教會史 第 1 章 第 20/28 段

Being a presbyter, in the performance of the sacred rites he proceeded with the utmost strictness, testing and carefully examining those who approached the mysteries, so that they might have their minds purified beforehand and be conscious of having done nothing amiss.

At that time the presbyter Eulogius also was most exacting in the administration of the divine mysteries.

It is said that, while officiating, he possessed such foreknowledge of the thoughts of those who approached that he could clearly expose their sins and detect whatever each one kept hidden in his mind.

Those, therefore, who had done wrong or had contemplated some base deed, he would for a time exclude from the altar, having made their sin manifest.

But once they had been purified through repentance, he would receive them again.

In their time also Apollos resided in the Thebaid.

He embraced the ascetic life from the very outset of his youth.

Having dwelt in the desert for forty years, he took possession, by God's guidance, of a certain cave beneath a mountain near an inhabited district.

Through the multitude of his miracles he soon became renowned, and leader of a great many monks.

For he was also persuasive in his teaching, to the benefit of his hearers.

But the manner of discipline he practiced, and how great were the divine and marvelous deeds he performed, has been recorded by Timothy, who administered the church of the Alexandrians, who has very thoroughly related his life, along with the lives of many others whom I have mentioned, as well as other esteemed monks.

At that time many good and virtuous men earnestly practiced the ascetic life throughout Alexandria, numbering about two thousand.

Of these, some dwelt in the places called "the deserts," while others lived around Mareotis and the neighboring parts of Libya.

His manner of life was this: by day he would gather stones from the nearby sea and each year build a small dwelling, which he would give to those unable to build for themselves; but by night, weaving cords from palm leaves for his own sustenance, he made baskets.

His food was six ounces of bread and a bundle of small herbs, and water was his drink.

Having practiced this austere discipline from his youth, he did not cease even when he had grown old.

Overcome by nature, his eyes would close, so that, as he often dozed while eating, the food would fall from his mouth.

Once, indeed, being utterly overcome by sleep, he did not notice that he had fallen upon his mat.

And being greatly grieved at this, he said quietly:

"If you can persuade the angels to sleep, you will persuade the zealous man too."

By this he indicated himself, addressing perhaps sleep, or the demon that had hindered his zealous exertions.

While he was laboring in this way, someone approached him and said:

"Why do you kill your body so severely?" He answered, "Because it is killing me."

It is said that once, while Piammon was officiating, he beheld a divine angel standing beside the holy table, writing in a certain book the names of the monks who were present, and erasing those who were absent.

To John, God granted such power over sufferings and diseases that he healed many who suffered from gout and whose limbs were disabled.

At this time also Benjamin, a very venerable old man, lived a most illustrious ascetic life throughout Scetis, having received from God the gift of freeing the sick from every disease, without medicines, by the mere touch of his hand, or with oil over which he had prayed.

It is said that this same man, having fallen into dropsy, had his body swell to such an extent that he could not be carried out through the doors of the dwelling in which he lived, unless they took down the doorposts along with the doors.

During his illness, being unable to lie upon a bed, for about eight months he sat upon a very broad stool, continuing as before to heal the sick, himself in no way distressed that he was not delivered from the disease that afflicted him.

Rather, he even consoled those who beheld him, and earnestly urged them to entreat God on behalf of his soul.

As for his body, he said, it was of no concern to him.

"For," he said, "when it was healthy, it profited me nothing; and now, suffering grievously, it does me no harm." At that time there also lived in Scetis the celebrated Mark, and Macarius the Younger, and Apollonius, and Moses the Ethiopian.

They say that Mark, even in the years of his youth, was exceedingly gentle and temperate, and mindful of the sacred Scriptures, and so beloved of God that Macarius "the Citizen," presbyter of the Cells, affirmed that this man had never received from his hand what it is lawful for priests to give to the initiated at the holy table.

Rather, an angel would give it to him, whose hand, he said, he could see only as far as the wrist.

To Macarius it was granted by God to hold the demons in utter contempt.

The occasion, at the very beginning, of his taking up the ascetic life was an unintentional homicide.

For while still a young boy tending sheep near Lake Maria, he killed one of his playmates in the course of play; and, fearing to be brought to justice, he fled into the wilderness.

Living there in the open air for three years, he afterward built for himself a small dwelling, in which he spent twenty-five years.

Those who had heard him say so reported that he professed great gratitude for that misfortune, and called the unintentional homicide a saving event, since it had become for him the cause of his ascetic life and blessed existence.

Apollonius, having spent the rest of his time in trade, when he was already advancing in years toward old age, came to Scetis.

Considering that, on account of his age, he was capable neither of learning to write nor any other craft, he would purchase, with his own money, all manner of medicines and foods suitable for the sick, and would go from cell to cell each day from morning until the ninth hour, visiting those who were ill.

Having found this discipline suited to himself, he continued to conduct his life in this manner.

When he was about to die, he handed over to another what he had, and charged him to do likewise.

Moses, being a slave, was driven out of his master's house on account of his wickedness, and, turning to brigandage, he led a band of robbers.

Having committed many crimes and dared to commit many murders, through some turn of fortune he took up the monastic life and suddenly gave himself over to the pursuit of virtue.

And whenever he was stirred by fantasies of pleasure, he wasted his body away with countless austerities: at one time being content with a little bread without any relish, while accomplishing a great deal of labor and reciting fifty prayers; at another time, for six whole years, he stood and prayed throughout each entire night, neither bending the knee nor closing his eyes in sleep.

At other times, going about by night among the dwellings of the monks, he would secretly fill each one's water jar with water.

And this was an exceedingly laborious task.

For the place from which they drew water was, for some, ten stadia distant, for others twenty, and for others thirty or more.

For a long time he retained his former bodily strength, although he strove earnestly, through his many austerities, to break it down, and afflicted his body with hardships.

It is said that once, when robbers had rushed upon the house in which he lived alone in ascetic retreat, he seized them all and bound them, and, since they were four, laid them upon his shoulders and carried them to the church, leaving their fate to the disposal of his fellow monks, since it was no longer lawful for him to do harm to anyone.

For they say that no one ever experienced so great a change from wickedness to virtue as to attain the very summit of monastic philosophy, to strike extraordinary fear into the demons, and to become presbyter over the monks in Scetis.

Being such a man, then, and having left behind many excellent disciples, he departed this life at about the age of seventy-five.

In this reign there lived Paul and Pachon, Stephen and Moses (both Libyans), and Pior the Egyptian.

Paul dwelt at Pherme (a mountain in Scetis having no fewer than five hundred ascetics).

He did no work, nor did he receive from anyone anything beyond what he ate.

He did nothing but pray, rendering to God, as it were a tribute, three hundred prayers each day.

And so that he might not unwittingly lose count of the number, he would put three hundred pebbles in his lap and cast away one pebble at each prayer.

And when the stones were used up, it became evident that the prayers, equal in number to the stones, had also been completed.

And Pachon too was at that time distinguished in Scetis.

Though he pursued this way of life from youth to old age, neither an unruly body, nor any passion of the soul, nor any demon ever caught him wanting in courage with respect to the self-mastery which the ascetic must maintain.

Stephen had his dwelling near Lake Mareotis, not far from Marmarica.

Having pursued exact and most perfect asceticism for sixty years, he became a most highly esteemed monk and an acquaintance of Antony the Great.

He was gentle and exceedingly wise, and pleasant and beneficial in his conversation, and able to charm the souls of the grieving and turn them to good cheer, even if they happened already to be gripped by unavoidable griefs.

Such he was also with regard to his own misfortunes.

Indeed, when a severe and incurable disease attacked him, he handed over his corrupted limbs to the physicians to be cut off, and worked with his hands weaving palm leaves, and counseled those present not to be distressed at his sufferings, nor to think anything else except that whatever God does always turns out to a good end, and that it was of benefit to him to experience such sufferings, perhaps on account of sins for which it is better to pay the penalty here than after this life.

Moses is recorded to have been extraordinarily renowned for gentleness and love, and for cures of ailments accomplished by prayer.

Pior, having resolved from his youth to pursue the ascetic life, when for this reason he went out from his father's house, made a covenant with God that thenceforth he would see none of his kin.

But after fifty years his sister learned that he was alive.

Overwhelmed by immeasurable joy at this unexpected news, she could not rest unless she should see her brother.

The bishop among them, taking pity on her as she lamented and pleaded in her old age, wrote to the superiors of the monks in the desert to send Pior forth.

Being ordered to go, and having nothing to say against it (for it is not lawful for Egyptian monks—and I think for others too—to disobey what is commanded), he took someone with him and arrived at his homeland.

And standing before his father's house, he announced that he had come.

When he perceived the door being opened, he shut his eyes and, addressing his sister by name, said, "I am Pior, your brother."

"But look at me as much as you wish." She, rejoicing at this, gave thanks to God.

But he, having prayed at the door, returned to the desert, to the place where he had been living.

There, having dug a well, he found the water bitter.

And until his death he endured, continuing to use it.

And the time that followed demonstrated the surpassing degree of his self-control.

For when he died, though many were eager to pursue the ascetic life in that same place, no one could endure it.

But I persuade myself that, had he not resolved to practice asceticism in this manner too, it would not have been difficult for him, by praying, to change the water into a sweet taste—

seeing that he even caused water to gush forth where there had been none at all.

Indeed, it is said that once, when Moses and his companions were digging a well and the water yielded neither the expected vein nor came at a greater depth, they were about to abandon the work.

But Pior, appearing to them about midday and first greeting them, reproached them for their faintheartedness and lack of faith.

And going down into the trench, he prayed and struck the ground three times with a mattock.

And immediately the water gushed forth and filled the trench.

And when, having prayed, he was departing, though Moses and his companions begged him to take food with them, he would not consent, saying that he had not been sent for this, but that what he had come for had been accomplished.

Having grown old in the practice of asceticism, they were at that time presiding over the monasteries there.

Being brothers to one another, they were called "the Tall Ones" on account of their stature.

From youth to his death he tasted nothing that had been produced by fire, except bread.

When he was once about to be seized for ordination to a bishopric, since by entreaty he could not persuade those who had come for him to depart, he cut off his own ear and said, "Go away, for hereafter not even were I willing would the priestly law permit me to be ordained."

For it is necessary that the priest be appointed with a sound and whole body.

But when they had withdrawn, since they learned that this rule was to be observed by the Jews, whereas the Church cared nothing for the body, provided only the priest be sound in character, they turned back again intending to seize the man.

But he swore an oath that he would indeed cut out his tongue too, if they should attempt to use force.

Fearing this threat, therefore, they withdrew; and from that time on he was called Ammonius Parotes.

Not long after, in the following reign, there lived Evagrius the Wise, a distinguished man, skilled both in understanding and in expressing his thoughts, and capable of discerning the reasonings that lead to virtue and to vice, and able to advise which of them one ought to pursue and which to guard against.

But what manner of man he was in matters of learning, the writings which he has left behind will show.

He was said to be moderate in character, and to have such mastery over vanity and arrogance that he neither swelled with pride at applause when justly praised, nor grew indignant at the insults when unjustly reviled.

By birth he was of a city of the Iberians, near the sea called the Euxine.

He pursued the ascetic life and was instructed in the sacred discourses by Gregory, bishop of Nazianzus.

The church at Constantinople had him as its archdeacon.

Being handsome in appearance and fond of fine dress, when a certain man in authority, growing jealous, learned that he was acquainted with his wife, he plotted death for him.

As the plot was about to be carried out, the divine sent to him, as he slept, a certain fearful yet saving vision in a dream.

For he dreamed that, as though seized on a charge, he was bound hand and foot in iron.

And as he was about to be led to the court and undergo punishment, someone came forward and showed him the sacred book of the Gospels.

And that person promised that, if he would leave the city, he would free him from his bonds, and demanded an oath that he would do this.

And he, laying his hand upon the book, swore an oath that he would indeed act accordingly.

Being released from his bonds, he immediately awoke, and, persuaded by the divine dream, he escaped the danger.

And having conceived in his mind that he ought to pursue the ascetic life, he departed from Constantinople for Jerusalem, and after some time, having come to see those practicing asceticism in Scetis, he was delighted with the life there.

They call this place Nitria, because there is a neighboring village in which they gather natron.

No ordinary multitude practiced asceticism there, and there were about fifty monasteries adjoining one another, some housing communities, others where the monks lived by themselves.

From there, toward the inner desert, there is another place, distant about seventy stadia, named Cellia.

In this place there are many monastic dwellings scattered about, whence it also received such a name.

They are so separated from one another that those dwelling there cannot see or hear one another.

But all of them come together in the same place and hold worship together on the first and the last day of the week.

And if anyone does not appear, it is evident that he has been left behind unwillingly, being hindered by some affliction or illness.

And not all go at once to see and tend to him, but each one, at different times, bringing whatever he may have that is suitable for the illness, comes to him.

Apart from such a reason, they do not converse with one another, unless someone comes to learn, from one able to teach, words tending toward the knowledge of God or the benefit of the soul.

Those dwell in Cellia who have come to the summit of the ascetic philosophy and are able to govern themselves and to live alone, having separated from the others for the sake of stillness.

Let this much be said by us briefly concerning Scetis and those who practice asceticism there.

For if I should attempt to go through each detail of their way of life, someone might perhaps find fault with the narrative for growing too long.

For having established their own polity, they assigned works, characters, exercises, diet, and time to each age appropriately.

And Rhinocorura too, from that time on, was distinguished not by imported men but by good men of its own.

It is said that, when it had been ordered that the priests in the cities who thought contrary to Arius should be driven out, those who came against Melas found him preparing the lamps of the church, like the lowliest servant, wearing a filthy garment with his belt stained by the oil, and carrying the wicks.

And when asked about the bishop, he said that he was there, and that he would point him out.

And at once, since the men were weary from their journey,

he led them to the episcopal lodging, set a table before them, and feasted them with what he had at hand;

and after the feast, having washed his hands (for he had been serving those who feasted), he announced himself;

and they, marveling at the man, confessed the purpose for which they had come, but out of reverence for him gave him the opportunity to flee;

but he said that he would not choose to escape suffering the same things as the priests of like faith had endured, but willingly chose to go into exile.

And, as one who had practiced philosophy from his youth, he trained himself in every monastic virtue.

And Solomon, having changed from a merchant into a monk, likewise derived no small benefit from this;

having been carefully instructed by those who practiced philosophy, he was most zealously devoted to divine things, and proved good toward his neighbors.

The church of Rhinocorura, having from the beginning obtained such leaders, has not ceased from that time to this, even down to us, still observing their institutions and producing good men;

and the clergy there hold dwelling, table, and everything else in common.

Moreover, Palestine also flourished with the pursuits of monastic men.

For most of those whom I enumerated in the reign of Constantius were still living, giving honor to this discipline, while others, through their association with them, advanced to the height of virtue and were added, to greater renown, to the monasteries there.

Among them were Hesychas, the companion of Hilarion, and Epiphanius, who later became bishop of Salamis in Cyprus.

Hesychas practiced asceticism in the same place as his teacher, while Epiphanius did so near the village of Besanduce, whence he came, in the district of Eleutheropolis.

Having been instructed from his youth by the finest monks, and for this reason having spent a very long time in Egypt, he became most distinguished for monastic philosophy both among the Egyptians and the Palestinians, and afterward also among the Cypriots, among whom he was chosen to be bishop of the island's metropolis.

Wherefore I think he is, so to speak, the most celebrated man under almost the whole sun.

For, being ordained priest in a populous city, great and coastal, and having engaged in civic affairs with as much virtue as he possessed, he quickly became known to citizens and to foreigners of every sort - to those who had seen him and had experience of his manner of life, and to those who had inquired about him from these.

Before his journey to Cyprus, he was still living in Palestine during the reign then in power, at a time when the brothers Salamanes, Phuscon, Malachion, and Crispion were greatly distinguished in the monasteries there;

They practiced their ascetic life near the village of Bethelea, in the district of Gaza.

For indeed they were also of noble family from that place.

They had as teacher of this ascetic discipline Hilarion, from whom it is said that once, when these brothers were going home together, Malachion was somehow snatched away from their midst and vanished, and then suddenly reappeared, walking the same road with his brothers; and not long after he died, still being young, yet in the virtue of his life and love of God not inferior to those who had grown old in the ascetic life.

And Ammonius too, dwelling about ten stades away from them, lived near Chapharchonbra, a village of Gaza from which he had his origin, a man who conducted himself with the utmost precision and manliness in ascetic practice.

And Silvanus, of whom it is reported that, because of his exceeding virtue, he was seen being ministered to by angels, being a Palestinian, was at that time, I think, still practicing asceticism in Egypt;

later, having spent a short time on Mount Sinai, after this he established at Gerara, by the torrent-bed, a very great and most renowned community of very many good men;

after him, the divinely inspired Zacharias led this community.

From here we must proceed to Syria and to the Persians who border on the Syrians;

who indeed increased greatly in number, rivaling those who practiced asceticism in Egypt.

Among the Nisibenes, near the mountain called Sigaron, the most distinguished at that time were Batthaeus, Eusebius, Barges, Alas, and Abbos, and Lazarus who became bishop, and Abdaleos, and Zeno, and Heliodorus the elder.

These they also called 'grazers,' since they had only recently begun this kind of ascetic discipline;

and they name them thus, because they have neither dwellings, nor eat bread or cooked food, nor drink wine, but living continually in the mountains, they bless God at all times with prayers and hymns according to the ordinance of the church;

and when the time for food comes, each one, holding a sickle, as if grazing, they go about the mountain and feed on the herbs.

the celebrated man, of whom they say that Emperor Constantine, when he first beheld him, confessed that long before, in visions, God had often shown him this man, and had bidden him obey whatever he should say.

And Aones had his monastery at Phadana.

This is the place where Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, having come from Palestine, met the woman - still a virgin at the time - who afterward became his wife;

and having rolled away the stone from the well there, he first gave her flock water to drink.

They say that this Aones was the first among the Syrians to initiate the rigorous ascetic discipline that lies beyond the path of ordinary men, just as Antony did among the Egyptians.

Living with him were Gaddanas and Azizus, both striving toward the same virtue.

In the neighboring city of Edessa and its environs, the most celebrated ascetics at this time were Julian and Ephraim the Syrian, the writer, who were mentioned in the reign of Constantius, and Barses and Eulogius, who both later became bishops - not of any particular city, but for the sake of honor, as it were in recompense for the life they had led, being ordained in their own monasteries, in the same manner as Lazarus, who was mentioned above.

These, then, among those who at that time practiced asceticism prominently among the Syrians and the neighboring Persians, have come to my knowledge;

and their manner of life, one might say, was common to all;

to take the utmost care for the soul and to accustom it to be ready for departure from this world, through prayers, fastings, and divine hymns, and to spend the greater part of life occupied with these things; but to be entirely neglectful of wealth and involvement in civic affairs, and of bodily ease or discipline.

Some attained to such a degree of self-restraint that worms crawled from the teeth of Batthaeus because of his excessive abstinence from food, while Alas did not taste bread for eighty years, and Heliodorus endured many sleepless nights, joining together weeks of days in fasting.

Now Coele-Syria, as it is called, and the region beyond it, except for Antioch, were slower to turn to Christianity;

yet not even this region was without churchmen who practiced asceticism, all the more manly both in being and in appearing so, inasmuch as they were hated and plotted against by the inhabitants of the country;

and they resisted nobly, not defending themselves nor exacting retribution, but eagerly enduring the insults and blows inflicted by the pagans.

Such, I have learned, was Valentinus, whom some said was by birth from Emesa, others from Arethusa, and his namesake, and Theodore (both of these were from Titta, in the district of Apamea), and Marosas from Nechila, and Bassus and Bassones, and Paul, who came from the village of Telmissus;

having settled many people together in many places, and having gathered them in the manner one must know for the practice of asceticism, he at last established at the place called Iugatum a very great and most renowned community of monks.

There indeed he also died and has his tomb, having attained a very long life, so that, having practiced asceticism in a manner both admirable and godly, he lived on even until our own time.

And of the other monks who have been mentioned, almost all of them lived to a great age.

And it seems to me that God made these men long-lived in order to bring the true religion to advancement.

For they drew almost all the Syrians, and very many of the Persians and Saracens, to their own worship, and made them cease from paganism;

and having initiated monastic discipline there, they produced many others like themselves.

And I conjecture that the Galatians and Cappadocians, and their neighbors, also had many other churchmen practicing asceticism at that time, inasmuch as they had long zealously upheld the doctrine.

and most of them dwelt in communities in cities or villages.

for they were neither accustomed to it by the tradition of those who came before, nor did it seem possible, perhaps, to live in the desert on account of the harshness of the winter that regularly occurs there by the nature of the region.

later Prapidius also served as administrator, who, being already aged, oversaw many villages.

He also presided over the Basiliad, which is the most renowned lodging for the poor, built by Basil, bishop of Caesarea, from whom it originally took its name, and still bears it to this day.

But I have narrated these things so far as it was possible for me to learn concerning the churchmen who practiced asceticism at that time.

But as for the Hellenists, almost all of them perished at that very time.

For some, who were reputed to excel others in philosophy, being distressed at the advancement of Christianity, resolved to learn in advance who would rule the Romans after Valens, and employed every kind of divination concerning this.

And in the end they constructed a wooden tripod out of laurel, and performed the rite with the invocations and formulas customary to them, so that, by the collection of letters indicated one by one through the device of the tripod and the divination, the name of the future emperor might be revealed.

And as they were eagerly watching for Theodore, a man of distinguished military service at the palace, a pagan and learned man, the sequence of letters, having proceeded as far as the letter delta in his name, deceived the philosophers,

and they expected that Theodore would very soon become emperor.

But when the plot was reported, Valens, believing that his safety had been conspired against, was unbearable in his rage.

As a result, Theodore and the practitioners of the tripod, having been arrested, were ordered to be put to death, some by fire, others by the sword.

And in like manner, for the same cause, those who practiced philosophy with distinction throughout the whole realm under his rule also perished.

And since the emperor's wrath was uncontrollable, extending even to those who were not philosophers but wore their distinctive dress, the slaughter spread so far that even those engaged in other pursuits refrained from wearing saffron-colored robes or the philosopher's cloak, out of suspicion of danger and fear, lest they should seem to have occupied themselves with divination and rites.

And not least, I think, it is right, in the judgment of those who think rightly, to blame both the emperor for his anger and cruelty carried to such an extent, and the philosophers for their rashness and...

For he — this indeed was exceedingly foolish — supposing that he would thereby destroy the one who was to reign after him, spared neither those who had practiced divination nor the man concerning whom they had divined.

And, as they say, not even those who bore the same name as he, who were at that time distinguished, whether of the very same appellation or a similar one... running from the letter theta down to delta.

But they were driven on to such a pitch, as though it lay within their own power to depose an emperor and set one up again.