and such an one Rome lately groaned over in Sophronius. These men, after they have entered the houses of the nobility and deceived silly women laden with sins, ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth, feign sadness and prolong seemingly long fasts by stealthy meals at night. I am ashamed to tell the rest, lest I seem to inveigh rather than to admonish. There are others—I speak of men of my own order—who seek the presbyterate and the diaconate for this reason, that they may look upon women with greater license. Their whole care is for their clothes, whether they smell sweet, whether the foot does not flap in a loose shoe. Their hair is curled by the mark of the curling-iron, their fingers gleam with rings, and, lest the damper road spatter their soles, they scarcely press the road with the tips of their feet.
When you see such men, deem them bridegrooms rather than clerics. Certain of them have put all their zeal and their whole life into this, that they may know the names, houses, and manners of married ladies. Of these I will briefly and concisely describe one who is a master of this art, that, the teacher being known, you may the more easily recognize his disciples. With the sun he rises in haste; the order of his morning calls is arranged; short-cuts through the streets are sought out; and, an importunate old man, he almost forces his way to the very bedsides of those still asleep. If he sees a little cushion, an elegant napkin, or any piece of household furniture, he praises it, admires it, handles it, and, complaining that he is in want of these things, he does not so much obtain as extort them, because each woman is afraid to offend the city's courier. Chastity is his enemy, fastings are his enemy;
he appraises a dinner by its savor, and 'the fatted fowl,' the old man, is commonly nicknamed by the crowd 'the gobbler.' His mouth is barbarous and insolent, ever armed for reviling. Whithersoever you turn, he is the first in your face. Whatever new report has sounded abroad, he is either its author or its exaggerator. His horses are changed with every passing hour, so sleek, so spirited, that you would think him the brother of the Thracian king. With varied wiles the crafty foe fights. 'The serpent was more subtle than all the beasts which the Lord God had made upon the earth.' Whence also the Apostle: 'We are not,' he says, 'ignorant of his devices.' Neither affected squalor nor studied elegance befits Christians.
If you are ignorant of anything, if you are in doubt about the Scriptures, ask one whom his life commends, whom his age excuses, whose reputation does not condemn, who can say: 'For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ.' But if there be none who can expound it, it is better to be ignorant of something in safety than to learn it with peril. Remember that you walk in the midst of snares, and that many aged virgins, of assured chastity, have let the crown slip from their hands upon the very threshold of death. If any handmaids are companions of your resolve, do not exalt yourself against them, nor be puffed up as their mistress. You have begun to have one Bridegroom, together you chant psalms to Christ, together you receive His body—why should your table be different? Let others also be provoked to emulation.
Let the honor of the virgins be an invitation to the rest. But if you perceive any one weaker in faith, take her in, comfort her, coax her, and make her chastity your own gain. If any pretends to flee servitude, read the Apostle openly to her: 'For it is better to marry than to burn.' But those virgins and widows who, idle and inquisitive, go round the houses of married ladies, who have outdone the parasites of the mimes in the worn-out blush of their brow, cast off like certain plagues. 'Evil communications corrupt good manners.' They have no care but for the belly and what is nearest the belly. It is such women who are wont to exhort and to say: 'My little pet, make use of your goods and live while you live,' and:
'Are you saving it for your children?' Given to wine and lasciviousness, they instill every kind of evil, and soften even iron minds to voluptuousness; and when these women have grown wanton against Christ, they wish to marry, having condemnation, because they have made void their first faith. Do not wish to appear too eloquent, nor to sport in meter with lyric songs. Do not, in your daintiness, imitate the mincing spittle of married ladies, who now with clenched teeth, now with loosened lips, temper a lisping tongue into half-formed words, reckoning rustic everything that is natural—so much that even the adultery of the tongue pleases them. 'For what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?' What has Horace to do with the psalter? Virgil with the Gospels?
Cicero with the Apostle? Is not a brother scandalized if he sees you reclining in an idol's temple? And although 'all things are pure to the pure,' and 'nothing is to be rejected that is received with thanksgiving,' yet we ought not at the same time to drink the cup of Christ and the cup of devils. Let me relate to you the story of my own misfortune. When, many years ago, for the kingdom of heaven's sake I had cut myself off from home, from parents, from sister, from kinsfolk, and—what is harder than these—from the habit of a more delicate diet, and was setting out for Jerusalem to serve as a soldier of God, I could not do without the library which I had gathered for myself at Rome with the utmost zeal and labor. And so, wretch that I was, I would fast, only to read Cicero afterwards.
After the frequent night-watches, after the tears which the recollection of past sins wrung from my inmost heart, Plautus would be taken into my hands. If ever, coming back to myself, I began to read a prophet, the uncultivated speech made me shudder; and because with my blind eyes I could not see the light, I thought the fault lay not with my eyes, but with the sun. While the old serpent thus mocked me, about the middle of Lent a fever, poured into my exhausted marrow, invaded my body, and without any respite—a thing incredible even to relate—so consumed my wretched limbs that I scarcely clung to my bones.
Meanwhile funeral preparations were being made, and the vital warmth of my soul was throbbing only in my little breast, still lukewarm while all the rest of my body was already cold; when suddenly, snatched up in the spirit, I was dragged before the tribunal of the Judge, where there was such light, and such radiance from the brightness of those standing round, that, cast down upon the earth, I dared not look up. Being asked my condition, I answered that I was a Christian. And He who presided said: 'You lie; you are a Ciceronian, not a Christian; for where your treasure is, there is your heart also.' At once I was struck dumb, and amid the blows—for He had ordered me to be scourged—I was tormented more by the fire of conscience, pondering with myself that verse: 'But in hell who shall confess to thee?' Yet I began to cry out, and wailing to say:
'Have mercy upon me, O Lord, have mercy upon me.' This cry resounded amid the lashes. At length those who stood by, falling at the knees of the presiding Judge, besought Him to grant pardon to my youth, to allow room for repentance of my error, on condition that He should thereafter exact the penalty if ever I read the books of pagan literature. I, bound in so tight a strait, was ready to promise even greater things, and I began to swear and, calling His name to witness, to say: 'Lord, if ever I possess secular books, if I read them, I have denied thee.' Dismissed upon these words of my oath, I returned to the upper world, and, while all marveled, I opened my eyes, so drenched with a shower of tears that I made even the incredulous believe from my grief.
Nor indeed was it a mere sleep or those empty dreams by which we are often deluded. The tribunal before which I lay is my witness, the judgment which I feared is my witness—so may it never be my lot to fall into such an inquisition!—that I had my shoulders livid, that I felt the blows after my sleep, and that thenceforth I read the divine writings with as great zeal as I had never before read the writings of men. You must also shun the evil of avarice—not in the sense that you should not covet what belongs to another (for even the public laws punish this), but that you should not keep as your own what belongs to another. 'If,' He says, 'you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?' To us the masses of gold and silver are another's; our possession is spiritual, of which it is elsewhere said: 'The ransom of a man's soul are his own riches.'
'No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will bear with the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon'—that is, riches; for in the pagan tongue of the Syrians riches are called 'mammon.' Anxiety about sustenance is the thorn of faith, the root of avarice, the care of the heathen. But you will say: 'I am a delicate girl, unable to labor with my own hands. If I come to old age, if I begin to be sick, who will pity me?' Hear Jesus speaking to the apostles: 'Take no thought in your heart what you shall eat, nor for your body what you shall put on. Is not the soul more than meat, and the body more than raiment?'
'Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them.' If clothing be lacking, the lilies will be set before you; if you hunger, you shall hear that the poor and the hungry are blessed; if some grief afflict you, read: 'For this cause I take pleasure in my infirmities,' and: 'There was given to me a thorn in my flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I be exalted.' Rejoice in all the judgments of God; 'for the daughters of Judah rejoiced in all thy judgments, O Lord.' Let that saying ever resound upon your lips: 'Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return,' and: 'We brought nothing into this world, neither can we carry anything out.'
But now you may see very many women stuffing their wardrobes with garments, changing their tunics daily, and yet unable to overcome the moths. She who is more religious wears out a single garment, while she drags her rags from chests that are full. Parchment is dyed with purple, gold is melted into letters, manuscripts are clothed with gems, and Christ lies dying, naked, before their doors. When they stretch out their hand, they blow the trumpet; when they invite to a love-feast, a crier is hired. I lately saw—I withhold the names, lest you think it a satire—one of the noblest of the Roman ladies, in the basilica of blessed Peter, with half-men going before her, distributing single coins to the poor with her own hand, that she might be thought the more religious.
Meanwhile—as is very easy to know by experience—a certain old woman, covered with years and rags, ran ahead to receive a second coin; but when the lady came to her in her turn, a fist was thrust out instead of a denarius, and for so great a crime the blood of the guilty one was shed. 'The root of all evils is avarice,' and therefore by the Apostle it is also called 'idolatry.' 'Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.' 'The Lord will not slay the soul of the just by famine.' 'I have been young, and now am old, and I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread.' Elijah is fed by the ministering ravens; the widow of Zarephath, herself with her sons about to die that very night, feeds the prophet while she starves, and, in a marvelous manner, her jar being filled, he who had come to be fed feeds her. The apostle Peter:
'Silver and gold,' he says, 'I have none; but what I have, that I give thee: in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.' But now many, though they are silent in word, speak by their deeds: 'Faith and mercy I have not; but what I have, gold and silver, I give thee not. Having therefore food and raiment, with these we are content.' Hear what Jacob asks for in his prayer: 'If the Lord God shall be with me, and shall keep me in this way in which I walk, and shall give me bread to eat and raiment to put on.' He besought only necessities, and after twenty years, rich in the Lord and richer as a father, he returned to the land of Canaan.
The Scriptures furnish countless examples which teach that avarice is to be shunned. But since it is now spoken of only in passing, and is reserved, if Christ grant it, for its own treatise, I will relate what was done not many years ago at Nitria. One of the brethren, more sparing than avaricious, and not knowing that the Lord was sold for thirty pieces of silver, at his death left behind a hundred solidi which he had earned by weaving linen. A council was taken among the monks—for in that same place about five thousand dwell in separate cells—as to what ought to be done. Some said the money should be distributed to the poor, others that it should be given to the church, some that it should be sent back to his kinsfolk.
But Macarius, Pambo, Isidore, and the rest whom they call fathers, the Holy Spirit speaking in them, decreed that it should be buried with its owner, saying: 'Thy money perish with thee.' Nor let anyone think this was done cruelly: so great a terror seized upon all throughout Egypt, that to have left behind a single solidus was reckoned a crime. And since we have made mention of monks, and I know you gladly hear what things are holy, lend an ear a little while. There are in Egypt three kinds of monks: the cenobites, whom in the native tongue they call 'sauhes,' and whom we may call 'those living in common'; the anchorites, who dwell alone throughout the deserts, and are so named from the fact that they have withdrawn far from men;
the third kind is that which they call remnuoth, the worst and most neglected, and which in our province is either the only kind or the first. These live together in twos or threes, or not much more, at their own will and under their own control, and of what they have earned they contribute portions into a common fund, that they may have their food in common. They dwell for the most part in cities and fortified towns, and, as though the craft were holy and not the life, whatever they sell is of a higher price. Among these there are frequent quarrels, because, living on their own food, they will not endure to be subject to anyone. In truth they are wont to contend in fastings, and make a matter of secrecy an occasion of victory. Among them everything is affected:
loose sleeves, boots hanging slack, coarser dress, frequent sighs, visiting of virgins, disparaging of the clergy; and whenever a feast-day comes, they gorge themselves to the point of vomiting. Having driven off these, then, as it were certain plagues, let us come to those who live in greater numbers in common, that is, those whom we said were called the cenobium. Among them the first bond of union is to obey their superiors and to do whatever they command. They are divided into groups of ten and of a hundred, so that a tenth man presides over nine men, and again the hundredth has ten superiors under him. They dwell apart, but with adjoining cells. Until the ninth hour there is, as it were, a cessation of business:
no one goes to another, except those whom we have called deans, so that, if perchance anyone is tossed about by his thoughts, he may console him with his words. After the ninth hour they gather together in common; the psalms resound; the Scriptures are recited according to custom; and when the prayers are ended and all are seated, the one whom they call father takes his place in the midst and begins to discourse. While he speaks there is such silence that no one dares to look at another, no one dares to cough. The praise of the speaker is in the weeping of the hearers. Silently the tears roll down their cheeks, and grief does not break out even into sobbing. But when he begins to announce the kingdom of Christ, the future blessedness, the glory that is to come, you may see all, with restrained sighing and eyes lifted up to heaven, saying within themselves:
'Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly away and be at rest?' After this the assembly breaks up, and each group of ten goes with its own father to the tables, at which they serve in turn week by week. There is no noise over the food, no one talks while eating. They live on bread, pulse, and greens, which are seasoned with salt and oil. Wine only the old men receive, for whom, and often for the little ones, a separate meal is prepared, that the wearied age of the one may be sustained, and the beginning strength of the other not be broken. Thereafter they rise together, and, a hymn being said, they return to their dwellings. There until evening each one converses with his companions and says: 'Did you see so-and-so, how great is the grace in him, how great his silence, how measured his gait?
' If they see anyone infirm, they console him; if fervent in the love of God, they exhort him to zeal. And because at night, apart from the public prayers, each one keeps watch in his own chamber, they go round the cells of individuals, and, applying the ear, diligently explore what they are doing. Whomever they catch being slothful, they do not rebuke, but, dissembling what they know, they visit him the more often, and by beginning first they provoke him to pray rather than compel him. The task of the day is fixed, which, being handed over to the dean, is carried to the steward, who himself, each month, renders account with great trembling to the father of all. By him also the foods, when they have been prepared, are tasted; and because it is not permitted to say to anyone:
'I do not have a tunic and a cloak and bedding woven of rushes,' he so regulates all things that no one asks for anything, and no one is in want. But if anyone begins to fall sick, he is moved to a more spacious infirmary, and is cherished with such service of the elders that he misses neither the delicacies of cities nor a mother's affection. On the Lord's days they give themselves to prayer and reading alone; which indeed they do at all times when their little tasks are finished. Every day something is learned from the Scriptures. The fast throughout the whole year is uniform, except in Lent, in which alone it is granted to live more strictly. At Pentecost suppers are changed into midday meals, whereby both the ecclesiastical tradition is satisfied and the belly is not burdened with a doubled meal.
Such men Philo, the imitator of Platonic speech, such men Josephus, the Greek Livy, describe as the Essenes in the second book of the history of the Jewish captivity. But since now, writing about virgins, I have discoursed almost more than enough about monks, I will come to the third kind, whom they call anchorites, and who, going forth from the cenobia, carry off to the deserts nothing more than bread and salt. The author of this life was Paul, its illustrator Antony; and, to ascend to still earlier times, its prince was John the Baptist. Such a man too the prophet Jeremiah described, saying: 'It is good for a man when he hath borne the yoke from his youth.
He shall sit alone and keep silence, because he hath taken the yoke upon himself; he shall give his cheek to him that smiteth him, he shall be filled with reproaches, because the Lord will not cast off for ever.' Their labor and manner of life amid dearness—not of the flesh—I will unfold at another time, if you wish. Now let me return to my subject, since, discoursing about avarice, I had come to the monks. Setting before you their examples, you will despise—I will not say gold and silver and other riches—but the very earth and heaven, and, united to Christ, you will sing: 'The Lord is my portion.'
After this—although the Apostle bids us pray always, and to the saints even sleep itself is a prayer—yet we ought to have divided hours for praying, so that, if perchance we should be detained by some work, the very time may remind us of our duty: the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, likewise daybreak and evening, no one is unaware of. Nor let food be taken by you except with prayer sent before, nor let anyone leave the table without thanks being rendered to the Creator. By night we must rise twice or thrice, and go over the passages of Scripture which we hold in memory. Let prayer arm us as we go out from our lodging; let prayer meet us as we return from the street before we sit down; nor let the poor body rest before the soul is fed. At every act, at every step, let the hand trace the cross.
Detract from no one, nor lay a stumbling-block against the son of your mother. 'Who are you, that you should judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. But he shall stand, for God is able to make him stand.' Nor, if you have fasted two days, think yourself better than one who does not fast. You fast and are angry; he eats and perhaps is gentle; you digest your mental vexation and your belly's hunger by quarreling; he is more moderately nourished and gives thanks to God. Whence Isaiah daily cries out: 'I have not chosen such a fast, saith the Lord,' and again: 'For in the days of your fasts your own wills are found, and you goad all who are under your power. If you fast for strifes and lawsuits, and smite the humble with your fists, why do you fast to me?'
What kind of fast can that be whose anger—I will not say a night dispels, but—a whole month leaves behind unabated? Considering yourself, do not glory in another's ruin, but in your own work. Nor set before yourself the examples of those women who, caring for the flesh, reckon up the revenues of their estates and the daily expenses of the household. For the eleven apostles were not broken by the treason of Judas, nor, when Phygelus and Alexander made shipwreck, did the rest halt in their course of faith. And do not say: 'This woman and that enjoys her possessions; she is honored by all; brothers and sisters gather to her—has she therefore ceased to be a virgin?' First, it is doubtful whether such a one is a virgin. 'For God will not see as man sees. Man looks on the face, but God looks on the heart.'
Next, even if she is a virgin in body, whether she is a virgin in spirit, I do not know. But the Apostle thus defined a virgin: 'That she may be holy both in body and in spirit.' At the last, let her keep her glory to herself; let her surpass Paul's judgment, enjoy delights, and live: let us follow the examples of better things. Set before yourself the blessed Mary, who was of such great purity that she deserved to be the mother of the Lord. When the angel Gabriel had descended to her in the guise of a man, saying, 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,' dismayed she could not answer; for she had never been greeted by a man. At length she learns the message and speaks, and she who had dreaded a man converses undismayed with the angel. You too can be the mother of the Lord.
'Take thee a great, new volume, and write in it with a man's pen swiftly stripping off spoils'; and when you have gone in to the prophetess, and have conceived in the womb and borne a son, say: 'From thy fear, O Lord, we have conceived, and have travailed, and have brought forth; we have made the spirit of thy salvation upon the earth.' Then your Son too will answer you and say: 'Behold my mother and my brethren.' And in a marvelous manner, He whom a little before you had inscribed in the breadth of your heart, whom with a flying pen you had signed in the newness of your heart, after He has taken spoils from His enemies, after He has stripped the principalities and powers and nailed them to the cross, being conceived grows up, and, being made greater, begins to have you for a bride rather than a mother.
Great is the labor, but great is the reward—to be what the martyrs are, to be what the apostles are, to be what Christ is. Yet all these things profit only when they are done in the Church, when we celebrate the Passover in one house, if we enter the ark with Noah, if, when Jericho perishes, Rahab justified keeps us safe. But those virgins who are said to exist among the various heresies, and among the most impure Manichaeus, are to be reckoned harlots, not virgins. For if the devil is the author of their body, how can they honor the handiwork of their own enemy? But because they know that the name of virgin is glorious, they hide wolves under sheep's clothing. Antichrist counterfeits Christ, and they clothe the baseness of their life with the false honor of the name.
Rejoice, sister; rejoice, daughter; rejoice, my virgin: what others counterfeit, you have begun truly to be. All these things which we have set forth will seem hard to one who does not love Christ. But he who has counted all the world's pomp as refuse, and has deemed all things under the sun vain, that he may gain Christ; who has died together with his Lord and risen again with Him, and has crucified the flesh with its vices and lusts, will freely proclaim: 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? or distress? or persecution? or famine? or nakedness? or peril? or the sword?' And again:
'For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angel, nor principality, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' The Son of God, for our salvation, was made the son of man; He waits ten months in the womb that He may be born; He endures loathings; He is brought forth bloody; He is wrapped in swaddling-clothes; He is mocked with caresses; and He, in whose fist the world is enclosed, is contained within the narrow bounds of a manger. I say nothing of how, until His thirtieth year, He was content with the obscurity of His parents' poverty; He is beaten and is silent; He is crucified and prays for those who crucify Him.
What then shall I render to the Lord for all the things that He hath rendered to me? I will take the cup of salvation, and will call upon the name of the Lord. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. This alone is a worthy recompense, when blood is repaid with blood, and, redeemed by the blood of Christ, we gladly die for our Redeemer. Which of the saints was crowned without a struggle? Righteous Abel is slain; Abraham is in peril of losing his wife; and—not to extend this into an immense volume—seek and you will find that each of them suffered diverse things. Solomon alone was in delights, and perhaps for that reason he fell. 'For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.'
Is it not better to fight for a short time, to bear the rampart, arms, and rations, to grow weary under the breastplate, and afterwards to rejoice as victor, than through the impatience of a single hour to be a slave forever? Nothing is hard to those who love, no labor is difficult to one who desires. Consider how much Jacob endured for Rachel his promised wife. 'And Jacob served,' says the Scripture, 'for Rachel seven years; and they were in his sight but as a few days, because he loved her.' Whence he himself afterwards records: 'In the day I was burnt with heat, and in the night with frost.' Let us too love Christ, let us ever seek His embraces, and every difficulty will seem easy. We shall reckon all things brief that are long, and, wounded by His dart, we shall say at every passing hour:
Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! 'For the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us'; because 'tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial, and trial hope; but hope confoundeth not.' When that which you endure seems grievous to you, read Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians: