制度與會談錄 第 2 章 第 6/15 段

That the causes of the vices, though they dwell in all men, are yet unknown to all, and that to bring them to light we have need of the Lord's help. III. That our first struggle is against the spirit of gluttony, that is, the concupiscence of the palate. IV. The testimony of Abba Antony, by which he teaches that each virtue is to be sought from him who possesses it in a special manner. V. That a uniform rule of fasting cannot be observed by all. VI. That the mind is inebriated not by wine alone. VII. In what manner infirmity of the flesh cannot hinder purity of heart. VIII. That food is to be taken with a view to the end of perfect continence. IX. On the measure of the chastisements to be undertaken and on the remedy of fasting. X.

That abstinence from foods cannot suffice for preserving purity of mind and body. XI. That the concupiscences of the body are not extinguished except with the uprooting of all the vices. XII. That from the contest of the flesh an imitation of the spiritual contest also is to be taken. XIII. That unless we have been freed from the vice of gluttony, we can by no means attain to the battles of the inner man. XIV. In what manner the concupiscence of gluttony may be overcome. XV. In what manner the monk ought always to be intent upon guarding the purity of his heart. XVI. That the monk, after the manner of the Olympic contest, cannot accomplish spiritual battles unless he has won the carnal wars. XVII.

That the foundation and basis of the spiritual contest is placed in the struggle against gluttony. XVIII. Through how many kinds of contests and palms the blessed Apostle ascended to the crown of the most sublime contest. XIX. That for the athletes of Christ, so long as they abide in the body, the battle does not cease. XX. That the monk ought not to exceed the time for taking food, if he wishes to attain to the battles of the inner contests. XXI. On the inner peace of the monk and on spiritual abstinence. XXII. That we ought therefore to exercise bodily continence, so that through it we may attain to the spiritual fast. XXIII. Of what kind the food of the monk ought to be. XXIV. That in Egypt we saw the daily fasts indifferently relaxed at our arrival. XXV.

On the continence of an old man who took food six times in such a way that he still preserved his hunger. XXVI. On that old man who never received food alone in his cell. XXVII. What Abba Paesius and John professed concerning the fruit of their zeal. XXVIII. What profession of his own example Abba John left to his disciples as he was about to depart. XXIX. On Abba Machetes, who never slept during spiritual conferences and always dozed off amid earthly tales. XXX. Of the same old man's teaching on judging no one. XXXI. The rebuke of the same old man, when he had seen the brothers who dozed during spiritual conferences roused wide awake at the telling of an idle tale. XXXII. On letters burned before they were read. XXXIII.

On the solution of a question which Abba Theodore merited by praying. XXXIV. On the saying of the same old man, in which he taught by what zeal a monk may attain the knowledge of the Scriptures. XXXV. The rebuke of the same old man, when he had come to my cell in the middle of the night. XXXVI. A description of the desert which is at Diolcos, in which the anchorites dwell. XXXVII. On the cells handed over to us by Abba Archebius together with his instruction. XXXVIII. On the debt which Abba Archebius discharged by the work of his hands on behalf of his mother. XXXIX. By what pretense the work of the hands was provided for Abba Symeon, who was idle, by a certain old man. XL. On the boys who, carrying figs to a sick man, did not taste them and perished of hunger in the desert. XLI.

The saying of Abba Macarius on the observance of the monk, that he should live as though about to live a very long time, or as though about to die daily. This fifth book is now, with God's help, forged for us. For after the four little books which were arranged concerning the institutes of the monasteries, we now, with the Lord strengthening us through your prayers, dispose to undertake the struggle against the eight principal vices: that is, first, gluttony, which is interpreted as the concupiscence of the palate; second, fornication; third, filargyria, which is understood as avarice, or, to express it more properly, the love of money; fourth, anger; fifth, sadness; sixth, acedia, which is anxiety or weariness of heart; seventh, cenodoxia, which sounds as vainglory or empty glory; eighth, pride.

Entering upon this contest, O most blessed Pope Castor, we now more earnestly stand in need of your prayers, that first we may be able worthily to investigate their natures, so minute, so hidden, and so obscure; then to expound their causes sufficiently; and thirdly, that we may fittingly bring forward their cures and remedies. Just as the causes of these passions, when they have been laid open by the traditions of the elders, are forthwith recognized by all, so before they are revealed, though we are all laid waste by them and they dwell in all men, they are unknown to all. But we trust that we may be able in some measure to unfold them, if by your intercessions that word of the Lord which was uttered through Isaiah may be directed also to us: 'I will go before you,

and I will humble the mighty ones of the earth; I will break the gates of brass, and shatter the bars of iron.'

'And I will open to you hidden treasures, and the secrets of concealed things'—that the word of God going before us may first humble the mighty ones of our own land, that is, these same hurtful passions which we desire to conquer, which claim for themselves dominion and a most savage tyranny in our mortal body, and may make them succumb to our investigation and exposition; and thus, breaking through for us the gates of ignorance and shattering the bars of the vices that shut us out from true knowledge, may lead us to the secret places of our own hidden things, and, according to the Apostle, when we have been enlightened, may reveal the things hidden in darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; so that, thus penetrating with the purest eyes of the soul into the foul darkness of the vices, we may be able to lay them open and bring them forth to the light, and to unfold their causes and natures to those who either have been free from them or are still bound by them; and so, according to the prophet, passing through the fire of the vices that most cruelly burn up our minds, we may be able forthwith to pass unharmed also through the waters of the virtues that extinguish them, and, bedewed with spiritual remedies, may deserve to be led out to the refreshment of perfection through purity of heart.

And so the first contest we must enter is against gluttony, which we said is the concupiscence of the palate; and, being about to speak first of the measure of fasts and the quality of foods, we again have recourse to the traditions and statutes of the Egyptians, in whom no one is ignorant that there resides a more sublime discipline of continence and a perfect reasoning of discretion. For there is an old and admirable saying of the blessed Antony, that a monk who, after the coenobitic profession, strives to attain the summits of a more sublime perfection, and who, having laid hold of the examination of discretion, is now able by his own judgment to stand and to arrive at the citadel of the anchoritic life, ought by no means to seek all the kinds of virtues from one man, however eminent.

For one is adorned with the flowers of knowledge, another is more robustly fortified by the reasoning of discretion, another is grounded in the gravity of patience, one excels in the virtue of humility, another in that of continence, one is decorated with the grace of simplicity; this man surpasses the rest in the zeal of magnanimity, that one in mercy, this in vigils, this in silence, that one in labor.

And therefore the monk who desires to store up spiritual honey ought, like a most prudent bee, to cull each virtue from those who possess it more intimately, and diligently to lay it up in the vessel of his own breast; nor to scrutinize what any man may lack, but to contemplate only what virtue he possesses, and zealously to gather it. For if we wish to borrow all virtues from one man, either with difficulty or certainly never shall we be able to find suitable examples for our imitation. For although, according to the Apostle, we do not yet see Christ made all things in all, yet in this way we can find Him—that is, by parts—in all. For of Him it is said: 'Who was made unto us of God wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption.'

While, then, in one wisdom is found, in another righteousness, in another holiness, in another meekness, in another chastity, in another humility, Christ is now divided member by member through each one of the saints. But when all run together into the unity of faith and virtue, He is rendered into a perfect man, perfecting the fullness of His body in the joining and property of the several members. Therefore, until that time come in which God shall be all in all, at present, in the manner we have described—that is,

by parts of the virtues—God is in all, though not yet in the fullness of them is He all in all; for although the end of our religion is one, yet the professions by which one strives toward God are diverse, as must be more fully discussed in the conferences of the elders. And therefore the pattern of discretion and continence is to be sought by us in a special manner from those from whom we see these virtues flow more abundantly through the grace of the Holy Spirit—not because any one man can acquire alone those things that are divided among many, but that, in these good things of which we are capable, we may tend toward the imitation of those who obtain them in a special way.

And so, concerning the measure of fasts, a uniform rule can hardly be observed, because neither is one and the same strength present in all bodies, nor, like the other virtues, is this one accomplished by the rigor of the soul alone. And therefore, since they do not consist in the fortitude of the mind alone (for they share in the possibility of the body), we have received such a definition handed down to us concerning these matters: that the time and manner and quality of refreshment should indeed be diverse, according, that is, to the unequal state of bodies, or age, or sex; yet that there is one rule of chastisement for all, in respect of the continence of the mind and the virtue of the soul. For it is not possible for all to prolong their fasts for whole weeks, nor even to defer the refreshment of food by a three days' or two days' abstinence.

For many, worn out by sickness and especially by old age, cannot even endure a fast until sunset without the affliction of distress. Not to all is the eating of soaked pulse suitable, being enfeebling; nor to all is the frugality of plain vegetables fitting; nor is the chastened refreshment of dry bread granted to all. One does not feel sated by the quantity of two pounds, another is weighed down by the food of one pound or of six ounces. Yet in all these there is one end of continence: that no one be burdened, according to the measure of his own capacity, with the gluttony of satiety. For not the quality alone, but also the quantity of foods dulls the keenness of the heart, and, the mind being fattened together with the flesh, kindles the noxious and fiery tinder of the vices.

A belly refreshed with foods of whatever kind gives birth to the seedbeds of lust, nor can the mind, choked by the weight of foods, prevail to steer the helm of discretion. It is not the drunkenness of wine alone that is wont to inebriate the mind: the excess of all foods renders it wavering and unsteady, and despoils it of all contemplation of integrity and purity. To the men of Sodom the cause of their subversion and lust was not the drunkenness of wine, but the satiety of bread. Hear the Lord rebuking Jerusalem through the prophet: 'For what did your sister Sodom sin, save that she ate her bread in satiety and abundance?' And because through the satiety of bread they had been kindled with the inextinguishable ardor of the flesh, by the judgment of God they are consumed from heaven with fire of brimstone.

But if the mere excess of bread cast them, by the vice of satiety, into so steep a precipice of iniquities, what is to be judged concerning those who, with a vigorous body, presume upon the eating of meats and wine with immoderate license, taking not as much as weakness requires but as much as the lust of the soul suggests? Infirmity of the flesh is no hindrance to purity of heart, if only those things are used which frailty, not pleasure, demands. We have more easily seen men who abstained altogether from richer foods than men who used in moderation those permitted for necessity; more easily those who denied themselves everything for the love of continence than those who, taking food under the pretext of infirmity, kept the measure of sufficiency.

Even bodily weakness has its own palm of continence, provided that, with foods being granted for the failing of the flesh, one still defrauds oneself of the refreshment one needs, and indulges in eating only so much as the strict discretion of temperance shall judge to be sufficient for the use of living, not as much as the appetite of desire demands. For richer foods, just as they procure health for the body, so they do not take away the purity of chastity, if they are taken with moderation. For whatever strength is perceived from the eating of them is consumed by the toil and failing of sickness. Wherefore, as to no state is the virtue of frugality denied, so neither is the consummation of integrity refused.

Most true, therefore, and most approved is the saying of the fathers, that the measure of fasts and of continence consists only in the measure of frugality and in chastisement, and that this is the common end of perfect virtue for all: that, in the foods which we are compelled by the necessity of sustaining the body to take, we should exercise temperance even while still set in the appetite for them. For although one may be infirm in body, he will possess a perfect virtue equal in all respects to the robust and healthy, if with the rigor of the mind he chastises the desires which the frailty of the flesh does not require. The Apostle says: 'And make not provision for the flesh in its desires.' He did not, therefore, altogether forbid the care of it, but he denied that it should be made unto its desires.

He took away the voluptuous solicitude for the flesh; he did not exclude the governance necessary for life: the one, lest by indulgence of the flesh we be rolled down into the noxious preoccupations of desires; the other, lest our body, corrupted by our own vice, be unable to perform its spiritual and necessary functions. The sum, therefore, of continence is to be gathered not from the reckoning of time alone, nor merely from the quality of foods, but above all from the judgment of conscience. For each one ought to prescribe to himself only so much frugality as the battle of bodily struggle demands. Useful indeed, and by all means to be observed, is the canonical keeping of fasts; but unless a frugal refreshment of foods follows upon it, one cannot arrive at the goal of integrity.

For the abstinence of long fasts, when satiety of body follows, acquires temporal weariness rather than the purity of chastity. Integrity of mind cleaves to the abstinence of the belly; he who is not content to hold the constant evenness of temperance does not possess the purity of perpetual chastity. However strict the fasts, they are made void by the excessive relaxation that succeeds them, and forthwith they collapse into the vice of the belly. Better is a reasonable daily refreshment with moderation than an arduous and long fast at intervals. Immoderate abstinence knows how not only to undermine the constancy of the mind, but also to render the efficacy of prayers enfeebled by the weariness of the body.

For preserving the integrity of mind and body, abstinence from foods alone does not suffice, unless the other virtues of the soul also have been joined to it. Humility, therefore, is first to be learned by the virtue of obedience and by the contrition of labor and the fatiguing of the body. Not only is the possession of money to be avoided, but the very desire of it is to be uprooted at the root; for it does not suffice not to have it—which for the most part is wont to come even from necessity—but not even to receive, if perchance they be offered, the very will of possessing. The fury of anger is to be crushed, the dejection of sadness overcome, cenodoxia—that is, vainglory—despised.

The haughtiness of pride is to be trodden down; the unstable and wandering coursings of the mind itself are also to be curbed by the assiduous remembrance of God; and as often as the slippery straying of the heart is to be brought back to the contemplation of God, so often, whenever the subtle enemy, attempting to lead the mind captive from this gaze, has crept into the recesses of our heart. For it is impossible that the fiery incentives of the body be extinguished before the tinder of the other principal vices also be cut away at the root: concerning which we shall discourse severally, in distinct little books, each in its place, the Lord granting it. Now our purpose is to discuss gluttony, that is, the concupiscence of the palate, against which is our first conflict.

Never, then, will he be able to check the goads of burning concupiscence who has not been able to bridle the desires of the palate. The chastity of the inner man is discerned by the consummation of this virtue. For never will you trust that he can struggle with stronger rivals whom you have seen overcome by weaker and slighter ones in a lighter conflict. For the nature of all the virtues is one, although it seems to be divided into many species and names: just as the substance of gold, too, is one, although it appears distinguished through many and varied kinds of ornaments according to the skill and will of the craftsmen. And so no one will be proved to possess any virtue perfectly who is found to be beaten down in a part of them.

For in what manner is he to be believed to have extinguished the blazing heats of concupiscence—which are kindled not by the instigation of the body alone, but also by the vice of the mind—who could not mitigate the stings of anger bursting forth by the intemperance of the mind alone? Or in what manner is he to be thought to have beaten back the wanton goads of flesh and soul, who could not conquer the single vice of pride? Or how is he to be believed to have trodden down the lust engrafted in the flesh, who could not renounce the concupiscence of money, which is situated outside and is foreign to our substance? Or by what reasoning shall he triumph in the war of flesh and soul, who was not fit to cure the disease of sadness?

However much a city be fortified by the loftiness of its walls and the firmness of its closed gates, it will be laid waste by a single postern gate, however tiny. For what does it matter whether through lofty ramparts and ample spaces of gates, or through the lurking-places of a narrow underground passage, a pernicious enemy creeps into the inmost parts of the city? 'He who strives in the contest is not crowned unless he has striven lawfully.' He who chooses to extinguish the natural appetites of the flesh, let him hasten first to overcome the vices placed outside nature.

For if we wish to prove the force of the Apostle's saying—what are the laws and discipline of the worldly contest—we must first recognize them, so that at length by comparison with these we may be able to know what the blessed Apostle wished to teach us, contending in the spiritual contest, by this example.

For in those contests which, according to the same Apostle, prepare a corruptible crown for the victors, this custom is observed: that he who strives to prepare himself for the glorious crown, adorned with the privilege of immunity, and desires to sweat through the perfect struggles of the contest, first displays in the Olympic and Pythian games the mettle of his youth and the strength of his early training. For in these, the younger men who desire to profess these disciplines are approved, as to whether they merit or ought to be admitted to them, by the judgment both of him who presides over these contests and of the whole people.

And when, having been diligently examined, a man is first found sprinkled with no infamy of life, then judged not to be ignoble under the yoke of servitude and on that account unworthy of this discipline or of the association of those who profess it, and thirdly, if he presents worthy proofs of skill and of fortitude, and contending with youths of his own age has demonstrated the expertness and virtue of his youth, and, advancing from the wrestling of the ephebes, has been permitted by the examination of the president to engage with men now fully grown and proved by long experience, and has proved himself not only equal to their virtue by constant struggle, but has also frequently among these too obtained the palm of victory—then at last he will deserve to arrive at the illustrious contests of the games, in which the faculty of contending is granted only to victors and to those who have been decorated with the rewards of many crowns.

If we have understood the example of the carnal contest, we ought also to recognize, by comparison with it, what the discipline or order of the spiritual struggle is. We too ought first to show our liberty by the subjection of the flesh. For 'by whom a man is overcome, of him also is he the slave,' and 'everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.' And when the examination of the president of the contest has found us sprinkled with no infamy of base concupiscence, and we have not been judged by him as slaves of the flesh and ignoble and unworthy of the Olympic struggles against the vices, then we shall be able to enter the contest against our contemporaries—that is, against the concupiscences of the flesh and the motions and perturbations of the soul.

For it is impossible that a full belly experience the battles of the inner man; nor is he worthy to be assailed by stronger wars who can be cast down by a lighter conflict. First, therefore, the concupiscence of the palate is to be trodden down by us, and to be so far attenuated

that the mind, not only by fasts, but also by vigils, by reading too, and by frequent compunction of heart—in which it perhaps recalls itself to have been either deluded or vanquished—groaning, now aflame with horror of the vices, now with desire of perfection and integrity, until, being occupied and possessed alike by such cares and meditations, it recognizes the refreshment of food itself as granted not so much for delight as imposed upon it in the stead of a burden, and feels it assigned as more necessary for the body than desirable for the soul.

By this zeal of mind and by constant compunction, restraining the wantonness of the flesh—which grows more violent by the fostering of foods—we shall beat back its noxious goads; and thus the furnace of our body, which is kindled by the king of Babylon continually supplying occasions of sins and the vices to us, by which, in the stead of naphtha and pitch, we are more sharply burned, we shall be able to extinguish by an abundance of tears and by the weeping of the heart, until, by the grace of God, the Spirit of His dew whispering within our hearts, the heats of carnal concupiscence may be able to be utterly lulled to sleep.

This, therefore, is our first contention, this our first probation as it were in the Olympic games: to extinguish the concupiscence of the palate and belly by the desire of perfection. On which account, of foods not only the superfluous appetite is to be trodden down by the contemplation of the virtues, but even that which is necessary to nature itself, as contrary to chastity, is not to be taken without anxiety of heart. And thus at length the course of our life is to be so ordered that there be no time at which we feel ourselves more called away from spiritual pursuits than that in which we are compelled by its frailty to descend to the necessary care of the body.

And when we are submitted to this necessity, serving rather the use of life than the desire of the mind, let us hasten to be withdrawn from it as quickly as possible, as from something drawing us back from salutary pursuits. For we shall by no means be able to spurn the pleasures of present foods, unless the mind, fixed upon divine contemplation, is delighted rather by the love of the virtues and the beauty of heavenly things. And thus a man will despise all present things as transitory, when he has fixed the gaze of his mind immovably upon those things which are unmoving and eternal, already contemplating in his heart, while still set in the flesh, the blessedness of his future dwelling.

It is as when a man hastens to strike, with the sharpest gaze of his eyes and with an arrow aimed straight, the immense rewards of the virtues marked out on high by certain small signs; knowing that the vast palm of glory and the prizes of recompense consist in his hitting them, he must of necessity turn the keenness of his eyes away from every other object and direct it there, where he perceives the highest recompense and reward set; for he will beyond all doubt lose the palm of his skill and the reward of his prowess, if the aim of his gaze should stray from that mark even in the slightest degree.

And so, when the craving of the belly and the gullet has been overcome by this steadfast gaze, and we are pronounced neither slaves of the flesh nor branded with the infamous mark of the vices, we shall be judged, as in the Olympic contests, worthy also to engage in the higher combats; and having first sent ahead such proofs, we shall be believed able to grapple with the spiritual wickednesses as well, which deign to contend only with victors and with those who merit to strive in the spiritual arena. For this is, as it were, the most solid foundation of all our struggles: that first the incitements of carnal desires be destroyed.

For no one who has not first conquered his own flesh will be able to strive lawfully; and he who does not strive lawfully will certainly be able neither to contend in the arena nor to earn the glory of the crown by right of victory. But if we have been overcome in this contest, being proved slaves of carnal concupiscence and thereby bearing the insignia neither of freedom nor of strength, we shall at once be driven back from the combat of the spiritual encounters as unworthy and slavish, not without the mark of confusion (for everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin); and the most blessed Apostle will say to us, together with those among whom fornication is named: No temptation has taken you but such as is human.

For we shall not deserve to experience the graver battles of the heavenly wickednesses, since strength of mind is not attained, if we have been unable to subdue our frail flesh that resists our spirit. Not understanding this testimony of the Apostle, some have put the optative mood in place of the indicative, that is: May no temptation take you but such as is human—whereas it is plain that it was said by him not with the feeling of one wishing, but of one declaring or reproaching. Do you wish to hear a true athlete of Christ contending by the lawful rule of the contest? I, he says, so run, not as at an uncertainty; so fight I, not as one beating 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 become a castaway.