The Lausiac History (Greek)

The Lausiac History (Greek)

Palladius of Galatia

c. AD 363–420

Author of the Lausiac History of the desert monks.

Introduction

PREFACE

2 MY interest in monasticism was first awakened in 1904, when I was a theological student at Cambridge, by the publication of the second volume of Abbot Cuthbert Butler's Lausiac History of Palladius. The appearance of a new work of scholarship, however excellent, would have meant little to me at that time, but my imagination was struck by the dinner which the theological teachers at Cambridge combined to give the author in honour of the completion of his arduous task. Somehow I had not associated monks with dinnerparties, and they appeared to me henceforward in a more human and attractive guise. In 1908 I began to study monasticism, taking Abbot Butler's works as my guide, and have never since lost interest in the subject. During the past year I have tried, during the few leisure hours which were alone possible under war conditions, to forget the tragedies of the time by making a translation of the Lausiac History. I do not know whether an ordinary critical text, where an editor merely gives the finishing touches to the labour of his predecessors, is copyright so far as the right of making a translation is concerned. But in this case the text belongs to Abbot Butler in a special way, since before him all was chaos. I am grateful therefore to him, and the Cambridge University Press his publisher, for readily granting permission to make the present version. There is nothing original in my book; if it succeeds in popularising the work of the Abbot of Downside, on whom the mantle of the great Benedictine scholars of old has descended, my purpose is accomplished.

3 To a lesser extent I am indebted to M. Lucot's excellent edition and translation. Occasionally he seems to me to have missed the meaning, but his French clarity of vision has frequently given me the clue to the right English rendering. Finally I must express my gratitude to the Society of which I have the honour to be Secretary for undertaking the publication of this work at a time when it might have been tempted to postpone all such projects until a more convenient season. May 1918.

INTRODUCTION

8 I. THE AUTHOR AND HIS BOOK IN the fourth and fifth centuries of our era Egypt had come to be regarded with great reverence throughout Christendom as a Holy Land of piety. Pilgrims came from all parts to visit the saints who lived there, and several wrote descriptions of what they saw and heard, which are among the most interesting documents of the early Church. Palestine was so near that it was usually included in their tour; the glamour of its sacred sites, which remains with us still when that of Egypt has faded into oblivion, was already potent. But Palestine was clearly second to Egypt in the affections of the pilgrims. The prevailing sentiment was expressed by Chrysostom with admirable clearness (Hom. in Matt. viii.). It was eminently appropriate, he explains, that the child Jesus should be taken to Egypt to escape Herod. Palestine persecutes Him, Egypt receives Him. This typifies the position Egypt was to occupy in the development of the Church. The land which had oppressed the children of Israel, had known a Pharaoh, had worshipped cats, was destined to be more fervent than any other, to have its towns and even its deserts peopled by armies of saints living the life of angels, and to boast the greatest, after the apostles, of all saints, the famous Antony.

9 Palladius, the author of our book, who was destined to be Chrysostom's devoted adherent, made a pilgrimage to this holy land, like so many others, and stayed there many years. The following is an outline of his life, with the dates as established by Butler. He was born in Galatia in 363 or 364, and dedicated himself to the monastic life in 386 or a little later. In 388 he went to Alexandria; as Paul went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, James, and John, so, he says in the Prologue, did he go to Egypt to see the saints for himself. About 390 he passed on to Nitria, and a year later to a district in the desert known as Cellia from the multitude of its cells, where he spent nine years, first with Macarius and then with Evagrius. At the end of the time, his health having broken down, he went to Palestine in search of a cooler climate. In 400 he was consecrated bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, and soon became involved in the controversies which centred round St. John Chrysostom. The year 405 found him in Rome, whither he had gone to plead the cause of Chrysostom, his fidelity to whom resulted in his exile in the following year to Syene and the Thebaid, where he gained first-hand knowledge of another part of Egypt. In 412-413 he was restored, after a sojourn among the monks of the Mount of Olives. His great work was written in 419-420 and was called the Lausiac History, being composed for Lausus, chamberlain at the court of Theodosius II. Palladius was also in all probability the author of the Dialogue on the Life of Chrysostom. He died some time in the decade 420-430.

10 The character of the man stands out clearly in the History, He was sincere, simple-minded and not a little credulous. His deep religious fervour, of the ascetic type, needless to say, appears throughout the book, and especially in the concluding chapter, which almost attains eloquence. But he had a fund of good sense, so we learn from the Prologue, which predisposes us to a favourable judgment on the rest of the book. What could be saner, for example, than his summing up of the question of teetotalism: "To drink wine with reason is better than to drink water with pride" (Prol. 10)? We need not attach much importance to the accusation of Origenism which has been the slur on his reputation. If he admired Origen, that great and original thinker, it will hardly redound to his discredit to-day. And he was in good company in his own day. Saints such as Basil, the two Gregories and Chrysostom shared his tendencies; if Chrysostom the master is forgiven his Origenism, Palladius the disciple may be forgiven also.

11 II. THE TEXT OF THE HISTORY It has been the lot of many a scholar to grapple with the difficulties of an ancient text so successfully that the result of his labours has been accepted as substantially representing the original work of the author: few editors indeed can be credited with an achievement equal to that of Abbot Butler, who brought order out of confusion and rescued for the historian a document which had been regarded with the utmost suspicion. His conclusions were at once recognized as correct, and much that had been written on early monasticism became obsolete, based as it was on an erroneous estimate of the original authorities. Butler was confronted by three main documents, each with its own textual history. A. The document which was accepted till recently as the Lausiac History, called by Butler the Long Recension. It appears in a Latin form in Rosweyd's Vitae Patrum (1615 and 1628), and includes the History of the Monks in Egypt (see C below). In 1624 a Greek text was published by du Duc purporting to be the original of Rosweyd's Latin, though in reality it was patched up from various sources. This is the text which, with some additions, is reprinted in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, xxxiv.

12 B. Butler's Short Recension, called originally Paradisus Heraclidis, printed by Rosweyd in his appendix. C. The Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, which was till recently supposed to have been written in Latin by Rufinus, but turns out to be Rufinus' translation of a Greek original compiled by an anonymous writer and describing a visit paid by a party of seven, in which Rufinus was not included, to the Egyptian ascetics in 394-395. The Greek text has been edited by Preuschen, and a text of Rufinus' Latin version forms part of the Long Recension, as stated above. Tillemont long ago had seen the lines on which the problem was to be solved, but subsequent investigators dismissed his suggestion as impossible, and it was left for Butler to show with a wealth of argument the true relations of the documents. His solution is briefly this: A (the Long Recension) = B (the Short Recension) + C (Historia Monachorum). B is not an abridgment of A, nor is A Palladius' second edition of B. In Sozomen, who used the Lausiac History (see Hist. Eccl. I. 13 f., III. 14, VI. 28 ff., etc.), there are clear traces of B, also of C, none whatever of A. The early versions, especially the Latin and Syriac, confirm these results. There is no reason to think that Palladius used Greek documents, or that he translated from the Coptic.

13 Having established this fact, that the Latin version in Rosweyd's appendix represents substantially the work of Palladius, Butler proceeds to discuss which is the best text of the Greek original of this. He finds that the MSS. are divided as follows: (i) The B group, giving the Short Recension as hitherto printed. (ii) A shorter and simpler text, which he calls the G group. (iii) An A group, which is composite of B and G. Ruling out the A group according to the rules of textual criticism, as between B and G, he pronounces in favour of the latter, which is supported by Sozomen and the versions, and is superior intrinsically as well. B is a "metaphrastic" text, says Preuschen, and Butler styles it "rhetorical, turgid and overladen." It remains to discover the best examples of the G text. Butler finds these in a MS. in the National Library at Paris (P) and one at Christ Church, Oxford (W). The latter was not available until more than half of the text, had been printed, and therefore to get Butler's mature judgment on the text of the earlier part a number of readings from W given in the appendix must be substituted for those of the text. The two MSS. are the offspring of a common ancestor. "It is clear that P and W have to serve as the basis of the text, pre-eminently W where it is extant." Other MSS. are used in the main to eliminate the eccentricities of P and W. Occasionally neither are extant, and the printed text is Butler's critical reconstruction from the other sources.

14 III. EARLY MONASTICISM The story of Egyptian monasticism is inevitably an oft-told tale, and need not be repeated here, since summaries of it are readily accessible. All that will be attempted is the emphasising of some points that might be overlooked. Asceticism was inherent in Christianity from the first; it could hardly have been otherwise among the disciples of Him Who had not where to lay His head. In 1 Corinthians St. Paul teaches that in view of the shortness of the time before the end the unmarried state is preferable to the married. St. John, convinced that it was the last hour, bade his little children keep themselves from idols, a command which in practice involved renunciation of the world. We are therefore not surprised to find asceticism a strong force in the early post-apostolic age. There was as yet no formal separation from the world; devotees of both sexes lived at home and were described as bearing "the whole yoke of the Lord." When monasticism underwent its great development in the early part of the fourth century, it was but a making explicit of what had been implicit in the Church from its early days, and even, so it would seem, in the teaching and example of our Saviour.

15 Two questions may be asked at this point: Why did monasticism begin when it did? Why did Egypt witness its beginning rather than some other land such as Asia Minor, which was perhaps the most Christian part of the empire at that time? In answering the first question one would be inclined to attach importance to the tradition which connects the origin of monasticism with the Decian persecution (c. 250), when many Christians fled from the settled parts of Egypt to the surrounding deserts and remained there for some time (Dionysius of Alexandria ap. Eus. H.E. VI. 42). Some at least of these must have been living the ascetic life at home, which they would naturally continue in the desert under more rigorous conditions. When a later tradition affirms that certain of these remained in the desert permanently and became the first Christian hermits, it is intrinsically so probable that one is justified in concluding that the Decian persecution was the historic occasion which led to the origin of monasticism.

16 Paradoxical as such an argument may seem at first sight, the cessation of persecutions may be adduced as a main cause of the great development of monasticism. The deliverance of the Church from this danger coincided with the adoption of Christianity as the State religion, the swamping of old landmarks by a flood of imperfectly instructed adherents, and the lowering of standards in the direction of worldliness. Monasticism in one of its aspects was the reaction of the sterner spirits against the secularisation of the fourth-century Church. Hitherto there had been an intermittent warfare of the State against the Church which expressed itself in persecution. When persecution ceased, a need was felt on the part of the Church for a "moral equivalent for war"; this the Church found in monasticism, which represented the Church militant against worldliness within. If we turn to our second question, it is not hard to see why Egypt, rather than some other country, was the motherland of monasticism. The solitudes of Asia Minor with their rigorous winter climate were not suitable places for ascetic experiments. Egypt, however, was ideal for this purpose. The climate was warm and practically rainless, the desert was never far away from the narrow strip of cultivable land, and the neighbouring mountain ranges abounded in natural caves.

17 Another reason may be suggested. The recent discoveries of papyri have thrown a flood of light upon the conditions of life in ancient Egypt. We can trace the ever-tightening hold of the Government upon the people and the process by which the peasants became ascripti glebae. The process was at work in other provinces, but Egypt was in the main docile, had been paternally governed since the days of the Ptolemies, and was of great importance as the granary of Italy. Accordingly the pressure of taxes and public burdens was greatest in Egypt, and the temptation to escape from them by running away became very strong. In the second and third centuries whole districts became depopulated by the flight of their inhabitants. Things became worse in the fourth century. In 312 the village of Theadelphia became "utterly deserted"; so did that of Philadelphia in 359. The peasants ran away from their intolerable burdens. The word used for their retreat (ἀναχώρησις) is the same as that which describes the monks (ἀναχώρηταί, anchorites). What some did from economic, others could do from religious motives; doubtless in some cases both causes operated.

18 Such an explanation seems far more plausible than that which used to be given, according to which the pagan monasticism of Egypt was the model for the Christian institution. There is little to be said for such a theory, which is indeed now generally abandoned. The resemblance of the so-called monks of Sarapis to the later Christian monks is merely superficial. The solitary life, begun in the desert as described above, was organised about 305 by St. Antony, who is justly reckoned as the founder of Christian monachism. Through the efforts of him and his disciples great colonies of monks arose, the most famous of which were at Nitria and Scete. The cells were grouped round a central church, where services were held on Saturday and Sunday, devotions otherwise being said in the individual cells. The main feature of this type of monasticism was its voluntary character; each monk lived his own life, and the monastery had a number of solitary lives lived in common rather than a true common life.

19 The first coenobium, or monastery of the common life, was founded by Pachomius at Tabennisi sometime in the years 315-320. Here Palladius found a federation of monasteries constituting a true Order as understood subsequently in the West, with obedience to the Rule and the Superior as the main principle. There is no need to discuss the two systems here, since the reader will find both modes of life fully described in the text (see especially Chapters VII. and XXXII.). By the side of the monks there were nuns of various kinds. The purely solitary life was clearly inappropriate to women, though it was attempted, as may be seen from the story of Alexandra, who lived alone in a tomb for ten years (Ch. V.). When women were gathered into a monastery, the presence of men was necessary if only to administer the sacraments. Convents of the Antonian type existed, but the true common life for women was found in the Pachomian nunneries, over the first of which Pachomius' sister was abbess. These were closely associated with the men's houses in a system of double monasteries, which formed an economic whole, the women, for example, making the men's clothes. This institution, carefully safeguarded as it was and providing protection for women in a rough age, fell into suspicion in the East and was forbidden by Justinian.

20 Little need be said about Palestine. The monastic life was introduced there early in the fourth century by Hilarion, a disciple of Antony; the original impulse continued, and the monasteries were mainly of the Antonian type. IV. HISTORICAL VALUE OF THE BOOK No one would deny that Palladius reflects the age in which he lived, the more faithfully because of his simplicity and lack of originality. His casual allusions to Church observances are of great value. Note, for instance, the continued use of the Agape (XVI. 5), the importance attached to frequent communion, a five weeks' abstention being enough to deserve severe punishment (XVII. 9), the offering of the Eucharist for the dead (XXXIII. 4), the use of Holy Oil (XII. 1, XVIII. 11) and Holy Water (XVII. 9) to effect cures, the Invocation of Saints (LX. 2), the beginnings of the Rosary (XX. 1), and generally the great esteem in which the Bible was held, large portions being learned by heart.

21 But a novel may contain such historical data, and it has been claimed that Palladius' History is little better than a romance. We may disregard the earlier criticisms of this kind, since Abbot Butler has answered them satisfactorily, and confine ourselves to the most important of recent books on the subject, Reitzenstein's Hellenistischen Wundererzählungen (1906). He pays special attention to the Lausiac History, and tries to prove that some at least of the stories are old literary motives formerly attached to pagan characters. Thus the tale of Sarapion Sindonita was originally told of some Cynic philosopher. It may be so, though the arguments are not cogent, only this scholar is too ready to assume a literary connection where none is needed. If the same stories were told of Egyptian peasants, heathen and Christian, the simplest explanation is that Egyptian peasants behaved in much the same way, whether before or after conversion. The common background of life and thought is sufficient to explain the similarity of the stories.

22 Palladius then tells what he saw and heard, his reminiscences in fact of what happened in some cases over twenty years previously. Under such conditions the element of exaggeration and distortion cannot be excluded. But there is no reason to doubt his good faith when he describes what he saw for himself. Where he reports hearsay he is naturally at the mercy of his informants. Those who told him that a virgin hid Athanasius in her house for six years (Ch. LXIII.) were giving the exaggerated popular version of what had happened many years ago. There is one reason why Palladius' evidence has been distrusted which is not very creditable to nineteenth-century scholars, namely, his conviction that he had witnessed miraculous and supernatural events. It is coming to be recognised that a fifth-century Christian writer who did not believe in the miraculous would be a portent which required explanation. There would be little left of the history of the time if all the writers who believed in contemporary miracles were ruled out as unworthy of credence.

23 V. SPIRITUAL VALUE OF THE BOOK The modern reader has to contend with certain prejudices which hinder his proper appreciation of the people depicted in the Lausiac History. To begin with, there is the preoccupation with sexual temptations, which will offend some. Not that this is unfamiliar to the reader of modern literature, where there is enough and to spare of such topics. But the Christian to-day, resting upon the accumulated experience of the Church, has learned that solitude is the worst possible condition for a man troubled with such temptations, and is apt to be impatient with the struggles of the solitaries. Doubtless the monks were often morbid in this matter, and it requires an effort of sympathetic imagination to do them justice. The background of their lives must not, however, be forgotten. Their point of view is readily intelligible when it is regarded as a necessary reaction from the incredible corruption of the pagan society of their day, with which even the Church was infected. Thus the women who boasted that they had not had a bath for years are not to be laughed at or reproached for dirtiness. Their conduct appears in a new light when compared with that of those who did take a bath, the Christian ladies of Alexandria who defied all modesty in the public baths. They sacrificed physical cleanliness as a protest against moral uncleanness. And the monks who fought with their passions under the hot African sun and described their struggles with painful frankness were doing the right thing under conditions needlessly difficult. We who have a truer insight into the psychology of temptation must not reproach those who had not such knowledge.

24 Again, the demonology of the Lausiac History is at times grotesque to modern eyes. In his poem "St. Simon Stylites" Tennyson shows a just appreciation of this side of early monachism. His description of the saints is fully borne out by the records. "Devils pluck'd my sleeve, Abaddon and Asmodeus caught at me. I smote them with the cross; they swarmed again. In bed like monstrous apes they crushed my chest: They flapped my light out as I read: I saw Their faces grow between me and my book: With colt-like whinny and with hoggish whine They burst my prayer." But the heroic nature of the warfare is easily missed. The ascetic went into the desert knowing that the demons were awaiting him on their own ground. The evil spirits had a special fondness for waterless places; they took up their abode among the animals which frequented ruins. They were also identified with the heathen gods, whose monuments and pictorial representations were to be found in the Egyptian desert. It argued therefore no small degree of moral courage if the monk went out alone to join battle with these potent forces of evil. We forget the squalor and shabbiness of the Middle Ages in our admiration of the chivalry and devotion which dared and accomplished great things, and though we laugh at Don Quixote it is with a pang of regret that the age of chivalry is giving place to the centuries of materialism. Now the monks went into the desert of Egypt to fight their battles in a spirit of chivalry. Maybe they tilted at windmills sometimes, but let us never forget that the battle few won, that their life was a successful protest against corruption in the Church, and that they handed the lamp of spirituality down to posterity through ages which apart from them were truly dark.

25 Tennyson was right in much of his poem, but surely he was mistaken in making his typical ascetic speak in so uniformly penitential a vein. The great monks must have been very happy on the whole. Cold in winter, scorched in summer, always hungry, tortured by visions, yet they had the deep inward peace of knowing that they had obeyed the call and were doing God's Will. Dom Morin of Maredsous in Belgium, writing shortly before the Great War, pointed out that this is the special and inalienable happiness of the monk. "On pourra m'expulser, comme tant d'autres, des murs paisibles du cloître, on pourra me priver de toutes les consolations de la vie religieuse, on pourra disposer de moi de diverses façons imprévues; il est cependant une chose que jamais on ne pourra me ravir, c'est le bonheur d'obéir: celui-là, il m'accompagnera jusqu'à la mort." 26 The monk in an Order obeyed the Rule and its living exponent, the Superior; the solitaries in the desert obeyed an inward monitor. But for both obedience was the master-word, and in consequence beneath all their surface struggles they had a deep peace of the soul. Cardinal Newman's words about the Benedictines express better than anything else the true spirit of monasticism. "To the monk heaven was next door; he formed no plans, he had no cares; the ravens of his father Benedict were ever at his side. He 'went forth' in his youth 'to his work and to his labour' until the evening of life; if he lived a day longer, he did a day's work more; whether he lived many days or few, he laboured on to the end of them. He had no wish to see further in advance of his journey than where he was to make his next stage. He ploughed and sowed, he prayed, he meditated, he studied, he wrote, he taught, and then he died and went to heaven."

27 Some, while recognising the justice of what has been said above, will maintain that they are bound to pass an unfavourable judgment on a movement so anti-social and anti-national as monasticism. It is pitiful, they say, to see the elect spirits of their generation engaged in spiritual self-culture, a selfish endeavour to save their own souls. Why did they not marry and bring up children, throw themselves into the national life, and so strengthen the moral and economic fabric of the State that it might have had a fair chance of resisting the barbarian onslaught that was impending? "I can never forgive monasticism this wrong to civilisation," said a distinguished Cambridge resident to me once. At the time I felt that the objection was unhistorical, a judging of the men of bygone days by standards which would have been meaningless to them, resembling the criticisms of monasticism which Charles Kingsley puts into the mouths of his characters in Hypatia. But the objection was, after all, raised at the time, for Eusebius deals with this very difficulty in a passage of great interest.

28 Why, he asks, did the Old Testament Saints attach such importance to marriage and the begetting of children, while we neglect the duty? His answer is first that what was natural in the early days of the human race is unsuitable now when we are living in the last days----quoting St. Paul's words in 1 Corinthians vii. If the time was short in the apostle's day, how little is left now before the advent of the new order. Then in the Old Testament the bulk of mankind were living a life akin to that of the beasts, and so the few who served God were obliged to have families if the holy seed was to be preserved at all; whereas now there is such a multitude of Christians that some can be spared for the ascetic life. He goes on to speak of spiritual children begotten by these holy men, and points out that after all for the great majority of men the New Testament does enjoin marriage.

29 Surely we can accept Eusebius' conclusions. There will always be enough to obey the primitive human instincts which lead men and women to marriage; there will certainly be enough children born from these marriages to carry on the race, if the Christian teaching on marriage is honoured. So we can but rejoice, if out of the great number who remain unmarried some do so in order to live a life separated from the world and devoted to unseen things. Let us exercise a little common sense. At this distance of time who can pretend to care whether a few little Egyptians more or less were born in the fourth century, to live dim, undistinguished lives, cultivating the soil in order to fill the grain-ships with bread-stuffs for Rome, or later, Constantinople? But it makes a good deal of difference to us that men and women were ready to forsake all for Christ and that the sweet savour of their example is still fragrant in our midst. Many of the monastic records are exquisitely beautiful. Take, for example, the deaths of two great nuns, Emmelia and Macrina, as described in the Life of the latter. Of Emmelia, the mother, it is said that "when she ceased to bless, she ceased to live." Of Macrina, her daughter: "As she approached her end, as if she discerned the beauty of the Bridegroom more clearly, she hastened towards the Beloved with the greater eagerness."

30 Or we may quote from Palladius the answer given him by Macarius, when he complained that he was making no progress: "Say, for Christ's sake I am guarding the walls." He means: Comfort yourselt with the thought that the people of Egypt are living their life in the world, exposed to so many temptations; as a protecting wall between them and the enemy the monasteries are interposed; you with your prayers are helping to guard that wall. Is not this the real point at issue? If we believe in prayer as the noblest and most fruitful activity of man's nature, we shall probably be led to believe that God separates some to a life of prayer, and that the mass of mankind dwell in greater security, thanks to the protecting wall of the prayers of these separated ones. It is because the monks of Egypt put spiritual things first, albeit sometimes in an exaggerated and strained fashion, and believed in the life of prayer, that their example is of permanent value to Christendom.

31 Finally, it is a commonplace to say that we live in a materialistic age. Riches are the pathway to power and influence over the lives of others. The Church itself is infected by materialism, in that finance absorbs so much of its energies. Great philanthropists, ecclesiastical statesmen, and missionaries all need money to carry out their schemes of benefiting mankind. Of course there is a good side to this; over against our Lord's praises of poverty must be set His teaching about stewardship. Yet one suspects that English Christians have not so far learned all that is implied in His treatment of riches and poverty. And so it is a salutary experience to read the Lausiac History and live for a while in an age of the Church when renunciation of all possessions was the surest road to fame and widespread influence for good. VI. THE PRESENT EDITION I have followed Butler's text throughout, including the readings from W given in the Appendix, which are in some cases to be substituted for those which appear in the body of the book. Where a different text is followed, for example a reading suggested by C. H. Turner, the deviation from Butler is indicated in the notes. The paragraph divisions are those of Butler, the sections into which the chapters are divided are Lucot's.

32 In places I was confronted with language which could hardly be translated literally; Lucot manages to do so, but the traditions of English are different. To omit the passages would in some cases have spoiled the sense of a whole passage; besides, the book is intended for scholars, who have a right to know what the author said. I met the difficulty by toning down and employing euphemisms; the scholar will have no difficulty in seeing what is meant. I cannot pretend that the compromise is satisfactory. I have aimed at the combination of accuracy, not necessarily identical with literalness, and an easily-read English style. Only those who have tried know how hard it is to combine the two. Palladius, though not a stylist, is a clear and forcible writer, and the task of translating him into English presents no special difficulty. A feature of his style is the incessant use of the particle οὖν.

33 VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY (See also list of abbreviations.) Butler, E. C., Chapter on "Monasticism" in Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. I. Cambridge, 1911. Cabrol, F., art. on "Monasticism" in Encylopaedia of Religion and Ethics" Vol. VIII, Edinburgh, 1915. Clarke, W. K. L., St. Basil the Great: A Study in Monasticism. Cambridge, 1913. Duchesne, L., Chapter on "Les Moines d'Orient" in Histoire Ancienne de l'Église, Vol. II. Paris, 1907. Krottenthaler, S., Des Palladius von Helenopolis Leben der heiligen Väter (German translation of Butler's text). München, 1912. Ladeuze, F., Le Cènobitisme Pakhomien. Louvain, 1897. Leclercq, H., art. "Cènobitisme"in Dictionaire d'Archéologie Chrétienne. Paris, 1910. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, The: Athanasius, Cassian, Socrates, Sozomen. Oxford, various dates. Zöckler, O., Askese and Monchtum. Frankfurt-a-M., 1897. ABBREVIATIONS Budge = E. A. Wallis Budge, The Paradise of the Holy Fathers (Eng. trans, of the Syriac version). London, 1907. Butler = E. C. Butler, The Lausiac History of Palladius, Vol. I. 1898; Vol. II. 1904. Cambridge.

34 D.C.B. = Dictionary of Christian Biography. E.R.E. = Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Hist. Mon. ---- Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, Rufinus (?), Greek text in Preuschen, Palladius und Rufinus. Giessen, 1897. Lucot = Palladius, Histoire Lausiaque (French trans. of Butler's text). Paris, 1912. Turner ---- C. H. Turner, review of Butler's Lausiac History in Journal of Theological Studies. 1905. (....)= matter not in the Greek added to complete the sense. [....] = (generally) translation not of the actual Greek text but of Butler's critically reconstructed text; but see notes. [Footnotes renumbered and moved to the end]

Introduction

THE LAUSIAC HISTORY

4 INTRODUCTORY PIECES PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF THE HOLY FATHERS [1] THIS book is a record of the virtuous asceticism and marvellous manner of life of those blessed and holy fathers, the monks and anchorites which inhabit the desert, (written) with a view of stirring to rivalry and imitation those who wish to realize the heavenly mode of life and desire to tread the road which leads to the kingdom of heaven. It contains also memoirs of aged women and illustrious God-inspired matrons, who with masculine and perfect mind have successfully accomplished the struggles of virtuous aceticism, (which may serve) as a model and object of desire for those women who long to wear the crown of continence and chastity. [2] This is how the book came to be written. A man, admirable in every way, very learned, of peaceable disposition, religiously disposed and devout-minded, liberal towards those who lack the necessaries of life, in respect of high distinctions preferred above many men of rank owing to the excellence of his character, and with all this guarded continually by the power of the Divine Spirit----such is the man who commanded us to write, or rather, if one must tell the truth, aroused our slothful mind to the contemplation of better things, to imitate and attempt to rival the ascetic virtues of our holy and immortal spiritual fathers and all who have lived to please God with much mortification of the body. [3] And so, having described the lives of these invincible athletes, we have sent them to him, proclaiming the conspicuous virtues of each of these great persons. I am referring to Lausus, the best of men, who by the favour of God has been appointed guardian of our godly and religious empire; it is he who is inspired with this divine and spiritual passion.

5 [4] I then, who am clumsy in utterance and have but a superficial acquaintance with spiritual knowledge and am unworthy to draw up a list of the holy fathers of the spiritual life, fearing the infinite greatness of the task set me, so much above my capacity, found the command intolerable, requiring as it did so much worldly wisdom and spiritual understanding. Nevertheless, respecting in the first place the eager virtue of the man who urged us to obey the command, and considering the benefit accruing to the readers, and fearing also the danger of a refusal albeit with a reasonable excuse, I first commended the noble task to Providence and then applied myself diligently to it. Sustained, as if on wings, by the intercession of the holy fathers, I attended the contests of the arena. I have described in a kind of summary only the main contests and achievements of the noble athletes and great men----not only illustrious men who have realized the best manner of life, but also blessed and highborn women who have practised the highest life.

6 [5] I have been privileged to see with my own eyes the revered faces of some of these, but in the case of others, who had already been perfected in the arena of piety, I have learned their heavenly mode of life from inspired athletes of Christ. In the course of my journey on foot I visited many cities and very many villages, every cave and all the desert dwellings of monks, with all accuracy as befitted my pious intentions. Some things I wrote down after personal investigation, the rest I have heard from the holy fathers, and I have recorded in this book the combats of great men, and women more like men than nature would seem to allow, thanks to their hope in Christ. I now send the whole to you whose ears love divine oracles, to you, Lausus, who are the pride of excellent and God-beloved men, and the ornament of the most faithful and God-beloved empire, noble and Christ-loving servant of God. I have recorded to the best of my feeble powers the famous name of each of the athletes of Christ, male and female, describing a few short contests out of the many mighty ones engaged in by each, adding in most cases the family and city and place of residence.

7 [6] We have also told of men and women who have reached the highest stage of virtue, but owing to vainglory, as it is called, the mother of pride, have fallen into the lowest pit and abyss of hell, and the triumphs of asceticism, so earnestly desired and so strenuously fought for, acquired by them after long periods of time and many labours, have been dissipated in an instant by pride and self-conceit. But by the grace of our Saviour and the fore-knowledge of the holy fathers and the sympathy of spiritual affection they have been snatched from the nets of the devil and, helped by the prayers of the saints, have recovered their former life of virtue. COPY OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY PALLADIUS THE BISHOP TO LAUSUS THE CHAMBERLAIN. 8 [1] I congratulate you on your intention. Indeed I am justified in beginning my letter with congratulation, because, when all men are gaping after vain things and building their edifice with stones from which they got no joy, you yourself want to be taught words of edification. For only the God of all is untaught, since He is self-originate and has none other before Him. But all other things are taught, since they are made and created. The first orders (of angels) have the supreme Trinity as teacher, the second learn from the first, the third from the second, and so successively in order until the last. For those who are superior in judgment and virtue teach those who are inferior in knowledge. [2] So then men who think they do not need teachers, or do not obey those who teach them in love, suffer from the disease of ignorance, the mother of arrogance. Their leaders on the road to destruction are those who have fallen from the heavenly life, the demons who fly in the air having fled from their teachers in heaven. For teaching does not consist in words and syllables----sometimes men possess these who are as vile as can be----but in meritorious acts of character, cheerfulness, intrepidity, bravery, good temper; add to these unfailing boldness, which generates words like a flame of fire. [3] For if this had not been so, the great Teacher would not have said to His disciples: "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.

9 He does not train the apostles with elegant language, but with care for character, distressing none save those who hate the word and hate teachers. For the soul that is being trained according to God's purpose must be either learning faithfully what it does not know, or teaching clearly what it knows. But if it wants to do neither, though able to do them, then it is mad. For to be sated with teaching and unable to bear the word, for which the soul of him who loves God is always hungry, is the beginning of apostasy. Be strong then and of sound mind and play the man, and may God grant you to pursue closely the knowledge of Christ. 10 PROLOGUE 11 [1] Forasmuch as many have left behind for their age many and divers writings concerning different epochs, some of them by an inspiration of heavenly God-given grace (writing) for the edification and safety of those who follow with loyal purpose the teachings of the Saviour, others with sycophantic and corrupt intention having indulged in mad follies in order to encourage such as desire vain-glory, others again, inspired by a certain madness and the influence of the demon who hates good, and in their pride and wrath planning the destruction of light-minded men and the soiling of the immaculate Catholic Church, having attacked the minds of the foolish to make them dislike the saintly life, [2] it seemed good to me also, your humble servant, reverencing the command of your magnanimity, O man most eager to learn, a command issued with a view to spiritual progress, to publish this book in narrative form for your benefit, (telling my story) from the beginning. (When I thus decided), it was, I suppose, my thirty-third year in the society of the brethren and the twentieth year of my episcopate, and the fifty-sixth of my whole life. You were asking for accounts of the fathers, both male and female (saints), both those whom I had seen and those about whom I had heard and those with whom I lived in the Egyptian desert and Libya, the Thebaid and Syene, near which last are the so-called Tabennesiots, and again in Mesopotamia, Palestine and Syria, and the districts of the West----Rome and Campania and thereabouts.

12 [3] (My aim is) that you may have (in my book) for the benefit of your soul a solemn reminder, an unfailing cure for forgetfulness; and that you may drive away by its help all drowsiness proceeding from irrational lust, all indecision and pettiness in business affairs, all backwardness and pusillanimity in the domain of character, all resentment, worry, grief and irrational fear; and moreover the excitements of the world; and may with unfailing desire make progress in the purpose of piety, becoming a guide both to yourself, your companions, your subordinates, and the most religious Emperors. For by means of these meritorious works all lovers of Christ press on to be joined to God. Each day you will be expecting the departure of your soul, as it is written: [4] "It is good to depart and be with Christ," and "Prepare thy works for thy departure and be ready in thy field. For he that keeps death always in mind, that it will come of necessity and will not tarry, shall not greatly fall. You will neither take amiss the guidance of my directions, nor will you despise the uncouthness and inelegance of my style; for indeed it is not the work of divine teaching to speak with studied elegance, but to persuade the mind with considerations of truth, as it is written: "Open thy mouth to the word of God," and again: "Miss not the discourse of the aged, for they also learned of their fathers."

13 [5] I then, O man of God most eager to learn, following in part this precept, have been in contact with many of the saints. Putting aside considerations of prudence, I have made journeys of thirty days, yes and twice as long. (I say it) as before God, traversing on foot in my journeys all the land of the Romans, I welcomed all the hardship of the way so long as I might meet some man that loved God, that I might gain what I had not got. [6] For if Paul, who was so far in advance of me, surpassing me in manner of life, knowledge, conscience and faith, undertook the journey from Tarsus to Judaea to meet Peter, James and John; and if he tells of it with a kind of boastfulness, recounting his toils in order to stir to emulation those who live in sloth and laziness, saying: "I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas; if he was not satisfied with the report of Peter's virtue, but longed for an actual meeting face to face----how much more was I, the debtor who owed ten thousand talents, bound to do this, not for any good I might do them, but for my own benefit? [7] For indeed those who wrote the lives of the Fathers, Abraham and his successors, Moses, Elijah and John, told their tale, not to glorify them, but to benefit their readers.

14 Knowing these things then, Lausus, most loyal servant of Christ, and impressing them on yourself, be patient with my folly, (which is designed) to preserve the pious disposition of your mind; for it is naturally exposed to waves of evil, both visible and invisible, and can enjoy calm only with the help of continuous prayer and spiritual self-culture. [8] For many of the brethren, pluming themselves both on their labours and charities and boasting of their celibacy or virginity and putting their trust in meditation on the divine oracles and acts of zeal, have yet failed to attain impassivity. Through lack of discernment, under the pretext of piety, they have fallen victim to a disease (which manifests itself) in acts of idle curiosity, from which spring officious or even evil activities, such as drive away good activities, the mother of spiritual self-culture. 15 [9] Play the man then, I beseech you, and do not increase your wealth. This policy you have already adopted, since of your own accord you have lessened it by distributing to those- in need owing to the supply of virtue which is thereby gained. Nor have you yielded to impulse and unreasonable premature decision and fettered your free choice with an oath to curry favour with men, as some have done who in a spirit of rivalry, that they may boast of not eating or drinking, have enslaved their free will by the constraint of an oath and have succumbed again miserably to the love of this world and accidie and pleasure and so have suffered the pangs of perjury. For if you partake reasonably and abstain reasonably you will never sin. [10] For reason, of all the emotions within us, is divine, banishing what is harmful and welcoming what is beneficial. "For the law is not made for a righteous man. For to drink wine with reason is better than to drink water with pride. And, please, look on those who drink wine with reason as holy men and those who drink water without reason as profane men, and no longer blame or praise the material, but count happy or wretched the minds of those who use the material well or ill. Joseph drank wine in Egypt long ago, but his mind suffered no harm, for he kept his thoughts under control, [11] But Pythagoras, Diogenes and Plato drank water;

16 so did the Manichaeans and the rest of the band of soi-disant philosophers, and yet they reached such a pitch of vain-glory in their intemperance that they failed to know God and worshipped idols. The apostle Peter and his companions used wine to some extent, so that their Master, our Saviour, was himself reproached on account of their participation, by the Jews' saying: "Why do not thy disciples fast as do the disciples of John? Again insulting the disciples with reproaches they said: "Your Master eats and drinks with the publicans and sinners. Clearly they would not have attacked them over bread and water. [12] And again, when they were unreasonably admiring water-drinking and blaming wine-drinking, the Saviour said: "John came in the way of righteousness, neither eating nor drinking"----obviously meat and wine, for apart from the other things he could not have lived----"and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners" ----because of his eating and drinking. What are we to do then? Let us follow neither those who blame nor those who praise, but let us either fast with John reasonably even if they say: "They have a devil," or let us drink wine wisely with Jesus, if the body needs it, even if they say: "Behold men gluttonous and wine-bibbers. [13] For in truth neither is eating nor refraining anything, but faith extending itself in love to works.

17 For when faith accompanies every action, he that eateth and drinketh because of faith is uncondemned, "for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. But when any one of those who sin says he partakes in faith or is doing anything else with unreasonable self-confidence and corrupted conscience, the Saviour has given express orders, saying: "By their fruits ye shall know them. But that the fruit of those who live with reason and understanding, as the divine Apostle says, "is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance,"----this is granted by all. [14] For Paul himself said: "The fruit of the spirit is" so-and-so. But because he who sets himself to get such fruit will not eat meat or drink wine unreasonably or without definite aim or out of season, nor will he dwell with an uneasy conscience, again the same Paul says: "Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. When the body is in health he abstains from fattening things, when it is weak or in pain or meets with griefs or misadventures, he will make use of foods or drinks as medicines to heal what grieves him, and he will abstain from all that harms the soul----anger, envy, vain-glory, accidie, detraction, and unreasonable suspicion----giving thanks to the Lord.

18 [15] Having then discussed the matter sufficiently above, I bring another exhortation to your desire of learning. Flee, as far as is in your power, encounters with men whose presence confers no benefit and who beautify their skin in unseemly fashion, even if they be orthodox----not to speak of heretics! They do you harm by their hypocrisy, even when they seem to be dragging out a great age with their grey hair and wrinkles. For, even supposing you come to no harm at their hands by reason of your noble character, you will suffer this lesser evil in becoming insolent and proud, and mocking at them, and this will do you harm. But go near a bright window and seek encounters with holy men and women, in order that by their help you may be able to see clearly also your own heart as it were a closely-written book, being able by comparison to discern your own slackness or neglect. [16] For the colour of their faces with the bloom of grey hairs and the arrangement of their clothes and the modesty of their language and the reverence of their conversation and the grace of their thoughts will strengthen you, even if you should happen to be in a mood of accidie. "For a man's attire and his gait and the laugh of his teeth will proclaim what he is like," as Wisdom says.

19 So now I begin my tales. I shall leave unnoticed neither those in the cities nor those in the villages or deserts. For the object of our inquiry is not the place where they have settled but the fashion of their plan of life.

CHAPTER I. -- ISIDORE

1 [1] THE first time that I set foot in the city of the Alexandrians, in the second consulate of the great Emperor Theodosius, who now lives with the angels because of his faith in Christ, I met in the city a wonderful man, distinguished in every respect, both as regards character and knowledge, Isidore the priest, hospitaller of the Church of Alexandria. He was said to have fought successfully his first youthful contests in the desert, and I actually saw his cell in the mountain of Nitria. But when I met him, he was an old man seventy years of age, who lived another fifteen years and then died in peace. [2] Up to the very end of his life he wore no linen except a head-band, never had a bath, nor partook of meat. His slender frame was so well-knit by grace that all who did not know his manner of life expected that he lived in luxury. Time would fail me if I were to tell in detail the virtues of his soul. He was so benevolent and peaceable that even his enemies the unbelievers themselves reverenced his shadow because of his exceeding kindliness. [3] So great a knowledge had he of the holy scriptures and the divine precepts that even at the very meals of the brethren he would have periods of absent-mindedness and remain silent. And being urged to tell the details of his ecstasy he would say: "I went away in thought on a journey, seized by contemplation.

2 For my part I often knew him weep at table, and when I asked the cause of the tears I heard him say: "I shrink from partaking of irrational food, being myself rational and destined to live in a paradise of delight owing to the power given us by Christ. [4] He became known to all the Senate at Rome and to the wives of the nobles, when he paid his first visit in company with Athanasius the bishop, and on a second occasion with Demetrius the bishop; a man of great wealth and extensive property, he wrote no will when he came to die, and left neither money nor goods to his sisters, who were virgins. But he commended them to Christ, saying: "He that created you will provide for your life, as He has done for me. Now there was with his sisters a community of seventy virgins.

3 When I visited him as a young rnan and besought that I might be trained in the solitary life, since I was in the full vigour of my age and needed, not discourse, but bodily hardships, like a good tamer of colts he led me out from the city to the so-called Solitudes five miles away (and handed me over to Dorotheus).

CHAPTER II. -- DOROTHEUS

1 [1] HANDING me over to Dorotheus, a Theban ascetic who was spending the sixtieth year in his cave, he ordered me to complete three years with him in order to tame my passions----for he knew that the old man lived a life of great austerity----bidding me return to him afterwards for spiritual instruction. But being unable to complete the three years owing to a breakdown in health, I left Dorotheus before the three years were up, for living with him one got parched and all dried-up.For all day long in the burning heat he would collect stones in the desert by the sea and build with them continually and make cells, and then he would retire in favour of those who could not build for themselves. Each year he completed one cell. And once when I said to him: "What do you mean, father, at your great age by trying to kill your poor body in these heats? he answered thus: "It kills me, I kill it. For he used to eat (daily) six ounces of bread and a bunch of herbs, and drink water in proportion. God is my witness, I never knew him stretch his legs and go to sleep on a rush mat, or on a bed. But he would sit up all night long and weave ropes of palm leaves to provide himself with food.

2 [3] Then, supposing that he did this for my benefit, I made careful inquiries also from other disciples of his, who lived by themselves, and ascertained that this had been his manner of life from a youth, and that he had never deliberately gone to sleep, only when working or eating he closed his eyes overcome by sleep, so that often the piece of food fell from his mouth at the moment of eating, so great was his drowsiness. Once when I tried to constrain him to rest a little on the mat, he was annoyed and said: "If you can persuade angels to sleep, you will also persuade the zealous man. [4] One day about the ninth hour he sent me to fill the jar at his well in view of a meal at the ninth hour. Well, as it happened, I went and saw an asp at the bottom of the well, and stopped drawing water and went away and said to him: "We are dead men, father, for I saw an asp in the well. But he smiled gravely and looked at me for a time, and then shaking his head said: "If the devil decides to become a serpent or tortoise in every well and to fall into our water-supply, will you refrain from drinking for ever? And he went out and drew the water himself, and was the first to swallow some of it, fasting, saying: "Where the cross passes, the evil of anything is powerless."

CHAPTER III. -- POTAMIAENA

[1] THIS blessed man Isidore, who had met Antony of blessed memory, told me a story which is worth recording, which he had heard from Antony. There lived in the time of Maximianus the persecutor a very beautiful maiden called Potamiaena, a certain man's slave. Her master failed to seduce her, though he besought her eagerly with many promises. [2] At last mad with rage he handed her over to the then prefect of Alexandria, giving her up as a Christian and one who abused the times and the Emperors because of the persecutions, and suggesting this to him with the help of money: "If she falls in with my design, keep her without punishment."' But if she should remain puritanical, he asked that she might be punished, lest continuing to live she should mock at his licentious ways. [3] She was brought before the tribunal and the fortress of her soul was attacked by various instruments of torture. For one of them, the judge had a great cauldron filled with pitch and ordered it to be heated. When the pitch was now bubbling and terribly hot, he gave her the choice: "Either go away and obey the wishes of your master, or know that I shall order you to be plunged into the cauldron." But she answered and said: "God forbid that there should be another such judge, who orders one to submit to licentiousness." [4] So in a fury he ordered her to be stripped and thrown into the cauldron; but she lifted up her voice and said: "By the head of your Emperor whom you fear, if you have decided to punish me thus, order me to be let down gradually into the cauldron that you may know what endurance the Christ, Whom you know not, bestows on me." And being let down gradually during a space of one hour she died when the pitch reached her neck.

CHAPTER IV. -- DIDYMUS THE BLIND

1 [1] VERY many indeed of the men and women who reached perfection in the Church of Alexandria were worthy (to inherit) the land of the meek. Among these was Didymus the blind author. I met him four times in all, visiting him at intervals during a period of ten years. He was 85 years old when he died. He was blind, having lost his sight at the age of four, so he told me, and he had never learned to read nor gone to school.[2] (This was not necessary) for he had nature's teacher ----his own conscience----strongly developed. He was adorned with such a gift of knowledge, that, so it was said, the passage of scripture was fulfilled in him: "The Lord maketh the blind wise. For he interpreted the Old and New Testament word by word, and such attention did he pay to doctrine, setting out his exposition of it subtly yet surely, that he surpassed all the ancients in knowledge. [3] Once when he tried to make me say a prayer in his cell and I was unwilling, he told me this story: "Into this cell Antony entered for the third time on a visit to me. I besought him to say a prayer and he instantly knelt down in the cell and did not make me repeat my words, giving me by his action a lesson in obedience.

2 So if you want to follow in the steps of his life, as you seem to, since you are a solitary and living away from home to acquire virtue, lay aside your contentiousness. And he told me this also: "As I was thinking one day about the life of the wretched Emperor Julian, how he was a persecutor, and was feeling dejected ----and by reason of my thoughts I had not tasted bread even up to late evening----it happened that as I sat in my seat I was overcome by sleep and I saw in a trance white horses running with riders and proclaiming: 'Tell Didymus, to-day at the seventh hour Julian died. Rise then and eat,' they said, 'and send to Athanasius the bishop, that he too may know,' And I marked," he said, "the hour and month and week and day, and it was found to be so."

CHAPTER V. -- ALEXANDRA

[1] HE told me also of a maid-servant named Alexandra, who having left the city and shut herself up in a tomb, received the necessaries of life through an opening, seeing neither women nor men face to face for ten years. And in the tenth year she fell asleep, having arrayed herself (for death): and so the woman who went as usual to see her and got no answer informed us.So we broke down the door and entering in found her fallen asleep. [2] Concerning her also the thrice-blessed Melania, about whom I shall speak later, used to say: "I never saw her face to face, but standing by the opening I urged her to say the reason why she shut herself up in a tomb. And she called out to me through the opening: 'A man was distressed in mind because of me and, lest I should seem to afflict or disparage him, I chose to betake myself alive into the tomb rather than cause a soul made in the image of God to stumble.' [3] When I said," she continued, "'How then do you endure never meeting any one, but struggling with accidie?' she replied: 'From early morn to the ninth hour I pray hour by hour, spinning flax the while. During the remaining hours I meditate on the holy patriarchs and prophets and apostles and martyrs. And having eaten my bread I remain in patience for the other hours, waiting for my end with cheerful hope.' "

CHAPTER VI. -- THE RICH VIRGIN

1 [1] BUT I must not omit from my story those also whose life has been characterized by pride, that I may praise those who have remained true and ensure the safety of my readers. There was a virgin at Alexandria of humble exterior but haughty inward disposition, exceedingly wealthy, but never giving an obol either to a stranger or a virgin or a church or a poor man. In spite of the frequent exhortations of the fathers she was not weaning herself from material things. [2] Now she had relations living, one of whom, her sister's daughter, she adopted, and night and day she kept promising the girl should have her money, having fallen away from her aspirations after heaven. For this is a form of the deceit of the devil, who afflicts us with pangs of avarice under the pretext of family affection. For it is common knowledge that he cares nothing about family ties, since he teaches men to murder brothers and mothers and fathers. [3] But even if he seems to inspire anxiety for relations, he does not do so from benevolent feelings towards them, but to practise the soul in unrighteousness, knowing the decree: "The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now it is quite possible for a man without neglecting his own soul to be influenced by a godly consideration and give assistance to his kinsfolk if they are in want.

2 But when a man subordinates his whole soul to the interests of his relations, he comes under this law, reckoning his soul "unto vanity. [4] But the sacred psalmist sings thus concerning those who care for their soul with fear: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? "----meaning (it is) rarely (any one does) ---- "or who shall stand up in his holy place? He that has clean hands and is pure in heart, who did not lift up his soul unto vanity. For as many as neglect the virtues, these lift up the soul unto vanity, believing that it is dissolved with the body. 3 [5] Wishing to bleed this virgin, so the story goes, and thus relieve her of her avarice, the most holy Macarius, the priest and superintendent of the hospital for cripples, devises this expedient. In his youth he had been a worker in precious stones ---- what they call a lapidary. So he goes and says to her: "Some precious stones, emeralds and sapphires, have fallen by fate into my hands, and I cannot say whether they are treasure-trove or stolen property. They have not been valued, since they are beyond price, but any one who has the money can buy them for five hundred pounds. [6] If you decide to take them, you can get back your five hundred pounds from one stone and use the rest for the adornment of your niece. Excited (by his words) the virgin is caught by the bait and falls at his feet. "By your feet," she says, "let no one else get them. Then he invites her: "Come to my house and look at them. But she had not the patience (for this), but flings down the five hundred pounds before him, saying: "You want them, take them. For I do not want to see the man who sells them. [7] But he takes the five hundred pounds and gives them for the needs of the hospital.

4 Time sped along and she was shy of reminding him (of the matter), for Macarius clearly had a great reputation in Alexandria, being a lover of God and charitable----he remained vigorous until he was a hundred, and we too passed some time with him. Finally, having found him in the church, she says to him: "I beg you, what decision have you come to about those stones for which I gave the five hundred pounds? [8] But he answered thus: "The moment you gave me the money, I deposited it for the price of the stones. And if you would like to come and see them in the hospital----for there they are----come and look if they please you. If not, take back your money. So she came, very willingly. Now the hospital had women on the first floor and men on the ground floor. And having taken her there he brings her into the porch and says to her: "Which do you want to see first, the sapphires or the emeralds? She says to him: "As you please. [9] He takes her to the upper floor and shows her the women disabled in hand or feet with their disfigured faces and says to her: "Behold your sapphires! Then he takes her down again and says to her, showing her the men: "Behold your emeralds! Do they please you? If not, take back your money.

5 So she turned and went out, and returning home fell ill from excess of grief, because she had not done this thing in a godly fashion. 'Afterwards she thanked the priest, when the maid for whom she was planning died childless after marriage.

CHAPTER VII. -- THE MONKS OF NITRIA

1 [1] So then, after my visit to the monasteries round Alexandria with their 2000 or so most noble and zealous members and my three years sojourn there, I left them and went to the mountain of Nitria. Between this mountain and Alexandria lies the lake called Mariaseventy miles in extent. Having sailed across this I came to the mountain on its south side in a day and a half. [2] Next to this mountain lies the great desert which stretches as far as Ethiopia and the Mazicae and Mauretania. On the mountain live some 5000 men with different modes of life, each living in accordance with his own powers and wishes, so that it is allowed to live alone, or with another, or with a number of others. There are seven bakeries in the mountain, which serve the needs both of these men and also of the anchorites of the great desert, 600 in all. [3] So, having dwelt on the mountain for a year and having received much benefit from the blessed fathers Arsisius the Great and Poutoubastes and Asion and Cronius and Sarapion,and having been spurred on by hearing their many tales about the fathers, I penetrated into the innermost desert. In this mountain of Nitria there is a great church, by which stand three palm-trees, each with a whip suspended from it. One is intended for the solitaries who transgress, one for robbers if any pass that way, and one for chance comers;

2 so that all who transgress and are judged worthy of blows are tied to the palm-tree and receive on the back the appointed (number of stripes) and are then released. [4] Next to the church is a guest-house, where they receive the stranger who has arrived, until he goes away of his own accord, without limit of time, even if he remains two or three years. Having allowed him to spend one week in idleness, the rest of his stay they occupy with work either in the garden, or bakery, or kitchen. If he should be an important person, they give him a book, not allowing him to talk to any one before the hour. In this mountain there also live doctors and confectioners. And they use wine and wine is on sale. [5] All these men work with their hands at linen-manufacture, so that all are self-supporting. And indeed at the ninth hour it is possible to stand and hear how the strains of psalmody rise from each habitation so that one believes that one is high above the world in Paradise. They occupy the church only on Saturday and Sunday. There are eight priests who serve the church, in which, so long as the senior priest lives, no one else celebrates, or preaches, or gives decisions, but they all just sit quietly by his side.

3 [6] This Arsisius and many other old men with him whom we saw were contemporaries of the blessed Antony. Some among them, they told me, had also known Amoun of Nitria, whose soul Antony saw being taken up and conducted to heaven by angels. Arsisius used to say that he also knew Pachomius of Tabennisi, a prophet and archimandrite over 3000 men, of whom I shall speak later.

CHAPTER VIII. -- AMOUN OF NITRIA

1 [1] (ARSISIUS) used to say that Amoun lived in this wise. When he was a young man of about twenty-two he was constrained by his uncle to marry a wife----he (himself) was an orphan. Being unable to resist the pressure of his uncle, he thought it best to be crowned and take his seat in the nuptial chamber and undergo all the marriage rites. When all (the guests) were gone out, after settling the pair to sleep on the couch in the bridal chamber, Amoun gets up and locks the door, then he sits down and calls his blessed companion to him and says to her: [2] "Come here, lady, and then I will explain the matter to you. The marriage which we have contracted has no special virtue. Let us then do well by sleeping in future each of us separately, that we may please God by keeping our virginity intact. And drawing from his bosom a little book, he read to the girl, who could not read at all, in the words of the apostle and the Saviour, and to most of what he read he added all that was in his mind and explained the principles of virginity and chastity; so that convinced by the grace of God she said: [3] "I too am convinced, my lord. And what further commands have you now? "I command," he said, "that each of us lives alone in future. But she could not endure this, saying: "Let us dwell in the same house, but in different beds.

2 So he lived in the same house with her eighteen years. During each day he occupied himself with his garden and balsam-grove----for he prepared balsam. Balsam grows like a vine, requiring cultivation and pruning and much hard work. Then in the evening he would enter the house and offer prayers and eat with his wife; and then having said the night prayers would go out. [4] Such was their practice, and both having attained impassivity, the prayers of Amoun prevailed, and she says to him at last: "I have something to say to you, my lord; that, if you hearken to me, I may be convinced that you love me in a godly way. He says to her: "Say what you wish. She says to him: "It is just that we should live apart----you being a man and practising righteousness, and I also eagerly following the same way as you. For it is absurd that you should live with me in chastity and yet conceal such virtue as this of yours. [5] But he, thanking God, says to her: "Then you keep this house; but I will make myself another house. And he went out and settled in the inner part of the mount of Nitria----for there were no monasteries there yet----and he made himself two round cells. And having lived twenty-two years more in the desert he died, or rather fell asleep. He used to see that blessed lady his wife twice each year.

3 The blessed Athanasius the bishop in his life of Antony told a marvellous story about this man, how that he came to the bank of the river Lycus with his disciple Theodoras, and shrinking from removing his clothes lest he should see him naked, he was found on the other side, having been carried across by angels without using the ferry. Such then was the life of the blessed Amoun and such his perfection that the blessed Antony saw his soul carried to heaven by angels. I crossed this river once in a ferry, but with fear; for it is a canal leading from the great Nile.

CHAPTER IX. -- OR

[1] IN this mountain of Nitria there was an ascetic named Or, to whose great virtue the whole brotherhood bore witness, and especially Melania, that woman of God, who came to the mountain before me. For my part, I never saw him alive. And they used to say this of him in their stories, that he never lied, nor swore, nor abused any one, nor spoke without necessity.

CHAPTER X. -- PAMBO

1 [1] To this mountain also belonged the blessed Pambo, teacher of Dioscorus the bishop and Ammonius and Eusebius and Euthymius, "the (Tall) Brethren," also of Origen the nephew of Dracontius, a wonderful man. This Pambo possessed heroic virtues and great qualities, one of which was this: he was very suspicious of gold and silver, as Scripture demands. [2] For the blessed Melania told me this story: "In early days, when I came to Alexandria from Rome, I heard of his virtue and----the blessed Isidore having told me of him and having conducted me to him in the desert----I brought him a casket of silver containing silver to the weight of three hundred pounds and besought him to take a part of my goods. But he sitting still and weaving palm-leaves merely blessed me in a sentence and said: 'May God give you your reward.' [3] And he said to his steward Origen: 'Take it and distribute it to all the brethren who live in Libya and the islands, for these monasteries are poorer (than the rest)'; instructing him to give to none of those in Egypt, because their country was more fertile. But I," she said, "remained standing, expecting to be honoured or glorified by him because of my gift, but hearing nothing from him I said to him: 'That you may know, Sir, how much there is, it amounts to three hundred pounds.' [4] But he without even raising his head answered me: 'The One to Whom you brought them, my child, has no need of weights.

2 For He Who weighs the mountains, much more does He know the weight of the silver. If you had given it to me, you would have done well to tell me; but if it was to God, Who did not scorn the two obols, then be silent.' So," said she, "did the Lord manifest His power when I came to the mountain. [5] After a little while the man of God fell asleep, not from an attack of fever, nor from any illness, but while he was stitching up a basket, at the age of seventy. He had sent for me and----the last stitch being ready to be completed----he said to me when about to die: 'Receive the basket at my hands to remember me by, for I have nothing else to leave you.'" Having prepared the body for burial and wrapped it in linen cloths she buried him, and then returned from the desert, keeping the basket with her till her death.

3 [6] This Pambo on his death-bed, at the very moment of his passing, is reported to have said this to the bystanders, Origen the priest and steward and Ammonius----famous men, both of them----and the rest of the brethren: "From the day that I came to this place in the desert and built my cell and inhabited it, I cannot remember having eaten 'bread for nought,' not earned by my hands. I have not had to repent of any word that I have spoken up to the present hour. And so I go to God, as one who has not even begun to be pious." [7] Prominent men, Origen and Ammonius, testified further to us, saying: "When he was asked about a word of Scripture or other practical matter never did he answer at once, but would say: 'I have not yet found (the answer).' Often he went three months even and gave no answer, saying he had not put his hand on it. Accordingly men received his answers as come from God, so carefully were they framed, as God would approve them. For this one virtue he was said to possess even above the great Antony and above all others, namely exactness of language."

4 [8] The following incident is told of Pambo. Pior the ascetic came to see him, bringing his own bread, and being accused by Pambo, "Why have you done this?" answered: "Lest I should burden you." Pambo gave him a silent lesson expressly. For after a while he went to see Pior and took with him his bread, having first moistened it, and when asked why he said: "I moistened it as well, lest I should burden you."

CHAPTER XI. -- AMMONIUS

1 [1] THIS Ammonius, Pambo's disciple, with his three brothers and two sisters, having reached the perfection of the love of God, made their home in the desert, the women living separately by themselves, and the men by themselves, so as to have a sufficient distance between them. But since Ammonius was exceedingly learned and a certain city coveted him for its bishop, a deputation waited on the blessed Timothy, beseeching him to ordain him as their bishop. [2] And he said to them: "Bring him to me and I will ordain him." When therefore they had gone with a force and he saw that he was caught, he besought them and swore that he would not accept ordination, nor depart from the desert. And they would not give way to him. So before their eyes he took scissors and cut off his left ear to the base, saying to them: "Well, be convinced now that it is impossible for me to be ordained, since the law forbids a man with ear cut off to be raised to the priesthood." [3] So then they left him and departed and went and told the bishop. And he said to them: "Let the Jews observe this law. For my part, if you bring a man with his nose cut off worthy in character, I'll ordain him." So they went off again and implored Ammonius. And he swore to them: "If you use force to me, I'll cut off my tongue." So then they left him and went their way.

2 [4] About this Ammonius the following marvellous story was told. When desire arose in him, he never spared his poor body, but heating an iron in the fire he would apply it to his members, so that he became a mass of ulcers. Now his table from youth until death contained raw food only. For he never ate anything that had passed through the fire except bread. Having learned by heart the Old and New Testaments and (passages) in the writings of the famous authors Origen, Didymus, Pierius and Stephen, he could repeat 6,000,000 (lines), as the fathers of the desert testify. [5] He was a comforter to the brethren in the desert beyond all others. To him the blessed Evagrius, an inspired and discerning man, gave testimony, saying: "never have I seen a man of more impassivity than he." [Having been obliged on one occasion to visit Constantinople . . . after a little while he fell asleep and was buried in the martyr's chapel called Rufinianae. His tomb is said to cure all sufferers from shivering fever.]

CHAPTER XII. -- BENJAMIN

[1] IN this mountain of Nitria there was a man called Benjamin who at the age of eighty years having reached the perfection of asceticism was counted worthy of the gift of healing, so that every one on whom he laid his hands or to whom he gave oil after blessing it was cured of every ailment. Now this man who was accounted worthy of such a gift, eight months before his death developed dropsy, and his body swelled so greatly that he seemed a second Job. So Dioscorus the Bishop, at that time a priest of Mount Nitria, took us----the blessed Evagrius, that is, and me----and said to us: [2] "Come, see a new Job, who with so great swelling of body and incurable suffering yet maintains "an unbounded thankfulness." So we went and saw his body so greatly swollen that another man's fingers could not get round one finger of his hand. We turned our eyes away, being unable to look owing to the terrible nature of the affliction. Then that blessed Benjamin said to us: "Pray, children, that my inner man may not become dropsical. For my outer man neither benefited me when it was well, nor harmed me when it was ill." [3] During these eight months a seat was arranged for him, very wide, in which he sat continually, being no longer able to lie down owing to the other requirements of his body. But while he was in this state of affliction he healed others. I have felt bound to describe this affliction, lest we should be surprised when some untoward fate befalls righteous men. When he died, the lintels and door-posts were removed, that his body might be carried out of the house, so great was the swelling.

CHAPTER XIII. -- APOLLONIUS

[1] A MAN named Apollonius, a merchant, who had renounced the world and come to live on Mount Nitria, being unable owing to advanced years either to learn a craft or work as a scribe, had this occupation during his twenty years' life on the mountain. From his private money and from (the produce of) his own labours he bought in Alexandria all kinds of drugs and things needed for the cells, and provided all the brotherhood with them in their illnesses. [2] And one might see him from early morn until the ninth hour going the round of the monasteries and entering in at each door in case there should be any one ill in bed, taking with him dried grapes, pomegranates, eggs, and bread made of fine flour, the things which such people need. This plan he had devised for a profitable life in his old age. When he died he left his stores to one like-minded with himself, exhorting him to carry on this ministration. For with 5000 monks inhabiting the mountain there was need of this visiting, since the place was desert.

CHAPTER XIV. -- PAESIUS AND ISAIAS

1 [1] THERE were two brothers called Paesius and Isaias, sons of a Spanish merchant. On their father's death they divided the real property which they got, also the personal property consisting of 5000 pieces of money and clothes and slaves. They considered with each other and took counsel together saying: "What mode of life shall we adopt, brother? If we adopt the merchant career which our father followed, then we shall have to die and leave our labours to others. [2] Perhaps we may even succumb to dangers from robbers or on the sea. Come, then, let us embrace the monastic life, that we may make a profitable use of our father's riches and not lose our own souls." So the ideal of the monastic life pleased them. But they found themselves at variance, differing from each other in their views. For having divided the property, they applied themselves each to his purpose of pleasing God, but by different tactics. [3] For the one bestowed everything on the monasteries and churches and prisons, and having learned a trade by which to earn his bread applied himself to asceticism and prayer. But the other parted with nothing, but making himself a monastery and getting together a few brethren welcomed every stranger, every invalid, every old man, every poor man, preparing three or four tables every Sunday and Saturday. In this way he spent his money.

2 [4] When the two were dead, various eulogies were pronounced over them, as if both had reached perfection. And some preferred Paesius, others Isaias. But a contention having arisen in the brotherhood over their praises, they went to the blessed Pambo and referred the decision to him, imploring that they might learn which was the better method. But he said to them: "Both are perfect; for one showed the works of an Abraham, the other those of an Elijah." [5] And when one party said: "By your feet (we ask), how can they possibly be equal?" and preferred the ascetic and said: "He performed an Evangelical work selling all and giving to the poor, and every hour both by day and night bearing the cross and following the Saviour and his prayers." But the other side contended with them and said: "Our man showed such great mercy to the needy that he even sat in the roads and collected the afflicted. And not only did he refresh his own soul but the souls of many others, treating their diseases and helping them." [6] Then blessed Pambo said to them: "Once again I tell you, they are both equal. I assure each of you that the one, unless he had been so great an ascetic, was not worthy to be compared with the benevolence of the other, while the second again, refreshing the stranger, was himself refreshed, and though he seemed to carry the burden of toil, yet had the refreshing that follows it. But wait until I receive a revelation from God, and after that come and you shall learn." So they came again a few days after and he said to them: "I saw both standing in Paradise, as it were in the presence of God."

CHAPTER XV. -- MACARIUS THE YOUNGER

[1] A YOUTH named Macarius, when he was about eighteen years old, as he played with his comrades by the lake called Maria, being in charge of animals, unwittingly committed a murder. And saying nothing about it to any one he took to the desert and became so afraid both of God and man that he lost all feeling and remained three years in the desert without a roof to his head. The land in these parts is rainless, and all men know this, some from hearsay, others from personal experience. [2] This man afterwards built himself a cell. And having lived a further twenty-five years in that cell he was counted worthy of the gift of blowing away demons; all his pleasure he found in solitude. Having spent a long while with him, I inquired how he felt on the subject of his sin of murder. He declared that so far from grieving he actually gave thanks for the murder, since the murder unwittingly committed proved the occasion of his salvation. [3] And, bringing testimony from the Scriptures, he used to say that Moses would not have been accounted worthy of the divine vision and so great a gift and the writing of the holy words, unless he had fled to Mount Sinai in fear of Pharaoh owing to the murder which he had committed in Egypt. I say this, not to lead any one to commit murder, but to show that there are virtues due to circumstances, when a man does not come to the good of his own accord. For some virtues are chosen voluntarily, others are due to circumstances.

CHAPTER XVI. -- NATHANAEL

1 [1] THERE was another of the old (monks) called Nathanael. I did not visit him during his lifetime, since he had fallen asleep fifteen years before my arrival. But when I met the men who lived with him and shared his life of asceticism, I made a point of inquiring about the virtues of this man. They showed me his cell, wherein no one dwelt any longer because it was too near the world; he had made it when the anchorites were few in number. They told this story about him as specially characteristic, that he stopped in his cell so perseveringly as not to be shaken from his purpose. [2] Among other things, having been mocked at the outset by the demon who mocks all men and deceives them, he seemed to feel a distaste for his first cell and went off and built another nearer a village. So when he had completed the cell and occupied it, three or four months after the demon came by night, holding a whip of ox-hide like the executioners, and having the appearance of a ragged soldier, and began cracking his whip. Then the blessed Nathanael answered and said: "Who are you who do such things in my dwelling? The demon answered: "I am he who drove you from that cell. I have come to chase you out of this too.

2 [3] Knowing that he was the victim of an illusion, he returned again to the first cell, and in a period of thirty-seven years in all did not cross the threshold, having a quarrel with the demon; who showed him such wonders, trying to force him out, as it is impossible to relate. This is one of them. Having watched for a visit from seven holy bishops----either arranged by God's providence or being one of his own temptations----the demon very nearly turned him from his purpose. For when the bishops went out after prayer, he did not escort them even one step. [4] The deacons said to him: "This is an act of pride, Father, not escorting the bishops. But he said to them: "I am dead both to my lords the bishops and to all the world. For I have a hidden design and God knows my heart. Wherefore I do not escort them. Having failed in this affair, the demon disguised himself nine months before Nathanael's death and became a lad about ten years old, driving an ass laden with loaves in a basket. And having arrived late in the evening near his cell he made it seem that the ass was fallen and the boy crying: [5] "Father Nathanael, pity me and give me a hand. Hearing the voice of the supposed boy and opening the door, he stood within and said to him: "Who are you and what do you want me to do for you? He said:

3 "I am so-and-so's little servant and I am carrying loaves, for it is this brother's agape, and to-morrow when Saturday dawns offerings will be wanted. I beseech you, do not neglect me, lest perchance I be eaten by hyaenas. For many hyaenas are found in those places. So blessed Nathanael stood in silence with his brain in a whirl and his heart sore troubled and argued thus with himself: "Either I must give up the commandment, or my purpose. Afterwards, however, considering that it was better for the confusion of the devil not to disturb the purpose of so many years, he prayed and said to the supposed boy that spoke to him: "Listen, boy! I believe in the God Whom I serve, that if you are in need God will send you help and neither will hyaenas harm you nor any one else. But if you are a temptation, God will reveal the matter now. And he shut the door and went in. But the demon, put to confusion at the defeat, dissolved into a dust-storm and into wild-asses jumping and fleeing and emitting yells. This was the conflict of the blessed Nathanael, this his manner of life, this his end.