Gregory of Sinai

NOTICE CONCERNING GREGORY SINAITES

Our holy Father Gregory, who having taken the monastic tonsure on Mount Sinai was therefore called Sinaites, flourished under the reign of Andronicus Palaeologus, around the year 1330. ^A Coming to the mountain of Athos, and traversing the monasteries and hermitages there, he found many who were adorned with wisdom and the gravity of their conduct, and who applied themselves only to the practical life, but who were so unacquainted with the guardianship of the mind, the precision of stillness, and contemplation, that they could not even recognize such things by name. He encountered only three—whose names were Isaiah, Cornelius, and Macarius—in the skete of Magula, situated opposite the monastery of Philotheou, who were to some small extent occupied with the contemplative life. ^B Inflamed, therefore, with divine zeal, he taught not only those who lived as hermits in private, but also all those in coenobitic communities, about vigilance, the guarding of the mind, and mental prayer. Moreover, after building three great lauras on the borders of Macedonia, and traveling through many places and regions, he encouraged all, by his divine teachings, to the common practice of mental and unceasing prayer; and he became the cause for many sinners being converted through this, and, being made worthy instead of unworthy, for them to be accounted worthy of the inheritance of the elect. His life was written at length ^C by the most holy Patriarch Callistus, who was also his disciple. But indeed, just as during his lifetime the illustrious man was known as a common teacher of the holy vigilance, so too after his death he leads [others] to it by means of these present writings of his. For in them he instructs in the art of mental and interior prayer most elegantly and perfectly, and he discourses concerning moral virtues and vices, and clearly indicates certain signs of deception and certain signs of grace. And indeed, this work is most useful, if anything is, ^D equally to beginners, those making progress, and the perfect. Whoever reads it not perfunctorily will discover what and how great the spiritual riches hidden within it are; and he will truly rejoice with ineffable joy at their discovery.

OF OUR HOLY FATHER GREGORY OF SINAI CAPITALS VERY USEFUL BY ACROSTIC

Of which the acrostic is this: Sermons various concerning precepts, dogmas, threats and promises; and furthermore concerning thoughts, passions and virtues; and furthermore concerning stillness and prayer.

^A 1. To be rational by nature, or to become so, is impossible before purity and incorruption. For the habit of irrational sense-perception has gained mastery over the former, and the state of corruptible flesh over the latter.

2. You shall see that those who are rational by nature are the only ones who have been rendered holy through purity. For no one among the wise in word has possessed a pure reason, since they have corrupted their rational faculty from above through their thoughts. For the material and loquacious spirit of the wisdom of this world, while leading their words towards mystical things but their thoughts towards cruder things, causes the house of the heart to be emptied of substantial wisdom, of contemplation, and of undivided and unified knowledge.

^B 3. Consider the sensation of grace to be strictly the knowledge of truth. As for the rest, you must call them merely impressions of thoughts and demonstrations of things.

4. As many as fail to attain grace, suffer this on account of unbelief and neglect; and as many as again find it, do so through faith and diligence. For always through the former they advance toward the things in front, while through the contraries they turn back completely.

5. It is the same to be a corpse unable to feel anything, and to be blind in intellect and not seeing bodily. For the one is deprived of the living and active power; while he who does not see is deprived of the divine light by whose power one can see and be seen.

^A 6. Few receive both power and wisdom from God. For the one participates in divine goods; the other reveals them. To participate and to impart, however, is a thing truly divine and above man.

7. That is a true sanctuary, even before the life to come, which is a heart functioning without discursive thoughts by the Spirit. For there all things are fulfilled and spoken spiritually; and he who does not possess this from here on is a stone fit for the building of the divine temple, but not the temple and sanctuary of the Spirit.

^B 8. Man was created incorruptible without humors, such as he will also rise again, yet he was not immutable, nor again mutable; having the power of the volitional habit to be changed, or not. For the will does not produce total immutability toward nature; for this is the prize of the future, immutable deification.

9. For corruption is the generation of the flesh. To eat, to excrete, to swell with pride, and to sleep, are natural properties of beasts and cattle; because of which, through disobedience, we have been made like unto cattle, having fallen from our own and God-bestowed goods; having become animal-like from rational, and beast-like from divine.

^C 10. Paradise is twofold, sensible and intelligible, that is to say, the one in Eden, and the one of grace. The one in Eden, therefore, is a place very high, so as to be as far as the third heaven, as those who have recorded it assert, planted by God with all kinds of most fragrant trees. It is not, therefore, perfectly incorruptible, nor entirely corruptible. Made as a mean between corruption and incorruptibility, it is always luxuriant with fruits, and blooming with flowers, and having at once unripe and ripe fruit continually. For the trees that decay and the perfectly ripe fruits, even when cast to the ground, become a fragrant dust, and do not emit a stench like the plants of this world. This, however, happens from the great abundance and holiness of the grace that is always overflowing there. Whence the ocean river, commanded to water it continually, passing through the middle, proceeding from it and dividing itself into four heads, carries and delivers the dust and the fallen leaves to the Indians and Ethiopians; and being joined together, the Phison and the Gehon always overflow their fields, until they are again divided, the one irrigating the Libyan region, the other the Egyptian land.

^D 11. Creation, they say, was not fashioned as fluid, or in other words, corruptible, at first; but afterward, having been corrupted and subjected to vanity, according to the Scripture, that is, to man; not willingly, but unwillingly, for the sake of Him who subjected it in hope of the renewal of the corrupted Adam. Having renewed and sanctified him, even if he bears a corruptible body for the sake of the temporary life, He also renewed it, not yet having freed it from corruption. But regarding the deliverance of creation from corruption, some say it is the changing for the better, others the total transformation of sensible things. For it is the custom of Scripture simply

but ^A not subtly, to affirm regarding things that are until now difficult, and without curiosity.

12. Those who receive grace as if conceiving and pregnant from the Holy Spirit, either cast out the divine seed through falls, or become widowed from God through communion with the enemy lurking within them. And the falling away of grace happens through the activity of the passions, while the total deprivation happens through the habit of sins; for a soul that loves the passions and loves sin, being deprived and cast off from grace and widowed, will be a dwelling place for passions—if I should not say for demons—now and in the future.

13. It does not make anger cheerful and gentle as fortitude and mercy do: the one crushing those without, the other those within, as if by siege engines.

14. Many who perform the ^B commandments seem to be traveling, but they have not yet reached the city; they remain outside. For those who secretly take up the exits of the royal ways—that is, the vices neighboring the virtues—walk foolishly; for the commandments require neither deficiency nor excess, but indeed a goal pleasing to God and a will intent on God alone; otherwise, the labor is in vain, and the ways are not straight, according to Scripture: for in every work the goal of the deed is sought.

15. In the way, that is, through the commandments, seek the Lord in your heart. For when you hear John crying out and commanding everyone to prepare the ways and ordering them to make the paths straight, understand this to mean the ^C commandments, the hearts, and the actions; for it is impossible to make the way of the commandments straight and the action blameless, unless there is heart-rectitude.

16. When you hear Scripture speaking of a rod and a staff, regarding the prophetic word, understand them to be judgment and providence, but regarding the moral word, psalmodia and prayer. For when we are punished by the Lord with the rod of discipline, we are corrected toward conversion; but we support ourselves while correcting our adversaries with the staff of patient psalmodia and ^D prayer. Therefore, holding the staff and the rod in the hand of spiritual actions, let us not cease to correct and be corrected until we are entirely under providence, having escaped judgment, both the present and the future.

17. It is proper to the commandments always to prefer the comprehensive commandment, which is the memory of God, saying: "Remember the Lord your God at all times." For through that by which they perished, through this they can also be kept. For forgetfulness destroyed the divine memory from the beginning, obliterating the commandments, and thus it showed man completely naked.

18. In two commandments, the strugglers return again to their ancient dignity, namely through obedience and abstinence; for from these contraries, all evil entered into the race of mortals. And those who by obedience

keep the commandments, ^A return to God most swiftly; but those who do so by fasting and prayer, more slowly. Indeed, obedience is appropriate for beginners, while fasting is for the intermediate, the gnostic, and the strong. For to preserve obedience through the commandments to God unadulterated is for very few, and is laborious even for the strong themselves.

19. The law of the Spirit of life resides, according to the Apostle, in the one who works and speaks in the heart; just as the law of the letter resides in the one who works in the flesh. For the former liberates the mind from the law of sin and death; but the latter, unawares, acts the Pharisee, performing and understanding the law carnally, and working the commandments only to be seen.

20. ^B The structure of all the commandments, fitted together and harmonized in the Spirit, is called a perfect man, or one becoming imperfect according to progress; and the commandments are as a body; the virtues, as the habits of qualities, are bones; and grace, as a living soul, moving and working as a body to the energies of the commandments. For negligence or zeal towards the maturity of Christ shows [one to be] a child or a perfect man, both now and in the future.

21. He who wishes to grow the body of the commandments must hasten to desire the rational and pure milk of maternal grace; for thence is suckled and nourished everyone who seeks in Christ and desires to be increased in growth. For wisdom, as milk, gives forth heat from her own breasts for growth; but [she gives] honey as food to the perfect, her own joy for purification. "Honey," he says, "and milk are under thy tongue." Solomon signified the nutritive and augmentative power by milk, and the cleansing power of the Spirit by honey. But the great Apostle, hinting at the diversity of these energies, said: "I have fed you with milk as infants, and not with meat" (I Cor. III, 2).

22. He who seeks the words of the commandments without the commandments themselves, and desires to find them through learning or reading, is like one who imagines a shadow instead of the truth; for the words of the truth are shared by those who are partakers of the truth, whereas those who are devoid of and uninitiated in the truth, by seeking the words, find those of a darkened wisdom, which the Apostle called "soulish," not having the Spirit, even if they boast in the truth.

23. ^D As the sensible eye looks toward the letter, and from the letter receives sensible thoughts, so the mind, when it is purified and returns to its ancient dignity, looks to God, and from Him receives divine thoughts; and instead of a book, it possesses the Spirit, and instead of a pen, the mind and the tongue—"My tongue," he says, "is a pen" (Ps. XLIV, 2)—and instead of ink, the light. Immersing the mind, therefore, in the light, and making it luminous, it writes spiritual words in the pure hearts of those who listen. Then it recognizes what is said: how the faithful are to be

taught by God, and how God teaches man knowledge, according to the prophecy, in the Spirit.

24. Consider the faith that is effectively produced in the heart to be the immediate rule of the commandments; for through it every commandment springs forth and works the illumination of souls, the fruits of which, through true and effective faith, are temperance, charity, and finally, God-given humility, which is the beginning and strength of charity.

25. To perceive the glory of existing things is true knowledge of visible and invisible things: of the visible, that is, of sensible things; and of the invisible, of intelligible, rational, spiritual, and divine things.

26. The definition of orthodoxy is to behold the two dogmas of the faith with purity and to know from it the Trinity, I say, and the Duality: to behold and know the Trinity in Unity, without confusion and indivisibly; and the Duality of the natures of Christ in one Person—that is to say, one Son, both before the incarnation and after the incarnation, to be confessed and glorified in two natures and two wills, divine and human, without confusion. ^B

27. It is necessary to confess piously the generation, unbegottenness, and procession, the three immovable and unchangeable properties of the all-holy Trinity: namely, the Father, unbegotten and without beginning; the Son, begotten and co-unoriginate; and the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father through the Son (as the Damascene says) and given as co-eternal with both. ^C

28. Faith informed by grace alone suffices for salvation, provided we keep it through the commandments, and do not prefer a dead and unformed faith to that which is living and formed in Christ. Indeed, for the faithful, the form and life of faith working in Christ suffices. For ignorance now teaches the pious that faith placed in word alone is dead and lifeless, and not the faith that is in grace.

29. Since the Trinity is a simple unity, being without quality and composition: for God is three-personed in unity, having an interpenetration into one another that is completely unconfused.

30. God is known and spoken of in everything in a Trinitarian way; for He is infinite, and the preserver and provider of all things, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit; and there is no one who is named or thought of outside of or apart from the others, wherever He may be named. ^D

31. Just as in man there is mind, and word, and spirit, and neither is mind without word, nor word without spirit, and they are both in one another and by themselves—for the mind speaks through the word, and the word is manifested through the spirit—according to this pattern, man bears a dim image of the ineffable and archetypal Trinity, revealing that he was originally made according to this image.

32. For the mind is the Father, the word is the Son

^A and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit; thus the God-bearing Fathers teach, explaining the supersubstantial and supernatural Trinity, and, delivering to us the one God in three hypostases as the true faith and anchor of hope. For to know one God is, according to Scripture, the root of immortality, and to know the power of the tri-hypostatic unity is complete righteousness. Or, furthermore, one must understand the evangelical saying thus: "This is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God in three hypostases, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ, in two natures and wills."

33. Punishments are various, just as are the rewards of the good; and they are in the underworld, according to the Scripture which says: "In a dark and gloomy land, in a land of eternal darkness, there the sinners dwell before the judgment," and through the sentence they are led into it. For that which is said, "Let sinners be turned into hell," and, "Death shall feed on them," what else are these but the final sentence and eternal damnation?

34. Fire, and darkness, and the worm, and Tartarus represent the general state of pleasure-seeking ^B and the universal ignorance of darkness, and the excitement of lust in everything, and the trembling, and the foul stench of sin, which as pledges and first-fruits of punishments are already being worked out from now on in the souls of sinners, and are manifested through their habits.

35. The habits of passions are pledges of the punishments, just as the acts of virtues are the pledges of the kingdom of heaven. Yet one must understand and call the commandments "acts," and the virtues "habits," just as wickedness, when it persists, is called a "habit."

36. The returns of the rewards are equal, even if to many they appear unequal; for the divine justice grants eternal life to some and eternal punishment to others; but both, having passed the present life either well or ill, shall receive the returns due to their works; and they will receive the quantity or quality of the participation according to the habit and act of the passions or virtues.

37. The lakes of fire are the pleasure-seeking souls, ^C in which, just like a stinking mire, the filth of the passions feeds the sleepless worm of incontinence, the insatiable craving of the flesh, and the snakes and frogs and leeches of evil desires—namely, the foul thoughts and the deadly demons; such a state already from now on presents the pledge of the punishment hereafter.

38. Just as the first-fruits of the punishments are hidden in the souls of sinners, so also the pledges of the good things work and are communicated in the hearts of the righteous through the Spirit; for the kingdom of heaven is a virtuous life, just as damnation is the habit of the passions. ^D

39. Night is coming, according to the word of the Lord, (John XVII, 3)

^A future darkness where no one can work; or, by another interpretation, it is the Antichrist, who is and is called darkness; or further, in a moral sense, it is perpetual negligence, which, like a dark night, kills the soul in the sleep of torpor. For just as night puts everyone to sleep and makes them like the dead, so the night of future darkness makes sinners dead and lifeless through the drunkenness of sorrows.

40. The judgment of this world, of which the Gospel speaks, is the unbelief of the impious, according to the saying: "He who does not believe is already judged" (John III, 18); and it is the judicial trial of Providence for discipline or correction; and the inclination of the will toward good or evil, according to the saying: "The wicked are estranged from the womb" (Ps. LVII, 4). For in unbelief, and discipline, and works, the just judgment of God is then revealed—punishing some, showing mercy to others, and rendering garlands or punishments to others. For the first are altogether unbelievers; the second are indeed believers, but negligent, and therefore they are mercifully chastised; the last, according to whether they have inclined toward good or evil, shall receive their reward. ^B

41. If nature is not guarded or purified, as is its capacity, through the Spirit, it cannot become one body and one spirit with Christ, both now and in the future restoration. For the omnipotent and unifying power of the Spirit is not accustomed to sew the old patching of vices onto a new garment of grace as a supplement. ^C

42. He who has received the gift of the renewal of the Spirit and preserved it will thus be ineffably possessed of supernatural deification. But one who is not already a partaker of grace—not having in himself the form of truth and knowledge, according to the Apostle—will not be one with Christ nor a member of Christ.

43. The kingdom of heaven is like a tabernacle made by God through Moses, for it is divided into two parts by the veil of the world to come. And into the first part all who are priests of grace shall enter; but into the second, as being spiritual, only those who even now, in the darkness of theology, perfectly sacrifice the threefold power of the soul and offer Jesus, the Prince of priests and the High Priest, to the Trinity, are entering into the tabernacle where He was crucified, and are illuminated by His more radiant splendors. ^D

44. The Savior spoke of "many mansions" to indicate the different ascents and advancements of the state there; for while the kingdom is one, it has many differences within it, so that there are, as it were, heavenly and earthly ones, according to the virtue and knowledge and the measure of deification they possess. For "there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, and star from star"

differs in clarity, as the Apostle says, even though they all shine in one divine firmament.

45. ^B He becomes for a little while like the angels, and incorporeal, as an incorruptible one, having cleansed the mind through tears, and having raised up the soul from this point by the Spirit, and having made the flesh, by the Word, a light-like and fiery image of divine beauty—his naturally clay-like statue; for the incorruption of bodies is a deficiency of humors and density.

46. The body of incorruption will be earthly, without humors and density, transformed ineffably from a psychic to a spiritual body, so as to be both earthly and heavenly by the subtleness of deification; for as it was fashioned from the beginning, such will it rise again, so that it may be conformed to the image of the Son of man, according to the complete participation in deification.

47. The kingdom of heaven is the land of the meek, or the God-man habit of the Son, into which we have stepped or are stepping, having received the birth of adoption by grace, and the renewal through the resurrection; or again, the holy land is the deified nature, or perhaps this land itself, purified for those who dwell in it, having been promoted to such a dignity; or in another sense, the land reserved for those who are truly holy is the incomprehensible security and divine peace, in which the generation of the just will be settled, with nothing among created things disturbing or enticing them. ^C

48. The land of promise is dispassion, through which honey and milk gush forth: the joy of the Spirit.

49. In the age to come, the saints speak among themselves mystically the inner word, uttered in the Holy Spirit.

50. If we do not know what kind of beings God made us, we shall not recognize what kind sin made us.

51. They are equal according to their age in the Spirit, as many as have received the fullness of the perfection of Christ from this point onward.

52. Where there are labors, there are their rewards; but the quantity or quality, that is, what the measure is, the order, and the status, ^D shows there by participation.

53. Minds, that is, like the angels, he says, shall the sons of the resurrection of Christ be, the saints in incorruption and deification.

54. In the age to come, the angels and the saints, they say, progressing in the addition of gifts, will never stop or give way, having an eager longing for goods; for that age does not have a slackening or a diminution from virtue into vice.

55. Consider a perfect man now to be one who has received the likeness of the growth of Christ as a pledge, but the power of deification shows one to be perfect in the age to come.

^A

57. True glory is said to be knowledge, or spiritual contemplation, or an accurate discernment of dogmas, and the recognition of the true faith.

58. Rapture of the mind is the total elevation of the soul’s powers towards the recognized and unified splendour of the supreme Majesty; or again, it is the pure and perfect stretching out towards the infinite light of glory. Ecstasy, however, is not only the snatching up of the faculties of the soul towards heaven, but also a complete ecstasy (standing out) from the senses themselves; and the double ecstatic love inebriates the spirit and exceeds all desire. ^B

59. Properly speaking, there are two ecstatic loves in the spirit: the cordial and the ecstatic. The one belongs to those who are still being illuminated, the other to those who have been perfected in love. Both, however, draw the soul in which they work away from the senses; for divine love is the inebriation of the spirit, raising natural thoughts to a better state and taking away the habits of the senses.

60. The principle and cause of thoughts is memory; which, being one and simple, was torn asunder by man’s sin, and having lost the remembrance of God, it became complex from being simple, and divided from being one, and was denuded of its proper powers. ^C

61. The remedy for this original memory—from the evil, soul-destroying memory of thoughts—is the return to its ancient simplicity. For disobedience, the instrument of wickedness, not only corrupted the soul’s simple memory of the good, but also corrupted all its powers, suppressing its natural movements towards virtue. But the memory is healed primarily by the divine memory, firmly established through prayer, which, from being according to nature, is commingled with the spirit into what is above nature.

62. The causes of passions are the actions according to sin; of thoughts, the passions; of imaginings, the thoughts; and of notions, memory; of memory, forgetfulness; and of forgetfulness, ignorance, the mother of sloth. Sloth gives birth to the appetite of desire; the mother of desires is the movement of inclination; of movement, the activity of action; ^D and action is an irrational longing for evil, and a disposition towards sensible things and the senses.

63. In the rational part are the thoughts; in the irascible, the beastly passions; in the concupiscible, the memory of beastly appetite; in the spirit, the forms of phantasms; in the intellect, ideas arise and work.

64. A river-like stream is the coming of evil thoughts, in which the assault, and the consent to sin that follows it, becomes like an overflowing flood, covering the heart.

65. By the mire of the abyss, understand either the moist pleasure, or the filth of fornication, or the burden of material things, by which the passionate mind, being weighed down, [is overwhelmed in the abyss].

^A

66. The Scripture often calls thoughts the “reasons” (λόγους) of things, just as it calls concepts “reasons,” and reasons “concepts” in turn. This happens because the movement of such things is indeed immaterial in itself, but it is informed and transformed by objects; and thus, what stirs through appearance is recognized and named.

67. ^B Evil thoughts are the words of demons and the precursors of the passions, just as words and thoughts are of actions. For no one can do a good or evil deed without first having had his own thought stirred, since a thought is an unformed movement excited by any objects whatsoever.

68. The matter of things generates simple thoughts, while diabolical suggestion crafts wicked ones. Therefore, natural reasons and thoughts differ from those that are contrary to nature and those that are above nature, when compared to one another.

69. There is a mutual, indivisible interaction: natural ones are turned toward those that are contrary to nature, and those that are according to nature are turned toward those that are above nature. Moreover, they are converted into each other and are engendered; material ones into demoniacal, and those that are from commotion into those that are from matter. Likewise, natural ones give birth to divine ones, and those according to nature to those that are above nature. For everything has a fourfold cause by which its change into what is related to it is promoted and procreated.

70. ^C Note that the causes of thoughts are set forth; of phantasms, the thoughts; of the passions, the phantasms; and of the demons, the passions; as a certain chain and order in the disorderly spirits, which are cunningly linked, the one hanging from the other. Yet nothing acts in and of itself, but is acted upon by demons; nor is a phantasm formed, nor does a passion act, without the secret, furtive power of the demons. For even though Satan has fallen, crushed, he is nonetheless stronger, exulting in our sloth against us.

71. ^D Demons form our mind—or rather, they are formed according to us—and they attack us according to the disposition of the passion that is dominant and active in the soul. For the demons possess the disposition of the passion as a cause for the formation of images. Therefore, they show us various and multiform phantasms while we are awake and while we sleep. For the demons of concupiscence transform themselves: sometimes into swine, sometimes into asses, sometimes into horses, ardent and inflamed for mating, and sometimes into Hebrews, [who are] most luxurious. The demons of wrath [transform themselves] sometimes into heathens, sometimes into lions. Those of fear, into Ishmaelites; those of incontinence, into Idumaeans; those of drunkenness and intemperance, into Saracens; those of greed, sometimes into wolves, sometimes into leopards; those of malice, sometimes into serpents,

^A sometimes into vipers, and sometimes into foxes; those of shamelessness, into dogs; those of listlessness, into cats. Sometimes, even those of fornication are transformed by the aerial demons—who are especially prone to such changes—sometimes into serpents, sometimes into crows and rooks, and sometimes into birds. Imagination possesses the cause of this in a threefold manner, altering the forms of the spirits according to the tripartite nature of the soul, so that the imagination itself becomes threefold—taking the form of birds, wild beasts, and cattle—corresponding to the concupiscible, irascible, and rational powers of the soul. For the three leaders of the passions always arm themselves against these three powers, and toward whichever passion the soul inclines, they shape themselves to us and approach us in accordance with that affinity. ^B

72. The demons of pleasure often invade us like fire and coals; for the spirits of luxury inflame the concupiscible power and, disturbing the discursive power, darken the soul; for pleasure, being the cause of burning, turmoil, and darkness, is properly the source of the passions.

73. The night of the passions is the darkness of ignorance; night is also the dominant state in which passions are born, in which the prince of darkness reigns, and in which the wild beasts of the field, the birds of the sky, and the reptiles of the earth—the spirits figuratively so called—roar, seeking to snatch us as their prey.

74. At times, thoughts precede the operation of the passions, and at times they follow. Thoughts indeed ^C precede phantasies, but passions follow the phantasies; and as for the demons, the passions precede them, but the demons follow the passions.

75. The beginning and cause of the passions is misuse; of misuse, [the cause is] turning; of turning, the inclination of the volitional state; the test of the will is temptation; and the authors of temptation are the demons, permitted by Providence to demonstrate what our free will truly is.

76. The venom of the sting of sin towards death is the passionate habit of the soul; for he who willingly becomes imbued with the passions possesses a state of mind that is fixed and unchangeable.

77. Passions are described in many ways, and they are divided into bodily and soul-related. Bodily [passions] are subdivided into painful and sinful; the painful are again distinguished into those that cause sickness and those that are ^D penal. Soul-related [passions], in turn, are divided into the irascible, the concupiscible, and the rational; the rational are subdivided into those of phantasy and those of the discursive intellect. Of these, some are voluntary, arising from misuse, while others are necessary and involuntary, such as the passions called blameless, which the Fathers have termed concomitants and natural properties.

78. The bodily passions are one thing, and the soul-related another; those of the concupiscible power are different, and those of the irascible are different; those of the rational are different, and those of the intellect and discursive reason are different. Yet they commune with one another, and some work together with others: the bodily [passions] towards the...

^A passions of the irascible [part], of the rational and intellect, and those of the intellect and thought and memory.

79. The passions of the irascible power are anger, bitterness, shouting, irascibility, audacity, arrogance, vainglory, and whatever else [there may be]. Of the concupiscible, [they are] covetousness, licentiousness, incontinence, insatiability, desire for pleasure, love of money, and self-love, which is the most grievous of all. The passions of the flesh are fornication, adultery, uncleanness, debauchery, injustice, gluttony, listlessness, frivolity, worldliness, love of life, and whatever else [there may be]. Those of the rational part are unbelief, blasphemy, malice, craftiness, curiosity, double-mindedness, railings, backbiting, condemnation, contempt, buffoonery, hypocrisy, lying, foul language, foolish talk, guile, irony, flattery, man-pleasing, distraction, perjury, idle chatter, and the rest. Those of the intellect are conceit, elation, boastfulness, strife, jealousy, self-satisfaction, gainsaying, disobedience, fantasy, fabrications, vying for display, ambition, pride—which is the first and last of all evils. The passions of the discursive reason are these: wanderings, distractions, captivities, darkening, blindness, ^B enticements, suggestions, consents, leanings, turnings, tossings, and the like. To state it, then, as a summary definition: all evils contrary to nature have been commingled with the three powers of the soul, just as all things good by nature also coexist within them.

80. O the greatness of the utterance of David to God, spoken with amazement! For he was struck with wonder, saying, "Your knowledge is too wonderful for me; I cannot attain to it," for it is stronger and inaccessible, superior to my weak knowledge and power. For how is it that this flesh, incomprehensible in the composition of its formation, having in each species a threefold harmony of its own limbs and members, and being honored by the septenary and binary number—which, according to the arithmeticians, signifies time and nature—is itself, to the glory of God, an instrument indicating the august Trinity, physiologically understood according to the effective laws of nature? ^C

81. Laws of nature are the particular compositions of the participating limbs, which discourse also calls differences, because they are the various parts of their proper attributes. Or again, the law of nature is the operation of each species or limb in potentiality. For just as God moves the entire creation, so the soul moves the limbs of the body and leads each one to its proper operation. One must inquire, then, by what logic the God-bearing men sometimes assert that the irascible and the concupiscible are of the flesh, and at other times that they are powers of the soul. We say that there is no inconsistency in the words of the saints for those who understand them accurately; rather, both are true, and they change the terminology very wisely according to the context, because the body and soul are ineffably fitted for mutual conjunction, so that the soul is already perfect from that starting point, whereas the body is ^D imperfect, being such as grows through nutrition. For the soul, by itself, possesses

an appetitive power of desire and ^A a concupiscible force for courage and love, having been created rational and intellectual from its formation. For irrational anger and mindless desire were not created together with it, just as they were not initially in the body; but the created being was incorruptible and without the humors from which desire and the beast-like anger subsequently followed. For when, through disobedience, man became subject to the corruption and density of irrational animals, of necessity anger and desire also sprouted up within him. This is why it also resists the will of the soul regarding anger and desire whenever it dominates. But when mortality is subordinated to the rational, it follows the soul toward the operation of good things. For when the accretions of the flesh were mingled and became confused with the attributes of the soul, then man became like the beasts, having bowed to the law of sin through the necessity of his nature, and having become a brute from a rational being, and a wild beast from a man.

82. ^B Just as God did not create beast-like anger and desire within the soul—which was created rational through the "breath of life" and intellectual through the life-giving inspiration—but rather a longing appetitive power and, along with it, a courageous power for loving attraction, so too did He not place irrational anger and desire into the body when He fashioned it in the beginning. For it was later, through disobedience, that it took on what is mortal, corruptible, and beast-like, having been changed into the things to which it was assimilated. For the body, the theologians say, was created incorruptible, such as it will also rise again, even though it is capable of receiving corruption, just as the soul is impassible. But since the soul and body are coordinated with each other and interact through a most natural law, both were corrupted and confused: the former having been dyed by the passions, or rather by the demons; ^C and the latter having been made like irrational beasts through the energy of its condition and the mastery of corruption. And when the powers of both became one, they produced one irrational and mindless beast, shaped by anger and desire; and thus, according to Scripture, man was compared to the beasts and became like them in every way.

83. The beginning and origin of the virtues is a good intention, or rather the longing for the good; just as God is the cause and source of every good thing. The beginning of the good is faith, or rather Christ, the rock of faith, whom we have as the beginning and foundation of all the virtues, upon whom we have stepped and in whom we build every good. He is the cornerstone connecting us to Himself, and the precious pearl; seeking this, the monk who enters into the depths of stillness sells all his own wills and subjects them to the commands, that from them he might acquire it. ^D

84. The virtues possess equality with one another, and all are gathered into one, and they fulfill one limit and one form of virtue. For there are virtues, and there are virtues that are greater than others, as they are comprehensive and contain the many, or even all of them; such as divine love, and humility, and divine patience. For the Lord says concerning it: "In your patience possess ye your souls" (Luc. XXI, 19); and He did not say: "In

your fasting, or in your vigils." But I am speaking of that patience which is according to God, the queen of virtues, the foundation of noble deeds. For this is it, this is peace in wars, serenity in storm, an unshaken seat for those who possess it; and if anyone has attained it in Christ Jesus, neither weapons and darts, nor the assault of soldiers, nor the very battle line of demons, nor the dark companies of enemies will be able to harm him.

85. Although virtues may generate one another, they have their origin from the three faculties of the soul, apart from the theological [virtues]. For ^B the cause and beginning of the four general virtues, among those that are natural and divine, from which and in which the rest consist—namely, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice—is the divine, Spirit-moved wisdom of the theologians, which is moved in four ways according to the mind. It does not produce them all at once, but each one separately at its proper time, as it wills: one as light; another as a sharp and unceasingly moving impulse [of power]; another as a sanctifying and purifying power; and another as a dew of purity, gladdening and cooling the burning of the passions. As it has been said, it grants to each person, as he is perfect, a perfection and its operation according to the change of state.

86. The practice of virtues out of one's own zeal does not bestow a perfect soundness of soul unless these come substantially into the state [of the soul] through grace. For ^C each has its own proper charisma and operation according to itself, so that it may be able, even when [men] are unwilling, to draw those who share in it toward itself by the state and nature of the good. And when it is given to us, it is kept firm and immutable from that time forward. For they possess the grace of the Spirit as a living soul, as it were, in their own members, for the purpose of actuating them. Therefore, the whole band of virtues is naturally dead without it; and in those who seem to have and possess them, they are nothing but mere shadows and images of the good, and not the truth itself which it portrays.

87. There are, then, four general virtues: fortitude, prudence, temperance, and justice; and there are eight that follow closely ^D upon them by way of excess and defect, which are called and reckoned as evils by us, but as goods by those in the world. And to fortitude there follow audacity and timidity; to prudence, craftiness and ignorance; to temperance, profligacy and stupidity; to justice, greed and injustice, or deficiency. For virtues are mean, not only the general and natural ones, which are above every defect and excess, but also the practical ones. And some have the will as a cooperator for their purpose through the rectitude of the mind, while others have [only] inclination and pride. That virtues stand in the mean of rectitude is testified by the Proverb saying: "And thou shalt direct all [thy] good paths" (Prov. IV, 26). All are therefore established in the three faculties of the soul, in which they are generated and constructed, having as the foundation of their construction the four general

qualities of the soul, or rather Christ, so that the natural ones are purified by the practical virtues, while the divine and supernatural ones are infused by the kindness of the Spirit.

88 88. Some of the virtues are practical, others are moral, and others are theological and infused by the Spirit. The practical ones proceed from the will; the moral ones, from constitution; the theological ones, from grace.

89 89. Just as our soul possesses the generation of the virtues, in the same way it possesses that of the passions; but it is accustomed to bring forth some according to nature, and others contrary to nature. For the soul possesses the inclination of the will as the cause and origin for the generation of good or evil, just as a needle is to the lines on a dial, or the tongue of a balance; ^B wherever it turns, it takes this as its fellow-worker and acts. For the purpose (*prothesis*) is the subject for both kinds of operations, since it carries both the one and the other within itself: the former in their generation, and the latter by the self-willed inclination of the will.

90. Scripture calls the virtues "virgins" because of the consolidating union they form with the soul, and because they are contemplated as one spirit and one flesh with it. For the beauty of a maiden is a symbol of love, and the appearance of these holy virgins is a proof of chastity and purification. For it is the habit of grace to transform divine things into that for which they were made, and it is naturally disposed to conform them, indeed, to their kindred state, insofar as it is possible, in those who are able to receive them.

^C 91. There are, then, as it were, eight leaders of the passions: three are the great ones—gluttony, greed, and vainglory—and five are their followers: fornication, anger, sorrow, listlessness (*acedia*), and pride. Thus, there are also the three virtues that encompass the opposites of these: poverty, temperance, and humility; and with them are those that follow these: chastity, meekness, joy, self-contempt, and the whole series of virtues. But to learn and to know the power, strength, and fragrance of each virtue or vice is not for anyone who wishes, but for him who acts and suffers in word and deed, and who has received from the Spirit the gifts of knowledge and discernment.

92. Some virtues act, while others are acted upon. And these act within us, standing by when it is fitting, and when, as much as, and in the manner that they will; whereas we act according to our own prompting and our own moral habit. Furthermore, those are substantial, while we are, as it were, marked by a moral character; inasmuch as the fashioning of all our works compared with those archetypes is merely a figure, because spiritual things are substantially communicated to very few before the incorruptible possession of the future life. For we now perform and receive labors and images, not properly the virtues.

93. According to Paul [Rom. XV, 16], he who participates in the Gospel performs priestly service and is able to communicate to others, by his operation, the light

of Christ. For he casts the Word as a kind of divine seed into the fields of the souls of those who hear. “Let your speech,” it is said [Col. IV, 6], “be seasoned with the grace of divine goodness, that it may give grace to those who hear in faith.” By calling the teachers and those being taught at other times farmers and the farmland, the Apostle clearly shows that some are as it were the tillers and sowers of the divine word, while others are as it were a prosperous, fruitful, and heavy-eared field. For true and proper priestly service is not only the operation of divine things, but also the participation and communication of good things.

94. ^B The word that comes forth through utterance for the purpose of teaching is varied, and is gathered in diverse ways from many modes, from four kinds: one from learning, another from reading, another from practice, and another from grace. And just as water is one in its nature, but is transformed and altered according to the diverse character of the soil beneath it into a particular quality, so that it is estimated by taste—this one bitter, that one sweet, another salty and acidic—so the word, coming forth and being altered according to the moral disposition of each person, is known by its operation and brings forth benefit.

95. Since the word is given for the enjoyment of every rational nature, just as many different kinds of food, the soul perceives and senses their pleasure in diverse ways. For it has the word of knowledge as a tutor forming it in character; the word of reading as water of rest nourishing it; the word of practice as a meadow of thick grass; the word of grace as a cup inebriating and gladdening it; and its ineffable rejoicing as oil, making the face cheerful and bright.

96. ^C Truly the soul possesses these not only in itself as life, but it also senses them when it hears them from others who teach, whenever love and faith in both take the lead; and one hears in faith, while the other teaches in love, speaking of the virtues without vanity or vainglory. For it receives the word from learning as a tutor; the word from reading as food; the word from practice as something innate, like a most pleasant groomsman; and the word of the Spirit, the illuminator, as the bridegroom, the word that unites it to Him, the one that gladdens it. For every word proceeding through the mouth is of God ^D—the words that have come forth through the Spirit from the mouths of the saints, the most sweet-tasting inspiration of the Spirit through operation, which not all enjoy, but only the worthy. And since rational beings have the word as food, here those who are clearly gladdened by the things of the Spirit are very few; the many know and participate in only the types of spiritual words through memory, not having yet participated in the bread of the divine word of the future in sensation. For it alone is set forth there for the sufficient pleasure of all those who are worthy, neither being eaten, nor spent, nor ever consumed.

1271 GREGORII SINAITAE 1272

97. It is impossible to taste divine delights without spiritual perception. ^A For just as he who has dulled his senses has rendered them incapable of feeling, so that he neither sees, nor hears, nor smells, being inert or rather half-dead; so too he who has deadened the natural powers of the soul through the passions has made them devoid of perception and incapable of the activity and participation in the mysteries of the Spirit. For he who does not see, hear, and perceive spiritually is dead, because Christ does not live in him, nor does He Himself move and act within him.

98. ^B Some have the same mode of operation for the senses and the powers of the soul, especially when they are in a healthy state. For by them these both live and act, and the vital Spirit is mingled with both. For a man is truly sick when he incurs the general weakness of the passions, lying forever in the infirmary of sloth. The senses clearly perceive sensible things, while the powers of the soul perceive spiritual things, especially when there is no satanic impulse within them resisting the law of the mind and spirit. But when they are united into one through the Spirit and become of one mind, then they immediately and substantially know the nature of divine and human things, perceive their reasons thoroughly, and contemplate as purely as possible the one cause of all things, the Trinity.

99. ^C First of all, the hesychast must have as a foundation upon which to build the edifice of his work these five virtues: silence, temperance, vigil, humility, and perseverance. The works by which he honors God are three: psalmody, prayer, and reading, and in addition manual labor, if he is infirm. For the aforementioned virtues not only contain all others but also support one another. From daybreak he should meditate on God with prayer and the recollection of the heart; he must pray continuously at the first hour; at the second, read; at the third, sing psalms; at the fourth, pray; at the fifth, read; at the sixth, sing psalms; at the seventh, pray; at the eighth, read; at the ninth, sing psalms; at the tenth, eat; at the eleventh, sleep, if there be need; at the twelfth, sing the evening office. And thus, having traversed the course of the day well, he is pleasing to God. ^D It behooves one to gather the most useful things, and thus, by taking a little from all, to make a great accumulation of good works, from which the honey of wisdom is distilled for the exultation of souls.

101. Learn also, if you wish, how to pass the duration of the night. There are three ways of watching at night: for beginners, for the intermediate, and for the perfect. The first way is this: to sleep half the night and watch half, whether from evening until midnight, or from midnight until daybreak. The second way is this: to keep vigil from evening for one or two hours, then to sleep for four hours; then to rise for the struggle, singing psalms and praying for six hours until daybreak; then to sing the first hour of the day

^A and to sit in silence, as was said before; and either to regulate ones’s actions by the hours, or to keep the sequence of prayer without ceasing, by which the one who regulates his life is formed. The third rule of life is to spend the whole night without sleep and in a state of watchfulness.

102. Concerning sustenance, we affirm that one pound of bread is sufficient for everyone who strives toward stillness; let him drink two cups of pure wine and three of water. Let him be fed with whatever food is available, not using what nature greedily desires, but what Providence offers. For those, therefore, who wish to live perfectly, the direct and short way is to keep three works by which the virtues are maintained: namely, abstinence, prayer, and watchfulness, which establish everything on a most firm foundation.

103. ^B Stillness before all things requires faith and endurance, and [love] from the whole heart, and strength, and power, and hope. For he who believes, even if perchance he now misses the mark through negligence or some other cause, it is impossible for him not to bear at the end of life abundant fruit of faith and struggle, and to see his freedom, which is Jesus Christ, the liberator and savior of souls, the God-man Word. But he who does not believe will certainly be condemned at his departure; and he is already judged, says the Lord. For the one who serves pleasures and seeks glory from men, and not that which is from God, is an unbeliever, he says; and even if such a one seems to be a believer in word, he has deceived himself unawares. For he will hear: "Because you did not receive me in your heart, but cast me behind your back, I also will thrust you away." The faithful man must therefore have good hope, and believe the truth of God, which all the Scriptures testify, yet confess his own infirmity, lest he incur a double and inexorable judgment.

104. ^C For a contrite heart and a humbled soul nothing is as conducive as a life that is interiorly mystical and utterly silent. Nor is there anything else that properly so disturbs the state of stillness and takes from it the divine power, as these six capital vices: excessive liberty, servitude to the belly, talkativeness, busyness, vanity, and the queen of passions, pride. He who has become accustomed to studying these, and has progressed more and more in them, becomes utterly blind and devoid of sense. Yet if he raises himself up again, beginning the work with faith and diligence, he will reach the goal again, especially if he seeks it with humility. ^D If, however, one of the aforementioned passions reigns in him through negligence, then the whole series of evils, rushing in with deadly unbelief, makes the soul desolate, which, like another city of Babylon, is surrendered to the turmoils and tumults of demons, so that its last state becomes worse than the first, and a hostile and angry enemy becomes a witness against those who live in stillness, and ever sharpens their tongue against them like a sword, and like a two-edged blade.

^A Mired and turbulent waves of the passions, like the sea, flooding the soul, can be crossed in no other way than in the light and swift vessel of universal poverty and temperance. For the torrents of the passions, flowing out from intemperance and greed onto the land of the heart, and bringing with them all the rottenness and filth of evil thoughts, perturb the mind, defile the intellect, and weigh down the body; and to such an extent do they drive the soul and heart into negligence, darkness, and torpor that they no longer possess themselves according to nature, nor do they feel.

106. Nothing renders the soul of those who struggle so slothful, listless, and senseless as self-love, which is truly the tinder of the passions. For when one prefers the body’s rest to the labors of virtue, and considers it a salutary knowledge not to labor or to work willingly, especially in the easy and light works of the commandments, this is wont to render the soul listless for traversing the stadium of stillness, and produces a great and unconquerable sloth in one’s works.

107. The excellent and primary medicine for those who are sick—to easily vomit up the muddy darkness they have imbibed from the way of the commandments—is to obey in all things indiscriminately and with faith. For it is a life-giving potion that germinates many virtues in those who drink it, and a scalpel that cleanses the scars of ^B wounds with a single stroke; if anyone knows how to use it in faith and simplicity, he cuts off all the passions at once, and not only attains stillness, but has already attained it through obedience, because he has found Christ, and becomes, and is called, His imitator and servant.

108. One living without the work of mourning cannot endure the heat of stillness. For he who mourns and meditates upon the terrible preludes and consequences of death before they themselves arrive, will possess constancy and humility, which are the two foundations of stillness. But he who lives a quiet life without these, ever nourishes pride along with negligence, from which temptations and distractions pullulate and drive us to torpor. Hence, the daughter of sloth, intemperance, renders the body listless and weak, and darkens and hardens the mind. Then Jesus hides Himself, because the place of the mind is fouled with turbulent thoughts.

109. To feel the torment ^C of conscience, whether of the present or of the future, is impossible for all. For it uniquely befalls only those to whom glory or love is lacking, or is about to be lacking. For it is as a dire enemy punishing the guilty in many ways, and it appears as a tyrant, ever drawing a goad and reproach as an unbreakable sword. Therefore, when our conscience pricks us, we are bound to move in a threefold way—against our adversaries, our nature, and our soul—that which is called zeal, and by others is called natural anger; they command us to whet this against our enemies like a sharp sword. And if it conquers, and dualism ^D

subjects it to unity, the soul then, having attained the pinnacle of fortitude, ascends to God. If, however, the soul is subjected to duality—that is to say, to sin and to the flesh—thence follows for it a cruel torment, so that it is reduced to full subjection to its enemies. Whence, committing most base acts and losing the condition acquired through virtues, it falls away, separated from God.

^B 110. Before all other passions, there are two most harsh and profound ones, namely luxury and acedia, which wrap and dissolve the miserable soul; they have such a connection and necessity between them that they can in no way be fought, overcome, or vanquished by us. The former indeed abounds in the concupiscible power, and embraces the whole substance of both natures, I mean of soul and flesh, having its pleasure mixed thoroughly into all the members; the latter, however, mastering the higher rational part, and encircling the whole soul and flesh like ivy, makes the nature sluggish, lazy, and dissolute. But they are removed, although not entirely overcome before blessed impassibility, whenever the soul, having received the power of the Holy Spirit in prayer, finds joy in the relaxation, strength, and deep peace it brings to the heart through stillness. This is the leader, and queen, and mistress, and mother of pleasures—that luxury—and its companion, laziness, is the impregnable chariot conveying the commanders of Pharaoh; for through them the impulses of the passions rush upon our most miserable life.

^C 111. The beginning of mental prayer is the energy, or rather the purgative power of the Spirit, and the mystical priestly service of the intellect: just as the beginning of stillness is the recollection of the mind. Its middle, however, is the illuminative power and contemplation; and its end is the ecstasy and rapture of the mind toward God.

112. The mental sanctuary is, before the future enjoyment that is beyond the intellect, the intellectual energy of the mind, mystically sacrificing and participating in the mystical Lamb in the Spirit of God upon the altar of the soul. But to eat the Lamb of God in the mental altar of the soul is not merely to understand or participate in Him, but also to become like the Lamb in form in the future age. For here indeed we hope to grasp the reasons of the mysteries, but there the realities themselves.

^D 113. Prayer is, to beginners, as a fire of joy springing up from the heart; but to the perfect, as a light diffusing a fragrant odor. Or again, prayer is the Apostles’ preaching, the energy of faith, or rather, faith unmediated; the substance of things hoped for, formed charity, angelic movement, the power of incorporeal beings, their work and joy, the Gospel of God, the confidence of the heart, the hope of salvation, the sign of purity, the symbol of holiness, the knowledge of God, the baptismal character, the cleansing laver; the pledge of the Holy Spirit, the exultation of Christ, the joy of the soul, the mercy of God, the sign of reconciliation, the seal of Christ, the ray of the spiritual sun,

^B the daystar of hearts, the confirmation of Christianity, the manifestation of God's reconciliation; the grace of God, the wisdom of God, or rather the beginning of wisdom itself; the revelation of God, the work of monks, the rule of life for those who live in stillness, the occasion of stillness, the proof of an angelic manner of life. And what need is there to say many things? Prayer is God himself, who works all things in all, because the operation of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is one, who works all things in Christ Jesus.

114. If Moses had not received the rod of power from God, he would not have become as God to Pharaoh, so as to strike him and Egypt. In the same way, the mind, if it does not partake of the power of prayer in its hand, is unable to crush sin and the opposing powers.

115. Those who say or do anything without humility are like those building in winter or without mortar. But to find and know this through experience and knowledge is something for very few. For those who discourse about it in words are like those measuring the abyss. We, however, like blind men, imagining a small thing about this great light, say: True humility neither utters humble words, nor assumes a humble manner, nor forces itself to think humbly, nor disparages itself while being humbled. Even though these are occasions and forms of humility, as various patterns of it, yet it is a grace and a gift from above. ^C There are two kinds of humility, as the Fathers say: to hold oneself beneath everyone, and to ascribe one's successes to God. The former is the beginning, the latter the perfection of humility. He who seeks to know and consider this must have these three things within himself: to be more of a sinner than all men; more shameful than all creatures, in so far as he is against nature; and more miserable than the demons, in that he is a slave to the demons. Thus, therefore, he ought to speak: "For how do I know accurately what and how great are the sins of men? Are they greater than, or equal to, my own sins?" And because of this ignorance, O soul, we are beneath all men, as dust and ashes, and the footstool of their feet. And how should I not hold myself more shameful than all creatures that are according to nature, as they were created, while I, because of my countless iniquities, am against nature? Truly, the wild beasts and the cattle are purer than me, the sinner; and for this reason I am beneath all, as one who has descended into hell even before death, and I lie there. Who does not know and feel in his consciousness that the sinner is worse than the demons, ^D as he is their servant and chattel, and even now, together with them, is shut up in the darkness? Truly you are worse than the demons, you who serve them, and for this reason have been allotted the abyss with them, O most miserable one! Inhabiting earth, and hell, and the abyss even before death, how do you lie to yourself by calling yourself righteous, having made yourself a sinner, and profane, and a demon through your evil works? Alas for your deception and delusion, O enemy of God, unclean dog, for whom, for these reasons, fire and darkness await!

116. Wisdom is moved by the Spirit, according to those who [behold]

^A the theologian, the mental and pure and angelic power of prayer, the sign of which is that, in praying, the mind is seen to be entirely without form, seeing neither itself nor anything else in its swiftness, but having its senses often drawn away by that light. For the mind then becomes immaterial and light-like, ineffably cleaving to God in the unity of the spirit.

117. There are, therefore, seven different ways that prompt and lead to that God-given humility, which contribute to and generate one another: silence, humble sense, humble speech, humble habit, self-reproach, contrition, and the state of being the last of all. Silence, indeed, mystically gives birth to humble sense. And from humble sense arise the three ways of humility: speaking humbly, wearing humble and cheap clothing, and always reproaching oneself. These three ways beget contrition, which comes from the abandonment in temptations, ^B which they also call providential instruction, and humility from the demons. Contrition, however, easily causes the soul to be and to consider itself beneath all, and the last of all, as though being mastered by all. These two ways bring about the perfect and God-given humility, which they call the power and perfection of all virtues; and this [humility] ascribes all virtuous deeds to God. The first of all, therefore, is silence, from which humble sense is born; this then gives birth to the three ways of humility. The three ways beget the one way of contrition; and that of contrition gives birth to the seventh way, being the lowest of all, the first [kind] of humility, which they also call providential humility. This providential [humility] brings forth the God-given, ^C perfect, imageless, and true humility. And indeed, the first comes about in this way: if a man is not abandoned and defeated, becoming enslaved and mastered by every passion and thought, and being overcome by the spirit, and finding no help from works, or from God, or from anyone at all, so that he is near to needing [help], and falls into despair, and, being humbled in all things, he cannot be contrite and hold himself beneath all, and as the last and servant of all, and even worse than the demons themselves, as being tyrannized and defeated by them. And this is the providential humility of Providence, through which the second and lofty [humility] is given by God; which is the divine power that works and does all things. Through it, the person sees himself as an instrument of God ^D always, and through it, the wonders of God are worked.

118. A substantial contemplation of light, spiritual, a mind free from fantasy and [free from] distraction, the true operation of prayer, and that which gushes forth from the midst of the heart, the soul's resurrection and elevation, a divine ecstasy and a soaring of this whole [being], an ecstasy of the intellect in the spirit, total [abstraction] of the senses, a rapture of the mind from its own faculties, an angelic movement of the soul divinely awakened, moving toward the infinite and the upward, is impossible to find in our generation, because the tyranny of the passions reigns in us now, on account of the multitude of temptations. For the mind is naturally inclined especially toward those things that are lighter, such that it imagines them before the time, so that

by losing the small state ^A given to it by God, it may end up dead in relation to everything. Therefore, it is necessary with much discernment neither to seek the things of the time before the time, nor to cast aside those things in hand and imagine other things; for the mind is naturally inclined to easily represent the aforementioned things and to refashion them and to reach out for what it has not attained. Hence there is no small fear that such a person might also be deprived of what has been given, and often lose his sanity, having become deceived, a dreamer, and not a hesychast.

119. Faith is not only grace, but also prayer in action; for it shows true faith to be that which possesses the life of Jesus made manifest, the one working through love in the Spirit; therefore, he who knows not that it is active in him possesses a faith ^B that is the opposite, dead, and lifeless. For one could not truly be called faithful who believes only in bare words and does not have it active through the commandments or the Spirit. It is necessary, therefore, to show it manifest through progress in works, or to have it active in works, shining and luminous, as the divine Apostle says: "Show me your faith from your works, and I will show you my works from my faith," demonstrating from this that the faith of grace is made manifest from the works of the commandments, just as the works of the commandments are performed and shine through the faith of grace. For faith is the root of the commandments, or rather the source by which they are watered and grow. And it is divided into two, namely, confession and grace, although it is by nature indivisible.

120. The great and small and short ladder of those who are in subjection possesses five steps leading toward perfection. ^C The first is renunciation, the second is subjection, the third is obedience, the fourth is humility, the fifth is love, which is God. And renunciation, indeed, raises from Hades him who is lying there, and liberates the one enslaved to matter. Subjection finds Christ and serves Him, as He Himself says: "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there also will My minister be." But where is Christ? Sitting at the right hand of the Father. Therefore, must not the minister also be there, where the One served is, placing his foot toward the ascent and, before ascending in manner, ascending and progressing with Christ? And obedience, being active in the commandments throughout, fashions the ladder from various virtues and arranges these in the soul like ascents; from which ^D the height-creating humility, having taken him up and carrying him aloft toward heaven, delivers him to love, the queen of virtues; and having brought him, presents him to Christ. And thus, through the short ladder, he who is truly obedient ascends easily toward heaven.

121. There is no path more direct to the kingdom above, through the small ladder of virtues, than the removal of the five passions opposed to obedience: I mean disobedience, and gainsaying, and self-complacency, and self-will, and the deadly conceit; for these are

limbs and parts of the rebellious demon, who devours the ^A children of his servants, and reserves them for the Tartarean dragon. Disobedience is the mouth of hell; gainsaying is its tongue, like a sharpened sword; self-complacency is its teeth, sharpened; self-will is its chest; and the breath of its belly is the pride that hauls down to hell. But whoever conquers the former by obedience has cut away the rest in one stroke, and ascends swiftly to the heavens by a single step. It is truly a wonder, and indeed unspeakable and unattainable, that our philanthropic Lord has accomplished this: that by one virtue, or rather by one commandment, one should ascend to the heavens in an instant, just as it was by one act of disobedience that we went down—and still go down—to hell.

122. Just as man is called another, twofold world, and a new one, according to the divine Apostle who said: "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation," ^B for man truly becomes and is named both heaven and earth, and everything that constitutes the world, in accordance with virtue—and he is the object of every word and every mystery, as the Theologian says. Since, as the Apostle has said, "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places of the prince of the air," it is appropriate that, just as in another great world of the nature of our soul's faculties, our adversaries should fight against us in secret. For three princes ^C marshal themselves against those who are struggling, and they fight against the three powers of the soul; and wherever there is progress, wherever there is labor, there they join battle. And indeed the dragon, the prince of the abyss, rises up to fight against those who are attentive with their heart, inasmuch as he has power over the lust of the loins and the navel; and through the voluptuous giant of forgetfulness, hurling the burning powers of his fiery darts against them, he enters into the lust like another sea, and like an abyss, and he creeps in, disturbs, and makes it foamy and hot, and ^D inflames it unto carnal couplings, and floods it with the torrents of pleasures, and, as though he were insatiable, he never fills it. But the prince of this world attacks those who are pursuing the active virtue, since he has the struggle against the irascible part, and through the giant of sloth, as if in another world—or rather a theater and a stadium—he makes the struggle intellectual, whether conquering or being conquered by those who always struggle manfully against him, and procuring for them crowns or shame in the sight of the angels, he continuously arms his battle lines against us, fighting us. But the prince of the air attacks those who are at leisure for contemplation in their mind, acting through fantasies, as he approaches the rational and intellectual part, together with the spirits of the wickedness of the air; and through the giant of ignorance, he disturbs/defiles the upward-striving

^A intellect, clouding it like another rational heaven, and bringing in phantom-like and misty formations of the spirits, along with deceitful transformations; for, as if bringing lightning, thunder, storms, and noises, he induces cowardice. It is clear that each one, by struggling against the tripartite nature of the soul, resists and has gained the battle against that which he is warring against.

125. For since they too were once intellects, and having fallen from that immaturity and subtlety, each one possesses a certain material thickness, being embodied according to the order or operation for which he was made to move. For because they too, like man, have been stripped of the angelic riches and deprived of divine pleasure, they suffer earthly pleasure just as we do, having become in a certain way material by the habits of material passions. Nor is it a wonder, since our own soul, created rational and intellectual in the image of God, has become beastly and senseless, and almost bereft of intellect in the enjoyments of material things, having forgotten God. For habit is accustomed to change nature and to convert action toward a settled choice. ^B And some of the spirits are indeed material, heavy, and burdensome, irascible and vindictive; like wild beasts, they are carnivorous, panting after lust and pleasure, like dogs after blood, showing their love for this by devouring corruption along with spiritual things, having material and thick flesh, pleasure, and a dwelling. Others, however, are lascivious and slippery, like leeches, frogs, and reptiles in a marsh in their lust; and sometimes changing into fish, they slither, as it were tasting the bitter pleasure of incontinence, swimming in the sea of drunkenness; being light and soft by nature and rejoicing in the slipperiness of beastly ^C pleasures, they stir up in the soul waves of foul thoughts, whirlwinds, and tempests. Others again are light and thin; being aerial spirits, they stir up the contemplative power of the soul, casting in images like violent winds; and sometimes transforming themselves into birds and angels, they deceive the soul, presenting themselves to the imagination as if they were gnostics, and changing and transforming every spiritual contemplation in those who are still struggling much, before purity and spiritual discernment. For there is nothing spiritual whose image they do not simulate in the imagination; for they equip themselves according to the state and measure of progress, introducing delusion instead of truth and imagination ^D instead of contemplation. The Scripture speaks of these, signifying and indicating the spirits of wickedness through "the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, and the reptiles of the earth."

124. The revolt of the passions and the war raised by the flesh against the soul occurs in us in five ways. For sometimes the flesh abuses [things] for its own purposes; sometimes it wishes to act against nature as if it were according to nature; and sometimes it is armed by the demons against the soul, as if joyfully forming a friendship with them. There are times when it also becomes disorderly on its own, as it has become hardened by the passions. A war also occurs at the very last, from the demons who attack us through the abuse of humility, when they have accomplished nothing by all the aforementioned means.

^A 125. The primary causes of the war are three, which come upon us from all things and through all things: habit, the abuse of created things, and the envy and war of the demons which occurs by divine permission. In the rebellion and desire of the flesh against the soul, and of the soul against the flesh, the passions of the flesh against the soul and the virtues of the soul against the flesh behave and operate in the same way. The enemy himself also sometimes fights against us rashly and without cause, as he is shameless, emboldened against us. Do not, therefore, O friend, give your arteries to the leech to suck, since it loves blood and can never vomit it up. Nor give earth as food to the serpent and the dragon, and you will easily trample upon the swelling of the lion and the dragon, until, having cast off your groaning, you put on the dwelling from above and the form of Him who created you in His image, Jesus Christ.

^B 126. Those who are truly fleshly in character, and who cling to self-love, are always slaves to pleasure and vainglory; in them envy has taken root. Pining away with jealousy and finding bitterness in the prosperity of their neighbor, they slander good things as if they were evil, and are children of error: they neither embrace nor believe in the things of the Spirit, and because of their little faith, they can neither see nor know God. Such people, because of their blindness and little faith, will justly hear from Him on the day of judgment: "I do not know you." ^C For the faithful lover of truth ought either to believe what he hears but does not know, or to learn what he believes, or to teach what he has come to know, and to multiply the talent abundantly for those who accept it faithfully. But if he refuses to believe what he does not know, and scorns what he has not learned, and teaches what he has not studied, while envying those who practically teach these things, his portion will certainly be with those who possess the gall of bitterness, being condemned.

^D 127. An orator—according to those who are truly wise in discourse—is one who, in summary, encompasses existing things through general knowledge, and, as if it were a single body, both divides and joins them, showing them to have the same power according to both difference and identity; or he is who speaks the truth persuasively. Or, again, a true spiritual orator is he who divides and joins the five general properties of existing things which the Word made flesh assumed, in the encompassing discourse of a single voice—as a mother holding the whole; he does not show these things to others by mere demonstrative speech, as those who are outside [the mystery] do, but is able to illuminate others from those things which he has learned spiritually in his ears or eyes. A true philosopher is one who knows the cause of existing things from the things themselves, or knows the things from the Cause, having attained to an incomprehensible union and immediate faith, having not only learned but also suffered the divine things. Or again, a philosopher is properly the mind [active] in the practical

^A state and living as a citizen; but a perfect philosopher is a mind that has attained ethical, physical, and theological philosophy—or rather, the love of God—and has been taught by God the actions of the ethical, the reasons of the physical, and the contemplation and precision of the dogmas of the theological. Or again, a divine rhetorician in divine matters is he who distinguishes the things that properly exist from those that exist or do not exist, and reveals the reasons of the former from the latter, and from these, again, the reasons of the former, seeing them most enthusiastically; and ^B who compares the intelligible and invisible world from the sensible and seen one, and the sensible and seen world from the invisible and insensible one, as the seen is an image of the invisible, and the invisible an archetype of the seen. It is said that figures of the formless and shapes of the shapeless are set forth, so that through the former, the latter, and through the latter, the former, may be manifested spiritually, and that one may clearly see the other in one another, and make them manifest by the word of truth—not by anagogical or allegorical speeches framing the knowledge of truth shining like the sun, but by knowledge and spiritual power ^C making plain the reasons of the truth of both, demonstrating them most expressively; so that the one may be our pedagogue, and the other, clearly, the eternal divine home made for our sake. A divine philosopher is he who, through the active and contemplative life, is immediately united to God, and becomes His friend, and is called so, because he has loved the first, creative, and true Wisdom, and cherished it above all other friendship, wisdom, and knowledge. ^D A *philologos*—and a philosopher in the true sense (even if the vanity that has usurped the name of philosophy, as the great Gregory says, remains hidden)—is one who loves and investigates this wisdom of the creation of God, according to the final echo, and does not practice this philosophy showily for the sake of human praise and glory, so that he studies not for matter, but for the natural wisdom of God. A scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is anyone who, through praxis, ascends to the contemplation of God and perseveres in hesychia; who brings forth from the treasure of his heart new and old things, that is, evangelical and prophetic, or those of the New and Old Testament, or doctrinal and practical, or legal and apostolic. For these are the new and ancient mysteries which the practical scribe brings forth, having been instructed in the state of divine piety. A scribe also is any practical man who is still corporally occupied with good works. Furthermore, a divine orator is one who, being versed in the nature, knowledge, and reasons of things, demonstrates everything spiritually and distinguishes them by the power of his discourse. Finally, a true philosopher is he who has the supernatural union with God knowledgeably and immediately in himself.

128. Those who write and speak without the Spirit, and who wish to build up the Church, are natural men, as the divine Apostle says, not possessing the Spirit. For such men are subject to the curse of Him who says: "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent before themselves." For they speak from themselves, and not [Isa. v, 21]

^A from the Spirit of God, according to the word of the Lord. For those who speak from their own thoughts before purification have been led astray by a spirit of self-conceit. Concerning this, the Proverb says: "I saw a man who thought himself wise; a fool has more hope than he." ^B And again: "Do not be wise in your own eyes," as Wisdom commands us. But even the divine Apostle himself, who is full of the Spirit, confesses this, saying: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God." And again: "But as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ." For the words of such men are unpleasant and unilluminated; for they do not speak having partaken of the living fountain of the Spirit, but they are nourished from the mire-like marsh of the heart—as if from a swamp—which contains leeches and reptiles and frogs of desire, pride, and incontinence; and the water of their knowledge is foul-smelling, muddy, and lukewarm, and those who drink of it fall into cachexia, listlessness, and vomit, becoming altered.

129. "We are the body of Christ," says the divine Apostle, "and members in particular." And again: "There is one body and one spirit, ^C just as you have been called." For just as the body is dead and insensitive without the spirit, so he who has been deadened by passions through negligence of the commandments after baptism becomes inactive and unilluminated by the Holy Spirit and the grace of Christ; he indeed possesses the Spirit through faith and regeneration, but he is inactive and immovable due to the death of the soul. For although the soul is one while the limbs of the body are many, it nevertheless controls and vivifies all of them and moves those that are capable of life; but limbs that have grown cold through some accidental infirmity, it bears within itself as dead and motionless, yet devoid of life and sensation. Similarly, the Spirit of Christ acts in all of Christ’s members without confusion, moving and vivifying those capable of participating in life, ^D while also enduring and holding to Himself with philanthropy, as His own, those that are weak and do not partake of it. Therefore, every believer partakes of the Spirit of adoption through faith, yet becomes inactive and unilluminated through negligence and unbelief, being deprived of the light and the life of Jesus; for every believer is indeed a member of Christ and possesses the Spirit of Christ, yet he is inactive, motionless, and incapable of the participation of grace.

130. We say that there are eight general contemplations: first, that concerning God, who is without form, without beginning, uncreated, and the cause of all things, the one triadic and supersubstantial Godhead; second, of the order and station of the intellectual powers; third, of the constitution of things that exist; fourth, of the economy of the Word’s condescension; fifth, of the universal resurrection; sixth, of the fearful and second coming of Christ; seventh, of eternal punishment; eighth, of the kingdom of heaven. And while the four former ones are of things that have passed and have already come to pass; the

four latter are of things which are to come and are not yet manifest. ^B Those who have attained great purity of mind through grace contemplate these clearly and truly find them. But he who approaches them without the light, let him know that he is forming phantasms and not contemplating, being deceived by a spirit of phantasy and deceiving himself.

131. Here also one must speak, as far as possible, of the error that can occur, since because of its many and varied inconveniences it is difficult to recognize and almost impossible to understand. Error, I say, is manifested in two ways, or rather it attacks and occurs through phantasy and through operation, even though it has its beginning and cause from one, namely, pride. And the first is the cause of the second, and the second is the cause of the third, which is by ecstasy. For the cause of imagining in contemplation is presumption, which imagines God as some kind of form; from this follows the illusion of a deceived imagination, which generates blasphemy; and furthermore, the error of imagination brings forth, both while awake and in sleep, a dread of strange phantasms, which is also called a trembling and disturbance of the soul: for after pride follows error, after error blasphemy, after blasphemy fear, after fear trembling, and after trembling the ecstasy of natural thoughts. And this is the prior mode of error, which comes through imagination.

But the second mode, which is through operation, is this: it derives its origin from the pleasure which is born of natural concupiscence. For from pleasure is born the incontinence of unspeakable uncleanness; this, heating the entire nature and defiling the intellect with the foul company of images, carries the soul into an excess, making it phrenetic with the drunkenness of an ardent operation, so that it utters false prophecies, prophesying as it were the visions and conversations of certain saints as if they were revealed to it—being, as it were, inebriated by the torpor of passion, having its manners changed, and possessed by a demon. ^C Men of this kind are called by those who are deceived by the error of the world "little hearts," as if they were sitting by and clinging to the oracles of certain saints, and thence having been made "spiritual," and being moved and agitated by them, they preach to men what they have learned from them; whom it is more correct to call truly possessed and serving deceit and error, and not prophets or those preaching future events. ^D For the demon of luxury itself, darkening their intellect with the smoke of lustful heat, leads them into an ecstasy of mind, exhibiting to them the images, conversations, and visions of certain saints. Sometimes the demons themselves are seen to stir them to terror; for he who has bound them to the yoke of Belial, urges them on to operation, that he may have as captives and slaves until death those whom he reserves for punishments.

152. It must be known that there are three general causes through which error comes upon men: from pride, from the envy of demons, and from penal abandonment. The causes of these are: of pride, levity, envy,

of the disciplinary abandonment, a sinful life. And that which is from envy and pride alone has a speedy cure, especially when one is also humbled; but the delivery unto Satan for sin on account of discipline is something that God often allows even unto death for the sake of remission. There are times, however, when He delivers even the blameless to be chastised, for their salvation. It must be known, moreover, that the very demon of pride ^A gives warning to those who do not strictly watch over their heart.

133. Priests and kings are anointed in the truth in the renewal for all the pious, just as the ancients were once anointed in a figurative sense. For they were types of our truth, and they prefigured us not in part, but wholly. For neither does our kingship and priesthood have only correspondence and likeness with them, which are signified by the same symbols, nor do we have any difference in nature, or grace, or the calling to anointing, so that the things anointed might be disparate, but we have one and the same calling, and faith, and form. ^B It shows and makes manifest, according to the word of truth, that to become pure and dispassionate and wholly consecrated is to be with God now and in the future.

134. He speaks wisdom with his mouth at such a time, and understanding in the meditation of his heart, who clearly makes manifest from existing things the God Word, the substantial wisdom of God the Father, having the archetypal reasons in existing things that characterize them, and through the living word according to operation, he speaks wisdom from wisdom with his mouth; and being illuminated in his heart by the power of the transforming understanding, ^C meditated upon in the Spirit, he is able to act and to illuminate the faithful hearers through this understanding.

135. The great adversary of the truth, and the error which today draws men to destruction (through which the ignorance of darkness has reigned in the souls of the slothful, alienating them from God: who, as if not knowing that there is a God who created and enlightened them, or saying that He is to be believed in and known by reason only and not by works, or that He was manifested to the ancients only, and not to us, attribute the scriptural testimonies concerning God to others, or to those who spoke them, and blaspheme, so to speak, the glory of God, and rejecting the true piety of knowledge, read the Scriptures corporally only, not to say Judaically, denying the resurrection of the soul ^D that takes place here and now through the resurrection, and desiring to dwell in tombs in ignorance) are these three passions: unbelief, malice, and sloth. And they are generative and supportive of one another; for unbelief is the instructress of malice; and malice is the companion of sloth, the sign of which is idleness, or vice versa; sloth is the generator of malice, as the Lord said: “You wicked and slothful servant” (Matt. xxv, 26). Malice, moreover, is the parent of unbelief; for every wicked man is an unbeliever, and he who does not believe does not even fear God. From which is born sloth, the mother of contempt, through which every good is neglected, and every evil is committed.

136. True glory concerning God, and the knowledge of the

God. From which is born sloth, the mother of contempt, through which every good is neglected, and every evil is committed. 136. True glory concerning God, and the knowledge of the ^B truth, constitutes the perfect orthodoxy of dogmas: wherefore such a person ought to offer doxology thus: "Glory to you, Christ our God, glory to you, because for us you have become man, you, the Word of God, who are beyond substance. Because of this, great is the mystery of your economy, our Savior, glory to you."

137. Writings which can neither be condemned nor reproved are reduced to three species, according to the great Maximus: first, those for one's own remembrance; second, those for the utility of others; third, those that are written out of obedience: in which category most of the Scriptures are composed for those who humbly seek the Word. But that which is written for pleasure and glory, and to show off the virtues of the authors, has already received, as it is said, its reward, having no utility in the present, nor any reward in the future; rather, it will be condemned as pleasing to men and fraudulently adulterating the Word of God.

OTHER CHAPTERS OF THE SAME

1. Whoever is baptized in Christ ought to traverse all the ages of Christ. For he has received their power, and through the commandments he is able to find and learn them. Conception is the earnest of the holy Spirit; the birth is the energy of rejoicing; baptism is the purgative force of the fire of the Spirit; the transfiguration is the contemplation of the divine light; the ^C crucifixion is the mortification from all things; the burial is the keeping of divine love in the heart; the resurrection is the life-giving awakening of the soul; the ascension is the ecstasy toward God and the rapture of the mind. But he who has not found nor feels these things is still an infant in body and soul, even if he is considered an elder in virtue by all.

2. The passions of Christ possess a life-giving mortification for those who suffer in all things, if indeed we suffer together that we may also be glorified together; but the passions of pleasures bring a death-dealing mortification to those who serve them. And there is a cross of the cross and a death of death, in the voluntary suffering of the passions of Christ.

3. To suffer for Christ is to endure what is to come; for envy is a benefit to the innocent, and rebuke is for the sake of turning back; the discipline of the Lord comes to us, opening our ears to the guilty; therefore the Lord has promised a crown to those who endure, unto the ages of ages. Glory to you, our God, glory to you, Holy Trinity, for all things, glory to you.

Other Chapters

^A 4. Acedia, being a passion difficult to overcome, relaxes the body; and when the body is relaxed, the soul is also relaxed. When both are undone, they change the constitution of the body by means of self-indulgence. Self-indulgence stirs the appetite; appetite stirs the heat; the heat stirs agitation; the agitation stirs the memory; the memory stirs the imagination; the imagination stirs the provocation; the provocation stirs the combination; the combination stirs the consent; the consent accomplishes the action, whether through the body or through diverse provocations, and thus the man, having been defeated, falls.

On Good Mutation

^B 5. Perseverance in every good work begets courage; courage begets readiness; readiness begets endurance; endurance begets intensity—the intensity of the work, that is, the addition, calms the intemperance of the body and makes the self-indulgence of desire tame. Desire stirs the longing; longing, love; love, the zeal; zeal, the fervor; fervor, the stirring; the stirring, the diligence; diligence, prayer; prayer, the stillness; stillness begets contemplation; contemplation, knowledge; knowledge, the apprehension of the mysteries. The end of the mysteries is theology, and the fruit of theology is perfect love; of love, humility; of humility, impassibility; of impassibility, forevision, prophecy, and foreknowledge. For no one acquires perfect virtues at once from this point, nor does he diminish vices from one [act], but as virtue increases little by little, vice gradually becomes nothing.

On Temptations During Sleep

^C 6. Question: In how many ways does the fluid sin occur, the sinful and the sinless? Answer: The sinful [form] happens in three ways: in fornication, in effeminacy, and in the consent of the mind. The sinless [form] happens in seven ways: through urine, from material foods, from stimulants, through cold beverages, through the relaxation of the body, in excessive labor, and through diverse demonic imaginings. And for those who have grown old in the practice of virtue, it often happens through the five aforementioned ways. But for those who are impassible, the matter of phlegm flows out mixed only with urine, because the hidden pores have become more open through many labors and the divine energy, which is both purifying and sanctifying, the gift of temperance having been added to them. The last mode of the imaginary discharge in sleep belongs to the passionate and the infirm, yet even this, as it is involuntary, is free of sin, as the Fathers say.

The property of the impassible person is that movement which occurs at intervals by the providence of God and is sinless, as the remaining matter is consumed by divine fire; the property of the practitioner is that there is an unavoidable necessity and blameless discharge; and the property of the passionate person is twofold: the discharge and the inclination—that which is imaginary during sleep, and the consent while awake.

consensus; of which the former is blameless, while the latter is sinful and is defined by penances.

The impassible have one movement and evacuation of the body, exercising caution so that one part of the urinal matter may pass away as waste, and the other, as has been said, may be absorbed and consumed by divine fire. The practicing and intermediate, however, are said to have three general modes of blameless flux, by which the body is purged and liberated from corrupting matter and physical necessities: namely, heavy food, laxative nourishment, cold drink, a relaxed nature, cessation of labors, and finally, the envy of demons, on account of which nature suffers by itself. The infirm and beginners likewise have six vicious modes, namely: gluttony, vainglory, condemnation, emission through dual imagination and consent, and finally, as was said above, the envy of demons. These likewise take great heed to liberate nature from corruption and from extraneous and superfluous humors and irrational appetites, and that they may learn to exercise themselves diligently in humility, and to abstain always and in all things. ^B

7. He who sits in solitude and lives by charity ought to receive alms in seven ways: first, to ask usefully; second, to receive usefully; third, to receive what is offered as if from God; fourth, to trust in God as the rewarder; fifth, to observe the commandments; sixth, not to abuse what is given; seventh, not to be avaricious, but liberal and merciful. For he who is thus disposed in these matters rejoices that he is directed by God, and not by men. ^C

AN ACCURATE DISSERTATION ON QUIET AND PRAYER, BY THE SAME

1. We ought, in truth, according to the great teacher, to speak, and not to have need of help from the Scriptures,

^A or from other Fathers, O sign-bearer Longinus, but rather to be taught by God themselves. For they shall be, he says, "all taught by God," that we may know and learn the things that are profitable, not only ourselves, but each one of the faithful, from Him and through Him, so that we may carry the law of the Spirit written upon the tablets of our hearts, and immediately and in cherubic fashion be deemed worthy to converse with Jesus through pure prayer. But because we are infants at the time of our regeneration, neither understanding the grace, nor perceiving the newness, but rather being ignorant of the superabundant magnitude of the honor and glory of which we have partaken, and [not knowing] that we ought to grow in soul and spirit through the commandments, and to perceive intellectually what we have received, we fall—the many of us—through negligence and the habit of passion into insensibility and blindness; and we do not even know if God exists, nor who we are, nor what manner of beings we have become, having been made sons of God, sons of light, and children and members of Christ. And even if we are baptized as men, yet we perceive only the water and not the Spirit; and even if we are renewed by the Spirit, we believe only with a dead faith that is not active, and we say that we are in a state of doubt, and thus, being truly flesh, we live and walk carnally. And even if we repent, we perform and know the commandments only bodily, and not spiritually. And even if after many labors grace should deem some worthy of revelation, we receive it as a delusion. And if we hear from others of such an operation, we judge it for envy to be a deception. ^B And thus we remain lifeless until death, not living and working in Christ; and what we have—as Scripture says, in the day of our departure or of judgment, through disbelief or despair—will be taken away from us, because we do not consider that children ought to be like the father, as gods from God, spiritual from the Spirit. "That which is born of the Spirit," he says, "is spirit"; but we are flesh, even if we have become believers and heavenly, and for this reason the Spirit of God does not remain in us; and on this account the Lord has handed us over to plunder and servitude, and multiplied slaughters, perhaps wishing to correct, to extirpate, and to heal the evil with stronger remedies.

2. And first to say, with God granting a word to those who preach such blessings, how one may find, or rather recover, Him whom he has or has received, Christ in the Spirit through baptism, according to the apostle Paul, who says: "Do you not know that Christ Jesus dwells in our hearts?" Then, also, how one may progress, and after that, how one may guard what has been found; for it is an excellent and short method to state the extremes with the middle—briefly, though they have much breadth. For many have struggled in the contest until they found what they sought, and they checked their longing there; ^C but they do not proceed further, nor do they care; and having entered only the beginning of the way they have found, they are hindered, and being unknowingly diverted from the path, they think

^A they are traveling straight, while in reality they are being carried outside of it. Others reach the middle way of illumination, but succumb to sloth before the end, or, through a negligent life, turn backward and return to the beginning. Others again, having already reached the end, fall through vainglory and presumption, and becoming retrograde, they become in their activity like those who are in the middle or at the beginning. To those at the beginning, to those in the middle, and to the perfect, there appertains, for some, activity; for others, illumination; for others, the purification of the soul or resurrection.

On how to find the activity

3. There are two ways in which the activity of the Spirit, which we have mystically received in baptism, is found. First, in a general sense, the gift is revealed through the working of the commandments, through much labor and time, as the venerable Mark says; and the more we perform the commandments, ^B the more brightly their splendors shine upon us. Second, it is manifested in obedience through knowledge and the continuous invocation of the Lord Jesus, that is, through the remembrance of God. By the first method it is found more slowly, by the second more briefly, although it requires laborious learning, persistent digging of the earth, and seeking out the gold. If, therefore, we wish to find and know the truth unerringly, we should seek only to possess the activity which is in the heart, without any form or image; and we should not look out for any figure or portrait of the saints imaginatively, nor seek to behold light (for error is accustomed, especially at the beginning, to deceive the minds of the inexperienced with such lying phantasms); but we should strive only to possess the activity of prayer working in the heart, which warms and gladdens the mind ^C and kindles the soul to an ineffable love of God and men. Hence, one may see not a little humility and contrition flowing from prayer, if it is indeed prayer. For among those at the beginning, prayer is the restless activity of the Holy Spirit, in the beginning like a fire of joy elicited from the heart, but at the end as a light bestowing sweetness.

4. These are the signs of this beginning: in those who seek it truly, and not as if they were tempting it, according to the Wisdom that says it is found by those who do not tempt it, and appears to those who have faith in it. In some it is seen as a rising light; in others, as a trembling exultation; in others, as joy; in others, as joy mixed with fear; in some, as trembling and joy; and sometimes, in some, as tears and dread. For the soul rejoices in the providence and mercy of God, but fears and trembles at His presence, as one guilty of many sins. To others, again, there happens, at the beginning, ^D an ineffable contrition and most heavy labor of soul, like the pain of one giving birth and travailing, according to the Scripture: for the word, that is, Jesus, as the Apostle says, is living and active, even to the division of the soul and the

body, and of the joints and marrow, that it may violently melt away the passionate aspect from all the parts of the soul and the body. In others, charity and peace, which is invincible toward all, is perceived; in others, alacrity—which the Fathers have often called "exultation"—which is a power of the Spirit and a movement of the living heart. This is also called a "palpitation," and a "sighing" of the Spirit interceding for us with God with unutterable groanings. Isaiah ^A also called this a "wave" (in some copies, "fetus") of the righteousness of God, and the great Ephrem called it a "goad"; but the Lord called it a "fountain of water leaping up unto eternal life" (and the Spirit, He named the water), being something leaping within the heart and boiling over with the vehemence of its power.

5. One must know that there are two differences in the leaping, that is, the exultation: the serene one (which is called palpitation, sighing, and the intercession of the Spirit) and the great one of the heart (which is also called leaping, and jumping, that is, a springing up, and a sublime flight of the living heart toward the divine air). For by the divine Spirit, the soul, being uplifted by love and freed from the bonds of the passions, makes an attempt to fly upward even before its departure, desiring the disjunction of its weight. (This is also called a "troubling" of the Spirit, or an ebullition and movement, according to that: "Jesus therefore troubled Himself in the Spirit, being moved vehemently, and said, Where have you laid him?") ^B The divine David shows the difference between the great and the small leaping, having said: "The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs," speaking concerning the perfect and the beginners; for it would have been superfluous for him to say that inanimate, literal mountains and hills, which he mentioned, were skipping.

6. One must also know that divine fear does not have "trembling" (and by trembling I mean not that which is from joy, but that which is from wrath, or from chastisement and abandonment), but rather a trembling exultation which arises from prayer in the fire of divine fear; and by "fear," I do not mean the trembling one which wrath or punishment strikes into us, but that which is of wisdom, which is also called the beginning of wisdom. And fear is divided into three (even if the Fathers have spoken of it as two): the introductory, and the perfect; and furthermore, one must properly call it "trembling," or "shaking," and "contrition." ^C

7. Trembling has many different forms; there is one of wrath, another of joy, and another of the irascible part (whenever there occurs in excess, as they say, an ebullition of the blood around the heart), and another from old age, and another of sin, or of deception, and another of the curse, given to the human race through Cain. Moreover, for the athlete at the beginning, the tremor of joy and the tremor of sin contend; yet it does not happen to all in the same way, but the signs of both are these: of the first, a trembling exultation in great joy and tears, by which grace consoles the soul; of the other, however, an immoderate heat, and swelling, and hardness of heart. ^D

inflaming the soul and scorching the generative members, and through imagination inducing inner consent to the shameful act and to the unchaste union and desire of the body. ^A

8. That the operation in every beginner is twofold, ^B acting in the heart in two distinct and unmixed ways—one from grace and the other from deception—is testified to by the great ascetic Mark, who says: "There is a spiritual operation, and there is a Satanic operation, which is unknown to the infant [in the spirit]." And again, that there is a threefold heat of operation ignited in men: that from grace, that from deception or sin, and that from the redundance of blood—which Thalassius the African called "mixture"—and that one must mitigate and settle this through appropriate temperance.

9. The operation of grace is the power of the fire of the Spirit, moving within the heart in joy and gladness, establishing the soul, warming it, and cleansing it; it momentarily halts thoughts and subdues the movement of the body for a season. And these are its signs and the fruits revealing its truth: tears, contrition, humility, temperance, silence, patience, hiddenness, and all such things, by which we are unfailingly assured. ^C

10. The operation of deception is the burning of sin, heating the soul in pleasure and maddeningly stirring up desire for carnal union within the movement of the body. It is altogether lacking in quality and ^D undisciplined, according to the holy Diadochus, having irrational joy, and arrogance, and disturbance, and pleasure lacking quality, and, as one might say, unnourished; it works, for the most part, upon the concupiscible faculty by the pleasure of lukewarmness, supplying these pleasures as fuel for the fire, and having the insatiable belly as its co-worker. For from there it communicates with and ignites the mixture of the flesh, taking it as a cause for operating, for burning the soul, and for drawing it unto itself, so that the man, becoming accustomed to pleasure, may little by little drive grace out from himself.

BY THE SAME, ON QUIETUDE AND ON THE TWO MODES OF PRAYER, IN FIFTEEN CHAPTERS.

^A 1. There are two modes of union, or rather two ways of approach, for mental prayer, formed in the heart by the Spirit, through which the mind enters there and clings to the Lord according to Scripture; or, as the energy moves forward and proceeds, it draws the intellect into the fire of joy, or binds it to the invocation and union of the Lord Jesus. For although the Spirit works in each individual as He wills, as the Apostle says, there are times when one operation precedes the other according to the modes we have previously mentioned. And sometimes the operation takes place in the heart, with the passions clearly having been diminished through the continuous invocation of Jesus Christ, when the divine heat has appeared—for our God is a consuming fire that destroys the passions, as Scripture says. ^B At other times, the Spirit draws the intellect toward Himself, contracting it into the depth of the heart and restraining it from its habitual wandering. Then it is no longer led as a captive from Jerusalem to the Assyrians, but makes a migration from Babylon to Zion—a better migration—so that it may itself say with the prophet: "To you, O God, a hymn is due in Zion, and to you a vow shall be rendered in Jerusalem," and again, "When the Lord turns back the captivity of Zion," and, "Jacob shall exult, and Israel shall rejoice"—the practical and contemplative intellect, clearly, which through practice overcomes the passions after God, and through contemplation sees Him, as far as is possible for it. For then the mind, having been invited as if to a most sumptuous table, rejoicing in divine sweetness, chants: "You have prepared a table before me, in the presence of those who afflict me, the demons and the passions."

On how one ought to perform prayer.

^C 2. "In the morning sow your seed," says Solomon—that is, the seed of prayer—"and in the evening let not your hand cease," so that by having no interruption...

the end of the prayer, let not the time of being heard pass by, ^A *For thou knowest not which shall prosper, either this or that.* And sitting indeed from the morning on a seat of one palm's breadth, force the intellect from the mind into the heart and keep it there, and being laboriously bent, and gravely afflicting the chest, shoulders, and neck, persevere in crying out with mind and soul: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." Then, with groaning and labor, and perhaps with weariness, having the three names assiduously and continually consuming them as one food (*For they that eat me, it is said, shall yet hunger*), translate the intellect to the other half: "Son of God, have mercy on me," and often repeating this half, you ought not to alter these words from listlessness: for plants which are continually transplanted do not take root. Nay rather, compress the motion of respiration, so that you do not breathe without necessity: for the aura of the spirits emitted from the heart darkens the mind, and expels the intellect ventilated thence, and delivers it either captive to memory, or tossed to other thoughts, it leads it without sense to incongruous things. If, however, you see idle and unclean thoughts and images of evil spirits in your mind, do not be amazed; and if good thoughts have shone upon you, do not attend to these; but compressing, as much as you can, the respiration, and concluding the intellect in the heart, and assiduously and permanently repeating the invocation of the Lord Jesus, in a short time you burn them up and repress them, invisibly flagellating them with the divine name; for John of the Ladder says: "With the name of Jesus flagellate the enemies, for there are no weapons more powerful either in heaven or on earth." ^B

On Respiration

3. That you ought to hold the respiration, Isaiah the anchorite testifies when speaking of this, as do many others. One indeed says: "Refrain," he says, "the unbridled intellect, which the enemy power verily dispels and scatters, returning through negligence after baptism with others more wicked, into the negligent soul, as the Lord says, and making the last state worse than the first." Another, however: "A monk ought to have the memory of God instead of respiration." Another also: "Let the love of God preoccupy his respiration." And the new Theologian: "Constraint the very drawing in of the nostrils, that you may not breathe without necessity." The Ladder: "Let the memory of Jesus be united to thy respiration, and then thou shalt know the utility of quietude." And the Apostle: "I live now not I, but Christ liveth in me," ^C working and inspiring the divine life. And the Lord: "The spirit," he says, "bloweth where it listeth," taking the example from the spiration of the sensible wind. Since, however, we have received, as pure, the pledge of the Spirit and the ingrafted word as a seed, according to the brother of the Lord, James, ^D which, having been sown, and as it were grown together, and participated in indivisibly, makes us divine without

into a participation that is impossible to partake of, and ^A unmixedly deifying us without diminution, having been negligent of the commandments as being the guardians of grace, we have fallen again into the passions through negligence, and instead of the breathing of the Holy Spirit, we have been filled with the breathings of unclean spirits. And it is clear that yawning and stretching become from these, as the Fathers say; for he who has acquired the Spirit, and has been purified by Him, is warmed and inspired by Him with the divine life, and speaks, and thinks, and is moved, according to the voice of the Lord, that "It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you"; likewise again, he who does and speaks ^B having what is opposite, and being ruled by it, does and says the opposite.

On how one ought to chant.

4. "He who is wearied," says the Ladder-author, "having stood up, shall pray, and again sitting down, shall bravely continue his former labor." For although he said this with regard to the intellect, when it will have attained the custody of the heart, nevertheless it is not unfitting to say the same also with regard to psalmody. For it is said that the great Barsanuphius was asked ^C concerning psalmody, how one ought to chant, and the elder replied: "The hours and the chants are ecclesiastical traditions, and have been well delivered for the sake of harmony. But the Scetiotes neither chant the hours nor have chants, but work with their hands, meditate in private, and pray for a little while." Now, standing for prayer, you ought to say the Trisagion, and the Our Father; and you ought also to beseech God to be delivered from the old man, and not to be slow toward it; for your whole mind must be in prayer throughout the day. And by this the elder signified that meditation in private is the prayer of the heart itself. But the prayer for a little while is the station of psalmody. And the great John of the Ladder ^D also says clearly: "The work of quietude is freedom from all care; prayer without sloth is the station; and thirdly, the holy work of the heart is the sitting down of prayer, or of quietude."

On the diversity of those who chant.

5. What is the difference, in that some teach to chant much, others little, and others not at all, but only prayer, and labor—manual work, perhaps, or repentances, or some other laborious task? The solution to such things is this: Those who, from the practical life, through many labors and times, have found grace, teach others as having been so taught. But they do not hear nor approve of those who, through the mercy of God, by fervent faith, as Saint Isaac says, have attained to the same in a short time. Therefore they also blame such persons, being deceived by ignorance and conceit, and they affirm to others that, if it is otherwise, it is a delusion and not an operation of grace. And they do not know that it is easy in the eyes of the Lord, according to the Scripture, suddenly to enrich the poor. And of that: "The beginning of wisdom is to acquire wisdom," the Proverb says concerning grace. But the Apostle rebukes the disciples

who then were ignorant of grace, saying: "Do you not know that Christ Jesus is in you? Unless indeed you are reprobates," ^A that is, because of your negligence, not advancing. Hence, they do not approve of the singular properties in certain prayers, gifted by the Holy Spirit in a peculiar manner, out of disbelief and pride.

Contradiction of his

6. Tell me, O man, if someone fasts, practices self-restraint, keeps vigil, stands, does penance, mourns, practices poverty—is this not praxis? Why then do you say that, without praxis, offering only psalmody, prayer cannot be acquired? Are those not also praxes? Response: If someone prays with the mouth, while the mind wanders, what is the profit? One is building, and one is destroying; it is nothing but labor. But as someone works with the body, so must one also with the mind, ^B so that he is not found righteous in the mouth, but in the heart full of all sloth and impurity. This the Apostle confirms, saying: "If I pray in a tongue," that is, with the mouth, "my spirit prays," namely my voice, "but my mind is without fruit. I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind." And: "I desire to speak five words," and the rest. He testifies to what is meant by this, the *Climax* saying in the discourse on prayer: "The great craftsman of the great and perfect prayer says this: 'I desire to speak five words in my sense/mind,' and the rest." There are many works, but they are particular. ^C But the great and universal work, according to the *Climax*, is mental prayer, through which every good is found. "There is nothing," says St. Maximus, "more terrible than the remembrance of death, nor more sublime than the remembrance of God," showing the sublimity of the work. Some, however, do not even wish to hear if there is grace in the present time, because they are darkened by much madness and ignorance, and are of little faith.

7. Those who psalmody little, rightly, I think, do so, honoring moderation (for all moderation is best, according to the wise), so that having not exhausted the full strength of the soul in praxis, the mind, finding itself ^D little in prayer, does not languish toward it. Rather, psalmodying partially, they reach out for the most part in prayer. Perhaps, sometimes, when the mind is weary from mental and constant crying out and perpetual immobility, it receives a little rest, by releasing itself into the breadth of psalmody from the narrowness of stillness. This order is best, and is taught by most wise men.

8. But those who do not psalmody at all, do well, if they are in progress. For they have no need of saying psalms, but [need] silence and unceasing prayer and contemplation, if they have arrived at illumination. For they are united with God, and it is not expedient for them to distract their mind from him and cast it into confusion. "It is a stumbling block," says the *Climax*, "for the obedient to have his own will, but for him who is still, it is the interruption of prayer."

^A For the mind of such a person commits adultery when it departs from the memory of God, as if from a spouse, and prostrates its love to the lowest things. Yet this same order cannot be urged upon everyone. To those who are obedient, and ignorant and illiterate, it can indeed be applied, because obedience participates in every virtue through humility. To those who are free, however—whether they be ignorant or learned—it is not granted, lest they easily go astray; for one who meditates in solitude cannot avoid arrogance, from which error naturally follows, as the holy Isaac says. Some, not acknowledging the future harm, say toward the end of accustoming and alluring the mind to the memory of God, that they persuade a person to use this method alone; which is not possible, especially for those who live in solitude. For since their mind is not yet clean due to negligence and pride, and has not been washed by tears, they behold instead of prayer the shameful images of thoughts, while the unclean spirits of the heart are troubled by the fearful Name and rave, wishing to destroy the one who scourges them. For if the person who lives in private hears of this method and is taught it, and wishes to grasp it, he will suffer one of two evils: if he struggles, he errs and becomes incurable; if he is negligent, he makes no progress in his whole life. ^B

^C 9. I myself will speak, as one who has learned a little from experience: When you sit in the day or at night, being still and frequently praying to God in humility, without thoughts, and the mind grows weary from crying out, and the body aches, and the heart, from the intense straining of the frequent invocation of Jesus, no longer feels the warmth or joy from which the zeal and perseverance of the soldier are fostered, then rise up and stand, and chant alone or with the disciple who is with you, or occupy yourself with the meditation of some word, or the memory of death, or the labor of your hands, or with the others, or pay attention to reading, standing rather, that you may force and tire the body. And when you stand alone chanting, say the *Trisagion*, and then after that the prayer, using the soul or the intellect, with the mind attending to the heart. But if sloth (*acedia*) presses upon you, say also two or three psalms and the nocturnal versicles without melody—for those who are of this state will not sing, says the *Climax*. ^D "For it suffices for their joy," says the holy Mark, "that the labor of the heart is undertaken for piety, and the fervor of the Spirit is given to them for joy and exultation." Still, within the psalm and prayers, having the soul or mind not wandering, say *Alleluia*. This is the method of the holy Fathers, Barsanuphius, Diadochus, and the rest. And, as the divine Basil says, one ought to alternate the psalms day by day, to stimulate zeal, and so that the mind, he says, may never grow weary of chanting the same psalms, but liberty must be granted to it, and thus it will be kindled with greater zeal. [C in Latin column, end of text reference] And if you stand chanting with a faithful disciple, let him recite the psalms, while you, attending in the heart, keep yourself secretly praying. And all thoughts, whether of sensible or intelligible things, you shall banish as dead and inert in the heart, with the help of prayer. For stillness is of thoughts

that are not from the divine Spirit, a laying aside for a time, so that by attending to them as if they were good, you do not lose the greater thing. ^B

On Error

10. Attend, therefore, diligently, O lover of God, with knowledge. When you are doing the work, if you see a light or fire outside or inside, be it the appearance of Christ, or an angel, or someone else, do not admit it, so that you do not suffer harm. Nor should you, by imagining it yourself, allow the mind to form such things. For all these things, when formed externally at the wrong time, lead the soul into error. For the true beginning of prayer is the warmth of the heart, which burns up the passions and brings cheerfulness and joy to the soul with unwavering desire, and confirms the heart with indubitable assurance. For whatever enters the soul—the Fathers say—whether sensible or intelligible, if the heart doubts about it and does not accept it, it is not from God, but has been sent by the adversary. And if you see your mind drawn outside or upward by some invisible power, do not believe it, nor let it be drawn away, but immediately bring it back to its work. Things that are of God, says Saint Isaac, come of themselves, at a time when you do not know. Although the internal and natural enemy of the loins transforms the spiritual things as he pleases, displaying in the imagination one thing for another, and instead of fervor suggesting his own unbridled, gloomy state, so that the soul may then be weighed down by such error; and instead of joy, substituting an irrational gladness and a slippery pleasure, so that pride and presumption born of these may be seen, and he endeavors to hide himself from the inexperienced and to present his own deception as the operation of grace; nevertheless, time, experience, and ^C sense are accustomed to uncover him to those who are not excessively ignorant of his works. “For the throat,” says the Scripture, “judges foods,” that is, the spiritual taste clearly and certainly discerns what everything is.

On Reading

11. Let the things you read, says the author of the Ladder, be practical, since for one who does this work, other reading is superfluous. Always read books on stillness and prayer: for example, the works of Climacus, Saint Isaac, Saint Maximus, the New Theologian, his disciple Stethatos, Hesychius, Philotheus the Sinaite, and whatever else is of this kind. But set aside the rest for a time, not as things to be rejected, but as not contributing to your goal, shifting the mind away from prayer into an examination of them. And read by yourself, not inflating the voice with boasting, nor proceeding with a strive for eloquence, nor being captivated by the charm of style or melodic sweetness, nor—being absent—being caught up by a desire to please some people as if present, nor with insatiable greed, because everything moderate is best, nor lazily and

not perfunctorily, but gravely, decently, firmly, intelligently, numerously, with understanding, soul and reason. For in these the mind is strengthened, and acquires the power habit to pray vigorously. But in the aforementioned contrary things, it incurs blindness, sloth, and perturbation, so that the intellect becomes pained in the brain, and weakened for prayer. ^B

12. Attend also at every moment with careful scrutiny to where your intention inclines: whether you are sitting quiet, or chanting, or reading, or praying, or exercising any virtue whatsoever for the sake of the good itself, for God, or for the sake of the soul’s benefit, so that you may not be plundered unknowingly; lest you be found in appearance a worker, but in manner and thought desiring to please men and not God. For many are the snares of the crafty one, and most secretly he watches the inclination of the intention, as one unknown to many, and he always seeks to steal the work secretly, so that what is done may not be according to God. For even if he fights unceasingly and approaches shamelessly, do you, having a firm intention toward God, not be plundered often, even if the inclination of the will is forcibly made to wander by him against your will. And if someone is overcome involuntarily due to weakness, yet he readily receives forgiveness and praise from the Examiner of intentions and hearts. This passion, I mean vainglory, does not permit the monk to progress in virtue; but he undergoes labors, and in old age is found ^C fruitless. For indeed it always creeps upon all three and strips them of the working of virtues, I mean the beginner, the middle, and the perfect.

13. Having learned this, I say that without these virtues a monk never progresses: fasting, temperance, vigilance, patience, fortitude, quietude, prayer, silence, mourning, humility; for they are generative of one another and protective. For from continuous fasting, desire is withered and gives birth to temperance; temperance to vigilance, vigilance to patience, patience to fortitude, fortitude to quietude, quietude to prayer, prayer to silence, silence to mourning, mourning to humility; and humility, in turn, to mourning. And by analysis you will find how consecutively, in turn, the daughters bring forth their mothers. There is therefore no greater thing in the virtues than this mutual generation. For the opposites of these are manifest to all. ^D

14. It is necessary here also to set down the labors and the toils of the work, and to explain clearly how one must go about each work; so that one, walking not without labor but merely by hearsay, and failing of the fruit, might not accuse us or others, as if we had never spoken of this. For the toil of the heart and the labor of the body know how to perform the work of truth. From which the operation of the Holy Spirit is manifested, given to you and to every believer through baptism, but hidden by the passions on account of the neglect of the commandments, and awaiting our repentance through ineffable mercy; so that

^A in the end we may not hear, on account of our fruitlessness: "Take the talent from him," and that: "What he seems to have will be taken away from him," and He may cast us into punishment, eternally tormented in Gehenna. For every corporal and spiritual operation, done without industry and labor, brings no fruit at all to the one performing it; because "the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence," says the Lord, "and the violent take it by force," calling "violence" the laborious exertion of the body in all things. Whence, although many may have spent or are spending many years without labor, and are not performing works in the fervent heat of the heart's industry, they have become empty of purity and bereft of the Holy Spirit, having rejected the harshness of labors. For those who work negligently and sluggishly perhaps seem to labor much, yet they never taste the fruit, as they are utterly devoid of industry and pain. This is attested by him who says: If we perform all glorious actions, but do not possess a heart that suffers, these become spurious and rancid. ^B Likewise, sometimes walking without diligence, we are dragged into useless distractions by acedia, and are darkened, thinking that we find rest in these things, which is not the case, but being invisibly bound by indissoluble chains, we become immobile and inactive in every work, with sloth perfected in us, especially if we are beginners. For to the perfect, all things are useful in measure. The great Ephraim attests to this, saying: "Labor arduously in labor, so that you may escape the labors of vain toils." If not, according to the prophet, our loins must fail and be dissolved by the labor of fasting, and we must conceive pains as one who brings forth an embryo through the painful pangs of the heart; otherwise we shall not bear the Spirit of salvation in the womb of the heart, as you have heard, but we merely glory in the time, and in the useless desert, and in the sloth, and in a quietude where we imagine ourselves to be something, while on the day of departure we shall all undoubtedly recognize the entire fruit.

15. No one can learn the knowledge of the virtues by himself, even though some have used experience as a teacher. For to act by oneself, and not by the counsel of those who have preceded us, carries presumption, or rather is wont to beget it. For if "the Son does nothing of Himself, but as the Father has taught Him, so He does," and the Spirit "will not speak on His own authority," who is this who has reached such a height of virtue that he has no need of another leading him? He seems to possess ^C madness rather than virtue, and is deceived. Therefore, it is necessary to be persuaded by those who know the labors of the practical virtue, and thus to pursue it: namely, a hungry fasting, temperance from every pleasure, assiduous vigil, burdensome genuflection, laborious immobility in standing, continuous prayer, sincere humility, unceasing contrition and groaning, wise silence seasoned as if with salt, and in all things patience. For it is not necessary at all times

to live in quiet, and not to remain in perpetual sitting before the time of old age or infirmity. "For the labors of your hands you shall eat," says the Scripture; and, "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." He, therefore, who daily strives to perform the aforementioned works laboriously shall, with God's help, reap their fruit in due time. ^A

OF THE SAME: ON HOW THE HESYCHAST OUGHT TO SIT FOR PRAYER AND NOT RISE QUICKLY.

^B Sometimes [sit] on a stool, for the most part because of the weariness [it causes]; at other times, and for a short while, on a cushion, for the sake of rest. Let your sitting be in perseverance, because of Him who said, "Persevering in prayer," and do not rise quickly out of negligence because of the laborious pain, and the intellectual cry of the mind, and the constant fixing [of the attention]. "For behold," says the Prophet, "pains have taken hold of me as [of] a woman in labor." But [rather, remain] bent downward, and gathering the mind into the heart, if it has been opened, invoke the Lord Jesus for help. And though laboring—often suffering in the shoulders and head—endure laboriously and with love in these [efforts], seeking the Lord in the heart. ^C For the kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. The Lord truly indicated the diligence in these and such labors. For patience and perseverance in all things is the mother of the labors of both body and soul.

On how one must recite the prayer.

Thus said the Fathers: one [said], "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me," the whole [prayer]; another, the half: "Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me." Which is easier because of the weakness of the mind. For it cannot of itself inwardly, without the Spirit, say "Lord Jesus" alone, unless in the Holy Spirit cleanly and perfectly, but [is] like a child still lisping, unable to articulate it fully. ^D Nor ought one frequently to change the invocations of the names out of sloth, but [recite them] slowly because of the continuity. Again, some teach to recite it through the mouth, others through the mind. But I advise both. For sometimes the mind, and sometimes the mouth, due to acedia, is unable to recite. Therefore both...

to recite it through the mouth, others through the mind. But I advise both. For sometimes the mind, and sometimes the mouth, due to acedia, is unable to recite. Therefore both must be used in prayer, both mouth and mind. Nevertheless, one must cry out quietly and without disturbance, so that the voice does not confuse sensory perception and the attention of the mind, and thus hinder it, until the mind, having become accustomed to the work, makes progress and receives power from the Spirit to pray in a total and strong manner. For then, being satisfied with the mind alone, it accomplishes the whole work. ^B

How the mind must be restrained.

Know that no one can restrain the mind by himself unless he is restrained by the Spirit. For it is unrestrained, not by nature, as it is ever-moving, but because, due to negligence, it has become accustomed to agitation, having been unaccustomed to the bridle from the beginning. For indeed, through the transgression of the commandments of Him who regenerated us, we were separated from God, having been stripped of the intellectual perception and union with Him. For having slipped from there, the mind, separated from God, is led everywhere as a captive; and it is impossible for it to stand otherwise than by submitting to God, standing by Him, and being united with Him joyfully, and by praying to Him continuously and perseveringly, and by confessing to Him daily all the sins we commit, which He forgives immediately to those who ask with humility and contrition, and who always invoke His holy name. "Confess," He says, "to the Lord, and invoke His holy name." ^C And indeed, the control of respiration while compressing the mouth restrains the mind, but only partially, and it is dissipated again. But when the operation of prayer comes, then it truly holds it within itself, gladdens it, and delivers it from captivity. Sometimes, however, even when the mind is praying and restrained in the heart, the thought wanders, contemplating other things. But this is subject to no one, except to those perfect in the Holy Spirit, who have attained freedom from wandering in Christ Jesus.

How thoughts should be cast out.

No novice ever casts out thoughts unless God casts them out. For it is the work of the strong to fight and put them to flight. Indeed, not even they remove them by themselves, but with God they move into battle against them, as those who have put on His armor. But you, when thoughts leap upon you, invoke the Lord Jesus frequently and perseveringly, and they will be put to flight; for they cannot endure the heat of the heart imparted by prayer, and they flee as if burned by fire. "With the name of Jesus," says the *Ladder*, "scourge the enemies." For our God is a consuming fire that consumes wickedness. The Lord, swift to help, will execute vengeance on behalf of those who cry out to Him with their whole soul day and night. ^D He who does not have the operation of prayer casts them out in another way, imitating Moses. For when he rises and lifts his hands and eyes to heaven, God puts them to flight. Then, sitting down again, he begins his prayer patiently. And the man who does not yet possess the power of prayer uses this method. Even he who possesses the operation of prayer,

tended to him who has not yet attained the power of prayer, and even to him who has the activity of prayer, when he is roused often by the bodily passions—I mean acedia and fornication, the harsh and heavier passions—to stretch forth his hands for help against them. Yet he does this rarely, on account of the deception, and sits down again, lest the enemy should delude his mind from above, showing him an image of truth, as it were. For to have the mind above and below, and in the heart, and everywhere, unharmed and preserved intact, is the property of the pure and perfect alone. ^A

How one ought to chant

Some say rarely, others often, others not at all. But you should neither chant often, for it is confusion, nor not at all, because of the relaxation and neglect that follow; rather, imitate those who chant rarely. For every measure is best, according to the wise who are not foolish. For to chant much is for the practitioners who are still laboring outside of gnosis, but not for the hesychasts who are sufficient to pray in the heart to God alone and to abstain from thoughts. For hesychia is the laying aside of thoughts, both sensible and intelligible, according to the *Climax*. ^B For if one empties all his power in much psalmody, the mind will languish, so as not to pray powerfully and persistently. At night, says the author of the *Climax*, give much to prayer and a little to psalmody. You ought to do likewise. When you see prayer working in your sitting and moving ceaselessly in your heart, never abandon it, nor rise to chant for a time, unless God in His providence abandons you. For by abandoning God within, you stand outside and speak, turning from the sublime to the groveling; nay, you also create confusion and disturb the mind from its serenity; for hesychia, as its name indicates, ^C extends its practice so as to hold it in peace and serenity. For God is peace, beyond confusion and clamor. For our hymn and state ought to be angelic, not carnal; for to chant with a loud voice is a symbol of a fearful mind, and it is granted because of our sloth and rusticity, so that we may be brought back to the truth. For to those who do not know prayer—which is the fountain of the virtues, according to John of the *Climax*, watering the plants of the soul’s powers—it is fitting to chant much, and without measure, and always to be in a variety of many things, and never to cease, until, ^D from much laborious practice, they advance to contemplation, having found mental prayer working within them. For the practice of hesychia is one thing, and that of the coenobite is another. But each will be saved while remaining in that to which he was called. Wherefore I fear to write for the sake of the weak, seeing you walking between them. For everyone who, out of rumor and hearsay, devotes himself to passive prayer perishes, because he does not have a guide; but he who has tasted the grace ought to chant with measure, for the most part devoting himself to prayer; but he who is slothful should chant and read the practical works of the Fathers. Indeed, a ship does not need oars when the wind fills the sails, when the spirit blows a favorable breeze for it to glide tightly on the salty sea of the passions, but without delay, it is drawn either by oars or by a boat. But if any ambitiously object, citing the holy Fathers or certain who are living now as standing all night and performing psalmody, to them, from Scripture, I [reply...]

perfects, because of a lack of zeal and a deficiency in virtue; but that the small is not, to the great, altogether small, nor the great, to the small, altogether great. For to the perfect, all things are easy to perform. Therefore, not all are always, now or in the past, practitioners; nor did all hold the same path, or keep it unto the end. For many came from praxis ^A to contemplation, and rested from all things, keeping the Sabbath according to the law of the Spirit, and they rejoiced in God alone, satiated with divine delights; and by grace they were forbidden from chanting or meditating on anything else, being rapt into ecstasy for a time, having attained the sum of their desires in part and as a pledge. Others, however, remaining in praxis until the end, fell asleep in salvation, about to receive their reward in the world to come. Indeed, it is affirmed that some, being dead, exhaled a sweet odor as a sign of their salvation, who while still alive had indeed possessed the grace of baptism, as all do, but on account of their captivity and the ignorance of their mind, they had not communed with it mystically ^B while still living. Yet others have praise in both, in psalmody and in prayer, and thus they live, enriched by grace that is always active and never hindered by any obstacle. Others, finally, have kept silence until the end, being laymen, content well enough with prayer alone, as having been united alone with the Alone, God; for the perfect, as we said, have power over all things in Christ who strengthens them, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The Same to One Asking About the Moderation of the Belly

What shall I say about the belly, the queen of the passions? If you can kill it ^C and render it half-dead, do not remit. It rules over me, my friend, and I serve it as a slave and captive. It is a cooperator of demons and a house of vices. Through it occurs our fall, and through it our resurrection, when it maintains order; and through it we have fallen from our first and second divine dignity. Wherefore, ^D the old man having been corrupted, we have been renewed in Christ; but behold, we have recently relapsed from God through the transgression of the commandments that conserve and increase grace in progress, although through ignorance we are puffed up, thinking that we are with God. Now there are many differences in the food bodies require, as the Fathers have said: for of one, much is required, and of another, little, to sustain its natural powers, and for each according to its strength and ha-

as required. But the hesychast must always be hungry, not satiated; for when the stomach is weighed down and the mind troubled by it, he cannot pray strongly and purely, but being caught up in sleep by the vapors of many foods, he desires to lie down quickly, whence countless phantasms assault the mind in sleep. Therefore, for him who wishes to attain salvation and struggles for the sake of the Lord to live quietly, a pound of bread, I think, is sufficient, and three or four cups of water and wine per day, and to partake of what is available from all the foods in moderation, pushing away satiety, so that even in this, using things wisely, he might be able to escape the pride [that comes] from eating of everything, and not abhor the very good works of God, giving thanks to Him for all things: and this is the discernment of the wise. But for those who are weak in faith and in soul, abstinence from meat is more profitable; for the Apostle commanded them to eat herbs, because they do not trust that they are being kept by God. But what shall I say to you, who seek a rule—a heavy burden for an old man? The young cannot bear it in scale and measure, and how will you endure it? It is fitting for you to maintain freedom in all things while eating; but if you are overcome, repent and try again, and do not cease doing this always, falling and rising, and always accusing yourself and not another, and you will have rest, wisely turning falls into victory, according to Scripture. Do not, however, exceed the measure we determined earlier, and it suffices for you: for other foods do not strengthen the body as much as the consumption of bread and water. Therefore the Prophet said, counting other things as nothing: "You shall eat your bread by weight, and you shall drink your water by measure." ^B For nutrition has three limits: temperance, frugality, and satiety. In temperance, the one fed is still hungry; in frugality, he is neither hungry nor weighed down; in satiety, he is weighed down a little. But to eat again after being satiated is the gate of gluttony, through which licentiousness enters. But you, knowing these things accurately, choose the better path according to your strength, not exceeding the limits: for it belongs to the perfect, according to the Apostle, both to be satisfied and to be hungry, and to be able to do all things.

On error, and on many matters

Understand also that I wish you to know accurately about error, so that you may guard against it, lest you be led by ignorance, suffer total harm, and lose your soul. For the free will of man easily inclines toward the communion of the adversaries, especially among the inexperienced and those who presume to guide themselves: for demons, who are accustomed to setting snares of thoughts, and pits of falls, and the destruction of phantasms, are naturally closer ^C to novices and those living in solitude, and circle around them; for their city is under the power of the barbarians, and it is not to be wondered at

^A if someone is led astray, or is beside himself, or has accepted, or is accepting, a delusion, or sees things contrary to the truth, or speaks due to inexperience and ignorance of things that are not fitting; for often someone, speaking of the truth out of rustic simplicity, saying one thing for another unknowingly, does not know how to speak correctly as things are, and confuses many, and, being foolishly carried away, brings reproach and laughter upon those living in stillness. For it is not a matter for wonder that a beginner is led astray even after much labor, since this has happened to many, both to those of our present time and to those of old who seek God. For the remembrance of God, or rather intellectual prayer, is higher than all labors, and it is the head of the virtues, just as the love of God is. And he who shamelessly and boldly wishes to enter unto God and to confess Him purely, and struggles to possess Him within himself, such a man is easily put to death by those—by the demons, I mean—if he is left to himself; for he who seeks with overconfidence and arrogance things contrary to his own state, rejects with boasting what is timely. But often, the Lord, having compassion and seeing us daring in lofty matters, does not permit us to be tempted, so that each one, recognizing his own presumption, may turn back of his own accord, before he meets with disgrace from the demons and ridicule or lamentation among men; and He is most indulgent to him who seeks with patience and humility, and especially with obedience and the questioning of those experienced in this wonderful work, lest instead of wheat he unknowingly reap thorns, and bitterness instead of sweetness, and find destruction instead of salvation. ^B For it belongs to the strong and the perfect to wrestle always with the demons and to brandish the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, against them continuously; but the weak and the beginners, using flight with caution and fear as a fortress, and declining the war, not daring prematurely, avoid death. But you, if you are living in stillness well, expecting union with God, never admit if you see anything perceptible or intelligible, whether externally or internally, or even an image of Christ, or the form of an angel or a saint, or light presented or fashioned to the mind, because the mind itself has by its nature the power of imagination and can easily represent desired forms to those who do not yet perfectly attend to it, and thus it brings harm upon itself. The very memory of good things or bad also tends to disturb the sense of the soul turbulently and to lead it to phantasms; whence a soul of this kind becomes of itself phantastic, and not restful. Therefore, beware lest you believe anything by assenting quickly, even if it be good, before you have questioned the experienced and made much inquiry, lest by chance you suffer harm, but remain bearing that with difficulty, and always keeping your mind colorless, formless, and without figure; for often even that which God has sent for a trial and a crown has brought harm to many: for our Lord wishes to test where our free will inclines. Therefore, he who sees something by the intellect or by sense, even if it were sent from God, and accepts it without consulting the experienced, easily errs or is destined to err, as one who receives it too easily. It is necessary, however, for the novice to attend to the operation of the heart, as if not

^A errant, but to receive nothing else until a time of peace from the passions. For God is not indignant with one who carefully looks to himself for fear of error, even if he has not accepted what was sent from Him without interrogation and much inquiry; but He rather praises him as wise, even if he was angry with some.

Not everyone ought to be interrogated, but one who has been entrusted with the guidance of others, and who shines in his life, being poor himself yet making many rich, according to the Scripture. For many inexperienced people have destroyed many simple ones, for whose condemnation they will be responsible after death. For it is not given to all to guide others, but to those to whom divine discernment has been given, according to the Apostle, the discernment of spirits, which separates the worse from the better ^B by the sword of the word. For each person possesses his own knowledge and natural, or practical, or mathematical discernment, but not all possess the spiritual. Therefore the wise Sirach said: "Let many be at peace with you, but let one of a thousand be your counselor." But it is no small struggle to find a guide who does not wander in his deeds, words, and thoughts. In such a person, one is found who is free from error, when he has an operation proven by the divine Scriptures, and prudence, temperate in wisdom in the things in which one ought to be wise. For it is no small task to reach the truth clearly, and to be cleansed from the enemies of grace, because ^C the devil is accustomed (especially in the case of novices) to show his error under the guise of truth, transforming his evil [phantasms] as if they were spiritual.

Therefore, one who strives to attain to pure prayer in quiet, in great trembling and mourning, and by the guidance of the interrogation of the experienced, should journey, and weep always for his own sins, grieving and fearing lest he be punished, or fall away from God, being separated now or in the age to come. When, therefore, the devil sees someone living in mourning, he does not remain there, fearing the humility that is born from the mourning; but if he imagines that he has attained ^D sublime things with arrogance, possessing a satanic and not a true desire, he easily binds him with his own nets as his servant. Therefore, the greatest weapon to hold in prayer is also mourning, so that one may not fall into arrogance from the joy of prayer, but choosing for himself a joyous mourning, he may remain unharmed; for the unerring prayer is the fervor with the prayer of Jesus, who cast fire upon the earth of our heart, burning passions like thorns, bringing joy and gladness to the soul, and not going to the right, or to the left, or coming from above, but springing up in the heart like a fountain of water from the life-giving Spirit. And this alone do you desire to find and possess in your heart, keeping your mind always free from images and naked of concepts and thoughts, and do not fear; for He who said

^A “Take courage, it is I, do not fear,” is Himself with us, if we seek Him, always protecting us. And we ought not to despair or groan while calling upon God. But if some have gone astray, having suffered harm in their minds, see that they have experienced this because of their self-will and pride. For he who seeks God under obedience, with questioning and humility, will never be harmed, by the grace of Christ, who wills all men to be saved. And even if a temptation should come, it becomes an occasion for testing and a crown, having quickly the help of God who permits it, in ways which He knows. For the whole phalanx of demons will not harm one who lives rightly and behaves irreproachably, and keeps free from the craving for human approval and from pride, as the Fathers say; but those who walk arrogantly and by their own counsel, these easily suffer harm. Therefore, the hesychast must always hold to the royal road. For presumption is wont easily to follow every excess, to which error succeeds. Restrain the elation of the mind by slightly compressing the mouth during prayer, but not the breathing of the nostrils as the ignorant do, so that you may not be harmed by becoming puffed up. ^B There are, moreover, three virtues of stillness which one must diligently observe and examine at every hour, whether we are always abiding in them, lest, deceived by forgetfulness, we wander outside of them. These are: temperance, silence, and self-contempt, that is, humility. For they are general and preserve one another, and from them prayer is born and grows always. The beginning of grace is manifested in various ways in prayer among different people, and the distribution of the Spirit, as the Apostle says, is perceived and known in many ways according to His own will, so that it appears in us after the image of Elijah the Thesbite. In some, indeed, the spirit of fear comes, overturning the mountains of the passions and crushing the rocks, that is, the hard hearts, so that by fear one is as it were pinned down like a nail, and the flesh becomes dead. In others, however, there is a commotion or alacrity, which the Fathers have called more clearly an exultation, which is shown in the inmost being to be immaterial and substantial; for that which is not subsistent and substantial does not exist. Finally, in others—and above all in those who have most progressed in prayer—God breathes a thin and gentle aura of light, ^C with Christ dwelling in the heart, according to the Apostle, and mystically shining forth in the spirit. Therefore God said to Elijah on Mount Horeb: “Not in the commotion is the Lord”—namely, in the particular workings of beginners—but “in a thin aura” of light He is, there showing the perfect prayer to be the Lord. ^D

Question. What is one to do when the demon is transformed into an angel of light and deceives a man?

Answer. For this reason a man has need of much discernment, that he may recognize the difference between good and evil. Do not, therefore, quickly and lightly give yourself over to appearances, but remain grave, and after much testing keep the good, but cast away the evil; you must therefore prove and discern. The

^A knowledge of this, therefore, is to know that the workings of grace are manifest, which the demon, even if he transforms himself, cannot provide. He does not produce gentleness, nor fairness, nor humility, nor hatred of the world, nor does he cause the passions and pleasures to cease—which are the workings of grace—but his working is pride, and haughtiness, and cowardice, and every evil. From the working, therefore, you can know whether the light that has shone into your soul is of God or of Satan. Lettuce is like wild lettuce in appearance, and vinegar is like wine in sight, but by the sense of taste, the throat recognizes and discerns the difference of each; so too, if the soul has discernment, it knows by the intellectual sense the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the phantasms of Satan.

GREGORY, MOST HOLY AND WISE ARCHBISHOP OF THESSALONICA, PALAMAS: A PROSOPOPOEIA, IN A MIXED CHARACTER, DIALOGICAL, AND MOST ESPECIALLY FORENSIC, REGARDING THE WORDS THAT THE SOUL MIGHT SPEAK WHEN PROSECUTED BY THE BODY BEFORE JUDGES, AND THE BODY AGAINST IT; AND THE SENTENCE OF THE JUDGES.

^A PREFACE. It is proper first to establish that, since the underlying subject offers noble concepts—for it touches in many places upon moral and physiological theory—we have nevertheless, as much as was possible, brought it down to a more political tone, and have applied the technique of forensic discourse through technical methods. If the arguments have not proceeded through all the antithetical heads, it is no wonder, since not even in all other subjects do all things necessarily fall into place. These things needed to be prefaced, and indeed they have been.

^B THE ANTITHETICAL EXERCISE. Regarding the difference that the rational part of the soul has in relation to the irrational and the desiring, others among the ancients have shown it differently. Some liken the spirit and desire to a team of hardy horses, and the reasoning faculty to the charioteer; others imagine the reasoning faculty as a hunter, the desire as the horse he rides, and the spirit as the dog that assists him. Not only that, but they also distinguish them topically: the rational—as that which is sovereign—they establish in the brain, as if in an acropolis, closely guarded by the senses; the spirited in the heart; and the desiring in the liver. But the all-wise Apostle, dividing the rational more clearly from the irrational, calls one the spirit and the inner man, and the other the flesh and the outer man; then, also setting forth the antithesis of these, he says: “I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin.” Exchanged words between soul and body—or rather, between the rational and ^C the passive—were obscurely composed by Cleanthes the Stoic, who wrote thus: “Whatever thou desirest, O spirit, tell it to me.” “I, reasoning faculty, wish to do everything.” Yes, royal, indeed! And one of the wise teachers of the Church, writing in iambic verse, says somewhere: “What do you wish to come to be, my soul, I ask? Do you wish for the wealth of Gyges and such things?” We, however, have applied ourselves more vigorously to this type of discourse, and have extended the dialogue into a forensic fiction, and have set it up as if in a court, and have seated judges; and the rational soul prosecutes, while the body flees. For these things are permitted to fiction, and one could not charge the discourse with being a novelty of writing, if one is not ignorant of how sophistical exercises have promoted both idol-making and prosopopoeia. But that the posture is antithetical is not difficult to discern for one who has come through the study of political questions. ^D If I had initiated the present struggle before others who did not know with precision the outrage of this body, my yoke-fellow, against me, I would have caused difficulties both for myself and for them—necessarily obliged to go through, one by one, the evils with which this fellow-dweller, this calamity, plagues me. But since it is before you, O practitioners of all virtue, that I have been so insulted, I consider it a divine stroke of luck that you have already gained, through the struggle against it, a clear experience and test of what is to be said; and I do not think such a contest will be difficult or otherwise burdensome for you. For it suffices to go over a few brief things, and only to remind you of the kind of marks of wickedness it is accustomed to provide for me, and to ask you to cast your votes on the basis of this. Therefore, pausing for a short while from the theoretical occupation regarding divine things, listen to me, by the many and great labors you have endured for virtue's sake; and whether I am justly complaining of my body, or not, decide, so that we may no longer contend with one another, nor be divided; let us both understand which of us wrongs the other. For it is the more wretched one who, in addition to acting more licentiously in its insults, is not ashamed to attach to me the cause of things I suffer unworthily. About to proceed now in the discourse to the things dared against me in insult, I thought it better to begin a little earlier. I, O blessed men, am of a divine race, and...

a breath of God, and an original image, and queen of all things that dwell upon the earth. For I shall not fear to speak these things solemnly, lest I appear to be boasting among you as if a vain talker, since you well know and have revered my dignity as is fitting. For since our archetypal Goodness, being by nature inclined to do good, brought into existence a noetic and intellectual world, and brought into existence this whole heaven and all that the heaven contains, He determined finally to condense and gather all things into one brief mixture and formation, that there might be, as in a mixing bowl, something all-mixed and powerful—this, which is called and is man. Hence I, the intellectual and immortal, was bound to the sensible and mortal, and was yoked with the earthly, ^B a mistress with a handmaid. I know not by what arguments it seemed good to God in this way—perhaps so that both, pulling together the yoke of virtue and breathing with one spirit, might benefit from the nature of the other: it, by being clothed in incorruption as one ennobled by the conjoining of the superior and tasting of immortal communion; and I, by being bent by the yoke of the inferior, might learn moderation and to lower the pride on account of the dignity of the image, and not to be puffed up and revolt from God, like the former Lucifer; but rather to be humbled under His mighty hand, and thus to be held—I by God, and the body by me—and not for a moment to be severed, either I from my vivifying Cause, or this from me, my quickening one. These creative reasons, having pondered this, do not join linen to linen, but, as I said, they weave the simple to the heterogeneous and the composite. For what is unmixed to them, being of infinite power? And all the hardships which I immediately undergo at the very generation, it is not the time now to bewail; yet grant me to lament for a moment.

I no sooner become one with this mortal element, and before I reach maturity, I am buried in the womb as in a tomb; and as Abraham buried the dead of Sarah in a double cave, so am I too buried in a double tomb. ^C For if, according to the wise, the body is a tomb for me, and this is pent up in the womb, how am I not entombed in a double vault, in the embryo and in the womb? With such greetings, after the first, does the dear body welcome me; with such guides is it inhabited. And what of the things that follow? They call them brothers and of the same color, and of the same clay, or rather, of a mortal nature. For from thence, falling from the common hive, we who are buried together are both delivered from the burial in the womb; but I, in this one, even now continue to be held; and as wretched fellow-voyagers of the same life, we begin a miserable life, but we do not rejoice, as if having burst forth from darkness into light, and pulling in life-sustaining air, and embracing the life-giving sun; we do not leap around the one who bore us, as lambs, or calves, or fawns do their mothers; but the one, as if from warm vessels suddenly falling into a cold environment, feels pain at the change and is distressed ^D by painful agonies. From this come also wailings, echoing the birth-songs, and binding bands and swaddling clothes, akin to funeral wrappings, and the bed or cradle, a manifest image of a tomb, so that the hardships are redoubled for me here, as these second things are added to the first of my bonds. For it is not inartistically that, according to the wise, this is called by many names and derivatives: a tomb, and a guard, and a garment, and a signal, and a body (denoting a bond), and a tent (denoting the passing shelter within it). Then, indeed, it is bound in this way, fed with milk, and little by little it grows; but I, as if into some muddy river, tied to this sodden thing, and flowing through a perpetual influx and efflux, am carried as if underwater, and I strike the bottom in the depths of utter folly, and am not able to do anything intelligent or of my own, having sunk into the filling fluid.

Yet these things, even if otherwise grievous, are nonetheless bearable and not such as to be complained of, as they are carried out by the laws of nature and the sequence of generation. But that is more grievous, that even when I emerge from the depth of folly and begin to be illuminated by the light of reason, as the bodily organization progresses to a more perfect state, even then I am not cleansed and delivered from being foolish, just as those who are recovering from drunkenness, or lethargy, or coma, do not immediately become perfectly free from the dizziness and vertigo of that state. But time and the acquisition of learning know how to scrape away these blights of folly from the intellect and to transform knowledge and understanding. But the nourishing tyranny, and the ceaseless tax-collection of things eaten and drunk at every moment, or the powers nurtured by it against me—the appetitive and the irascible—what time or what skill has been able to dissolve them entirely? Who will boast of having escaped from the slavery of these? Who has restrained the gluttonous stomach and the raging throat with the muzzle of fasting and the bridle of abstinence, apart from you, who have thought highly of your nature more than a human being? And if you have vied with the angels, while clothed in mortal flesh, and have been shown to be superior to the demonic nature, it is nothing new, even if you were superior to the body long before; so that your case must be excluded from my discourse. But of the others who are now mortals, who—as another man of desires—has muzzled the roaring anger? Who, being wiser than the wise, has drugged desire—which no less than the deadly venom of an asp creeps in, and malignantly turns a deaf ear to the charmer's voice—or, like the chosen vessel, has shaken it off, as one that has fastened upon him like a viper? Who, having been reared and having become evangelical like the children around Azarias, has not worshipped the attendant of bodily pleasures—the one of much matter and much money—as those did not worship the hand-made idol of gold and silver, of bronze and iron? Who, to sum up, has broken the chain of gluttony, of lechery, of love of money, and is not bound

^A by these things which are interwoven with one another into a long and twisted rope, dragging after them the remaining sins? For these, I think, are the three daughters of the blood-sucking leech loved by Solomon, whose suckings drain my vital and living substance. These are what I reproach in the body; these I accuse; for these I have written this discourse, pursuing violence and injustice, because, while [man's] nature is designed to preserve our race and mixes pleasure with both our food and the procreation of offspring—in order that by this, as if by bait, man might be drawn to both food and the lawful marriage bed of a woman, and that he might exist and live, and, when dying, not perish—the body, seizing upon these blameless and natural [things] as if they were some unwritten laws, is carried towards what wantonness? And whose bound of fullness does it not overstep? Now it demands, sated with dishes; now, having gorgeously swallowed the most pleasant and difficult-to-obtain foods, it fails to be satisfied, and again, from the beginning, it lusts; it is displeased with what is present and craves what is absent. Nor is its heart gladdened by local wines, but it slights the native vintage as if it were water flowing by, and it burns with thirst for foreign ones. It does not only seek garments that are commensurate for warmth and cold, but those made from materials that are difficult to obtain, worked over with superfluous skill and in an all-too-delicate manner. On top of this, it forces me to be served by it—by female cooks and bakers, and by certain weavers—and to serve shamefully its endless desires, acting as a tax-collector for provisions beyond necessity, not in order to spend them becomingly and for the purpose intended, but to squander them for the sake of pleasure.

What sort of life, then, do you suppose I lead, O men of God, by conforming to one who is so miserable and by attending upon [the body], or [in] what sort of shameful misdeeds does it not stumble? Are these things moderate? Or do I complain in vain otherwise? For if it were demanding things that are ephemeral, and without which it could not subsist, I would not have groaned. If it were asking for some covering for its nakedness and protection against the excesses of the air, I would have gladly provided them. If it were content with what happens to be available, if it only desired to survive, I would not have considered the necessity of providing such things as violence; nor would I have brought it to judgment and trial, as I now do justly, since it forcibly causes me to set its providence upon pleasure, against the apostolic commandment. For, having once seized upon the motive power of natural use that is beyond [what is] right, it does not stop, running through into every unspeakable pleasure.

For, strictly speaking, what the divine Paul says concerning sin—that “through the written law it wrought in me all manner of coveting; for sin, finding an occasion through the commandment, deceived me and killed me”—this has occurred also in our case. For my own flesh, having found an occasion in the natural law—that of being fed, of course, and kept warm—has wrought in me all manner of coveting, and through the need for the basic necessities, it first draws me out toward ^B its lawful use, then it gradually leads [me] on from natural use towards abuse and misuse; and from continued abuse it ends in a state of gluttony and luxury, and it kills me by utterly deceiving [me]. For the one who gives himself to dissipation, whether it be a woman or a soul, is dead while alive. For it is my death that, forgetting its own proper activities, one should occupy oneself with the bestial enjoyments of the body, when, according to another apostle, I am dragged away and enticed by fleshly lust; and lust, having conceived, brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. For from the breast, having formed a habit of flowing towards what is pleasant and being harsh towards what irritates the sense, it has been trained in the passions of pleasure and pain.

Hence, anger also gains power in the heart, and pleasure in the liver—passions strong because of long-continued exercise and the foremost of the others, and of a kind to persuade the reasoning faculty within me and to lead it, obedient, in one way or another. For either by deceit or by force they drag [it] away. O how often has pleasure stolen my youth! How often—I learn, indeed, what evils I am about to do, but anger is stronger than my plans. ^C And with anger and pleasure follows the whole throng of passions, and I try to lay hold of the dominion that belongs to me; but I am kept away by this ochlocracy [mob-rule], experiencing the same thing as if a noble orphan girl were left alone, being mistress of many maidservants, but not yet knowing how to rule; she is despised, or even taught to riot together [with them]; but when, late in [the day], she comes to recognize who she is and with what sort of people she is being corrupted, she attempts to take control as a housekeeper and to turn them back to a servile state and discipline them. But they, having long been filled with autonomous and self-mastery-less wantonness, become shameless and rise up, just as some slaves are said to do when their masters have gone and delayed—they [the slaves] become masters of those houses and husbands to the wives—then they even turn to oppose the returning masters, and engage in battle with weapons; just as others, much later, having deserted Rome, fought great battles against those who were pursuing and enslaving them.

Such is the kind of servile war that my naturally servile body stirs up against me, or even something more terrible, in that those others were at least overcome by weapons, if even with difficulty, and together with their servitude they cast off their lives. ^D Those others indeed for a time held out while fighting, so long as they saw their masters carrying iron and advancing upon them as equals; but when those [masters] decided to lay down their weapons and, bare, brandished only lashes as against slaves—and thus reminded them who they were and against whom they dared to battle—then they returned to themselves and recognized their former mastery. But this domestic and hostile evil of mine is inexhaustible, rising up, departing, not at all being enslaved, and I do not know how I shall prevail. For I am able to overcome it neither by the law of war nor by [the law] of legitimate servitude, but, however I may pursue [to manage] it, I am caught in all the proverbs—sowing rock, beating the air, and...

^A whitening the Aethiopian, carding flame, drawing ropes from sand. Oh, what an unbelievable matter! I have been entrusted with a twofold irrationality: one that is internal and directly yoked to me, and another that is further off and external. But the external one is enslaved and has learned the laws of submission. For no irrational creature refuses its appropriate service, but even the ox submits its neck to the yoke, ruptures the fat of the earth with the plow—and this while having the points of its horns projected upon its temples like other spear-heads. Nor has the swift-footed horse escaped its ministry, but though it is haughty, it accepts the bit in its mouth and carries a rider, whether he is bringing peace or waging war. Even the donkey, by nature sluggish, is persuaded when called to carry burdens; and just as I held back the headstrong horse with a bridle, so I have persuaded the most sluggish donkey to travel faster with a small boy and a stick. Why do I speak of these tame beasts and pack animals? Not the bear, nor the leopard, among the wild beasts, is more implacable; not the elephant itself, which towers over the hills in its magnitude; not the lion, the king of the wild beasts, deserts our rule. They love to be led through the marketplace and theaters in the cities, providing a spectacle for the onlookers, filled with astonishment and wonder. Nor did the boundless height of the air suffice for the sky-high birds for escape, just as the deepest depth of the sea did not suffice for the fish for concealment. And the beastly and external irrationality we thus tame, as we are able, and subdue. But the one that lives with us, and that we have been ordered to ride over directly, and to adorn according to reason—we have no way to smile upon it and appease it toward obedience. And yet, that one is deaf by nature to reason, while this one hears and has in some way turned back. But the completely irrational is more persuaded by reason than that which is naturally fitted to be reasoned with and to be regulated in some way. And that one serves and labors together for what is beneficial to the body; but the body, which was given to me as a fellow-worker for the most beautiful works of virtue, is proved to be an adversary and one that opposes me even more, and it compels me to analyze with it faster than it agrees to reason with me. And the cause has been stated before, that since it happened that I did not understand the first things at my creation, as I was in a state of infancy with the newborn flesh—or, to speak in the Chaldean manner, being overwhelmed by the refuse of matter and clothed in a shell—I compare myself and become like the beasts and the senseless powers. But when the unintelligent and foolish mind finally begins to think, I try to claim the rule that is fitting and to preside reasonably over the body and the parts of the body, and to bring back to each its proper service. But they themselves, even as they talk back, nevertheless simply cry out in their deeds, as the citizens of the nobleman in the evangelical parable, who sent an embassy, saying, "We do not wish you to reign over us." For they lead faster than they are led, and they are drawn back to what is customary and friendly to them rather than being pulled toward the best things; and they pull more ^B and [their] eyes, so that the former may not be filled, according to the Ecclesiastes, with hearing, nor the latter with seeing, since it is not permitted for the former to yoke the doors, as they are always gaping open; while for the latter, the covering of the eyelids is a veil, as is the turning away, and according to the great Job, a covenant not to look upon curious things. But what are these in comparison to their most ready and timeless inclination toward the insatiability of curiosities in a moment? Then also the tongue—that unrestrainable evil, the world of iniquity according to the brother of the Lord, James—which, even before I let go the thought and insist on what ought to be said, leaps forth as a rash messenger, misreporting whatever ought not to be, and this while being entrenched by such great natural dikes. And what of the glutton, the all-receiving duct? What of the raging and foaming sense of touch? Does it know how to listen to reason and to stop its desire? And what of the heart, when it bubbles up and boils for vengeance? Which I marvel that the rhapsody makes like a dog barking, but rather like a lion roaring. Above all, to what might one liken the desire-weaving part of the soul? To the immortal evil, Scylla? Or to the hydra that grows back again? Or to the hundred-headed Typhon? In so many chasms of organs and incisions of members, the habitation of the mind has been eroded, in which strange and irrational powers have nested like all-kinds of snakes in the beastly dens of Libya, which the dignity of the image promises to tame and make gentle—but everything is turned upside down. For those things, for the most part, rather make [it] more wild and beastly. Which you yourselves, suspecting, and guarding against suffering, O blessed ones, you knew to vanish from among men, having seized upon beast-rearing thickets and naturally-formed caves, and having gone down into the sunless recesses of the earth, and wandering through the uninhabited desert, unsheltered, so that through the evil entrances of the bodily-yoked senses, the part of the irrational soul that is becoming beastly might remain without nourishment, and the intellectual part of the rational soul, being at leisure from the disturbances concerning sensible things, might attend without distraction to the contemplations concerning intelligible things. ^C Well then. I have shown in brief how the ministering body behaves toward me with insolence; but this, even though it is clearly proven to insult in such a way, nonetheless will not endure not to contradict even now, just as it often speaks freely with boldness, not crouching slavishly, since it is concerned to be opposed to me in all things, as a nature that is an enemy, in deeds acting against, in words arguing against, and in general never having anything in common or under a truce. It will therefore say that it does not do wrong, both doing and suffering what it is now accused of, and more so the wretched works concerning the food that perishes, and the ceaseless demand; for being composite and always flowing through both hidden and manifest pores, it necessarily requires the replenishment corresponding to the evacuation—and nature has not devised this in any other way than through food and drink—therefore it does not do any wrong, ^D

if it is to endure in time and not be in an evil state, and require healing, or even fall completely exhausted and bring about the loss of the works performed through it for the soul. Yet these, O blessed ones, are the usual pretexts of my body, whenever I rein in its tendency to flow or be carried away toward profligacy. For just as infants under the breast cry out when they are snatched away, so it, too, weeps when it is barred from its familiar habits, and, fretting, becomes a phantom of fear, imagining diseases and the snapping of the bond between us, and an irresponsible desertion, and a holiday from the practical life of philosophy hereafter. But that this is mere irony, and a foolish affectation and coyness, is not hidden from you, who have learned by experience and have been taught how a body’s nature, exercised in labors for the sake of the good, is reforged into adamant-like impassibility.

That this objection does not come through the front door is also manifest, yet I shall refute it and prove it simple-minded. We do not complain about simple feeding, nor indeed about enjoying food—O you dullard—on account of the things by which we are ill-treated or wronged. For who that has a mind, and has scrutinized the nature of faculties to some extent, will say evil things of other powers, and indeed of the nutritive ones? We complain about the abuse of food, which is practiced unlawfully for the sake of gluttony and luxury. Yet luxury and food are not the same thing; they are separated by definitions longer than those of the Mysians and Phrygians, even if they have converged for a brief moment in names as neighbors. But you, as if simple-minded or malicious, have taken the accusation regarding misuse as a slander against the natural use; and you have either been ignorant of or cunning about the same thing, just as if you were to slander us for speaking ill of virtuous marriage and sober drinking because we had decried adultery or some drunkenness. Therefore, O my thorn, we do not drag you to court because of the use of necessities, but because, having seized upon this convenient pretext, to say it again in the apostolic manner, you do not cease from working every desire upon me: first using food and drink, then misusing, abusing, maladapting, carrying yourself away into each and every form of pleasure-seeking, and carrying me away with you, and causing me trouble. For you are driven by a twofold spirit—that of gluttony and voracity—or rather a threefold one; for it is said that in abundance, Cypris—for I pass over the legion that follows in their wake—what kind of misery and wretchedness do you not inflict upon me? For when you are being emptied, you seek to be filled; and you have no sooner been filled than you have been emptied, and again you have sought to be filled; and when you are worn out by hunger, you rejoice in the satiety of food; and when it is present to be full, you ask for things of pleasure; or rather, both hungry and full, you know neither the limit of sufficiency nor the satiety of pleasure. ^A In this I am wretched, having been condemned to sister-labors with the mythical Danaids, to pour out for you to no end as they did into the perforated jar, or as though suffering the same things as divine David, into the mire of this depth— ^B towards which you are always sinking, being carried down and bottomless. For what final foundation of your appetites has been devised, which would at last stand firm and resist your prior motion? There is nothing else, unless one speaks of death, the silencer of every evil. But in another way, you are much more miserable, in that I know not how I unwittingly cherish a wicked beast under my own bosom, and fatten a wanton colt for my own ruin. For do you not, having been fed and warmed, return to me wicked thanks? Biting like a snake, and kicking with your heels; ignoring me with insolence, and no longer remaining controllable; not being coaxed by the coaxings of persuasion, nor reined in by force, nor touching the labors of virtue? What am I saying, touching them? I would have loved you, had you not opposed me; had you not forcibly snatched away what is friendly to you but most hostile to me; had you not been rolling the lovely beauty of the mind in mud, like the swine with the gold nose-ring in Solomon. But let no one be vexed with me, blessed assembly, if I am thus embittered against this untamable and wicked creature, whose tyrannical insurrection even Paul, so great a man, he who was crucified to the world, he who no longer lived, but carried the living and speaking Christ within himself, had to be on guard against, and was as it were lamenting, calling himself a wretched man, and being in perplexity and seeking him who would deliver him from the body of this death, toward whom even as a noble athlete and crown-bearer, falling more vehemently, he did not cease before, bruising with his fists and wearing down with frequent ^C chastisements, he brought it into subjection and made it obedient.

"Yes," he says, "but you were also free to discipline me, who am naturally subject, wishing ^D to make myself a slave, according to the apostolic type, and that wise precept: 'For an ass, fodder and stick; for a slave, bread and blows.'" Alas for the mockery! How he ridicules me! "Now you admit that I am by nature submissive; now you grant me in words the ability to subjugate, while always resisting in deeds. But that I myself ought, as an unreasoning beast, to be beaten with clubs, and as a wicked slave scraped with whips, I have learned too late; nevertheless, come, answer me: at what time and at what age is it permitted to me to enslave you, who are never able to speak apostolic-ally, to be subject to the law of the spirit? Is it during childhood and adolescence? But then, being foolish from folly, I am not capable of using myself, and of understanding how much I have surpassed you; or is it in youth and adulthood? And yet, at that time every evil has erupted, and the war begins from there more fiercely, while I am only just coming to know myself, and am taking hold of the appropriate authority, and am deeming it just to use another life and a better way of living, and to delight in the law of God; while you do not bear to abstain from the familiarity of a friend and contemporary, as one who from birth to the age of twenty had wallowed in autonomy, and had been practiced in gorging, and had exercised only pleasure; and it is not possible to say how he resists

^A strongly and, like an innovator and wrongfully, tyrannizes over me; and he uses the custom of time and the natural law to fortify himself against me, and especially since another ally from this new state of life has confederated with him, that passion which holds sway over the loins and the belly. And beyond this, as for the love of gain, the ambition, and if another attendant of these follows—whether of such or such a sort—it stands by and wars against me, and it out-maneuvers and makes me captive by the law of sin, and persuades me to act and to co-act with it in things that I neither desire nor wish. Thus it knows how to be ruled; thus it honors the laws of subjection. Therefore, it would have been profitable, O friends of God, not to strike it with clubs [in a way] inconsistent with its nature—for it is so unnatural and leaps about quite ungovernably, and no longer bellows like a beast, ^B but howls like a wild animal—nor yet to buffet/humiliate it despotically with whips and fists—[the thing] rising up and patently attacking [me] with tyranny—but rather, as they say, to set upon it with iron and fire, and to undertake one bright battle, and, joining hand-to-hand with the enemy, either to stand having lived gloriously, or to do and suffer the things of the noble Samson, and, I say, destroy the insulter, and to leap rejoicing upon the falling one. But were it to happen to me that I fall into that which is lamented by the proverb: "Alas, what a terrible evil for men, when one knows the good, but does not use it"? For knowing that something so disobedient is not to be whipped, but to be treated as an enemy, nevertheless I do not use my good deliberation. For I am beaten back by a myriad of ^C passions. What are these? For I will not conceal them from you: reverence, sparing, pity, fear—not secure feelings, but opportune ones. I reverence it as a fellow-servant, and as a one-time collaborator—even if not now—perhaps soon to be, and as one bred with me, and a dear companion and equal in age; I spare it as wretched and miserable and long-suffering; and a terrible kind of pity comes over me, and I do not know how I suffer together with it being oppressed, and grieve together with it being afflicted, and am seized by it suffering. I am still keeping watch, lest by my cruelty it should happen to fall, and might impute to me the blame of a suicide, or of prisoners digging through a jail and escaping, or [of one] destroying his own personal servants by the tension of tortures and torments. For to him who is bold and impudent, the more ^D well-nourished he is, all the more is he destroyed, being crushed by the misfortune that happens to him. For he is not only sick, but also shivering and sleepless, or being hungry and thirsty he is tossed about upon the earth, failing, and from enemies drawing pity—not to mention from me, his partner in birth and living, and, indeed, in rebirth and re-living.

Wretched one, what shall I suffer or do, yoked to such a multi-suffering companion, and sharing in his very own passions? By whom, being reared as a child, I am dragged down into the same abyss of ignorance, and being vigorous for provocative things, I am carried along with him, and I am angry when he is flourishing and snatching at what is not right; but being long-suffering in turn, I am broken and bend, and I look upon him kindly. What justice, what punishment [1358 A] is worthy of that which is so ungrateful and behaves so insultingly, and is dealt with so leniently by me, and by one pitying so miserably, as even a mother, however fond of her children, would not be to her own inward parts? But thus to act like an adolescent, to be a youth, and to reach manhood—is it not his nature to be unheeding of me? But as it grows old, is it not [now] an instrument skilled and easy to lead toward things that are necessary? Whence? It, whose tendons and ligaments are slackened, and whose innate heat is extinguished, is fettered by a wasting immobility, and resembles a hollow, withered tree. Quickly, indeed, such a thing would be able to participate in important deeds, needing those who support and lead the old man by the hand. I would be content, if it did not wipe its own banes onto me, and fill me with its own elderly evils—I mean ^B the babbling, and the wandering of mind, and the lethargy. For if something is true—that the mind grows old together with Tithonus, and that old men become children twice over—we are returning, then, to infancy through the cycle of ages; and while the body sees and hears more dully, I myself am darkened by the time-given rheum, and I no longer am able to perceive more sharply; and it [the body], even if it forgets other things, it remembers to be fed always, and though [its] molars are no longer fixed in their sockets, yet it chews with toothless gums as best it can—which also the proverb ascribes as a reward to an old man, [namely] a cane; but I, no longer using learning and memory, nor yet calculating recollections as I learned, am filled only with the water of Lethe; and so, little by little, I walk backward ^C toward the infant from above. For even if they have been composed of contrary mixtures—both the children and the last-old—for the former are moist and hot, while the latter are dry and cold—yet under both I am cut off from thinking. Therefore, when the childish body bears a watery brain under a soft skull, I think as an uncomprehending infant; when the elderly skull holds up, nothing unlike that which the proverb calls "dried grapes," I think again as an infant. For the extremes of qualities are terrible, and not least [are they] to ruin the nature of the body, and even that of my own [mind], as I reckon. I omit to recount also the other things that attend these ages, the first I say and the last, [as] sisters: I mean the superfluity of excretions, the balding of skulls, the mouth's drool and lack of teeth, the tearful and watery eyes, the running of the nostrils, and the feet—of the one as yet, ^D of the other no longer, able to walk; and the trembling instability of the limbs, and the shaking of the entire body. But until when shall I contend to go through with all the sorrowful sufferings of the body, through which it drags me down, unhappily, either to feel pain with it, or catches me up, more unhappily, to feel pleasure with it? Therefore, leaving the many things aside, and having run past the swarm of diseases by which—being heated, and shivering, and having twisted joints, and to put it briefly, being in a bad way—I am tortured alongside [it], I will summarize the most wretched of those by which I am wronged. I have shown how it has abused the natural faculties,

to the point of sinful satiety and luxury; and how ^B it rebels and resists my attempt to govern it toward a more temperate state, putting forward its autonomy as an immutable law, like an untamable calf scorning the yoke of slavery and breathing out insolence, raging like a bull; and what is even more terrible, it leaps over the boundaries fixed by nature. For, although it is ordained to be led by me, as from the more rational and authoritative element, it strives rather to rule over me, forcing me, whether I will or no, to assist in procuring what is to its liking and to act disgracefully, as if held captive by some dual-handedly seized chain, ^C by the most violent imprisonment and the most persuasive sorcery. I have further tragically described all the burdensome things added to me in both infancy and old age, which, though blameless by nature, increase my misfortune. For as if the evils in that age flourishing and pulsing are not enough for the basest deeds, both sides add their own wrongdoing; and I have moderately pointed out how much outrageous long-suffering this good body of mine pours upon me throughout. Therefore, that the image of God may no longer be so shamefully dishonored by this earthen partnership, and that the mistress not be tyrannized by one under her hand, it is for you henceforth to cast your vote ^D and to impose the fitting punishment upon the one who commits the outrage—and not to permit me to suffer wrong hereafter. For if that judge in the Gospels, feeling neither awe toward God nor respect toward men, granted vengeance, how much more should you, who are pious regarding divine things and reverent regarding human things! For let no mercy be granted, even if it offers the pitiable and miserable state of its nature as a plea. Rather, having detested its rebellion and manifest tyranny, decide to do one of two things: either give me license to use it however I wish—to rack, to scourge, to starve, to torture with every method, and not be held accountable if I maim or utterly destroy it—or, according to apostolic zeal, deliver it to the common murderer and public executioner, to Satan. For if the vessels of the earth will inhabit the wild beasts according to the saying, and they dwell, indeed, through passion, these also act as the executioners of mortals; thus, struck, the senseless [soul] will come to its senses and will eventually know itself, and will cease from its drunken folly, changing from being a weapon of injustice into a well-disposed instrument of justice. Thus we will not be at conflict hereafter, nor will we be yoked unequally; but in harmonious agreement we shall together perform the things that matter, and we shall heal him who has joined us, and we shall betroth to ourselves the promised blessedness, through you as both mediators and intercessors.

ANOTHER STUDY, AND THIS ONE AN ANTITHETICAL REFUTATION.

What words might a Body say when being judged against a Soul before judges.

How much insolence and slander, and how many mockeries my venerable soul has heaped up and holds against me, in [1360 A] the court of judgment, or rather as if in a theatrical comedy—you have indeed heard, most divine judges. For she has used an unbridled tongue, so that I may not say more, indiscriminately—nor even as if of a fellow-servant, or, as she herself says, sparing a partner, but treating me like a silver-bought slave, and almost even rubbing in frequent knuckle-blows. But I, since your kindness allows me to speak, will say nothing evil; for it is necessary to speak well. But I will attempt to dissolve, as far as possible, the charges she strings together against me. Indeed, having been given the right of equal speech for the present, I shall ^B request of you to appease my mistress; if indeed she is indignant and listens to what is said with anger, and considers it another insult that I, the start of it all, dare to answer her back, [I ask you] to remind her how neither the divine Job made light of the judgment of his own servants against him, as he himself says somewhere, and he does not lie, clearly. For alongside his other virtues, he has been testified to as a true man. Nor, indeed, was God, when challenged to judgment by Job himself, proven to be blasphemous. For how could He be, who in the divine Isaiah says, “Come, and let us reason together regarding men who have committed transgressions,” ^C and in the great David is brought forward as being justified, and winning when He is judged? Therefore, let she who is according to the image of God also imitate the goodness of the Archetype, and let her bear magnanimously—whether one should call it a judgment or a discourse—and with what manner of logical arguments he, that adamant and golden statue of courage, accepted the cases of servitude against him. For did not the blessed one say, “Were not my servants also formed in the womb, even as I was?” If, perhaps, she is reluctant to reason and speak similarly to the just Job, yet grant me permission to speak, even if inversely, comparing unlike things to like; for there the master showed kindness to his servants, ^D but here I speak boldly toward my mistress. For is she not herself created by the hand of God, as I have been fashioned? For she will not deny that she is a creation of God, even if perhaps, being a divine breath as she is, she will not be persuaded by being deceived by malicious men into believing she is an emanation of the divine essence—the very people who, while they were eager to honor her, in the degree they declared her to be of the same nature as God, to that degree they were caught insulting her, until they brought her down to irrational creatures, bushes, and gourds, and not only dishonoring her with disproportionate honor, but also insulting the highest nature. For since God once wished to fashion man—for I must lead the argument back to its proper beginning—He did not command him to be brought forth from the earth and the waters, as He did for the other races of animals, but taking dust, He Himself fashioned him; and as the fashioning is more divine, so is the shape more sovereign. For it is not four-legged and prone, with belly and head stretched toward the earth and always stooping, but upright and wholly aloft, touching the earth only with the small traces of the soles of the feet, but holding the head high and breathing the air, observing the beauties of heaven, and naked indeed with...

a covering and problems ^A that are base, yet provided with hands as a craftsman’s tool. For it is by these that it is clothed more securely than the wool-spinners and the wiry-haired, and more waterproof than those creatures that are naturally clothed in hides or scales, and more beautifully than the winged birds. And it is armed with man-made defensive weapons more effectively than those warring with hoofs or horns, or teeth and claws. And thus, for me, fashioned with such artistry, God breathed in even the breath of life, and the mixture of both—man—He called His own image, and commanded me to rule over foot-animals, and swimming creatures, and birds. And neither could I do anything whatsoever without the soul, nor, again, the soul without me. For immediately the mark of that which is according to the image, the command to rule over the animals, shows clearly: how could it have been achieved or continued thereafter by a soul without a body? How could a horse have been broken in, had not my hands forged the reins? How could an ox have cut the furrow, had not these hands crafted the yokes and the plows? But if these things were found by the reasoning of the soul—which is what I have also said now—each has need of the other: she conceives, I work out what is conceived. She observes and puts forth technical principles; my hands, by providing workable matter, give form to what is fashioned. And I do not serve this as a slave—if I serve such things as a slave or a tool—but as a partner in the same dignity with the soul, which is ^B the co-worker according to the image, and I am a fellow-cause of good things. For I might insist, starting from the scriptural physiology of man, that man is not to be called either soul alone or body alone, but the composite, whom God is said to have made according to His image; and indeed, just as I share in the man, so I partake also of the dignity of the human. But the most excellent soul, while describing me as such, marks me out as alien to such nobility, and proclaims me as a bastard, calling me a slave, while calling itself divine breath, and my queen and mistress. And although it was in my power to deal more effectively with this matter, and to persuade it no longer to call its fellow-servant, fellow-ruler, and participant of virtue and of life—both that which is now and that which is laid up in hope—a slave, it is enough to have said even these things among you, for whose sake these noble bodies contributed to the ascetic labors, so that they not only enjoyed the fruit of spiritual gifts as fellow-laborers in the present time, but shall also reign with the blessed spirits in the expected regeneration, and will shine together like the sun. Yet I shall not contend strongly about this. Let it call me as is lawful for it, let it revel in its authority, let it lead, let it carry, let it use me as it wishes; only let it not charge me with unanswerable things, nor accuse me ^C of being blameless when I am not at fault. For you heard how it has accused me, regarding how I claim to be nourished and clothed, while still remaining psychic, and governed by psychic powers, and not yet transformed into the spiritual. For this belongs to another life and another regimen, as the proverb-makers say; but now…

...as to what I might be at fault for, if I desire natural food and drink? And with what insult does the soul harass me, co-providing these things for me, as if it were not aware of the apostle crying out: "No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it"? For how could it have had a foundation, or have persisted thereafter, had it not been sufficiently nourished, which, as soon as it was being fashioned in the womb, I am nourished through the so-called placenta, or rather the navel, with the menstrual blood, like a plant or a zoophyte? And having come from there, I am suckled by the flow of milk, until I have teeth by nature—but when the life-loving nature provides me with teeth, sharp and flat, so as to cut and grind easily, at that time it also sends over the table the more solid edibles. Thus food and sequence are essential for bodies; and if one should not believe those who say that some even feed on stones, one must believe in reality, that none of the ensouled creatures is without food, such as trees and herbs, and all plants, and animals of every kind. But if even demons and stars—the former feeding on libations and incense, the latter on exhalations, as Greek epic poetry and philosophy say—it is not for me to listen to this. For those (authors) deemed the demonic tribe to be lovers of matter and pleasure-loving, and granted souls to the stars. ^D Thus, every ensouled body being a thing that must be nourished, it is necessary that everything that is ensouled must by nature also be nourished and live; and if it is not nourished, and does not live, this is not an ensouled thing. In this way, the Savior not only ordered those whom He was bringing back to life to eat when they were dying, but even He Himself, having died and having come back to life, ate and drank, setting the being-nourished as an irrefutable proof of having come back to life. And nature, the savior, thus generates the blood of the body and nourishes it: when it is still mouthless and an embryo, through maternal blood; when it is a baby and toothless, with milk; when it has reached perfection, with a banquet of every kind. And it does not feed and rear it while it is growing, and then abandon it once it has reached its prime and stopped growing; but even until old age and advanced years, like a good nurse, it is present to the one breathing, in no way departing, neither by night nor by day. For the nutritive power does not remain quiet while we sleep; but like a good nurse it is present to the one breathing, without being idle in doing good things. And the things ground through the mouth and placed in the stomach, it breaks down, and turns into juice first, then drawing it up in the liver and turning it into blood, and from there, distributively, it sends it through the veins to every part, and attaches what is suitable to each. And this is again a great grace of the providence concerning us, through which it generated us in the beginning, it also cherishes us thereafter, and does not allow us to fall apart, repairing us with the applications of food. And nature, as has been said, thus fashions, and applies, and composes; but the rational soul, even while in the body, legislates against nature, as another tyrant, and for those things for which I seek daily sustenance, it calls me a glutton and an insatiable jar; and for that with which I rejoice to be nourished, it calls me self-indulgent and pleasure-loving. For it defines luxury as food, by...

^A which nature provides a sweet disposition to those who eat and drink, as a sort of seasoning meant to make food more desirable and attractive, and preventing one from being worn out and weary from the daily condiments brought forward. For it innovates both with laws and names, legislating and naming unusual things, as if it were not lawful to be nourished with pleasure, because such food is luxury. But I, ruled by nature and the laws of nature, claim that it is permitted for me to be nourished with the sweet disposition and pleasure that follow by every necessity; and this is not a blameworthy luxury, but an agreeable food that is in accordance with nature. But if someone, overwhelmed by grief, has forgotten to eat bread altogether, or has eaten ashes as if it were bread, and mixed his drink with weeping, this is another matter, not relevant to the broader dispute before us. But if it contends that the natural pleasure in nourishment is love of pleasure, then it will much sooner call the pleasure of procreation something unspeakable. Yet neither marital pleasure nor the pleasure of nourishment is condemned by those who have understanding; rather, they are even admired. For the former replenishes that which flows away from the race by succession, while the latter replenishes what is depleted from the body by food. Therefore, the divine soul does not fall from its own dignity, nor is it insulted at all by yielding to those things thus ordained by nature, while contributing and assisting in the primary things, and especially those necessary for the body, even if it itself boasts of such things, and while accusing others of luxury, it is itself caught indulging in them more. For consider how it prides itself. It says that it is an insult and most shameful slavery to have my rule turned about, and to provide for what is necessary; and it speaks ironically that it is not capable of attending to the superior things, but has been turned toward the inferior, having put on the guise of some serving maid who prepares food, while being a mistress otherwise, and striving to keep its own blessedness ^B undefiled.

[The argument against the soul that considers itself mistress and the body servant]

^A you who were appointed by the Lord over the nurture of your fellow servant, according to the evangelical parable, as a faithful and prudent steward, to give food in due season: how is it that you do not yourself manage the task entrusted to you faithfully and prudently, giving food in due season and measure, and, as a faithful steward, reproving the faithless, and as a prudent one, correcting the senseless, and in general exercising authority over the administration entrusted to you, and arranging things in the best way? But you say that you are carried away by someone under your hand, and that you are brought to the same absurdities as he. Do you think that by offering such excuses you will escape the bifurcation threatened against those who manage things poorly? But such a defense is vain. For the governing power is held to pay the penalty for all that the subordinate does wrong, whether you speak of a general, or a pedagogue, or a father, or a teacher, even if they themselves be otherwise upright and yet are caught by their own. For if a general abandons his army, a pedagogue brings his child to ruin, a father joins in the madness of his sons, or a teacher joins in the profligacy of his pupil, I believe each of these will pay two sets of penalties: the one for ruining those he had received, whom he had promised to make better; the other, for having been caught committing the same transgressions as that person. Just as conversely, those under authority might be judged worthy of double forgiveness by those who judge more strictly than leniently: the first, because their nature always requires one to keep watch and lead them to the good; the second, because they found their guide to the good instead distorting them towards the opposite and inciting them. And nothing so leads a person to virtue and vice as the governing power, which shares in the actions to which one is being stirred on either side and, by its own example, draws them toward what is similar. Just so, the soul dear to me will pay double penalties: as one who did not punish what was disorderly in the human, and as one who herself shared the feeling and together kindled the love of pleasure. And if you say, if the water drowns, why must one drink it? ^B And I perhaps might obtain any forgiveness whatsoever by following the mistress and being taught to commit the same sins. For it is said, "Such as is the mistress, such is the dog." But in order that it might be more clearly demonstrated that I am not carried away by it to the most shameful deeds, but that it rather snatches at pleasures and draws me along with it, suffer me for a little while to digress in my discourse, and to run back to the cause of the whole tragedy, which the soul is ashamed to speak of.

It is not pure, O men, that the soul within us has obtained a life of intellect and one that has no regard for bodily sensation, but it rides upon the lives subordinate to it, the vegetative and the animal; by which our bodily constitution is also governed and preserved. For we are steered by pain and pleasure; by pain when we are moved or otherwise suffering; by pleasure when we are filled and (so to speak) have a nature, through the providence of the Creator-nature, where such passions are implanted in us for our salvation. For had we not felt pain at things flowing away and decaying, nor felt pleasure when being replenished, we would have received no sensation of those things that wear away and those that save; and we would have perished all the faster. But now, the provident nature, using two hands, toil and pleasure—pricking us with the one and luring us with the other—rouses us to eat and drink, fleeing the pain that comes from hunger, and pursuing the pleasure that comes in eating the food; but primarily for the sake of relief from the pain of hunger, and secondarily for the ease of being satisfied. The rational soul ^C knows how to feed itself in another way, and to harvest a certain better ambrosia; but since, as we have said, it does not stand apart and mercilessly towards the faculties subordinate to it, it is in a way sympathetic to them when they are suffering, and it grieves with them when they are distressed, and takes pleasure with them when they are pleased; or rather, if one must state the strict truth, and as they say, the "physician's children" [referring to the soul], it is the first to suffer because of its rational perception. Therefore, it is the first to rise up for the relief of what is distressing, especially for its own sake, and then also for the assistance of those subordinate to it, as has been said. And this too was the providence of the wise nature, that the most sovereign soul should not be set above, immune to evil and unfeeling toward the difficulties that befall those of the second rank. For it would have been entirely inattentive to them. For if, even when so needled and suffering with them and sharing in their feelings, you see how it becomes slothful and effeminate, and laments its way of life as a true calamity, it would hardly have turned toward the body if it had remained untouched by physical mishaps. But now, if anything, this too has been most excellently ordained: that it should feel the painful and be persuaded, according to the saying, to join in the labor and to find together with them their common relief from what is distressing. For to those for whom there is a communion of any difficulties, to them also belongs the cure of these in common.

These things having been proven thus, the discourse returns again to the same point, and indeed remember the parable set forth above, in which the Lord appointed His faithful and prudent steward over His household, to give them food in due season. For have we not fittingly understood the faithful and prudent steward to be the rational nature, as one capable of managing the passionate and senseless life with an abundance of prudence? And indeed, having been so established, the Lord blesses it as one managing things prudently and faithfully, and promises to set it over more. But if, forgetting the Lord as one who is coming, it begins to strike the fellow servants, into insult, without turning back, and becomes wholly given to the pleasure of eating and drinking with the drunken—by which I mean the nutritive and nourishing parts, always being filled with the replenishment poured in from without—will the Lord, when He comes, strike it as He did in your case, and by shifting the cause of this debauchery onto us as if we were deceiving and carrying it away, escape the penalties of the wicked servant; or will it be cut in two, and its portion be with the hypocrites, seeing as it is in this life as in a theater, having put on the mask of some noble mistress and ^D

^A of divine appearance, while pretending to be the beginning of all irrational and unreasoning things; and freely serving all irrational pleasures, and acting in a shameful manner like a dissolute maidservant, and getting drunk in a most disgraceful way? For I think this is the case. For she, being in charge of all the faculties, has been entrusted with the task of exercising discernment to foresee what brings grief and to bring the appropriate remedy, as is evident from what follows. For if the soul, ever becoming weary from excessive cares regarding divine things, or seized by a disease that stirs the immovable chords of the mind, should happen to forget me—having no memory of hunger, nor food, nor any other pleasure—at that time I too am unconcerned with the same things. How then, if I am the one who serves as overseer and provider of food for the one who has won the right to govern, and [I] define the time and measure thereof, can I snatch away the pleasures, and then snatch her away toward them, which is even more ridiculous? Thus, she is softened, while I am forced. But that I might not appear contentious and headstrong by resisting in all things, I grant you the favor, first, of letting me delight in pleasures and be filled; and then, that I might be snatched away to join you in the same indulgence. And then you, the mistress and ruler of what is in us, who ought to hold [me] back with scourges, and to be indignant at [the soul's] gluttony, and to rebuke [it] more severely, are instead enslaved along with [it] in the same shameful passion, and by casting down that noble and austere dignity, regarding which you boast and pride yourself, you are dragged away with me, a willing slave to pleasure. And are you not ashamed, saying these things, to be suffering like the mythical dragon? For the story complains that its tail blamed the head, as if the head were always the leader of its creeping motion, while the tail, trailing at the very end of the whole length, was dragged along; yet at some late moment it persuaded [the head] to entrust to it the governance ^B of that part of the creeping motion; then, being carried blindly over cliffs and rocks, it was destroyed, along with the head itself and the rest of the dragon. But just as the head there would have seemed ridiculous and stupid to blame the tail, having been written off as guilty of the transgression, so also you, here, [act] toward the irrational part of the soul, which leads the way and is blind. For the intellect, it says, sees [when it is] ceding the position of sovereign authority, and entrusting itself to be dragged toward ruin. For those who see lead the blind, not the blind those who see; and an ox pulls a cart, not a cart the ox; and a stone is placed toward a rope, not a rope adjusted toward a stone. And why, contrary to the proverb and this instruction, do you put a sword in the hand of a child? Who, drinking poison along with another who is drinking it, has gained any advantage in terms of a defense or a plea for the mitigation of death? Did the first man, having been fed by the woman who was the first to taste of the deadly plant, have a secondary excuse before God, even though he had been snatched away and was fleeing from death? For desire and anger are yoked to the rational soul, not so that desire, being carried by the downward pull, might drag [the soul] down toward [a life of] ease, and anger, being carried away, might drag [it] toward [a life of] wild beastliness; but so that they might cooperate in the hunt for and acquisition of the Good: desire as a well-bridled horse, lifting it up and lightening it toward those things that are truly to be desired; and anger, as a pup of noble ^C breed, is able to master the savage and harmful passions, yet [the soul] voluntarily serves pleasure and anger; or, like another champion, the great Samson, being deceived by the same treacherous woman, pleasure, he throws away his own great strength, and being stripped and no longer hairy, he is easily captured by alien passions, and by them his eyes, which see what is beautiful and good, are blinded; and he is bound in a mill, and revolves endlessly, suffering, around the same cycle of pleasures, of which the beginning and, as it were, the center is gluttony, and he is mocked by desire and anger like an undisciplined child. Thus, the soul, willfully doing evil, insults itself, and by clothing itself in misfortunes acts shamefully; then, having ceased to lament itself on account of this voluntary wretchedness, it accuses me, and blames me for the causes of the evils, and as you see, demands payment for its own injuries, and, washing [itself] in insult, what does it not mock at me about, what does it not taunt me with, calling me a tomb and a chain, and a mire of the abyss, and, according to the Chaldean nonsense, the offscouring of matter, a perforated jar, and a thorn? And yet, if I truly am a tomb, why do I not persuade [it], in accordance with the likeness of God, to philosophize on the meditation of death, but rather—it says—I am drawn into luxury? And if I am a chain, why do I not restrain [it] from transgression, but rather drag [it] along towards illicit relaxation? What chain does not prevent one from doing wrong, but instead pushes the prisoner toward it, even against his will? What tomb does not render dead the limbs ^D upon the earth, and bestow upon the soul a most blessed life, but rather enlivens and arouses it against the soul? Either, then, I am not a tomb or a chain, if I lead [it] into luxury and am dragged along with [it], and such insults against me are made in vain; or I am truly a tomb and a chain, and the soul accuses itself of great incontinence on this account, that even while bound and buried in me, it lives in luxury, and while living is dead, and is puffed up, even though I have been given to it as a thorn; and for this it also deems fit to call me [that], just as [it calls me] a perforated jar, not admitting how many and how great are the good things that I contain, as I shall presently be able to demonstrate through a small taste. And even if I am perforated, yet through the optical senses, which are direct, light-bearing, and messengers of the apprehension of existents, just as this, too, will presently

[GREEK COLUMN] 1369 PROSOPOPOLE. B 1370 will appear, from which, being drawn and filled, it pours over me a stale mixture ^A and mocks the most shameful things. You speak ill of my senses and the powers within them, naming them gullies and dens of wild beasts, and for that reason, are you not ungrateful, when you have received the greatest benefits through them? Have you not used them as bridges for the crossing over to the intelligible world? How then could you have acquired these in the first place without my senses? Would you have ever possessed arithmetic and musical theory without the existence of hearing, or the proportionality of numbers, or geometry, or astronomy, without the illumination of sight; or the measuring of pulses and medicine without the path-finding of touch and taste? If, then, my senses are destroyed and your bridges are overthrown along with them, what would remain for you but to crawl and grovel in the sensible world, or not to touch these things at all, or perhaps to enjoy nothing more than the visceral life, or at most a vegetative one? And then, indeed, you would be truly buried and imprisoned in a tomb, sunk into the refuse of matter, stuck in the mire of the deep, living a blind life like a mole or some zoophyte, wearing only—as you yourself mock—this starless covering. But now I have opened your eyes, which were sightless from birth, and led you to philosophy, and having let you taste the light, I have given you through it to gaze upon the solidifying of the earth, the surging of the sea, the rotation of the heavens, and all the wonders in heaven; and to listen to the harmonious symphony that resounds through all things, singing with unspeakable tones of the Creator; and through the magnitude and beauty of created things and their rhythmic motion, I have imaged for you the Mover who moves unmoved, the First Good and Beauty-in-itself, and you have become, as it were, a reminder of the archetype. And yet what could be more precious to the soul than to find God through the things apparent to my senses? Not only do the first principles thus ascend to God through me, but even if she falls away from God, she returns again through my mediation. For through me she has found a place for repentance and forgiveness; for if she had been separate from me and bodiless, she would not have had the possibility of repentance from the beginning when she sinned, as is the case for the fallen angels; but now even this, the good, has been granted to her through my union with her. For how many stains, and how many pollutions, are wiped away through my labors, and she is made to shine brighter than snow. For it is purer than any washing of grass, and any sprinkling of hyssop, the outflowing of my own—as she herself would call them, furrows; but as I say, the clear spring of tears, fasting, the hard-sleeping on the ground, the kneeling, the steadfast uprightness in prayers, the breast-beating that strikes the chest, the heavy-breathing smoke escaping from the breast, the signal of the fire within, and all the other things through which the all-powerful medicine of repentance is mixed. Such treasures of good things I know how to store up, I, who am a jar pierced and holding nothing for my soul.

But perhaps I am telling you of these things in an unrefined way, as is the custom of those experienced in such things. It is necessary, therefore, ^B to gather them together and to set them forth briefly: that for the things for which I am accused by the soul, I am the one who has suffered rather than the one who has acted; but the one who sees according to nature and acts accordingly, these are they. For philosophy, through which we are led up to God, being divided into contemplation and practice, if you love the contemplative life, through me and the works of nature it is seen through, and through mathematical bridges it is carried over to the intelligible, and finally, as it is said, having flown to it, it has rested upon the threshold of theology; but if you set the practical ladder before the contemplative bridges, here even more, while I labor with my own toils to find all the steps of the actions, I find them; to say it all in a word, through me, man, who is a little lower than the angels, has surpassed the angels by a great deal. For what could angels be capable of mimicking—the sufferings of God, and death—as man has been enabled? Through me, surely, being scourged, twisted, torn, and finally put to death, and being conformed to the deified body of the Savior, in which He also condemned sin, so that the ordinance of God might be fulfilled in us. And since my soul also inquires of me, when and at which of the ages am I to be subject, I answer without delay so simply: when am I not able, and at which of the ages am I not obedient to whatever she, whether she deems it noble or base, invites me? As is clear from the arts. Have I received a philological and beauty-loving soul? I follow the pedagogues, I obey the teachers, I attend the lessons. And what of the liberal arts and sciences am I not molded and imprinted with? Again, have I been allotted to a base craft? I am taught in turn to be a carpenter, or a mason, or a smith standing at the anvil with heavy strikes; or to be drenched in the sweat of the earth, ^C or to be cast against wild winds and raging waves; sometimes I am even carried swimming headlong into the depths, and I endure being pelted and pressured with military force; not to mention how many vain crafts I am forced to be trained in, when I am subjected to chaotic wonder-workers, and I am taught to walk a tightrope on high, and to dance on swords, and to tumble, and to swallow small stones and pieces of iron; and what of such terrible and wretched things, and otherwise difficult tasks, am I not trained in from childhood and brought to completion, and in my prime showing them off? And when I am past my prime, no less do I labor, strengthened in my experience; and when I age, I do not cease learning or devising something wiser than the young; and to speak generally, there is no technical and teachable thing to which I am not brought, with the soul willing and in no way opposing or contradicting; as not even the most obedient of animals and inanimate tools are. And yet, for the works of virtue, which are much sweeter than those, and easy, and fitting to nature, am I the most perverse, and resistant, and hostile, and rebellious? But the victorious martyrs would not believe you if you said this, nor these judging ascetics; they who, through struggles in the body, surpassed the nature of the bodiless. But it is time. ^D

^A to recall summarizingly what has been said, and to traverse the more essential points.

My accusing soul has been convicted, as it brings no sound charge; it clings to me in vain, and like someone else who is fault-finding, it complains of things that have no fault, or of those things which are permitted to me by nature. I have defended myself, also, that I am not at all capable of doing wrong or of insulting that which is therapeutic, that which rules the household, that which is ministerial and supervises, that which is the instrument and which uses it however it wishes; rather, it is the soul itself that is slothful and, becoming soft, turns to evil, and when it should be covering itself with shame, it instead exacts penalties. O wretched and miserable me! Who will spare me, who will have pity? Since even the soul, which is connatural and yoke-mate, shows no mercy, nor is it filled with the evils I suffer; but in addition to what I now suffer, and will suffer hereafter because of it, it further devises something newer—accounts, and penalties, and courts, and executioners, and avenging spirits, as if what I endure, while it sins, were not enough. Inflated, it became enamored of divinity, and straightway I became mortal, and turned back to the mother, the dust; ^B so as not to speak of the miserable and shameful things in between: the nakedness, the fig-leaf coverings, and the leather garments, the stinging points of the thorns and thistles. I was cursed again, and my face collapsed into a Telchinian wasting; and like the sibling-hating one who dared to fratricide, I too went around trembling and heavy-voiced, and because of the sign bestowed, I was led in triumph. The soul collided with legislation or prophecy, or priesthood, and upon me the retribution of the blasphemy descends, and straightway I have become leprous. It disbelieves the evangelizing angel, and my tongue is bound in silence; it has been deceived by a wicked woman, and I am blinded and turn around the millstone. To summarize the many things, I am yoked to a base soul, and I am stretched tight by toils by night and by day, for the sake of daily and viscous food, and a rough cloak, or a common tunic, or a coarse linen shirt at the shoulders; or while it embraces voluptuous insolence, I am ground down by many evils, at every hour insatiably glutting its stomach, and by immeasurable foods and drinks and lusts being stretched tight and torn asunder. And from this, with how many peoples of diseases do I wrestle! For I am either bedridden in a prostrate heap, or a paralyzed ruin, or I am being fried by fever, or I am twisted in my feet and hands by arthritis; then I am also surrendered to hired doctors, to be medicated and butchered; sometimes even to soul-hating demons as tormentors. Let there sympathize with me the most eloquent of the apostles, regarding how they sin against me, the soul, which loosens every bridle—the horse-whores, and all those who are inflamed towards unnatural uses, so that I might be dishonored; and how those most basely wasting, ^C when I am a member of God, destroy [me], and make my members, which are members of Christ, members of a harlot. But these things are not sufficient for my soul, which remembers wrongs; but it supplicates and begs you to yield to it, to do with me whatever it wishes—to twist [me], to starve [me], to deliver [me] to Satan for destruction. For the wise soul, in its own estimation, is unaware that it is foolishly—to put it simply—applying the proverb: "I cannot bear a goat, do you heap a cow upon me?" For if it does not philosophically bear the diseases that have sprouted upon us from unformed matter, but is resentful, and thinks it is undergoing terrible things, what would it not have suffered if it were suffering along with me in my calamities of God's wrath? Thus it has been blinded. But these things depend upon your arbitration, and whatever seems best to you, that is acceptable to us as a divine decree—^D as well as defining what is to be done and what is not.

THE DECISION OF THE JUDGES

Since we have heard the arguments of both sides in turn—yours, O soul, as you prosecute the subordinate and licentious nature as disobedient; and yours again, O soulless one, as you flee from even sinning, as the intellectual soul falsely accuses you in vain—it is necessary for us to judge the arguments from both sides and to resolve the conflict, so that we may not sit here in vain, having abandoned the contemplative life, which is also our own. We say now what we have learned to be the case, both from long experience and from God-inspired Scriptures; and indeed we say that if you, O soul, were to accuse the mind of the flesh as being hostile to virtuous works and unable to be persuaded by you, you are unaware that you are falling into the opinion of the Manichaeans. For those Cursed ones hold the notion that the intellectual soul is the handiwork of the Good, but the irrational soul is that of the Evil one; and that because of this, it is not even naturally capable of being virtuous, or of thinking things friendly and agreeable to the good handiwork. But if you yourself do not say this, but rather accuse the licentiousness and disobedience—in order that you might not keep blaming the instrumental nature given to you by God, while not governing it wisely—you are blaming the blameless. For is there not a general, a teacher, or any overseer who bears the responsibility for the faults into which those led by them may stumble out of their own negligence? This is not unknown even to the wise among the outsiders; for if one of the philosophers among them saw a boy misbehaving, he did not say anything bad about the boy himself, but he struck the tutor, saying, "Why do you teach such things?" But if you say that the great Paul brings great accusations against the flesh in the Epistle to the Romans, hear what the Apostle intends, and against what he says these things. For before the presence of the Lord, death was terrifying, and the one who had the power of death was terrifying; for this reason it was also said by Isaiah, "Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die."