Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series • VOLUME 11
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins & John Cassian
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Chapter XI.
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 [754] is celebrated before dinner, at which, out of regard for the actual service [755] and the Lord's communion, they use a more solemn and a longer service…
909 wordsSECTION 162Chapter II.
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…
767 wordsSECTION 163Chapter V.
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 h…
1,002 wordsSECTION 164Chapter VIII.
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 …
958 wordsSECTION 165Chapter XI.
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, [766] prepared with salt and steeped in water, is set on the table for the repast of the brethren; an…
723 wordsSECTION 166Chapter XIV.
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 mod…
1,342 wordsSECTION 167Chapter XVII.
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 ori…
837 wordsSECTION 168Chapter XIX.
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 w…
846 wordsSECTION 169Chapter XXI.
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 cont…
1,100 wordsSECTION 170Chapter XXIV.
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 …
788 wordsSECTION 171Chapter XXVI.
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, appl…
801 wordsSECTION 172Chapter XXVIII.
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 fort…
1,341 wordsSECTION 173Chapter XXXI.
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 h…
711 wordsSECTION 174Chapter XXXIV.
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 …
876 wordsSECTION 175Chapter XXXVII.
Chapter XXXVII. How the devil always lies in wait for our end, and how we ought continually to watch his head. [806] 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 go…
922 wordsSECTION 176Chapter XL.
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 n…
712 wordsSECTION 177Chapter XLIII.
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 ab…
1,058 wordsSECTION 178Chapter III.
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 …
709 wordsSECTION 179Chapter V.
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…
852 wordsSECTION 180Chapter VIII.
Chapter VIII. How food should be taken with regard to the aim at perfect continence. 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 tho…
705 wordsSECTION 181Chapter XI.
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,…
886 wordsSECTION 182Chapter XIII.
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." [836] And "every one that doeth sin is the slave of sin." [837] A…
823 wordsSECTION 183Chapter XVI.
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 f…
927 wordsSECTION 184Chapter XVIII.
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 …
774 wordsSECTION 185Chapter XX.
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 …
961 wordsSECTION 186Chapter XXII.
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 wea…
717 wordsSECTION 187Chapter XXIV.
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 forbiddin…
744 wordsSECTION 188Chapter XXVII.
Chapter XXVII. What the two Abbots Pæsius 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 y…
816 wordsSECTION 189Chapter XXXI.
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 …
744 wordsSECTION 190Chapter XXXIV.
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 acquir…
885 wordsSECTION 191Chapter XXXVII.
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…
1,077 wordsSECTION 192Chapter XL.
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 de…
768 wordsSECTION 193Book VI.
Book VI. On the Spirit of Fornication. We have thought best to omit altogether the translation of this book. 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 covetou…
817 wordsSECTION 194Chapter V.
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 with…
1,035 wordsSECTION 195Chapter VIII.
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; an…
817 wordsSECTION 196Chapter XII.
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 renounce…
729 wordsSECTION 197Chapter XV.
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 …
709 wordsSECTION 198Chapter XVII.
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 belong…
881 wordsSECTION 199Chapter XVIII.
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 thei…
886 wordsSECTION 200Chapter XXIII.
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, …
750 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.