bearing, mixing, and bewitching the soul, finally A drives it out from the habit which is according to nature, and renders it demented, irrational, blind, desiring those things which are not lawful. Therefore, let us keep our heart with all custody, not giving place to the devil, but immediately denying the first approach of the enemy, let us repel him far away. But if we are overcome even to the point of assent: let us not be polluted by proceeding to the act. But if this also happens, let us not remain in such a state, allowing ourselves to be dragged to the final limit of sin, final impenitence. It happens, however, that we suffer this from opinions presumed from long ago, and from the recollections of those things which once happened to us. Wherefore let us flee, erasing from our mind as much as we can those false persuasions: let us also flee the recollections of evil things which we once saw in our youth, suffered, or did. For to be held and tickled by the voluntary and morose contemplation of such things, what else is it than to return in heart to Egypt? Which we must beware of, if we wish to consult our interior man.
IV. B Let us strive, therefore, brethren, and strengthened by every virtue, let us endeavor with the greatest contention to purge the thoughts of his spirit which is in us, according to what is written: "Every height that is raised against the knowledge of God." And this perpetually. For this is that war, in which one is never finished, lasting forever. And this same is the martyrdom not consumed by one blow, but raging continuously for many days in a long series of succeeding torments. Indeed, he who is assiduously struck by wicked thoughts, never yields, nor bends the knee before Baal: but resisting strenuously, with a vivid impulse he leaps upon the passions of the concupiscible and irascible, all of which he tramples: he, clearly, suffers a daily martyrdom and after Paul can say: "I die daily." And at the end of these struggles C he will dare to say: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; as to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice."
NOTICE
(Ang. Mai, Biblioth. nov. t. IV, 91.)In the old Vatican codex 431, f. 168 b, exist the Monastic Constitutions of St. Basil, not however such as they are in the second volume of the Garnier edition, but shorter, although the beginning is the same; and they are distributed into only thirty chapters. The arrangement of the Vatican codex is entirely the same as that of the Caesarean Vindobonensis LXV, described by Lambecius in *Comment. C. Biblioth. Caes. Vindob. lib. iii*, ed. Kollar. p. 315. The title of the work, however, is twofold in the Vatican codex, namely at the beginning: *The philosophy according to Christ restored*, and at the end: *Explicit the small or particular Ascetical Chapters of St. Basil*. We have, therefore, as before, a compendium of the Rules in the briefly explained Rules; thus now a compendium, as it were, of the monastic Constitutions, by the same author Basil, as Lambecius himself willingly acknowledges and admits. Now, after that piece by Basil is read in the Vatican codex (but in the Vindobonensis it precedes) a Scholion of Theodore the Studite, by which it is demonstrated that this is a genuine offspring of the holy Father. The Studite indeed contends that it is evident from thence, because the style and the whole character of the writing and its meaning conform to the other Ascetical writings of St. Basil. Furthermore, in order that the Studite may firmly hold his argument, he defends at the same time that those Ascetical writings which we have in the editions of Basil are genuine, against the vain doubts of some: which being confirmed, it follows that the Constitutions, in like manner, are Basil's. Now this inedited Scholion of the Studite is suitable for settling the question which is discussed at length by... D
Garnerius (Vol. II, in the Preface, p. xxxv et seqq.) concerning Basil as the true father of the Ascetica; and likewise another [preface] where the same Garnerius (Pref. p. lxvi et seqq.) incorrectly contends against Combefis that the Monastic Constitutions should be ascribed not to Basil, but to Eustathius of Sebaste. Garnerius had already drawn in part from other sources the ancient authorities cited by the Studite, but he was nevertheless unaware of this notable Scholion, or Prologue, of the Studite; an essay which we have deemed not to be omitted in this our miscellany of the Studite, both because it is excellent in itself, and because it is very useful for the critical study of the works of Saint Basil. For that the Studite's Scholion refers to this specifically abbreviated little work of Basil, there can be no doubt: not merely because it is appended to it in the codex, but because in it the title *Merica* is distinctly named, which, as we have said above, is proper to that Basiliani script. A
SCHOLION OF THEODORE, ABBOT OF THE STUDIUM.
1. That this present composition is genuine to the great Basil is clear both from the character of his exalted eloquence and from the type of his expression; it is also clear from its agreement with the concepts and terminology of his other Ascetic works, so that to one who reads it with even the slightest attention, it seems as if one part passes into the other. And who would contradict that these are the father’s, unless he be someone blinded in his mind and acting out of malice? For I think some, provoked by the rigor of the teaching, and taking up the arrogance of their audacity as an aid, have said that a certain historian has rashly cast doubt upon them, declaring them spurious. Yet these same people seem to me also to reject the Epistle to the Hebrews, the second of Peter, and the Apocalypse of John, and other Catholic epistles, B along with certain authentic Patristic writings, since they are likewise doubted. But if the second case is impious, why is the first not so as well, when both have already been accepted by the Church, and there is no room left for doubt? But if they say that the Theologian did not mention them, they have either read carelessly, or, while understanding the matter, they are dissembling wickedly. For when the Theologian speaks of the written and unwritten legislation of monks, what, I ask, does he signify if not these very discourses? And proof is also found from another perspective. For what Basil says in the Ascetica—that he learned the holy scriptures from his parents—Gregory confirms, saying that he was indeed swaddled and formed under his father from the very beginning. One might also find that the holy Theodosius made use of these, as his Life declares. For whom else would the monks of old have been about to consult when seeking guidance on our matters? Or who else could have had the authority to legislate with such weight, and to construct the whole matter of salvation in a treatise of this kind? C So that it is almost impossible for one to walk along the path according to God without stumbling, apart from the guidance provided by it. Therefore, let them either produce other equivalent Ascetic works as rightfully belonging to the great Basil, though...