Book V. Of the Spirit of
Gluttony.
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,"1
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"2
-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,"3
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,4
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 Antony5
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 inthe 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;6
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."7
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,"8
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.9
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.
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.
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?"10
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.
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.11
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 strength12
is gained by partaking of them is used up in the toil and waste of car.
Wherefore as no state of life can be deprived of the virtue of
abstinence, so to none is the crown of perfection denied.
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."14
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.
Is 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 toil15
and bodily exhaustion. The possession of money must not only be avoided,
but the desire for it must be l 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.
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?
"One who strives. in the games is not crowned unless he has contended
lawfully."16
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"17
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."18
And "every one that doeth sin slave of sin."19
And when the scrutiny is the 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.
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 king20
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.
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.21
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."22
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."23
For if we do not seek for strength of mind24
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."25
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."26
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,27
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,"28
whither he ever directs his mental gaze, and hastening towards it with
all speed29
of heart, proclaims with confidence, "I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith."30
And because he knows he has run unweariedly "after the odour of the
ointment"31
a 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 e 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;"32
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."33
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."34
Chapter XVIII.
Of the number of different conflicts and victories through
which the blessed Apostle ascended to the crown of the highest
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;"35
and again, "My soul cleaveth unto thee:"36
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."37
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,"38
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."39
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."40
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 fast41
is over and the proper hour for refreshment has come, outside meal
times;42
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. "43
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."44
And concerning anger and jealousy the blessed Job says: "For anger
slayeth a fool, and envy killeth a child."45
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.
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 and 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.
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 Eiders, 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 fast46
was broken:47
and when we asked why the daily fast was thus ignored by them without
scruple one of the eiders 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:'48
but when he has departed, then they will rightly fast."
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.
When the aged John, who was superior of a large monastery and of a
quantity of brethren, had come to visit the aged Paesius, 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.49
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.
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."50
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 any
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."
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."
WE knew also Abbot Theodore,51
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
hisheart 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
mysteries52
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,53
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.
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.54
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 be 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 assault: 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 Epistles55
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,56
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,57
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.58
____________________________________________
1
Acedia. It is much to be regretted that the
old English word "Accidie" has entirely dropped out of use. It is used
by (Chaucer and other early writers for the sin of spiritual sloth or
sluggishness. See "The Persone's Tale," where it is thus described:
"After the sinne of wrath, now wol I speke of the sinne of accidie or
slouth: for envie blindeth the herte of a man, and ire troubleth a man,
and accidie maketh him hevy, thoughtful. and wrawe. Envie and ire maken
bitternesse in herte, which bitternesse is mother of accidie, and
benimeth him the love of alle goodnesse; than is accidie the anguish of
a troubled herte." The English word lingered on till the seventeenth
century, as it is used by Bishop Hall (Serm.V. 140), in the form "Acedy,"
which is etymologically more correct as being nearer the Latin Acedia
and the Greek 0Ahdi/a,
a word which occurs in the LXX. version of the Old Testament in Isaiah
lxi. 3; Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 28; Baruch iii. 1; Ecclus. xxix. 6 (cf. the
use of the verb a0khdiazw
in Ps. lx. (lxi.) 2; ci. (cii.) 1; cxlii. (cxliii.) 4; Ecclus. xxii.
14). In ecclesiastical writers the term Acedia is a favourite one to
denote primarily the mental prostiation induced by fasting and other
physical causes, and afterwards spiritual sloth and sluggishness in
general. It forms the subject of the tenth book of the Institutes, and
is treated of again by Cassian in the Conferences V. iii. sq., cf. also
the "Summa" of S. Thomas, II. ii. q. xxxv. where there is a full
discussion of its nature and character.- cf. Dr. Paget's essay
"Concerning Accidie" in "The Spirit of Discipline."234
2
Isa. xlv. 2, 3.
3
1 Cor. iv. 5.
4
Ps. lxv. (lxvi.) 12.
5
S. Antony, the "founder of asceticism" and one of
the most famous of the early monks, was born about 250 a.d.. at Coma, on
the borders of Egypt, and died about 355, at the great age of 105. He is
frequently mentioned by Cassian in the Conferences.
6
1 Cor. xv. 28.
7
1 Cor. i. 30.
8
Eph. iv. 13.
9
See Especially Conferences XVIII. and XIX.
10
Ezek. xvi. 49.
11
Petschenig's text in this passage is as follows: "Facilius
vidimus viros qui ab escis corpulentioribus omnimodis temperarent, quam
moderate usos pro necessitate concessis, et qui totum sibi pro amore
continentiae denegarent, quam qui eas sub infirmitatis occasione
sumentes mensuram sufficientiae custodirent.". Gazaeus gives something
quite different: "Facilius vidimus victos qui ab escis corpulentioribus
omnimodis temperarent, quas moderate usus pro necessitate concedit, et
qui totum sibi pro continentiae amore denegarent; quam qui eas sub
infirmitatis occasione sumentes mensuram sufficientiae custodirent."
12
Quidquid enim fortitudinis.-Petschenig.
Gazaeus has "Quid quid enim fortitudinis causa."
13
Quod pro perfecta continentiae fine esca sumenda
sit.-Petschenig. Quomodo cibum appetere, ac sumere liceat is
the title as given by Gazaeus.
14
Rom. xiii. 14.
15
Operis contritione (Petschenig): cordis
contritione (Gazaeus).
16
2 Tim. ii. 5.
17
1 Cor. ix. 25.
18
2 Pet. ii. 19.
19
John viii. 34.
20
Cf. Dan. iii. 6; and see below Book VI. c. xvii.
where Cassian once more speaks of the devil as the Babylonish king.
21
Compare a similar illustration in the Conferences
I. v.
22
S. John viii. 34.
23
1 Cor. x. 13.
24
Mentis robore non quoesito.-Petschenig.
Gazaeus omits the negative and reads conquisito.
25
S. Jerome's version. which was certainly know to
Cassian (cf. Conferences XXIII. viii.) has "Temptatio vos non
apprehendat nisi humana."
26
1 Cor. ix. 26, 27.
27
Quia (Petschenig) Qui (Gazaeus).
28
Phil. iii 13,14.
29
Properatione, others Proeparatione.
30
2 Tim. iv. 7.
31
Cant. i. 3.
32
2 Tim. iv. 8.
33
John xiv. 23.
34
Rev. iii. 20.
35
Cant. i. 3.
36
Ps. lxii. (lxiii.) 9.
37
Eph. vi. 12.
38
1 Cor. ix. 26, 27.
39
Eph. vi. 12.
40
1 Cor. x. 13.
41
Statio. This is properly the term for the
weekly fasts on Wednesday and Friday, observed by the early Church in
memory of our Lord's betrayal and crucifixion. See Tertullian on Prayer
c. xix.; on Fasting c. i. x. In this place the word appears to be used
by Cassian for the close of the fast; while elsewhere he uses it for
fasting generally (not specially on Wednesday and Friday,) as in c.
xxlv. Of the present book, and in the Conferences, II.. xxv.; XXI. xxi.
The origin of the word is somewhat uncertain (a) because the fast was
observed on stated days (stasis diebus); or (b), as S. Ambrose
suggests, because "our fasts are our encampments which protect us from
the devil's attacks: in short, they are called stationes, because
standing (stantes) and staying in them we repel our plotting foe" (Serm.
25). See Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 1928.
42
Extra mensam.
43
Eph. iii. 16, 17.
44
Prov. xx. 13. (LXX.).
45
Job v. 2.
46
Statio.
47
The allusion is here to the sparing diet and
voluntary fasts of the monks, among whom but one meal a day was usual
(see the note on III. xiii.), and though this was ordinarily taken at
midday, yet many of the more celebrated anchorites never broke their
fast till the evening e.g. S. Antony is said never to have eaten till
sunset (Vita Anton.) and S. Jerome gives a similar account of Hilarion
(Vita Hill § 4), while other instances of voluntary fasts are given by
Cassian in the following chapters, xxv.-xxvii. The "station" days,
however, viz., Wednesday and Friday, being of ecclesiastical authority,
were strictly observed as a matter of rule, but these other voluntary
fasts at other times were to be freely broken through on account of the
arrival of visitors. See the Conferences II. xxvi., XXI. xiv., XXIV.
xxi., and cf. Rufinus, History of the Monks II. vii., Palladius the
Lausiac History, c. lii. So the Rule of S. Benedict (c. liii.) orders
that on the arrival of visitors the Superior is to sit at table with
them and break his fast, unless it be a special fast day which may not
be broken; but the brethren are to observe the regular fasts.
48
S. Matt. ix. 15. The Latin has sponsus in
each clause.
49
There is a Paesius mentioned by Palladius in the
Lausiac History, but it is not clear whether he is the same man whom
Cassian mentions. John is a different person from the one already
mentioned in Book IV. xxiii. He is mentioned again below in xl., and the
Nineteenth Conference is assigned to him.
50
Rom. xiv. 10, 4; S. Matt. vii. 1, 2.
51
Nothing further is known for certain of this
Theodore. He may be the author of the VIth of the Conferences; but must
be carefully distinguished from his more celebrated namesake, the friend
of Pachomius, and third Abbot of Tabenna, who died before Cassian's
visit to Egypt.
52
Sacramenta.
53
Diolcos is mentioned again in the Conferences
XVIII. i. Sozomen (VI. xxix.) speaks of two celebrated monasteries near
there presided over by Piamun and John.
54
Somewhat similar stories are told of others by
Palladius(Lausiac History, cc. ii. 1, lxx.); and Rufinus, History of the
Monks, I. xxiii.
55
Apostolus.
56
The Mareotic Dome is the district round Lake
Mareotis, a lake in the north of the delta bordering upon the Libyan
desert (the modern birket el Mariout), and running parallel to
the Mediterranean, from which it is separated by a long and narrow ridge
of sand.
57
On Paphnutius see the note on the Conference III.
i.BOOK 7
58
Socrates (H.E. Book IV. c. xxiii.) gives an account
of two monks of the name of Macarius, one of whom was from Upper Egypt,
and the other from Alexandria. Compare also Rufinus History of the
Monks, cc. xxviii., xxix. It is not certain to which of them Cassian's
stories refer, here and in the Conferences V. xii. VII. xxvii., XXIV.
xiii. The story told in Conference XV. iii, refers to the "Egyptian"
Macarius (cf. Sozomen H. E. III. xiv., where the miracle is expressly
assigned to him): that in XIV. iv. evidently belongs to the
"Alexandrian" Macarius. The two are mentioned together in Conference
XIX. ix., and by various other writers.
