in Western countries, was appointed as a canonical office in
our own day, and also in our own monastery, where our Lord Jesus
Christ was born of a Virgin and deigned to submit to growth in infancy
as man, and where by His Grace He supported our own infancy, still
tender in religion, and, as it were, fed with milk.[106] For up till that time we find that
when this office of Mattins (which is generally celebrated after a
short interval after the Psalms and prayers of Nocturns in the
monasteries of Gaul) was finished, together with the daily vigils, the
remaining hours were assigned by our Elders to bodily refreshment.
But when some rather carelessly abused this indulgence and prolonged
their time for sleep too long, as they were not obliged by the
requirements of any service to leave their cells or rise from their
beds till the third hour; and when, as well as losing their labour,
they were drowsy from excess of sleep in the daytime, when they ought
to have been applying themselves to some duties, (especially on those
days when an unusually oppressive weariness was caused by their
keeping watch from the evening till the approach of morning), a
complaint was brought to the Elders by some of the brethren who were
ardent in spirit and in no slight measure disturbed by this
carelessness, and it was determined by them after long discussion and
anxious consideration that up till sunrise, when they could without
harm be ready to read or to undertake manual labour, time for rest
should be given to their wearied bodies, and after this they should
all be summoned to the observance of this service and should rise from
their beds, and by reciting three Psalms and prayers (after the order
anciently fixed for the observance of Tierce and Sext, to signify the
confession of the Trinity)[107] should
at the same time by an uniform arrangement put an end to their sleep
and make a beginning to their work. And this form, although it may
seem to have arisen out of an accident and to have been appointed
within recent memory for the reason given above, yet it clearly makes
up according to the letter that number which the blessed David
indicates (although it can be taken spiritually): "Seven times a
day do I praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgments."[108] For by the addition of this service
we certainly hold these spiritual assemblies seven times a day, and
are shown to sing praises to God seven times in it.[109] Lastly, though this same form,
starting from the East, has most beneficially spread to these parts,
yet still in some long-established monasteries in the East, which will
not brook the slightest violation of the old rules of the Fathers, it
seems never to have been introduced.[110]
CHAPTER V.
How they ought not to go back to bed again after
the Mattin prayers.
BUT some in this province, not knowing the reason why this office was
appointed and introduced, go back again to bed after their Mattin
prayers are finished, and in spite of it fall into that very habit to
check which our Elders instituted this service. For they are eager to
finish it at that hour, that an opportunity may be given, to those who
are inclined to be indifferent and not careful enough, to go back to
bed again, which most certainly ought not to be done (as we showed
more fully in the previous book when describing the service of the
Egyptians),[111] for fear least the
force of our natural passions should be aroused and stain that purity
of ours which was gained by humble confession and prayers before the
dawn, or some illusion of the enemy pollute us, or even the repose of
a pure and natural sleep interfere with the fervour of our spirit and
make us lazy and slothful throughout the whole day, as we are chilled
by the sluggishness caused by sleep. And to avoid this the Egyptians,
and especially as they are in the habit of rising at fixed times even
before the cock-crow, when the canonical office[112] has been celebrated, afterwards
prolong their vigils even to daylight, that the morning light when it
comes on them may find them established in fervour of spirit, and keep
them still more careful and fervent all through the day, as it has
found them prepared for the conflict and strengthened against their
daily struggle with the devil by the practice of nocturnal vigils and
spiritual meditation.
CHAPTER VI.
How no change was made by the Elders in the ancient
system of Psalms when the Mattin office was instituted.
BUT this too we ought to know, viz., that no change was made in the
ancient arrangement of Psalms by our Elders who decided that this
Mattin service should be added;[113]
but that office[114] was always
celebrated in their nocturnal assemblies according to the same order
as it had been before. For the hymns which in this country they used
at the Mattin service at the close of the nocturnal vigils, which they
are accustomed to finish after the cock-crowing and before dawn, these
they still sing in like manner; viz., Ps. 148, beginning "O
praise the Lord from heaven," and the rest which follow; but the
50th Psalm and the 62nd, and the 89th have, we know, been assigned to
this new service. Lastly, throughout Italy at this day, when the
Mattin hymns are ended, the 50th Psalm is sung in all the churches,
which I have no doubt can only have been derived from this source.
CHAPTER VII.
How one who does not come to the daily prayer
before the end of the first Psalm is not allowed to enter the Oratory;
but at Nocturns a late arrival up to the end of the second Psalm can
be overlooked.
BUT one who at Tierce, Sext, or None has not come to prayer before the
Psalm is begun and finished does not venture further to enter the
Oratory nor to join himself to those singing the Psalms; but, standing
outside, he awaits the breaking-up of the congregation,[115] and while they are all coming out
does penance lying on the ground, and obtains absolution for his
carelessness and lateness, knowing that he can in no other way expiate
the fault of his sloth, nor can ever be admitted to the service which
will follow three hours later, unless he has been quick to make
satisfaction at once for his present negligence by the help of true
humility. But in the nocturnal assemblies a late arrival up to the
second Psalm is allowed, provided that before the Psalm is
finished and the brethren bow down in prayer he makes haste to take
his place in the congregation and join them; but he will most
certainly be subjected to the same blame and penance which we
mentioned before if he has delayed ever so little beyond the hour
permitted for a late arrival.[116]
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the Vigil service which is celebrated on the
evening preceding the Sabbath; of its length, and the manner in which
it is observed.
IN the winter time, however, when the nights are longer, the
Vigils,[117] which are celebrated
every week on the evening at the commencing the Sabbath, are arranged
by the elders in the monasteries to last till the fourth cock-crowing,
for this reason, viz., that after the watch through the whole night
they may, by resting their bodies for the remaining time of nearly two
hours, avoid flagging through drowsiness the whole day long, and be
content with repose for this short time instead of resting the whole
night. And it is proper for us, too, to observe this with the utmost
care, that we may be content with the sleep which is allowed us after
the office of Vigils up to daybreak,--i.e., till the Mattin Psalms,[118]--and afterwards spend the whole day
in work and necessary duties, lest through weariness from the Vigils,
and feebleness, we might be forced to take by day the sleep which we
cut off from the night, and so be thought not to have cut short our
bodily rest so much as to have changed our time for repose and nightly
retirement. For our feeble flesh could not possibly be defrauded of
the whole night's rest and yet keep its vigour unshaken throughout the
following day without sleepiness of mind and heaviness of spirit, as
it will be hindered rather than helped by this unless after Vigils are
over it enjoys a short slumber. And, therefore, if, as we have
suggested, at least an hour's sleep is snatched before daybreak, we
shall save all the hours of Vigils which we have spent all through the
night in prayer, granting to nature what is due to it, and having no
necessity of taking back by day what we have cut off from the night.
For a man will certainly have to give up everything to this flesh if
he tries, not in a rational manner to withhold a part only, but to
refuse the whole, and (to speak candidly) is anxious to cut off not
what is superfluous but what is necessary. Wherefore Vigils have to
be made up for with greater interest if they are prolonged with
ill-considered and unreasonable length till daybreak. And so they
divide them into an office in three parts, that by this variety the
effort may be distributed and the exhaustion of the body relieved by
some agreeable relaxation. For when standing they have sung three
Psalms antiphonally[119] after this,
sitting on the ground or in very low stalls, one of them repeats three
Psalms, while the rest respond, each Psalm being assigned to one of
the brethren, who succeed each other in turn; and to these they add
three lessons while still sitting quietly. And so, by lessening their
bodily exertion, they manage to observe their Vigils with greater
attention of mind.[120]
CHAPTER IX.
The reason why a Vigil is appointed as the Sabbath
day dawns, and why a dispensation from fasting is enjoyed on the
Sabbath all through the East.
AND throughout the whole of the East it has been settled, ever since
the time of the preaching of the Apostles, when the Christian faith
and religion was founded, that these Vigils should be celebrated as
the Sabbath dawns,[121] for this
reason,--because, when our Lord and Saviour had been crucified on the
sixth day of the week, the disciples, overwhelmed by the freshness of
His sufferings, remained watching throughout the whole night, giving
no rest or sleep to their eyes. Wherefore, since that time, a service
of Vigils has been appointed for this night, and is still observed in
the same way up to the present day all through the East. And so,
after the exertion of the Vigil, a dispensation from fasting,
appointed in like manner for the Sabbath by apostolic men,[122] is not without reason enjoined in
all the churches of the East, in accordance with that saying of
Ecclesiastes, which, although it has another and a mystical sense, is
not misapplied to this, by which we are charged to give to both
days--that is, to the seventh and eighth equally--the same share of
the service, as it says: "Give a portion to these seven and also
to these eight."[123] For this
dispensation from fasting must not be understood as a participation in
the Jewish festival by those above all who are shown to be free from
all Jewish superstition, but as contributing to that rest of the
wearied body of which we have spoken; which, as it fasts continually
for five days in the week all through the year, would easily be worn
out and fail, unless it were revived by an interval of at least two
days.
CHAPTER X.
How it was brought about that they fast on the
Sabbath in the city.
BUT some people in some countries of the West, and especially in the
city,[124] not knowing the reason of
this indulgence, think that a dispensation from fasting ought
certainly not to be allowed on the Sabbath, because they say that on
this day the Apostle Peter fasted before his encounter with Simon.[125] But from this it is quite clear
that he did this not in accordance with a canonical rule, but rather
through the needs of his impending struggle. Since there, too, for
the same purpose, Peter seems to have imposed on his disciples not a
general but a special fast, which he certainly would not have done if
he had known that it was wont to be observed by canonical rule: just
as he would surely have been ready to appoint it even on Sunday, if
the occasion of his struggle had fallen upon it: but no canonical rule
of fasting would have been made general from this, because it was no
general observance that led to it, but a matter of necessity, which
forced it to be observed on a single occasion.
CHAPTER XI.
Of the points in which the service held on Sunday
differs from what is customary on other days.
BUT we ought to know this, too, that on Sunday only one office[126] is celebrated before dinner, at
which, out of regard for the actual service[127] and the Lord's communion, they use a
more solemn and a longer service of Psalms and prayers and lessons,
and so consider that Tierce and Sext are included in it. And hence it
results that, owing to the addition of the lessons, there is no
diminution of the amount of their devotions, and yet some difference
is made, and an indulgence over other times seems to be granted to the
brethren out of reverence for the Lord's resurrection; and this seems
to lighten the observance all through the week, and, by reason of the
difference which is interposed, it makes the day to be looked forward
to more solemnly as a festival, and owing to the anticipation of it
the fasts of the coming week are less felt. For any weariness is
always borne with greater equanimity, and labour undertaken without
aversion, if some variety is interposed or change of work succeeds.
CHAPTER XII.
Of the days on which, when supper is provided for
the brethren, a Psalm is not said as they assemble for the meals as is
usual at dinner.
LASTLY, also, on those days,--i.e., on Saturday and Sunday,--and on
holy days, on which it is usual for both dinner and supper to be
provided for the brethren, a Psalm is not said in the evening, either
when they come to supper or when they rise from it, as is usual at
their ordinary dinner[128] and the
canonical refreshment on fast days, which the customary Psalms usually
precede and follow. But they simply make a plain prayer and come to
supper, and again, when they rise from it, conclude with prayer alone;
because this repast is something special among the monks: nor are they
all obliged to come to it, but it is only for strangers who have come
to see the brethren, and those whom bodily weakness or their own
inclination invites to it.
BOOK IV.
OF THE INSTITUTES OF THE RENUNCIANTS.
CHAPTER I.
Of the training of those who renounce this world,
and of the way in which those are taught among the monks of Tabenna
and the Egyptians who are received into the monasteries.
FROM the canonical system of Psalms and prayers which ought to be
observed in the daily services throughout the monasteries, we pass, in
the due course of our narrative, to the training of one who renounces
this world; endeavouring first, as well as we can, to embrace, in a
short account, the terms on which those who desire to turn to the Lord
can be received in the monasteries; adding some things from the rule
of the Egyptians, some from that of the monks of Tabenna,[129] whose monastery in the Thebaid is
better filled as regards numbers, as it is stricter in the rigour of
its system, than all others, for there are in it more than five
thousand brethren under the rule of one Abbot; and the obedience with
which the whole number of monks is at all times subject to one Elder
is what no one among us would render to another even for a short time,
or would demand from him.
CHAPTER II.
Of the way in which among them men remain in the
monasteries even to extreme old age.
AND I think that before anything else we ought to touch on their
untiring perseverance and humility and subjection,-- how it lasts for
so long, and by what system it is formed, through which they remain in
the monasteries till they are bent double with old age; for it is so
great that we cannot recollect any one who joined our monasteries
keeping it up unbroken even for a year: so that when we have seen the
beginning of their renunciation of the world, we shall understand how
it came about that, starting from such a commencement, they reached
such a height of perfection.
CHAPTER III.
Of the ordeal by which one who is to be received in
the monastery is tested.
ONE, then, who seeks to be admitted to the discipline of the monastery
is never received before he gives, by lying outside the doors for ten
days or even longer, an evidence of his perseverance and desire, as
well as of humility and patience. And when, prostrate at the feet of
all the brethren that pass by, and of set purpose repelled and scorned
by all of them, as if he was wanting to enter the monastery not for
the sake of religion but because he was obliged; and when, too,
covered with many insults and affronts, he has given a practical proof
of his steadfastness, and has shown what he will be like in
temptations by the way he has borne the disgrace; and when, with the
ardour of his soul thus ascertained, he is admitted, then they enquire
with the utmost care whether he is contaminated by a single coin from
his former possessions clinging to him. For they know that he cannot
stay for long under the discipline of the monastery, nor ever learn
the virtue of humility and obedience, nor be content with the poverty
and difficult life of the monastery, if he knows that ever so small a
sum of money has been kept hid; but, as soon as ever a disturbance
arises on some occasion or other, he will at once dart off from the
monastery like a stone from a sling, impelled to this by trusting in
that sum of money.[130]
CHAPTER IV.
The reason why those who are received in the
monastery are not allowed to bring anything in with them.
AND for these reasons they do not agree to take from him money to be
used even for the good of the monastery: First, in case he may be
puffed up with arrogance, owing to this offering, and so not deign to
put himself on a level with the poorer brethren; and next, lest he
fail through this pride of his to stoop to the humility of Christ, and
so, when he cannot hold out under the discipline of the monastery,
leave it, and afterwards, when he has cooled down, want in a bad
spirit to receive and get back--not without loss to the
monastery--what he had contributed in the early days of his
renunciation, when he was aglow with spiritual fervour. And that this
rule should always be kept they have been frequently taught by many
instances. For in some monasteries where they are not so careful some
who have been received unreservedly have afterwards tried most
sacrilegiously to demand a return of that which they had contributed
and which had been spent on God's work.
CHAPTER V.
The reason why those who give up the world, when
they are received in the monasteries, must lay aside their own clothes
and be clothed in others by the Abbot.
WHEREFORE each one on his admission is stripped of all his former
possessions, so that he is not allowed any longer to keep even the
clothes which he has on his back: but in the council of the brethren
he is brought forward into the midst and stripped of his own clothes,
and clad by the Abbot's hands in the dress of the monastery, so that
by this he may know not only that he has been despoiled of all his old
things, but also that he has laid aside all worldly pride, and come
down to the want and poverty of Christ, and that he is now to be
supported not by wealth sought for by the world's arts, nor by
anything reserved from his former state of unbelief, but that he is to
receive out of the holy and sacred funds of the monastery his rations
for his service; and that, as he knows that he is thence to be clothed
and fed and that he has nothing of his own, he may learn,
nevertheless, not to be anxious about the morrow, according to the
saying of the Gospel, and may not be ashamed to be on a level with the
poor, that is with the body of the brethren, with whom Christ was not
ashamed to be numbered, and to call himself their brother, but that
rather he may glory that he has been made to share the lot of his own
servants.[131]
CHAPTER VI.
The reason why the clothes of the renunciants with
which they joined the monastery are preserved by the steward.
BUT those clothes, which he laid aside, are consigned to the care of
the steward and kept until by different sorts of temptations and
trials they can recognize the excellence of his progress and life and
endurance. And if they see that he can continue therein as time goes
on, and remain in that fervour with which he began, they give them
away to the poor. But if they find that he has been guilty of any
fault of murmuring, or of even the smallest piece of disobedience,
then they strip off from him the dress of the monastery in which he
had been clad, and reclothe him in his old garments which had been
confiscated, and send him away.[132]
For it is not right for him to go away with those which he had
received, nor do they allow any one to be any longer dressed in them
if they have seen him once grow cold in regard to the rule of their
institution. Wherefore, also, the opportunity of going out openly is
not given to any one, unless he escapes like a runaway slave by taking
advantage of the thickest shades of night, or is judged unworthy of
this order and profession and lays aside the dress of the monastery
and is expelled with shame and disgrace before all the brethren.
CHAPTER VII.
The reason why those who are admitted to a
monastery are not permitted to mix at once with the congregation of
the brethren, but are first committed to the guest house.
WHEN, then, any one has been received and proved by that persistence
of which we have spoken, and, laying aside his own garments, has been
clad in those of the monastery, he is not allowed to mix at once with
the congregation of the brethren, but is given into the charge of an
Elder, who lodges apart not far from the entrance of the monastery,
and is entrusted with the care of strangers and guests, and bestows
all his diligence in receiving them kindly. And when he has served
there for a whole year without any complaint, and has given evidence
of service towards strangers,[133]
being thus initiated in the first rudiments of humility and patience,
and by long practice in it acknowledged, when he is to be admitted
from this into the congregation of the brethren he is handed over to
another EIder, who is placed over ten of the juniors, who are
entrusted to him by the Abbot, and whom he both teaches and governs in
accordance with the arrangement which we read of in Exodus as made by
Moses.[134]
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the practices in which the juniors are first
exercised that they may become proficient in overcoming all their
desires.
AND his anxiety and the chief part of his instruction--through which
the juniors brought to him may be able in due course to mount to the
greatest heights of perfection--will be to teach him first to conquer
his own wishes; and, anxiously and diligently practising him in this,
he will of set purpose contrive to give him such orders as he knows to
be contrary to his liking; for, taught by many examples, they say that
a monk, and especially the younger ones, cannot bridle the desire of
his concupiscence unless he has first learnt by obedience to mortify
his wishes. And so they lay it down that the man who has not first
learnt to overcome his desires cannot possibly stamp out anger or
sulkiness, or the spirit of fornication; nor can he preserve true
humility of heart, or lasting unity with the brethren, or a stable and
continuous concord; nor remain for any length of time in the
monastery.
CHAPTER IX.
The reason why the juniors are enjoined not to
keep back any of their thoughts from the senior.
BY these practices, then, they hasten to impress and instruct those
whom they are training with the alphabet, as it were, and first
syllables in the direction of perfection, as they can clearly see by
these whether they are grounded in a false and imaginary or in a true
humility. And, that they may easily arrive at this, they are next
taught not to conceal by a false shame any itching thoughts in their
hearts, but, as soon as ever such arise, to lay them bare to the
senior, and, in forming a judgment about them, not to trust anything
to their own discretion, but to take it on trust that that is good or
bad which is considered and pronounced so by the examination of the
senior. Thus it results that our cunning adversary cannot in any way
circumvent a young and inexperienced monk, or get the better of his
ignorance, or by any craft deceive one whom he sees to be protected
not by his own discretion but by that of his senior, and who cannot be
persuaded to hide from his senior those suggestions of his which like
fiery darts he has shot into his heart; since the devil, subtle as he
is, cannot ruin or destroy a junior unless he has enticed him either
through pride or through shame to conceal his thoughts. For they lay
it down as an universal and clear proof that a thought is from the
devil if we are ashamed to disclose it to the senior.[135]
CHAPTER X.
How thorough is the obedience of the juniors even
in those things which are matters of common necessity.
NEXT, the rule is kept with such strict obedience that, without the
knowledge and permission of their superior, the juniors not only do
not dare to leave their cell but on their own authority do not venture
to satisfy their common and natural needs. And so they are quick to
fulfil without any discussion all those things that are ordered by
him, as if they were commanded by God from heaven;[136] so that sometimes, when
impossibilities are commanded them, they undertake them with such
faith and devotion as to strive with all their powers and without the
slightest hesitation to fulfil them and carry them out; and out of
reverence for their senior they do not even consider whether a command
is an impossibility.[137] But of
their obedience I omit at present to speak more particularly, for we
propose to speak of it in the proper place a little later on, with
instances of it, if through your prayers the Lord carry us safely
through. We now proceed to the other regulations, passing over all
account of those which cannot be imposed on or kept in the monasteries
in this country, as we promised to do in our Preface; for instance,
how they never use woollen garments, but only cotton, and these not
double, changes of which each superior gives out to the ten monks
under his care when he sees that those which they are wearing are
dirty.
CHAPTER XI.
The kind of food which is considered the greater
delicacy by them.
I PASS over, too, that difficult and sublime sort of self-control,
through which it is considered the greatest luxury if the plant called
cherlock,[138] prepared with salt and
steeped in water, is set on the table for the repast of the brethren;
and many other things like this, which in this country neither the
climate nor the weakness of our constitution would permit. And I
shall only follow up those matters which cannot be interfered with by
any weakness of the flesh or local situation, if only no weakness of
mind or coldness of spirit gets rid of them.
CHAPTER XII.
How they leave off every kind of work at the sound
of some one knocking at the door, in their eagerness to answer at
once.
AND so, sitting in their cells and devoting their energies equally to
work and to meditation, when they hear the sound of some one knocking
at the door and striking on the cells of each, summoning them to
prayer or some work, every one eagerly dashes out from his cell, so
that one who is practising the writer's art, although he may have just
begun to form a letter, does not venture to finish it, but runs out
with the utmost speed, at the very moment when the sound of the
knocking reaches his ears, without even waiting to finish the letter
he has begun; but, leaving the lines of the letter incomplete, he aims
not at abridging and saving his labour, but rather hastens with the
utmost earnestness and zeal to attain the virtue of obedience, which
they put not merely before manual labour and reading and silence and
quietness in the cell, but even before all virtues, so that they
consider that everything should be postponed to it, and are content to
undergo any amount of inconvenience if only it may be seen that they
have in no way neglected this virtue.[139]
CHAPTER XIII.
How wrong it is considered for any one to say that
anything, however trifling, is his own.
AMONG their other practices I fancy that it is unnecessary even to
mention this virtue, viz., that no one is allowed to possess a box or
basket as his special property, nor any such thing which he could keep
as his own and secure with his own seal, as we are well aware that
they are in all respects stripped so bare that they have nothing
whatever except their shirt, cloak, shoes, sheepskin, and rush mat;[140] for in other monasteries as well,
where some indulgence and relaxation is granted, we see that this
rule is still most strictly kept, so that no one ventures to say even
in word that anything is his own: and it is a great offence if there
drops from the mouth of a monk such an expression as "my
book," "my tablets," "my pen," "my
coat," or "my shoes;" and for this he would have to
make satisfaction by a proper penance, if by accident some such
expression escaped his lips through thoughtlessness or ignorance.
CHAPTER XIV.
How, even if a large sum of money is amassed by the
labour of each, still no one may venture to exceed the moderate limit
of what is appointed as adequate.
AND although each one of them may bring in daily by his work and
labour so great a return to the monastery that he could out of it not
only satisfy his own moderate demands but could also abundantly supply
the wants of many, yet he is no way puffed up, nor does he flatter
himself on account of his toil and this large gain from his labour,
but, except two biscuits,[141] which
are sold there for scarcely threepence, no one thinks that he has a
right to anything further. And among them there is nothing (and I am
ashamed to say this, and heartily wish it was unknown in our own
monasteries) which is claimed by any of them, I will not say in deed
but even in thought, as his special property. And though he believes
that the whole granary of the monastery forms his substance, and, as
lord of all, devotes his whole care and energy to it all, yet
nevertheless, in order to maintain that excellent state of want and
poverty which he has secured and which he strives to preserve to the
very last in unbroken perfection, he regards himself as a foreigner
and an alien to them all, so that he conducts himself as a stranger
and a sojourner in this world, and considers himself a pupil of the
monastery and a servant instead of imagining that he is lord and
master of anything.
CHAPTER XV.
Of the excessive desire of possession among
us.
TO this what shall we wretched creatures say, who though living in
Coenobia and established under the government and care of an Abbot yet
carry about our own keys, and trampling under foot all feeling of
shame and disgrace which should spring from our profession, are not
ashamed actually to wear openly upon our fingers rings with which to
seal what we have stored up; and in whose case not merely boxes and
baskets, but not even chests and closets are sufficient for those
things which we collect or which we reserved when we forsook the
world; and who sometimes get so angry over trifles and mere nothings
(to which however we lay claim as if they were our own) that if any
one dares to lay a finger on any of them, we are so filled with rage
against him that we cannot keep the wrath of our heart from being
expressed on our lips and in bodily excitement. But, passing by our
faults and treating with silence those things of which it is a shame
even to speak, according to this saying: "My mouth shall not
speak the deeds of men,"[142] let
us in accordance with the method of our narration which we have begun
proceed to those virtues which are practised among them, and which we
ought to aim at with all earnestness; and let us briefly and hastily
set down the actual rules and systems that afterwards, coming to some
of the deeds and acts of the elders which we propose carefully to
preserve for recollection, we may support by the strongest testimonies
what we have set forth in our treatise, and still further confirm
everything that we have said by examples and instances from life.
CHAPTER XVI.
On the rules for various rebukes.
IF then any one by accident breaks an earthenware jar (which they call
"baucalis"), he can only expiate his carelessness by public
penance; and when all the brethren are assembled for service he must
lie on the ground and ask for absolution until the service of the
prayers is finished; and will obtain it when by the Abbot's command he
is bidden to rise from the ground. The same satisfaction must be
given by one who when summoned to some work or to the usual service
comes rather late, or who when singing a Psalm hesitates ever so
little. Similarly if he answers unnecessarily or roughly or
impertinently, if he is careless in carrying out the services enjoined
to him, if he makes a slight complaint, if preferring reading to work
or obedience he is slow in performing his appointed duties, if when
service is over he does not make haste to go back at once to his cell,
if he stops for ever so short a time with some one else, if he goes
anywhere else even for a moment, if he takes any one else by the hand,
if he ventures to discuss anything however small with one who is not
the joint-occupant of his cell,[143]
if he prays with one who is suspended from prayer, if he sees any of
his relations or friends in the world and talks with them without his
senior, if he tries to receive a letter from any one or to write back
without his Abbot's leave.[144] To
such an extent does spiritual censure proceed and in such matters and
faults like these. But as for other things which when
indiscriminately committed among us are treated by us too as
blameworthy, viz.: open wrangling, manifest contempt, arrogant
contradictions, going out from the monastery freely and without check,
familiarity with women, wrath, quarrelling, jealousies, disputes,
claiming something as one's own property, the infection of
covetousness, the desire and acquisition of unnecessary things which
are not possessed by the rest of the brethren, taking food between
meals and by stealth, and things like these--they are dealt with not
by that spiritual censure of which we spoke, but by stripes; or are
atoned for by expulsion.
CHAPTER XVII.
Of those who introduced the plan that the holy
Lessons should be read in the Coenobia while the brethren are eating,
and of the strict silence which is kept among the Egyptians.
BUT we have been informed that the plan that, while the brethren are
eating, the holy lessons should be read in the Coenobia did not
originate in the Egyptian system but in the Cappadocian. And there is
no doubt that they meant to establish it not so much for the sake of
the spiritual exercise as for the sake of putting a stop to
unnecessary and idle conversation, and especially discussions, which
so often arise at meals; since they saw that these could not be
prevented among them in any other way.[145] For among the Egyptians and
especially those of Tabenna so strict a silence is observed by all
that when so large a number of the brethren has sat down together to a
meal, no one ventures to talk even in a low tone except the dean, who
however if he sees that anything is wanted to be put on or taken off
the table, signifies it by a sign rather than a word. And while they
are eating, the rule of this silence is so strictly kept that with
their hoods drawn down over their eyelids (to prevent their roving
looks having the opportunity of wandering inquisitively) they can see
nothing except the table, and the food that is put on it, and which
they take from it; so that no one notices what another is eating.[146]
CHAPTER XVIII.
How it is against the rule for any one to take
anything to eat or drink except at the common table.
IN between their regular meals in common they are especially careful
that no one should presume to gratify his palate with any food:[147] so that when they are walking
casually through gardens or orchards, when the fruit hanging
enticingly on the trees not only knocks against their breasts as they
pass through, but is also lying on the ground and offering itself to
be trampled under foot, and (as it is all ready to be gathered) would
easily be able to entice those who see it to gratify their appetite,
and by the chance offered to them and the quantity of the fruit, to
excite even the most severe and abstemious to long for it; still they
consider it wrong not merely to taste a single fruit, but even to
touch one with the hand, except what is put on the table openly for
the common meal of all, and supplied publicly by the steward's
catering through the service of the brethren, for their enjoyment.
CHAPTER XIX.
How throughout Palestine and Mesopotamia a daily
service is undertaken by the brethren.
IN order that we may not appear to omit any of the Institutes of the
Coenobia I think that it should be briefly mentioned that in other
countries as well there is a daily service undertaken by the brethren.
For throughout the whole of Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Cappadocia and
all the East the brethren succeed one another in turn every week for
the performance of certain duties, so that the number serving is told
off according to the whole number of monks in the Coenobium. And they
hasten to fulfil these duties with a zeal and humility such as no
slave bestows on his service even to a most harsh and powerful master;
so that not satisfied only with these services which are rendered by
canonical rule, they actually rise by night in their zeal and relieve
those whose special duty this is; and secretly anticipating them try
to finish those duties which these others would have to do. But each
one who undertakes these weeks is on duty and has to serve until
supper on Sunday, and when this is done, his duty for the whole week
is finished, so that, when all the brethren come together to chant the
Psalms (which according to custom they sing before going to bed) those
whose turn is over wash the feet of all in turn, seeking faithfully
from them the reward of this blessing for their work during the whole
week, that the prayers offered up by all the brethren together may
accompany them as they fulfil the command of Christ, the prayer, to
wit, that intercedes for their ignorances and for their sins committed
through human frailty, and may commend to God the complete service of
their devotion like some rich offering. And so on Monday after the
Mattin hymns they hand over to others who take their place the vessels
and utensils with which they have ministered, which these receive and
keep with the utmost care and anxiety, that none of them may be
injured or destroyed, as they believe that even for the smallest
vessels they must give an account, as sacred things, not only to a
present steward, but to the Lord, if by chance any of them is injured
through their carelessness. And what limit there is to this
discipline, and what fidelity and care there is in keeping it up, you
may see from one instance which I will give as an example. For while
we are anxious to satisfy that fervour of yours through which you ask
for a full account of everything, and want even what you know
perfectly well to be repeated to you in this treatise, we are also
afraid of exceeding the limits of brevity.[148]
CHAPTER XX.
Of the three lentil beans which the Steward
found.
DURING the week of a certain brother the steward passing by saw lying
on the ground three lentil beans which had slipped out of the hand of
the monk on duty for the week[149] as
he was hastily preparing them for cooking, together with the water in
which he was washing them; and immediately he consulted the Abbot on
the subject; and by him the monk was adjudged a pilferer and careless
about sacred property, and so was suspended from prayer. And the
offence of his negligence was only pardoned when he had atoned for it
by public penance. For they believe not only that they themselves are
not their own, but also that everything that they possess is
consecrated to the Lord. Wherefore if anything whatever has once been
brought into the monastery they hold that it ought to be treated with
the utmost reverence as an holy thing. And they attend to and arrange
everything with great fidelity, even in the case of things which are
considered unimportant or regarded as common and paltry, so that if
they change their position and put them in a better place, or if they
fill a bottle with water, or give anybody something to drink out of
it, or if they remove a little dust from the oratory or from their
cell they believe with implicit faith that they will receive a reward
from the Lord.
CHAPTER XXI.
Of the spontaneous service of some of the
brethren.
WE have been told of brethren in whose week there was such a scarcity
of wood that they had not enough to prepare the usual food for the
brethren; and when it had been ordered by the Abbot's authority that
until more could be brought and fetched, they should content
themselves with dried food,[150]
though this was agreed to by all and no one could expect any cooked
food; still these men as if they were cheated of the fruit and reward
of their labour and service, if they did not prepare the food for
their brethren according to custom in the order of their turn--imposed
upon themselves such uncalled-for labour and care that in those dry
and sterile regions where wood cannot possibly be procured unless it
is cut from the fruit trees (for there are no wild shrubs found there
as with us), they wander about through the wide deserts, and
traversing the wilderness which stretches towards the Dead Sea,[151] collect in their lap and the folds
of their dress the scanty stubble and brambles which the wind carries
hither and thither, and so by their voluntary service prepare all
their usual food for the brethren, so that they suffer nothing to be
diminished of the ordinary supply; discharging these duties of theirs
towards their brethren with such fidelity that though the scarcity of
wood and the Abbot's order would be a fair excuse for them, yet still
out of regard for their profit and reward they will not take advantage
of this liberty.
CHAPTER XXII.
Of the system of the Egyptians, which is appointed
for the daily service of the brethren.
THESE things have been told in accordance with the system, as we
remarked before, of the whole East, which also we say should be
observed as a matter of course in our own country. But among the
Egyptians whose chief care is for work there is not the mutual change
of weekly service, for fear lest owing to the requirements of office
they might all be hindered from keeping the rule of work. But one of
the most approved brethren is given the care of the larder and
kitchen, and he takes charge of that office for good and all as long
as his strength and years permit. For he is exhausted by no great
bodily labour, because no great care is expended among them in
preparing food or in cooking, as they so largely make use of dried and
uncooked food,[152] and among them the
leaves of leeks cut each month, and cherlock, table salt,[153] olives, tiny little salt fish which
they call sardines,[154] form the
greatest delicacy.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Of the obedience of Abbot John by which he was
exalted even to the grace of prophecy.
AND since this book is about the training of one who renounces this
world, whereby, making a beginning of true humility and perfect
obedience, he may be enabled to ascend the heights of the other
virtues as well, I think it well to set down just by way of specimen,
as we promised, some of the deeds of the elders whereby they excelled
in this virtue, selecting a few only out of many instances, that, if
any are anxious to aim at still greater heights, they may not only
receive from these an incitement towards the perfect life, but may
also be furnished with a model of what they purpose. Wherefore, to
make this book as short as possible we will produce and set down two
or three out of the whole number of the Fathers; and first of all
Abbot John who lived near Lycon[155]
which is a town in the Thebaid; and who was exalted even to the grace
of prophecy for his admirable obedience, and was so celebrated all the
world over that he was by his merits rendered famous even among kings
of this world. For though, as we said, he lived in the most remote
parts of the Thebaid, still the Emperor Theodosius did not venture to
declare war against the most powerful tyrants before he was encouraged
by his utterances and replies: trusting in which as if they had been
brought to him from heaven he gained victories over his foes in
battles which seemed hopeless.[156]
CHAPTER XXIV.
Of the dry stick which, at the bidding of his
senior, Abbot John kept on watering as if it would grow.
AND so this blessed John from his youth up even to a full and ripe age
of manhood was subject to his senior as long as he continued living in
this world, and carried out his commands with such humility that his
senior himself was utterly astounded at his obedience; and as he
wanted to make sure whether this virtue came from genuine faith and
profound simplicity of heart, or whether it was put on and as it were
constrained and only shown in the presence of the bidder, he often
laid upon him many superfluous and almost unnecessary or even
impossible commands. From which I will select three to show to those
who wish to know how perfect was his disposition and subjection. For
the old man took from his woodstack a stick which had previously been
cut and got ready to make the fire with, and which, as no opportunity
for cooking had come, was lying not merely dry but even mouldy from
the lapse of time. And when he had stuck it into the ground before
his very eyes, he ordered him to fetch water and to water it twice a
day that by this daily watering it might strike roots and be restored
to life as a tree, as it was before, and spread out its branches and
afford a pleasant sight to the eyes as well as a shade for those who
sat under it in the heat of summer. And this order the lad received
with his customary veneration, never considering its impossibility,
and day by day carried it out so that he constantly carried water for
nearly two miles and never ceased to water the stick; and for a whole
year no bodily infirmity, no festival services, no necessary business
(which might fairly have excused him from carrying out the command),
and lastly no severity of winter could interfere and hinder him from
obeying this order. And when the old man had watched this zeal of his
on the sly without saying anything for several days and had seen that
he kept this command of his with simple willingness of heart, as if it
had come from heaven, without any change of countenance or
consideration of its reasonableness--approving the unfeigned obedience
of his humility and at the same time commiserating his tedious labour
which in the zeal of his devotion he had continued for a whole
year--he came to the dry stick, and "John," said he,
"has this tree put forth roots or no?" And when the other
said that he did not know, then the old man as if seeking the truth of
the matter and trying whether it was yet depending on its roots,
pulled up the stick before him with a slight disturbance of the earth,
and throwing it away told him that for the future he might stop
watering it.[157]
CHAPTER XXV.
Of the unique vase of oil thrown away by Abbot John
at his senior's command.
THUS the youth, trained up by exercises of this sort, daily increased
in this virtue of obedience, and shone forth more and more with the
grace of humility; and when the sweet odour of his obedience spread
throughout all the monasteries, some of the brethren, coming to the
elder for the sake of testing him or rather of being edified by him,
marvelled at his obedience of which they had heard; and so the elder
called him suddenly, and said, "Go up and take this cruse of
oil"[158] (which was the only one
in the desert and which furnished a very scanty supply of the rich
liquid for their own use and for that of strangers) "and throw it
down out of window." And he flew up stairs when summoned and
threw it out of window and cast it down to the ground and broke it in
pieces without any thought or consideration of the folly of the
command, or their daily wants, and bodily infirmity, or of their
poverty, and the trials and difficulties of the wretched desert in
which, even if they had got the money for it, oil of that quality,
once lost, could not be procured or replaced.
CHAPTER XXVI.
How Abbot John obeyed his senior by trying to roll
a huge stone, which a large number of men were unable to move.
AGAIN, when some others were anxious to be edified by the example of
his obedience, the elder called him and said: "John, run and roll
that stone hither as quickly as possible;" and he forthwith,
applying now his neck, and now his whole body, tried with all his
might and main to roll an enormous stone which a great crowd of men
would not be able to move, so that not only were his clothes saturated
with sweat from his limbs, but the stone itself was wetted by his
neck; in this too never weighing the impossibility of the command and
deed, out of reverence for the old man and the unfeigned simplicity of
his service, as he believed implicitly that the old man could not
command him to do anything vain or without reason.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Of the humility and obedience of Abbot
Patermucius,[159] which he did not
hesitate to make perfect by throwing his little boy into the river at
the command of his senior.
SO far let it suffice for me to have told a few things out of many
concerning Abbot John: now I will relate a memorable deed of Abbot
Patermucius. For he, when anxious to renounce the world, remained
lying before the doors of the monastery for a long time until by his
dogged persistence he induced them--contrary to all the rules of the
Coenobia--to receive him together with his little boy who was about
eight years old. And when they were at last admitted they were at
once not only committed to the care of different superiors, but also
put to live in separate cells that the father might not be reminded by
the constant sight of the little one that out of all his possessions
and carnal treasures, which he had cast off and renounced, at least
his son remained to him; and that as he was already taught that he was
no longer a rich man, so he might also forget the fact that he was a
father. And that it might be more thoroughly tested whether he would
make affection and love[160] for his
own flesh and blood of more account than obedience and Christian
mortification (which all who renounce the world ought out of love to
Christ to prefer), the child was on purpose neglected and dressed in
rags instead of proper clothes; and so covered and disfigured with
dirt that he would rather disgust than delight the eyes of his father
whenever he saw him. And further, he was exposed to blows and slaps
from different people, which the father often saw inflicted without
the slightest reason on his innocent child under his very eyes, so
that he never saw his cheeks without their being stained with the
dirty marks of tears. And though the child was treated thus day after
day before his eyes, yet still out of love for Christ and the virtue
of obedience the father's heart stood firm and unmoved. For he no
longer regarded him as his own son, as he had offered him equally with
himself to Christ; nor was he concerned about his present injuries,
but rather rejoiced because he saw that they were endured, not without
profit; thinking little of his son's tears, but anxious about his own
humility and perfection. And when the Superior of the Coenobium saw
his steadfastness of mind and immovable inflexibility, in order
thoroughly to prove the constancy of his purpose, one day when he had
seen the child crying, he pretended that he was annoyed with him and
told the father to throw him into the river. Then he, as if this had
been commanded him by the Lord, at once snatched up the child as
quickly as possible, and carried him in his arms to the river's bank
to throw him in. And straightway in the fervour of his faith and
obedience this would have been carried out in act, had not some of the
brethren been purposely set to watch the banks of the river very
carefully, and when the child was thrown in, had somehow snatched him
from the bed of the stream, and prevented the command, which was
really fulfilled by the obedience and devotion of the father, from
being consummated in act and result.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
How it was revealed to the Abbot concerning
Patermucius that he had done the deed of Abraham; and how when the
same Abbot died, Patermucius succeeded to the charge of the
monastery.
AND this man's faith and devotion was so acceptable to God that it was
immediately approved by a divine testimony. For it was forthwith
revealed to the Superior that by this obedience of his he had copied
the deed of the patriarch Abraham. And when shortly afterwards the
same Abbot of the monastery departed out of this life to Christ, he
preferred him to all the brethren, and left him as his successor and
as Abbot to the monastery.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Of the obedience of a brother who at the Abbot's
bidding carried about in public ten baskets and sold them by
retail.
WE will also not be silent about a brother whom we knew, who belonged
to a high family according to the rank of this world, for he was
sprung from a father who was a count and extremely wealthy, and had
been well brought up with a liberal education. This man, when he had
left his parents and fled to the monastery, in order to prove the
humility of his disposition and the ardour of his faith was at once
ordered by his superior to load his shoulders with ten baskets (which
there was no need to sell publicly), and to hawk them about through
the streets for sale: this condition being attached, so that he might
be kept longer at the work, viz.: that if any one should chance to
want to buy them all together, he was not to allow it, but was to sell
them to purchasers separately. And this he carried out with the
utmost zeal, and trampling under foot all shame and confusion, out of
love for Christ, and for His Name's sake, he put the baskets on his
shoulders and sold them by retail at the price fixed and brought back
the money to the monastery; not in the least upset by the novelty of
so mean and unusual a duty, and paying no attention to the indignity
of the thing and the splendour of his birth, and the disgrace of the
sale, as he was aiming at gaining through the grace of obedience that
humility of Christ which is the true nobility.
CHAPTER XXX.
Of the humility of Abbot Pinufius, who left a very
famous Coenobium over which he presided as Presbyter, and out of the
love of subjection sought a distant monastery where he could be
received as a novice.
THE limits of the book compel us to draw to a close; but the virtue of
obedience, which holds the first place among other good qualities,
will not allow us altogether to pass over in silence the deeds of
those who have excelled by it. Wherefore aptly combining these two
together, I mean, consulting brevity as well as the wishes and profit
of those who are in earnest, we will only add one example of humility,
which, as it was shown by no novice but one already perfect and an
Abbot, may not only instruct the younger, but also incite the elders
to the perfect virtue of humility, as they read it. Thus we saw Abbot
Pinufius[161] who when he was
presbyter of a huge Coenobium which is in Egypt not far from the city
of Panephysis,[162] was held in honour
and respect by all men out of reverence either for his life or for his
age or for his priesthood; and when he saw that for this reason he
could not practise that humility which he longed for with all the
ardour of his disposition, and had no opportunity of exercising the
virtue of subjection which he desired, he fled secretly from the
Coenobium and withdrew alone into the furthest parts of the Thebaid,
and there laid aside the habit of the monks and assumed a secular
dress, and thus sought the Coenobium of Tabenna, which he knew to be
the strictest of all, and in which he fancied that he would not be
known owing to the distance of the spot, or else that he could easily
lie hid there in consequence of the size of the monastery and the
number of brethren. There he remained for a long time at the
entrance, and as a suppliant at the knees of the brethren sought with
most earnest prayers to gain admission. And when he was at last with
much scorn admitted as a feeble old man who had lived all his life in
the world, and had asked in his old age to be allowed to enter a
Coenobium when he could no longer gratify his passions,--as they said
that he was seeking this not for the sake of religion but because he
was compelled by hunger and want, they gave him the care and
management of the garden, as he seemed an old man and not specially
fitted for any particular work. And this he performed under another
and a younger brother who kept him by him as intrusted to him, and he
was so subordinate to him, and cultivated the desired virtue of
humility so obediently that he daily performed with the utmost
diligence not only everything that had to do with the care and
management of the garden, but also all those duties which were looked
on by the other as hard and degrading, and disagreeable. Rising also
by night he did many things secretly, without any one looking on or
knowing it, when darkness concealed him so that no one could discover
the author of the deed. And when he had hidden himself there for
three years and had been sought for high and low by the brethren all
through Egypt, he was at last seen by one who had come from the parts
of Egypt, but could scarcely be recognized owing to the meanness of
his dress and the humble character of the duty he was performing. For
he was stooping down and hoeing the ground for vegetables and bringing
dung on his shoulders and laying it about their roots. And seeing
this the brother for a long time hesitated about recognizing him, but
at last he came nearer, and taking careful note not only of his looks
but also of the tone of his voice, straightway fell at his feet: and
at first all who saw it were struck with the greatest astonishment why
he should do this to one who was looked upon by them as the lowest of
all, as being a novice and one who had but lately forsaken the world:
but afterwards they were struck with still greater wonder when he
forthwith announced his name, which was one that had been well known
amongst them also by repute. And all the brethren asking his pardon
for their former ignorance because they had for so long classed him
with the juniors and children, brought him back to his own Coenobium,
against his will and in tears because by the envy of the devil he had
been cheated out of a worthy mode of life and the humility which he
was rejoicing in having discovered after his long search, and because
he had not succeeded in ending his life in that state of subjection
which he had secured. And so they guarded him with the utmost care
lest he should slip away again in the same sort of way and escape from
them also.
CHAPTER XXXI.
How when Abbot Pinufius was brought back to his
monastery he stayed there for a little while and then fled again into
the regions of Syrian Palestine.
AND when he had stopped there for a little while, again he was seized
with a longing and desire for humility, and, taking advantage of the
silence of night, made his escape in such a way that this time he
sought no neighbouring district, but regions which were unknown and
strange and separated by a wide distance. For embarking in a ship he
managed to travel to Palestine, believing that he would more securely
lie hid if he betook himself to those places in which his name had
never been heard. And when he had come thither, at once he sought out
our own monastery[163] which was at no
great distance from the cave[164] in
which our Lord vouchsafed to be born of a virgin. And though he
concealed himself here for some time, yet like "a city set on an
hill"[165] (to use our Lord's
expression) he could not long be hid. For presently some of the
brethren who had come to the holy places from Egypt to pray there
recognized him and recalled him with most fervent prayers to his own
Coenobium.
CHAPTER XXXII.
The charge which the same Abbot Pinufius gave to a
brother whom he admitted into his monastery in our presence.
THIS old man, then, we afterwards diligently sought out in Egypt
because we had been intimate with him in our own monastery; and I
propose to insert in this work of mine an exhortation which he gave in
our presence to a brother whom he admitted into the monastery, because
I think that it may be useful. You know, said he, that after lying
for so many days at the entrance you are to-day to be admitted. And
to begin with you ought to know the reason of the difficulty put in
your way. For it may be of great service to you in this road on which
you are desirous to enter, if you understand the method of it and
approach the service of Christ accordingly, and as you ought.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
How it is that, just as a great reward is due to
the monk who labours according to the regulations of the fathers, so
likewise punishment must be inflicted on an idle one; and therefore no
one should be admitted into a monastery too easily.
FOR as unbounded glory hereafter is promised to those who faithfully
serve God and cleave to Him according to the rule of this system; so
the severest penalties are in store for those who have carried it out
carelessly and coldly, and have failed to show to Him fruits of
holiness corresponding to what they professed or what they were
believed by men to be. For "it is better," as Scripture
says, "that a man should not vow rather than that he should vow
and not pay;" and "Cursed is he that doeth the work of the
Lord carelessly."[166] Therefore
you were for a long while declined by us, not as if we did not desire
with all our hearts to secure your salvation and the salvation of all,
nor as if we did not care to go to meet even afar off those who are
longing to be converted to Christ; but for fear lest if we received
you rashly we might make ourselves guilty in the sight of God of
levity, and make you incur a yet heavier punishment, if, when you had
been too easily admitted by us without realizing the responsibility of
this profession, you had afterwards turned out a deserter or lukewarm.
Wherefore you ought in the first instance to learn the actual reason
for the renunciation of the world, and when you have seen this, you
can be taught more plainly what you ought to do, from the reason for
it.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Of the way in which our renunciation is nothing but
mortification and the image of the Crucified.
RENUNCIATION is nothing but the evidence of the cross and of
mortification. And so you must know that to-day you are dead to this
world and its deeds and desires, and that, as the Apostle says, you
are crucified to this world and this world to you.[167] Consider therefore the demands of
the cross under the sign[168] of which
you ought henceforward to live in this life; because you no
longer live but He lives in you who was crucified for you.[169] We must therefore pass our time in
this life in that fashion and form in which He was crucified for us on
the cross so that (as David says) piercing our flesh with the fear of
the Lord,[170] we may have all our
wishes and desires not subservient to our own lusts but fastened to
His mortification. For so shall we fulfil the command of the Lord
which says: "He that taketh not up his cross and followeth me is
not worthy of me."[171] But
perhaps you will say: How can a man carry his cross continually? or
how can any one who is alive be crucified? Hear briefly how this
is.
CHAPTER XXXV.
How the fear of the Lord is our cross.
THE fear of the Lord is our cross. As then one who is crucified no
longer has the power of moving or turning his limbs in any direction
as he pleases, so we also ought to affix our wishes and desires--not
in accordance with what is pleasant and delightful to us now, but in
accordance with the law of the Lord, where it constrains us. And as
he who is fastened to the wood of the cross no longer considers things
present, nor thinks about his likings, nor is perplexed by anxiety and
care for the morrow, nor disturbed by any desire of possession, nor
inflamed by any pride or strife or rivalry, grieves not at present
injuries, remembers not past ones, and while he is still breathing in
the body considers that he is dead to all earthly things,[172] sending the thoughts of his heart on
before to that place whither he doubts not that he is shortly to come:
so we also, when crucified by the fear of the Lord ought to be dead
indeed to all these things, i.e. not only to carnal vices but also to
all earthly things,[173] having the
eye of our minds fixed there whither we hope at each moment that we
are soon to pass. For in this way we can have all our desires and
carnal affections mortified.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
How our renunciation of the world is of no use if
we are again entangled in those things which we have renounced.
BEWARE therefore lest at any time you take again any of those things
which you renounced and forsook, and, contrary to the Lord's command,
return from the field of evangelical work, and be found to have
clothed yourself again in your coat which you had stripped off;[174] neither sink back to the low and
earthly lusts and desires of this world, and in defiance of Christ's
word come down from the roof of perfection and dare to take up again
any of those things which you have renounced and forsaken. Beware
that you remember nothing of your kinsfolk or of your former
affections, and that you are not called back to the cares and
anxieties of this world, and (as our Lord says) putting your hand to
the plough and looking back be found unfit for the kingdom of
heaven.[175] Beware lest at any time,
when you have begun to dip into the knowledge of the Psalms and of
this life, you be little by little puffed up and think of reviving
that pride which now at your beginning you have trampled under foot in
the ardour of faith and in fullest humility; and thus (as the Apostle
says) building again those things which you had destroyed, you make
yourself a backslider.[176] But
rather take heed to continue even to the end in that state of
nakedness of which you made profession in the sight of God and of his
angels. In this humility too and patience, with which you persevered
for ten days before the doors and entreated with many tears to be
admitted into the monastery, you should not only continue but also
increase and go forward. For it is too bad that when you ought to be
carried on from the rudiments and beginnings, and go forward to
perfection, you should begin to fall back from these to worse things.
For not he who begins these things, but he who endures in them to the
end, shall be saved.[177]
CHAPTER XXXVII.
How the devil always lies in wait for our end, and
how we ought continually to watch his head.[178]
FOR the subtle serpent is ever "watching our heel," that is,
is lying in wait for the close, and endeavouring to trip us up right
to the end of our life. And therefore it will not be of any use to
have made a good beginning and to have eagerly taken the first step
towards renouncing the world with all fervour, if a corresponding end
does not likewise set it off and conclude it, and if the humility and
poverty of Christ, of which you have now made profession in His sight,
are not preserved by you even to the close of your life, as they were
first secured. And that you may succeed in doing this, do you ever
"watch his head," i.e. the first rise of thoughts, by
bringing them at once to your superior. For thus you will learn to
"bruise" his dangerous beginnings, if you are not ashamed to
disclose any of them to your superior.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Of the renunciant's preparation against temptation,
and of the few who are worthy of imitation.
WHEREFORE, as Scripture says, "when you go forth to serve the
Lord stand in the fear of the Lord, and prepare your mind"[179] not for repose or carelessness or
delights, but for temptations and troubles. For "through much
tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God." For
"strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto
life, and few there be which find it."[180] Consider therefore that you belong
to the few and elect; and do not grow cold after the examples of the
lukewarmness of many: but live as the few, that with the few you may
be worthy of a place in the kingdom of God: for "many are called,
but few chosen," and it is a "little flock to which it is
the Father's good pleasure to give"[181] an inheritance. You should
therefore realize that it is no light sin for one who has made
profession of perfection to follow after what is imperfect. And to
this state of perfection you may attain by the following steps and in
the following way.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Of the way in which we shall mount towards
perfection, whereby we may afterwards ascend from the fear of God up
to love.
"THE beginning" of our salvation and the safeguard of it is,
as I said, "the fear of the Lord."[182] For through this those who are
trained in the way of perfection can gain a start in conversion as
well as purification from vices and security in virtue. And when this
has gained an entrance into a man's heart it produces contempt of all
things, and begets a forgetfulness of kinsfolk and an horror of the
world itself. But by the contempt for the loss of all possessions
humility is gained. And humility is attested by these signs: First of
all if a man has all his desires mortified; secondly, if he conceals
none of his actions or even of his thoughts from his superior;
thirdly, if he puts no trust in his own opinion, but all in the
judgment of his superior, and listens eagerly and willingly to his
directions; fourthly, if he maintains in everything obedience and
gentleness and constant patience; fifthly, if he not only hurts nobody
else, but also is not annoyed or vexed at wrongs done to himself;
sixthly, if he does nothing and ventures on nothing to which he is not
urged by the Common Rule or by the example of our elders; seventhly,
if he is contented with the lowest possible position, and considers
himself as a bad workman and unworthy in the case of everything
enjoined to him; eighthly, if he does not only outwardly profess with
his lips that he is inferior to all, but really believes it in the
inmost thoughts of his heart; ninthly, if he governs his tongue, and
is not over talkative; tenthly, if he is not easily moved or too ready
to laugh. For by such signs and the like is true humility recognised.
And when this has once been genuinely secured, then at once it leads
you on by a still higher step to love which knows no fear;[183] and through this you begin, without
any effort and as it were naturally, to keep up everything that you
formerly observed not without fear of punishment; no longer now from
regard of punishment or fear of it but from love of goodness itself,
and delight in virtue.[184]
CHAPTER XL.
That the monk should seek for examples of
perfection not from many instances but from one or a very few.
AND that you may the more easily arrive at this, the examples of the
perfect life of one dwelling in the congregation, which you may
imitate, should be sought from a very few or indeed from one or two
only and not from too many. For apart from the fact that a life which
is tested and refined and purified is only to be found in a few, there
is this also to be gained, viz.: that a man is more thoroughly
instructed and formed by the example of some one, towards the
perfection which he sets before him, viz.: that of the Coenobite
life.
CHAPTER XLI.
The appearance of what infirmities one who lives in
a Coenobium ought to exhibit.[185]
AND that you may be able to attain all this, and continually remain
subject to this spiritual rule, you must observe these three things in
the congregation: viz.: that as the Psalmist says: "I was like a
deaf man and heard not and as one that is dumb who doth not open his
mouth; and I became as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth
there are no reproofs,"[186] so
you also should walk as one that is deaf and dumb and blind, so
that--putting aside the contemplation of him who has been rightly
chosen by you as your model of perfection--you should be like a blind
man and not see any of those things which you find to be unedifying,
nor[187] be influenced by the
authority or fashion of those who do these things, and give yourself
up to what is worse and what you formerly condemned. If you hear any
one disobedient or insubordinate or disparaging another or doing
anything different from what was taught to you, you should not go
wrong and be led astray by such an example to imitate him; but,
"like a deaf man," as if you had never heard it, you should
pass it all by. If insults are offered to you or to any one else, or
wrongs done, be immovable, and as far as an answer in retaliation is
concerned be silent "as one that is dumb," always singing in
your heart this verse of the Psalmist: "I said I will take heed
to my ways that I offend not with my tongue. I set a guard to my mouth
when the sinner stood before me. I was dumb and was humbled and kept
silence from good things."[188]
But cultivate above everything this fourth thing which adorns and
graces those three of which we have spoken above; viz.: make yourself,
as the Apostle directs,[189] a fool in
this world that you may become wise, exercising no discrimination and
judgment of your own on any of those matters which are commanded to
you, but always showing obedience with all simplicity and faith,
judging that alone to be holy, useful, and wise which God's law or the
decision of your superior declares to you to be such. For built up on
such a system of instruction you may continue forever under this
discipline, and not fall away from the monastery in consequence of any
temptations or devices of the enemy.
CHAPTER XLII.
How a monk should not look for the blessing of
patience in his own case as a result of the virtue of others, but
rather as a consequence of his own longsuffering.
YOU should therefore not look for patience in your own case from the
virtue of others, thinking that then only can you secure it when you
are not irritated by any (for it is not in your own power to prevent
this from happening); but rather you should look for it as the
consequence of your own humility and long-suffering which
does depend on your own will.
CHAPTER XLIII.
Recapitulation of the explanation how a monk can
mount up towards perfection.
AND in order that all these things which have been set forth in a
somewhat lengthy discourse may be more easily stamped on your heart
and may stick in your thoughts with all tenacity, I will make a
summary of them so that you may be able to learn all the changes by
heart by reason of their brevity and conciseness. Hear then in few
words how you can mount up to the heights of perfection without an
effort or difficulty. "The beginning" of our salvation and
"of wisdom" is, according to Scripture, "the fear of
the Lord."[190] From the fear of
the Lord arises salutary compunction. From compunction of heart
springs renunciation, i.e. nakedness and contempt of all possessions.
From nakedness is begotten humility; from humility the mortification
of desires. Through mortification of desires all faults are
extirpated and decay. By driving out faults virtues shoot up and
increase. By the budding of virtues purity of heart is gained. By
purity of heart the perfection of apostolic love is acquired.
BOOK V.
OF THE SPIRIT OF GLUTTONY.
CHAPTER I.
The transition from the Institutes of the monks to
the struggle against the eight principal faults.
THIS fifth book of ours is now by the help of God to be produced. For
after the four books which have been composed on the customs of the
monasteries, we now propose, being strengthened by God through your
prayers, to approach the struggle against the eight principal faults,
i.e. first, Gluttony or the pleasures of the palate; secondly,
Fornication; thirdly, Covetousness, which means Avarice, or, as it may
more properly be called, the love of money; fourthly, Anger; fifthly,
Dejection; sixthly, "Accidie,"[191] which is heaviness or weariness of
heart; seventhly, kenodoxia which means
foolish or vain glory; eighthly, pride. And on entering upon this
difficult task we need your prayers, O most blessed Pope Castor, more
than ever; that we may be enabled in the first place worthily to
investigate the nature of these in all points however trifling or
hidden or obscure: and next to explain with sufficient clearness the
causes of them and thirdly to bring forward fitly the cures and
remedies for them.
CHAPTER II.
How the occasions of these faults, being found in
everybody, are ignored by everybody; and how we need the Lord's help
to make them plain.
AND of these passions as the occasions are recognized by everybody as
soon as they are laid open by the teaching of the elders, so before
they are revealed, although we are all overcome by them, and they
exist in every one, yet nobody knows of them. But we trust that we
shall be able in some measure to explain them, if by your prayers that
word of the Lord, which was announced by Isaiah, may apply to us
also--"I will go before thee, and bring low the mighty ones of
the land, I will break the gates of brass, and cut asunder the iron
bars, and I will open to thee concealed treasures and hidden
secrets"[192]--so that the word
of the Lord may go before us also, and first may bring low the mighty
ones of our land, i.e. these same evil passions which we are desirous
to overcome, and which claim for themselves dominion and a most
horrible tyranny in our mortal body; and may make them yield to our
investigation and explanation, and thus breaking the gates of our
ignorance, and cutting asunder the bars of vices which shut us out
from true knowledge, may lead to the hidden things of our secrets, and
reveal to us who have been illuminated, according to the Apostle's
word, "the hidden things of darkness, and may make manifest the
counsels of the hearts,"[193]
that thus penetrating with pure eyes of the mind to the foul darkness
of vices, we may be able to disclose them and drag them forth to
light; and may succeed in explaining their occasions and natures to
those who are either free from them, or are still tied and bound by
them, and so passing as the prophet says,[194] through the fire of vices which
terribly inflame our minds, we may be able forthwith to pass also
through the water of virtues which extinguish them unharmed, and being
bedewed (as it were) with spiritual remedies may be found worthy to be
brought in purity of heart to the consolations of perfection.
CHAPTER III.
How our first struggle must be against the spirit
of gluttony, i.e. the pleasures of the palate.
AND so the first conflict we must enter upon is that against gluttony,
which we have explained as the pleasures of the palate: and in the
first place as we are going to speak of the system of fasts, and the
quality of food, we must again recur to the traditions and customs of
the Egyptians, as everybody knows that they contain a more advanced
discipline in the matter of self-control, and a perfect method of
discrimination.
CHAPTER IV.
The testimony of Abbot Antony in which he teaches
that each virtue ought to be sought for from him who professes it in a
special degree.
FOR it is an ancient and excellent saying of the blessed Antony[195] that when a monk is endeavouring
after the plan of the monastic life to reach the heights of a more
advanced perfection, and, having learned the consideration of
discretion, is able now to stand in his own judgment, and to arrive at
the very summit of the anchorite's life, he ought by no means to seek
for all kinds of virtues from one man however excellent. For one is
adorned with flowers of knowledge, another is more strongly fortified
with methods of discretion, another is established in the dignity of
patience, another excels in the virtue of humility, another in that of
continence, another is decked with the grace of simplicity. This one
excels all others in magnanimity, that one in pity, another in vigils,
another in silence, another in earnestness of work. And therefore the
monk who desires to gather spiritual honey, ought like a most careful
bee, to suck out virtue from those who specially possess it, and
should diligently store it up in the vessel of his own breast: nor
should he investigate what any one is lacking in, but only regard and
gather whatever virtue he has. For if we want to gain all virtues
from some one person, we shall with great difficulty or perhaps never
at all find suitable examples for us to imitate. For though we do not
as yet see that even Christ is made "all things in all," as
the Apostle says;[196] still in this
way we can find Him bit by bit in all. For it is said of Him,
"Who was made of God to you wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption."[197] While then in one there is found
wisdom, in another righteousness, in another sanctification, in
another kindness, in another chastity, in another humility, in another
patience, Christ is at the present time divided, member by member,
among all of the saints. But when all come together into the unity of
the faith and virtue, He is formed into the "perfect
man,"[198] completing the fulness
of His body, in the joints and properties of all His members. Until
then that time arrives when God will be "all in all," for
the present God can in the way of which we have spoken be "in
all," through particular virtues, although He is not yet
"all in all" through the fulness of them. For although our
religion has but one end and aim, yet there are different ways by
which we approach God, as will be more fully shown in the Conferences
of the Elders.[199] And so we must
seek a model of discretion and continence more particularly from those
from whom we see that those virtues flow forth more abundantly through
the grace of the Holy Spirit; not that any one can alone acquire those
things which are divided among many, but in order that in those good
qualities of which we are capable we may advance towards the imitation
of those who especially have acquired them.
CHAPTER V.
That one and the same rule of fasting cannot be
observed by everybody.
AND so on the manner of fasting a uniform rule cannot easily be
observed, because everybody has not the same strength; nor is it like
the rest of the virtues, acquired by steadfastness of mind alone. And
therefore, because it does not depend only on mental firmness, since
it has to do with the possibilities of the body, we have received this
explanation concerning it which has been handed down to us, viz.: that
there is a difference of time, manner, and quality of the refreshment
in proportion to the difference of condition of the body, the age, and
sex: but that there is one and the same rule of restraint to everybody
as regards continence of mind, and the virtue of the spirit. For it
is impossible for every one to prolong his fast for a week, or to
postpone taking refreshment during a two or three days' abstinence.
By many people also who are worn out with sickness and especially with
old age, a fast even up to sunset cannot be endured without suffering.
The sickly food of moistened beans does not agree with everybody: nor
does a sparing diet of fresh vegetables suit all, nor is a scanty meal
of dry bread permitted to all alike. One man does not feel satisfied
with two pounds, for another a meal of one pound, or six ounces, is
too much; but there is one aim and object of continence in the case of
all of these, viz.: that no one may be overburdened beyond the measure
of his appetite, by gluttony. For it is not only the quality, but
also the quantity of food taken which dulls the keenness of the mind,
and when the soul as well as the flesh is surfeited, kindles the
baneful and fiery incentive to vice.
CHAPTER VI.
That the mind is not intoxicated by wine
alone.
THE belly when filled with all kinds of food gives birth to seeds of
wantonness, nor can the mind, when choked with the weight of food,
keep the guidance and government of the thoughts. For not only is
drunkenness with wine wont to intoxicate the mind, but excess of all
kinds of food makes it weak and uncertain, and robs it of all its
power of pure and clear contemplation. The cause of the overthrow and
wantonness of Sodom was not drunkenness through wine, but fulness of
bread. Hear the Lord rebuking Jerusalem through the prophet.
"For how did thy sister Sodom sin, except in that she ate her
bread in fulness and abundance?"[200] And because through fulness of
bread they were inflamed with uncontrollable lust of the flesh, they
were burnt up by the judgment of God with fire and brimstone from
heaven. But if excess of bread alone drove them to such a headlong
downfall into sin through the vice of satiety, what shall we think of
those who with a vigorous body dare to partake of meat and wine with
unbounded licence, taking not just what their bodily frailty demands,
but what the eager desire of the mind suggests.
CHAPTER VII.
How bodily weakness need not interfere with purity
of heart.
BODILY weakness is no hindrance to purity of heart, if only so much
food is taken as the bodily weakness requires, and not what pleasure
asks for. It is easier to find men who altogether abstain from the
more fattening kinds of foods than men who make a moderate use of what
is allowed to our necessities; and men who deny themselves everything
out of love of continence than men who taking food on the plea of
weakness preserve the due measure of what is sufficient.[201] For bodily weakness has its glory
of self-restraint, where though food is permitted to the failing body,
a man deprives himself of his refreshment, although he needs it, and
only indulges in just so much food as the strict judgment of
temperance decides to be sufficient for the necessities of life, and
not what the longing appetite asks for. The more delicate foods, as
they conduce to bodily health, so they need not destroy the purity of
chastity, if they are taken in moderation. For whatever strength[202] is gained by partaking of them is
used up in the toil and waste of care. Wherefore as no state of life
can be deprived of the virtue of abstinence, so to none is the crown
of perfection denied.
CHAPTER VIII.
How food should be taken with regard to the aim at
perfect continence.[203]
AND so it is a very true and most excellent saying of the Fathers that
the right method of fasting and abstinence lies in the measure of
moderation and bodily chastening; and that this is the aim of perfect
virtue for all alike, viz.: that though we are still forced to desire
it, yet we should exercise self-restraint in the matter of the food,
which we are obliged to take owing to the necessity of supporting the
body. For even if one is weak in body, he can attain to a perfect
virtue and one equal to that of those who are thoroughly strong and
healthy, if with firmness of mind he keeps a check upon the desires
and lusts which are not due to weakness of the flesh. For the Apostle
says: "And take not care for the flesh in its lusts."[204] He does not forbid care for it in
every respect: but says that care is not to be taken in regard to its
desires and lusts. He cuts away the luxurious fondness for the flesh:
he does not exclude the control necessary for life: he does the
former, lest through pampering the flesh we should be involved in
dangerous entanglements of the desires; the latter lest the body
should be injured by our fault and unable to fulfil its spiritual and
necessary duties.
CHAPTER IX.
Of the measure of the chastisement to be
undertaken, and the remedy of fasting.
THE perfection then of abstinence is not to be gathered from
calculations of time alone, nor only from the quality of the food; but
beyond everything from the judgment of conscience. For each one
should impose such a sparing diet on himself as the battle of his
bodily struggle may require. The canonical observance of fasts is
indeed valuable and by all means to be kept. But unless this is
followed by a temperate partaking of food, one will not be able to
arrive at the goal of perfection. For the abstinence of prolonged
fasts--where repletion of body follows--produces weariness for a time
rather than purity and chastity. Perfection of mind indeed depends
upon the abstinence of the belly. He has no lasting purity and
chastity, who is not contented always to keep to a well-balanced and
temperate diet. Fasting, although severe, yet if unnecessary
relaxation follows, is rendered useless, and presently leads to the
vice of gluttony. A reasonable supply of food partaken of daily with
moderation, is better than a severe and long fast at intervals.
Excessive fasting has been known not only to undermine the constancy
of the mind, but also to weaken the power of prayers through sheer
weariness of body.
CHAPTER X.
That abstinence from food is not of itself
sufficient for preservation of bodily and mental purity.
IN order to preserve the mind and body in a perfect condition
abstinence from food is not alone sufficient: unless the other virtues
of the mind as well are joined to it. And so humility must first be
learned by the virtue of obedience, and grinding toil[205] and bodily exhaustion. The
possession of money must not only be avoided, but the desire for it
must be utterly rooted out. For it is not enough not to possess
it,--a thing which comes to many as a matter of necessity: but we
ought, if by chance it is offered, not even to admit the wish
to have it. The madness of anger should be controlled; the downcast
look of dejection be overcome; vainglory should be despised, the
disdainfulness of pride trampled under foot, and the shifting and
wandering thoughts of the mind restrained by continual recollection of
God. And the slippery wanderings of our heart should be brought back
again to the contemplation of God as often as our crafty enemy, in his
endeavour to lead away the mind a captive from this consideration,
creeps into the innermost recesses of the heart.
CHAPTER XI.
That bodily lusts are not extinguished except by
the entire rooting out of vice.
FOR it is an impossibility that the fiery motions of the body can be
extinguished, before the incentives of the other chief vices are
utterly rooted out: concerning which we will speak in their proper
place, if God permits, separately, in different books. But now we
have to deal with Gluttony, that is the desire of the palate, against
which our first battle is. He then will never be able to check the
motions of a burning lust, who cannot restrain the desires of the
appetite. The chastity of the inner man is shown by the perfection of
this virtue. For you will never feel sure that he can strive against
the opposition of a stronger enemy, whom you have seen overcome by
weaker ones in a higher conflict. For of all virtues the nature is
but one and the same, although they appear to be divided into many
different kinds and names: just as there is but one substance of gold,
although it may seem to be distributed through many different kinds of
jewelry according to the skill of the goldsmith. And so he is proved
to possess no virtue perfectly, who is known to have broken down in
some part of them. For how can we believe that that man has
extinguished the burning heats of concupiscence (which are kindled not
only by bodily incitement but by vice of the mind), who could not
assuage the sharp stings of anger which break out from intemperance of
heart alone? Or how can we think that he has repressed the wanton
desires of the flesh and spirit, who has not been able to conquer the
simple fault of pride? Or how can we believe that one has trampled
under foot a wantonness which is ingrained in the flesh, who has not
been able to disown the love of money, which is something external and
outside our own substance? In what way will he triumph in the war of
flesh and spirit, who has not been man enough to cure the disease of
dejection? However great a city may be protected by the height of its
walls and the strength of its closed gates, yet it is laid waste by
the giving up of one postern however small. For what difference does
it make whether a dangerous foe makes his way into the heart of the
city over high walls, and through the wide spaces of the gate, or
through secret and narrow passages?
CHAPTER XII.
That in our spiritual contest we ought to draw an
example from the carnal contests.
"ONE who strives in the games is not crowned unless he has
contended lawfully."[206] One
who wants to extinguish the natural desires of the flesh, should first
hasten to overcome those vices whose seat is outside our nature. For
if we desire to make trial of the force of the Apostle's saying, we
ought first to learn what are the laws and what the discipline of the
world's contest, so that finally by a comparison with these, we may be
able to know what the blessed Apostle meant to teach to us who are
striving in a spiritual contest by this illustration. For in these
conflicts, which, as the same Apostle says, hold out "a
corruptible crown"[207] to the
victors, this rule is kept, that he who aims at preparing himself for
the crown of glory, which is embellished with the privilege of
exemption, and who is anxious to enter the highest struggle in the
contest, should first in the Olympic and Pythian games give evidence
of his abilities as a youth, and his strength in its first beginnings;
since in these the younger men who want to practise this training are
tested as to whether they deserve or ought to be admitted to it, by
the judgment both of the president of the games and of the whole
multitude. And when any one has been carefully tested, and has first
been proved to be stained by no infamy of life, and then has been
adjudged not ignoble through the yoke of slavery, and for this reason
unworthy to be admitted to this training and to the company of those
who practise it, and when thirdly he produces sufficient evidence of
his ability and prowess and by striving with the younger men and his
own compeers has shown both his skill and valour as a youth, and going
forward from the contests of boys has been by the scrutiny of the
president permitted to mix with full-grown men and those of approved
experience, and has not only shown himself their equal in valour by
constant striving with them, but has also many a time carried off the
prize of victory among them, then at last he is allowed to approach
the most illustrious conflict of the games, permission to contend in
which is granted to none but victors and those who are decked with
many crowns and prizes. If we understand this illustration from a
carnal contest, we ought by a comparison with it to know what is the
system and method of our spiritual conflict as well.
CHAPTER XIII.
That we cannot enter the battle of the inner man
unless we have been set free from the vice of gluttony.
WE also ought first to give evidence of our freedom from subjection to
the flesh. For "of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he the
slave."[208] And "every one
that doeth sin is the slave of sin."[209] And when the scrutiny of the
president of the contest finds that we are stained by no infamy of
disgraceful lust, and when we are judged by him not to be slaves of
the flesh, and ignoble and unworthy of the Olympic struggle against
our vices, then we shall be able to enter the lists against our
equals, that is the lusts of the flesh and the motions and
disturbances of the soul. For it is impossible for a full belly to
make trial of the combat of the inner man: nor is he worthy to be
tried in harder battles, who can be overcome in a slight skirmish.
CHAPTER XIV.
How gluttonous desires can be overcome.
FIRST then we must trample under foot gluttonous desires, and to this
end the mind must be reduced not only by fasting, but also by vigils,
by reading, and by frequent compunction of heart for those things in
which perhaps it recollects that it has been deceived or overcome,
sighing at one time with horror at sin, at another time inflamed with
the desire of perfection and saintliness: until it is fully occupied
and possessed by such cares and meditations, and recognizes the
participation of food to be not so much a concession to pleasure, as a
burden laid upon it; and considers it to be rather a necessity for the
body than anything desirable for the soul. And, preserved by this
zeal of mind and continual compunction, we shall beat down the
wantonness of the flesh (which becomes more proud and haughty by being
fomented with food) and its dangerous incitement, and so by the
copiousness of our tears and the weeping of our heart we shall succeed
in extinguishing the fiery furnace of our body, which is kindled by
the Babylonish king[210] who
continually furnishes us with opportunities for sin, and vices with
which we burn more fiercely, instead of naphtha and pitch--until,
through the grace of God, instilled like dew by His Spirit in our
hearts, the heats of fleshly lusts can be altogether deadened. This
then is our first contest, this is as it were our first trial in the
Olympic games, to extinguish the desires of the palate and the belly
by the longing for perfection. On which account we must not only
trample down all unnecessary desire for food by the contemplation of
the virtues, but also must take what is necessary for the support of
nature, not without anxiety of heart, as if it were opposed to
chastity. And so at length we may enter on the course of our life, so
that there may be no time in which we feel that we are recalled from
our spiritual studies, further than when we are obliged by the
weakness of the body to descend for the needful care of it. And when
we are subjected to this necessity--of attending to the wants of life
rather than the desires of the soul--we should hasten to withdraw as
quickly as possible from it, as if it kept us back from really
health-giving studies. For we cannot possibly scorn the gratification
of food presented to us, unless the mind is fixed on the contemplation
of divine things, and is the rather entranced with the love of virtue
and the delight of things celestial. And so a man will despise all
things present as transitory, when he has securely fixed his mental
gaze on those things which are immovable and eternal, and already
contemplates in heart--though still in the flesh--the blessedness of
his future life.
CHAPTER XV.
How a monk must always be eager to preserve his
purity of heart.
IT is like the case when one endeavours to strike some mighty prize of
virtue on high pointed out by some very small mark; with the keenest
eyesight he points the aim of his dart, knowing that large rewards of
glory and prizes depend on his hitting it; and he turns away his gaze
from every other consideration, and must direct it thither, where he
sees that the reward and prize is placed, because he would be sure to
lose the prize of his skill and the reward of his prowess if the
keenness of his gaze should be diverted ever so little.[211]
CHAPTER XVI.
How, after the fashion of the Olympic games, a monk
should not attempt spiritual conflicts unless he has won battles over
the flesh.
AND so when the desires of the belly and of the palate have been by
these considerations overcome, and when we have been declared, as in
the Olympic contests, neither slaves of the flesh nor infamous through
the brand of sin, we shall be adjudged to be worthy of the contest in
higher struggles as well, and, leaving behind lessons of this kind,
may be believed capable of entering the lists against spiritual
wickednesses, against which only victors and those who are allowed to
contend in a spiritual conflict are deemed worthy to struggle. For
this is so to speak a most solid foundation of all the conflicts,
viz.: that in the first instance the impulses of carnal desires should
be destroyed. For no one can lawfully strive unless his own flesh has
been overcome. And one who does not strive lawfully certainly cannot
take a share in the contest, nor win a crown of glory and the grace of
victory. But if we have been overcome in this battle, having been
proved as it were slaves of carnal lusts, and thus displaying the
tokens neither of freedom nor of strength, we shall be straightway
repulsed from the conflicts with spiritual hosts, as unworthy and as
slaves, with every mark of confusion. For "every one that doeth
sin is the servant of sin."[212]
And this will be addressed to us by the blessed Apostle, together with
those among whom fornication is named. "Temptation does not
overtake you, except such as is human."[213] For if we do not seek for strength
of mind[214] we shall not deserve to
make trial of severer contest against wickedness on high, if we have
been unable to subdue our weak flesh which resists the spirit. And
some not understanding this testimony of the Apostle, have read the
subjunctive instead of the indicative mood, i.e., "Let no
temptation overcome you, except such as is human."[215] But it is clear that it is rather
said by him with the meaning not of a wish but of a declaration or
rebuke.
CHAPTER XVII.
That the foundation and basis of the spiritual
combat must be laid in the struggle against gluttony.
WOULD you like to hear a true athlete of Christ striving according to
the rules and laws of the conflict? "I," said he, "so
run, not as uncertainly; I so fight, not as one that beateth the air:
but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means
when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway."[216] You see how he made the chief part
of the struggle depend upon himself, that is upon his flesh, as if on
a most sure foundation, and placed the result of the battle simply in
the chastisement of the flesh and the subjection of his body. "I
then so run not as uncertainly." He does not run uncertainly,
because,[217] looking to the heavenly
Jerusalem, he has a mark set, towards which his heart is swiftly
directed without swerving. He does not run uncertainly, because,
"forgetting those things which are behind, he reaches forth to
those that are before, pressing towards the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus,"[218] whither he ever directs his mental
gaze, and hastening towards it with all speed[219] of heart, proclaims with confidence,
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have
kept the faith."[220] And
because he knows he has run unweariedly "after the odour of the
ointment"[221] of Christ with
ready devotion of heart, and has won the battle of the spiritual
combat by the chastisement of the flesh, he boldly concludes and says,
"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me in that
day." And that he might open up to us also a like hope of
reward, if we desire to imitate him in the struggle of his course, he
added: "But not to me only, but to all also who love His
coming;"[222] declaring that we
shall be sharers of his crown in the day of judgment, if we love the
coming of Christ--not that one only which will be manifest to men even
against their will; but also this one which daily comes to pass in
holy souls--and if we gain the victory in the fight by chastising the
body. And of this coming it is that the Lord speaks in the Gospel.
"I," says He, "and my Father will come to him, and will
make our abode with him."[223]
And again: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man
hear my voice and open the gate, I will come in to him and will sup
with him, and he with me."[224]
CHAPTER XVIII.
Of the number of different conflicts and victories
through which the blessed Apostle ascended to the crown of the highest
combat.
BUT he does not mean that he has only finished the contest of a race
when he says "I so run, not as uncertainly" (a phrase which
has more particularly to do with the intention of the mind and fervour
of his spirit, in which he followed Christ with all zeal, crying out
with the Bride, "We will run after thee for the odour of thine
ointments;"[225] and again,
"My soul cleaveth unto thee:"[226]) but he also testifies that he has
conquered in another kind of contest, saying, "So fight I, not as
one that beateth the air, but I chastise my body and bring it into
subjection." And this properly has to do with the pains of
abstinence, and bodily fasting and affliction of the flesh: as he
means by this that he is a vigorous bruiser of his own flesh, and
points out that not in vain has he planted his blows of continence
against it; but that he has gained a battle triumph by mortifying his
own body; for when it is chastised with the blows of continence and
struck down with the boxing-gloves of fasting, he has secured for his
victorious spirit the crown of immortality and the prize of
incorruption. You see the orthodox method of the contest, and
consider the issue of spiritual combats: how the athlete of Christ
having gained a victory over the rebellious flesh, having cast it as
it were under his feet, is carried forward as triumphing on high. And
therefore "he does not run uncertainly," because he trusts
that he will forthwith enter the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem.
He "so fights," that is with fasts and humiliation of the
flesh, "not as one that beateth the air," that is, striking
into space with blows of continence, through which he struck not the
empty air, but those spirits who inhabit it, by the chastisement of
his body. For one who says "not as one that beateth the
air," shows that he strikes--not empty and void air, but certain
beings in the air. And because he had overcome in this kind of
contest, and marched on enriched with the rewards of many crowns, not
undeservedly does he begin to enter the lists against still more
powerful foes, and having triumphed over his former rivals, he boldly
makes proclamation and says, "Now our striving is not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against
world-rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in
heavenly places."[227]
CHAPTER XIX.
That the athlete of Christ, so long as he is in the
body, is never without a battle.
THE athlete of Christ, as long as he is in the body, is never in want
of a victory to be gained in contests: but in proportion as he grows
by triumphant successes, so does a severer kind of struggle confront
him. For when the flesh is subdued and conquered, what swarms of
foes, what hosts of enemies are incited by his triumphs and rise up
against the victorious soldier of Christ! for fear lest in the ease of
peace the soldier of Christ might relax his efforts and begin to
forget the glorious struggles of his contests, and be rendered slack
through the idleness which is caused by immunity from danger, and be
cheated of the reward of his prizes and the recompense of his
triumphs. And so if we want to rise with ever-growing virtue to these
stages of triumph we ought also in the same way to enter the lists of
battle and begin by saying with the Apostle: "I so fight, not as
one that beateth the air, but I chastise my body and bring it into
subjection,"[228] that when this
conflict is ended we may once more be able to say with him: "we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against world-rulers of this darkness, against
spiritual wickedness in heavenly places."[229] For otherwise we cannot possibly
join battle with them nor deserve to make trial of spiritual combats
if we are baffled in a carnal contest, and smitten down in a struggle
with the belly: and deservedly will it be said of us by the Apostle in
the language of blame: "Temptation does not overtake you, except
what is common to man."[230]
CHAPTER XX.
How a monk should not overstep the proper hours for
taking food, if he wants to proceed to the struggle of interior
conflicts.
A MONK therefore who wants to proceed to the struggle of interior
conflicts should lay down this as a precaution for himself to begin
with: viz.: that he will not in any case allow himself to be overcome
by any delicacies, or take anything to eat or drink before the fast[231] is over and the proper hour for
refreshment has come, outside meal times;[232] nor, when the meal is over, will he
allow himself to take a morsel however small; and likewise that he
will observe the canonical time and measure of sleep. For that
self-indulgence must be cut off in the same way that the sin of
unchastity has to be rooted out. For if a man is unable to check the
unnecessary desires of the appetite how will he be able to extinguish
the fire of carnal lust? And if a man is not able to control
passions, which are openly manifest and are but small, how will he be
able with temperate discretion to fight against those which are
secret, and excite him, when none are there to see? And therefore
strength of mind is tested in separate impulses and in any sort of
passion: and if it is overcome in the case of very small and manifest
desires, how it will endure in those that are really great and
powerful and hidden, each man's conscience must witness for
himself.
CHAPTER XXI.
Of the inward peace of a monk, and of spiritual
abstinence.
FOR it is not an external enemy whom we have to dread. Our foe is
shut up within ourselves: an internal warfare is daily waged by us:
and if we are victorious in this, all external things will be made
weak, and everything will be made peaceful and subdued for the soldier
of Christ. We shall have no external enemy to fear, if what is within
is overcome and subdued to the spirit. And let us not believe that
that external fast from visible food alone can possibly be sufficient
for perfection of heart and purity of body unless with it there has
also been united a fast of the soul. For the soul also has its foods
which are harmful, fattened on which, even without superfluity of
meats, it is involved in a downfall of wantonness. Slander is its
food, and indeed one that is very dear to it. A burst of anger also
is its food, even if it be a very slight one; yet supplying it with
miserable food for an hour, and destroying it as well with its deadly
savour. Envy is a food of the mind, corrupting it with its poisonous
juices and never ceasing to make it wretched and miserable at the
prosperity and success of another. Kenodoxia, i.e., vainglory is its
food, which gratifies it with a delicious meal for a time; but
afterwards strips it clear and bare of all virtue, and dismisses it
barren and void of all spiritual fruit, so that it makes it not only
lose the rewards of huge labours, but also makes it incur heavier
punishments. All lust and shifty wanderings of heart are a sort of
food for the soul, nourishing it on harmful meats, but leaving it
afterwards without share of the heavenly bread and of really solid
food. If then, with all the powers we have, we abstain from these in
a most holy fast, our observance of the bodily fast will be both
useful and profitable. For labour of the flesh, when joined with
contrition of the spirit, will produce a sacrifice that is most
acceptable to God, and a worthy shrine of holiness in the pure and
undefiled inmost chambers of the heart. But if, while fasting as far
as the body is concerned, we are entangled in the most dangerous vices
of the soul, our humiliation of the flesh will do us no good whatever,
while the most precious part of us is defiled: since we go wrong
through that substance by virtue of which we are made a shrine of the
Holy Ghost. For it is not so much the corruptible flesh as the clean
heart, which is made a shrine for God, and a temple of the Holy Ghost.
We ought therefore, whenever the outward man fasts, to restrain the
inner man as well from food which is bad for him: that inner man,
namely, which the blessed Apostle above all urges us to present pure
before God, that it may be found worthy to receive Christ as a guest
within, saying "that in the inner man Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith."[233]
CHAPTER XXII.
That we should for this reason practise bodily
abstinence that we may by it attain to a spiritual fast.
AND so we know that we ought therefore to bestow attention on bodily
abstinence, that we may by this fasting attain to purity of heart.
Otherwise our labours will be spent in vain, if we endure this without
weariness, in contemplating the end, but are unable to reach the end
for which we have endured such trials; and it would have been better
to have abstained from the forbidden foods of the soul than to have
fasted with the body from things indifferent and harmless, for in the
case of these latter there is a simple and harmless reception of a
creature of God, which in itself has nothing wrong about it: but in
the case of the former there is at the very first a dangerous tendency
to devour the brethren; of which it is said, "Do not love
backbiting lest thou be rooted out."[234] And concerning anger and jealousy
the blessed Job says: "For anger slayeth a fool, and envy killeth
a child."[235] And at the same
time it should be noticed that he who is angered is set down as a
fool; and he who is jealous, as a child. For the former is not
undeservedly considered a fool, since of his own accord he brings
death upon himself, being goaded by the stings of anger; and the
latter, while he is envious, proves that he is a child and a minor,
for while he envies another he shows that the one at whose prosperity
he is vexed, is greater than he.
CHAPTER XXIII.
What should be the character of the monk's
food.
WE should then choose for our food, not only that which moderates the
heat of burning lust, and avoids kindling it; but what is easily got
ready, and what is recommended by its cheapness, and is suitable to
the life of the brethren and their common use. For the nature of
gluttony is threefold: first, there is that which forces us to
anticipate the proper hour for a meal, next that which delights in
stuffing the stomach, and gorging all kinds of food; thirdly, that
which takes pleasure in more refined and delicate feasting. And so
against it a monk should observe a threefold watch: first, he should
wait till the proper time for breaking the fast; secondly, he should
not give way to gorging; thirdly, he should be contented with any of
the commoner sorts of food. For anything that is taken over and above
what is customary and the common use of all, is branded by the ancient
tradition of the fathers as defiled with the sin of vanity and
glorying and ostentation. Nor of those whom we have seen to be
deservedly eminent for learning and discretion, or whom the grace of
Christ has singled out as shining lights for every one to imitate,
have we known any who have abstained from eating bread which is
accounted cheap and easily to be obtained among them; nor have we seen
that any one who has rejected this rule and given up the use of bread
and taken to a diet of beans or herbs or fruits, has been reckoned
among the most esteemed, or even acquired the grace of knowledge and
discretion. For not only do they lay it down that a monk ought not to
ask for foods which are not customary for others, lest his mode of
life should be exposed publicly to all and rendered vain and idle and
so be destroyed by the disease of vanity; but they insist that the
common chastening discipline of fasts ought not lightly to be
disclosed to any one, but as far as possible concealed and kept
secret. But when any of the brethren arrive they rule that we ought
to show the virtues of kindness and charity instead of observing a
severe abstinence ad our strict daily rule: nor should we consider
what our own wishes and profit or the ardour of our desires may
require, but set before us and gladly fulfil whatever the refreshment
of the guest, or his weakness may demand from us.
CHAPTER XXIV.
How in Egypt we saw that the daily fast was broken
without scruple on our arrival.
WHEN we had come from the region of Syria and had sought the province
of Egypt, in our desire to learn the rules of the Elders, we were
astonished at the alacrity of heart with which we were there received
so that no rule forbidding refreshment till the appointed hour of the
fast was over was observed, such as we had been brought up to observe
in the monasteries of Palestine; but except in the case of the regular
days, Wednesdays and Fridays, wherever we went the daily fast[236] was broken:[237] and when we asked why the daily fast
was thus ignored by them without scruple one of the elders replied:
"The opportunity for fasting is always with me. But as I am
going to conduct you on your way, I cannot always keep you with me.
And a fast, although it is useful and advisable, is yet a free-will
offering. But the exigencies of a command require the fulfilment of a
work of charity. And so receiving Christ in you I ought to refresh
Him but when I have sent you on your way I shall be able to balance
the hospitality offered for His sake by a stricter fast on my own
account. For `the children of the bridegroom cannot fast while the
bridegroom is with them:'[238] but
when he has departed, then they will rightly fast."
CHAPTER XXV.
Of the abstinence of one old man who took food six
times so sparingly that he was still hungry.
WHEN one of the elders was pressing me to eat a little more as I was
taking refreshment, and I said that I could not, he replied: "I
have already laid my table six times for different brethren who had
arrived, and, pressing each of them, I partook of food with him, and
am still hungry, and do you, who now partake of refreshment for the
first time, say that you cannot eat any more?"
CHAPTER XXVI.
Of another old man, who never partook of food alone
in his cell.
WE have seen another who lived alone, who declared that he had never
enjoyed food by himself alone, but that even if for five days running
none of the brethren came to his cell he constantly put off taking
food until on Saturday or Sunday he went to church for service and
found some stranger whom he brought home at once to his cell, and
together with him partook of refreshment for the body not so much by
reason of his own needs, as for the sake of kindness and on his
brother's account. And so as they know that the daily fast is broken
without scruple on the arrival of brethren, when they leave, they
compensate for the refreshment which has been enjoyed on their account
by a greater abstinence, and sternly make up for the reception of even
a very little food by a severer chastisement not only as regards
bread, but also by lessening their usual amount of sleep.
CHAPTER XXVII.
What the two Abbots Paesius and John said of the
fruits of their zeal.
WHEN the aged John, who was superior of a large monastery and of a
quantity of brethren, had come to visit the aged Pæsius, who was
living in a vast desert, and had been asked of him as of a very old
friend, what he had done in all the forty years in which he had been
separated from him and had scarcely ever been disturbed in his
solitude by the brethren: "Never," said he, "has the
sun seen me eating," "nor me angry," said the other.[239]
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The lesson and example which Abbot John when dying
left to his disciples.
WHEN the same old man, as one who was readily going to depart to his
own, was lying at his last gasp, and the brethren were standing round,
they implored and intreated that he would leave them, as a sort of
legacy, some special charge by which they could attain to the height
of perfection, the more easily from the brevity of the charge: he
sighed and said, "I never did my own will, nor taught any one
what I had not first done myself."
CHAPTER XXIX.
Of Abbot Machetes, who never slept during the
spiritual conferences, but always went to sleep during earthly
tales.
WE knew an old man, Machetes by name, who lived at a distance from the
crowds of the brethren, and obtained by his daily prayers this grace
from the Lord, that as often as a spiritual conference was held,
whether by day or by night, he never was at all overcome by sleep: but
if any one tried to introduce a word of detraction, or idle talk, he
dropped off to sleep at once as if the poison of slander could not
possibly penetrate to pollute his ears.
CHAPTER XXX.
A saying of the same old man about not judging any
one.
THE same old man, when he was teaching us that no one ought to judge
another, remarked that there were three points on which he had charged
and rebuked the brethren, viz.: because some allowed their uvula to be
cut off, or kept a cloak in their cell, or blessed oil and gave it to
those dwelling in the world who asked for it: and he said that he had
done all these things himself. For having contracted some malady of
the uvula, I wasted away, said he, for so long, through its weakness,
that at last I was driven by stress of the pain, and by the persuasion
of all the elders, to allow it to be cut off. And I was forced too by
reason of this illness, to keep a cloak. And I was also compelled to
bless oil and give it to those who prayed for it--a thing which I
execrated above everything, since that I thought that it proceeded
from great presumption of heart--when suddenly many who were living in
the world surrounded me, so that I could not possibly escape them in
any other way, had they not extorted from me with no small violence,
and entreaties that I would lay my hand on a vessel offered by them,
and sign it with the sign of the cross: and so believing that they had
secured blessed oil, at last they let me go. And by these things I
plainly discovered that a monk was in the same case and entangled in
the same faults for which he had ventured to judge others. Each one
therefore ought only to judge himself, and to be on the watch, with
care and circumspection in all things not to judge the life and
conduct of others in accordance with the Apostle's charge, "But
thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? to his own master he standeth
or falleth." And this: "Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged."[240] For besides the reason of which we
have spoken, it is for this cause also dangerous to judge concerning
others because in those matters in which we are offended--as we do not
know the need or the reason for which they are really acting either
rightly in the sight of God, or at ay rate in a pardonable manner--we
are found to have judged them rashly and in this commit no light sin,
by forming an opinion of our brethren different from what we ought.
CHAPTER XXXI.
The same old man's rebuke when he saw how the
brethren went to sleep during the spiritual conferences, and woke up
when some idle story was told.
THE same old man made clear by this proof that it was the devil who
encouraged idle tales, and showed himself always as the enemy of
spiritual conferences. For when he was discoursing to some of the
brethren on necessary matters and spiritual things, and saw that they
were weighed down with a sound slumber, and could not drive away the
weight of sleep from their eyes, he suddenly introduced an idle tale.
And when he saw that at once they woke up, delighted with it, and
pricked up their ears, he groaned and said, "Up till now we were
speaking of celestial things and all your eyes were overpowered with a
sound slumber; but as soon as an idle tale was introduced, we all woke
up and shook off the drowsiness of sleep which had overcome us. And
from this therefore consider who is the enemy of that spiritual
conference, and who has shown himself the suggester of that useless
and carnal talk. For it is most evidently shown that it is he who,
rejoicing in evil, never ceases to encourage the latter and to oppose
the former."
CHAPTER XXXII.
Of the letters which were burnt without being
read.
NOR do I think it less needful to relate this act of a brother who was
intent on purity of heart, and extremely anxious with regard to the
contemplation of things divine. When after an interval of fifteen
years a large number of letters had been brought to him from his
father and mother and many friends in the province of Pontus, he
received the huge packet of letters, and turning over the matter in
his own mind for some time, "What thoughts," said he,
"will the reading of these suggest to me, which will incite me
either to senseless joy or to useless sadness! for how many days will
they draw off the attention of my heart from the contemplation I have
set before me, by the recollection of those who wrote them! How long
will it take for the disturbance of mind thus created to be calmed,
and what an effort will it cost for that former state of peacefulness
to be restored, if the mind is once moved by the sympathy of the
letters, and by recalling the words and looks of those whom it has
left for so long begins once more in thought and spirit to revisit
them, to dwell among them and to be with them. And it will be of no
use to have forsaken them in the body, if one begins to look on them
with the heart, and readmits and revives that memory which on
renouncing this world every one gave up, as if he were dead."
Turning this over in his mind, he determined not only not to read a
single letter, but not even to open the packet, for fear lest, at the
sight of the names of the writers, or on recalling their appearance,
the purpose of his spirit might give way. And so he threw it into the
fire to be burnt, all tied up just as he had received it, crying,
"Away, O ye thoughts of my home, be ye burnt up, and try no
further to recall me to those things from which I have fled."
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Of the solution of a question which Abbot Theodore
obtained by prayer.
WE knew also Abbot Theodore,[241] a
man gifted with the utmost holiness and with perfect knowledge not
only in practical life, but also in understanding the Scriptures,
which he had not acquired so much by study and reading, or worldly
education, as by purity of heart alone: since he could with difficulty
understand and speak but a very few words of the Greek language. This
man when he was seeking an explanation of some most difficult
question, continued without ceasing for seven days and nights in
prayer until he discovered by a revelation from the Lord the solution
of the question propounded.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Of the saying of the same old man, through which he
taught by what efforts a monk can acquire a knowledge of the
Scriptures.
THIS man therefore, when some of the brethren were wondering at the
splendid light of his knowledge and were asking of him some meanings
of Scripture, said that a monk who wanted to acquire a knowledge of
the Scriptures ought not to spend his labour on the works of
commentators, but rather to keep all the efforts of his mind and
intentions of his heart set on purifying himself from carnal vices:
for when these are driven out, at once the eyes of the heart, as if
the veil of the passions were removed, will begin as it were naturally
to gaze on the mysteries[242] of
Scripture: since they were not declared to us by the grace of the Holy
Spirit in order that they should remain unknown and obscure; but they
are rendered obscure by our fault, as the veil of our sins covers the
eyes of the heart, and when these are restored to their natural state
of health, the mere reading of Holy Scripture is by itself amply
sufficient for beholding the true knowledge, nor do they need the aid
of commentators, just as these eyes of flesh need no man's teaching
how to see, provided that they are free from dimness or the darkness
of blindness. For this reason there have arisen so great differences
and mistakes among commentators because most of them, paying no sort
of attention towards purifying the mind, rush into the work of
interpreting the Scriptures, and in proportion to the density or
impurity of their heart form opinions that are at variance with and
contrary to each other's and to the faith, and so are unable to take
in the light of truth.
CHAPTER XXXV.
A rebuke of the same old man, when he had come to
my cell in the middle of the night.
THE same Theodore came unexpectedly to my cell in the dead of night,
with paternal inquisitiveness seeking what I--an unformed anchorite as
I was--might be doing by myself; and when he had found me there
already, as I had finished my vesper office, beginning to refresh my
wearied body, and lying down on a mat, he sighed from the bottom of
his heart, and calling me by name, said, "How many, O John, are
at this hour communing with God, and embracing Him, and detaining Him
with them, while you are deprived of so great light, enfeebled as you
are with lazy sleep!"
And since the virtues of the fathers and the grace given to them have
tempted us to turn aside to a story like this, I think it well to
record in this volume a noteworthy deed of charity, which we
experienced from the kindness of that most excellent man Archebius,
that the purity of continence grafted on to a work of charity may more
readily shine forth, being embellished with a pleasing variety. For
the duty of fasting is then rendered acceptable to God, when it is
made perfect by the fruits of charity.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
A description of the desert in Diolcos, where the
anchorites live.
AND so when we had come, while still beginners, from the monasteries
of Palestine, to a city of Egypt called Diolcos,[243] and were contemplating a large
number of monks bound by the discipline of the Coenobium, and trained
in that excellent system of monasteries, which is also the earliest,
we were also eager to see with all wisdom of heart another system as
well which is still better, viz.: that of the anchorites, as we were
incited thereto by the praises of it by everybody. For these men,
having first lived for a very long time in Coenobia, and having
diligently learnt all the rules of patience and discretion, and
acquired the virtues of humility and renunciation, and having
perfectly overcome all their faults, in order to engage in most
fearful conflicts with devils, penetrate the deepest recesses of the
desert. Finding then that men of this sort were living near the river
Nile in a place which is surrounded on one side by the same river, on
the other by the expanse of the sea, and forms an island, habitable by
none but monks seeking such recesses, since the saltness of the soil
and dryness of the sand make it unfit for any cultivation--to these
men, I say, we eagerly hastened, and were beyond measure astonished at
their labours which they endure in the contemplation of the virtues
and their love of solitude. For they are hampered by such a scarcity
even of water that the care and exactness with which they portion it
out is such as no miser would bestow in preserving and hoarding the
most precious kind of wine. For they carry it three miles or even
further from the bed of the above-mentioned river, for all necessary
purposes; and the distance, great as it is, with sandy mountains in
between, is doubled by the very great difficulty of the task.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Of the cells which Abbot Archebius gave up to us
with their furniture.
HAVING then seen this, as we were inflamed with the desire of
imitating them, the aforesaid Archebius, the most famous among them
for the grace of kindness, drew us into his cell, and having
discovered our desire, pretended that he wanted to leave the place,
and to offer his cell to us, as if he were going away, declaring that
he would have done it, even if we had not come. And we, inflamed with
the desire of remaining there, and putting unhesitating faith in the
assertions of so great a man, willingly agreed to this, and took over
his cell with all its furniture and belongings. And so having
succeeded in his pious fraud, he left the place for a few days in
which to procure the means for constructing a cell, and after this
returned, and with the utmost labour built another cell for himself.
And after some little time, when some other brethren came inflamed
with the same desire to stay there, he deceived them by a similar
charitable falsehood, and gave this one up with everything pertaining
to it. But he, unweariedly persevering in his act of charity, built
for himself a third cell to dwell in.[244]
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The same Archebius paid a debt of his mother's by
the labour of his own hands.
IT seems to me worth while to hand down another charitable act of the
same man, that the monks of our land may be taught by the example of
one and the same man to maintain not only a rigorous continence, but
also the most unfeigned affection of love. For he, sprung from no
ignoble family, while yet a child, scorning the love of this world and
of his kinsfolk, fled to the monastery which is nearly four miles
distant from the aforementioned town, where he so passed all his life,
that never once throughout the whole of fifty years did he enter or
see the village from which he had come, nor even look upon the face of
any woman, not even his own mother. In the mean while his father was
overtaken by death, and left a debt of a hundred solidi. And though
he himself was entirely free from all annoyances, since he had been
disinherited of all his father's property, yet he found that his
mother was excessively annoyed by the creditors. Then he through
consideration of duty somewhat moderated that gospel severity through
which formerly, while his parents were prosperous, he did not
recognize that he possessed a father or mother on earth; and
acknowledged that he had a mother, and hastened to relieve her in her
distress, without relaxing anything of the austerity he had set
himself. For remaining within the cloister of the monastery he asked
that the task of his usual work might be trebled. And there for a
whole year toiling night and day alike he paid to the creditors the
due measure of the debt secured by his toil and labour, and relieved
his mother from all annoyance and anxiety; ridding her of the burden
of the debt in such a way as not to suffer aught of the severity he
had set himself to be diminished on plea of duteous necessity. Thus
did he preserve his wonted austerities, without ever denying to his
mother's heart the work which duty demanded, as, though he had
formerly disregarded her for the love of Christ, he now acknowledged
her again out of consideration of duty.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Of the device of a certain old man by which some
work was found for Abbot Simeon when he had nothing to do.
WHEN a brother who was very dear to us, Simeon by name, a man utterly
ignorant of Greek, had come from the region of Italy, one of the
elders, anxious to show to him, as he was a stranger, a work of
charity, with some pretence of the benefit being mutual, asked him why
he sat doing nothing in his cell, guessing from this that he would not
be able to stay much longer in it both because of the roving thoughts
which idleness produces and because, of his want of the necessities of
life; well knowing that no one can endure the assaults made in
solitude, but one who is contented to procure food for himself by the
labour of his hands. And when the other replied that he could not do
or manage any of the things which were usually done by the brethren
there, except write a good hand, if any one in Egypt wanted a Latin
book for his use, then he at length seized the opportunity to secure
the long wished for work of charity, under colour of its being a
mutual benefit; and said, "From God this opportunity comes, for I
was just looking for some one to write out for me the Epistles[245] in Latin; for I have a brother who
is bound in the chains of military service, and is a good Latin
scholar, to whom I want to send something from Scripture for him to
read for his edification." And so when Simeon gratefully took
this as an opportunity offered to him by God, the old man also gladly
seized the pretext, under colour of which he could freely carry out
his work of charity, and at once not only brought him as a matter of
business everything he could want for a whole year, but also conveyed
to him parchment and everything requisite for writing, and received
afterwards the manuscript, which was not of the slightest use (since
in those parts they were all utterly ignorant of this language), and
did no good to anybody except that which resulted from this device and
large outlay, as the one, without shame or confusion, procured his
necessary food and sustenance by the reward of his work and labour,
and the other carried out his kindness and bounty as it were by the
compulsion of a debt: securing for himself a more abundant reward
proportioned to the zeal with which he procured for his foreign
brother not only his necessary food, but materials for writing, and an
opportunity of work.
CHAPTER XL.
Of the boys who when bringing to a sick man some
figs, died in the desert from hunger, without having tasted them.
BUT since in the section in which we proposed to say something about
the strictness of fasting and abstinence, kindly acts and deeds of
charity seem to have been intermingled, again returning to our design
we will insert in this little book a noteworthy deed of some who were
boys in years though not in their feelings. For when, to their great
surprise, some one had brought to Abbot John, the steward in the
desert of Scete, some figs from Libya Mareotis,[246] as being a thing never before seen
in those districts,--(John) who had the management of the church in
the days of the blessed Presbyter Paphnutius,[247] by whom it had been intrusted to
him, at once sent them by the hands of two lads to an old man who was
laid up in ill health in the further parts of the desert, and who
lived about eighteen miles from the church. And when they had
received the fruit, and set off for the cell of the above-mentioned
old man, they lost the right path altogether--a thing which there
easily happens even to elders--as a thick fog suddenly came on. And
when all day and night they had wandered about the trackless waste of
the desert, and could not possibly find the sick man's cell, worn out
at last both by weariness from their journey, and from hunger and
thirst, they bent their knees and gave up their souls to God in the
very act of prayer. And afterwards, when they had been for a long
while sought for by the marks of their footsteps which in those sandy
regions are impressed as if on snow, until a thin coating of sand
blown about even by a slight breeze covers them up again, it was found
that they had preserved the figs untouched, just as they had received
them; choosing rather to give up their lives, than their fidelity to
their charge, and to lose their life on earth than to violate the
commands of their senior.
CHAPTER XLI.
The saying of Abbot Macarius of the behaviour of a
monk as one who was to live for a long while, and as one who was daily
at the point of death.
THERE is still one valuable charge of the blessed Macarius to be
brought forward by us, so that a saying of so great a man may close
this book of fasts and abstinence. He said then that a monk ought to
bestow attention on his fasts, just as if he were going to remain in
the flesh for a hundred years; and to curb the motions of the soul,
and to forget injuries, and to loathe sadness, and despise sorrows and
losses, as if he were daily at the point of death. For in the former
case discretion is useful and proper as it causes a monk always to
walk with well-balanced care, and does not suffer him by reason of a
weakened body to fall from the heights over most dangerous precipices:
in the other high-mindedness is most valuable as it will enable him
not only to despise the seeming prosperity of this present world, but
also not to be crushed by adversity and sorrow, and to despise them as
small and paltry matters, since he has the gaze of his mind
continually fixed there, whither daily at each moment he believes that
he is soon to be summoned.[248]
BOOK VI.
ON THE SPIRIT OF FORNICATION.
WE have thought best to omit altogether the translation of this
book.[249]
BOOK VII.
OF THE SPIRIT OF COVETOUSNESS.
CHAPTER I.
How our warfare with covetousness is a foreign one,
and how this fault is not a natural one in man, as the other faults
are.
OUR third conflict is against covetousness which we can describe as
the love of money; a foreign warfare, and one outside of our nature,
and in the case of a monk originating only from the state of a corrupt
and sluggish mind, and often from the beginning of his renunciation
being unsatisfactory, and his love towards God being lukewarm at its
foundation. For the rest of the incitements to sin planted in human
nature seem to have their commencement as it were congenital with us,
and somehow being deeply rooted in our flesh, and almost coeval with
our birth, anticipate our powers of discerning good and evil, and
although in very early days they attack a man, yet they are overcome
with a long struggle.
CHAPTER II.
How dangerous is the disease of covetousness.
BUT this disease coming upon us at a later period, and approaching the
soul from without, as it can be the more easily guarded against and
resisted, so, if it is disregarded and once allowed to gain an
entrance into the heart, is the more dangerous to every one, and with
the greater difficulty expelled. For it becomes "a root of all
evils,"[250] and gives rise to a
multiplicity of incitements to sin.
CHAPTER III.
What is the usefulness of those vices which are
natural to us.
FOR example, do not we see those natural impulses of the flesh not
only in boys in whom innocence still anticipates the discernment of
good and evil, but even in little children and infants, who although
they have not even the slightest approach to lust within them, yet
show that the impulses of the flesh exist in them and are naturally
excited? Do not we also see that the deadly pricks of anger already
exist in full vigour likewise in little children? and before they have
learnt the virtue of patience, we see that they are disturbed by
wrongs, and feel affronts offered to them even by way of a joke; and
sometimes, although strength is lacking to them, the desire to avenge
themselves is not wanting, when anger excites them. Nor do I say this
to lay the blame on their natural state, but to point out that of
these impulses which proceed from us, some are implanted in us for a
useful purpose, while some are introduced from without, through the
fault of carelessness and the desire of an evil will. For these
carnal impulses, of which we spoke above, were with a useful purpose
implanted in our bodies by the providence of the Creator, viz.: for
perpetuating the race, and raising up children for posterity: and not
for committing adulteries and debaucheries, which the authority of the
law also condemns. The pricks of anger too, do we not see that they
have been most wisely given to us, that being enraged at our sins and
mistakes, we may apply ourselves the rather to virtues and spiritual
exercises, showing forth all love towards God, and patience towards
our brethren? We know too how great is the use of sorrow, which is
reckoned among the other vices, when it is turned to an opposite use.
For on the one hand, when it is in accordance with the fear of God it
is most needful, and on the other, when it is in accordance with the
world, most pernicious; as the Apostle teaches us when he says that
"the sorrow which is according to God worketh repentance that is
steadfast unto salvation, but the sorrow of the world worketh
death."[251]
CHAPTER IV.
That we can say that there exist in us some natural
faults, without wronging the Creator.
IF then we say that these impulses were implanted in us by the
Creator, He will not on that account seem blameworthy, if we choose
wrongly to abuse them, and to pervert them to harmful purposes, and
are ready to be made sorry by means of the useless Cains of this
world, and not by means of showing penitence and the correction of our
faults: or at least if we are angry not with ourselves (which would be
profitable) but with our brethren in defiance of God's command. For
in the case of iron, which is given us for good and useful purposes,
if any one should pervert it for murdering the innocent, one would not
therefore blame the maker of the metal because man had used to injure
others that which he had provided for good and useful purposes of
living happily.
CHAPTER V.
Of the faults which are contracted through our own
fault, without natural impulses.
BUT we affirm that some faults grow up without any natural occasion
giving birth to them, but simply from the free choice of a corrupt and
evil will, as envy and this very sin of covetousness; which are caught
(so to speak) from without, having no origination in us from natural
instincts. But these, in proportion as they are easily guarded
against and readily avoided, just so do they make wretched the mind
that they have got hold of and seized, and hardly do they suffer it to
get at the remedies which would cure it: either because these who are
wounded by persons whom they might either have ignored, or avoided, or
easily overcome, do not deserve to be healed by a speedy cure, or else
because, having laid the foundations badly, they are unworthy to raise
an edifice of virtue and reach the summit of perfection.
CHAPTER VI.
How difficult the evil of covetousness is to drive
away when once it has been admitted.
WHEREFORE let not this evil seem of no account or unimportant to
anybody: for as it can easily be avoided, so if it has once got hold
of any one, it scarcely suffers him to get at the remedies for curing
it. For it is a regular nest of sins, and a "root of all kinds
of evil," and becomes a hopeless incitement to wickedness, as
the Apostle says, "Covetousness," i.e. the love of money,
"is a root of all kinds of evil."[252]
CHAPTER VII.
Of the source from which covetousness springs, and
of the evils of which it is itself the mother.
WHEN then this vice has got hold of the slack and lukewarm soul of
some monk, it begins by tempting him in regard of a small sum of
money, giving him excellent and almost reasonable excuses why he ought
to retain some money for himself. For he complains that what is
provided in the monastery is not sufficient, and can scarcely be
endured by a sound and sturdy body. What is he to do if ill health
comes on, and he has no special store of his own to support him in his
weakness? He says that the allowance of the monastery is but meagre,
and that there is the greatest carelessness about the sick: and if he
has not something of his own so that he can look after the wants of
his body, he will perish miserably. The dress which is allowed him is
insufficient, unless he has provided something with which to procure
another. Lastly, he says that he cannot possibly remain for long in
the same place and monastery, and that unless he has secured the money
for his journey, and the cost of his removal over the sea, he cannot
move when he wants to, and, detained by the compulsion of want, will
henceforth drag out a wretched and wearisome existence without making
the slightest advance: that he cannot without indignity be supported
by another's substance, as a pauper and one in want. And so when he
has bamboozled himself with such thoughts as these, he racks his
brains to think how he can acquire at least one penny. Then he
anxiously searches for some special work which he can do without the
Abbot knowing anything about it. And selling it secretly, and so
securing the coveted coin, he torments himself worse and worse in
thinking how he can double it: puzzled as to where to deposit it, or
to whom to intrust it. Then he is oppressed with a still weightier
care as to what to buy with it, or by what transaction he can double
it. And when this has turned out as he wished, a still more greedy
craving for gold springs up, and is more and more keenly excited, as
his store of money grows larger and larger. For with the increase of
wealth the mania of covetousness increases. Then next he has
forebodings of a long life, and an enfeebled old age, and infirmities
of all sorts, and long drawn out, which will be insupportable in old
age, unless a large store of money has been laid by in youth. And so
the wretched soul is agitated, and held fast, as it were, in a
serpent's toils, while it endeavours to add to that heap which it has
unlawfully secured, by still more unlawful care, and itself gives
birth to plagues which inflame it more sorely, and being entirely
absorbed in the quest of gain, pays attention to nothing but how to
get money with which to fly[253] as
quickly as possible from the discipline of the monastery, never
keeping faith where there is a gleam of hope of money to be got. For
this it shrinks not from the crime of lying, perjury, and theft, of
breaking a promise, of giving way to injurious bursts of passion. If
the man has dropped away at all from the hope of gain, he has no
scruples about transgressing the bounds of humility, and through it
all gold and the love of gain become to him his god, as the belly does
to others. Wherefore the blessed Apostle, looking out on the deadly
poison of this pest, not only says that it is a root of all kinds of
evil, but also calls it the worship of idols, saying "And
covetousness (which in Greek is called
filarguria) which is the worship of
idols."[254] You see then to
what a downfall this madness step by step leads, so that by the voice
of the Apostle it is actually declared to be the worship of idols and
false gods, because passing over the image and likeness of God (which
one who serves God with devotion ought to preserve undefiled in
himself), it chooses to love and care for images stamped on gold
instead of God.
CHAPTER VIII.
How covetousness is a hindrance to all
virtues.
WITH such strides then in a downward direction he goes from bad to
worse, and at last cares not to retain I will not say the virtue but
even the shadow of humility, charity, and obedience; and is displeased
with everything, and murmurs and groans over every work; and now
having cast off all reverence, like a bad-tempered horse, dashes off
headlong and unbridled: and discontented with his daily food and usual
clothing, announces that he will not put up with it any longer. He
declares that God is not only there, and that his salvation is not
confined to that place, where, if he does not take himself off pretty
quickly from it, he deeply laments that he will soon die.
CHAPTER IX.
How a monk who has money cannot stay in the
monastery.
AND so having money to provide for his wanderings, with the assistance
of which he has fitted himself as it were with wings, and now being
quite ready for his move, he answers impertinently to all commands,
and behaves himself like a stranger and a visitor, and whatever he
sees needing improvement, he despises and treats with contempt. And
though he has a supply of money secretly hidden, yet he complains that
he has neither shoes nor clothes, and is indignant that they are given
out to him so slowly. And if it happens that through the management
of the superior some of these are given first to one who is known to
have nothing whatever, he is still more inflamed with burning rage,
and thinks that he is despised as a stranger; nor is he contented to
turn his hand to any work, but finds fault with everything which the
needs of the monastery require to be done. Then of set purpose he
looks out for opportunities of being offended and angry, lest he might
seem to have gone forth from the discipline of the monastery for a
trivial reason. And not content to take his departure by himself
alone, lest it should be thought that he has left as it were from his
own fault, he never stops corrupting as many as he can by clandestine
conferences. But if the severity of the weather interferes with his
journey and travels, he remains all the time in suspense and anxiety
of heart, and never stops sowing and exciting discontent; as he thinks
that he will only find consolation for his departure and an excuse for
his fickleness in the bad character and defects of the monastery.
CHAPTER X.
Of the toils which a deserter from a monastery must
undergo through covetousness, though he used formerly to murmur at the
very slightest tasks.
AND so he is driven about, and more and more inflamed with the love of
his money, which when it is acquired, never allows a monk either to
remain in a monastery or to live under the discipline of a rule. And
when separating him like some wild beast from the rest of the herd, it
has made him through want of companions an animal fit for prey, and
caused him to be easily eaten up, as he is deprived of fellow lodgers,
it forces him, who once thought it beneath him to perform the slight
duties of the monastery, to labour without stopping night and day,
through hope of gain; it suffers him to keep no services of prayer, no
system of fasting, no rule of vigils; it does not allow him to fulfil
the duties of seemly intercession, if only he can satisfy the madness
of avarice, and supply his daily wants; inflaming the more the fire of
covetousness, while believing that it will be extinguished by
getting.
CHAPTER XI.
That under pretence of keeping the purse women have
to be sought to dwell with them.
HENCE many are led on over an abrupt precipice, and by an irrevocable
fall, to death, and not content to possess by themselves that money
which they either never had before, or which by a bad beginning they
kept back, they seek for women to dwell with them, to preserve what
they have unjustifiably amassed or retained. And they implicate
themselves in so many harmful and dangerous occupations, that they are
cast down even to the depths of hell, while they refuse to acquiesce
in that saying of the Apostle, that "having food and clothing
they should be content" with that which the thrift of the
monastery supplied, but "wishing to become rich they fall into
temptation and the snare of the devil, and many unprofitable and
hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For
the love of money," i.e. covetousness, "is a root of all
kinds of evil, which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have
entangled themselves in many sorrows."[255]
CHAPTER XII.
An instance of a lukewarm monk caught in the snares
of covetousness.
I KNOW of one, who thinks himself a monk, and what is worse flatters
himself on his perfection, who had been received into a monastery, and
when charged by his Abbot not to turn his thoughts back to those
things which he had given up and renounced, but to free himself from
covetousness, the root of all kinds of evil, and from earthly snares;
and when told that if he wished to be cleansed from his former
passions, by which he saw that he was from time to time grievously
oppressed, he should cease from caring about those things which even
formerly were not his own, entangled in the chains of which he
certainly could not make progress towards purifying himself of his
faults: with an angry expression he did not hesitate to answer,
"If you have that with which you can support others, why do you
forbid me to have it as well?"[256]
CHAPTER XIII.
What the elders relate to the juniors in the matter
of stripping off sins.
BUT let not this seem superfluous or objectionable to any one. For
unless the different kinds of sins are first explained, and the origin
and causes of diseases traced out, the proper healing remedies cannot
be applied to the sick, nor can the preservation of perfect health be
secured by the strong. For both these matters and many others besides
these are generally put forward for the instruction of the younger
brethren by the elders in their conferences, as they have had
experience of numberless falls and the ruin of all sorts of people.
And often recognizing in ourselves many of these things, when the
elders explained and showed them, as men who were themselves
disquieted[257] by the same passions,
we were cured without any shame or confusion on our part, since
without saying anything we learnt both the remedies and the causes of
the sins which beset us, which we have passed over and said nothing
about, not from fear of the brethren, but lest our book should chance
to fall into the hands of some who have had no instruction in this way
of life, and might disclose to inexperienced persons what ought to be
known only to those who are toiling and striving to reach the heights
of perfection.
CHAPTER XIV.
Instances to show that the disease of covetousness
is threefold.
AND so this disease and unhealthy state is threefold, and is condemned
with equal abhorrence by all the fathers. One feature is this, of
which we described the taint above, which by deceiving wretched folk
persuades them to hoard though they never had anything of their own
when they lived in the world. Another, which forces men afterwards to
resume and once more desire those things which in the early days of
their renunciation of the world they gave up. A third, which
springing from a faulty and hurtful beginning and making a bad start,
does not suffer those whom it has once infected with this lukewarmness
of mind to strip themselves of all their worldly goods, through fear
of poverty and want of faith; and those who keep back money and
property which they certainly ought to have renounced and forsaken, it
never allows to arrive at the perfection of the gospel. And we find
in Holy Scripture instances of these three catastrophes which were
visited with no light punishment. For when Gehazi wished to acquire
what he had never had before, not only did he fail to obtain the gift
of prophecy which it would have been his to receive from his master by
hereditary succession, but on the contrary he was covered by the curse
of the holy Elisha with a perpetual leprosy: while Judas, wanting to
resume the possession of the wealth which he had formerly cast away
when he followed Christ, not only fell into betraying the Lord, and
lost his apostolic rank, but also was not allowed to close his life
with the common lot of all but ended it by a violent death. But
Ananias and Sapphira, keeping back a part of that which was formerly
their own, were at the Apostle's word punished with death.
CHAPTER XV.
Of the difference between one who renounces the
world badly and one who does not renounce it at all.
OF those then who say that they have renounced this world, and
afterwards being overcome by want of faith are afraid of losing their
worldly goods, a charge is given mystically in Deuteronomy. "If
any man is afraid and of a fearful heart let him not go forth to war:
let him go back and return home, lest he make the hearts of his
brethren to fear as he himself is timid and frightened."[258] What can one want plainer than this
testimony? Does not Scripture clearly prefer that they should not
take on them even the earliest stages of this profession and its name,
rather than by their persuasion and bad example turn others back from
the perfection of the gospel, and weaken them by their faithless
terror. And so they are bidden to withdraw from the battle and return
to their homes, because a man cannot fight the Lord's battle with a
double heart. For "a double-minded man is unstable in all his
ways."[259] And thinking,
according to that Parable in the Gospel,[260] that he who goes forth with ten
thousand men against a king who comes with twenty thousand, cannot
possibly fight, they should, while he is yet a great way off, ask for
peace; that is, it is better for them not even to take the first step
towards renunciation, rather than afterwards following it up coldly,
to involve themselves in still greater dangers. For "it is
better not to vow, than to vow and not pay."[261] But finely is the one described as
coming with ten thousand and the other with twenty. For the number of
sins which attack us is far larger than that of the virtues which
fight for us. But "no man can serve God and Mammon."[262] And "no man putting his hand
to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God."[263]
CHAPTER XVI.
Of the authority under which those shelter
themselves who object to stripping themselves of their goods.
THESE then try to make out a case for their original avarice, by some
authority from Holy Scripture, which they interpret with base
ingenuity, in their desire to wrest and pervert to their own purposes
a saying of the Apostle or rather of the Lord Himself: and, not
adapting their own life or understanding to the meaning of the
Scripture, but making the meaning of Scripture bend to the desires of
their own lust, they try to make it to correspond to their own views,
and say that it is written, "It is more blessed to give than to
receive."[264] And by an
entirely wrong interpretation of this they think that they can weaken
the force of that saying of the Lord in which he says: "If thou
wilt be perfect, go sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."[265] And they think that under colour of
this they need not deprive themselves of their riches: declaring
indeed that they are more blessed if, supported by that which
originally belonged to them, they give to others also out of their
superabundance. And while they are shy of embracing with the Apostle
that glorious state of abnegation for Christ's sake, they will not be
content either with manual labour or the sparing diet of the
monastery. And the only thing is that these must either know that
they are deceiving themselves, and have not really renounced the world
while they are clinging to their former riches; or, if they really and
truly want to make trial of the monastic life, they must give up and
forsake all these things and keep back nothing of that which they have
renounced, and, with the Apostle, glory "in hunger and thirst, in
cold and nakedness."[266]
CHAPTER XVII.
Of the renunciation of the apostles and the
primitive church.
AS if he (who, by his assertion that he was endowed with the
privileges of a Roman citizen from his birth, testifies that he was no
mean person according to this world's rank) might not likewise have
been supported by the property which formerly belonged to him! And as
if those men who were possessors of lands and houses in Jerusalem and
sold everything and kept back nothing whatever for themselves, and
brought the price of them and laid it at the feet of the apostles,
might not have supplied their bodily necessities from their own
property, had this been considered the best plan by the apostles, or
had they themselves deemed it preferable! But they gave up all their
property at once, and preferred to be supported by their own labour,
and by the contributions of the Gentiles, of whose collection the holy
Apostle speaks in writing to the Romans, and declaring his own office
in this matter to them, and urging them on likewise to make this
collection: "But now I go to Jerusalem to minister to the saints.
For it has pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain
contribution for the poor saints who are at Jerusalem: it has pleased
them indeed, and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles are made
partakers of their spiritual things, they ought also to minister to
them in carnal things."[267] To
the Corinthians also he shows the same anxiety about this, and urges
them the more diligently to prepare before his arrival a collection,
which he was intending to send for their needs. "But concerning
the collection for the saints, as I appointed to the churches of
Galatia, so also do ye. Let each one of you on the first day of the
week put apart with himself, laying up what it shall well please him,
that when I come the collections be not then to be made. But when I
come whomsoever you shall approve by your letters, them I will send to
carry your grace to Jerusalem." And that he may stimulate them
to make a larger collection, he adds, "But if it be meet that I
also go, they shall go with me:"[268] meaning if your offering is of such
a character as to deserve to be taken there by my ministration. To
the Galatians too, he testifies that when he was settling the division
of the ministry of preaching with the apostles, he had arranged this
with James, Peter, and John: that he should undertake the preaching to
the Gentiles, but should never repudiate care and anxious thought for
the poor who were at Jerusalem, who for Christ's sake gave up all
their goods, and submitted to voluntary poverty. "And when they
saw," said he, "the grace of God which was given to me,
James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, gave to me and to
Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should preach to the
Gentiles, but they to those of the circumcision: only they would that
we should be mindful of the poor." A matter which he testifies
that he attended to most carefully, saying, "which also I was
anxious of myself to do."[269]
Who then are the more blessed, those who but lately were gathered out
of the number of the heathen, and being unable to climb to the heights
of the perfection of the gospel, clung to their own property, in whose
case it was considered a great thing by the Apostle if at least they
were restrained from the worship of idols, and from fornication, and
from things strangled, and from blood,[270] and had embraced the faith of
Christ, with their goods and all: or those who live up to the demands
of the gospel, and carry the Lord's cross daily, and want nothing out
of their property to remain for their own use? And if the blessed
Apostle himself, bound with chains and fetters, or hampered by the
difficulties of travelling, and for these reasons not being able to
provide with his hands, as he generally did, for the supply of his
food, declares that he received that which supplied his wants from the
brethren who came from Macedonia; "For that which was lacking to
me," he says, "the brethren who came from Macedonia
supplied:"[271] and to the
Philippians he says: "For ye Philippians know also that in the
beginning of the gospel, when I came from Macedonia, no church
communicated with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you
only; because even in Thessalonica once and again you sent to supply
my needs:"[272] (if this was so)
then, according to the notion of these men, which they have formed in
the coldness of their heart, will those men really be more blessed
than the Apostle, because it is found that they have ministered to him
of their substance? But this no one will venture to assert, however
big a fool he may be.
CHAPTER XVIII.
That if we want to imitate the apostles we ought
not to live according to our own prescriptions, but to follow their
example.
WHEREFORE if we want to obey the gospel precept, and to show ourselves
the followers of the Apostle and the whole primitive church, or of the
fathers who in our own days succeeded to their virtues and perfection,
we should not acquiesce in our own prescriptions, promising ourselves
perfection from this wretched and lukewarm condition of ours: but
following their footsteps, we should by no means aim at looking after
our own interests, but should seek out the discipline and system of a
monastery, that we may in very truth renounce this world; preserving
nothing of those things which we have despised through the temptation
of want of faith; and should look for our daily food, not from any
store of money of our own, but from our own labours.
CHAPTER XIX.
A saying of S. Basil, the Bishop, directed against
Syncletius.[273]
THERE is current a saying of S. Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea,
directed against a certain Syncletius, who was growing indifferent
with the sort of lukewarmness of which we have spoken; who, though he
professed to have renounced this world, had yet kept back for himself
some of his property, not liking to be supported by the labour of his
own hands, and to acquire true humility by stripping himself and by
grinding toil, and the subjection of the monastery: "You
have," said he, "spoilt Syncletius, and not made a
monk."
CHAPTER XX.
How contemptible it is to be overcome by
covetousness.
AND so if we want to strive lawfully in our spiritual combat, let us
expel this dangerous enemy also from our hearts. For to overcome him
does not so much show great virtue, as to be beaten by him is shameful
and disgraceful. For when you are overpowered by a strong man, though
there is grief in being overthrown, and distress at the loss of
victory, yet some consolation may be derived by the vanquished from
the strength of their opponent. But if the enemy is a poor creature,
and the struggle a feeble one, besides the grief for defeat there is
confusion of a more disgraceful character, and a shame which is worse
than loss.
CHAPTER XXI.
How covetousness can be conquered.
AND in this case it will be the greatest victory and a lasting
triumph, if, as is said, the conscience of the monk is not defiled by
the possession of the smallest coin. For it is an impossibility for
him who, overcome in the matter of a small possession, has once
admitted into his heart a root of evil desire, not to be inflamed
presently with the heat of a still greater desire. For the soldier of
Christ will be victorious and in safety, and free from all the attacks
of desire, so long as this most evil spirit does not implant in his
heart a seed of this desire. Wherefore, though in the matter of all
kinds of sins we ought ordinarily to watch the serpent's head,[274] yet in this above all we should be
more keenly on our guard. For if it has been admitted it will grow by
feeding on itself, and will kindle for itself a worse fire. And so we
must not only guard against the possession of money, but also
must expel from our souls the desire for it. For we should
not so much avoid the results of covetousness, as cut off by the roots
all disposition towards it. For it will do no good not to possess
money, if there exists in us the desire for getting it.
CHAPTER XXII.
That one who actually has no money may still be
deemed covetous.
FOR it is possible even for one who has no money to be by no means
free from the malady of covetousness, and for the blessing of penury
to do him no good, because he has not been able to root out the sin of
cupidity: delighting in the advantages of poverty, not in the merit of
the virtue, and satisfied with the burden of necessity, not without
coldness of heart. For just as the word of the gospel declares of
those who are not defiled in body, that they are adulterers in
heart;[275] so it is possible that
those who are in no way pressed down with the weight of money may be
condemned with the covetous in disposition and intent. For it was the
opportunity of possessing which was wanting in their case, and not the
will for it: which latter is always crowned by God, rather than
compulsion. And so we must use all diligence lest the fruits of our
labours should be destroyed to no purpose. For it is a wretched thing
to have endured the effects of poverty and want, but to have lost
their fruits, through the fault of a shattered will.
CHAPTER XXIII.
An example drawn from the case of Judas.
WOULD you like to know how dangerously and harmfully that incitement,
unless it has been carefully eradicated, will shoot up for the
destruction of its owner, and put forth all sorts of branches of
different sins? Look at Judas, reckoned among the number of the
apostles, and see how because he would not bruise the deadly head of
this serpent it destroyed him with its poison, and how when he was
caught in the snares of concupiscence, it drove him into sin and a
headlong downfall, so that he was persuaded to sell the Redeemer of
the world and the author of man's salvation for thirty pieces of
silver. And he could never have been impelled to this heinous sin of
the betrayal if he had not been contaminated by the sin of
covetousness: nor would he have made himself wickedly guilty of
betraying[276] the Lord, unless he had
first accustomed himself to rob the bag intrusted to him.
CHAPTER XXIV.
That covetousness cannot be overcome except by
stripping one's self of everything.
THIS is a sufficiently dreadful and clear instance of this tyranny,
which, when once the mind is taken prisoner by it, allows it to keep
to no rules of honesty, nor to be satisfied with any additions to its
gains. For we must seek to put an end to this madness, not by riches,
but by stripping ourselves of them. Lastly, when he (viz. Judas) had
received the bag set apart for the distribution to the poor, and
intrusted to his care for this purpose, that he might at least satisfy
himself with plenty of money, and set a limit to his avarice, yet his
plentiful supply only broke out into a still greedier incitement of
desire, so that he was ready no longer secretly to rob the bag, but
actually to sell the Lord Himself. For the madness of this avarice is
not satisfied with any amount of riches.
CHAPTER XXV.
Of the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, and Judas,
which they underwent through the impulse of covetousness.
LASTLY, the chief of the apostles, taught by these instances, and
knowing that one who has any avarice cannot bridle it, and that it
cannot be put an end to by a large or small sum of money, but only by
the virtue of renunciation of everything, punished with death Ananias
and Sapphira, who were mentioned before, because they had kept back
something out of their property, that that death which Judas had
voluntarily met with for the sin of betraying the Lord, they might
also undergo for their lying avarice.[277] How closely do the sin and
punishment correspond in each case! In the one case treachery, in the
other falsehood, was the result of covetousness. In the one case the
truth is betrayed, in the other the sin of lying is committed. For
though the issues of their deeds may appear different, yet they
coincide in having one and the same aim. For the one, in order to
escape poverty, desired to take back what he had forsaken; the others,
for fear lest they might become poor, tried to keep back something out
of their property, which they should have either offered to the
Apostle in good faith, or have given entirely to the brethren. And so
in each case there follows the judgment of death; because each sin
sprang from the root of covetousness. And so if against those who did
not covet other persons' goods, but tried to be sparing of their own,
and had no desire to acquire, but only the wish to
retain, there went forth so severe a sentence, what should we
think of those who desire to amass wealth, without ever having had any
of their own, and, making a show of poverty before men, are before God
convicted of being rich, through the passion of avarice?
CHAPTER XXVI.
That covetousness brings upon the soul a spiritual
leprosy.
AND such are seen to be lepers in spirit and heart, after the likeness
of Gehazi, who, desiring the uncertain riches of this world, was
covered with the taint of foul leprosy, through which he left us a
clear example that every soul which is defiled with the stain of
cupidity is covered with the spiritual leprosy of sin, and is counted
as unclean before God with a perpetual curse.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Scripture proofs by which one who is aiming at
perfection is taught not to take back again what he has given up and
renounced.
IF then through the desire of perfection you have forsaken all things
and followed Christ who says to thee, "Go sell all that thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven:
and come follow me,"[278] why,
having put your hand to the plough, do you look back, so that you will
be declared by the voice of the same Lord not to be fit for the
kingdom of heaven?[279] When secure
on the top of the gospel roof, why do you descend to carry away
something from the house, from those things, namely, which beforetime
you despised? When you are out in the field and working at the
virtues, why do you run back and try to clothe yourself again with
what belongs to this world, which you stripped off when you renounced
it?[280] But if you were hindered by
poverty from having anything to give up, still less ought you to amass
what you never had before. For by the grace of the Lord you were for
this purpose made ready that you might hasten to him the more readily,
being hampered by no snares of wealth. But let no one who is wanting
in this be disappointed; for there is no one who has not something to
give up. He has renounced all the possessions of this world, whoever
has thoroughly eradicated the desire to possess them.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
That the victory over covetousness can only be
gained by stripping one's self bare of everything.
THIS then is the perfect victory over covetousness: not to allow a
gleam from the very smallest scrap of it to remain in our heart, as we
know that we shall have no further power of quenching it, if we
cherish even the tiniest bit of a spark of it in us.
CHAPTER XXIX.
How a monk can retain his poverty.
AND we can only preserve this virtue unimpaired if we remain in a
monastery, and as the Apostle says, having food and clothing, are
therewith content.[281]
CHAPTER XXX.
The remedies against the disease of
covetousness.
KEEPING then in mind the judgment of Ananias and Sapphira let us dread
keeping back any of those things which we gave up and vowed utterly to
forsake. Let us also fear the example of Gehazi, who for the sin of
covetousness was chastised with the punishment of perpetual leprosy.
From this let us beware of acquiring that wealth which we never
formerly possessed. Moreover also dreading both the fault and the
death of Judas, let us with all the power that we have avoid taking
back any of that wealth which once we cast away from us. Above all,
considering the state of our weak and shifty nature, let us beware
lest the day of the Lord come upon us as a thief in the night,[282] and find our conscience defiled even
by a single penny; for this would make void all the fruits of our
renunciation of the world, and cause that which was said to the rich
man in the gospel to be directed towards us also by the voice of the
Lord: "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee:
then whose shall those things be which thou hast prepared?"[283] And taking no thought for the
morrow, let us never allow ourselves to be enticed away from the rule
of the Coenobium.
CHAPTER XXXI.
That no one can get the better of covetousness
unless he stays in the Coenobium: and how one can remain there.
BUT we shall certainly not be suffered to do this, nor even to remain
under the rule of a system, unless the virtue of patience, which can
only spring from humility as its source, is first securely fixed and
established in us. For the one teaches us not to trouble any one
else; the other, to endure with magnanimity wrongs offered to us.
BOOK VIII.
OF THE SPIRIT OF ANGER.
CHAPTER I.
How our fourth conflict is against the sin of
anger, and how many evils this passion produces.
IN our fourth combat the deadly poison of anger has to be utterly
rooted out from the inmost corners of our soul. For as long as this
remains in our hearts, and blinds with its hurtful darkness the eye of
the soul, we can neither acquire right judgment and discretion, nor
gain the insight which springs from an honest gaze, or ripeness of
counsel, nor can we be partakers of life, or retentive of
righteousness, or even have the capacity for spiritual and true light:
"for," says one, "mine eye is disturbed by reason of
anger."[284] Nor can we become
partakers of wisdom, even though we are considered wise by universal
consent, for "anger rests in the bosom of fools."[285] Nor can we even attain immortal
life, although we are accounted prudent in the opinion of everybody,
for "anger destroys even the prudent."[286] Nor shall we be able with clear
judgment of heart to secure the controlling power of righteousness,
even though we are reckoned perfect and holy in the estimation of all
men, for "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of
God."[287] Nor can we by any
possibility acquire that esteem and honour which is so frequently seen
even in worldlings, even though we are thought noble and honourable
through the privileges of birth, because "an angry man is
dishonoured."[288] Nor again can
we secure any ripeness of counsel, even though we appear to be
weighty, and endowed with the utmost knowledge; because "an angry
man acts without counsel."[289]
Nor can we be free from dangerous disturbances, nor be without sin,
even though no sort of disturbances be brought upon us by others;
because "a passionate man engenders quarrels, but an angry man
digs up sins."[290]
CHAPTER II.
Of those who say that anger is not injurious, if we
are angry with those who do wrong, since God Himself is said to be
angry.
WE have heard some people trying to excuse this most pernicious
disease of the soul, in such a way as to endeavour to extenuate it by
a rather shocking way of interpreting Scripture: as they say that it
is not injurious if we are angry with the brethren who do wrong,
since, say they, God Himself is said to rage and to be angry with
those who either will not know Him, or, knowing Him, spurn Him, as
here: "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against His
people;"[291] or where the
prophet prays and says, "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger,
neither chasten me in thy displeasure;"[292] not understanding that, while they
want to open to men an excuse for a most pestilent sin, they are
ascribing to the Divine Infinity and Fountain of all purity a taint of
human passion.
CHAPTER III.
Of those things which are spoken of God
anthropomorphically.
FOR if when these things are said of God they are to be understood
literally in a material gross signification, then also He
sleeps, as it is said, "Arise, wherefore sleepest thou,
O Lord?"[293] though it is
elsewhere said of Him: "Behold he that keepeth Israel shall
neither slumber nor sleep."[294]
And He stands and sits, since He says, "Heaven
is my seat, and earth the footstool for my feet:"[295] though He "measure out the
heaven with his hand, and holdeth the earth in his fist."[296] And He is "drunken with
wine" as it is said, "The Lord awoke like a sleeper, a
mighty man, drunken with wine;"[297] He "who only hath immortality
and dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto:"[298] not to say anything of the
"ignorance" and "forgetfulness," of which we often
find mention in Holy Scripture: nor lastly of the outline of His
limbs, which are spoken of as arranged and ordered like a man's; e.g.,
the hair, head, nostrils, eyes, face, hands, arms, fingers, belly, and
feet: if we are willing to take all of which according to the bare
literal sense, we must think of God as in fashion with the outline of
limbs, and a bodily form; which indeed is shocking even to speak of,
and must be far from our thoughts.
CHAPTER IV.
In what sense we should understand the passions and
human arts which are ascribed to the unchanging and incorporeal
God.
AND so as without horrible profanity these things cannot be understood
literally of Him who is declared by the authority of Holy Scripture to
be invisible, ineffable, incomprehensible, inestimable, simple, and
uncompounded, so neither can the passion of anger and wrath be
attributed to that unchangeable nature without fearful blasphemy. For
we ought to see that the limbs signify the divine powers and boundless
operations of God, which can only be represented to us by the familiar
expression of limbs: by the mouth we should understand that His
utterances are meant, which are of His mercy continually poured into
the secret senses of the soul, or which He spoke among our fathers and
the prophets: by the eyes we can understand the boundless character of
His sight with which He sees and looks through all things, and so
nothing is hidden from Him of what is done or can be done by us, or
even thought. By the expression "hands," we understand His
providence and work, by which He is the creator and author of all
things; the arms are the emblems of His might and government, with
which He upholds, rules and controls all things. And not to speak of
other things, what else does the hoary hair of His head signify but
the eternity and perpetuity of Deity, through which He is without any
beginning, and before all times, and excels all creatures? So then
also when we read of the anger or fury of the Lord, we should take it
not anqrwpopaqws; i.e., according to an
unworthy meaning of human passion,[299] but in a sense worthy of God, who is
free from all passion; so that by this we should understand that He is
the judge and avenger of all the unjust things which are done in this
world; and by reason of these terms and their meaning we should dread
Him as the terrible rewarder of our deeds, and fear to do anything
against His will. For human nature is wont to fear those whom it
knows to be indignant, and is afraid of offending: as in the case of
some most just judges, avenging wrath is usually feared by those who
are tormented by some accusation of their conscience; not indeed that
this passion exists in the minds of those who are going to judge with
perfect equity, but that, while they so fear, the disposition of the
judge towards them is that which is the precursor of a just and
impartial execution of the law. And this, with whatever kindness and
gentleness it may be conducted, is deemed by those who are justly to
be punished to be the most savage wrath and vehement anger. It would
be tedious and outside the scope of the present work were we to
explain all the things which are spoken metaphorically of God in Holy
Scripture, with human figures. Let it be enough for our present
purpose, which is aimed against the sin of wrath, to have said this
that no one may through ignorance draw down upon himself a cause of
this evil and of eternal death, out of those Scriptures in which he
should seek for saintliness and immortality as the remedies to bring
life and salvation.
CHAPTER V.
How calm a monk ought to be.
AND so a monk aiming at perfection, and desiring to strive lawfully in
his spiritual combat, should be free from all sin of anger and wrath,
and should listen to the charge which the "chosen vessel"
gives him. "Let all anger," says he, "and wrath, and
clamour, and evil speaking, be taken away from among you, with all
malice."[300] When he says,
"Let all anger be taken away from you," he excepts none
whatever as necessary or useful for us. And if need be, he should at
once treat an erring brother in such a way that, while he manages to
apply a remedy to one afflicted with perhaps a slight fever, he may
not by his wrath involve himself in a more dangerous malady of
blindness. For he who wants to heal another's wound ought to be in
good health and free from every affection of weakness himself, lest
that saying of the gospel should be used to him, "Physician,
first heal thyself;"[301] and
lest, seeing a mote in his brother's eye, he see not the beam in his
own eye, for how will he see to cast out the mote from his brother's
eye, who has the beam of anger in his own eye?[302]
CHAPTER VI.
Of the righteous and unrighteous passion of
wrath.
FROM almost every cause the emotion of wrath boils over, and blinds
the eyes of the soul, and, bringing the deadly beam of a worse disease
over the keenness of our sight, prevents us from seeing the sun of
righteousness. It makes no difference whether gold plates, or lead,
or what metal you please, are placed over our eyelids, the value of
the metal makes no difference in our blindness.
CHAPTER VII.
Of the only case in which anger is useful to
us.
WE have, it must be admitted, a use for anger excellently implanted in
us for which alone it is useful and profitable for us to admit it,
viz., when we are indignant and rage against the lustful emotions of
our heart, and are vexed that the things which we are ashamed to do or
say before men have risen up in the lurking places of our heart, as we
tremble at the presence of the angels, and of God Himself, who
pervades all things everywhere, and fear with the utmost dread the eye
of Him from whom the secrets of our hearts cannot possibly be hid.
CHAPTER VIII.
Instances from the life of the blessed David in
which anger was rightly felt.
AND at any rate (this is the case), when we are agitated against this
very anger, because it has stolen on us against our brother, and when
in wrath we expel its deadly incitements, nor suffer it to have a
dangerous lurking place in the recesses of our heart. To be angry in
this fashion even that prophet teaches us who had so completely
expelled it from his own feelings that he would not retaliate even on
his enemies and those delivered by God into his hands: when he says
"Be ye angry and sin not."[303] For he, when he had longed for
water from the well of Bethlehem, and had been given it by his mighty
men, who had brought it through the midst of the hosts of the enemy,
at once poured it out on the ground: and thus in his anger
extinguished the delicious feeling of his desire, and poured it out to
the Lord, without satisfying the longing that he had expressed,
saying: "That be far from me that I should do this! Shall I
drink the blood of those men who went forth on the danger of their
souls?"[304] And when Shimei
threw stones at King David and cursed him, in his hearing, before
everybody, and Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, the captain of the host,
wished to cut off his head and avenge the insult to the king, the
blessed David moved with pious wrath against this dreadful suggestion
of his, and keeping the due measure of humility and a strict patience,
said with imperturbable gentleness, "What have I to do with you,
ye sons of Zeruiah? Let him alone that he may curse. For the Lord
hath commanded him to curse David. And who is he who shall dare to
say, Why hast thou done this? Behold my son, who came forth from my
loins, seeks my life, and how much more this son of Benjamin? Let him
alone, that he may curse, according to the command of the Lord. It
may be the Lord will look upon my affliction, and return to me good
for this cursing to-day."[305]
CHAPTER IX.
Of the anger which should be directed against
ourselves.
AND some are commanded to "be angry" after a wholesome
fashion, but with our own selves, and with evil thoughts that arise,
and "not to sin," viz., by bringing them to a bad issue.
Finally, the next verse explains this to be the meaning more clearly:
"The things you say in your hearts, be sorry for them on your
beds:"[306] i.e., whatever you
think of in your hearts when sudden and nervous excitements rush in on
you, correct and amend with wholesome sorrow, lying as it were on a
bed of rest, and removing by the moderating influence of counsel all
noise and disturbance of wrath. Lastly, the blessed Apostle, when he
made use of the testimony of this verse, and said, "Be ye angry
and sin not," added, "Let not the sun go down upon your
wrath, neither give place to the devil."[307] If it is dangerous for the sun of
righteousness to go down upon our wrath, and if when we are angry we
straightway give place to the devil in our hearts, how is it that
above he charges us to be angry, saying, "Be ye angry, and sin
not"? Does he not evidently mean this: be ye angry with your
faults and your tempers, lest, if you acquiesce in them, Christ, the
sun of righteousness, may on account of your anger begin to go down on
your darkened minds, and when He departs you may furnish a place for
the devil in your hearts?
CHAPTER X.
Of the sun, of which it is said that it should not
go down upon your wrath.
AND of this sun God clearly makes mention by the prophet, when He
says, "But to those that fear my name the sun of righteousness
shall arise with healing in His wings."[308] And this again is said to "go
down" at midday on sinners and false prophets, and those who are
angry, when the prophet says, "Their sun is gone down at
noon."[309] And at any rate
"tropically"[310] the mind,
that is the nous or reason, which is fairly
called the sun because it looks over all the thoughts and discernings
of the heart, should not be put out by the sin of anger: lest when it
"goes down" the shadows of disturbance, together with the
devil their author, fill all the feelings of our hearts, and,
overwhelmed by the shadows of wrath, as in a murky night, we know not
what we ought to do. In this sense it is that we have brought forward
this passage of the Apostle, handed down to us by the teaching of the
elders, because it was needful, even at the risk of a somewhat lengthy
discourse, to show how they felt with regard to anger, for they do not
permit it even for a moment to effect an entrance into our heart:
observing with the utmost care that saying of the gospel:
"Whosoever is angry with his brother is in danger of the
judgment."[311] But if it be
lawful to be angry up till sunset, the surfeit of our wrath and the
vengeance of our anger will be able to give full play to passion and
dangerous excitement before that sun inclines towards its setting.[312]
CHAPTER XI.
Of those to whose wrath even the going down of the
sun sets no limit.
BUT what am I to say of those (and I cannot say it without shame on my
own part) to whose implacability even the going down of the sun sets
no bound: but prolonging it for several days, and nourishing rancorous
feelings against those against whom they have been excited, they say
in words that they are not angry, but in fact and deed they show that
they are extremely disturbed? For they do not speak to them
pleasantly, nor address them with ordinary civility, and they think
that they are not doing wrong in this, because they do not seek to
avenge themselves for their upset. But since they either do not dare,
or at any rate are not able to show their anger openly, and give place
to it, they drive in, to their own detriment, the poison of anger, and
secretly cherish it in their hearts, and silently feed on it in
themselves; without shaking off by an effort of mind their sulky
disposition, but digesting it as the days go by, and somewhat
mitigating it after a while.
CHAPTER XII.
How this is the end of temper and anger when a man
carries it into act as far as he can.
BUT it looks as if even this was not the end of vengeance to every
one, but some can only completely satisfy their wrath or sulkiness if
they carry out the impulse of anger as far as they are able; and this
we know to be the case with those who restrain their feelings, not
from desire of calming them, but simply from want of opportunity of
revenge. For they can do nothing more to those with whom they are
angry, except speak to them without ordinary civility: or it looks as
if anger was to be moderated only in action, and not to be altogether
rooted out from its hiding place in our bosom: so that, overwhelmed by
its shadows, we are unable not only to admit the light of wholesome
counsel and of knowledge, but also to be a temple of the Holy Spirit,
so long as the spirit of anger dwells in us. For wrath that is nursed
in the heart, although it may not injure men who stand by, yet
excludes the splendour of the radiance of the Holy Ghost, equally with
wrath that is openly manifested.
CHAPTER XIII.
That we should not retain our anger even for an
instant.
OR how can we think that the Lord would have it retained even for an
instant, since He does not permit us to offer the spiritual sacrifices
of our prayers, if we are aware that another has any bitterness
against us: saying, "If then thou bringest thy gift to the altar
and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave
there thy gift at the altar and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy
brother, and then come and offer thy gift."[313] How then may we retain displeasure
against our brother, I will not say for several days, but even till
the going down of the sun, if we are not allowed to offer our prayers
to God while he has anything against us? And yet we are commanded by
the Apostle: "Pray without ceasing;"[314] and "in every place lifting up
holy hands without wrath and disputing."[315] It remains then either that we
never pray at all, retaining this poison in our hearts, and become
guilty in regard of this apostolic or evangelic charge, in which we
are bidden to pray everywhere and without ceasing; or else if,
deceiving ourselves, we venture to pour forth our prayers, contrary to
His command, we must know that we are offering to God no prayer, but
an obstinate temper with a rebellious spirit.
CHAPTER XIV.
Of reconciliation with our brother.
AND because we often spurn the brethren who are injured and saddened,
and despise them, and say that they were not hurt by any fault of
ours, the Healer of souls, who knows all secrets, wishing utterly to
eradicate all opportunities of anger from our hearts, not only
commands us to forgive if we have been wronged, and to be reconciled
with our brothers, and keep no recollection of wrong or injuries
against them, but He also gives a similar charge, that in case we are
aware that they have anything against us, whether justly or unjustly,
we should leave our gift, that is, postpone our prayers, and hasten
first to offer satisfaction to them; and so when our brother's cure is
first effected, we may bring the offering of our prayers without
blemish. For the common Lord of all does not care so much for our
homage as to lose in one what He gains in another, through displeasure
being allowed to reign in us. For in any one's loss He suffers some
loss, who desires and looks for the salvation of all His servants in
one and the same way. And therefore our prayer will lose its effect,
if our brother has anything against us, just as much as if we were
cherishing feelings of bitterness against him in a swelling and
wrathful spirit.
CHAPTER XV.
How the Old Law would root out anger not only from
the actions but from the thoughts.
BUT why should we spend any more time over evangelic and apostolic
precepts, when even the old law, which is thought to be somewhat
slack, guards against the same thing, when it says, "Thou shall
not hate thy brother in thine heart;" and again, "Be not
mindful of the injury of thy citizens;"[316] and again, "The ways of those
who preserve the recollection of wrongs are towards death"?[317] You see there too that wickedness
is restrained not only in action, but also in the secret thoughts,
since it is commanded that hatred be utterly rooted out from the
heart, and not merely retaliation for, but the very recollection of, a
wrong done.
CHAPTER XVI.
How useless is the retirement of those who do not
give up their bad manners.
SOMETIMES when we have been overcome by pride or impatience, and we
want to improve our rough and bearish manners, we complain that we
require solitude, as if we should find the virtue of patience there
where nobody provokes us: and we apologize for our carelessness, and
say that the reason of our disturbance does not spring from our own
impatience, but from the fault of our brethren. And while we lay the
blame of our fault on others, we shall never be able to reach the goal
of patience and perfection.
CHAPTER XVII.
That the peace of our heart does not depend on
another's will, but lies in our own control.
THE chief part then of our improvement and peace of mind must not be
made to depend on another's will, which cannot possibly be subject to
our authority, but it lies rather in our own control. And so the fact
that we are not angry ought not to result from another's perfection,
but from our own virtue, which is acquired, not by somebody else's
patience, but by our own long-suffering.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Of the zeal with which we should seek the desert,
and of the things in which we make progress there.
FURTHER, it is those who are perfect and purified from all faults who
ought to seek the desert, and when they have thoroughly exterminated
all their faults amid the assembly of the brethren, they should enter
it not by way of cowardly flight, but for the purpose of divine
contemplation, and with the desire of deeper insight into heavenly
things, which can only be gained in solitude by those who are perfect.
For whatever faults we bring with us uncured into the desert, we shall
find to remain concealed in us and not to be got rid of. For just as
when the character has been improved, solitude can lay open to it the
purest contemplation, and reveal the knowledge of spiritual mysteries
to its clear gaze, so it generally not only preserves but intensifies
the faults of those who have undergone no correction. For a man
appears to himself to be patient and humble, just as long as he comes
across nobody in intercourse; but he will presently revert to his
former nature, whenever the chance of any sort of passion occurs: I
mean that those faults will at once appear on the surface which were
lying hid, and, like unbridled horses diligently fed up during too
long a time of idleness, dash forth from the barriers the more eagerly
and fiercely, to the destruction of their charioteer. For when the
opportunity for practising them among men is removed, our faults will
more and more increase in us, unless we have first been purified from
them. And the mere shadow of patience, which, when we mixed with our
brethren, we seemed fancifully to possess, at least out of respect for
them and publicity, we lose altogether through sloth and
carelessness.
CHAPTER XIX.
An illustration to help in forming an opinion on
those who are only patient when they are not tried by any one.
BUT it is like all poisonous kinds of serpents or of wild beasts,
which, while they remain in solitude and their own lairs, are still
not harmless;[318] for they cannot
really be said to be harmless, because they are not actually hurting
anybody. For this results in their case, not from any feeling of
goodness, but from the exigencies of solitude, and when they have
secured an opportunity of hurting some one, at once they produce the
poison stored up in them, and show the ferocity of their nature. And
so in the case of men who are aiming at perfection, it is not enough
not to be angry with men. For we recollect that when we were
living in solitude a feeling of irritation would creep over us against
our pen because it was too large or too small; against our penknife
when it cut badly and with a blunt edge what we wanted cut; and
against a flint if by chance when we were rather late and hurrying to
the reading, a spark of fire flashed out, so that we could not remove
and get rid of our perturbation of mind except by cursing the
senseless matter, or at least the devil. Wherefore for a method of
perfection it will not be of any use for there to be a dearth of men
against whom our anger might be roused: since, if patience has not
already been acquired, the feelings of passion which still dwell in
our hearts can equally well spend themselves on dumb things and paltry
objects, and not allow us to gain a continuous state of peacefulness,
or to be free from our remaining faults: unless perhaps we think that
some advantage and a sort of cure may be gained for our passion from
the fact that inanimate and speechless things cannot possibly reply to
our curses and rage, nor provoke our ungovernable temper to break out
into a worse madness of passion.
CHAPTER XX.
Of the way in which anger should be banished
according to the gospel.
WHEREFORE if we wish to gain the substance of that divine reward of
which it is said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God,"[319] we ought not only
to banish it from our actions, but entirely to root it out from our
inmost soul. For it will not be of any good to have checked anger in
words, and not to have shown it in deeds, if God, from whom the
secrets of the heart are not hid, sees that it remains in the secret
recesses of our bosom. For the word of the gospel bids us destroy the
roots of our faults rather than the fruits; for these, when the
incitements are all removed, will certainly not put forth shoots any
more; and so the mind will be able to continue in all patience and
holiness, when this anger has been removed, not from the surface of
acts and deeds, but from the very innermost thoughts. And, therefore
to avoid the commission of murder, anger and hatred are cut off,
without which the crime of murder cannot possibly be committed. For
"whosoever is angry with his brother, is in danger of the
judgment;"[320] and
"whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer;"[321] viz., because in his heart he
desires to kill him, whose blood we know that he has certainly not
shed among men with his own hand or with a weapon; yet, owing to his
burst of anger, he is declared to be a murderer by God, who renders to
each man, not merely for the result of his actions, but for his
purpose and desires and wishes, either a reward or a punishment;
according to that which He Himself says through the prophet: "But
I come that I may gather them together with all nations and
tongues;"[322] and again:[323] "Their thoughts between
themselves accusing or also defending one another, in the day when God
shall judge the secrets of men."[324]
CHAPTER XXI.
Whether we ought to admit the addition of
"without a cause," in that which is written in the Gospel,
"whosoever is angry with his brother," etc.
BUT you should know that in this, which is found in many copies,
"Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, is in
danger of the judgment,"[325] the
words "without a cause" are superfluous, and were added by
those who did not think that anger for just causes was to be banished:
since certainly nobody, however unreasonably he is disturbed, would
say that he was angry without a cause. Wherefore it appears to have
been added by those who did not understand the drift of Scripture,
which intended altogether to banish the incentive to anger, and to
reserve no occasion whatever for indignation; lest while we were
commanded to be angry with a cause, an opportunity for being angry
without a cause might occur to us. For the end and aim of patience
consists, not in being angry with a good reason, but in not being
angry at all. Although I know that by some this very expression,
"without a cause," is taken to mean that he is angry without
a cause who when he is angered is not allowed to seek for vengeance.
But it is better so to take it as we find it written in many modern
copies and all the ancient ones.
CHAPTER XXII.
The remedies by which we can root out anger from
our hearts.
WHEREFORE the athlete of Christ who strives lawfully ought thoroughly
to root out the feeling of wrath. And it will be a sure remedy for
this disease, if in the first place we make up our mind that we ought
never to be angry at all, whether for good or bad reasons: as we know
that we shall at once lose the light of discernment, and the security
of good counsel, and our very uprightness, and the temperate character
of righteousness, if the main light of our heart has been darkened by
its shadows: next, that the purity of our soul will presently be
clouded, and that it cannot possibly be made a temple for the Holy
Ghost while the spirit of anger resides in us; lastly, that we should
consider that we ought never to pray, nor pour out our prayer to God,
while we are angry. And above all, having before our eyes the
uncertain condition of mankind, we should realize daily that we are
soon to depart from the body, and that our continence and chastity,
our renunciation of all our possessions, our contempt of wealth, our
efforts in fastings and vigils will not help us at all, if solely on
account of anger and hatred eternal punishments are awarded to us by
the judge of the world.
BOOK IX.
OF THE SPIRIT OF DEJECTION.
CHAPTER I.
How our fifth combat is against the spirit of
dejection, and of the harm which it inflicts upon the soul.
IN our fifth combat we have to resist the pangs of gnawing dejection:
for if this, through separate attacks made at random, and by haphazard
and casual changes, has secured an opportunity of gaining possession
of our mind it keeps us back at all times from all insight in divine
contemplation, and utterly ruins and depresses the mind that has
fallen away from its complete state of purity. It does not allow it
to say its prayers with its usual gladness of heart, nor permit it to
rely on the comfort of reading the sacred writings, nor suffer it to
be quiet and gentle with the brethren; it makes it impatient and rough
in all the duties of work and devotion: and, as all wholesome counsel
is lost, and steadfastness of heart destroyed, it makes the feelings
almost mad and drunk, and crushes and overwhelms them with penal
despair.
CHAPTER II.
Of the care with which the malady of dejection must
be healed.
WHEREFORE if we are anxious to exert ourselves lawfully in the
struggle of our spiritual combat we ought with no less care to set
about healing this malady also. For "as the moth injures the
garment, and the worm the wood, so dejection the heart of
man."[326] With sufficient
clearness and appropriateness has the Divine Spirit expressed the
force of this dangerous and most injurious fault.
CHAPTER III.
To what the soul may be compared which is a prey to
the attacks of dejection.
FOR the garment that is moth-eaten has no longer any commercial value
or good use to which it can be put; and in the same way[327] the wood that is worm-eaten is no
longer worth anything for ornamenting even an ordinary building, but
is destined to be burnt in the fire. So therefore the soul also which
is a prey to the attacks of gnawing dejection will be useless for that
priestly garment which, according to the prophecy of the holy David,
the ointment of the Holy Spirit coming down from heaven, first on
Aaron's beard, then on his skirts, is wont to assume: as it is said,
"It is like the ointment upon the head which ran down upon
Aaron's beard, which ran down to the skirts of his clothing."[328] Nor can it have anything to do with
the building or ornamentation of that spiritual temple of which Paul
as a wise master builder laid the foundations, saying, "Ye are
the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you:"[329] and what the beams of this are like
the bride tells us in the Song of Songs: "Our rafters are of
cypress: the beams of our houses are of cedar."[330] And therefore those sorts of wood
are chosen for the temple of God which are fragrant and not liable to
rot, and which are not subject to decay from age nor to be
worm-eaten.
CHAPTER IV.
Whence and in what way dejection arises.
BUT sometimes it is found to result from the fault of previous anger,
or to spring from the desire of some gain which has not been realized,
when a man has found that he has failed in his hope of securing those
things which he had planned. But sometimes without any apparent
reason for our being driven to fall into this misfortune, we are by
the instigation of our crafty enemy suddenly depressed with so great a
gloom that we cannot receive with ordinary civility the visits of
those who are near and dear to us; and whatever subject of
conversation is started by them, we regard it as ill-timed and out of
place; and we can give them no civil answer, as the gall of bitterness
is in possession of every corner of our heart.
CHAPTER V.
That disturbances are caused in us not by the
faults of other people, but by our own.
WHENCE it is clearly proved that the pains of disturbances are not
always caused in us by other people's faults, but rather by our own,
as we have stored up in ourselves the causes of offence, and the seeds
of faults, which, as soon as a shower of temptation waters our soul,
at once burst forth into shoots and fruits.
CHAPTER VI.
That no one comes to grief by a sudden fall, but is
destroyed by falling through a long course of carelessness.[331]
FOR no one is ever driven to sin by being provoked through another's
fault, unless he has the fuel of evil stored up in his own heart. Nor
should we imagine that a man has been deceived suddenly when he has
looked on a woman and fallen into the abyss of shameful lust: but
rather that, owing to the opportunity of looking on her, the symptoms
of disease which were hidden and concealed in his inmost soul have
been brought to the surface.
CHAPTER VII.
That we ought not to give up intercourse with our
brethren in order to seek after perfection, but should rather
constantly cultivate the virtue of patience.
AND so God, the creator of all things, having regard above everything
to the amendment of His own work, and because the roots and causes of
our falls are found not in others, but in ourselves, commands that we
should not give up intercourse with our brethren, nor avoid those who
we think have been hurt by us, or by whom we have been offended, but
bids us pacify them, knowing that perfection of heart is not secured
by separating from men so much as by the virtue of patience. Which
when it is securely held, as it can keep us at peace even with those
who hate peace, so, if it has not been acquired, it makes us
perpetually differ from those who are perfect and better than we are:
for opportunities for disturbance, on account of which we are eager to
get away from those with whom we are connected, will not be wanting so
long as we are living among men; and therefore we shall not escape
altogether, but only change the causes of dejection on account of
which we separated from our former friends.
CHAPTER VIII.
That if we have improved our character it is
possible for us to get on with everybody.
WE must then do our best to endeavour to amend our faults and correct
our manners. And if we succeed in correcting them we shall certainly
be at peace, I will not say with men, but even with beasts and the
brute creation, according to what is said in the book of the blessed
Job: "For the beasts of the field will be at peace with
thee;"[332] for we shall not fear
offences coming from without, nor will any occasion of falling trouble
us from outside, if the roots of such are not admitted and implanted
within in our own selves: for "they have great peace who love thy
law, O God; and they have no occasion of falling."[333]
CHAPTER IX.
Of another sort of dejection which produces despair
of salvation.
THERE is, too, another still more objectionable sort of dejection,
which produces in the guilty soul no amendment of life or correction
of faults, but the most destructive despair: which did not make Cain
repent after the murder of his brother, or Judas, after the betrayal,
hasten to relieve himself by making amends, but drove him to hang
himself in despair.
CHAPTER X.
Of the only thing in which dejection is useful to
us.
AND so we must see that dejection is only useful to us in one case,
when we yield to it either in penitence for sin, or through being
inflamed with the desire of perfection, or the contemplation of future
blessedness. And of this the blessed Apostle says: "The sorrow
which is according to God worketh repentance steadfast unto salvation:
but the sorrow of the world worketh death."[334]
CHAPTER XI.
How we can decide what is useful and the sorrow
according to God, and what is devilish and deadly.
BUT that dejection and sorrow which "worketh repentance steadfast
unto salvation" is obedient, civil, humble, kindly, gentle, and
patient, as it springs from the love of God, and unweariedly extends
itself from desire of perfection to every bodily grief and sorrow of
spirit; and somehow or other rejoicing and feeding on hope of its own
profit preserves all the gentleness of courtesy and forbearance, as it
has in itself all the fruits of the Holy Spirit of which the same
Apostle gives the list: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, forbearance, goodness, benignity, faith, mildness,
modesty."[335] But the other
kind is rough, impatient, hard, full of rancour and useless grief and
penal despair, and breaks down the man on whom it has fastened, and
hinders him from energy and wholesome sorrow, as it is unreasonable,
and not only hampers the efficacy of his prayers, but actually
destroys all those fruits of the Spirit of which we spoke, which that
other sorrow knows how to produce.
CHAPTER XII.
That except that wholesome sorrow, which springs up
in three ways, all sorrow and dejection should be resisted as
hurtful.
WHEREFORE except that sorrow which is endured either for the sake of
saving penitence, or for the sake of aiming at perfection, or for the
desire of the future, all sorrow and dejection must equally be
resisted, as belonging to this world, and being that which
"worketh death," and must be entirely expelled from our
hearts like the spirit of fornication and covetousness and anger.
CHAPTER XIII.
The means by which we can root out dejection from
our hearts.
WE should then be able to expel this most injurious passion from our
hearts, so that by spiritual meditation we may keep our mind
constantly occupied with hope of the future and contemplation of the
promised blessedness. For in this way we shall be able to get the
better of all those sorts of dejection, whether those which flow from
previous anger or those which come to us from disappointment of gain,
or from some loss, or those which spring from a wrong done to us, or
those which arise from an unreasonable disturbance of mind, or those
which bring on us a deadly despair, if, ever joyful with an insight
into things eternal and future, and continuing immovable, we are not
depressed by present accidents, or over-elated by prosperity, but look
on each condition as uncertain and likely soon to pass away.
BOOK X.
OF THE SPIRIT OF ACCIDIE.[336]
CHAPTER I.
How our sixth combat is against the spirit of
accidie, and what its character is.
OUR sixth combat is with what the Greeks call
akhdia, which we may term weariness or
distress of heart. This is akin to dejection, and is especially
trying to solitaries, and a dangerous and frequent foe to dwellers in
the desert; and especially disturbing to a monk about the sixth hour,
like some fever which seizes him at stated times, bringing the burning
heat of its attacks on the sick man at usual and regular hours.
Lastly, there are some of the elders who declare that this is the
"midday demon" spoken of in the ninetieth Psalm.[337]
CHAPTER II.
A description of accidie, and the way in which it
creeps over the heart of a monk, and the injury it inflicts on the
soul.
AND when this has taken possession of some unhappy soul, it produces
dislike of the place, disgust with the cell, and disdain and contempt
of the brethren who dwell with him or at a little distance, as if they
were careless or unspiritual. It also makes the man lazy and sluggish
about all manner of work which has to be done within the enclosure of
his dormitory. It does not suffer him to stay in his cell, or to take
any pains about reading, and he often groans because he can do no good
while he stays there, and complains and sighs because he can bear no
spiritual fruit so long as he is joined to that society; and he
complains that he is cut off from spiritual gain, and is of no use in
the place, as if he were one who, though he could govern others and be
useful to a great number of people, yet was edifying none, nor
profiting any one by his teaching and doctrine. He cries up distant
monasteries and those which are a long way off, and describes such
places as more profitable and better suited for salvation; and besides
this he paints the intercourse with the brethren there as sweet and
full of spiritual life. On the other hand, he says that everything
about him is rough, and not only that there is nothing edifying among
the brethren who are stopping there, but also that even food for the
body cannot be procured without great difficulty. Lastly he fancies
that he will never be well while he stays in that place, unless he
leaves his cell (in which he is sure to die if he stops in it any
longer) and takes himself off from thence as quickly as possible.
Then the fifth or sixth hour brings him such bodily weariness and
longing for food that he seems to himself worn out and wearied as if
with a long journey, or some very heavy work, or as if he had put off
taking food during a fast of two or three days. Then besides this he
looks about anxiously this way and that, and sighs that none of the
brethren come to see him, and often goes in and out of his cell, and
frequently gazes up at the sun, as if it was too slow in setting, and
so a kind of unreasonable confusion of mind takes possession of him
like some foul darkness,[338] and
makes him idle and useless for every spiritual work, so that he
imagines that no cure for so terrible an attack can be found in
anything except visiting some one of the brethren, or in the solace of
sleep alone. Then the disease suggests that he ought to show
courteous and friendly hospitalities to the brethren, and pay visits
to the sick, whether near at hand or far off. He talks too about some
dutiful and religious offices; that those kinsfolk ought to be
inquired after, and that he ought to go and see them oftener; that it
would be a real work of piety to go more frequently to visit that
religious woman, devoted to the service of God, who is deprived of all
support of kindred; and that it would be a most excellent thing to get
what is needful for her who is neglected and despised by her own
kinsfolk; and that he ought piously to devote his time to these things
instead of staying uselessly and with no profit in his cell.
CHAPTER III.
Of the different ways in which accidie overcomes a
monk.
AND so the wretched soul, embarrassed by such contrivances of the
enemy, is disturbed, until, worn out by the spirit of accidie, as by
some strong battering ram, it either learns to sink into slumber, or,
driven out from the confinement of its cell, accustoms itself to seek
for consolation under these attacks in visiting some brother, only to
be afterwards weakened the more by this remedy which it seeks for the
present. For more frequently and more severely will the enemy attack
one who, when the battle is joined, will as he well knows immediately
turn his back, and whom he sees to look for safety neither in victory
nor in fighting but in flight: until little by little he is drawn away
from his cell, and begins to forget the object of his profession,
which is nothing but meditation and contemplation of that divine
purity which excels all things, and which can only be gained by
silence and continually remaining in the cell, and by meditation, and
so the soldier of Christ becomes a runaway from His service, and a
deserter, and "entangles himself in secular business,"
without at all pleasing Him to whom he engaged himself.[339]
CHAPTER IV.
How accidie hinders the mind from all contemplation
of the virtues.
ALL the inconveniences of this disease are admirably expressed by
David in a single verse, where he says, "My soul slept from
weariness,"[340] that is, from
accidie. Quite rightly does he say, not that his body, but that his
soul slept. For in truth the soul which is wounded by the shaft of
this passion does sleep, as regards all contemplation of the virtues
and insight of the spiritual senses.
CHAPTER V.
How the attack of accidie is twofold.
AND so the true Christian athlete who desires to strive lawfully in
the lists of perfection, should hasten to expel this disease also from
the recesses of his soul; and should strive against this most evil
spirit of accidie in both directions, so that he may neither fall
stricken through by the shaft of slumber, nor be driven out from the
monastic cloister, even though under some pious excuse or pretext, and
depart as a runaway.
CHAPTER VI.
How injurious are the effects of accidie.
AND whenever it begins in any degree to overcome any one, it either
makes him stay in his cell idle and lazy, without making any spiritual
progress, or it drives him out from thence and makes him restless and
a wanderer, and indolent in the matter of all kinds of work, and it
makes him continually go round the cells of the brethren and the
monasteries, with an eye to nothing but this; viz., where or with what
excuse he can presently procure some refreshment. For the mind of an
idler cannot think of anything but food and the belly, until the
society of some man or woman, equally cold and indifferent, is
secured, and it loses itself in their affairs and business, and is
thus little by little ensnared by dangerous occupations, so that, just
as if it were bound up in the coils of a serpent, it can never
disentangle itself again and return to the perfection of its former
profession.
CHAPTER VII.
Testimonies from the Apostle concerning the spirit
of accidie.
THE blessed Apostle, like a true and spiritual physician, either
seeing this disease, which springs from the spirit of accidie, already
creeping in, or foreseeing, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit,
that it would arise among monks, is quick to anticipate it by the
healing medicines of his directions. For in writing to the
Thessalonians, and at first, like a skilful and excellent physician,
applying to the infirmity of his patients the soothing and gentle
remedy of his words, and beginning with charity, and praising them in
that point, that[341] this deadly
wound, having been treated with a milder remedy, might lose its angry
festering and more easily bear severer treatment, he says: "But
concerning brotherly charity ye have no need that I write to you: for
you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For this ye do
toward all the brethren in the whole of Macedonia."[342] He first began with the soothing
application of praise, and made their ears submissive and ready for
the remedy of the healing words. Then he proceeds: "But we ask
you, brethren, to abound more." Thus far he soothes them with
kind and gentle words; for fear lest he should find them not yet
prepared to receive their perfect cure. Why is it that you ask, O
Apostle, that they may abound more in charity, of which you had said
above, "But concerning brotherly charity we have no need to write
to you"? And why is it necessary that you should say to them:
"But we ask you to abound more," when they did not need to
be written to at all on this matter? especially as you add the reason
why they do not need it, saying, "For you yourselves have been
taught of God to love one another." And you add a third thing
still more important: that not only have they been taught of God, but
also that they fulfil in deed that which they are taught. "For
ye do this," he says, not to one or two, but "to all the
brethren;" and not to your own citizens and friends only, but
"in the whole of Macedonia." Tell us then, I pray, why it
is that you so particularly begin with this. Again he proceeds,
"But we ask you, brethren, to abound the more." And with
difficulty at last he breaks out into that at which he was driving
before: "and that ye take pains to be quiet." He gave the
first aim. Then he adds a second, "and to do your own
business;" and a third as well: "and work with your own
hands, as we commanded you;" a fourth: "and to walk honestly
towards those that are without;" a fifth: "and to covet no
man's goods." Lo, we can see through that hesitation, which made
him with these preludes put off uttering what his mind was full of:
"And that ye take pains to be quiet;" i.e., that you stop in
your cells, and be not disturbed by rumours, which generally spring
from the wishes and gossip of idle persons, and so yourselves disturb
others. And, "to do your own business," you should not want
to inquire curiously of the world's actions, or, examining the lives
of others, want to spend your strength, not on bettering yourselves
and aiming at virtue, but on depreciating your brethren. "And
work with your own hands, as we charged you;" to secure that
which he had warned them above not to do; i.e., that they should not
be restless and anxious about other people's affairs, nor walk
dishonestly towards those without, nor covet another man's goods, he
now adds and says, "and work with your own hands, as we charged
you." For he has clearly shown that leisure is the reason why
those things were done which he blamed above. For no one can be
restless or anxious about other people's affairs, but one who is not
satisfied to apply himself to the work of his own hands. He adds also
a fourth evil, which springs also from this leisure, i.e., that they
should not walk dishonestly: when he says: "And that ye walk
honestly towards those without." He cannot possibly walk
honestly, even among those who are men of this world, who is not
content to cling to the seclusion of his cell and the work of his own
hands; but he is sure to be dishonest, while he seeks his needful
food; and to take pains to flatter, to follow up news and gossip, to
seek for opportunities for chattering and stories by means of which he
may gain a footing and obtain an entrance into the houses of others.
"And that you should not covet another man's goods." He is
sure to look with envious eyes on another's gifts and boons, who does
not care to secure sufficient for his daily food by the dutiful and
peaceful labour of his hands. You see what conditions, and how
serious and shameful ones, spring solely from the malady of leisure.
Lastly, those very people, whom in his first Epistle he had treated
with the gentle application of his words, in his second Epistle he
endeavours to heal with severer and sterner remedies, as those who had
not profited by more gentle treatment; and he no longer applies the
treatment of gentle words, no mild and kindly expressions, as these,
"But we ask you, brethren," but "We adjure you,
brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw from
every brother that walketh disorderly."[343] There he asks; here he adjures.
There is the kindness of one who is persuading; here the sternness of
one protesting and threatening. "We adjure you, brethren:"
because, when we first asked you, you scorned to listen; now
at least obey our threats. And this adjuration he renders terrible,
not by his bare word, but by the imprecation of the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ: for fear lest they might again scorn it, as merely man's
word, and think that it was not of much importance. And forthwith,
like a well-skilled physician with festering limbs, to which he could
not apply the remedy of a mild treatment, he tries to cure by an
incision with a spiritual knife, saying, "that ye withdraw
yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not
according to the tradition which ye received of us." And so he
bids them withdraw from those who will not make time for work, and to
cut them off like limbs tainted with the festering sores of leisure:
lest the malady of idleness, like some deadly contagion, might infect
even the healthy portion of their limbs, by the gradual advance of
infection. And when he is going to speak of those who will not work
with their own hands and eat their bread in quietness, from whom he
urges them to withdraw, hear with what reproaches he brands them at
starting. First he calls them "disorderly," and "not
walking according to the tradition." In other words, he
stigmatizes them as obstinate, since they will not walk according to
his appointment; and "dishonest," i.e., not keeping to the
right and proper times for going out, and visiting, and talking. For
a disorderly person is sure to be subject to all those faults.
"And not according to the tradition which they received from
us." And in this he stamps them as in some sort rebellious, and
despisers, who scorned to keep the tradition which they had received
from him, and would not follow that which they not only remembered
that the master had taught in word, but which they knew that he had
performed in deed. "For you yourselves know how ye ought to be
followers of us." He heaps up an immense pile of censure when he
asserts that they did not observe that which was still in their
memory, and which not only had they learned by verbal instruction, but
also had received by the incitement of his example in working.
CHAPTER VIII.
That he is sure to be restless who will not be
content with the work of his own hands.
"BECAUSE we were not restless among you." When he wants to
prove by the practice of work that he was not restless among them, he
fully shows that those who will not work are always restless, owing to
the fault of idleness. "Nor did we eat any man's bread for
nought." By each expression the teacher of the Gentiles advances
a step in the rebuke.[344] The
preacher of the gospel says that he has not eaten any man's bread for
nought, as he knows that the Lord commanded that "they who preach
the gospel should live of the gospel:"[345] again, "The labourer is worthy
of his meat."[346] And so if he
who preached the gospel, performing a work so lofty and spiritual, did
not venture in reliance on the Lord's command to eat his bread for
nought, what shall we do to whom not merely is there no preaching of
the word intrusted, but no cure of souls except our own committed?
with what confidence shall we dare with idle hands to eat our bread
for nought, when the "chosen vessel," constrained by his
anxiety for the gospel and his work of preaching, did not venture to
eat without labouring with his own hands? "But in labour,"
he says "and weariness, working night and day lest we should be
burdensome to any of you."[347]
Up to this point he amplifies and adds to his rebuke. For he did not
simply say, "We did not eat bread for nought from any of
you," and then stop short. For it might have been thought that
he was supported by his own private means, and by money which he had
saved, or by other people's, though not by their collections
and gifts. "But in labour," he says, "and weariness,
working night and day;" that is, being specially supported by our
own labour. And this, he says, we did not of our own wish, and for
our own pleasure, as rest and bodily exercise suggested, but as our
necessities and the want of food compelled us to do, and that not
without great bodily weariness. For not only throughout the whole
day, but also by night, which seems to be granted for bodily rest, I
was continually plying the work of my hands, through anxiety for
food.
CHAPTER IX.
That not the Apostle only, but those two who were
with him laboured with their own hands.
AND he testifies that it was not he alone who so lived among them,
lest haply this method might not seem important or general if he
depended only on his example. But he declares that all those who were
appointed with him for the ministry of the gospel, i.e., Silvanus and
Timothy, who wrote this with him, worked in the same fashion. For by
saying, "lest we should be burdensome to any of you," he
covers them with great shame. For if he who preached the gospel and
commended it by signs and mighty works, did not dare to eat bread for
nought, lest he should be burdensome to any, how can those men help
thinking that they are burdensome who take it every day in idleness
and at their leisure?
CHAPTER X.
That for this reason the Apostle laboured with his
own hands, that he might set us an example of work.
"NOT as if we had not power; but that we might give ourselves a
pattern to you to imitate us." He lays bare the reason why he
imposed such labour on himself: "that we might," says he,
"give a pattern to you to imitate us," that if by chance you
become forgetful of the teaching of our words which so often passes
through your ears, you may at least keep in your recollection the
example of my manner of life given to you by ocular demonstration.
There is here too no slight reproof of them, where he says that he has
gone through this labour and weariness by night and day, for no other
reason but to set an example, and that nevertheless they would not be
instructed, for whose sakes he, although not obliged to do it, yet
imposed on himself such toil. "And indeed," he says,
"though we had the power, and opportunities were open to us of
using all your goods and substance, and I knew that I had the
permission[348] of our Lord to use
them: yet I did not use this power, lest what was rightly and lawfully
done on my part might set an example of dangerous idleness to others.
And therefore when preaching the gospel, I preferred to be supported
by my own hands and work, that I might open up the way of perfection
to you who wish to walk in the path of virtue, and might set an
example of good life by my work."
CHAPTER XI.
That he preached and taught men to work not only by
his example, but also by his words.
BUT lest haply it might be thought that, while he worked in silence
and tried to teach them by example, he had not instructed them by
precepts and warnings, he proceeds to say: "For when we were with
you, this we declared to you, that if a man will not work neither
should he eat." Still greater does he make their idleness
appear, for, though they knew that he, like a good master, worked with
his hands for the sake of his teaching and in order to instruct them,
yet they were ashamed to imitate him; and he emphasizes our diligence
and care by saying that he did not only give them this for an example
when present, but that he also proclaimed it continually in words;
saying that if any one would not work, neither should he eat.
CHAPTER XII.
Of his saying: "If any will not work, neither
shall he eat."
AND now he no longer addresses to them the advice of a teacher or
physician, but proceeds with the severity of a judicial sentence, and,
resuming his apostolic authority, pronounces sentence on his despisers
as if from the judgment seat: with that power, I mean, which, when
writing with threats to the Corinthians, he declared was given him of
the Lord, when he charged those taken in sin, that they should make
haste and amend their lives before his coming: thus charging them,
"I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present, against
some, with that power which is given to me over you." And again:
"For if I also should boast somewhat of the power which the Lord
has given me unto edification, and not for your destruction, I shall
not be ashamed."[349] With that
power, I say, he declares, "If a man will not work, neither let
him eat." Not punishing them with a carnal sword, but with the
power of the Holy Ghost forbidding them the goods of this life, that
if by chance, thinking but little of the punishment of future death,
they still should remain obstinate through love of ease, they may at
last, forced by the requirements of nature and the fear of immediate
death, be compelled to obey his salutary charge.
CHAPTER XIII.
Of his saying: "We have heard that some among
you walk disorderly."
THEN after all this rigour of gospel severity, he now lays bare the
reason why he put forward all these matters. "For we have heard
that some among you walk disorderly, working not at all, but curiously
meddling." He is nowhere satisfied to speak of those who will
not give themselves up to work, as if they were victims of but a
single malady. For in his first Epistle[350] he speaks of them as
"disorderly," and not walking according to the traditions
which they had received from him: and he also asserts that they were
restless, and ate their bread for nought. Again he says here,
"We have heard that there are some among you who walk
disorderly." And at once he subjoins a second weakness, which is
the root of this restlessness, and says, "working not at
all;" a third malady as well he adds, which springs from this
last like some shoot: "but curiously meddling."
CHAPTER XIV.
How manual labour[351] prevents many faults.
AND so he loses no time in at once applying a suitable remedy to the
incentive to so many faults, and laying aside that apostolic power of
his which he had made use of a little before, he adopts once more the
tender character of a good father, or of a kind physician, and, as if
they were his children or his patients, applies by his healing counsel
remedies to cure them, saying: "Now we charge them that are such,
and beseech them by the Lord Jesus, that working with silence they
would eat their own bread." The cause of all these ulcers, which
spring from the root of idleness, he heals like some well-skilled
physician by a single salutary charge to work; as he knows that all
the other bad symptoms, which spring as it were from the same clump,
will at once disappear when the cause of the chief malady has been
removed.
CHAPTER XV.
How kindness should be shown even to the idle and
careless.
NEVERTHELESS, like a far-sighted and careful physician, he is not only
anxious to heal the wounds of the sick, but gives suitable directions
as well to the whole, that their health may be preserved continually,
and says: "But be not ye weary in well doing:" ye who
following us, i.e., our ways, copy the example given to you by
imitating us m work, and do not follow their sloth and laziness:
"Do not be weary in well doing;" i.e., do you likewise show
kindness towards them if by chance they have failed to observe what we
said. As then he was severe with those who were weak, for fear lest
being enervated by laziness they might yield to restlessness and
inquisitiveness, so he admonishes those who are in good health neither
to restrain that kindness which the Lord's command bids us show to the
good and evil,[352] even if some bad
men will not turn to sound doctrine; nor to desist from doing good and
encouraging them both by words of consolation and by rebuke as well as
by ordinary kindness and civility.
CHAPTER XVI.
How we ought to admonish those who go wrong, not
out of hatred, but out of love.
BUT again in case some might be encouraged by this gentleness, and
scorn to obey his commands, he proceeds with the severity of an
apostle: "But if any man obey not our word by this Epistle, note
that man and do not keep company with him that he may be
ashamed." And in warning them of what they ought to observe out
of regard for him and for the good of all, and of the care with which
they should keep the apostolic commands, at once he joins to the
warning the kindness of a most indulgent father; and teaches them as
well, as if they were his children, what a brotherly disposition they
should cultivate towards those mentioned above, out of love.
"Yet do not esteem him as an enemy, but admonish him as a
brother." With the severity of a judge he combines the affection
of a father, and tempers with kindness and gentleness the sentence
delivered with apostolic sternness. For he commands them to note that
man who scorns to obey his commands, and not to keep company with him;
and yet he does not bid them do this from a wrong feeling of dislike,
but from brotherly affection and out of consideration for their
amendment. "Do not keep company," he says, "with him
that he may be ashamed;" so that, even if he is not made better
by my mild charges, he may at last be brought to shame by being
publicly separated from all of you, and so may some day begin to be
restored to the way of salvation.
CHAPTER XVII.
Different passages in which the Apostle declares
that we ought to work, or in which it is shown that he himself
worked.
IN the Epistle to the Ephesians also he thus gives a charge on this
subject of work, saying: "He that stole, let him now steal no
more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing that
is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffereth
need."[353] And in the Acts of
the Apostles too we find that he not only taught this, but actually
practised it himself. For when he had come to Corinth, he did not
permit himself to lodge anywhere except with Aquila and Priscilla,
because they were of the same trade which he himself was accustomed to
practise. For we thus read: "After this, Paul departing from
Athens came to Corinth; and finding a certain Jew named Aquila, born
in Pontus, and Priscilla his wife, he came to them because they were
of the same trade; and abode with them, and worked: for they were
tent-makers by trade."[354]
CHAPTER XVIII.
That the Apostle wrought what he thought would be
sufficient for him and for others who were with him.
THEN going to Miletus, and from thence sending to Ephesus, and
summoning to him the elders of the church of Ephesus, he charged them
how they ought to rule the church of God in his absence, and said:
"I have not coveted any man's silver and gold; you yourselves
know how for such things as were needful for me and them that are with
me these hands have ministered. I have showed you all things, how
that so labouring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the
words of the Lord Jesus, how he said: It is more blessed to give than
to receive."[355] He left us a
weighty example in his manner of life, as he testifies that he not
only wrought what would supply his own bodily wants alone, but also
what would be sufficient for the needs of those who were with him:
those, I mean, who, being taken up with necessary duties, had no
chance of procuring food for themselves with their own hands. And as
he tells the Thessalonians that he had worked to give them an example
that they might imitate him, so here too he implies something of the
same sort when he says: "I have showed you all things, how that
so labouring you ought to support the weak," viz., whether in
mind or body; i.e., that we should be diligent in supplying their
needs, not from the store of our abundance, or money laid by, or from
another's generosity and substance, but rather by securing the
necessary sum by our own labour and toil.
CHAPTER XIX.
How we should understand these words: "It is
more blessed to give than to receive."
AND he says that this is a command of the Lord: "For He
Himself," namely the Lord Jesus, said he, "said it is more
blessed to give than to receive." That is, the bounty of the
giver is more blessed than the need of the receiver, where the gift is
not supplied from money that has been kept back through unbelief or
faithlessness, nor from the stored-up treasures of avarice, but is
produced from the fruits of our own labour and honest toil. And so
"it is more blessed to give than to receive," because while
the giver shares the poverty of the receiver, yet still he is diligent
in providing with pious care by his own toil, not merely enough for
his own needs, but also what he can give to one in want; and so he is
adorned with a double grace, since by giving away all his goods he
secures the perfect abnegation of Christ, and yet by his labour and
thought displays the generosity of the rich; thus honouring God by his
honest labours, and plucking for him the fruits of his righteousness,
while another, enervated by sloth and indolent laziness, proves
himself by the saying of the Apostle unworthy of food, as in defiance
of his command he takes it in idleness, not without the guilt of sin
and of obstinacy.
CHAPTER XX.
Of a lazy brother who tried to persuade others to
leave the monastery.
WE know a brother, whose name we would give if it would do any good,
who, although he was remaining in the monastery and compelled to
deliver to the steward his fixed task daily, yet for fear lest he
might be led on to some larger portion of work, or put to shame by the
example of one labouring more zealously, when he had seen some brother
admitted into the monastery, who in the ardour of his faith wanted to
make up the sale of a larger piece of work, if he found that he could
not by secret persuasion check him from carrying out his purpose, he
would by bad advice and whisperings persuade him to depart thence.
And in order to get rid of him more easily he would pretend that he
also had already been for many reasons offended, and wanted to leave,
if only he could find a companion and support for the journey. And
when by secretly running down the monastery he had wheedled him into
consenting, and arranged with him the time at which to leave the
monastery, and the place to which he should go before, and where he
should wait for him, he himself, pretending that he would follow,
stopped where he was. And when the other out of shame for his flight
did not dare to return again to the monastery from which he had run
away, the miserable author of his flight stopped behind in the
monastery. It will be enough to have given this single instance of
this sort of men in order to put beginners on their guard, and to show
clearly what evils idleness, as Scripture says,[356] can produce in the mind of a monk,
and how "evil communications corrupt good manners."[357]
CHAPTER XXI.
Different passages from the writings of Solomon
against accidie.
AND Solomon, the wisest of men, clearly points to this fault of
idleness in many passages, as he says: "He that followeth
idleness shall be filled with poverty,"[358] either visible or invisible, in
which an idle person and one entangled with different faults is sure
to be involved, and he will always be a stranger to the contemplation
of God, and to spiritual riches, of which the blessed Apostle says:
"For in all things ye were enriched in him, in all utterance and
in all knowledge."[359] But
concerning this poverty of the idler elsewhere he also writes thus:
"Every sluggard shall be clothed in torn garments and
rags."[360] For certainly he
will not merit to be adorned with that garment of incorruption (of
which the Apostle says, "Put ye on the Lord Jesus
Christ,"[361] and again:
"Being clothed in the breastplate of righteousness and
charity,"[362] concerning which
the Lord Himself also speaks to Jerusalem by the prophet: "Arise,
arise, O Jerusalem, put on the garments of thy glory),"[363] whoever, overpowered by lazy slumber
or by accidie, prefers to be clothed, not by his labour and industry,
but in the rags of idleness, which he tears off from the solid piece
and body of the Scriptures, and fits on to his sloth no garment of
glory and honour, but an ignominious cloak and excuse. For those, who
are affected by this laziness, and do not like to support themselves
by the labour of their own hands, as the Apostle continually did and
charged us to do, are wont to make use of certain Scripture proofs by
which they try to cloak their idleness, saying that it is written,
"Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for that which
remains to life eternal;"[364]
and "My meat is to do the will of my Father."[365] But these proofs are (as it were)
rags, from the solid piece of the gospel, which are adopted for this
purpose, viz., to cover the disgrace of our idleness and shame rather
than to keep us warm, and adorn us with that costly and splendid
garment of virtue which that wise woman in the Proverbs, who was
clothed with strength and beauty, is said to have made either for
herself or for her husband; of which presently it is said:
"Strength and beauty are her clothing, and she rejoices in the
latter days."[366] Of this evil
of idleness Solomon thus makes mention again: "The ways of the
idlers are strown with thorns;"[367] i.e., with these and similar faults,
which the Apostle above declared to spring from idleness. And again:
"Every sluggard is always in want."[368] And of these the Apostle makes
mention when he says, "And that you want nothing of any
man's."[369] And finally:
"For idleness has been the teacher of many evils:"[370] which the Apostle has clearly
enumerated in the passage which he expounded above: "Working not
at all, but curiously meddling." To this fault also he joins
another: "And that ye study to be quiet;" and then,
"that ye should do your own business and walk honestly towards
them that are without, and that you want nothing of any man's."
Those also whom he notes as disorderly and rebellious, from these he
charges those who are earnest to separate themselves: "That ye
withdraw yourselves," says he, "from every brother that
walketh disorderly and not according to the tradition which they
received from us."[371]
CHAPTER XXII.
How the brethren in Egypt work with their hands,
not only to supply their own needs, but also to minister to those who
are in prison.
AND so taught by these examples the Fathers in Egypt never allow
monks, and especially the younger ones, to be idle,[372] estimating the purpose of their
hearts and their growth in patience and humility by their diligence in
work; and they not only do not allow them to receive anything from
another to supply their own wants, but further, they not merely
refresh pilgrims and brethren who come to visit them by means of their
labours, but actually collect an enormous store of provisions and
food, and distribute it in the parts of Libya which suffer from famine
and barrenness, and also in the cities, to those who are pining away
in the squalor of prison; as they believe that by such an offering of
the fruit of their hands they offer a reasonable and true sacrifice to
the Lord.
CHAPTER XXIII.
That idleness is the reason why there are not
monasteries for monks in the West.
HENCE it is that in these countries we see no monasteries found with
such numbers of brethren: for they are not supported by the resources
of their own labour in such a way that they can remain in them
continually; and if in some way or other, through the liberality of
another, there should be a sufficient provision to supply them, yet
love of ease and restlessness of heart does not suffer them to
continue long in the place. Whence this saying has been handed down
from the old fathers in Egypt: that a monk who works is attacked by
but one devil; but an idler is tormented by countless spirits.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Of Abbot Paul[373]
who every year burnt with fire all the works of his hands.
LASTLY, Abbot Paul, one of the greatest of the Fathers, while he was
living in a vast desert which is called the Porphyrian desert,[374] and being relieved from anxiety by
the date palms and a small garden, had plenty to support himself, and
an ample supply of food, and could not find any other work to do,
which would support him, because his dwelling was separated from towns
and inhabited districts by seven days' journey,[375] or even more, through the desert,
and more would be asked for the carriage of the goods than the price
of the work would be worth; he collected the leaves of the palms, and
regularly exacted of himself his daily task, as if he was to be
supported by it. And when his cave had been filled with a whole
year's work, each year he would burn with fire that at which he had so
diligently laboured: thus proving that without manual labour a monk
cannot stop in a place nor rise to the heights of perfection: so that,
though the need for food did not require this to be done, yet he
performed it simply for the sake of purifying his heart, and
strengthening his thoughts, and persisting in his cell, and gaining a
victory over accidie and driving it away.
CHAPTER XXV.
The words of Abbot Moses which he said to me about
the cure of accidie.
WHEN I was beginning my stay in the desert, and had said to Abbot
Moses, the chief of all the saints, that I had been terribly troubled
yesterday by an attack of accidie, and that I could only be freed from
it by running at once to Abbot Paul, he said, "You have not freed
yourself from it, but rather have given yourself up to it as its slave
and subject. For the enemy will henceforth attack you more strongly
as a deserter and runaway, since it has seen that you fled at once
when overcome in the conflict: unless on a second occasion when you
join battle with it you make up your mind not to dispel its attacks
and heats for the moment by deserting your cell, or by the inactivity
of sleep, but rather learn to triumph over it by endurance and
conflict." Whence it is proved by experience that a fit of
accidie should not be evaded by running away from it, but overcome by
resisting it.[376]
BOOK XI.
OF THE SPIRIT OF VAINGLORY.
CHAPTER I.
How our seventh combat is against the spirit of
vainglory, and what its nature is.
OUR seventh combat is against the spirit of
kenodoxia, which we may term vain or idle
glory: a spirit that takes many shapes, and is changeable and subtle,
so that it can with difficulty, I will not say be guarded against, but
be seen through and discovered even by the keenest eyes.
CHAPTER II.
How vainglory attacks a monk not only on his
carnal, but also on his spiritual side.
FOR not only does this, like the rest of his faults, attack a monk on
his carnal side, but on his spiritual side as well, insinuating itself
by craft and guile into his mind: so that those who cannot be deceived
by carnal vices are more grievously wounded through their spiritual
proficiency; and it is so much the worse to fight against, as it is
harder to guard against. For the attack of all other vices is more
open and straightforward, and in the case of each of them, when he who
stirs them up is met by a determined refusal, he will go away the
weaker for it, and the adversary who has been beaten will on the next
occasion attack his victim with less vigour. But this malady when it
has attacked the mind by means of carnal pride, and has been repulsed
by the shield of reply, again, like some wickedness that takes many
shapes, changes its former guise and character, and under the
appearance of the virtues tries to strike down and destroy its
conqueror.
CHAPTER III.
How many forms and shapes vainglory takes.
FOR our other faults and passions may be said to be simpler and of but
one form: but this takes many forms and shapes, and changes about and
assails the man who stands up against it from every quarter, and
assaults its conqueror on all sides. For it tries to injure the
soldier of Christ in his dress, in his manner, his walk, his voice,
his work, his vigils, his fasts, his prayers, when he withdraws, when
he reads, in his knowledge, his silence, his obedience, his humility,
his patience; and like some most dangerous rock hidden by surging
waves, it causes an unforeseen and miserable shipwreck to those who
are sailing with a fair breeze, while they are not on the lookout for
it or guarding against it.
CHAPTER IV.
How vainglory attacks a monk on the right had and
on the left.
AND so one who wishes to go along the King's highway by means of the
"arms of righteousness which are on the right hand and on the
left," ought by the teaching of the Apostle to pass through
"honour and dishonour, evil report and good report,"[377] and with such care to direct his
virtuous course amid the swelling waves of temptation, with discretion
at the helm, and the Spirit of the Lord breathing on us, since we know
that if we deviate ever so little to the right hand or to the left, we
shall presently be dashed against most dangerous crags. And so we are
warned by Solomon, the wisest of men: "Turn not aside to the
right hand or to the left;"[378]
i.e., do not flatter yourself on your virtues and be puffed up by your
spiritual achievements on the right hand; nor, swerving to the path of
vices on the left hand, seek from them for yourself (to use the words
of the Apostle) "glory in your shame."[379] For where the devil cannot create
vainglory in a man by means of his well-fitting and neat dress, he
tries to introduce it by means of a dirty, cheap, and uncared-for
style. If he cannot drag a man down by honour, he overthrows him by
humility. If he cannot make him puffed up by the grace of knowledge
and eloquence, he pulls him down by the weight of silence. If a man
fasts openly, he is attacked by the pride of vanity. If he conceals
it for the sake of despising the glory of it, he is assailed by the
same sin of pride. In order that he may not be defiled by the stains
of vainglory he avoids making long prayers in the sight of the
brethren; and yet because he offers them secretly and has no one who
is conscious of it, he does not escape the pride of vanity.
CHAPTER V.
A comparison which shows the nature of
vainglory.
OUR elders admirably describe the nature of this malady as like that
of an onion, and of those bulbs which when stripped of one covering
you find to be sheathed in another; and as often as you strip them,
you find them still protected.
CHAPTER VI.
That vainglory is not altogether got rid of by the
advantages of solitude.
IN solitude also it does not cease from pursuing him who has for the
sake of glory fled from intercourse with all men. And the more
thoroughly a man has shunned the whole world, so much the more keenly
does it pursue him. It tries to lift up with pride one man because of
his great endurance of work and labour, another because of his extreme
readiness to obey, another because he outstrips other men in humility.
One man is tempted through the extent of his knowledge, another
through the extent of his reading, another through the length of his
vigils. Nor does this malady endeavour to wound a man except through
his virtues; introducing hindrances which lead to death by means of
those very things through which the supplies of life are sought. For
when men are anxious to walk in the path of holiness and perfection,
the enemies do not lay their snares to deceive them anywhere except in
the way along which they walk, in accordance with that saying of the
blessed David: "In the way wherein I walked have they laid a
snare for me;"[380] that in this
very way of virtue along which we are walking, when pressing on to
"the prize of our high calling,"[381] we may be elated by our successes,
and so sink down, and fall with the feet of our soul entangled and
caught in the snares of vainglory. And so it results that those of us
who could not be vanquished in the conflict with the foe are overcome
by the very greatness of our triumph, or else (which is another kind
of deception) that, overstraining the limits of that self-restraint
which is possible to us, we fail of perseverance in our course on
account of bodily weakness.
CHAPTER VII.
How vainglory, when it has been overcome, rises
again keener than ever for the fight.
ALL vices when overcome grow feeble, and when beaten are day by day
rendered weaker, and both in regard to place and time grow less and
subside, or at any rate, as they are unlike the opposite virtues, are
more easily shunned and avoided: but this one when it is beaten rises
again keener than ever for the struggle; and when we think that it is
destroyed, it revives again, the stronger for its death. The other
kinds of vices usually only attack those whom they have overcome in
the conflict; but this one pursues its victors only the more keenly;
and the more thoroughly it has been resisted, so much the more
vigorously does it attack the man who is elated by his victory over
it. And herein lies the crafty cunning of our adversary, namely, in
the fact that, where he cannot overcome the soldier of Christ by the
weapons of the foe, he lays him low by his own spear.
CHAPTER VIII.
How vainglory is not allayed either in the desert
or through advancing years.
OTHER vices, as we said, are sometimes allayed by the advantages of
position, and when the matter of the sin and the occasion and
opportunity for it are removed, grow slack, and are diminished: but
this one penetrates the deserts with the man who is flying from it,
nor can it be shut out from any place, nor when outward material for
it is removed does it fail. For it is simply encouraged by the
achievements of the virtues of the man whom it attacks. For all other
vices, as we said above, are sometimes diminished by the lapse of
time, and disappear: to this one length of life, unless it is
supported by skilful diligence and prudent discretion, is no
hindrance, but actually supplies it with new fuel for vanity.
CHAPTER IX.
That vainglory is the more dangerous through being
mixed up with virtues.
LASTLY, other passions which are entirely different from the virtues
which are their opposites, and which attack us openly and as it were
in broad daylight, are more easily overcome and guarded against: but
this being interwoven with our virtues and entangled in the battle,
fighting as it were under cover of the darkness of night, deceives the
more dangerously those who are off their guard and not on the
lookout.
CHAPTER X.
An instance showing how King Hezekiah was
overthrown by the dart of vainglory.
FOR so we read that Hezekiah, King of Judah, a man of most perfect
righteousness in all things, and one approved by the witness of Holy
Scripture, after unnumbered commendations for his virtues, was
overthrown by a single dart of vainglory. And he who by a single
prayer of his was able to procure the death of a hundred and
eighty-five thousand of the army of the Assyrians, whom the angel
destroyed in one night, is overcome by boasting and vanity. Of
whom--to pass over the long list of his virtues, which it would take a
long time to unfold--I will say but this one thing. He was a man who,
after the close of his life had been decreed and the day of his death
determined by the Lord's sentence, prevailed by a single prayer to
extend the limits set to his life by fifteen years, the sun returning
by ten steps, on which it had already shone in its course towards its
setting, and by its return dispersing those lines which the shadow
that followed its course had already marked, and by this giving two
days in one to the whole world, by a stupendous miracle contrary to
the fixed laws of nature.[382] Yet
after signs so great and so incredible, after such immense proofs of
his goodness, hear the Scripture tell how he was destroyed by his very
successes. "In those days," we are told, "Hezekiah was
sick unto death: and he prayed to the Lord, and He heard him and gave
him a sign," that, namely of which we read in the fourth book of
the kingdoms, which was given by Isaiah the prophet through the going
back of the sun. "But," it says, "he did not render
again according to the benefits which he had received, for his heart
was lifted up; and wrath was kindled against him and against Judah and
Jerusalem: and he humbled himself afterwards because his heart had
been lifted up, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and
therefore the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of
Hezekiah."[383] How dangerous,
how terrible is the malady of vanity! So much goodness, so many
virtues, faith and devotion, great enough to prevail to change nature
itself and the laws of the whole world, perish by a single act of
pride! So that all his good deeds would have been forgotten as if
they had never been, and he would at once have been subject to the
wrath of the Lord unless he had appeased Him by recovering his
humility: so that he who, at the suggestion of pride, had fallen from
so great a height of excellence, could only mount again to the height
he had lost by the same steps of humility. Do you want to see another
instance of a similar downfall?
CHAPTER XI.
The instance of King Uzziah who was overcome by the
taint of the same malady.
OF Uzziah, the ancestor of this king of whom we have been speaking,
himself also praised in all things by the witness of the Scripture,
after great commendation for his virtue, after countless triumphs
which he achieved by the merit of his devotion and faith, learn how he
was cast down by the pride of vainglory. "And," we are
told, "the name of Uzziah went forth, for the Lord helped him and
had strengthened him. But when he was made strong, his heart was
lifted up to his destruction, and he neglected the Lord his
God."[384] You behold another
instance of a most terrible downfall, and see how two men so upright
and excellent were undone by their very triumphs and victories.
Whence you see how dangerous the successes of prosperity generally
are, so that those who could not be injured by adversity are ruined,
unless they are careful, by prosperity; and those who in the conflict
of battle have escaped the danger of death fall before their own
trophies and triumphs.
CHAPTER XII.
Several testimonies against vainglory.
AND so the Apostle warns us: "Be not desirous of
vainglory."[385] And the Lord,
rebuking the Pharisees, says, "How can ye believe, who receive
glory from one another, and seek not the glory which comes from God
alone?"[386] Of these too the
blessed David speaks with a threat: "For God hath scattered the
bones of them that please men."[387]
CHAPTER XIII.
Of the ways in which vainglory attacks a monk.
IN the case also of beginners and of those who have as yet made but
little progress either in powers of mind or in knowledge it usually
puffs up their minds, either because of the quality of their voice
because they can sing well, or because their bodies are emaciated,[388] or because they are of a good
figure, or because they have rich and noble kinsfolk, or because they
have despised a military life and honours. Sometimes too it persuades
a man that if he had remained in the world he would easily have
obtained honours and riches, which perhaps could not possibly have
been secured, and inflates him with a vain hope of uncertain things;
and in the case of those things which he never possessed, puffs him up
with pride and vanity, as if he were one who had despised them.
CHAPTER XIV.
How it suggests that a man may seek to take holy
orders.
BUT sometimes it creates a wish to take holy orders, and a desire for
the priesthood or diaconate. And it represents that if a man has even
against his will received this office, he will fulfil it with such
sanctity and strictness that he will be able to set an example of
saintliness even to other priests; and that he will win over many
people, not only by his manner of life, but also by his teaching and
preaching. It makes a man, even when alone and sitting in his cell,
to go round in mind and imagination to the dwellings and monasteries
of others, and to make many conversions under the inducements of
imaginary exultation.
CHAPTER XV.
How vainglory intoxicates the mind.
AND so the miserable soul is affected by such vanity--as if it were
deluded by a profound slumber--that it is often led away by the
pleasure of such thoughts, and filled with such imaginations, so that
it cannot even look at things present, or the brethren, while it
enjoys dwelling upon these things, of which with its wandering
thoughts it has waking dreams, as if they were true.
CHAPTER XVI.
Of him whom the superior came upon and found in his
cell, deluded by idle vainglory.
I REMEMBER an elder, when I was staying in the desert of Scete, who
went to the cell of a certain brother to pay him a visit, and when he
had reached the door heard him muttering inside, and stood still for a
little while, wanting to know what it was that he was reading from the
Bible or repeating by heart (as is customary) while he was at work.
And when this most excellent eavesdropper diligently applied his ear
and listened with some curiosity, he found that the man was induced by
an attack of this spirit to fancy that he was delivering a stirring
sermon to the people. And when the elder, as he stood still, heard
him finish his discourse and return again to his office, and give out
the dismissal of the catechumens, as the deacon does,[389] then at last he knocked at the door,
and the man came out, and met the elder with the customary reverence,
and brought him in and (for his knowledge of what had been his
thoughts made him uneasy) asked him when he had arrived, for fear lest
he might have taken some harm from standing too long at the door: and
the old man joking pleasantly replied, "I only got here while you
were giving out the dismissal of the catechumens."
CHAPTER XVII.
How faults cannot be cured unless their roots and
causes have been discovered.
I THOUGHT it well to insert these things in this little work of mine,
that we might learn, not only by reason, but also by examples, about
the force of temptations and the order of the sins which hurt an
unfortunate soul, and so might be more careful in avoiding the snares
and manifold deceits of the enemy. For these things are
indiscriminately brought forward by the Egyptian fathers, that by
telling them, as those who are still enduring them, they may disclose
and lay bare the combats with all the vices, which they actually do
suffer, and those which the younger ones are sure to suffer; so that,
when they explain the illusions arising from all the passions, those
who are but beginners and fervent in spirit may know the secret of
their struggles, and seeing them as in a glass, may learn both the
causes of the sins by which they are troubled, and the remedies for
them, and instructed beforehand concerning the approach of future
struggles, may be taught how they ought to guard against them, or to
meet them and to fight with them. As clever physicians are accustomed
not only to heal already existing diseases, but also by a wise skill
to seek to obviate future ones, and to prevent them by their
prescriptions and healing draughts, so these true physicians of the
soul, by means of spiritual conferences, like some celestial antidote,
destroy beforehand those maladies of the soul which would arise, and
do not allow them to gain a footing in the minds of the juniors, as
they unfold to them the causes of the passions which threaten them,
and the remedies which will heal them.
CHAPTER XVIII.
How a monk ought to avoid women and bishops.
WHEREFORE this is an old maxim of the Fathers that is still
current,--though I cannot produce it without shame on my own part,
since I could not avoid my own sister, nor escape the hands of the
bishop,--viz., that a monk ought by all means to fly from women and
bishops. For neither of them will allow him who has once been joined
in close intercourse any longer to care for the quiet of his cell, or
to continue with pure eyes in divine contemplation through his insight
into holy things.
CHAPTER XIX.
Remedies by which we can overcome vainglory.
AND so the athlete of Christ who desires to strive lawfully in this
true and spiritual combat, should strive by all means to overcome this
changeable monster of many shapes, which, as it attacks us on every
side like some manifold wickedness, we can escape by such a remedy as
this; viz., thinking on that saying of David: "The Lord hath
scattered the bones of those who please men."[390] To begin with we should not allow
ourselves to do anything at the suggestion of vanity, and for the sake
of obtaining vainglory. Next, when we have begun a thing well, we
should endeavour to maintain it with just the same care, for fear lest
afterwards the malady of vainglory should creep in and make void all
the fruits of our labours. And anything which is of very little use
or value in the common life of the brethren, we should avoid as
leading to boasting; and whatever would render us remarkable amongst
the others, and for which credit would be gained among men, as if we
were the only people who could do it, this should be shunned by us.
For by these signs the deadly taint of vainglory will be shown to
cling to us: which we shall most easily escape if we consider that we
shall not merely lose the fruits of those labours of ours which we
have performed at the suggestion of vainglory, but that we shall also
be guilty of a great sin, and as impious persons undergo eternal
punishments, inasmuch as we have wronged God by doing for the favour
of men what we ought to have done for His sake, and are convicted by
Him who knows all secrets of having preferred men to God, and the
praise of the world to the praise of the Lord.
BOOK XII.
OF THE SPIRIT OF PRIDE.
CHAPTER I.
How our eighth combat is against the spirit of
pride, and of its character.
OUR eighth and last combat is against the spirit of pride, which evil,
although it is the latest in our conflict with our faults and stands
last on the list, yet in beginning and in the order of time is the
first: an evil beast that is most savage and more dreadful than all
the former ones, chiefly trying those who are perfect, and devouring
with its dreadful bite those who have almost attained the consummation
of virtue.
CHAPTER II.
How there are two kinds of pride.
AND of this pride there are two kinds: the one, that by which we said
that the best of men and spiritually minded ones were troubled; the
other, that which assaults even beginners and carnal persons. And
though each kind of pride is excited with regard to both God and man
by a dangerous elation, yet that first kind more particularly has to
do with God; the second refers especially to men. Of the origin of
this last and the remedies for it we will by God's help treat as far
as possible in the latter part of this book. We now propose to say a
few things about that former kind, by which, as I mentioned before,
those who are perfect are especially tried.
CHAPTER III.
How pride is equally destructive of all
virtues.
THERE is then no other fault which is so destructive of all virtues,
and robs and despoils a man of all righteousness and holiness, as this
evil of pride, which like some pestilential disease attacks the whole
man, and, not content to damage one part or one limb only, injures the
entire body by its deadly influence, and endeavours to cast down by a
most fatal fall, and destroy those who were already at the top of the
tree of the virtues. For every other fault is satisfied within its
own bounds and limits, and though it clouds other virtues as well, yet
it is in the main directed against one only, and specially attacks and
assaults that. And so (to make my meaning clearer) gluttony, i.e.,
the appetites of the belly and the pleasures of the palate, is
destructive of strict temperance: lust stains purity, anger destroys
patience: so that sometimes a man who is in bondage to some one sin is
not altogether wanting in other virtues: but being simply deprived of
that one virtue which in the struggle yields to the vice which is its
rival and opposed to it, can to some extent preserve his other
virtues: but this one when once it has taken possession of some
unfortunate soul, like some most brutal tyrant, when the lofty citadel
of the virtues has been taken, utterly destroys and lays waste the
whole city; and levelling with the ground of vices the once high walls
of saintliness, and confusing them together, it allows no shadow of
freedom henceforth to survive in the soul subject to it. And in
proportion as it was originally the richer, so now will the yoke of
servitude be the severer, through which by its cruel ravages it will
strip the soul it has subdued of all its powers of virtue.
CHAPTER IV.
How by reason of pride Lucifer was turned from an
archangel into a devil.
AND that we may understand the power of its awful tyranny we see that
that angel who, for the greatness of his splendour and beauty was
termed Lucifer, was cast out of heaven for no other sin but this, and,
pierced with the dart of pride, was hurled down from his grand and
exalted position as an angel into hell. If then pride of heart alone
was enough to cast down from heaven to earth a power that was so great
and adorned with the attributes of such might, the very greatness of
his fall shows us with what care we who are surrounded by the weakness
of the flesh ought to be on our guard. But we can learn how to avoid
the most deadly poison of this evil if we trace out the origin and
causes of his fall. For weakness can never be cured, nor the remedies
for bad states of health be disclosed unless first their origin and
causes are investigated by a wise scrutiny. For as he (viz., Lucifer)
was endowed with divine splendour, and shone forth among the other
higher powers by the bounty of his Maker, he believed that he had
acquired the splendour of that wisdom and the beauty of those powers,
with which he was graced by the gift of the Creator, by the might of
his own nature, and not by the beneficence of His generosity. And on
this account he was puffed up as if he stood in no need of divine
assistance in order to continue in this state of purity, and esteemed
himself to be like God, as if, like God, he had no need of any one,
and trusting in the power of his own will, fancied that through it he
could richly supply himself with everything which was necessary for
the consummation of virtue or for the perpetuation of perfect bliss.
This thought alone was the cause of his first fall. On account of
which being forsaken by God, whom he fancied he no longer needed, he
suddenly became unstable and tottering, and discovered the weakness of
his own nature, and lost the blessedness which he had enjoyed by God's
gift. And because he "loved the words of ruin," with which
he had said, "I will ascend into heaven," and the
"deceitful tongue," with which he had said of himself,
"I will be like the Most High,"[391] and of Adam and Eve, "Ye shall
be as gods," therefore "shall God destroy him forever and
pluck him out and remove him from his dwelling place and his root out
of the land of the living." Then "the just," when they
see his ruin, "shall fear, and shall laugh at him and say"
(what may also be most justly aimed at those who trust that they can
obtain the highest good without the protection and assistance of God):
"Behold the man that made not God his helper, but trusted in the
abundance of his riches, and prevailed in his vanity."[392]
CHAPTER V.
That incentives to all sins spring from pride.
THIS is the reason of the first fall, and the starting point of the
original malady, which again insinuating itself into the first man,[393] through him who had already been
destroyed by it, produced the weaknesses and materials of all faults.
For while he believed that by the freedom of his will and by his own
efforts he could obtain the glory of Deity, he actually lost that
glory which he already possessed through the free gift of the
Creator.
CHAPTER VI.
That the sin of pride is last in the actual order
of the combat, but first in time and origin.
AND so it is most clearly established by instances and testimonies
from Scripture that the mischief of pride, although it comes later in
the order of the combat, is yet earlier in origin, and is the
beginning of all sins and faults: nor is it (like the other vices)
simply fatal to the virtue opposite to it (in this case, humility),
but it is also at the same time destructive of all virtues:
nor does it only tempt ordinary folk and small people, but chiefly
those who already stand on the heights of valour.[394] For thus the prophet speaks of this
spirit, "His meat is choice."[395] And so the blessed David, although
he guarded the recesses of his heart with the utmost care, so that he
dared to say to Him from whom the secrets of his conscience were not
hid, "Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lofty:
neither have I walked in great matters, nor in wonderful things above
me. If I was not humbly minded;"[396] and again, "He that worketh
pride shall not dwell in the midst of my house;"[397] yet, as he knew how hard is that
watchfulness even for those that are perfect, he did not so presume on
his own efforts, but prayed to God and implored His help, that he
might escape unwounded by the darts of this foe, saying, "Let not
the foot of pride come to me,"[398] for he feared and dreaded falling
into that which is said of the proud, viz., "God resisteth the
proud;"[399] and again:
"Every one that exalteth his heart is unclean before the
Lord."[400]
CHAPTER VII.
That the evil of pride is so great that it rightly
has even God Himself as its adversary.
HOW great is the evil of pride, that it rightly has no angel, nor
other virtues opposed to it, but God Himself as its adversary! Since
it should be noted that it is never said of those who are entangled in
other sins that they have God resisting them; I mean it is not said
that God is opposed "to the gluttonous, fornicators, passionate,
or covetous," but only "to the proud." For those sins
react only on those who commit them, or seem to be committed against
those who share in them, i.e., against other men; but this one has
more properly to do with God, and therefore it is especially right
that it should have Him opposed to it.
CHAPTER VIII.
How God has destroyed the pride of the devil by the
virtue of humility, and various passages in proof of this.
AND so God, the Creator and Healer of all, knowing that pride is the
cause and fountain head of evils, has been careful to heal opposites
with opposites, that those things which were ruined by pride might be
restored by humility. For the one says, "I will ascend into
heaven;"[401] the other, "My
soul was brought low even to the ground."[402] The one says, "And I will be
like the most High;" the other, "Though He was in the form
of God, yet He emptied Himself and took the form of a servant, and
humbled Himself and became obedient unto death."[403] The one says, "I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God;" the other, "Learn of me, for
I am meek and lowly of heart."[404] The one says, "I know not the
Lord and will not let Israel go;"[405] the other, "If I say that I
know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know Him, and
keep His commandments."[406] The
one says, "My rivers are mine and I made them:"[407] the other: "I can do nothing of
myself, but my Father who abideth in me, He doeth the works."[408] The one says, "All the
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them are mine, and to
whomsoever I will, I give them;"[409] the other, "Though He were rich
yet He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made
rich."[410] The one says,
"As eggs are gathered together which are left, so have I gathered
all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing or opened the
mouth, or made the least noise;"[411] the other, "I am become like a
solitary pelican; I watched and became as a sparrow alone upon the
roof."[412] The one says,
"I have dried up with the sole of my foot all the rivers shut up
in banks;"[413] the other,
"Cannot I ask my Father, and He shall presently give me more than
twelve legions of angels?"[414]
If we look at the reason of our original fall, and the foundations of
our salvation, and consider by whom and in what way the latter were
laid and the former originated, we may learn, either through the fall
of the devil, or through the example of Christ, how to avoid so
terrible a death from pride.
CHAPTER IX.
How we too may overcome pride.
AND so we can escape the snare of this most evil spirit, if in the
case of every virtue in which we feel that we make progress, we say
these words of the Apostle: "Not I, but the grace of God with
me," and "by the grace of God I am what I am;"[415] and "it is God that worketh in
us both to will and to do of His good pleasure."[416] As the author of our salvation
Himself also says: "If a man abide in me and I in him, the same
beareth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing."[417] And "Except the Lord build the
house, they labour in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the
city, the watchman waketh but in vain." And "Vain is it for
you to rise up before light."[418] For "it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy."[419]
CHAPTER X.
How no one can obtain perfect virtue and the
promised bliss by his own strength alone.
FOR the will and course of no one, however eager and anxious,[420] is sufficiently ready for him, while
still enclosed in the flesh which warreth against the spirit, to reach
so great a prize of perfection, and the palm of uprightness and
purity, unless he is protected by the divine compassion, so that he is
privileged to attain to that which he greatly desires and to which he
runs. For "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and cometh down from the Father of lights."[421] "For what hast thou which thou
didst not receive? But if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory
as if thou hadst not received it?"[422]
CHAPTER XI.
The case of the thief and of David, and of our call
in order to illustrate the grace of God.
FOR if we recall that thief who was by reason of a single confession
admitted into paradise,[423] we shall
feel that he did not acquire such bliss by the merits of his life, but
obtained it by the gift of a merciful God. Or if we bear in mind
those two grievous and heinous sins of King David, blotted out by one
word of penitence,[424] we shall see
that neither here were the merits of his works sufficient to obtain
pardon for so great a sin, but that the grace of God superabounded,
as, when the opportunity for true penitence was taken, He removed the
whole weight of sins through the full confession of but one word. If
we consider also the beginning of the call and salvation of mankind,
in which, as the Apostle says, we are saved not of ourselves, nor of
our works, but by the gift and grace of God, we can clearly see how
the whole of perfection is "not of him that willeth nor of him
that runneth, but of God that hath mercy," who makes us
victorious over our faults, without any merits of works and life on
our part to outweigh them, or any effort of our will availing to scale
the difficult heights of perfection, or to subdue the flesh which we
have to use: since no tortures of this body, and no contrition of
heart, can be sufficient for the acquisition of that true chastity of
the inner man so as to be able to gain that great virtue of purity
(which is innate in the angels alone and indigenous as it were to
heaven) merely by human efforts, i.e., without the aid of God: for the
performance of everything good flows from His grace, who by
multiplying His bounty has granted such lasting bliss, and vast glory
to our feeble will and short and petty course of life.
CHAPTER XII.
That no toil is worthy to be compared with the
promised bliss.
FOR all the long years of this present life disappear when you have
regard to the eternity of the future glory: and all our sorrows vanish
away in the contemplation of that vast bliss, and like smoke melt
away, and come to nothing, and like ashes are no more seen.
CHAPTER XIII.
The teaching of the elders on the method of
acquiring purity.
WHEREFORE it is now time to produce, in the very words in which they
hand it down, the opinion of the Fathers; viz., of those who have not
painted the way of perfection and its character in high-sounding
words, but rather, possessing it in deed and truth, and in the virtue
of their spirit, have passed it on by their own experience and sure
example. And so they say that no one can be altogether cleansed from
carnal sins, unless he has realized that all his labours and efforts
are insufficient for so great and perfect an end; and unless, taught,
not by the system handed down to him, but by his feelings and virtues
and his own experience, he recognizes that it can only be gained by
the mercy and assistance of God. For in order to acquire such
splendid and lofty prizes of purity and perfection, however great may
be the efforts of fastings and vigils and readings and solitude and
retirement applied to it, they will not be sufficient to secure it by
the merits of the actual efforts and toil. For a man's own efforts
and human exertions will never make up for the lack of the divine
gift, unless it is granted by divine compassion in answer to his
prayer.
CHAPTER XIV.
That the help of God is given to those who
labour.[425]
NOR do I say this to cast a slight on human efforts, or in the
endeavour to discourage any one from his purpose of working and doing
his best. But clearly and most earnestly do I lay down, not giving my
own opinion, but that of the elders, that perfection cannot possibly
be gained without these, but that by these only without the grace of
God nobody can ever attain it. For when we say that human efforts
cannot of themselves secure it without the aid of God, we thus insist
that God's mercy and grace are bestowed only upon those who labour and
exert themselves, and are granted (to use the Apostle's expression) to
them that "will" and "run," according to that
which is sung in the person of God in the eighty-eighth Psalm: "I
have laid help upon one that is mighty, and have exalted one chosen
out of my people."[426] For we
say, in accordance with our Saviour's words, that it is given to them
that ask, and opened to them that knock and found by them that
seek;[427] but that the asking, the
seeking, and the knocking on our part are insufficient unless the
mercy of God gives what we ask, and opens that at which we knock, and
enables us to find that which we seek. For He is at hand to bestow
all these things, if only the opportunity is given to Him by our good
will. For He desires and looks for our perfection and salvation far
more than we do ourselves. And the blessed David knew so well that by
his own efforts he could not secure the increase of his work and
labour, that he entreated with renewed prayers that he might obtain
the "direction" of his work from the Lord, saying,
"Direct thou the work of our hands over us; yea, the work of our
hands do thou direct;"[428] and
again: "Confirm, O God, what thou hast wrought in us."[429]
CHAPTER XV.
From whom we can learn the way of perfection.
AND so, if we wish in very deed and truth to attain to the crown of
virtues, we ought to listen to those teachers and guides who, not
dreaming with pompous declamations, but learning by act and
experience, are able to teach us as well, and direct us likewise, and
show us the road by which we may arrive at it by a most sure pathway;
and who also testify that they have themselves reached it by faith
rather than by any merits of their efforts. And further, the purity
of heart that they have acquired has taught them this above all; viz.,
to recognize more and more that they are burdened with sin (for their
compunction for their faults increases day by day in proportion as
their purity of soul advances), and to sigh continually from the
bottom of their heart because they see that they cannot possibly avoid
the spots and blemishes of those faults which are ingrained in them
through the countless triflings of the thoughts. And therefore they
declared that they looked for the reward of the future life, not from
the merits of their works, but from the mercy of the Lord, taking no
credit to themselves for their great circumspection of heart in
comparison with others, since they ascribed this not to their own
exertions, but to divine grace; and without flattering themselves on
account of the carelessness of those who are cold, and worse than they
themselves are, they rather aimed at a lasting humility by fixing
their gaze on those whom they knew to be really free from sin and
already in the enjoyment of eternal bliss in the kingdom of heaven,
and so by this consideration they avoided the downfall of pride, and
at the same time always saw both what they were aiming at and what
they had to grieve over: as they knew that they could not attain that
purity of heart for which they yearned while weighed down by the
burden of the flesh.
CHAPTER XVI.
That we cannot even make the effort to obtain
perfection without the mercy and inspiration of God.
WE ought therefore, in accordance with their teaching and instruction,
so to press towards it, and to be diligent in fastings, vigils,
prayers, and contrition of heart and body, for fear lest all these
things should be rendered useless by an attack of this malady. For we
ought to believe not merely that we cannot secure this actual
perfection by our own efforts and exertions, but also that we cannot
perform those things which we practise for its sake, viz., our efforts
and exertions and desires, without the assistance of the divine
protection, and the grace of His inspiration, chastisement, and
exhortation, which He ordinarily sheds abroad in our hearts either
through the instrumentality of another, or in His own person coming to
visit us.
CHAPTER XVII.
Various passages which clearly show that we cannot
do anything which belongs to our salvation without the aid of
God.
LASTLY, the Author of our salvation teaches us what we ought not
merely to think, but also to acknowledge in everything that we do.
"I can," He says, "of mine own self do nothing, but the
Father which abideth in me, He doeth the works."[430] He says, speaking in the human
nature which He had taken,[431] that
He could do nothing of Himself; and shall we, who are dust and ashes,
think that we have no need of God's help in what pertains to our
salvation? And so let us learn in everything, as we feel our own
weakness, and at the same time His help, to declare with the saints,
"I was overturned that I might fall, but the Lord supported me.
The Lord is my strength and my praise: and He is become my
salvation."[432] And
"Unless the Lord had helped me, my soul had almost dwelt in hell.
If I said, My foot is moved: Thy mercy, O Lord, assisted me.
According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Thy comforts
have given Joy to my soul."[433]
Seeing also that our heart is strengthened in the fear of the Lord,
and in patience, let us say: "And the Lord became my protector;
and He brought me forth into a large place."[434] And knowing that knowledge is
increased by progress in work, let us say: "For thou lightest my
lamp, O Lord: O my God, enlighten my darkness, for by Thee I shall be
delivered from temptation, and through my God I shall go over a
wall." Then, feeling that we have ourselves sought for courage
and endurance, and are being directed with greater ease and without
labour in the path of the virtues, let us say, "It is God who
girded me with strength, and made my way perfect; who made my feet
like hart's feet, and setteth me up on high: who teacheth my hands to
war." And having also secured discretion, strengthened with
which we can dash down our enemies, let us cry aloud to God: "Thy
discipline hath set me up[435] unto
the end, and Thy discipline the same shall teach me. Thou hast
enlarged my steps under me, and my feet are not weakened." And
because I am thus strengthened with Thy knowledge and power, I will
boldly take up the words which follow, and will say, "I will
pursue after my enemies and overtake them: and I will not turn again
till they are consumed. I will break them, and they shall not be able
to stand: they shall fall under my feet."[436] Again, mindful of our own
infirmity, and of the fact that while still burdened with the weak
flesh we cannot without His assistance overcome such bitter foes as
our sins are, let us say, "Through Thee we will scatter our
enemies:[437] and through Thy name we
will despise them that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my
bow: neither shall my sword save me. For Thou hast saved us from them
that afflict us: and hast put them to shame that hate us."[438] But further: "Thou hast guided
me with strength unto the battle, and hast subdued under me them that
rose up against me. And Thou hast made mine enemies turn their backs
upon me, and hast destroyed them that hated me."[439] And reflecting that with our own
arms alone we cannot conquer, let us say, "Take hold of arms and
shield: and rise up to help me. Bring out the sword and stop the way
against them that persecute me: say to my soul, I am thy
salvation."[440] "And Thou
hast made my arms like a brazen bow. And Thou hast given me the
protection of Thy salvation: and Thy right hand hath held me
up."[441] "For our fathers
got not the possession of the land through their own sword; neither
did their own arm save them: but Thy right hand and Thine arm and the
light of Thy countenance because Thou wast pleased with them."[442] Lastly, as with anxious mind we
regard all His benefits with thankfulness, let us cry to Him with the
inmost feelings of our heart, for all these things, because we have
fought, and have obtained from Him the light of knowledge, and
self-control and discretion, and because He has furnished us with His
own arms, and strengthened us with a girdle of virtue, and because He
has made our enemies turn their backs upon us, and has given us the
power of scattering them like the dust before the wind: "I will
love Thee, O Lord my Strength; the Lord is my stronghold, my refuge
and my deliverer. My God is my helper, and in Him will I put my
trust. My protector and the horn of my salvation, and my support.
Praising I will call upon the name of the Lord; and I shall be saved
from mine enemies."[443]
CHAPTER XVIII.
How we are protected by the grace of God not only
in our natural condition, but also by His daily Providence.
NOT alone giving thanks to Him for that He has created us as
reasonable beings, and endowed us with the power of free will, and
blessed us with the grace of baptism, and granted to us the knowledge
and aid of the law, but for these things as well, which are bestowed
upon us by His daily providence; viz., that He delivers us from the
craft of our enemies; that He works with us so that we can overcome
the sins of the flesh, that, even without our knowing it, He shields
us from dangers; that He protects us from falling into sin; that He
helps us and enlightens us, so that we can understand and recognize
the actual help which He gives us, (which some will have it is what is
meant by the law);[444] that, when we
are through His influence secretly struck with compunction for our
sins and negligences, He visits us with His regard and chastens us to
our soul's health; that even against our will we are sometimes drawn
by Him to salvation; lastly that this very free will of ours, which is
more readily inclined to sin, is turned by Him to a better purpose,
and by His prompting and suggestion, bent towards the way of
virtue.
CHAPTER XIX.
How this faith concerning the grace of God was
delivered to us by the ancient Fathers.
THIS then is that humility towards God, this is that genuine faith of
the ancient fathers which still remains intact among their successors.
And to this faith, the apostolic virtues, which they so often showed,
bear an undoubted witness, not only among us but also among infidels
and unbelievers: for keeping in simplicity of heart the simple faith
of the fishermen they did not receive it in a worldly spirit through
dialectical syllogisms or the eloquence of a Cicero, but learnt by the
experience of a pure life, and stainless actions, and by correcting
their faults, and (to speak more truly) by visible proofs, that the
character of perfection is to be found in that faith without which
neither piety towards God, nor purification from sin, nor amendment of
life, nor perfection of virtue can be secured.
CHAPTER XX.
Of one who for his blasphemy was given over to a
most unclean spirit.
I KNEW one of the number of the brethren, whom I heartily wish I had
never known; since afterwards he allowed himself to be saddled with
the responsibilities of my order:[445]
who confessed to a most admirable elder that he was attacked by a
terrible sin of the flesh: for he was inflamed with an intolerable
lust, with the unnatural desire of suffering rather than of committing
a shameful act: then the other like a true spiritual physician, at
once saw through the inward cause and origin of this evil. And,
sighing deeply, said: "Never would the Lord have suffered you to
be given over to so foul a spirit unless you had blasphemed against
Him." And he, when this was discovered, at once fell at his feet
on the ground, and, struck with the utmost astonishment, as if he saw
the secrets of his heart laid bare by God, confessed that he had
blasphemed with evil thoughts against the Son of God. Whence it is
clear that one who is possessed by the spirit of pride, or who has
been guilty of blasphemy against God,--as one who offers a wrong to
Him from whom the gift of purity must be looked for--is deprived of
his uprightness and perfection, and does not deserve the sanctifying
grace of chastity.
CHAPTER XXI.
The instance of Joash, King of Judah, showing what
was the consequence of his pride.
SOME such thing we read of in the book of Chronicles. For Joash the
king of Judah at the age of seven was summoned by Jehoiada the priest
to the kingdom and by the witness of Scripture is commended for all
his actions as long as the aforesaid priest lived. But hear what
Scripture relates of him after Jehoiada's death, and how he was puffed
up with pride and given over to a most disgraceful state. "But
after the death of Jehoiada the princes went in and worshipped the
king: and he was soothed by their services and hearkened unto them.
And they forsook the temple of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and
served groves and idols, and great wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem
because of this sin." And after a little: "When a year was
come about, the army of Syria came up against him: and they came to
Judah and Jerusalem, and killed all the princes of the people, and
they sent all the spoils to the king to Damascus. And whereas there
came a very small number of the Syrians, the Lord delivered into their
hands an infinite multitude, because they had forsaken the Lord the
God of their fathers: and on Joash they executed shameful judgments.
And departing they left him in great diseases."[446] You see how the consequence of
pride was that he was given over to shocking and filthy passions. For
he who is puffed up with pride and has permitted himself to be
worshipped as God, is (as the Apostle says) "given over to
shameful passions and a reprobate mind to do those things which are
not convenient."[447] And
because, as Scripture says, "every one who exalts his heart is
unclean before God,"[448] he who
is puffed up with swelling pride of heart is given over to most
shameful confusion to be deluded by it, that when thus humbled he may
know that he is unclean through impurity of the flesh and knowledge of
impure desires,--a thing which he had refused to recognize in the
pride of his heart; and also that the shameful infection of the flesh
may disclose the hidden impurity of the heart, which he contracted
through the sin of pride, and that through the patent pollution of his
body he may be proved to be impure, who did not formerly see that he
had become unclean through the pride of his spirit.
CHAPTER XXII.
That every proud soul is subject to spiritual
wickedness to be deceived by it.
AND this clearly shows that every soul of which the swellings of pride
have taken possession, is given over to the Syrians of the soul,[449] i.e., to spiritual wickedness, and
that it is entangled in the lusts of the flesh, that the soul being at
last humbled by earthly faults, and carnally polluted, may recognize
its uncleanness, though while it stood erect in the coldness of its
heart, it could not understand that through pride of heart it was
rendered unclean in the sight of God; and by this means being humbled,
a man may get rid of his former coldness, and being cast down and
confused with the shame of his fleshly lusts, may thenceforward hasten
to betake himself the more eagerly towards fervour and warmth of
spirit.
CHAPTER XXIII.
How perfection can only be attained through the
virtue of humility.
AND so it is clearly shown that none can attain the end of perfection
and purity, except through true humility, which he displays in the
first instance to the brethren, and shows also to God in his inmost
heart, believing that without His protection and aid extended to him
at every instant, he cannot possibly obtain the perfection which he
desires and to which he hastens so eagerly.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Who are attacked by spiritual and who by carnal
pride.
THUS much let it suffice to have spoken, as far as, by God's help, our
slender ability was able, concerning spiritual pride of which we have
said that it attacks advanced Christians. And this kind of pride is
not familiar to or experienced by most men, because the majority do
not aim at attaining perfect purity of heart, so as to arrive at the
stage of these conflicts; nor have they secured any purification from
the preceding faults of which we have here explained both the
character and the remedies in separate books. But it generally
attacks those only who have conquered the former faults and have
already almost arrived at the top of the tree in respect of the
virtues. And because our most crafty enemy has not been able to
destroy them through a carnal fall, he endeavours to cast them down
and overthrow them by a spiritual catastrophe, trying by this to rob
them of the prizes of their ancient rewards secured as they were with
great labour. But as for us, who are still entangled in earthly
passions, he never deigns to tempt us in this fashion, but overthrows
us by a coarser and what I called a carnal pride. And therefore I
think it well, as I promised, to say a few things about this kind of
pride by which we and men of our stamp are usually affected, and the
minds especially of younger men and beginners are endangered.
CHAPTER XXV.
A description of carnal pride, and of the evils
which it produces in the soul of a monk.
THIS carnal pride therefore, of which we spoke, when it has gained an
entrance into the heart of a monk, which is but lukewarm, and has made
a bad start in renouncing the world, does not suffer him to stoop from
his former state of worldly haughtiness to the true humility of
Christ, but first of all makes him disobedient and rough; then it does
not let him be gentle and kindly; nor allows him to be on a level with
and like his brethren: nor does it permit him to be stripped and
deprived of his worldly goods, as God and our Saviour commands: and,
though renunciation of the world is nothing but the mark of
mortification and the cross, and cannot begin or rise from any other
foundations, but these; viz., that a man should recognize that he is
not merely spiritually dead to the deeds of this world, but also
should realize daily that he must die in the body--it makes him on the
contrary hope for a long life, and sets before him many lengthy
infirmities, and covers him with shame and confusion. If when
stripped of everything he has begun to be supported by the property of
others and not his own, it persuades him that it is much better for
food and clothing to be provided for him by his own rather than by
another's means according to that text (which, as was before said,[450] those who are rendered dense through
such dulness and coldness of heart, cannot possibly understand.)
"It is more blessed to give than to receive."[451]
CHAPTER XXVI.
That a man whose foundation is bad, sinks daily
from bad to worse.
THOSE then who are possessed by such distrust of mind, and who through
the devil's own want of faith fall away from that spark of faith, by
which they seemed in the early days of their conversion to be
enkindled, begin more anxiously to watch over the money which before
they had begun to give away, and treasure it up with greater avarice,
as men who cannot recover again what they have once wasted: or--what
is still worse--take back what they had formerly cast away: or else
(which is a third and most disgusting kind of sin), collect what they
never before possessed, and thus are convicted of having gone no
further in forsaking the world than merely to take the name and style
of monk. With this beginning therefore, and on this bad and rotten
foundation, it is a matter of course that the whole superstructure of
faults must rise, nor can anything be built on such villainous
foundations, except what will bring the wretched soul to the ground
with a hopeless collapse.
CHAPTER XXVII.
A description of the faults which spring from the
evil of pride.
THE mind then that is hardened by such feelings, and which begins with
this miserable coldness is sure to go daily from bad to worse and to
conclude its life with a more hideous end: and while it takes delight
in its former desires, and is overcome, as the apostle says, by
impious avarice (as he says of it "and covetousness, which is
idolatry, or the worship of idols," and again "the love of
money," says he, "is the root of all evils"[452]) can never admit into the heart the
true and unfeigned humility of Christ, while the man boasts himself of
his high birth, or is puffed up by his position in the world (which he
has forsaken in body but not in mind) or is proud of his wealth which
he retains to his own destruction; and because of this he is no longer
content to endure the yoke of the monastery, or to be instructed by
the teaching of any of the elders, and not only objects to observe any
rule of subjection or obedience, but will not even listen to teaching
about perfection; and such dislike of spiritual talk grows up in his
heart that if such a conversation should happen to arise, he cannot
keep his eyes fixed on one spot, but his gaze wanders blankly about
here and there, and his eyes shift hither and thither, as the custom
is. Instead of wholesome coughs, he spits from a dry throat: he
coughs on purpose without any need, he drums with his fingers, and
twiddles them and scribbles like a man writing: and all his limbs
fidget so that while the spiritual conversation is proceeding, you
would think that he was sitting on thorns, and those very sharp ones,
or in the midst of a mass of worms: and if the conversation turns in
all simplicity on something which is for the good of the hearers, he
thinks that it is brought forward for his especial benefit. And all
the time that the examination of the spiritual life is proceeding, he
is taken up with his own suspicious thoughts, and is not on the watch
for something to take home for his good, but is anxiously seeking the
reason why anything is said, or is quietly turning over in his mind,
how he can raise objections to it, so that he cannot at all take in
any of those things which are so admirably brought forward, or be done
any good to by them. And so the result is that the spiritual
conference is not merely of no use to him, but is positively
injurious, and becomes to him an occasion of greater sin. For while
he is conscience stricken and fancies that everything is being aimed
at him he hardens himself more stubbornly in the obstinacy of his
heart, and is more keenly affected by the stings of his wrath: then
afterwards his voice is loud, his talk harsh, his answers bitter and
noisy, his gait lordly and capricious; his tongue too ready, he is
forward in conversation and no friend to silence except when he is
nursing in his heart some bitterness against a brother, and his
silence denotes not compunction or humility, but pride and wrath: so
that one can hardly say which is the more objectionable in him, that
unrestrained and boisterous merriment, or this dreadful and deadly
solemnity.[453] For in the former we
see inopportune chattering, light and frivolous laughter, unrestrained
and undisciplined mirth. In the latter a silence that is full of
wrath and deadly; and which simply arises from the desire to prolong
as long as possible the rancorous feelings which are nourished in
silence against some brother, and not from the wish to obtain from it
the virtues of humility and patience. And as the man who is a victim
to passion readily makes everybody else miserable and is ashamed to
apologize to the brother whom he has wronged, so when the brother
offers to do so to him, he rejects it with scorn. And not only is he
not touched or softened by the advances of his brother; but is the
rather made more angry because his brother anticipates him in
humility. And that wholesome humiliation and apology, which generally
puts an end to the devil's temptation, becomes to him an occasion of a
worse outbreak.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
On the pride of a certain brother.
I HAVE heard while I have been in this district a thing which I
shudder and am ashamed to recall; viz., that one of the juniors--when
he was reproved by his Abbot because he had shown signs of throwing
off the humility, of which he had made trial for a short time at his
renunciation of the world, and of being puffed up with diabolical
pride--most impertinently answered "Did I humiliate myself for a
time on purpose to be always in subjection?" And at this wanton
and wicked reply of his the elder was utterly aghast, and could say
nothing, as if he had received this answer from old Lucifer himself
and not from a man; so that he could not possibly utter a word against
such impudence, but only let fall sighs and groans from his heart;
turning over in silence in his mind that which is said of our Saviour:
"Who being in the form of God humbled Himself and became
obedient"--not, as the man said who was seized with a diabolical
spirit of pride, "for a time," but "even to
death."[454]
CHAPTER XXIX.
The signs by which you can recognize the presence
of carnal pride in a soul.
AND to draw together briefly what has been said of this kind of pride,
by collecting, as well as we can, some of its signs that we may
somehow convey to those who are thirsting for instruction in
perfection, an idea of its characteristics from the movements of the
outward man: I think it well to unfold them in a few words that we may
conveniently recognize the signs by which we can discern and detect
it, that when the roots of this passion are laid bare and brought to
the surface, and seen and traced out with ocular demonstration, they
may be the more easily plucked up and avoided. For only then will
this most pestilent evil be altogether escaped, and if we do not begin
too late in the day, when it has already got the mastery over us, to
be on our guard against its dangerous heat and noxious influence, but
if, recognizing its symptoms (so to speak) beforehand, we take
precautions against it with wise and careful forethought. For, as we
said before, you can tell a man's inward condition from his outward
gait. By these signs, then, that carnal pride, of which we spoke
earlier, is shown. To begin with, in conversation the man's voice is
loud: in his silence there is bitterness: in his mirth his laughter is
noisy and excessive: when he is serious he is unreasonably gloomy: in
his answers there is rancour: he is too free with his tongue, his
words tumbling out at random without being weighed. He is utterly
lacking in patience, and without charity: impudent in offering insults
to others, faint-hearted in bearing them himself: troublesome in the
matter of obedience except where his own wishes and likings correspond
with his duty: unforgiving in receiving admonition: weak in giving up
his own wishes: very stubborn about yielding to those of others:
always trying to compass his own ends, and never ready to give them up
for others: and thus the result is that though he is incapable of
giving sound advice, yet in everything he prefers his own opinion to
that of the elders.
CHAPTER XXX.
How when a man has grown cold through pride he
wants to be put to rule other people.
AND when a man whom pride has mastered has fallen through these stages
of descent, he shudders at the discipline of the coenobium, and--as if
the companionship of the brethren hindered his perfection, and the
sins of others impeded and interfered with his advance in patience and
humility--he longs to take up his abode in a solitary cell; else is
eager to build a monastery and gather together some others to teach
and instruct, as if he would do good to many more people, and make
himself from being a bad disciple a still worse master. For when
through this pride of heart a man has fallen into this most dangerous
and injurious coldness, he can neither be a real monk nor a man of the
world, and what is worse, promises to himself to gain perfection by
means of this wretched state and manner of life of his.
CHAPTER XXXI.
How we can overcome pride and attain
perfection.
WHEREFORE if we wish the summit of our building to be perfect and to
rise well-pleasing to God, we should endeavour to lay its foundations
not in accordance with the desires of our own lust, but according to
the rules of evangelical strictness: which can only be the fear of God
and humility, proceeding from kindness and simplicity of heart. But
humility cannot possibly be acquired without giving up everything: and
as long as a man is a stranger to this, he cannot possibly attain the
virtue of obedience, or the strength of patience, or the serenity of
kindness, or the perfection of love; without which things our hearts
cannot possibly be a habitation for the Holy Spirit: as the Lord says
through the prophet: "Upon whom shall My spirit rest, but on him
that is humble and quiet and fears My words," or according to
those copies which express the Hebrew accurately: "To whom shall
I have respect, but to him that is poor and little and of a contrite
spirit and that trembleth at My words?"[455]
CHAPTER XXXII.
How pride which is so destructive of all virtues
can itself be destroyed by true humility.
WHEREFORE the Christian athlete who strives lawfully in the spiritual
combat and desires to be crowned by the Lord, should endeavour by
every means to destroy this most fierce beast, which is destructive of
all virtues, knowing that as long as this remains in his breast he not
only will never be free from all kinds of evils, but even if he seems
to have any good qualities, will lose them by its malign influence.
For no structure (so to speak) of virtue can possibly be raised in our
soul unless first the foundations of true humility are laid in our
heart, which being securely laid may be able to bear the weight of
perfection and love upon them in such a way that, as we have said, we
may first show to our brethren true humility from the very bottom of
our heart, in nothing acquiescing in making them sad or in injuring
them: and this we cannot possibly manage unless true self-denial,
which consists in stripping and depriving ourselves of all our
possessions, is implanted in us by the love of Christ. Next the yoke
of obedience and subjection must be taken up in simplicity of heart
without any pretence, so that, except for the commands of the Abbot,
no will of our own is alive in us. But this can only be ensured in
the case of one who considers himself not only dead to this world, but
also unwise and a fool; and performs without any discussion whatever
is enjoined him by his seniors, believing it to be divine and enjoined
from heaven.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Remedies against the evil of pride.
AND when men remain in this condition, there is no doubt that this
quiet and secure state of humility will follow, so that considering
ourselves inferior to every one else we shall bear everything offered
to us, even if it is hurtful, and saddening, and damaging--with the
utmost patience, as if it came from those who are our superiors. And
these things we shall not only bear with the greatest ease, but we
shall consider them trifling and mere nothings, if we constantly bear
in mind the passion of our Lord and of all His Saints: considering
that the injuries by which we are tried are so much less than theirs,
as we are so far behind their merits and their lives: remembering also
that we shall shortly depart out of this world, and soon by a speedy
end to our life here become sharers of their lot. For considerations
such as these are a sure end not only to pride but to all kinds of
sins. Then, next after this we must keep a firm grasp of this same
humility towards God: which we must so secure as not only toacknowledge that we cannot possibly perform anything connected with
the attainment of perfect virtue without His assistance and grace, but
also truly to believe that this very fact that we can understand this,
is His own gift.
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